Pembrokeshire
It is impossible to determine how many burials took place in the cemetery of the parish church of St. Jerome. between the foundation of the church around the beginning of the 13th century and the closure of the burial ground in 1881. Prior to 1813 registers of baptisms, marriages and burials were kept in one ledger and the information was recorded in whatever style the officiating minister chose. The earliest surviving burial registers for Llangwm date from 1718 but up to 1812 they are severely damaged and in some cases are little more than fragments. Records for many years are missing including the entire period from 1796 to 1812 inclusive. From 1813 an Act of Parliament decreed that baptisms, marriages and burials should be recorded in separate pre-printed ledgers which had space to record name, abode, date of burial, age , and name of minister. Llangwm’s burial registers from 1813 onwards have survived intact.
For the period from 1718 up to November 1881, when the new burial ground at Pill Park opened the surviving registers record 1787 burials in the churchyard. This survey has discovered just 173 names or pairs of initials. Just three burials are recorded after closure, Rector Thomas Williams in 1882, his brother-in-law James Wilson in 1884, and Rose Ellen Wilson (wife of James) in 1902.
The following notice appeared in the Pembrokeshire Herald And General Advertiser of 9th January 1880.
“CLOSING OF BURIAL GROUNDS IN THE HAVERFORDWEST UNION.
At a special meeting of the Sanitary Committee of the Haverfordwest Union held at the Shire Hall on Saturday 3rd January. The meeting was called to consider the report of the Medical Officer of Health in respect of the churchyards in the various districts. It was ultimately decided that notices should be served for the closing of the following burial yards and the formation of new grounds.”
A total of 18 burial grounds were listed for closure, including Llangwm.
The problem of finding a new burial ground was quickly resolved through the generosity of John Frederick Lort Phillips of Lawrenny Castle whose estates included large areas of land and properties in Llangwm and in the neighbouring parish of Burton. His family had, since the 1840s, maintained a residence in Burton, originally named Dumpledale but later renamed Ashdale.
By a deed of conveyance dated 11th January 1881 John Frederick Lort Phillips granted to to Rector Thomas Williams and his successors one acre and twelve perches of a field known as Pill Meadow to be used as a burial ground. The new ground was properly laid out and enclosed by stone walls to the south and east sides and by hedges and banks on the north and west sides. With everything in order the Bishop of St. Davids issued a licence permitting burials in the new cemetery from 2nd November 1881, prior to its consecration. The parish registers show that the first burials after that date were of Mary Jane Jenkins, 10 months, 8th November / Alice Davies, 1 year, 13th November / Richard Brock, 17 months, 29th November / David Herbert, 74 years, 4th December.
Moving forward almost a century it was recognised that Llangwm would once again be in need of a new cemetery. The opening of Parc Gwyn crematorium at Narberth in 1968 would have led to a reduction in demand for burial plots but by the end of the 1970s very few new plots were available at Pill Parks. An area of land on Deerland Road was duly laid out and although the sign on the perimeter wall gives the date May 1978 the first burials there appear to date from 1983. Burials into existing plots at Pill Parks have continued since the opening of Deerland cemetery, most recently in 2013.