On Sunday 18th July, while attending a family service at St Benedict’s in Glinton, the Palmer family, who live in the village, were horrified when a gravestone toppled onto their three-year-old daughter, Grace, leaving just her head exposed. An ambulance was called to the scene and she was rushed to hospital where she was thankfully assessed as having suffered bruising.
Mum, Dawn, has asked the Tribune to highlight the dangers of children playing in our local church graveyards as she doesn’t want a similar – potentially lethal, re-occurrence of the event. “Please let all your readers know about this incident, the stone was very old and the incident has left Grace very shaken,” she told Tribune Editor, Tony Henthorn.
Church Warden, Bob Quinn, told the Tribune; “Over the last 3 days I have carried out a risk assessment on all the gravestones in the Churchyard and I have also used Google satellite to construct a complete map of the Churchyard. I have identified 2 stone crosses and one large obelisk that could be easily toppled off their plinths. The obelisk is particularly at risk as the plinth is starting to tilt. Also there are 2 headstones similar to the one that fell on Grace that could be easily toppled by hand. There are a large number of headstones that are tilted or leaning, but although these may move they will not topple even when considerable force is applied. I have therefore not listed these as at risk.”
Signs highlighting the potential dangers have now been placed at the four gates into the churchyard, the graves at risk (as highlighted above) have been roped off with a warning to keep clear. The crosses and the obelisk will require special equipment to lower them and a suitable contractor is being sought to undertake these tasks.
