2017

The group of 13 young people on the National Citizen Service scheme who have been volunteering in Hyde Park Cemetery this week have done a fantastic job. As well as a host of tidying up, they have restored four large shrub beds which were very badly overgrown. With the generous help of Stonecrop Nurseries we have also added more plants. These photos show the youngsters at the respective areas that they worked on. There is also a photo with their group leaders, Chloe and Hasan. We thank them all very much indeed for their efforts this week.

For the fourth consecutive year, young people on the Government-backed National Citizen Service (NCS) scheme are volunteering in Hyde Park Cemetery. Previous groups have done some great work in improving the site and this year’s group is no exception. The youngsters (aged 15 to 17) have been restoring three large shrub beds that had become overgrown and very unkempt. The are already looking much better, but by the end of this week they will be in fantastic shape and will improve the visitor experience significantly.

We are pleased to be able to tell you that our latest Newsletter (Summer 2017) has just been published. You can download it at this link.

Last Sunday’s free guided walk entitled “World War One Remembered” attracted an audience of over 30 visitors. They were led to the graves of several servicemen and other family graves where loved ones who had fought and died in WW1 are commemorated. Their stories were extremely varied, but all were very touching.

We should like to thank everyone who came along to the walk and also for their generous donations towards the work of the Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery.

Because the Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery will be exhibiting at the Doncaster Family & Local History Fair with Craft Stalls on the 14 October, we have decided to bring forward our monthly Working Morning by one week, to the 7 October. Please do come along to help if you can.

In the meantime, we have our normally scheduled Working Mornings on 8 July, 12 August and 9 September, as well as the Yorkshire in Bloom preparations on Sunday 16 July. All details can be found on our Events page.

There was a good attendance at last Sunday’s guided walk, entitled “Sporting Stars”. Visitors to the cemetery heard about athletes, footballers, a crack rifle shot and others, all of whom had achieved great things in their chosen sport. It is sad to report that several of these people now lie in unmarked graves. However, the family of one subject, Rovers footballer Arthur Pyle, had recently ordered a monument for the previously unmarked grave of their ancestor. It was wonderful to see the memorial in place for Sunday’s walk.

With only a few weeks to go before the Yorkshire in Bloom judges visit Hyde Park Cemetery, our volunteers were not to be deterred from their tasks this morning, in spite of heavy rain. Several of the shrub beds were weeded and dug over, leaving them in a much tidier and more attractive state.

A few poppies can be found, dotted around the cemetery, at the present time.

Following our successful project to restore the graves of famous railway locomotive engineer, Patrick Stirling and two of his sons, we have launched another appeal for support.

William Henry Pickering and his wife, Alice Mabel, were both very prominent Doncaster residents in the early 20th century. William was His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Mines and was killed in the Cadeby pit disaster of July 1912. His widow went on to carry out a wide range of public service duties, including running the Arnold Auxiliary Hospital, where soldiers who were injured in the Great War recuperated.

We have recently established contact with the Pickerings’ great great grandson, who is keen to support the proposed grave restoration work.

Please see below for details of how you can donate to this project, recognising two of Doncaster’s most selfless servants of last century.

The Friends’ second Guided Walk of 2017 took place yesterday in wonderful sunshine. The theme of this walk was ‘Democracy in Doncaster’  and included several Doncaster Mayors, an MP and a women’s rights campaigner. The walk also included the story of one of several Chief Constables of the County Borough of Doncaster who are buried at Hyde Park Cemetery. This particular gentleman was Williamson Etches (d.1869). On the photo below, one of his descendants stands at Williamson’s headstone, flanked by Helen and Phil from the Friends committee.

All of this year’s remaining Guided Walks can be found on our Events page.

The Friends have been able to install more new railings in the New Street boundary, thanks to further generous support from benefactors. Following on from the installation of eight bays of new railings last December, we were given an additional private donation to allow three more bays to be completed. The donation also allowed us to have the pedestrian gates at New Street re-coated in black, to match the new railings. This latter work was a condition of the Listed Building Consent that we obtained before starting work.