Implementation of Separate Memorial Grants

Many owners of grants relating to the ‘Right to Burial’ for a designated plot think that they are the land owner of that plot, unfortunately this common belief is not correct. The grant only relates to owning the right to burial in the designated plot for a specified time period, this is now 40 years for new grant issues.
The cemetery land has always and will always belong to the Burial Authority which in the case of Devizes Cemetery is the Devizes and Roundway Joint Burial Committee.

Also, being the owner of the ‘Right to Burial’ grant does not extend to having the automatic ‘Right to Erect a Memorial’, but the current owner of the grant to the ‘Right of Burial’ is the only person allowed to make an application to erect a memorial. If the grant owner is the deceased the immediate next of kin or legal administrator can make the application on the deceased behalf.

The ‘double fee’ policy for memorials has now been abolished and this burial authority has decided that:

A separate ‘Right to Erect a Memorial’ grant be issued to the owner of a memorial at the time initial consent to erect is given or when consent is given to add an additional inscription. Such grants will give the owner of the grave permission to have a memorial for a period of five years. Such grants may only be extended once the memorial has passed a safety test, the renewal will be charged at 10% of the existing ‘rights to erect a memorial’ fee for a further 5 years.

This decision has been made to ensure that more accurate records are kept on the ownership of memorials and at such time a memorial becomes unsafe, and if it is not possible to find the rightful owner, it can be properly dealt with by the burial authority. The Diocese of Salisbury has recently (December 2006) endorsed this five-year testing regime.

It is important to note that if the ‘Right to Erect a Memorial’ has expired no memorial will be removed unless it fails its safety test and no one comes forward to claim rightful ownership for the grant to the ‘Right of Burial’.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

The following link takes you to frequently asked questions about memorial issues:

Click Here for FAQ’s

If you cannot find the answer to your specific question in the FAQ’s section please contact the Clerk to the Burial Committee with your enquiry, the contact details are listed at the bottom of the left hand menu.