The Friends had been aware that the large William Smith monument was leaning due to a large tree that had been growing in-between the foundations of this monument and the Harper monument behind. Although the tree had been chopped down and killed by the first volunteers in 2020, the monument had been regularly monitored in case of any further movement.
When Graham Swain offered his help to restore and repair some of our graves and monuments, we asked him to cast his experienced eye over this monument and he discovered that the foundations had started to crumble and declared the monument unsafe. We therefore roped off the surrounding area for safely.
On 28th September 2024, Graham and his trusty team set to and dismantled the monument layer by layer, exposed the foundations, removed the remains of the tree root, then made good the foundations.
On Saturday 26th October 2024, Graham hosted a private event at the cemetery to watch the restoration of the monument. Several distinguished guests had been invited. 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.
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”.
We thank Riaz for taking video footage of the restoration, which can be watched here:
And we also thank the Bradford Telegraph & Argus for publishing an article in their newspaper here:
Unstable monument restored at Chapel Street Cemetery | Bradford Telegraph and Argus