Two alarming occurrences 1935

Two alarming occurrences in connection with the parish of St John sub Castro were referred to at the Annual Parochial Church meeting on Tuesday evening. . . . they had had two serious setbacks during the past 12 months as the Church Room had had to be re-roofed, and a large piece of the churchyard wall had fallen down.
The difficulty in regard to latter was that graves were now close to the edge and might become uncovered unless something was done. The Rector had come to the conclusion that the bank must be shored up to make it safe.
Since he had been Rector of the parish he had raised £1,700 for various needs, and he was coming to the end of his tether in that respect. He was not the only one in the parish who had suffered from the passing of dividends, and he had been told frankly by parishioners that they had not the money to give. He therefore thought they should shore up the bank and then, as time went on and people became more flourishing, they could re-erect the wall.
The churchyard wall question was discussed at considerable length, and ultimately it was decided to re-erect the wall and restore the ground to its former condition as, thanks to the helpfulness of Mr Kent, an arrangement was arrived at whereby payment for the work is to be spread over a period of five years, the opinion having been expressed that if only a temporary shoring-up expedient is carried out there will be every likelihood of another collapse.

(Extract from Annual Parochial Church Meeting, 30th of April 1935)