A lovely surprise when Alan, Dave and Rita entered the cemetery today (30 March 2025) – the grass had been cut! We are very grateful that this has been done earlier than usual before it had grown too long. so thank you to the town council team, much appreciated. Also a big thank you for emptying the rubbish bags.
Although a nice sunny day, the wind was a bit chilly – even Dave had to put his coat on!
Dave started to clean up the Chick 13-11, Hall 13-12 and Hodgson 13-13 graves. Alan was looking at the Hawkes grave 9-7 to see if he could sort out the long kerb that had been pushed out of place by the tree growing at the end of the grave. Meanwhile Rita cleaned off the ivy and weeds that had overtaken the Daw grave 13-50 forgetting to take a photo at the start. The grave was in poor condition as the concrete landing had sunk in the middle and pushed the kerbs and posts out of position. It was agreed that the boys would have a go at sorting the Daw grave out and leave the other graves for another day.
The first job was to lever up and pack the landing that had sunk in the middle, this was not an easy job and took longer than anticipated. Next was to sort out the two long kerbs and the short kerb, the headstone at the other end had been laid flat on the concrete slab.
It was decided it would take too long to cement the kerbs and posts back together today, so this would be left until another day. To improve the area around the grave two barrow loads of earth were used to level the area.
While the boys were busy with the Daw grave, Rita cleaned out the earth and fir tree pine needles that had filled the centre of the graves of the Hawkes, 9-7, Collacott 9-6 and Montacute 13-38.
A satisfying mornings work, they all made their way home wearily.