Coronavirus: Winsford gravestones cleaned in lockdown good turn

A man and his children are using their daily exercise to clean gravestones in local cemeteries in Cheshire.

Ryan van Emmenis, 37, from Winsford, has cleaned more than 20 headstones with help from his children, since the lockdown started.

He responded after a friend posted a picture on social media of his sister's grave and, noticing it had weathered, Mr van Emmenis offered to clean it.

His three children, Brooke, 12, Lana, four, and Larsson, three, all help.

Mr van Emmenis, who runs a cleaning company, said that after the initial clean, he felt he could do more.

Encouraged by his wife Hayley, he has now started to clean other gravestones in two local cemeteries, St Chad's and Swanlow Park.

"When I'm out on my walks I pass a couple of churches and there are some really old headstones and tombstones," he said.

"I thought 'I'll just take a out a little brush, some cleaning products etc and as I pass when I stop for my little break I'll have a little drink of my water and do a bit each day'.

"You see results and you're like 'oh, this is great' so I just wanted to keep doing it."

He said it was good for the children to learn a little bit of history and respect their environment.

"As young as they are, they can still get involved and they can still help," he explained. "They're quite good at it to be fair.

"You've got to be respectful of the fact that it's someone's family member, it's someone's memories.

"Some of these headstones I'm cleaning are over 100 years old. And algae, moss etc can have a really negative impact on them so you've got to be really careful."

He had feedback from grateful families, some of whom have not been able to visit their loved one's grave for 20 years.

Mr van Emmenis added: "Someone used the term 'you're bringing memories back to people'."