[Cz-L] cemetery - clearing and maintenance

Dear All,

Mimi's post set me thinking. There are a number of old cemeteries in
London, and I thought that some of these might have had similar problems to
the Czernowitz one. After a quick survey using Google, I remembered
Highgate Cemetery. This is a Victorian cemetery where many famous people
are buried. This is an extract from the web site of the cemetery Friends:

"In 1975 it had ceased to be financially viable and the owners closed down
the West Cemetery... . The main buildings had become dilapidated and the
landscape choked with brambles and self sown sycamores. ... The Friends of
Highgate Cemetery Trust was formed to do what it could, though this was
little more than checking the unwanted vegetation and it was not until 1981
when the freehold of both parts of the Cemetery was acquired that real
progress was possible." I thought this sounded a little familiar!

See http://www.highgate-cemetery.org/ButtonsNew/History.asp_f4.jpg
and http://www.highgatecemetery.net/history.html

I phoned the cemetery and spoke to a lady called Jean Pateman, of the
cemetery Friends. She only had a few minutes, we will talk further
tomorrow. But from this brief conversation I gleaned some important points.

(1) One of the principal factors in the restoration of Highgate has been to
manage growth (especially of trees) so that the cemetery has assumed a
park-like environment. This might not be entirely appropriate for Cz, but I
do think that we ought to consider this aspect. If there are trees or
shrubs in the cemetery which are not interfering with graves, it would be
good to keep them. Ms Pateman said that it was important for a cemetery to
be assessed by an expert landscape architect.

(2) There is apparently a group called the "Association of Significant
Cemeteries in Europe". As it happens, they are holding a conference in
Liverpool from 18 to 20 September this year. The subject of the conference
is "The Role of Volunteers in Cemetery Care and Restoration". This does
sound rather relevant to us. The conference programme can be found here:
http://www.significantcemeteries.net/PDFFiles/AGM_progamm.pdf

If someone concerned with Czernowitz was able to go to this conference it
might be really quite useful, by way of contacts made and information
gained. (Though it is unfortunately rather close to Yom Kippur.) Mimi, I
don't suppose you feel like another trip?

In any case, it might be worth finding out more about this organisation.
Czernowitz is certainly a "significant cemetery in Europe".

(3) Ms Pateman said that they definitely use no chemicals at Highgate. I
will enquire further about tthis point.

It does seem to me that we are not the first to encounter the problems of
cemetery restoration, and there could be a lot to learn from others who have
tried to tackle these problems. We do of course have the difficulty that
the people who are principally interested are located thousands of miles
away from Czernowitz. Having said that, on a web site of this organisation
I found references to cemeteries in Lithuania, which I imagine are probably
Jewish. So this difficulty has probably been encountered before as well.

Best regards,

David


----- Original Message -----
From: <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
To: "cornel fleming" <cornel.fleming_at_virgin.net>
Cc: "'jerome schatten'" <romers_at_shaw.ca>; "'czernowitz-L'"
<czernowitz-l_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 6:18 AM
Subject: RE: Re: [Cz-L] Photos of Cemetery Cleanup now posted


> Dear all,
>
> Please research biologial materials which speed the decay of stumps.
> Also hormones and other non toxic herbicides. Find out what is
> generally done to keep vegetative growth down in old cemeteries.
> Please take this request seriously.
>
> Mimi
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Received on 2008-08-21 18:04:09