Well...
Deeply driven steel rods are a good idea, normally, but the insertion of them tends to damage stones at faults that were not detected early on. And, it could take half a year to do this with all stones likely to be hit - add costs, and relatives contact matters?...OUCH!
High quality perspex front/back sheets have a pretty awful look about them when the weather, (industrial) dusts or paint sprays get to work on them and they'd possibly not be strong enough to protect from actual breaks. They would also mar the character and look of the stones and every existing family would have to be contacted, before installation, probably. That's before you consider the expense of such materials (times-two) for every stone? It's prohibitively expensive.
Kids appear to want to knock stones over, if they can. If they can't, they either move on to the next stone or they settle for smashing pieces off the sturdier ones, as if it had become promoted into a personal ego thing with them, before onlooking peers.
Only a human presence inside (or parked at the outside) the Church wall, ready for such trouble makes sense, in a tactical way, but the cost of that doesn't bear thinking about. Local volunteers would be hard to secure during the overnight hours, especially in the Winter months. And, if a local person did this and managed to get the Police into place in time to save a stone or two, and if that local person was known to the kids?...the individual could be victimised, later, for their well-intentioned deeds. And, the risk of personal attacks on whoever they are?...gravestone safety couldn't be justified at such a price! I'd sooner see stones knocked over than to see knocked over a person trying to prevent it.
I suppose that, in many cases, the best way to stop a stone being pushed over is to, well...lie it down ahead of such attacks. Re-fashion the graves, with necessary respects and permissions, so that the stones are unable to be knocked over because they're already lying down. This, also, seems like a pretty good idea, but the time, resources and costs would be astronomical. There may not even be a way of calculating them, in the short-term, because it's never been successfully done, I think, Churchyard-wide.
The problem with steel reinforcements to keep stone upright is that it is in that VERY STURDINESS you manage to secure for them that some of their defeat lies. The sturdier the stone, the more they stand a chance of being smashed instead of just pushed over. A pushed over stone can be righted, again, if you're lucky. A smashed stone, barely standing, is as good as useless - not to mention dangerous.
In the end, and assuming that destruction / displacement of gravestones is inevitable, it would be safe only if new forms of gravestones (and new manners of laying / securing / situating / positioning them) were considered, and designed.
It is, I suspect, with people (rather than plastic and steel) that the solution to this problem lies - with reaching out, education, awareness, communication/s, etc., not excluding getting young people involved in work in the actual Churchyard, itself. But, that's still only a part of the job.
This is one of those possibly..."insoluble" situations!
But, if the Churchyard / Church can withstand cannon-fire (and, I'm told that it did), there ought to be a way for the gravestones in the surrounding land to withstand vandalism: it's just so hard to figure!
These were just a few thoughts: it's a difficult problem to resolve and, sooner or later, the rats will come scrambling to the "Hill", for sure.
I hope they all leave their cannon at home!
Ian.
Deeply driven steel rods are a good idea, normally, but the insertion of them tends to damage stones at faults that were not detected early on. And, it could take half a year to do this with all stones likely to be hit - add costs, and relatives contact matters?...OUCH!
High quality perspex front/back sheets have a pretty awful look about them when the weather, (industrial) dusts or paint sprays get to work on them and they'd possibly not be strong enough to protect from actual breaks. They would also mar the character and look of the stones and every existing family would have to be contacted, before installation, probably. That's before you consider the expense of such materials (times-two) for every stone? It's prohibitively expensive.
Kids appear to want to knock stones over, if they can. If they can't, they either move on to the next stone or they settle for smashing pieces off the sturdier ones, as if it had become promoted into a personal ego thing with them, before onlooking peers.
Only a human presence inside (or parked at the outside) the Church wall, ready for such trouble makes sense, in a tactical way, but the cost of that doesn't bear thinking about. Local volunteers would be hard to secure during the overnight hours, especially in the Winter months. And, if a local person did this and managed to get the Police into place in time to save a stone or two, and if that local person was known to the kids?...the individual could be victimised, later, for their well-intentioned deeds. And, the risk of personal attacks on whoever they are?...gravestone safety couldn't be justified at such a price! I'd sooner see stones knocked over than to see knocked over a person trying to prevent it.
I suppose that, in many cases, the best way to stop a stone being pushed over is to, well...lie it down ahead of such attacks. Re-fashion the graves, with necessary respects and permissions, so that the stones are unable to be knocked over because they're already lying down. This, also, seems like a pretty good idea, but the time, resources and costs would be astronomical. There may not even be a way of calculating them, in the short-term, because it's never been successfully done, I think, Churchyard-wide.
The problem with steel reinforcements to keep stone upright is that it is in that VERY STURDINESS you manage to secure for them that some of their defeat lies. The sturdier the stone, the more they stand a chance of being smashed instead of just pushed over. A pushed over stone can be righted, again, if you're lucky. A smashed stone, barely standing, is as good as useless - not to mention dangerous.
In the end, and assuming that destruction / displacement of gravestones is inevitable, it would be safe only if new forms of gravestones (and new manners of laying / securing / situating / positioning them) were considered, and designed.
It is, I suspect, with people (rather than plastic and steel) that the solution to this problem lies - with reaching out, education, awareness, communication/s, etc., not excluding getting young people involved in work in the actual Churchyard, itself. But, that's still only a part of the job.
This is one of those possibly..."insoluble" situations!
But, if the Churchyard / Church can withstand cannon-fire (and, I'm told that it did), there ought to be a way for the gravestones in the surrounding land to withstand vandalism: it's just so hard to figure!
These were just a few thoughts: it's a difficult problem to resolve and, sooner or later, the rats will come scrambling to the "Hill", for sure.
I hope they all leave their cannon at home!
Ian.
Author: 