Wednesday 26 January
Alan and Rita decided on the spur of the moment, to go into the cemetery to finish off chopping the large elder tree behind the houses on Wembdon Road. Alan cut down the last few branches and sawed them up, while Rita chopped up the left over branches previously cut down on Sunday by the boys. There were also two fairly large piles of brambles along the hedgerow which had been cut down. These and the chopped branches of the elder were bagged up, filling a total of five dumpy bags, which were dragged to the waste pile. Although the elder tree has been cut back there are still some large branches that need cutting down to stop it growing so fast in the spring/summer.
Sunday 30 January
Another cold but pleasant day, later in the morning the sun came out and the sky was a brilliant blue. Astrid, Rita, Alan and Chris working today. Astrid and Rita were clearing ivy and brambles from around the two Yew trees next to the row of Sealey graves in Section C. They filled 2 dumpy bags but another session is required to clear this area.
Meanwhile Alan and Chris started on the large bramble area behind the back fence of the house bordering Wembdon Road in Section B. Alan cut the brambles back and Chris chopped them in smaller pieces and bagged them up – not a very nice job. Leaving Alan to cut back more brambles, Chris went over to the Skinner grave in Old Ground 3, the stone had fallen and was partially buried, the memorial was about a metre long and appeared to be triangular in shape. Chris dug around the stone which was triangular with a carved flower on the top edge, he also found a semi circular stone which may be the part of the base stone. More work to be done here to see if we can uncover more of the original base stone on which the memorial once stood.
A nice surprise later in the morning when a visitor arrived, a member of the Friends and past secretary, Bernice. It was lovely to see her and she got a personal tour around the cemetery to show her what had been completed since her last visit before Covid. She very kindly gave us all a signed copy of her recently published book ‘Critters’ of the Wembdon Road Cemetery, short stories of the critters that reside in the cemetery with beautiful photographs of the cemetery and the volunteers actively working.
