Shock and Dismayat Nuns’ Exhumation
KENT BARKER
A Hastings Borough councillor told a senior council officer he was “shocked and dismayed” when he heard that the graves of 46 nuns at Holmhurst St Mary had been exhumed last December. The unnamed elected member demanded to know if the planning authority had agreed to the exhumation when granting planning permission for 208 affordable homes close to the site.
Hastings Borough Council visits Holmhurst
The information has come to light via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from local resident and historian Bob Hart. Although names have been heavily redacted, it is clear that the councillor attended a site meeting with other HBC members, the conservation officer and representatives of the developers, Southern Housing, on 29 November last year.
After the visit, the councillor emailed the officer saying: “I was particularly interested in making sure the nuns’ graves were being treated respectfully. I was shocked and dismayed to be told the remains had been exhumed and cremated ready for being added back to the site as ash … I thought there had been provision made to protect the graves. Am I mistaken?”
The graveyard contained the remains of nuns from the Holmhurst St Mary Convent School which closed in the 1980s. The land was owned by the Bishop of Chichester’s Mother Agnes Trust which, apparently entirely legally, ordered the exhumations, blaming badgers for digging up body parts.
But according to the FOI documents, the developers who had been sold land by the Trust had given assurances that the graveyard would remain untouched. The council’s conservation officer emailed the planning officer on 6 December to say: “Bit of a sensitive one …some of the councillors were quite concerned that [exhumations] would have been contrary to the planning permission given for the site. Would you be able to advise please?”
The officer received a lengthy reply from his colleague in which he was told that the “retention” of the nuns’ graveyard was shown on approved planning drawings which clearly state “historic graveyard to be protected”. The planning officer said the developers had confirmed they had ‘no plans’ to carry out works associated with the burial ground.
Yet despite these assurances 46 graves were dug up last November with the council apparently powerless to stop the operation. The planning officer told his colleague: “So long as the graveyard was retained as a landscape feature as shown on the approved scheme drawings, I think that they have complied with the planning permission … I do not think that we have any way of controlling the exhumation of the nuns’ bodies.”
It seems that the assurances that the developers had given to the council about the graveyard did not extend to the Mother Agnes trust. Southern Housing told HIP: “The removal of the graves was NOT requested by us, nor was it a condition of sale” (their emphasis). And they reiterated that the land where the nuns were historically laid to rest does not belong to Southern Housing and is not part of the redevelopment project.
HIP contacted the Mother Agnes Trust whose chair is the Bishop of Chichester. They confirmed they had sold land to Southern Housing but would not say what acreage or for how much. However, their accounts lodged with the Charity Commission show that they received £4,270,853 as ‘profit on the disposal of property’ in 2022. Their annual report for that year says, “The trust remains committed to its moral obligation… to the upkeep of the graveyard”. Within two and a half years of the sale, the Bishop of Chichester and his fellow trustees had apparently abandoned that commitment and sanctioned the exhumation of 46 graves. The former graveyard is now a wilderness. The trust told HIP they believe “they have acted in good faith throughout, lawfully and prudently bearing in mind their responsibilities under charity law.”
A former convent pupil, Sally Cole, told HIP: “Given the heartless manner in which has been carried out, I have no faith in anyone taking responsibility and now giving the nuns the respect they deserve.”
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