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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: sem73 on Wednesday 30 January 08 20:46 GMT (UK)

Title: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: sem73 on Wednesday 30 January 08 20:46 GMT (UK)
 >:(  >:(  >:(

Have seen it all now!! .......

http://www.salvo.co.uk/forsale.html?key=grave

4th item for sale .......

Sarah :)

Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: toni* on Wednesday 30 January 08 20:49 GMT (UK)
Blimey are they allowed to do that?

i wonder what the inscriptons are, who do they belong to

how sad i hope everyone has signed Lynn H petition.



Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: sem73 on Wednesday 30 January 08 20:50 GMT (UK)
Its truely awful ........

Can we stop/record them???......
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: toni* on Wednesday 30 January 08 20:57 GMT (UK)
they have a contact them button.
how come the church that was demolished let them be sold off in the first place?
i geuss it came down to the councils descision.
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: millymcb on Wednesday 30 January 08 21:03 GMT (UK)
They say some of the money will go towards a new church- I wonder how much?

I also wonder what the alternative would have been for these stones if the church was demolished.  They may have just ended up as hardcore ort something.

It's a bit of a dilemma this one.

Milly
 
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Wendi on Wednesday 30 January 08 21:05 GMT (UK)
they have a contact them button.
Where is it tony I could not see it !

I wondered if it was from several grave yards as in a real job lot ???

Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: toni* on Wednesday 30 January 08 21:06 GMT (UK)
why demolish an old church / piece of histroy to build a new one with no character in the first place?
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: toni* on Wednesday 30 January 08 21:09 GMT (UK)
they have a contact them button.
Where is it tony I could not see it !

I wondered if it was from several grave yards as in a real job lot ???




for more information-please call or email
Contact : Valley Reclamation, Derbyshire, UK. Tel: 01246 450366.
Enquiries : Send a message
Web : http://www.valleyreclamation.co.uk

Price : £60m2+ vat

Provenance : yes

Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: stoney on Wednesday 30 January 08 22:37 GMT (UK)
why demolish an old church / piece of histroy to build a new one with no character in the first place?


If the old one wasn't "fit for purpose" it would be better to rebuild. As for a lack of "character" in style - it's what happens within the building that matters, rather than the style. (IMHO)
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: stoney on Wednesday 30 January 08 22:42 GMT (UK)
It seems a shame to sell off the old stones (I presume it has not been possible to trace any living decendents to ask their views/permission?) but perhaps someone might appreciate the stonemason's skills, or seeing the names and events the stones recorded would at least make you think about the person they represented.

Better than being crushed up and turned into hardcore, I suppose   ???
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Lynn H on Thursday 31 January 08 17:33 GMT (UK)
Hi, I haven't been around for a while as i'm not so well, but to come back to see this is awful. It really infuriates me that people can do things like that. I just don't know what to say as i'm fuming.

I do hope you will take Toni's advice and sign my petition, together we can make a difference, I HOPE !!!


                          Thank you.
                            Lynn
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Lydart on Thursday 31 January 08 17:58 GMT (UK)
Its true that sometimes old churches (often the newer ones, e.g. Victorian) become damp, crumbling and unsafe ... andwhat else can you do except demolish (and hopefully start again ?)   In many cases, the congregations have dwindled away to no people at all. 

But graves are, IMHO, another matter ... some years ago we had to put in a septic tank in the churchyard, and this meant disturbing some old graves; this had to be done with a Home Office license, by approved persons or contractors, and the remains we found were reburied with dignity elsewhere in the churchyard. 

I wonder if the builders in this case are aware of these regulations?


HOWEVER, its as Stoney says ... 'church' can be anywhere; its not the building.  'Church' can be in someones house, a school room, a hall, or even the pub !
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: poppysmum on Friday 01 February 08 12:42 GMT (UK)
>:( >:( >:(

Have seen it all now!! .......

http://www.salvo.co.uk/forsale.html?key=grave

4th item for sale .......

Sarah :)

 :o

Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: toni* on Friday 01 February 08 21:48 GMT (UK)
i realise that unsafe buildings need to be taken down, however couldn't the material be salvaged and then rebuilt using same, usually a maximum of 70% material is salvageable.and even if the Church was unsafe that doesn't explain the selling off of the gravestones.
ridiculous i say
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Lydart on Friday 01 February 08 21:53 GMT (UK)
Toni, I agree in principle ... but having a builder son in law, he says that the man hours cost of reclaiming materials is often not cost effective in rebuilding a place. 

But selling the gravestones for paving ... I am speechless !
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: aghadowey on Friday 01 February 08 21:54 GMT (UK)
At least it's better than what a nearby Parish Church has done with unclaimed gravestones- throw them over the wall into the river so it now looks like a giant stone jigsaw puzzle down there.
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Lydart on Friday 01 February 08 21:57 GMT (UK)
I'm horrified ... didn't the church PCC get consulted ?  Or the local diocese ?

When I think that we have to get permission before we can even put in a nail to hold a notice board, I'm really surprised that a church was allowed to do that.

What do the local river authority have to say ?   

