No work completed last week due to rain.
Alan, Rita and Dave met up with Duncan (Grounds Manager) and Chris (Tree Surgeon) from Somerset Council on Tuesday to discuss which plants were best suited to cover the area along the North border where brambles and nettles have been cleared in front of the neighbours fences. Also replacing elder saplings that came down in the winter and others that are in a poor condition and replace a diseased Sycamore all in the bluebell area. Duncan and Chris to come back with a list of trees and shrubs that would be suitable.
Today (7 May 2023) the team consisted of Dave, Chris, Alan and Rita. Had a bit of fun first thing as Chris got his water diviner sticks trying to locate the well that we know was in the Area A part of the cemetery. We will not be digging to find it, but we know roughly the area where it is located.
We then measured the width and length of Section A to see if 7 more rows with 8 to 11 plots in each would fit into the back section of this area. The burial records show that burials took place between the 1890’s and early 1900’s, unfortunately there are no headstones or markers to confirm where the graves are situated, but we do have names and a few burial dates of some of the people buried here. More research to be done.
The main job today was to clean up some of the insides of graves as they are overgrown with long grass and weeds. We worked together clearing the Ker, Laver, Nicholls, Hickman, Dyment and Boulting graves in Plan H. Then moved over to Plan 8 and cleared a number of graves in this area.
The grass has grown very thick and long and Duncan said his men will be in shortly to cut it.
Just as Rita, Alan and Chris were leaving an American lady, Ann, visited the cemetery trying to trace her grandparents who she thought were buried here, after discussions we realised her relatives may be buried in Quantock Road cemetery. Ann was only in the town for today, Alan and Rita said they would do some research to see if they could locate them and would be in touch with any information found.