[susie123]

Originally Posted by Tealeaf

I would agree with you if that cemetery was still in use; but as far as I am aware it has been dormant for many years. I do not know when the last burial was there – no doubt Retlaw will come on here and give us a date. Furthermore, I have not seen any flowers or symbols placed on any of the remaining gravestones. In fact, I suspect that some of those gravestones may contain nothing but soil beneath. Someone may wish to confirm that. So therefore there is no personal or, emotional attachment to anyone resting there although invariably some will have descendants currently residing within the Borough

I would also state the case that some of those who may still rest there or whose remains have now been removed would have been the people who built up Accy and its industry in the 18th and 19th century into what then would have been one of the most prosperous towns, for its size, in the country; we only have to look around and see their legacy in the form of the marvellous late Georgian and Victorian architecture, of which St James’s burial ground forms a focal point. These buildings and their immediate environment now provide one of the town’s greatest assets; the fact that they have not been exploited as such has resulted in a great cost to the town.

If those people who now lay in the churchyard were now still alive, what do you think their attitude would be? I suspect it would certainly not be a mixture of overt religious sentimentality combined with toxic luddism but would in fact be one which embraces the Victorian ideals of progress and change and an attitude which says get on with it. Of course, this is all academic; I doubt if we shall ever see the money for this scheme (or the Arcade one) to go ahead.

Hear hear, well said.