york stone - plenty of it

[et tu brute]

I have recently bought an old disused graveyard (around 500 headstones) I am looking to sell them on, any ideas ?


(Edited by et tu brute at 7:44 pm on June 17, 2004)

[84-1093879891]

Headstone flags come up every now and again, but most people are very wary about buying them - there's something macabre about them that limits their appeal.

The last time I heard of some being sold was as replacement stock for a local Parish Church where much of the church grounds had been paved with 16th-18th century headstones. A number of the original headstones/flagstones were broken and had been temporarily replaced with truly awful concrete copies - the parish bought 30-odd square metres of the 'recycled' headstones to use as replacements for the replacements.

[et tu brute]

how much did they bring per metre ? cheers.

[84-1093879891]

I don't know, to be honest, but I can't see it being more than 10-15 quid per square metre.

[danensis]

As a genealogist, could I please ask that you record all the details on the headstones? These records are really valuable to family historians, and once gone are lost forever. Your local Family History Society might even come and record the names if they haven't already done so, and they are insured whilst working on such projects so you don't have to worry too much about them dropping them on their toes.

[et tu brute]

Church records are available to the general public to view in perpetuity, any geneologist should know this, regards.

[Ian B]

Price to sell them?
Dead cheap, I'd have thought :;):

[danensis]

Church records are available to the general public to view in perpetuity, any geneologist should know this, regards.

Very few monumental inscriptions are recorded. This is why family history societies are going round taking note of them, before they are lost for ever.

You might also be suprised how few church records survive, its not only leaky roofs and mice, some incumbents have been known to use parish registers for leaving notes for the verger, and in one case for a far more fundamental purpose.

You might also be suprised how short perpetuity is when it suits the authorities.

The latest attack on gravestones is from local authorites deciding they are unsafe and laying them down face upwards, which soon results in the inscriptions being weathered away.