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Grave Maintenance And Grave Care - The
Perfect Job For Anyone Interested In Their Local History
By Francis G. Murphy
Grave maintenance gives one plenty of time to reflect
upon the history of the cemetery you are working in,
after all you are surrounded by the history of the town
and its people. However it's easy to fall into the trap
of thinking that the history of these people began just
100 - 150 years earlier because even the best kept
graveyards rarely have plots older than that. In fact,
although it maybe stating the obvious, the history of
their ancestors started many thousands of years earlier
and an enormous amount of information about any society
can be gleaned from how they buried their dead.
Lots of the oldest and best maintained historical sites
in the world are associated with death, one only has to
think of the Pyramids as a perfect example. A more
modern example of a burial place that reflects a society
is Westminster Abbey in London where all the Kings of
England going back hundreds of years are laid to rest.
The information we learned from the opening of tombs
belonging to the earliest kings of Egypt was priceless
and exhibitions of the artefacts taken for the tomb of
Tutankhamen still draw tens of thousands of people
wherever they go.
It was the Greeks who gave us the word cemetery with
it's derivation in their word for "sleeping place" and
whilst it would be easy to imagine large graveyards
going back many hundreds of years they were in fact only
introduced into general society around the 1600's. Prior
to that people were buried almost anywhere because the
society framework of local administrators was almost non
existent. Mass graves which were probably created after
battles or even more likely through disease have been
found in numerous places throughout the UK.
Grave care was not something that people even thought
about 200-300 years ago. Apart from the burial places of
very important people such as Kings or local warriors
little or no thought was given to having a single place
where the members of a local settlement or town could be
buried together. Whereas now we have large numbers of
graveyards and even groups of people who meet on a
regular basis to study the history of their local
cemetery, one such group are The Friends of Kensal Green
Cemetery who even give 2 hour guided tours of the entire
site.
Grave tending services back in the early days of
graveyards was in the main carried out by members of the
local church as the cemeteries were almost always built
around such buildings. Any visit to an old church
especially in rural areas will give forth all the
history of that place along with the characters that
shaped its community. Grave maintenance in such places
is a treasure trove for anyone interested in history
with the rich and famous of the society in the most
prominent positions alongside the church buildings. The
lower classes of labourers and manual workers plots can
usually be found on the outskirts of the graveyard with
none of the wonderful memorial headstones of their rich
neighbours.
Frank Murphy set up Grave Services in response to
numerous requests from his local community for grave
maintenance. His son Ciaran who is a qualified
Greenkeeper works alongside Frank and carries out all
the grave tending services that their clients require.
Clients who are unable to carry out their own grave care
through infirmity, distance from the grave or emotional
involvement have been delighted with the unique service
that this company provides. |
