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Bedford Moravian Chapel

Memorials	:	0
Location	:	Bedford, Bedford Borough, England
Coordinate	:	52.1393000, -0.4644000
Description	:	Bedford Moravian Chapel, so called to distinguish it from the Moravian Church in the Queens Park area of Bedford, is a little-known burial ground in Bedford and is very easy for residents and non-residents to be unaware of it's existence. Unlike most burial grounds, there are no elaborate headstones; instead there are uniform flat-lying stone slabs inscribed with a very basic inscription consisting of a name and date of death. No eulogies were permitted. Well-known Bedford family names are written on these slabs such as Diemer, Hague, Jarvis and Timaeus. The other distinguishing feature of this burial ground is... Read More	Bedford Moravian Chapel, so called to distinguish it from the Moravian Church in the Queens Park area of Bedford, is a little-known burial ground in Bedford and is very easy for residents and non-residents to be unaware of it's existence. Unlike most burial grounds, there are no elaborate headstones; instead there are uniform flat-lying stone slabs inscribed with a very basic inscription consisting of a name and date of death. No eulogies were permitted. Well-known Bedford family names are written on these slabs such as Diemer, Hague, Jarvis and Timaeus. The other distinguishing feature of this burial ground is that men were originally buried on one side and the women on the other. This is a reference to when Moravian life was organised into the old 'Choir' system. In a 1944 article in the local Bedfordshire Times and Standard newspaper, it is stated that the last person to be buried here was the well-known local pigeon fancier George Smith in April 1914. However, in his book Bedford St Luke's; A Bit Of Church History, (Revd.) David Bunney suggests that the last person was interred in 1917 and cremated remains were occasionally accepted over the years since. Following the end of the Second World War Moravian as a religion declined and members of Bedford’s Presbyterian Church asked to share the premises from 1952. This grew into a formal relationship, resulting in the formation of St. Luke’s Church in 1960. When Howard Church (Mill Street, Bedford) closed in the 1970's, the majority of the remaining congregation joined with St Luke’s. At that time there were talks nationally to form a new United Reformed Church from the joining of Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches; the Howard Church was Congregational and St Luke’s Church was part Moravian and part Presbyterian. The official union between the two took place on Easter Day 22nd April 1984 and the church became known as St Luke’s United Church. The church came close to closing for good in the late 1990's when it needed to raise funds to improve facilities. It managed to carry on until 2008 by which time the number of parishioners had declined and the church could no longer sustain those numbers. St. Luke’s closed in 2008, with the final day of worship on Sunday, 5th October, 2008. The building and burial ground was purchased by the neighbouring Bedford School in the same year and the church was converted into a theatre which is now known as The Quarry Theatre. As of the year 2018, the burial ground still exists but not in the way as previously mentioned. Those flat-lying stone slabs were moved by the Moravians and now line the perimeter of the burial ground. It is probable that the Moravians struggled to maintain it thus resulting in it becoming overgrown. The burial ground is private property and access is at the discretion of the school. References Bunney, D. (2010). Bedford St Luke's; A Bit Of Church History: Athena Press

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Where is Bedford Moravian Chapel?
Bedford Moravian Chapel is located at 26 St Peters Street Bedford, Bedford Borough ,Bedfordshire , MK40 2NNEngland.
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Where are the coordinates of the Bedford Moravian Chapel?
Latitude: 52.1393000
Longitude: -0.4644000

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Bedford Moravian Chapel

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