There are sadly many headstones in the churchyard which have become unsafe over time. These headstones require attention so that we can continue to commemorate those whose fascinating stories make up the history of our village.
The Abbots Bromley Nostalgia Team is working with the P.C.C. to identify any unsafe stones where families are still living in the local area. This gives families the opportunity to restore family memorials. Many families have responded generously and immediately – you may have noticed some headstones are now once again upright, as well as clean and shiny.
However, there are some headstones that belong to families who no longer live in the area or have no living relatives at all. The burden of making these headstones safe falls to the P.C.C. and to help with the costs involved a new Churchyard Fund has been set up. The Abbots Bromley Parish Council has awarded a generous community grant of £1000 to Abbots Bromley Parochial Church Council and the Nostalgia Team jointly. This is to kickstart the fund for churchyard memorial maintenance. Since then, several donations have been received by parishioners of the village of which we are extremely thankful.
The price for getting a headstone restored can cost anywhere between £120 and £600. The £1,000 we are aiming to raise on JustGiving will go towards restoring roughly 5 headstones that require minor restoration work.
Below are before and after photos of some of the work that has been carried out so far. Some that are pictured here have been paid for by their living relatives and others from the fund. We are delighted with the results!
Please don’t allow our village history to disappear. Help us to preserve it for future generations by donating to this fund. Donations will go a long way to help with the memorials that are still in need of repair.
If you would like to donate to this fund you can do so by either leaving a donation at The Cash Stores or The Pie Shak, High Ash. You can also donate online via our JustGiving page.
Just to say we are incredibly grateful for all the donations we have received towards the Churchyard Maintenance Fund so far. It’s great to see that preserving our village history is important to so many of us. Thank you!
Thank you for your continued support and reading about this important project.
Abbots Bromley Nostalgia Team