Gornal News & Goings On

NEWS

St. Peters graveyard - Archdeacon acts on complaints Before After The Archdeacon of Dudley Fred Tretheway has intervened to improve the state of the burial ground at St. Peters in Upper Gornal, following the recent Yampy article highlighting the problem. The Venerable Tretheway had a 30 minute meeting with the Vicar of St. Peters, the Revd Michael Bate, on the 25th June, after which he said: "The churchyard was strimmed a week ago by local volunteer labour, as the church is unable to afford regular professional maintenance. The grass is now therefore cut right down, and it is relatively easy to get to any part of the area. There is one main path through the church yard where the grass is regularly kept down by mowers. Inevitably there will be some graves away from that path which are less easily accessible than those adjacent to it." "There was some reference on the web site to a wet piece of board covering a grave. We looked hard for this but even though the grass was cut right down we could not find it. Our only explanation is that it might have been connected with the builder who carried out several thousand pounds worth of remedial work to the (once broken) church wall some time ago, who has subsequently removed it." "It is my information that any insecure memorials are laid flat so that they pose no hazard to visitors to the churchyard." Yampy visited the churchyard this morning and, as our photos show, a definite effort has been made to improve the situation. The amount of newly strimmed long grass lying around inevitably looks somewhat unkempt, and there remains a rather glaring contrast with the almost collegiate appearance of the well manicured green presented to the public at the front of the church. However, the overall effect is rather rustic and quite pleasing on the eye, and while we were there a volunteer was tidying litter (the church lies next to an alleyway and must suffer its fair share of fast food and pub detritus). Credit must be given to the Archdeacon for taking seriously the concerns of our readers, as well as Ian and Jo for raising them. The 'well manicured green' Main pathway now - Dona Eis Requiem

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