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The Chirk churchyard site is possibly an old Welsh ‘Llan’ (a walled enclosure, containing a chapel, hermits’ huts and burials). References to a burial yard in Chirk dedicated to St Tysillio (a 7th Century Welsh saint) precede any references to a church, but doubtless a wooden church existed here before the Normans built a stone church on this site in the early 11th century. The name changed in the 15th century to St Mary’s.

The churchyard was extended in 1882 and 1903 by gifts from the Middleton family and similarly in 1905 by a gift from the Trevor family, to provide space for more burials.

Explore:

Trevor vault lies adjacent to the East wall of the church, delineated by old iron railings.

Maude grave: lies on the south side of the churchyard. Rev. Joseph was vicar from 1852-1874 and was responsible for building the massive stone vicarage on Trevor Road. His wife, Mary, wrote the hymn ‘Thine for ever, God of Love’ and she wrote the graphic account of the fire in the church on Christmas Day 1853.

Middleton Monuments: 3 large Celtic cross memorials are along the pathway which transverses the churchyard.

Trevor mausoleum: The angel statue inside contains the vault of 5 year old Moyra.
The Western side of the churchyard was cleared of grave stones in 1970’s. Some of these will be seen on the paths and near the church hall.

Lych-gate: This was erected in 1923 as a memorial to two doctors who were responsible for the foundation of Chirk Hospital.

Churchyard volunteers

Many volunteers have worked hard in the churchyard over the years. This year we formerly set up ‘St Mary’s Chirk Churchyard Volunteer Group’ with a team of six people. John Bishop, Len Hewitson, Ferelith Smith and Chris, John, Shirley Short. We have other volunteers who come to help on specific projects.

We meet regularly every Friday 2-5pm with a tea and cake break. We discuss and plan and work together on projects. The churchyard is very large. Our main aims are to maintain and enhance the natural history and historical interest whilst presenting an attractive and cared for appearance. We have been implementing a cutting regime which is manageable for our team.

Our calendar year so far:

• January: Paths where cleared and repaired. Shrubs were cleared, pruned or moved.
• February: Leaf clearing. We dug a trench for Rosa Rugosa hedge to encourage the birds and bees.
• March: Cleared a lot of rubbish, planted buddleias to attract butterflies.
• April: Created wild flower areas.
• May: Local infant school children learnt how to make a willow edging to our new wild flower area. They also explored the churchyard, planted and drew wild flowers.
• August: BTCV built 2 compost bins, cut down a tree and made a log pile for wild life. Local residents were able to take excellent old compost to use in their own gardens and allotment. Two benches have been refurbished and reintroduced into the churchyard.
• October: The After School Club children learnt how to build bird boxes to attract more birds to the area.
  We have hosted interesting talks on Yew trees, and Wild flowers.
  We have been given grant money from Keep Wales Tidy and Welsh Churches Act to buy a new mower.
  All the grave stones have been recorded and photographed for future reference.

Come and look or join us here at Chirk.