Ford Park Cemetery Trust Newsletter 2024
2024 was another successful year for Ford Park Cemetery Trust. We continue to attract new members and volunteers. Our Heritage Team has again put on an excellent programme of exhibitions and organised interesting walks and tours that explore the history of our Ford Park Cemetery and Plymouth’s wider social history.
We couldn’t achieve all this without our staff, volunteers and you, our members, who support our events, buy raffle tickets and bring donations, so please accept our heartfelt thanks.
Following the closure of the chapels at Weston Mill and Efford we are now the only cemetery in Plymouth where you can hold a service for your loved ones. While celebrating our history we look forward to the future, recognising the importance of Ford Park as an amenity for Plymouth.
We provide thirty-five acres of open space, a landscape for anyone to watch the changing seasons and an attractive place to walk a dog. Our Chapel and Visitor Centre are among the most attractive and best-maintained community buildings in Plymouth.
We use them for our many fund-raising events - which include our Spring, Summer and Winter Fayres, talks, concerts, lunches and teas - and our regular Saturday morning bric-abrac, book stalls and café.
We welcome organisations renting our spaces. Over the last year our Chapel has been used for a traditional Latin Tridentine Mass each month. Our Visitor Centre has been used by Sophie, a trained zoologist and expert in animal behaviour, offering dog training classes. In addition the local branch of the Richard III Society has used our Chapel for meetings for several years. Our shop in the Visitor Centre now offers for sale original works by local artists as well as a selection of jams, chutneys and local honey along with books of local and military interest. Come along, have a cuppa in the café and see what’s on offer.
An exciting new venture
Having obtained the necessary licence, in 2025 we will be able to offer Civil Weddings in either the Victorian Chapel or Visitors Centre.
High Sherriff of Devon Presents a Certificate of Volunteering to the Trust
On 10th February we were honoured to receive a visit from the High Sherriff of Devon, the Rt Revd. Nick McKinnell, who presented the Trust with a certificate “in recognition of great and valuable services to the community” which recognised the efforts of so many people who have worked hard to ensure that Ford Park was saved, revived, and now thrives.
Nick is a former rector of St Andrews and was Bishop of Plymouth between 2015 and 2022. After chatting to some of the Trustees and volunteers, he enjoyed some delicious cake and coffee supplied by the Friends, visited the chapel with John Clamp, our chairman, and Jean Northey (both founder members of the Trust) and browsed the bric-a-brac, books and other items displayed for sale.
We Identify the Grave of an American Federal Union Soldier who fought to Defeat the American Confederacy in the American Civil War in the 1860s
In February we received an enquiry from Michael Hammerson on behalf of SUVCW (Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War) requesting information about Thomas George Lockley. Michael is involved in a project to identify the graves of Veterans of the American Civil War (1861-1865) buried in the UK. His list included a Thomas George Lockley who served for 3 years in the 3rd New York Light Artillery and then in the Union Navy between 1861-1864 when he was honourably discharged
Vivien Warne from the Heritage team conducted the initial research but was unable to make any connection to America or the Civil War for the Thomas George Lockley buried in GE 28 9. An email to that effect was sent to Michael 15 May.
Michael replied that Thomas George served under the alias Peters (his mother’s maiden name).
Initial research revealed that he was born on 1st October 1836 and baptised 3 years later in Portsmouth. Following the death of his father in 1840 he moved with his mother back to the West Country where her relatives lived. Although he appears on both the 1841 and 1851 censuses, significantly, he is missing from the one conducted in 1861. In 1851 his occupation was listed as mariner.
Thomas George’s application/s for a pension began in 1890 and continued until 1900. The address supplied in the pension applications matches the address on the census records for 1891 (52 Exeter Street also known as Jubilee Street).
Extracts supplied by Michael revealed the extent of his military service both in the NY Infantry and the American Navy. Michael stated that the pension was rejected as Thomas George was not an American citizen. There is no indication from the pension records supplied whether or not he received a pension before his death in 1904.
