OK, I can’t sit back and say nothing and see SO many people alarmed by a very misleading post today from others about toppled stones in High Blantyre Cemetery. Another page on the internet has today misled Blantyre residents by showing a small video of toppled and broken gravestones in High Blantyre Cemetery in a way which suggests vandalism happened this week, when in fact the video was actually taken half a decade ago! People are believing it’s been done this week, and I’ve received messages asking for the Committee to be involved. Hence this post….
It’s so disrespectful to the council who have worked hard in recent years to tidy up High Blantyre Cemetery. The council get bad enough press, without this. Sure, they still have to action trimming of the hedges and trees, but they have worked tirelessly to make High Blantyre Cemetery look neat and be well kept. When the vandalism happened in 2008, councillors got involved resulting in the permanent action of closing the gates at 8pm, which substantially reduced vandalism. In 2012, Blantyre Community Committee sought costings for fixing the broken stones, but it proved too prohibitive at over £400 for each stone, so with the agreement of local council, the SLC workers opted to come out and moved the stones back into position, which was done again in Spring 2015. In recent years, the stones have ALL been lifted back into their lair positions, and although some of the older stones and broken, the council cannot repair these until the graves are over 100 years old, as the lairs are the properties of the families until then.
To ensure people are not alarmed at the thought of their loved ones stones being damaged, I have posted these photos here, taken as recently as October. Actually, the graveyard has never looked so good for some time! The grass is well kept, theres not a single stone laying down on it. 95% of the cemetery is absolutely intact, with well kept stones undisturbed and respected. The other 5% of stones, especially in the older section, lay now in the correct lairs, propped against their foundations, off the grass.
Anybody who has lost a loved one in the last 100 years, needn’t worry about their family stones as I’m absolutely positive they’re intact and standing. The moral of this is if the person who wrote the alarming article actually was bothered enough to visit the cemetery in the last half decade, they would have seen this for themselves and known the council had taken action a long, long time ago. A petition to prop up the stones is 5 years too late. I offer my support fully though, if a crowdfunding petition wants to get underway to privately raise money to replace the broken stones fully.
Not posted on Facebook out of respect of the fellow history enthusiast, but people can google search this post and facts for themselves.
