House overlooking a graveyard. Would you buy?

[StarintheMorning]

Looking at a house in a lovely village. It hasn’t sold and now seems to be v good value, although it needs a fair bit of work. The only reason we can see for it not selling is that it is almost on a graveyard.

The church is beautiful Grade 1 listed, the churchyard is very well looked after. There is a small path between the house and the graveyard, which goes to the front door of the house. The church is right across the other side of the churchyard, although obviously the bells will be loud on a Sunday morning, but we have lived close to church bells before and loved it.

We would like it be our forever home, but there is a small possibility that we will need to move at retirement and I don’t want to buy something that will be difficult to sell.

As my son said, the neighbours will be quiet!

The neighbours will be dead quiet.

I would buy it assuming the path doesn’t get too busy and you don’t have teens hanging around drinking bad cider like I used to do.

I would consider it a bonus if it was an ancient graveyard that was not used, very pretty to have church views as well. If it was a huge cemetery and in regular use I would be less keen as I would find it a bit depressing seeing all the burials and mourners, but a pretty village church graveyard would be my idea of the perfect neighbours, plus you will never have to worry that Barrett Homes will build behind you, it’s a win win.

Can we see it? Got a link?

Two things would possibly put me off firstly the grade1 listing no wonder it needs work doing. Secondly, if it's a working cemetery so to speak you may get traffic for funerals and families visiting graves of their loved ones especially on special days.
Apart from that I wouldn't hesitate 😊

@AgeLikeWine 🤣🤣

I think it's the church that's grade 1 listed, not the house.

I grew up living beside graveyards as my dad was the caretaker of two. He always taught us it was the living we should be afraid of, not the dead. It was fine, very peaceful. We had so much room to play as kids. I'm not easily spoked now and I put that down to my childhood.

The house I grew up in backed onto a graveyard. It was peaceful and not overlooked.

There is a graveyard in almost every village so lots of people must live near graveyards.

I'd be more tempted to buy. Sounds lovely

Some posters could do with paying more attention. 'The church is beautiful grade 1 listed'.

Ironically, both of the houses we've ended up buying have backed onto graveyards. When we sold our first house we sold it to the first people who viewed it, so obviously no issues, and then when we viewed our current house the EA made a comment about whether we were unsettled by it (which we thought was odd & made a memo to advise our EA not to make a similar error) and we were like well our current house also backs onto a cemetery...

The first house was the local crem but that was actually a fair walk from our house (like you couldn't hear the cars at all) and the graves at our end were in a "conservation area" with foxes raising young, then the cemetery now is a little village one but you can no longer be buried there. I'd be way more concerned about grade I listing - no way I'd buy that!

Yes, if it really puts people off and lowers the price that's a bonus, but does it? A quiet, beautiful location, almost guaranteed to stay development free, seems like a plus point to me.

Yes do it! I’ve got a graveyard as a neighbour and don’t have to worry about noise or eyesore developments. It’s incredibly well kept although I wouldn’t mind if the grass was left to grow long. I think nowadays people are more bothered by other issues with neighbours so a graveyard would be seen as a positive not negative.

Yes definitely. We have one very close to our house, doesn’t bother us at all.

Actually that’s a lie, the volunteer that insists on strimming it at irritating times of day does bother me a bit!

We have ancient burial grounds under our lawn, not creepy at all, as another poster said its the living you need to be scared of!

Yes of course, living near a pub or something where there would be 'live' people would be so much worse - what exactly do you think is going to happen by living near a cemetery?

Link, please???????

How close is it?
How Woo are you?
Does a window overlook it?

I would!

I used to live opposite a graveyard and the only problem was that the cat used to bring rats in from there.

It wouldn’t bother me at all, but I work for/in a church & have an all day view of ours.

Couple of things to consider, though. Firstly, I do occasionally see a drug deal go down in mine, so do check with the current owners/ estate agents. I would definitely pop by on a warm evening and have a look. A walk round will probably tell you a lot, if there's no litter, you’re probably safe from teenagers etc. Secondly and more importantly imo, who maintains the graveyard? Once a graveyard is full, the local council become responsible for its upkeep. Budgets being what they are it can be hard to get hedges trimmed/ grass cut/ trees maintained. Hope this helps.

Definitely. Perfect neighbours.

Our house overlooks a church, it feels very calming to look at the church/grave yard, not creepy at all. My kids love watching everyone dressed up for ceremonies. I'd check out when they do bell ringing practice- it's very loud when your windows are open in the summer, but it's a nice sound at least.

I would buy it. I had a flat that backed onto a graveyard and loved it.

Absolutely. I think graveyards are beautiful and the historical element fascinates me.

I live opposite the church in a lovely old cottage. Most old houses in the centre of villages are by the church. No ghosts so far

I do like to tell people we live “in the dead centre of the village”

Wow, what a quick response thank you everyone! It is the church that’s listed, not the house, which is 1800’s and not that pretty TBH.

We would not be worried about it at all, I think it would be lovely for all the reasons stated above, but just trying to think why it hasn’t sold.

There is a pub not far away, perhaps it’s that and the ‘nightlife’ after the pub that is the concern! AgeLikeWine I could always play that loudly from the front windows, that would stop any ‘courting couples’ shenanigans!