1st November 2024
We had some distinguished guests visit the cemetery on Saturday 26th October for a private event organised by Graham Swaine, our local gravedigger, to watch the restoration work on the large monument for the Willam Smith family grave.
The Lord Mayor of Bradford, Beverley Mullaney and her Consort placed cement for the first layers of rebuilding the monument. Other guests included Nigel Wood, Chairman of Bradford Bulls, Dr Manoj Joshi MBE DL, chairman of the Bradford Economic Partnership and his wife, our three local councillors Chris Hayden, Ian Parsons and Brendan Stubbs, and our advisor and friend Lincoln Oakley.
The monument had been leaning due to a large tree that had rooted into the foundations. Although the tree had been chopped down and killed by the first volunteers in 2020, on closer inspection by Graham, he discovered the foundations had started to crumble and declared the monument unsafe. Graham and his trusty team set to and dismantled the monument layer by layer, removed the remains of the tree root, then made good the foundations with concrete. On rebuilding the monument, the Lord Mayor said “It was an absolute honour to work alongside Graham and the Friends of Chapel Street Cemetery on the transformation of this cemetery. Graham is an absolute gem for the work he does and has done across the Bradford District”. Graham, his team and all the Friends are volunteers freely putting in their time and effort to restore this cemetery.
Our thanks go to the Telegraph & Argus for your interest in our project and for writing about our work.
The Leaning monument, the Lord Mayor laying cement for the reconstruction, and the old tree root!
1st October 2024
We have just taken delivery of a deceased PIANO planter!
The Bradford Piano Trail
This year, Bradford hosted the Leeds International Piano Competition at St Georges Hall, the competition finishing on the 21st September. Bradford BID sponsored the Bradford Piano Trail in partnership with the Leeds International Piano Competition. The idea of the project was to transform public spaces into cultural hubs, enriching the artistic landscape of Leeds and Bradford by placing public pianos, piano planters and piano sculptures in iconic urban locations.
The Friends of Chapel Street Cemetery showed interest in this project and have been offered a piano planter to “plant-up” and display in the cemetery. We feel privileged to have been given a piano planter and want to make this into an opportunity not only to enrich the artistic landscape but to make the community aware of our cemetery, its historical importance and the open space it provides to be enjoyed by all.
September 2024
Graham the grave-digger has been teaching one of our team of volunteers how to restore the grave inscriptions. Here is an example of her stunning work!
June 2024 - Restorations
This month we have been very thankful for the local grave-diggers’ help in restoring and repairing some of our damaged monuments. Graham and his team came to the cemetery voluntarily with their specialist equipment and the results are outstanding, as you can see below. You can watch these restorations and some of his work at other cemeteries on TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@bradfordthroughthelens/
The flowers in the cemetery are in full bloom at the moment – come and see for yourselves!
Re-erection of the Asquith obelisk:
Re-erection of the Hutton headstone, including straightening of the curb stones:
- and restoring the inscription with gold lettering:
The flowers are blooming very nicely at the moment!
We did it!
On Friday 15th March 2024 the Friends were informed by their solicitor that the transfer of ownership of the cemetery was completed. Our charity is now the proud owner and the Trustees and volunteers would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that has supported us and donated their hard-earned money towards the purchase. There is still plenty of work to be done to expose more hidden graves, and we still need funding for our maintenance tasks and responsibilities as owner, so please continue to donate if you can.
December 2023
It was announced at the centenary event that sufficient monies have now been raised to instruct our solicitor to proceed with the purchase of the cemetery from the URC. The Friends were hoping that the transfer of ownership would be completed by the end of the year, but this was not to be. Contracts are being worked on and we hope 2024 brings us good news. We do still need funding to continue with the restoration of the cemetery and maintain the areas which have been cleared, so donations are still appreciated.
The local Telegraph & Argus newspaper very kindly printed an article about our quest. Follow the link below:
October 2023
To mark the cemetery being 200 years old, on Sunday 22nd October 2023 the Friends are holding an Open Day. There will be a few words from the Friends of Chapel Street Cemetery followed by a short Commemoration Service with special guest Rev Jamie Kissack, Moderator of the Yorkshire Synod of the United Reformed Church. Everyone is welcome to join us for refreshments (weather permitting!) and have a look around at the work we have done or take part in a Heritage Trail of some of the prominent graves. Donations always very welcome.
Note: A History of the site has now been added to this website - see the HISTORY page.
July 2023 - updated October 2023
We are currently fund-raising to purchase the cemetery from the United Reformed Church. If you would like to make a donation then please look at our Donations page.
This website is currently being updated - watch out for lots more photographs, and other information you may find interesting.