The Oxford Diocesan website contains their Revised Churchyard Regulations updated on 10th June 2009. Below is a copy of the text from the website's summary of the Regulations, followed at the bottom of the page by a link to download the full document "Churchyard Regulations".
A Summary of the Churchyard Regulations as on the Diocesan Website
Churchyards have been regarded from their inception as ‘God’s acre’.
Everything in a churchyard, from the memorial stones to the trees and shrubs, should be a matter for care and consideration. All parishioners who take a real interest in their churchyard and its surroundings will naturally wish it to be a place of beauty. "The Churchyards Handbook" (4th edition, 2001) published by the Council for the Care of Churches contains much useful advice and information.
These Regulations relate primarily to all churchyards and to other consecrated ground associated with churches. However, consecrated portions of burial grounds established by cemetery companies or by local authorities are also within the jurisdiction of the Consistory Court for certain purposes, and therefore clergy who are concerned with interments of remains in such grounds should ensure that these Regulations are understood by the legal personal representatives and undertakers involved.
Areas covered in the Regulations include:
- Legal Rights and Delegated Authority
- Right of Burial
- Authorising Memorials or Ledgers
- Churchyard Memorial Agreement
- Reference to Diocesan Registry
- Diocesan Regulations for Tombstones, Monuments or Ledgers
- Materials
- Dimensions
- Base and Foundation Slab
- Designs
- Sculpture
- Inscriptions
- Commemoration after Cremation
- Trademarks
- Upkeep
- Vaults and Above-Ground Funerary Edifices
- Publicity and Variations
- The removal of tombstones and kerbstones and the levelling of grave mounds
- Closure of churchyards
- Reservation of grave spaces
- Interment of cremated remains
- Interment in a churchyard or other consecrated ground open for burials
- Interment in ground no longer open for burials
- Interment within or below the church
- Removal of human remains from consecrated ground to another place of burial
The Regulations in Full and Memorial Agreement Form
To download a PDF file containing the "Churchyard Regulations" (Revised Rules amended 05.05):-
Click Here
To download a PDF file containing a Memorial Agreement Form for authorisation to erect a memorial / ledger in the churchyard (per Section 3.7 in the "Churchyard Regulations" above):-
Click Here