Uplyme parish church is part of the Diocese of Exeter
Patrons: Hyndman Trustees and Church Pastoral Aid Society (jointly)
The Churchyard
The Uplyme churchyard is exceptionally beautiful. In 2004, Uplyme Churchyard was voted one of the 12 Best Kept Churchyards in England, and that was out of more than 400 competitors. If you haven’t visited the churchyard, do pay a visit. It is an enchanting place.
So who is buried in the churchyard? The most popular name is Harris with 24 in the Churchyard and Cemetery. Runner-up is Collier with 15 entries, hotly followed by Fowler (14); then we have Newberry (12), and then both of these with 11: Matthews and Irish; there are 10 Adams, Sansom, Bowditch, Smith and Gay. After that Brown comes in with 8, Allen & Furzey with 7, Benett with 5, and the also rans with 4 are Back, Baker and Bastin.
Incidentally, did you know that all English surnames were settled before 1400? After that year there are no new surnames. There are four different types of surnames:
- Professions – Smith, Taylor, Butcher, Baker, etc.. In the 14th Century, the tailor made shoes and this is why we do not have the surname Shoemaker (unlike the Germans).
- Son of your father – Matthews is the son of Matthew, Richards is the son of Richard (Hickson is also the son of Richard, but some English have always had difficulty pronouncing their letter Rs )
- Location – Green, Hill, Church, Lake, etc.
- Characteristic – Small, Irish, Large, White, etc.
Register of Graves
The Register of Graves was last updated in 2006.
There are approximately 1415 entries in the book, comprising the names of those in 586 graves in the churchyard and 629 in the cemetery.
There are also 200 recorded cremations with 86 cremation slabs.
11 people are buried in the church.
We keep a book in the Church which records all the names of those buried in either the churchyard or the cemetery and those who have been cremated.
Bells
According to Dove’s Guide for Church Bell Ringers, Uplyme tower has 6 bells, with a tenor of 9-2-6 tuned to the key of G.
Jack Thomas