Chris, Alan, Rita and Astrid in the cemetery mid morning (8 December 2024) to survey the damage after storm Darragh passed through Somerset yesterday. A neighbour kindly sent a photo of a fallen tree to our chairman who forwarded it to the Friends, but Chris braved the winds and went in the cemetery in the afternoon and also saw the damage.
A large fir tree in plan 13 next to the Hodge grave 13-53 was uprooted and fell down towards Plan 9 as far as the Davidson grave. It missed the Davidson 9-49 grave and the Webber plaque 13-51, landing on the Dodden grave 9-48. Alan and Chris cut back the branches covering the Dodden grave and found the grave un-damaged, just the end kerb loose which is easily fixed.
Unfortunately (see photo) the Hodge grave did not fare so well and the grave has been knocked apart by the roots of the tree. Alan feels that once the tree has been removed and the hole made by the roots have been filled, it would be a simple task of levelling the ground and placing the kerbs and posts back together – it was lucky this grave had no headstone as it was felt it would not have survived the crash.
Three of the neighbours have lost fences, two neighbours in Wembdon Road which backs onto the cemetery and one at the top of Halesleigh Road/Provident Place which has propped up the fence but lost the trellis tops.
The Friends then surveyed the top of the cemetery where we store the dumpy bags and a large tree next to the Holm Oak has lost two large branches and fallen into the cemetery not to far from where someone has put up and occupied a tent. 10 feet further to the left and the tree would have fallen on top of the tent. The occupant woke and was asked if she was alright, said she had no where else to go, she was advised to move the tent from under trees as it was not a safe place to be.
Astrid having now walked Felix hobbled off home, she is still on one crutch and awaiting a further operation on her knee to be put right.
Chris, Alan and Rita stayed on for an hour to pick up some of the many twigs and small branches that cover the cemetery grass, filling one dumpy bag full and leaving a few piles to pick up next week, weather permitting. Then made their way home for a warm up.
Thank you Chris for popping in yesterday and tying down things to stop them blowing around.