The Churchyard Plan was computerised by Graham Turner (PCC Secretary) in 2014 and now exists in several formats. Each "file"is accessed via the link on the left of this table and its purpose is described on the right.

Simple Web Version of Churchyard Plan

The Churchyard Plan is opened for general browsing etc. - For info about a particular Grave, note its Plot Number (top left field of Grave) and search for this in "CYard_Names" - To search for an individual, look in the "CYard_Names" first and note the grid reference (Grid_Ref e.g. BF24), then in the Plan find the Column across the top e.g. BF and look down to the Row e.g. 24.
Memorial Garden Plan This is a magnified view of the Memorial Garden. It uses the same Grid Reference System as the main Plan, so when searching for a Grave check the Sheet Name is MG and / or Grave Type is M for a Grave in the Memorial Garden.
ChurchYard Names (CYard_Names) This is an alphabetic list of every person buried in the Bawdsey Churchyard. It contains all the data from the Burial Register plus some other reference data. In particular, the Plot Number provided for backward compatibilty and the new Grid Reference in the form LLNN e.g. BF24, the Sheet Name and the Grave Type. (see documentation for more details on these fields.)
Churchyard Plots (CYard_Plots) This is the same table as CYard_Names but sorted by Plot Numbers.
Excel Spreadsheet Version

For the best experience of the Plan, download this Excel version. This spreadsheet contains all the worksheets mentioned above and has full hyperlinks between every name in the CYard_Names table and the corresponding Grave on the Plan and conversely between every Grave on the plan and the corresponding entry in the CYard_Names table. (NB CYard_Plots is not required because it is not necessary to manually search for a Plot number.

NB: Save the file then open with Excel - Do not open directly from this Website
Churchyard Plan Documentation This is a Microsoft Word document that describes why and how this Churchyard Plan, was created and how to use it.

 

History of the Churchyard Plan

In 1993,the then Bawdsey PCC Secretary, Wing Commander Bill Hurst, created a Churchyard Plan by surveying the Churchyard from scratch. This Plan was updated by Bill for several years and now shows the Churchyard as it was at about the end of the old Millennium (1999). This Plan is framed and hangs on the South Wall of the Church Porch. This plan is referred to here as the Hurst Plan. 

This is a lovely, historic document and it is not intended to remove this Plan from the Church. However, as a working document, it has a number of deficiencies:

  • It is hand drawn - so it is difficult to add new graves.
  • It is handwritten in small script - so it is difficult to read in places.
  • The only reference data is the plot number. Plots were initially numbered sequentially starting from the SW corner. Then as the graves became more dispersed, the numbers lost significance - so it is difficult to find a grave even given a plot number.
  • To find a plot number from a Surname, there is a card file. However, this is difficult to make generally available or to replicate - so it is difficult to find a plot number from a Surname and even if the plot number can be found, this is still not very useful in identifying where to search on the Plan.

In 2014, the current Bawdsey PCC Secretary, Mr Graham Turner, computerised the data and plans in an attempt to overcome some of these problems. This version is referred to here, as the Turner Plan.

Basically, the new plan is displayed on a regular grid and co-ordinates are provided to identify any grave. A number of drawing packages were considered but in the end, it was decided to use the Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet package. The reasons for this are:

  • Excel is widely available and many people can use / understand it.
  • The concept of a regular grid is an intrinsic feature of a Spreadsheet.
  • Calculations, database lookup functions and macros are easily accomplished.
  • Excel allows graphics and pictures to be added. This allows walls, hedges, paths and the church outline to be displayed over the background grid.
  • Web and printed versions of the Plan and Churchyard Names Table (CYard_Names) can be produced directly from Excel.

A full description of how and why this Excel Spreadsheet was produced and how it works is described in a Word Document. Baw_Ch_Yard_Plan_Document.

One important difference between, the two plans is their orientation. The Hurst Plan is south facing and whilst south facing plans are perfectly useable, there are several arguments in favour of a north-facing plan:

  • Most maps and plans are shown with north at the top.
  • The Memorial Garden is always shown north up and this plan is now to be incorporated.
  • There is a north-facing plan of the church, which can be incorporated into a north facing churchyard plan.
  • With all the data now computerised, switching the view is relatively easy.

Therefore, the new Turner Plan has North at the top.

The Churchyard is approx 100m wide (left to right - west to east) and 80m high (top to bottom - north to south). Therefore, it was decided to make each Excel cell 1m wide and 0.5m high. At this scale, a typical grave is two cells wide and two cells deep and the total spreadsheet is 100 columns wide and 160 rows deep.

Plot numbers are still used for backward compatibility but in order to identify graves a new set of co-ordinates are also provided. These co-ordinates go from AA1 (top left) to DV160 (bottom right). The sequence along the top is AA, AB, AC …….AY, AZ, BA, BB ….BY, BZ, CA, CB …..CZ, DA, DB ……DV. (i.e. 100 columns) and there are 160 rows (80m) numbered from 1 to 160. There are also pale red dotted lines every 5m and bold blue dashed lines every 25m horizontally and every 40m vertically. These blue lines delineate 8 portrait rectangles, lettered A to H which are useful when navigating the paper versions.

For the best experience of the plan, download the actual Excel version as this has full hyperlinks between every name in the CYard_Names Table and the corresponding Grave on the Plan and conversely between every Grave on the plan and the corresponding entry in the CYard_Names Table. In theory, the Web Versions could also support this functionality but many browsers cannot cope with jumping to a specific location on another sheet. In this case, find the Grid Reference in the CYard_Names Table, then search for it manually on the Plan.

Graham Turner - Sep 2014