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Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Memorial Stability Testing
Mood:
 chatty
Topic: News
Walking the dog this morning my wife and I took a wander through our (very) local cemetery. Our attention was attracted by the sound of an extremely loud pneumatic tool which was being used in the distance. Being the curious kind we walk towards the activity to see what was going on and found a scene which I think will probably cause a considerable local stir. Dozens of headstones from the eighties and nineties had been or were in the process of being staked and strapped in the name of health and safety. The visual impact was deplorable and to be honest made my blood boil. 
We walked towards the newer graves where my father in-law is buried and even found a few staked headstones there, one of which was less then a year old. On our way out I stopped one of the men doing the work and asked the criteria for staking. The man in question turned out to be very amenable and spent 15 minutes explaining and demonstrating the reasons behind the seemingly drastic actions that were being undertaken. 
Walking over to a medium size headstone he gently push at the top and the whole thing began to tip backwards. The reason he said was the stonemason had failed to secure the base onto the ground rods (if they existed) leaving the memorial fairly unstable, had anyone inadvertently leaned on the stone the whole lot would of gone over. This headstone along with dozens of others had not been erected according to the regulations and was basically illegal, his exact words were "if the masons complied with all the regulations they wouldn't still be in business". The end result of all this work is that the relatives of the deceased would be contacted (if possible) and asked to rectify the problem, if they fail to do so then the stones will be laid flat forever. The good news though, memorials under 30 years old should be rectified by the mason responsible under the "reasonable durability" clause of the consumer goods act, although this may require a little bit of pressure from "trading standards" or a court. The amazing part of all this though is the oldest Victorian memorials (except a couple) had, despite their age, passed the 35kg topple test. This really does say an awful lot about Victorian workmanship in comparison with todays feeble attempts, but as they say "thats progress for you". Take care all Neil PS. pictures and video taken with my out of date mobile 
Posted by Neil Bartlett DHyp M.A.E.P.H
at 4:26 PM GMT
Updated: Tuesday, 3 March 2009 6:35 PM GMT
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