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Alphabetical Index of all judgments on this web site as at 10 September 2024

Judgments indexed by Diocese:
2023 Judgments
2022 Judgments
2021 Judgments

Re St. John the Baptist Cononley with Bradley [2020] ECC Lee 1

A faculty had been granted in 2016 to authorise extensive reordering works in the church. The faculty had authorised (inter alia) solid wood Rosehill chairs. The petitioners now wished, after the extended period for completion of the works had elapsed, to introduce Alpha chairs with wooden backs and upholstered seats. The Chancellor refused to grant such variation to the faculty granted in 2016, so as now to allow part-upholstered chairs, but indicated that he would be prepared to consider a further application for variation in respect of one of the alternative solid wood chairs suggested by the church's inspecting architect prior to the 2016 faculty.

Re St. John the Baptist Dudley [2009] Charles Mynors Ch. (Worcester)

The petitioner wished to have the cremated remains of her father exhumed from the churchyard and interred along with the body of her mother in the nearby cemetery, where her brother was also buried. The Chancellor decided that this was a case where an exception could be allowed to the general rule against allowing exhumation, since he considered it a mistake for the family, on the parish priest's advice, to have had the father's cremated remains interred in the churchyard, when the family knew that the mother was against cremation and that further coffin burials in the churchyard were not possible; furthermore, the remains of the three family members who had died – father, mother and son – would then be together.

Re St. John the Baptist Feckenham [2009] Charles Mynors Ch. (Worcester)

The intention of the proposals was to improve on a scheme of reordering in 1988, by providing at the west end of the church a larger circulation area near the main door; meeting space; toilet facilities for the disabled; an entrance meeting disablility standards; a kitchen and servery; and a storage area. The Chancellor was satisfied that the majority of the works would result in an improvement to the interior of the church and he granted a faculty for all the items, with the exception of the proposed wheelchair lift at the entrance, which he connsidered 'would have a somewhat utilitarian feel to it'.

Re St. John the Baptist Felixstowe [2019] ECC SEI 2

The petitioner (aged 98) and her late husband had lived in Belgium but had regularly travelled to Felixstowe over many years to visit the petitioner's mother. The petitioner's husband had died in 1992 and his ashes had been interred in Felixstowe Cemetery. The husband had no religious faith and the petitioner believed at the time of interment of his ashes that the ashes were being interred in an unconsecrated part of the cemetery, though it was eventually discovered that the whole of the cemetery was consecrated. The petitioner now wished to exhume her husband's ashes, and after her death to have his ashes and her own ashes scattered on the seashore in Felixstowe, in order to fulfill their long-held wish. In 1993, at the time when it was thought that the grave was unconsecrated, the petitioner had obtained a Home Office Licence to exhume her husband's ashes, but she had allowed the licence to lapse. The Chancellor, in the very special circumstances of this case, decided to treat this as an exceptional situation where he felt justified in granting a faculty.

Re St. John the Baptist Findon [2012] Mark Hill Ch. (Chichester)

Faculty granted for construction of a single storey extension to incorporate a kitchenette and disabled toilet, and associated works.

Re St. John the Baptist Halesowen [2019] ECC Wor 7

The proposals included: (1) replacing the iron gates to the porch with glazed sliding doors; (2) new porch lighting and glazing of one porch window to match the other; (3) relocation of the internal 1906 wooden lobby to the west end of the south aisle and its conversion to storage space; and (4) removal of a pew in the south aisle to allow the relocation of the lobby; and (5)) replacement of the ramp inside the lobby with a new ramp with handrails. The Chancellor granted a faculty for items (1) and (2), but not item (3) (the relocation of the lobby) as proposed, in consequence of which items (4) and (5) were not approved.

Re St. John the Baptist Heaton Mersey [2018] ECC Man 1

The petitioners wished to remove the church pews and replace them with ICS stacking chairs of solid oak with an oak veneered plywood seat and back. The Victoria Society objected to the proposal, but was not a party opponent. The Chancellor was satisfied that a very low degree of harm to the church would result from the removal of the pews, which would be substantially outweighed by the public benefit that would be achieved by their replacement. He accordingly granted a faculty.

Re St. John the Baptist Hillmorton [2017] ECC Cov 1

The Chancellor granted a faculty for a single collective memorial on which could be recorded up to 120 names of those interred in the area for cremated remains of the churchyard. The Chancellor permitted a large stone of honed granite with three dark granite tablets. He would not normally have permitted such stone for a individual memorial in the churchyard of a sandstone church surrounded by mostly sandstone memorials. But he accepted that sandstone is much less durable than granite. Inscriptions would remain durable for longer on a granite tablet to which inscriptions would be added over a period of many years. Also, the memorial would not be close to other memorials in the churchyard and any adverse effect on the overall appearance of the churchyard would be minimal.

Re St. John the Baptist Hillmorton [2018] ECC Cov 9

The petition proposed the reordering of the west end of the church, including: adding a ceiling to the vestry; replacing the current extension with a larger extension containing two toilets and baby-changing facilities; removing one row of pews in the nave; and removing two pews under the organ gallery and installing in their stead a servery/kitchenette and seating area; and works in the south aisle by way of the repositioning of an effigy. The Georgian Society and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings objected to the removal of two pews from under the organ gallery. The Chancellor was satisfied that any harm caused by the proposed works to the church’s special significance was only moderate, and he granted a faculty.

Re St. John the Baptist Holywell [2024] ECC Ely 1

A large reordering project was proposed, including the introduction of a lavatory in the tower, raising the ringing floor, a gallery in the tower overlooking the nave, a servery unit at the west end of the north aisle; moving the font to the north east corner of the nave and replacing the pews with Howe 40/4 (or

equivalent) chairs to allow for more flexible use of the nave. Two members of the congregation objected to the replacement of the pews and the moving of the font. The Chancellor granted a faculty, subject to a condition that no work should commence until 75% of the cost of the work, or of a particular phase, had been raised or promised.