Eve Lamb
There are as many stories as people buried at the historic Sutton Grange Cemetery and a lot of them are about to come in for some telling.
The little local cemetery is preparing to celebrate its 150th anniversary with a special event, book launch and community lunch on Sunday October 2.
Cemetery trust members, Louise Smith, Noel Davis and Marge Townrow, are particularly keen to invite anyone who has relatives at rest in the cemetery to attend the event that will feature a commemorative service on site.
“There are about 380 people buried in here and interestingly about a quarter of them are aged under 20,” Noel said.
Together with two others – Julie Hempenstall and well-known local historian Ken James – Noel has co-authored a new history of the cemetery with the book to be launched on the day.
Noel said that in writing the book the three co-authors drew heavily on newspaper records dating back over the decades.
“There are a lot of early settlers and farmers buried here,” he said.
There’s also many a tale of tragedy and some interesting characters ranging from the niece of Fletcher Christian, of Mutiny of the Bounty fame, to an intriguing young man who was widely known as ‘the boy preacher’ – “he died at 17,” Noel noted.
Trust member Louise Smith has many forebears interred there and said next month’s anniversary event had been intended to take place in 2020 but was delayed due to COVID.
“In a small community it’s important for the heritage of the district,” said Louise who also mentioned that the little cemetery was pretty special because of its abundance of orchids that bloom on site in September-October.
She said the anniversary event would take place from 10.30am on October 2 at the cemetery, with contingency plans in the event of rain, and lunch to follow at the Sutton Grange Hall from 1pm.
“Everyone interested is welcome to attend,” Marge said.
“We’d just encourage them to bring a plate to share if they want to stay for lunch.”
