After poor weather for a few days it was nice to go into the cemetery on a nice sunny day (6 August 2023). Alan, Rita, Astrid and Dave in today.
Alan and Rita arrived early to find the ivy on the red stone pantomime wall had been cut by someone to remove the ivy on the lane side. They thought it would be a good idea to remove the ivy left on the cemetery side as it was beginning to encroach into the wall joints and weaken the structure. The bulk of the ivy was removed and two dumpy bags filled, more work required to dig out the roots at the base of the wall. Sorry forgot to take a photo!
Astrid and Dave then arrived. Astrid and Rita went over to the new wild flower area and where they planted plants that they had grown from seed and also weeded as they went along. Photo taken.
Alan brought in the trolley today so he and Dave took the two bags of ivy over to the storage area, plus two more that were filled last time the team came in. Walking back from the storage area Dave looked for a pot with the names of his grandparents on that were in the area and found it in the Caple grave (placed for safety inside the kerb stones). A photo was taken of the pot. The job now is to see if their grave can be found as the burial register does not record this information.
Dave and Alan made their way over to Plan 8 to tidy up the Perrett 8-4 and Taylor 8-5 graves. The Perrett grave was started first, grass and earth cleared away, the kerbs were given a brush. It was identified that the front kerb was broken, this will need to be cemented back together another day. Next the Taylor grave was started, once the weeds and earth were removed, it showed that more work was required than first thought, as the kerbs and posts were all loose and one kerb broken. Again these also to be cemented back together another day.
The girls, after planting and weeding, moved over to the Strange grave 8-25 where the bags protecting the recently cemented kerbs and posts were removed, the inside was weeded by Dave, and the girls raised the level of the inside of the grave using earth dug out from the Perrett and Taylor graves.
A small plaque found some time ago, and given a good clean, from the parents of their son Sgt. F.C. Passco 8-20 killed in WW2 was positioned in front of his war grave. It was nice to see the memorial and plaque back together again.
A satisfying work session for the team.