THE CHURCHYARD at St. Michaels.

The Churchyard is one of the largest in the country and is home to a wide variety of trees, plants and wildlife. We operate a policy of encouraging the wild life to develop alongside the needs of a public church yard by limiting the amount of grass cutting, keeping only the foot paths mown. The remainder is tended and cut down as necessary but limited to encourage the natural habitat.

Over to the South of the Church, by the entrance from Church Avenue, you will find the foundations of the Church of 1792 demolished shortly after the first world war. This is now used as a burial place for ashes.

If you continue to wander from the old foundations down the bank to the canal bridge you will pass on your right the later part of the Church Yard where you will find the War Graves.

In the older parts of the Church Yard there are some interesting graves for the historian.

28 members of the Baldwin family who lived between 1725 and 1938 are buried here. The memorial Tombs, seen in our picture, were made in cast iron at Baldwin's Wilden Foundry. In 2000 these tombs were restored By the Stourport Civic Society, the recasting being carried out at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum.

The tomb of GEORGE NICHOLSON (d. 1825), a pioneer in popular publishing can also be found. This has also been recently restored.

Other interesting tombs in this section are those of:-

AARON YORK (d. 1797), a friend of John Wesley who helped to develop the canal.

DAVID DAVIES (d. 1832), priest-in-charge of Mitton 1782-1829.

RICHARD JUKES (d. 1834) "a surgeon of Stourport" to whom Sir Charles Hastings was apprenticed,

JACOB STANLEY (d. 1850), President of the Methodist Conference and ancestor of Stanley Baldwin,

RICHARD HEATH (d. 1850), a parish benefactor.

Also buried here are JOHN MURRAY (d. 1868), a veteran of Trafalgar and GEORGE HARRIS (d. 1876), a veteran of Waterloo and one of the earliest carpet manufacturers.

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