Banning Roadside Shrines

A few days ago the local news reported that Bolton City Council are putting a 30 day time limit on road side shrines.  They want to stop permanent memorials, as they say that they are a distraction for other road users - which they probably are.  People are kicking off about it and protesting, the council are going to create a place where families can take their memorials instead.  This isn't going down very well - people want their memorial in the place of death.

The shrines reaffirm the importance of place to me, in a society where we're increasingly finding identity in network rather than place, place still has an important value.  I also think that there is something quite human about being rooted in a place, being born, living and dying in a physical place connected to the planet.  I'm doing a funeral tomorrow morning, the person will be buried 5 miles away from where they died.  There is a real and physical detachment from the place where they lived and the family.  As place/land becomes more and more scarce i fear that the detachment may increase.

Roadside shrines also fascinate me as they blur the boundary between public and private space.  On one level they are a deeply personal expression of grief yet they are located on a public highway where all can see the grief expressed.  They are in many ways 'not very British' as they bring raw emotions into the public realm. 

I'm also intrigued at the respect that people give to the memorials.  There is one at the end of my road on a junction where three people were killed a few years ago but a hit-and-run driver and on each anniversary there is an explosion of candles, flowers and banners on the shrine.  However, throughout the entire year the shrine is respected, people stop at it and pause, there is an area around the shrine that they do not walk onto.  It has become sacred ground.

I keep hearing rumour that someone is doing a PhD in them...can anyone point me in the right direction?

Comments

[cheryl]

i know a tiny bit about this! I also know there's a conference in ireland in a couple of months about it.

one of my team is working in this area - developing a memorial to road trauma victims in collaboration with the government transport accident commission. He went to the conference a couple of years ago, and gave me the book of papers to read about... it was fascinating. i'll get the title from him. It's probably online.

if you're really wanting to do some more thinking about it i can put you in touch with andy... let me know.

[Ian]

These shrines are so important. There is one that goes up periodically right next to where Moot meets where Ian Tomlinson was battened and died at the G12 summit in London a year ago. It to is right by where he died, an important place, which resurrects itself in written prayers, photos and memorial gifts. They don't last long and torn down by the City Corporation.

Its interesting to observe the political tension they raise - why is local Government so against them - it seems that health and safety are being used as an excuse for something deeper. Some hold a distaste for this expression of spirituality... I wonder why?

[Ian]

Cheryl - whats the conference - missed that one?

[benedson]

Hi Cheryl, yeah what's the name of the book with the papers in?

b