No-one knows how many, or even if, burials took place in All Saints’ churchyard until, in the 16th century, the first burial records were made. The records were, and still are today, handwritten.
All the available records have now been transcribed into an electronic database. It shows every burial recorded at All Saints’ Church from 1543 to date and contains details of nearly 9000 individuals. Looking in the churchyard it is clear they do not all have marked graves but there is a second database of over 1000 inscriptions linked to names in the burial list together with the location of each grave.
The Burials database. Since 1543, every burial has been entered into a Church Burial Register. The most recent are held at All Saints’ and earlier registers, dating back to the 1850s, are held on microfiche at Bedfordshire Archives. Each entry in these records was transcribed and then that list was combined with a list compiled from still earlier records by Bedfordshire Family History Society to produce a complete sequence.
The level of detail in the burial records varies. There are over 1650 family names. In the very early records only the names and date of burial are shown. Later on however, more detail began to be included. From 1813, the age was recorded; nearly half the records show where the person lived (2700 in Shillington alone), sometimes with the actual address. There are occasional references to occupation and to status, e.g. ’son of …’ or ‘wayfarer’. Other intriguing references include; ‘body found in Pegsdon’, ‘killed by a cart’, ‘paid 3d’ – we may never know more about these people apart from their name.
The Inscriptions database. It is not possible to determine where each individual was interred. Many would have been in unmarked graves, or marked only with a wooden cross which has since decayed. However, there are over 1000 grave locations in the churchyard which are identifiable, with more than 380 family names.
Many of the inscriptions have become illegible but surveys completed in 1913 and 1985 record much of what is now lost. Later inscriptions are being checked and added. The locations have been checked where possible and are linked to the names in the main database. Maps have been made showing where each known grave can be found.
Using the databases. Following a Heritage Lottery Funded project in 2023 the databases have been made publicly available. They can be downloaded from the links at the bottom of this page.
Both documents are in read-only Excel spreadsheet format and can be searched, filtered and sorted. If you need any assistance with the databases, select ‘Burials Database’ from the drop down menu on the Contact page.
If you would like to make a small donation in respect of your search it would be most welcome and would help towards the maintenance of this wonderful church.
The Burials Database covers the period 1543 – 2012. It will be updated to include recent burials shortly and periodically thereafter. The information contained in both databases has been transcribed and catalogued by a team of volunteers over several years and is accurate to the best of their knowledge.