I think a strong letter to your local paper is in order !
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Wendi on Friday 01 February 08 22:29 GMT (UK)
I'm horrified ... didn't the church PCC get consulted ?  Or the local diocese ?
It's all in the dosh  ::)  If they wait long enough everyone has forgotten and they just brush it aside with a machine.

Wendi  :-\
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: vic1 on Friday 01 February 08 23:36 GMT (UK)
this isn't a new thing, my secondary school yard was paved with  grave stones from the church across the road because the road was widened or some work was done to the churchyard am unsure of exactly why. used to try and match up pieces when we were bored but unfortunately some were upside down !!!I don't think any particulars were kept for them. and i think i can't find some of my own in  local grave yard . councils now remove them if they are unstable and the ones i was looking for were two hundred years old so probably very worn and weathered . i know take a digital camera and photograph as many as i can. you get quite a few on one frame if they are clear and zoom in and out look at them. Ican't agree with selling them ad lib  as surely morally they belong to the descendants of the deceased.
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Tephra on Saturday 02 February 08 05:16 GMT (UK)



An then we wonder why we can't find Great Great Grandmother Mabels' headstone.........it's part of somebodys' pathway!!!


Barbara


Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: millymcb on Saturday 02 February 08 13:07 GMT (UK)
In the early 80s our college bought an old church and converted it - and used  gravestones as paving for the pathway.  We students were in uproar and they promised they would be moving the graves properly but I doubt that they did.

Milly
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Lydart on Saturday 02 February 08 15:45 GMT (UK)
Friends of mine bought a church to convert into a house, which they did with great skill and tastefully, retaining ecclesiastical features.  The churchyard was full of gravestones ... so theytidied it up, got rid of all the brambles and nettles, and have made a semi-wild garden around them, with flowers growing on all the graves.  Its bright, quiet and full of bird-song ... and people can still come to see the graves, cared for and loved.
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: vic1 on Saturday 02 February 08 20:39 GMT (UK)
that's really caring  and must make for great hide and seek. although i can't say i'd be to keen there again i'm scared of me own shadow.
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Lydart on Saturday 02 February 08 23:41 GMT (UK)
My friends say the neighbours are very quiet !
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Tephra on Saturday 02 February 08 23:56 GMT (UK)
My friends say the neighbours are very quiet !


So far.................     :o :o :o


Barbara
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: stockman fred on Sunday 03 February 08 00:33 GMT (UK)
Slightly off topic but gravestone related- a few years ago, there was an archaeological survey taking place at Fordingbridge in Hants prior to some building work, and they dug up a broken gravestone which had been used to cover an old well. The inscription dated from the 1820s or thereabouts but the stone was snapped in half.
The interesting thing was, after some research they discovered a complete, identical stone still standing in a local graveyard, so evidently the 1820s mason had dropped the original and broken it, then cut his losses by selling it as a cover.
Fred
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: minnie222 on Monday 11 February 08 13:42 GMT (UK)
Well that's like sacrilege isnt it.

Why couldnt they be used like a fence around a garden bed or such like in the new church grounds.

Some of the cemeteries here in Aus only guarantee you 99 years.  I think its shocking when they rip up headstones and re use the grounds in some cemeteries too.

barb
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: aghadowey on Monday 11 February 08 13:45 GMT (UK)
Where my relatives are buried in Germany the plots change ownership 30 years after death and old headstones are removed unless family pays to keep the plot longer.
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: dollylee on Monday 11 February 08 13:48 GMT (UK)
So much for "Final Resting Place" and "Rest in Peace"

dollylee
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Lydart on Monday 11 February 08 15:59 GMT (UK)
In Greece (possibly because of scarcity of unrocky spaces but more likely because of the rites of the Orthodox Church) ... they bury the bodies for I think three or five years; after that the bones are dug up and placed in a family casket kept in a nearby ossuary.  At that point, mourning is supposed to cease. 
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Suziesmith37 on Saturday 01 March 08 21:00 GMT (UK)
Similar issue 16 century graveyard in Wales being built on and the graves moved (those they know about that is!)  (In the Common Room found it today 01.03.08)

Plans have been re-submitted to destroy 16th Century Graveyard for a developer to build houses.
The Church in Wales can't afford to maintain the grounds, so have decided to sell.

What happened to respect?

Very saddened by it all

Su
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Rewcastle on Monday 03 March 08 18:32 GMT (UK)
Quote
What happened to respect?

George Galloway M.P. changed the use/meaning of it, when he started prancing around in a skin tight leotard on TV.  ::)
Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: toni* on Wednesday 05 March 08 11:18 GMT (UK)

Plans have been re-submitted to destroy 16th Century Graveyard for a developer to build houses.
The Church in Wales can't afford to maintain the grounds, so have decided to sell.

I geuss the local people are aware of this
did they know they coudl volunteer to keep the grounds tidy i.e. set up an action group where they meet say once a month to do work int he grounds

good idea i know (modest aren't I)
but its gettign the volunteers


Title: Re: Gravestones for sale!!!????
Post by: Suziesmith37 on Wednesday 05 March 08 14:52 GMT (UK)
Toni

That could happen yet ;) Pity we all don't live closer!

Last minutes hopes with CADW.

I help my Dad clean and weed all our families graves locally but unfortunately some families move away or fade altogther.

Something to inspire in the next generation I think :)

Su