During the Covid 19 lockdown there has been a huge increase in the number of people researching their family trees and considering graves restoration. Many have had more time on their hands due to being furloughed from work, while cemeteries are one of the few public places that have remained open for people to go and check on graves of family members they have located.

The digitising of burial records up to the year 2000 for all Liverpool city council run cemeteries has opened the door for family researches looking into relatives who lived in that area. Committee members from the Friends of Allerton Cemetery have advised us they are receiving requests almost daily or assistance in locating graves there. Previously it would be just once a week or fortnight.

Inevitably, there may be disappointment at locating the grave plot of an ancestor only to find that there is no headstone, or one exists but is in a poor state of repair. However, within local authority-run cemeteries, permission is not usually required to clean up a memorial or re-gild the lettering.

It is tempting to try cleaning the memorial yourself, but you must be very cautious about this, as chemicals can cause the memorial material to deteriorate further, also damage can be caused to lettering. In the past year, a number of new local companies have been offering grave cleaning services, of varying standards.

At Sarsfield Memorials, we have been in the memorial business for 73 years and are Liverpool’s longest running family independent firm of monumental masons. We never compromise on quality and can assure you that we will only use the most suitable products in graves restoration and cleaning. Likewise, we will properly re-gild lettering and we can repair and replace leaded letters not simply paint over.

For anyone who has located an old family grave during lockdown and are looking at renovating the memorial, up until 31st August 2020 we are offering a 10% discount for cleaning, renovation and refixing of all memorials that were fitted before 1960. This we hope will go some way to helping out anyone who may be tempted by those offering lesser quality services, as well as bringing older sections of cemeteries into better shape. Please note however we cannot offer this discount where cemetery fees may apply for carrying out cleaning, in Liverpool Catholic Archdiocese run cemeteries for example Ford and Yew Tree cemeteries.

If you would like to discuss the restoration/cleaning of a memorial, please contact us here for a free no obligation quotation.