| back as the very early middle ages (1100-1200) the graveyard saw very few burials after 1930 as the grounds where full. it was closed as a grave yard officially in 1952/53 when it was deconsecrated. St Johns closed as a church in the 1960’s and stood empty for many years until the local scout group took it over, and are still use the building today. although comprehensive records exist for the other graveyards in tonyrefail, very few are available for St Johns due to a fire in the building after its closure. those records that are known to exist are at llantrisant church as it was part of llantrisant parish up until 1921. and some records are at St Davids church in high street two of tonyrefail residents, colin long and david tucker are also working on recording the details from the burials at the church, some are available on the web site www.parishoftonyrefail.org
although the building is still in regular use, the grave yard is now in a very sad state.. with many of the stones haven fallen over and the grounds almost completely overrun by weeds.
I visited the church on the morning of august 12th 2006 and photographed the grounds, these can be seen by clicking the photos of the church page 1. angharad visited the grounds a few months later on december 27th and took the photos that are on photos of the church pages 2 and 3. with it being winter, and the weeds haven died of she was able to get better pictures of the graves. she revisited the site in early 2008 and took the photos on pages 4 and 5.
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