The Sons of Union Veterans in the US are prepared to mark the grave at their own expense provided we pay for the installation of the memorial (estimated cost about £240 –donations welcome).
The fact that, along with other Union veterans, Thomas George Lockley fought to abolish slavery makes his commemoration even more relevant today.
Charity Dog Show
On 31 August Ford Park Cemetery held its second Charity Dog Show. We had over a hundred people and more than fifty dogs for a fun community afternoon with lots of cake, tea, wine, and beer, along with secondhand books and bric-a-brac and doggie ice cream for sale.
Sophie, who held the dog training classes, was the judge.
The Dog Show was an opportunity for us to remind the local community that we are dog friendly and welcome people to walk in Ford Park with their dogs.
There will be another dog show in 2025, on Saturday 30th August. Come along and join the fun!
25th Anniversary Celebrations
In 2025 the Trust looks forward to celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary and the achievement of having saved Ford Park Cemetery from liquidation and all the success that we have had in reviving it and developing it as a community amenity. We are continuing to develop the services that we provide and adjust our programme of events to the changing interests and sensibilities of our community. Special events will mark this historic milestone, so keep an eye on our website for more details.
Thanking our friends for everything they do is important to us : Margaret, thank you and have a happy retirement!
Another important event for us was the retirement of Margaret, our cleaner for 16 years, in December. Margaret went out in style with a lovely retirement party in the Visitor Centre with her husband, children, grandchildren and friends.
We all appreciated the pride and care that she has taken in cleaning our premises. Her retirement party was a happy celebration of everything she had done for us and a festive end to our year, but she will be greatly missed.
Ford Park takes part in Green Communities Project
In April we were invited to participate in the Green Communities Project “Love Your Burial Ground Week” which resulted in an open day at the cemetery featuring nature trails and other such activities. The Green Communities Project aims to re-connect people with green spaces and encourage them to improve local biodiversity and is a collaboration between Plymouth City Council and the National Trust. During the open day a survey of flora and fauna was undertaken by Holly and Jess, the group leaders, with the result that over 700 different plants were identified! We have made some useful contacts and there are also exciting ideas for more wildlife events in the cemetery in 2025.
AGM news
At the AGM in December Rod Pickles, who has been a volunteer for many years, was elected to the Board. We look forward to working with him in 2025.
In 2025 Ford Park Cemetery Trust is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the reopening of the Cemetery by the Trust founded in 1999.
A key founder of the Trust, Dr Henry Will, M.B.E., had a wish for a Ford Park Cemetery archive of the 957 (including one Russian) Commonwealth War Graves (CWGC). Sadly, Henry died on 4th January 2014, shortly after the project was started by the Heritage Team.
The project expanded from a list to a brief summary of each individual’s life including, where possible, photographs, military and other records.
The Archive includes forty-two August 1914 Ministry of Defence burials before the Great War was declared on the 4th. Many were young boy sailors who died as a result of diseases contracted whilst serving on training ships in the Hamoaze.
When obtaining grave photos, it became evident that some headstones, such as the Baker family’s three brothers, were remembering war casualties who had been buried elsewhere. These memorials do not appear in the cemetery burial records. It did not feel right to document those buried at the Cemetery and ignore those remembered. In addition, a further sixteen CWGC burials were discovered and confirmed.
Each file often contains family history information sometimes including grandparents and cross references to other family members who served in either War. During the 10-year project, we have helped many, from around the world, fill in the missing pieces of their family history.
The Archive, now complete, contains 1,115 individuals. The following is a brief breakdown. Years CWGC graves Memorials Plus Not CWGC Aug 1914-Aug 1921 774 plus 2 Russians 81 3 French 52 Sep 1939-Nov 1947 197 5
Plus 1 unknown RAF burial
The Archive can be viewed in person at Ford Park Cemetery’s Visitor Centre. Copies can be arranged through the Office. The majority of the costs of this project were met by members of the Heritage Team; donations are very welcome and may facilitate another project.
