Volunteers help to clear 'overgrown' children's cemetery in Basingstoke

A team of volunteers have cleared undergrowth and cut back hedges at an "overgrown" children's cemetery in Hampshire.

It was the first of two community events planned to help tidy up Rooksdown Children's Cemetery.

Relatives say the site, in Basingstoke, sometimes gets overgrown.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust owns the site and the council says it is working with them to keep it maintained.

Simon Minas-Bound, borough councillor for Sherborne St John and Rooksdown, said that while some basic maintenance had been taking place, it was very difficult near to the grave stones, because machinery cannot get very close.

So, together with Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, the council came up with the community clean-up idea.

Some parents who have children laid to rest at the cemetery, including John Izett and Jack Ward, spoke about their reasons for joining the clean-up team.

Simon Minas-Bound said: "We are grateful to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.

• Parents who have lost children were among those who helped with the clean-up on Sunday

"Together, we are dedicated to maintaining the children's cemetery as a place of solace and remembrance for our community."

The cemetery was used to bury Canadian soldiers who died in World War One but it became a children's cemetery in the 1980s to the early 2000s.

The next community clean-up is on 10th March 2024 at 10am.

In the future, it is hoped that a friends group can be set up to help care for Rooksdown Cemetery and keep it a peaceful place for families to remember their loved ones.

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