St Lawrence Churchyard, Morden

The parish church of St Lawrence was built in 1636, probably a rebuilding of an older church as St Lawrence was often a Saxon dedication. Additions were made to the church in later centuries. Morden remained a rural village until housing development took place in the C20th, the underground station opening here in 1926. The church is adjacent to Morden Park (q.v.), formerly an estate of around 75 hectares, which was part of the Manor lands and leased to John Ewart in the C18th. In the church are memorials to the Garth family who from the C16th-C18th were Lords of Morden Manor and lived at Morden Hall. The Morden Park and Morden Hall estates were later reunited when the Hatfeild family purchased Morden Hall in 1872, and later Morden Park. The churchyard contains the grave of Gilliat Hatfeild (d.1941) the last owner of the Morden estate. On his death Hatfeild left Morden Hall to the National Trust in order to preserve it intact although the Trust did not directly manage the estate until 1980. Morden Park was also saved for public open space.

Gravestones are set within the grass, and there are a number of good C18th monuments, including that of John Howard (d.1764). Among those buried here were Huguenots who came to England fleeing religious persecution, including Peter Mauvillian who set up calico works along the Wandle at Ravensbury in the early C18th. Others buried in the churchyard include Captain Alexander Maconochie (b. 1787), Governor of an Australian penal settlement, and August Schermuly (d.1929) who invented the pistol rocket life-saving apparatus, whose grave has an image of a sailing ship and the words 'Homeward Bound'; the Rudd Family pillar marks the grave of Austin (Arthur) Rudd, a well-known comic singer (d.1929); William Robert Chaplin, the first member of the Australian Merchant Service to be elected to the Corporation of Trinity House in 1928 as an Elder Brother.

The lych gate is a WWI memorial built in the early 1920s, a wooden structure with tiled roof, with oak panels listing the war dead from the Morden area. The lych gate was struck by a vehicle in a road accident in 2017, but since restored. The annual Remembrance Sunday commemoration service takes place here; the churchyard contains a number of memorials to service personnel, including Captain Stockley of the East Yorkshire Regiment (d.1917). A plan of the churchyard, dated 7th January 1939 (?), initialled 'WFW', is on the church website, which also has a Churchyard Trail, pointing out important memorials. These include that of Dr J W Peers (d.1835) who became rector in 1778, and  in 1826 set up a fund to enable the continuation of the Sunday School in the Free School established nearby in 1718.  The churchyard has a number of fine trees, including a fine cedar tree. Part of the burial ground was built over for a new Rectory.