TABLE-TOP tombs — tombs during which horizontal slabs are supported by sides or legs — within the diocese of Gloucester will likely be assessed for his or her conservation needs, as a part of a project, announced on Monday, that can contribute to recent national guidance on their care and maintenance.
Dating from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, there are believed to be greater than 4000 of the stone monuments in Gloucester diocese alone, the high concentration being attributed to the standard of limestone available there. Thousands more examples of the tombs will be found across the country. The project, a collaboration with the C of E’s Cathedral and Church Buildings Department, with National Lottery Heritage funding, seeks to document local collections, discover conservation needs, and promote awareness of the tombs as a novel art form.
Climate change is acknowledged to be affecting their condition: wetter and warmer weather mean that staining will begin to act in ways not previously known.
The Care of Churches and Advisory Committee team leader for Gloucester diocese, Adam Klups, said: “Parochial church councils and other stakeholders liable for the upkeep of our churchyards often struggle to seek out the resources to proceed to support the conservation of those tombs, although they form a key a part of our social history and are artworks in themselves.”
The senior conservation officer at Church House, Tracy Manning, also acknowledged the difficulties. “It’s often hard for parishes to access funding for church structures until they collapse and wish emergency repairs. We wish to get ahead of that, principally, and begin to discover where there’s need,” she said.
The scheme will provide vital fieldwork experience for college kids of conservation, through experience in St George’s, Cam. Eight other churchyards, including St James the Great, Fulbrook, in Oxfordshire, are also collaborating. “It’s increasingly hard for young conservators to get field work experience where they’re not out of pocket,” Ms Manning said.
“They need the experience. It is de facto vital for his or her future careers, and to get them interested by working in churches and the amazing objects that we now have in them.”
The architectural stone conservator, Graham O’Hare, said: “Every one is exclusive, with its own conservation issues, and so they all need to be preserved for the long run.”
In an expanded £5-million National Lottery Heritage Fund scheme, administered by the Church of England, applications are invited for brand spanking new grants to fund the conservation of special objects akin to stained glass, paintings, bells, organs, and clocks in churches. Applicants are invited to contact: conservationgrants@churchofengland.org
