Alan, Rita, Astrid and Dave in the cemetery today as Fine Memorial were in to work on the H22 Boulting grave. A large grey granite double memorial with 3 tier blocks which has come apart and slipped badly to one side, a large broken cross, and one of the kerbs broken. A big job to do and unlikely to be completed in one day. When Alan & Rita arrived Fine Memorial were already hard at work. Photos were taken in the morning on their progress.
It was nice surprise to find that that SDC had been in the cemetery and cut the grass, with all the recent rain the grass had grown very quickly.
Also in the cemetery were two workmen from the War Graves Commission who were looking at the Southwood memorial Plan 14 No 16. It was planned to turn the WW1 headstone around as the inscription could not be read due to another headstone being placed right in front of it. After digging around the headstone they realised they would need specialised equipment to extract the headstone, something which they did not have in their van today. They hope to return and complete the job but they said there is a possibility that in moving the headstone it may be damaged and may have to be replaced.
A little later a volunteer from the CWGC (War Commission) arrived, she has been tasked to clean and tidy up the CWGC graves. Alan gave her a tour of the cemetery to show her where the memorials were situated and Rita will email her a list of the graves and maps of where the graves are to assist her when she returns to clean the headstones.
In the meantime Dave and Astrid did a good job in weeding and digging over the ground which was full of grass and weeds next to Jam Factory Lane wall in preparation to plant seedlings. Rita was in the main wild flower area weeding and planting foxglove plants, and when this was finished they all got together and planted 2 trays of wild flower seedlings and sunflowers in the ground prepared by Dave and Astrid. A busy and enjoyable day.
