A bit of history first…….
Friends of Crieff Cemetery were formed in May 2022 in partnership with Perth & Kinross’s Friends of Cemeteries initiative formed in March of the same year.
We liaise with 3 different departments, Greenspace, Property, and Bereavement Services.
We are a constituted group that have formal meetings, (we like to keep them as informal as possible), every 3 months to go over projects and matters arising.
But running parallel with this, we wish to make our group as inclusive as possible to people with varied skill sets.
We conducted war graves tours in November 2022 at Ford Road to bring to public eyes the sacrifice of military personnel between 1917 – 1945.
We feel that these stories are very relevant to our heritage and culture, and we will encourage this as much as possible.
We were recently awarded funding for an interpretation panel to outline some of the history of the interred at Ford Road, which will hopefully encourage more public interest in researching the rich and diverse cultural and historical interest aspects of these individuals and families buried here.
Nancy and Lorna are both local historians who have been superb in researching some of these stories we have found, some harrowing.
Dr Leon Silberberg, a polish army doctor buried in Crieff Cemetery, lost most of his family in the Holocaust, and we have faculty members and pupils from Crieff High School who will be visiting in May.
We hope that any research of this tragic family we can share with them will help them with an exhibition they will set up in summer 2023 in the campus library as part of their Jewish Culture and Holocaust Studies in the curriculum.
The Anne Frank Trust will also be involved with these projects, so something to look forward to in the summer.
Robert Ross, our liaison officer with PKC is going to forward us a Recorders Pack, which is a template for us to start recording the positions and inscriptions of the older gravestones in the old section. Some of the stones are weathering badly, and we would wish to data collect as much info as possible before it is lost.
The cemetery has 1000 plus headstones in the old section alone.
These are nationwide projects that can help genealogy and ancestors websites and databases in the future.
We have 3 stage Victorian drinking fountain which is a focal point in Crieff Cemetery, which we wish to have refurbished, that a couple of funding avenues have been identified.
We have spent our annual budget on gravel for the cemetery paths which will be delivered before March, which will require a fair amount of teamwork to spread 15 tonnes!
As we are a Greenspace, we have a continued project of pruning and cutting back of self-seeded foliage across the whole cemetery.
The backstop of all this is to create and foster a group that can be as accessible as possible to anyone interested.
Also, to make families and friends of the deceased feel as comfortable as we can make it for them in their bereavement period.
Best wishes,
Mark Hunter, FoCC Chairperson.
Friends Of Crieff Cemetery 