St. Peter de Merton with St. Cuthbert Churchyard in Bedford, Bedfordshire

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Get directions De Pary's Avenue
Bedford, Bedford Borough, Bedfordshire MK40 2TX England

Coordinates: 52.13940, -0.46620
stpeterdemerton.org
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There has been a Christian church on the site of St. Peter's for more than a thousand years and contains some of the oldest architectural remains in Bedford. The south doorway of the church is Norman but was brought from St. Peter de Dunstable, demolished in 1545, situated in the present day St. Mary's Square in Bedford. Just in front of the Church is St. Peter's Green, which was part of the old churchyard, and it is said that there were human remains lying under it.

The churchyard is relatively small, roughly three quarters of an acre in size. As with most of the eleven burial grounds in central Bedford, St. Peter's Churchyard would have been ordered to stop interments in 1855. In Mr. Wyatt's 1855 report of the burial grounds, St. Peters was found to be unfit for further interments. Funeral services may still take place here, but the burial process must take place elsewhere. Usually this might have been Bedford Cemetery, also known as the Foster Hill Road Cemetery which opened in 1855.

When St. Cuthbert's became redundant in 1974, the parishes of St. Peter and St. Cuthbert joined up and St. Peters has become known as St. Peter de Merton with St. Cuthberts ever since.