Headstone Safety Is Your Responsibility

Headstone safety is not something that should be taken for granted, even for relatively recent memorials. It is so easy to assume that it is only headstones from the Victorian era that will be laid flat in cemeteries, but that needn’t be the case at all.

headstone safety

A headstone before and after safety work carried out (not the blog customers)

One of Sarsfield Memorials recent orders was from a customer who was surprised that their family headstone, which was last removed and replaced in 1994, was easily movable. The customer explained that whilst replacing flowers at the grave, they steadied themselves by putting a hand on top of the headstone, only for it to slide a number of inches across the base. Only the presence of a memorial at the plot to the rear prevented it toppling over.

After contacting Sarsfield Memorials, the customer was advised that prior to the British Standard 8415 being introduced fifteen years ago, there was little regulation for headstone safety. Prior to that, the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM) had set themselves certain standards to adhere to, but these were not enforceable by law. Sadly it took the death of a child in 2000 for the government to intervene and regulate the industry. This led to BS8415 in 2005, which has twice been re-evaluated since.

Nowadays, all of Merseyside’s cemeteries  will only allow masons to work in them who adhere to the regulations laid out by the Health and a Safety executives inline with BS8415. This offers reassurance to the public that their loved ones memorials will be affixed to a minimum standard. Periodic testing takes place of all headstones, with those that cannot withstand a certain force being laid flat. If this happens, then it is the responsibility of the grave owner to have the memorial re-fixed, not the local authority.

Our recent customer’s experience showed that even more memorials less than twenty years old can be unsafe. This family had only taken ownership of their family grave in the last decade so had assumed it would be properly anchored, but this had turned out not to be the case. However Sarsfield’s were able to affix the headstone to the BS8415 standard for a competitive price, leaving peace of mind that there will be no nasty surprises next time they visit the grave.

John Ryle – First Bishop of Liverpool

John Ryle, who was appointed the first Bishop of Liverpool when the diocese was created in 1880, is buried in the churchyard at All Saints Church, Childwall.

Bishop of Liverpool

Ryle was the son of a banker from Henbury, near Macclesfield in Cheshire. He was born in 1816 and went to school at Eton, then university at Oxford. After becoming seriously ill with chest problems whilst studying, he turned to God and read the Bible daily.

The illness was the first incident that sent Ryle into a career with the church and the second was his father being declared bankrupt. This ended his ambitions of becoming a Member of Parliament and he instead took holy orders, becoming a curate at the parish church in Exbury, Hampshire in 1842. The following year he transferred to Winchester and went on to have positions in Suffolk in the 1860s then, Norfolk, Cambridge and Oxford in the 1870s.

Ryle developed a reputation for giving sermons that were straightforward and fair, communicating across all classes with ease. He even developed a following in Central America, where a Reform Church was established in Mexico after reading one of his religious publications.

Although he had a progressive career with the church, there was tragedy in Ryle’s personal life. By the time he was 45 years old he had been widowed twice and had four children. In 1861 he married his third wife Henrietta, who he remained together with for 28 years until her death in 1889.

Early in 1880 Ryle was appointed as Dean of Salisbury. However almost immediately he was put forward to be the first Bishop of Liverpool after the creation of the new See. Ryle felt he was too old but Prime Minister Lord Beaconsfield dismissed his concerns, telling him he was of strong health. On 11th June that year he was formally consecrated at a ceremony in York Minister.

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Ryle lived on the edge of the city centre at 19 Abercromby Square, formerly the home of a confederate supporter in the US Civil War. It had been bought by the Diocese and was as the Bishop’s Palace.

A big factor in Ryle’s appointment was his ability to speak in a language and tone that all classes could understand. This was his first appointment in a large urban area and the people of Liverpool soon took to him. He had a large frame and exuded an air of authority, but he was also softly spoken and saw his role as ensuring moral principles were adhered to. He soon set about organising the construction of churches across the city so that the message could be taken out to the people. He also called for local clergy to have more of an active role in the development of church policies.

As the 19th Century drew to a close Ryle began to suffer healthwise. His assistant, Bishop Royston, undertook his public engagements and it was announced that Ryle would formally retire on 1st March 1900. He moved to Lowestoft in Suffolk where he died three months later on 10th June. He was then interred at Childwall alongside his wife.