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cleaning graves

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  • cleaning graves

    I managed to find OH's GG GF's grave this morning. It is a cross on a stepped plinth constructed from a crumbly, sandy stone (if only it was slate or granite:(). The cross is fairly moss-free and has worn badly. The plinth part is very mossy and this seems to have preserved it somewhat. However, it is almost impossible to read any of the inscription.

    How to clean it please, without causing any damage? I did 'piggle' at it a bit, very gently, and the moss came away fairly easily; probably because it is quite damp. Would it be better to leave it till it's dry and use a brush?

    Admins: please move this if it's considered 'general'
    Rose

  • #2
    If it is crumbly sandstone I wouldn't touch it at all! Pulling away mossa and lichen can leave it even more exposed to the weather.

    Have you tried some of the non-invasive techniques? I am not very well up on them but I have read that if you shine a torch sideways over it you can read it better. Another suggestion is to look down a cardboard tube held at an angle.

    Have you checked if the local FHS has made transcriptions of that graveyard? They may have done it years ago when the grave was fresher.

    Anne

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    • #3
      A Google search for "cleaning gravestones" finds lots of links which may be helpful, including these
      CLEANING GRAVESTONES
      Cleaning and Preservation of Tombstones, Headstones & Gravestones
      Cleaning A Gravestone
      Historic Environment Scotland is the lead public body established to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment. Visit the website today and explore 5,000 years of history.

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      • #4
        Have to say that I'm completely with Anne on this - through bitter experience.

        Young & enthusiastic, I pulled a bit of ivy from a sandstone slab, with the consequence that a lump of sandstone came away & now nobody can read that stone.
        Phoenix - with charred feathers
        Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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        • #5
          lol Anne, I haven't tried those methods of viewing. The trouble is, the plinth is almost completely obscured with moss.

          I'll have a look at those links but may just leave it alone. Don't want to "do a Phoenix" lol.

          I think the office at the cemetary have got a transcription so will ask in there.

          Thanks people
          Rose

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          • #6
            I reckon i would just photograph it "as is" and make do with the inscription from the office or FHS etc.

            It would be just my luck to find the moss was holding the plinth together and by removing it the whole thing would keel over and be lost forever.



            Someone on another site recently asked me to photograph a headstone and when i posted the pic to them they asked if i would go back and dig the ground away a bit The lower part of the stone (and part of the inscription) was buried. I replied with a polite "No can do".
            http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

            Joseph Goulson 1701-1780
            My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
            My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid

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            • #7
              Glen, you are a rotter lol ;)

              Here is the monument in question. You can see how the cross has deteriorated. I expect the diagonal 'ribbon' would have had some kind of inscription on it also.

              I was actually able to read a bit of the plinth from the photo, but couldn't make it out on the actual monument! Now there's odd lol

              Rose

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              • #8
                Maybe not that odd, you can play with colour, contrast, zoom, even make the image into a negative but there is a limit to what the naked eye can see in real life.
                http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

                Joseph Goulson 1701-1780
                My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
                My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid

                Comment

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