VC holders grave left to smack rats

[rubydazzler]

I think you will find that the conservatives were not much better.

iirc, the Conservatives were only in control of SCC for one year in 1970, was it? So you can't blame them for anything that happened here between about 1950 and 1999.

BTW the open space generated by the desecration of the graves is now a well used recreation space

I'm sure it is, but that hardly excuses the corporate vandalism and desecration of hundreds of family graves, of which my own family's plots were two. We were devastated at the fact that the headstones and funeral regalia appeared to be just bulldozed into the ground without any ceremony whatsoever. There was no excuse for it.

 

They could have put a proper playground into the flats when they were building them, not in the middle of nowhere, across a busy road and next to a pub. Their attitude to the history of this city and local people has always, quite frankly, stunk!

 

Anyway, let's not take the thread off topic onto the appalling contempt for everything/everyone that's always been displayed by Labour.

[purdyamos]

Ruby, if you're talking about the area with the swings (that's now a climbing rock) by The Vine, that was never a part of the Cemetery site. Yes a swathe of the burial ground was bulldozed, which is terrible, but it didn't include the part that was built as a children's playground. That's outside the walls.

[rubydazzler]

Ruby, if you're talking about the area with the swings (that's now a climbing rock) by The Vine, that was never a part of the Cemetery site. Yes a swathe of the burial ground was bulldozed, which is terrible, but it didn't include the part that was built as a children's playground. That's outside the walls.

It is 20 odd years ago, so maybe my memory is at fault, but I've been sure the excuse was definitely to provide a playground or 'recreation' space whatever they call it. I don't and never have lived in the area, so I can't be sure. What are they using the lost graves area for now, if it's not a leisure/playground area? The main reason I even know about it, is that there were spaces left in the graves, and compensation for the loss of them was talked about but never received.

 

They didn't even take over the cemetary until the late 70s and within a couple of years had closed it, vandalised it and then left the remains (no pun intended ) to go to rack and ruin.

[spritulist]

its happening all over...

[Wardsbitter]

Ivan Lilley,

 

Thanks for raising your concerns about Lambert VC. I know folk who have been fighting the cause of Wardsend Cemetery for decades. I will see this gets back to them and raise this in other directions. I believe the gallant Lambert was a single man.

 

Wards Bitter.

[Darth Vader]

I'm sure it is, but that hardly excuses the corporate vandalism and desecration of hundreds of family graves, .... We were devastated at the fact that the headstones and funeral regalia appeared to be just bulldozed into the ground ..... There was no excuse for it.

 

 

I agree. What happened at the General Cemetry was atrocious and should never have been allowed to happen. Who gave the authority for the bulldozers to move in and destroy our city's history?

[purdyamos]

The area within the cemetery that was cleared became an open green space. The bulldozing was still an awful act, but but the ground was left plain apart from some recent landscaping work. It doesn't have a football pitch marked out or anything like that. People use it how most people use open spaces, some of which might seem disrespectful, though a great number of people who use it now don't even realize there are people buried underfoot. Kids and students still play on the grassy area, but it's not so indecent as actually building play infrastructure in situ.

 

The playground with equipment is on a separate patch of land across the side road and was done up a few years ago.

 

Interestingly, a plan to turn the top chapel into flats was fought, and part of the objection that was successfully argued was that the play equipment that was likely to be installed in the planned kids garden area would be inappropriate given that it was on top of people's graves. So some sensitivity has been clawed back over the years.

 

And Mark Firth's grave got a scrub up for the University's centenary year, railings re-enamelled, he came up a treat.

[stevie1957]

For more info on George Lambert VC - http://www.chrishobbs.com/georgelambert1858.htm

 

Thank you for the post.

[Andy]

If you want to discuss the General Cemetery, would you mind starting a new thread? We're going a little off topic here.

 

Thank you!

[retep]

The area within the cemetery that was cleared became an open green space. The bulldozing was still an awful act, but but the ground was left plain apart from some recent landscaping work. It doesn't have a football pitch marked out or anything like that. People use it how most people use open spaces, some of which might seem disrespectful, though a great number of people who use it now don't even realize there are people buried underfoot. Kids and students still play on the grassy area, but it's not so indecent as actually building play infrastructure in situ.

 

The playground with equipment is on a separate patch of land across the side road and was done up a few years ago.

 

Interestingly, a plan to turn the top chapel into flats was fought, and part of the objection that was successfully argued was that the play equipment that was likely to be installed in the planned kids garden area would be inappropriate given that it was on top of people's graves. So some sensitivity has been clawed back over the years.

 

And Mark Firth's grave got a scrub up for the University's centenary year, railings re-enamelled, he came up a treat.

 

What did Francis Dickenson's get, retrampled.