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All Saints' Church Records
Burial Records
 The burial registers require information about the name and abode of the deceased, when buried and by whom. The first register covers the period from 1844 until 1953 and records the details of almost 1,600 burials. The second volume is still in use and provides information about a further 500 committals.
Although perhaps slightly less informative than the registers for baptism and marriage, the burial registers yield their own unique share of Parish information. For example, it is known that infant and child mortality rates were high in the 19th and early 20th centuries relative to the end of the latter. The records confirm this, but point, in addition, to the scale of the heartache endured by some families, so that we see in 1854 and 1855 - within the space of 12 months - the deaths of 4 children having the same surname and living in the same area at the ages of "infant"; 21 months, 5 months and 8 years.
What is clear from the records is that despite the poor state of much housing and the hardships associated with poverty, public health risks and infectious diseases, a significant number of people survived to a great age.
The first burial at All Saints', on July 16th 1844, was that of James Arnold, aged 86, of Copthorne, the service being conducted by the Rev. Edward Bindloss.
The earliest date of birth that can be ascertained for a parishioner of All Saints' is 1750. Henry Ammett was buried by the Rector of Worth on March 2nd, 1847, at the age of 97. Others born in the second half of the 18th Century included Ann Holmes (born 1756) buried in November 1845, and Edward Cook (born 1758) buried at the age of 86 in 1844. It is also possible to learn something of the circumstances of a person's death from the "place of abode" column. There is a record of the burial of a child aged 23 months from the Isolation Hospital, East Grinstead. Elsewhere there are references to elderly people whose abode was "Union House, East Grinstead" (the workhouse) *, or to people buried from "the County Lunatic Asylum at Wivelsfield". More recently, there is an entry recording, on October 11th and 12th, 1940, the burial of "portions of remains of four German airmen from Toovies Farm, Copthorne. One identity disc number 651219." Their aircraft had been shot down three days earlier. Later the Parish Magazine of October 1962 records that these remains were exhumed on on September 27th, 1962, and reinterred by the German War Graves Commission in the cemetery at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.
For many years, unbaptised people were not received into church for a full burial service, an alternative form of service being said at the graveside. However, following changes in the cannons of the church in the 1960s, it is now for relatives or legal representatives of the deceased person to decide whether the formal burial service is used or not.
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At the annual Vestry Meeting, chaired by the Rev. W. R. Steuart-Williams in 1882, it was noted that "all paupers belonging to the whole Parish of Worth are brought to Crawley Down churchyard for burial and that out of the last 17 such burials, only one belonged to the District", whereupon it was resolved that the Vicar communicate with the Rector of Worth and ascertain from him on what authority this arrangement rests with a view to obviating a custom so manifestly unfair under present circumstances ". |
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Baptism Registers Marriage Register
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