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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2006-08 > 1155751704


From: "Colleen" <>
Subject: Re: Clacton cemeteries
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:08:24 +0100
References: <00c701c6c11a$899658c0$bc589951@GlynsOffice>


I don't know what the situation is in Dovercourt, however, many of the Essex
graveyards I've seen in recent years don't leave room for much hope.
Gravestones have often been moved, some positioned so that inscriptions can
be read, others not.

Photographing gravestones at Tiptree's Congregational Chapel recently, I
would have needed to dig some of them out to see their inscriptions. In some
cases pairs of stones had been placed within an inch of each other and with
their inscriptions facing inwards, one pair like this had been half buried
too. Space wasn't a problem.

The one saving grace of this church is that they have at least erected a
memorial recording the inscriptions of a number of gravestones which had
been removed from another part of the graveyard - yet I couldn't see any
sign of the stones the inscriptions had been taken from. I wonder if some
stones were simply laid flat and buried under an extension which has been
added to the church. I shall ask about this when I make arrangements to have
a look at the church's interior.

Colleen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Essex Research" <>
>
>> BBC Essex Radio reported yesterday that Tendring District Council is
>> testing and laying flat any unsafe gravestones in the cemeteries of
>> Clacton, Dovercourt and Kirby.
>
> ***Does anyone know whether consideration is paid to the future reading of
> the gravestones, i.e. do they lay them with the inscription uppermost? Or
> does it depend entirely on practical considerations such as the space
> available, which way they're currently leaning etc.? If some of the
> inscriptions are underneath when they're laid flat, are we sure they've
> been
> recorded first?
>
> My personal interest is that I have relatives, and possible relatives
> buried
> at All Saints, Dovercourt. When we visited recently, I must say the worst
> hazard we found was the sinking down of the far sections of the
> graveyard -
> we had to give up searching as you really needed heavy boots to avoid a
> broken ankle. Nobody's fault, of course.
>
> Carole Biggam
>

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