Ford Park Cemetery Trust Newsletter 2024
2024 was another successful year for Ford Park Cemetery Trust. We continue to attract new members and volunteers. Our Heritage Team has again put on an excellent programme of exhibitions and organised interesting walks and tours that explore the history of our Ford Park Cemetery and Plymouth’s wider social history. We couldn’t achieve all this without our staff, volunteers and you, our members, who support our events, buy raffle tickets and bring donations, so please accept our heartfelt thanks. Following the closure of the chapels at Weston Mill and Efford we are now the only cemetery in Plymouth where you can hold a service for your loved ones. While celebrating our history we look forward to the future, recognising the importance of Ford Park as an amenity for Plymouth. We provide thirty-five acres of open space, a landscape for anyone to watch the changing seasons and an attractive place to walk a dog. Our Chapel and Visitor Centre are among the most attractive and best-maintained community buildings in Plymouth. We use them for our many fund-raising events - which include our Spring, Summer and Winter Fayres, talks, concerts, lunches and teas - and our regular Saturday morning bric-abrac, book stalls and café. We welcome organisations renting our spaces. Over the last year our Chapel has been used for a traditional Latin Tridentine Mass each month. Our Visitor Centre has been used by Sophie, a trained zoologist and expert in animal behaviour, offering dog training classes. In addition the local branch of the Richard III Society has used our Chapel for meetings for several years. Our shop in the Visitor Centre now offers for sale original works by local artists as well as a selection of jams, chutneys and local honey along with books of local and military interest. Come along, have a cuppa in the café and see what’s on offer.