The Church of England has thrown its support behind a project geared toward conserving hundreds of ‘table top’ tombs, particularly those within the Diocese of Gloucester.
The tombs are named for his or her design of a flat slab of stone supported by sides of upright legs. The tombs are sometimes highly ornate and were generally in vogue from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.
It is believed there are greater than 4,000 such tombs within the Diocese of Gloucester alone, with hundreds more scattered across the country. Gloucester has the very best concentration due partially to a relative abundance of excellent quality limestone.
The conservation project is a joint effort supported by the Church of England’s Cathedral and Church Buildings team, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The project involves first assessing the conservation needs of the tombs before maintaining suggestions for national guidance on the care and maintenance of the tombs.
While much of the main target of the project will probably be within the Diocese of Gloucester, tombs in other churchyards, comparable to St James the Great, Fulbrook within the Diocese of Oxford, can even be a part of the hassle.
Adam Klups, Care of Churches and Diocesan Advisory Committee Team Leader on the Diocese of Gloucester, said, “Parochial Church Councils and other stakeholders answerable for the upkeep of our churchyards often struggle to search out the resources to support the conservation of those tombs although they form a key a part of our social history and are artworks in themselves.
“This project goals to document local collections of table top tombs, discover conservation needs, and promote awareness of this unique art form, with a view to drawing up national guidance and providing a training opportunity for the subsequent generation of conservators.”
The plan can even be used as a possibility for conservation students to realize fieldwork experience.
Tracy Manning, Senior Conservation Officer for the Cathedral and Church Buildings Department of the Church of England, said, “It might be difficult for college kids to access hands-on fieldwork experience, and one of the vital exciting things for us in regards to the project is that it has enabled conservation students to learn from an authority practitioner, Graham O’Hare, about these unique objects that were made for, and belong in, a rural parish church setting.
“Sparking the interest of a recent generation of conservators within the wonders of working in our churches is one among our primary goals and we’re grateful to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for enabling the project.”
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