Luddenham Uniting Church has just celebrated its 133rd anniversary. The cemetery at the Church dates back even earlier than this.

One aspect of the Church’s cemetery, which has concerned some of the members, is that there are a number of burial plots known to be unmarked graves. These are mainly graves from the 1800’s.

Along with its over-arching mission to proclaim the Gospel, the Church Council is keen to value and preserve the local area’s heritage and to foster community development. So, it has been a significant donor to local needy causes and is planning various projects for the new year.

Because of this commitment to the local area, the Church recently decided to place a memorial in the cemetery which acknowledges past Luddenham people who have been buried there, but whose graves are not now marked and there is no documentary record to identify the occupants.

Styles of memorials appropriate for this purpose were researched, and a large but simple, rough and undecorated piece of sandstone was decided upon.

The monument has now been completed and will be dedicated by Pastor Bob Searle at 10:30am on Sunday 24th November in the Church cemetery, located at The Northern Road in Luddenham. All members of the community, especially those with connections to the cemetery, are welcome to attend.

Several people deserve acknowledgement for their contribution towards the memorial. This includes Hi-Quality Quarry (Kevin Weatherstone, Manager) who donated the sandstone and delivered it to the cemetery, Stuart Lewis (stonemason) who selected a suitable sandstone boulder from the quarry and fixed two brass plaques into place,

Harry Bowen who dug the hole in which the rock sits, Alex Belay who used his equipment to move the stone into position, Rob Sinclair who assisted in positioning the stone and then finishing off the surrounds and Pat Sinclair who provided advice and assistance throughout the project.