Farmer’s field to be new cemetery

The town’s Chain Hill cemetery was due to fill up within the decade and Wantage Town Council had been working for a number of years to buy suitable land next to the site.

Now a neighbouring farmer’s wheat field will be turned over to burial space after the town’s well-known Smith family donated 1.25 acres of land.

The family company is Ben Smith and Sons (Wantage) Ltd and it also runs Broadway Motors.

They have owned land in the town for more than 100 years.

A meeting was organised by family member Kate Bridle and town mayor Charlotte Dickson.

Mrs Bridle said “We are very pleased to give this land to the town.

“Several members of our family are buried at Chain Hill and it is nice to feel that Wantage residents will continue to have the option of a local burial.”

Her brother John Smith, 75, added: “It was just a charitable decision. The family just got together and thought it would be a nice gesture to donate it.”

The family will continue to farm the land until there is a requirement for more space, but a new car park will be built sooner.

Mrs Dickson said: “This is a very generous gift and will guarantee space in the cemetery for at least another 30 years.

“It is wonderful to see such philanthropy and sense of community spirit in this day and age.”

Deputy mayor Fiona Roper added: “Thanks to the generosity of the family the problem of future burial space has been resolved until around 2040.”

John Smith, who runs Broadway Motors, and his nephew Ben, who is the son of the late Ben Smith who died last January, also worked with the council on the donation.

Meanwhile, Oxfordshire-based Memoria has resubmitted its planning application for a crematorium with remembrance gardens on land near Garford.

Vale of White Horse District Council plans to make a decision on the bid by January 8 next year.

Oxford City Council is searching for more land to use for burials after it emerged in June that space to bury the dead could run out within 10 years.