SURREY
NEWSLETTER Spring 2008
Friends of Surrey Cemeteries
Work has continued on Green Lane Cemetery and with recent news that the local council are to inspect the stability of graves. Ian Simpson reports that a recent NFCF meeting with the civil servants at the Department of Justice showed that they shared concerns about over reaction on health and safety resulting in the mass laying down of graves. It is hoped that the recent letter to local authorities will moderate some of the more zealous authorities.
The recording of Surrey related obituaries from The Times is now more than 50% complete.
NEWSLETTER Spring 2007
Friends of Surrey Cemeteries
The Friends continue their busy round of cemetery visits. Monumental Inscriptions recording has been completed at Dorking Cemetery and cemetery records have been obtained from West Surrey Family History Society for Bagshot, Lightwater, Queen's Road Croydon and Thorpe.
A letter of objection to the proposed residential development of Englefield Green Cemetery was sent to Runnymede Council and the proposal has currently been withdrawn.
The Brookwood Cemetery Society
Repairs are planned to the boundary wall, partially to repair the damage caused by a drunken driver at an estimated cost of £10,000.
NEWSLETTER NO 17 APRIL 2006
The Brookwood Cemetery Society
Woking Borough Council have set up a task group to explore ways of securing the long-term future of Brookwood Cemetery. The society reports that the council has agreed to put some money towards the upkeep of the areas that it historically used for burials and these factors could aid the private owner in the upkeep of the Grade 11 Listed park.
Cemetery Watch
NEWSLETTER NO 17 APRIL 2006
help to Surrey grave owners
Steven Woodbridge writes
CemeteryWatch, the Friends of Kingston and Surbiton Cemeteries have maintained their monitoring over the last year of both grass cutting operations of the private contractors and the 'topple-testing' programme introduced by the council.
The group are currently making enquiries on behalf of two grave owners who have suffered insensitive treatment at the hands of the contractors responsible for the recent Health and Safety 'cull' of headstones. In one case, a small memorial that had been there for years simply disappeared, even though the council confirmed that it should still have been there. CemeteryWatch were also ataken back when a unique wooden shelter at the top end of Surbiton cemetery was suddenly dismantled by the local council, for no good reason. The council made no consultations about this beforehand and it would appear that no surveyor's report was drawn up on the condition of the shelter. Another telling incident in 2005 was the dumping of a large number of council leaflets and pamphlets after a clear-out of cemetery offices. No attempt was made to offer any of this material to the local museum. CemeteryWatch however, managed to save a copy of one unique cemetery pamphlet published by Surbiton District Council in 1925.
Friends of Surrey Cemeteries
NEWSLETTER NO 17 APRIL 2006
The group continues their steady progress of visiting and assessing cemeteries in the county. Their winter newsletter contains a sad account of the fate of the Horton Estate Cemetery, Epsom, opened in 1902 for the patients of Epsom mental Hospital who were rejected by the local Epsom cemetery. Sold to a property developer in 1983, the cemetery deteriorated and remains neglected, although a local mayor was responsible for a memorial placed by the roadside last year.
