Roadside Memorials

2011-05-31T00:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend my family and I went for "A drive in the country" . We pasted three different roadside accident scenes. Ribbons, dead flowers in cellophane packets littered the sites. A one we saw a teddy bear dressed in motorcycle gear tided to a post. I realise that all of this is part of the grieving process but it doesn't look very nice and it is a distraction to passing drivers as we all tend to look at the piles of flowers and ribbons.

It would be a lot more dignified to place a rather nicer memorial on the spot rather than bunches of ribbons, flowers letters and teddies. If the sad event occurred in the countryside, why not put up an engraved bird box ( http://www.birdbox.plaquememorial.co.uk/ ) for the birds, this can be placed in trees close to the site or even attached to an existing fence post. It should be said however that permission to use posts and trees on farm land (private land) should be obtained prior to placing it. The highways agency is responsible for the roadside, they have a duty to keep the roadside clear and safe for passing motorists and will therefore remove any memorial within 3.5m to 5m of the roadside.

Placing a memorial plaque close to the ground away from the road and out of the way for the roadside maintenance crews on rural roads should not meet with lots of opposition. This website has a lot of information about memorials and procedures. http://www.roadpeace.org/remembering/roadside_memorials/
Every council has different ideas regarding memorials and the time they give to families to grieve. Check the Internet and your local council website before deciding what would be the best memorial for you.

Personally I think it is important to highlight an area where more than one death has occurred as it may prevent further deaths but it is the way it is done that is always open for debate. Those who have lost loved ones will have one view and those who have public safety and possible lawsuits against them will have another. Therefore a bird box memorial is a useful (to birds), out of the way of all traffic, and a memorial to the loved.

If your loved one was sadly lost in a public residential area, consider approaching the council for a small patch of garden in the town or on the outskirts and place a plaque and plant seasonal flowers in remembrance. You could also dedicate a tree in a woodland to your loved one, there are a number of woodlands memorial sites which allow wooden plaques to be placed next to the tree.

Being busy has advantages and disadvantages, over the last year things have taken a busy turn and I have not been able to spend time searching for my cremation urn ( see my scattering urn blogg) and memorial plaque. I have had the opportunity to visit a few crematorium gardens of rest to look at what memorials are acceptable. As each council crematorium have different options you should always check what is allowed at the crematorium nearest you. The same can be said of burial grounds , woodlands and natural burial grounds. I did find when making enquiries that some of the places were helpful to a point, when that point was reached they wanted a "commit to buy" before giving further information or examples. I have found a couple of good websites who give you an idea of what the plaque will look like once your text and motif have been used.

To point out that some websites are very easy to order from and others are a nightmare. The one which frustrated me particularly was http://www.personalised-cremation-urns.com/acatalog/Engraving_Service.html It is really not good enough to order through although the plaques look very nice. I shall be including a personal list of good and not so good sites, this is my opinion and does not reflect the listed companies work only the order process.....

My List:

http://www.houseandgardenplaques.co.uk/wooden-memorials Nice natural plaques but hidden extra costs on order form, the form itself is easy to order form and can request a proof or mock up.
http://www.sign-maker.net/memorial/wooden-memorial-plaque.htm I liked the plaques shown on this site, but found it very confusing having to work out letter sizes and then choosing the best plaque size. The stake offered was metal not wood and quite pricey as an extra. The order form is straight forward but once again hidden costs for extra's on the order form.
http://www.timpson.co.uk/shop/c/308/memorial/s/182/memorial-plaques This is a nice site and the examples shown as you type very good but very limited. For a pet plaque they allow 10 characters engraved in a line.. doesn't allow for much text so you have to choose a larger size if you need more space, larger sizes cost more...
http://www.awardmedals.com/garden-plaque-with-stake-p-16350.html Like a lot of websites ordering online you need to know what you are paying for. This site doesn't offer a proof or mock up nor do you see what it will look like as you order. It also has a metal stake which is not always accepted in natural areas.
The plaque itself comes in parts and it seems you are responsible for finding a glue suitable to use with oak and brass.
And now the website I actually ordered my plaque from.... http://www.valleyviewrest.co.uk/ I will discuss this site and purchase in detail in my next blog....

Hidden costs, a big problem, I enquired about the engraving of a plaque with a small flower motif in the bottom left hand corner and the price quoted was a very reasonable £12.80 + VAT, however I soon found out that I had to purchase a backing/ mounting board and a stake as extras. The price quoted was just the face of the plaque. This pushed the price way above what I wanted to pay and the choices were confusing.
Not knowing much about the mediums used for plaque making I tried to find out as much information as possible. I always thought a nice brass plaque was the way to go, however not many burial grounds allow brass and natural burial grounds and woodlands do not like metals. The brass plaques would alway need a backing or mounting board, this will be hardwood. It should be screwed on using brass screws as other screws often don't last and degrade over time.
I took these pictures of some brass plaques, the larger had been in place for a long time and the smaller personalised plaque had only been in place for 18months.. not the discolouration and the lichen and moss growth. I understand that moulds and lichen do grow on all wood plaques but it can be easily cleaned when maintaining the oil or varnish coating. Brass needs to be cleaned regularly but this often means the original text which was engraved and painted gets worn off, the plaque then becomes hard to read.

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