'So sad though... the gravestone is really lovely marble... just on its back and covered in mud... Every time I see a photo I want to rush across the country and give it a scrub' - So lovely to know I'm not the only one who thinks things like this! lol. Always hated seeing headstones toppled, our city Cathedral deliberately flattened 'their' 17th/18thC ones, inc my relative's, & used them as paving-! I
really hate that
Others from a handsome Gothic Church demolished 1950s, got smashed up & sold to builders to use in walls-! Corporate vandals & thieves.
I've always wanted to right displaced 'stones, but the weight, and the cost. I found a Graveyard recently, neglected by Church & local Council for 60yrs; some wonderful Victorian gravestones & epitaphs; the skill of their stonemasons is incredible - but many fallen over, some vandalised, up-rooted by weed trees, stained by lichen - day-glo green in the sunlight! which is fine, but not the obliterating and damaging Ivy; I'll remember secateurs next time - I was actually day-dreaming about winning the lottery and returning it to as it used to look, & fitting CCTV, justifying that the money spent'd create jobs for living people
Often wonder if our ancestors could have seen the future state of the Cemetery & their precious memorials, would they have still have spent money they could ill afford on those beautiful 'stones? - Or did it bring the comfort they needed at the time, so even if it fell to disrepair, it was worth it for them.. Hopefully they're somewhere far better than this mortal coil and beyond caring.
https://www.sheffield.anglican.org/UserFiles/File/caring_historic_graveyard_cemetery_mon.pdf