Living next door to a graveyard

[woebetide8]

Found what looks like a lovely house online (ticks all our boxes)... BUT it is next door to a burial site (developed old church building now flats is next door but the churchyard/burial site remains. My first thoughts are "creepy", but a few friends have said it wouldn't bother them... curious to know if anyone has lived next to a burial/churchyard, or dismissed a property because of this?

@Duckinglunacy ·

It’s the living you need to worry about.

Absolutely!

Cadavarine, to use the technical term, it is the liquid product of putrefaction, it is the product of decomposition of the tissues that make up the body by bacteria from within the body.

It is water soluble so absorbs into the soil eventually, after a time producing fertile compost. It adds to the decay of wooden coffins, which in damp British soil collapse fairly quickly, couple of years after burial.

There is no long term damage to the soil as the bacteria die off as the process ends, leaving only the bones remaining, and anything synthetic buried with the body, coffin handles, frills, plates, wreath holders, cremfilm lining, outer laminate, these all survive longer.

I'd want to know if it was a hangout for teenagers or doggers!

Beyond that I wouldn't care. I like cemetaries and graveyards - if you read the inscriptions on headstones, you see how much love is there.

It wouldn't bother me. But if my experience has taught me anything it's to check out at different times of the day and night just in case people hang out there and would be noisy.

I lived 10 years overlooking a graveyard. No problem at all.

It would bother me but I live on a main road which would probably bother you :) if it isn’t an issue for you go for it! X

@woebetide8

I think it was due to the amount of fields and trees the far side of the church. We love semi-rurally so lots of farm land and vegetation.

The real highlight was finding a mouse corpse in my slipper. After I put it on! 🤢

Ha Ha I hear you...we lived rurally once and our cat used to fill my wellies with dead mice!

"see how much love is there", what a positive way to see it... and I lived opposite a park for a few years, a much coveted location for the views but at night was full of "teenagers and doggers"!

We are going to see it this weekend, inspired by all the positive comments, and mindful of the cautious ones...

Surely the point of teenagers and doggers using a graveyard would be to be unseen and unheard. If they start lighting campfires, setting off fireworks or running around whooping it would defeat the purpose wouldn’t it?

We lived in an old rectory with an active church and graveyard. My parents had the cottage in the graveyard and I can tell you their house was more peaceful than mine! When we sold it did put some people off (nutters asking about how many burials and bells). I think it is mainly cultural teachings but I can't really remember.
I believe in ghosts but I also think that few wander around graveyards. Why would they? It's not their former home or family. If such things exist Id be at my 'home' watching the telly and hiding things for sport.

The one category of neighbour guaranteed not to cause you any problems or indulge in bit of CF parking. It's a win!

I have.

Never thought about it.

My cousin lives right beside a fairly modern cemetery (1950s to present day). A few years after she bought the house, her mum died and was buried almost right beside the house. My cousin can see the grave from her upstairs window. Her dad died recently and is now also buried there. My cousin finds it comforting to be so close to her parents.

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest. I'd choose a peaceful cemetery every time over a busy road or lack of parking.

We're next to our town's closed cemetery. Never been an issue at all.

I'd love it but I'd make sure I closed the curtains when it got dark

Loving the ‘grave concern!’

😂

I grew up in vicarage's and loved living next to them. Beautifully peaceful and I used to have a Christmas tradition of going to collect greenery from them on Christmas morning.

I went with my adult kids today and took a look. Went for a wander after the EA had driven off and bumped into the owner who was walking her dog in the graveyard, and it turns out that The EA had lied... there are literally bodies under the patio, and although there are flats in-between the house and the actual official graveyard, whoever buys the house is expected to undertake the maintenance of the graveyard with the other freeholders!

Not a massive issue. The vendor should make it clear to the EA about agreements. Did the EA actually know this? Usually in a solicitors’ questionnaire I think. I’m also sensing you are not keen.

Many highly desirable houses are near graveyards, including all those “old vicarage” and “old rectory “ ones that sell for a premium. A bit of grass cutting is hardly a massive issue and London has bodies under it all over the place!

Hang on, what? This is nuts!! Surely can't be true?

There were unmarked plague pits. Or the owner could be having a “laugh”. Trawling through a few historical records would help.

There can’t be bodies under the patio or anywhere else under the property. One, because burials would have been moved before the land was repurposed (assuming that’s even what happened, which is not very likely). And two, because in the improbable case of bodies being discovered during building works, they’d be taken away for reburial.

Sounds to me like the owner believes local folklore about the house being built on top of the dead.

Don’t know about the maintenance and freehold, but TBH seems like chinny reck-on.

Wouldn't bother me, at least the neighbours are quiet 😂