As I go round cemeteries in England, it is starting to dawn on me just how many headstones have decayed to the point where the deceased is about to become unknown. I know willing bands of volunteers have been visiting cemeteries for years to record the monumental inscriptions before it is too late. But, they can't get everywhere! Here are a few examples of what I mean.
Hurst Green Cemetery 2011
Locksbrook Cemetery Bath 2010
Chorley Cemetery 2011
2 comments:
Messages, epitaphs, sculptures, photos, all disappearing under the slow scouring of rain, snow, ice, frost, sun... it is worthy work I think to try to preserve some of them in images before they are gone forever. I really like the last one, where the letters were attached to the stone, but are falling off, leaving their outline and the traces of the attachments. Very poignant...
That's a shame, Laurie. I think New Orleans has a good idea with rotating bodies every so many years.
The cemetery for my parents (my mother is still living) has a plan in which the surviving family members have a cemetery cleanup every May, and detailed rcords are kept in a little airtight building... I suppose they should be transferred to a computer...
me
http://margaretpanpipes.blogspot.com
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