Slightly off subject but still about cemeterys I have found that while visiting the villages in Hampshire and Dorset I find most are well kept but there are still to many that are left to fall into disrepair and I am quite angered by this One church I forget which one, has an old church at the back but to get to see this you need to take a marines course in Jungle Warfare first, and arm yourself with a machete and a native guide! The Brambles were over my nead and I am 6ft in height and were so hard to get through I was almost torn to shreds. The grass was also above knee height and I half expected a chap to come out and say "Dr Hayles I presume"! If you are in the UK and have relatives buried in these conditions it does not take much to phone up a council or church warden and complain tht access is almost nigh on impossible, and also to occassionally visit the cemetery with a pair of shears and a plastic bag and tidy up the area around the grave you are visiting. But beware of the conservation areas as these may not be clearly marked, though some of these I suspect are ploys to get away from cutting the grass!! LOL Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Margaret Usmar" <margaretusmar@gmail.com> To: <hampshire-life@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 3:26 PM Subject: [HAMPSHIRE-LIFE] Cemetery Damage Thank you to everyone who responeded to my initial posting concerning the cemetery damage in Australia. I must say the police out there are taking it very seriously and are putting real effort in finding who was responsible. The cemetery in East London where my twin is buried suffered a huge amount of vandalism in the 1970's. It has now been completely turned round due, apparently, to the much-encouraged increase in use. It is now a registered site of interest for its wildlife, local schools use it for many parts of the curriculum, including history with, as you say, people like us transcribing inscriptions and actually visiting those we are related to. It is a popular place for local workers to eat their lunch. I regret to say that neglected burial grounds are laying temselves open to damage these days in much the same way as derelict buildings, though neither should be so. My father, who died only 53 in 1980, started the hitherto unknown family trend of cremations and being scattered afterward in a place he loved. Though as a family historian this makes me cringe, at least I know no one can vandalise the last resting place of my relatives - though my husband's is, I must admit, terribly noisy for two weeks of the year! So - the answer has to be that we all get out there, whether to our family cemetery or the one which is closest, and do our bit to safe-guard it. And whilst my children look at me as if I'm mad, I am under 50 and still remember the family picnic round the family plot on Grandad's birthday (it was freezing). Or was that just an East London tradition? Margaret