11 June 2008 - As a result of a very generous donation from Mr Alan Dean, a past resident of Pateley Bridge, 40 memorials have been re-erected by MemSafe Ltd., a memorial contractor, at Harrogate Borough Council's Cemetery off Panorama Way.
About 350 memorials needed to be laid down in the cemetery following the safety inspection, which began in the year 2000 following an accident in one of the other council's cemeteries.
Although a number of memorials are being re-erected by the ongoing programme with the support of the Probation Service, there are many that need more specialist work to re-instate them, and Mr Dean kindly stepped forward to help with these.
Mr Dean was born and bred in Pateley Bridge and has a number of family connections buried in the cemetery, including his parents and grandparents, sister, aunts and uncles.
Until retirement, Mr Dean was the National Trust's Warden for the Borrowdale estates.
He now lives in Cumbria.
Phililp Andrew, Bereavement Services Manager, says Mr Dean's generosity has made a difference to the programme of reinstatement.
"There's still a lot of memorials and monuments to be reinstated in the cemetery and unfortunately the owners who have responsibility to keep them in good order and maintain their repair are either not contactable or no longer living.
Mr Dean's very kind donation has now enabled some of these mechanically fixed memorials to be done.
"This is certainly very commendable by someone who has a very big interest in this beautiful burial site and every little helps to get the cemetery back to what it was with all the monuments safely back in place."
Any further enquires about memorials in Pateley Cemetery should be made to Philip Andrew,
Bereavement Services Manager, Stonefall Cemetery Office, Wetherby Road, Harrogate
HG3 1DE.
Tel:
01423 883523.
Email:
philip.Andrew@harrogate.gov.uk