A faculty was sought for the installation of a memorial tablet to the late David Church OBE, to be paid for by his widow. The tablet was to be a simple square of Portland stone located with other memorial tablets in the north aisle. The wording was to include reference to the marriage of Mr Church's grandparents at the church on 29 April 1890. The DAC recommended several alterations to the design and certified ‘no objection’ to the proposal on some of those being met. The chancellor had no doubt that Mr Church was deserving of the ‘privilege’ of commemoration by memorial tablet. He referred to the Chancellor's Guidance on Churchyards and Memorials, which state that a faculty would not generally be granted unless, inter alia, the memorial is artistically an adornment to the church. He found that the proposed design would not be an ‘artistic adornment’ due to its simplicity, although he stated that a simple design is not necessarily incompatible with an artistic adornment. He held that there must be ‘good reason’ for permitting an exception to the Guidance. The chancellor identified three such reasons, none of which applied here: namely, where affordability necessitates a simple design; where the church is unlisted such that a simple design will not be ‘intrinsically harmful’; and where a simple design would be ‘in keeping’ with other memorials in the proposed vicinity. In addition, the chancellor found the reference to the deceased's grandparents to be of no interest other than to his family and thus inappropriate. He could not grant the faculty for the design as it stood but would reconsider should the petitioners amend it to be an artistic adornment with the reference to the grandparents removed. [Simon Rowbotham]