£50,000 grant for repairs to war memorials

English Heritage, the War Memorials Trust and the Wolfson Foundation, announced a grant of £50,000 to help restore and repair war memorials across the country.

There are over 100,000 memorials, honouring the memory of more than three million dead.

Full Story here

 

So thats 50p per war memorial?


£50k is probably enough to do half a dozen or so....

 

Bit negative there 4(T). At least something is being done.

I suspect that many memorials are pretty well looked after and no money will be required to be spent on them.

 

I'm trying to think of a war memorial hereabouts in a state of disrepair , and can't think of one. All in a good to very good state of repair, be they council or churchyard.

 

They are often adopted by local councils so they are responsible for the upkeep. Our council does this, but I still clean ours every year, a couple of days before Remembrance Day because the men they put on the task can't be trusted to do a good job and often miss bits. The top bit is too high for them to reach for H&S reasons so they leave it and the stone has been getting darker each year compared to the rest of it. Wakners.
I stand on top of my van and clean it with the jet washer, it takes longer to set up the washer than it does to do the job.
We're looking to replace the shitty concrete flags surrounding our memorial with something more in keeping like cobblestones, I doubt the council will spring for this, but you never know. £50,000 won't go far if it's spread around all the memorials.

Edited to add, I see the money has actually been allocated to restore 12 memorials.

Linky to UK National Inventory of War Memorials

 

"War memorials across the country" gave the wrong impression. The £50K goes to 12 particular memorials, as listed in the srory.

This might also be worth quoting from the story:

 

Expecting ARRSErs to actually read the articles linked is a bit rum.

 

That free guide does contain good conservation advice. If you don't want to download it just send me a PM and I will send one on to you. I am feeling a bit pale and faint at the idea of anyone taking a pressure washer to the stonework, for a start... (not for H&S reasons, for conservation reasons)

Yes, this round of grants is going to 12 memorials. Most of the memorials across the country are in good repair, some are not - they are either in a location that subjects them to damage or vandalism, or they have no 'owner' and it's hard to find someone responsible for them.

 

My bold.
Thanks for that.
That's what the council workmen use, they jet wash it every year. I've seen them doing it. I'll investigate this further then as I wouldn't want to cause any damage to it myself, nor would I want them to do that either. We did complain a couple of years ago about the top being dirty after they had been and got no joy from them, so I did it myself, and again last year. At the moment the surface of the stone seems fine but I guess you never know what a jet washer might be doing.
We don't generally have any graffiti on it, although we did get a little bit a couple of years ago. This cleaning is mainly to remove bird shiite and green moss.
I've downloaded the maintenance brochure from that link too.

This is ours:

 

That's looking good. Lovely setting. My local one is in the middle of 3 lanes of town centre traffic, but there are plans to move it.
I am not suggesting you go all archaeologist and clean the stone with a toothbrush and distilled water (unless you have an awful lot of free time) but pressure washers rarely improve matters, long term. They can roughen surfaces.

 

Yes, it's in the entrance to the local park. It's designed as an arched church window with a grave headstone in the middle. 41 WW1 names and 11 WW2 names - at the front of the garden in the picture. We have about 100-150 attend each year and being ex-mob, I get to participate in the wreath laying ceremony.
The leaflet says we can use a mild detergent and a brush and I'm actually in touch with the local council conservation people now who were somewhat perturbed about the council men pressure washing it. (I didn't mention myself ) You've started something now. As long as the end result is that our memorial gets well looked after who cares if a few knuckles get rapped.
You can see the grotty concrete flags around the memorial, we need to replace them with something better.