As John says, work has now commenced on a renovation of some aspects of the old churchyard. If you'd have visited some two to three years ago, you would have been REALLY shocked !!!
Anti Social behaviour is being addressed as part of the project, and lighting of many areas in the churchyard will be introduced.
You will have seen the new wall upon which the old BICC War memorial plaques are to be remounted. Again, this will happen once protective work has taken place, including limiting the access to prevent vehicles being driven in. The plaques will be treated with various anti-theft measures, and a programme is under discussion to introduce signage to the churchyard, telling the history of some of the people buried therein.
Also under discussion is a project to remap the churchyard and to produce some kind of index of the remaining graves. Securing of recumbent gravestones is also included.
A new area for the interment of ashes following cremation is also planned.
I was at a meeting with Council officers just a few weeks back to discuss this project overall. Several of the men commemorated on my website at
www.prescot-rollofhonour.info are buried in the churchyard and I would dearly love to see some of their graves found and marked. We also discussed introducing some new form of commemoration for the men of Prescot who fell in the Great War but who are not recorded on the civic memorial (or any of the other memorials in the town).
In addition to my website, one of the reasons I have a keen interest in this is that my grandfather and great grandfather were gravediggers there between 1910 and 1935 and they are both buried there also. Granddad is in the "new" cemetery, but great-grandad is in an unmarked pauper's grave in the old churchyard.
I will update this thread with details of any activity once the project gets up to speed.
