Rochdale Cemetery request

[Gillg]

Hi Dave

Just want to say a huge thankyou for the tremendous job you have done in transcribing gravestone inscriptions.  I've been able to track down the resting places of quite a few of my relatives with your help, and I'm sure many other folk have, too.  That's what I call dedication.

Gillg

[greensworth]

Thanx Gillg Glad to have helped Regards Dave

[Mr. MIGKY]

Hi Dave, can i take it from what you posted that you have transcribed many of the headstone  in the cemetery? It is great if this is the case, as i have some that might be in that cemetery.
As regards about them laying the headstones down for health and safety reason, i can only presume that this is down also to make money? Other wise they would lay them face up so that people could read them?
Manchester & Salford do exactly the same thing, one or two one here don't think they do it for money grabbing reason but i have yet to be proved wrong.
Migky
Click 4 Salford Weaste thread

[Gillg]

Migky

Have you seen the site I was referring to? http://www.interment.net/data/eng/lancashire/rochdale/rochdale.htm   And Rochdale is not the only cemetery that Dave has transcribed either! 

I have found http://www.interment.net/ really helpful in locating the burials of and other facts about relatives across the world, and the fact that ages and relationships are sometimes included in the information is good, too.

Gillg

[ReaB]

These are answers to quite old posts, but might help someone

Migky: Headstones are not laid "down" for any money making purposes.  They are actually laid down (or up) depending on the ease of the laying, for genuine health and safety purposes.  This is a countrywide government initiative with guidelines laid down by the health and safety executive following accidents and actual fatalities in cemeteries and church yards involving dangerous headstones.  The guidelines state that the headstone must be made safe and sadly laying them down is the safest way.  The headstone is the grave owners responsibility.  New or refixed headstones must now be fixed with a secure anchor system by a NAMM registered stonemason.  If the cemetery were to refix all the dangerous headstones then fees and charges would have to be raised even more to recover the costs.

Dave:  It is a fact that some families put a name on a headstone even though that person isn't in the grave, so facts should always be double checked with actual cemetery records.  It might be helpful to indicate this on your website and also that it is not owned by Rochdale Cemetery!

Re: Grant...That is the Grant of Right of Burial...in other words...someone who owns a grave has the right to say who is buried in that grave. 

Hope this helps )

I should add that Rochdale Cemetery staff are not easily charmed........but some of them are quite partial to Maltesars!!!

[Mr. MIGKY]

Migky: Headstones are not laid "down" for any money making purposes.  They are actually laid down (or up) depending on the ease of the laying, for genuine health and safety purposes.  This is a countrywide government initiative with guidelines laid down by the health and safety executive following accidents and actual fatalities in cemeteries and church yards involving dangerous headstones.  The guidelines state that the headstone must be made safe and sadly laying them down is the safest way.  The headstone is the grave owners responsibility.  New or refixed headstones must now be fixed with a secure anchor system by a NAMM registered stonemason.  If the cemetery were to refix all the dangerous headstones then fees and charges would have to be raised even more to recover the costs.
I should add that Rochdale Cemetery staff are not easily charmed........but some of them are quite partial to Maltesars!!!

Hi, i take it from your reply that you either work at the cemetery or for the council?
I stick by what i said before and still think it is to make money or staff have no interest in the feeling of the family's who are buried in council run cemeteries. If they are laying the headstones down for safety reason, i am sure it would not take much trouble to lay them inscription facing up? Don't for get that under the health and safety regs, the work men would not be aloud to lift/move more than was safe in the first place.
Some of the cemeteries i visit have no consideration at all for the people in the graves or the families that might come to visit them.
1) Weaste cemetery Salford. Piles of smashed broken head stone just dumped in a corner.
2) Manchester Central ( Harpurhey ) Rose beds/flower beds made from smashed broken head stones.
3) Phillips park. Head stone just pushed over and smashed ( Not by vandals) but have to admit they are doing some work on that cemetery. 100's of over grown/grassed over head stones.
4)Southern cemetery. Smashed and piled up head stone.
the list goes on. Also very small head stone with warning marker on.

Migky

[Mr. MIGKY]

The headstone is the grave owners responsibility

OK you must also have a council answer for this then. What about all the common/pauper graves, who is responsible for those?

Migky

[ReaB]

MigKy:  Is that what they do at other cemeteries?  That's appalling and in my opinion criminal.  At least at some cemeteries they do make an effort to keep them safe.  As you say about the health and safety regulations...the staff have to keep safe themselves so they are laid down in the safest way and on to the grave that they belong to (not the one behind as you'd get complaints)...so in some cases if the stone is particularly large/heavy the safest way may be to lay them face down, not face up?  I once questioned this, however, if you think about it...if they lay the stone face down, if the stone isn't immediately going to be reinstated it will preserve the inscription if it eventually is.  Doesn't help us genealogists in the meantime though, but at least it's not being vandalised. 

I can't see how the council would make money from it as the stones have to be reinstated by an independant monumental mason chosen by the owner.

Public graves are owned by the council and private memorials are not allowed to be fixed.  However, following some members of staff being upset by having to show many mothers the public graves of their babies and children, a scheme was devised whereby the cemetery fixes a small marker on the grave and the family can purchase an inexpensive bronze plaque to mark the grave.  This is also available on public adult graves.  Families have been very grateful for this as previously the graves were unmarked as a lot of the number stones do have a tendancy to go missing over the years.  I don't think this is available at any other cemeteries? 

Does this help?