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Cemetery Preservation An introduction

Stone waiting it's turn to be fully uncovered again Photo by T Nigh

One of the things that we find very useful is to have people working far ahead of us uncovering stones that are nearly covered with sods. In fact, we consider this to be one of the most important jobs in preservation work. If that stone that is almost covered gets totally covered and lost it may be gone forever. But if a crew goes through, and uncovers it this year it may well stay uncovered for three, four, or five years until we get to it. This is what we consider as a temporary measure but an extremely important one indeed! This simply involves using a tool like a long screw driver or a prod to find the edge of the stone. Cutting around it with a straight mouth space or a knife or other such tool. Clearing the sod away on top. And lastly, if this creates a deep hole, you should avoid creating a trip hazard by making the sides drop so gradually that they are almost parallel to the ground level. Keeping such an extremely small slope on the sides removes any chance of anyone tripping on the stone, and the uncovering of that stone means that we should find it as we go through that area in a few years. However, if that is not done, that stone may become lost forever. One volunteer can for instance do a large number of stones in a relatively short time, allowing them to keep large areas clear ahead of us.

Note the edging around the stone to keep grass back from covering it before we get there. This stone will be preserved when Trish Nigh is finished with it. Photo by T Nigh