Memorandum submitted by the Mausolea and
Monuments Trust
The Mausolea and Monuments Trust (MMT) exists
to celebrate and protect funerary structures.
The MMT is only starting to uncover the true
scale of the crisis in our burial grounds, with the threats of
exposure to the elements, of vandalism, and of over-zealous health
and safety officials.
Mausolea and monuments are one of many areas
of our built heritage too seldom taken into account by the major
conservation bodies, in spite of their importance both architecturally
and as social documents, reflecting the values of the society
of those who built them (and consequently have a story to tell),
as well as reflecting architectural fashions and funerary practices.
Mausolea and monuments are in theory the responsibility
of heirs at law. Parish councils, local authorities and cemetery
companies have the duty to ensure that they do not become dangerous
but upkeep is left to descendants. A few families have taken such
responsibilities seriously. Most have not. Consequently, many
are desperately in need of long overdue maintenance or more serious
repair.
Unlike most buildings at risk, they rarely have
any practicable economic use, so that there is no incentive to
keep them in good repair other than altruism and local pride.
Private individuals may not apply to the Heritage
Lottery Fund for grants towards the repair of their mausolea.
The MMT, however, may apply for such grants if the building is
in its guardianship. Consequently, the MMT has carried out urgent
works to a number of fine mausolea, ensuring their future.
The MMT would like the Committee to consider
what special measures are required for the preservation of mausolea
and monuments. The MMT suggests:
1. Alteration of grant conditions to allow
third parties to act to repair and ensure continued maintenance
of mausolea where it is not possible to trace ownership.
2. Availability of higher percentage of grant
aid towards the repair of monuments and mausolea.
3. The establishment of a fund for the regular
maintenance of monuments, mausolea and churchyards.
4. The establishment of a UK wide database
of monuments and mausolea as a baseline record (The MMT is in
the process of putting its Gazetteer of mausolea in England online).
5. The production of national guidance on
dealing with monuments and mausolea.
Within the vast sweep of the UK's architectural
history it is all too easy for the small, but often beautiful
and moving aspects of the built environment to be forgotten and
left behind by the major conservation organisations.
We are seriously concerned at the potential
of the Olympics to take already scarce resources from the sector,
particularly as it is the smaller aspects of the heritage, such
as mausolea and monuments, that are most likely to lose out in
competition to more glamorous large scale projects requiring major
funding.
20 January 2006
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