Neglected grave scheme launched (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Neglected grave scheme launched

2:20pm Wednesday 10th February 2010 in

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AS the years pass the ivy and lichen has spread, and parts of the churchyard like hundreds of others are being slowly reclaimed by nature.

As the loved ones and families have themselves passed on or moved away, the graves have gradually been swallowed up.

But now a Winchester church is launching an ‘adopt a grave’ scheme to look after neglected stones.

The Holy Trinity church in Colden Common dates from the 1840s and like many, has a large cemetery full of Victorian gravestones.

Mike Gaskell, a member of the parochial church council, is looking for volunteers to look after particular graves.

He said the idea came to him when he met genealogists who were tending a stone.

Amanda Horley and Maureen Taylor have been researching into the death of a Lucy Standish who was buried in 1906.

Mr Gaskell, of Valley Close, Colden Common, said that the team who look after the churchyard don’t have time to look after individual stones.

So he wrote an article in the church newsletter and got several volunteers but more would be welcomed.

“It is a big churchyard with several hundred graves,” Mr Gaskell said.

“Families move away or die out and the graves are no longer looked after.We are just asking people to come in and deal with things like weeds, saplings, ivy and maybe lichen too.”

Only graves, usually from the Victorian times of the 19th century, which were clearly neglected would be looked after, he said.

Mr Gaskell can be contacted on 01962 713962.