Topple Test Tragedies

A few years ago I was privileged to open our new burial ground, which we had built from scratch to address the lack of facilities in our village. At the time the big thing was unstable gravestones, following an accident in Preston in 1992, and from every direction came unsolicited quotes to 'topple test' our burial monuments. Of course, at that stage we didn't have any. But I was sent on the training course anyway, just in case.

The training pointed out the instability of some gravestone installations, particularly newer ones of the lawn ornament design, which might simply be laid at the head of the grave and staked in place with a couple of steel rods. Apparently there were examples of the remaining spouse visiting the grave to plant flowers and tidy the site, and after some time kneeling at the grave they'd pull on the monument to assist their standing, only to pull it on top of themselves. Potentially this needed re-costing as a double interment...

Eventually the burial business addressed the whole hazard by establishing specifications such as those set by the National Association of Monumental Masons (NAMM), while also recognising that the topple test very likely actually to cause damage to the existing monuments. The practice passed into history. In the meantime however, many monuments that were previously quite happy found themselves pushed over and piled up out of the way (because a tripping hazard is another thing altogether!)