Harrogate Borough Council looks set to buy land near Pateley Bridge Cemetery to increase burial space for the next 300 years.

Graham Swift, cabinet member for resources at the authority, will be asked next week to approve spending £32,500 to purchase 2.5 acres of land in the town.

James Bean, estates surveyor at the council, said in a report that the cemetery is expected to reach capacity for burials in the next two years.

He added that land next to the current cemetery, which is owned by Pateley Bridge Town Council, would be suitable to expand the site.

Mr Bean said:

“The cemetery at Pateley Bridge is soon to reach capacity and a solution for its longer term use needs to be established.

“Colleagues in the bereavement services team have identified an area of land next to the cemetery for possible expansion which would provide burial space for over 300 years.”

The land earmarked for purchase next to Pateley Bridge Cemetery.

Mr Bean added that the site would require planning consent following the purchase in order for the cemetery to expand.

A decision to acquire the land will be made at a cabinet member for resources meeting on March 7, 2023.

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A rededication service for a remote rural cemetery near Thruscross will take place next month.

The isolated moorland burial site was opened before the village of West End was flooded in 1966 to create a reservoir to serve West Yorkshire.

Beneath the waters lie the ruined remains of a church, churchyard, school, houses and other buildings.

All residents of West End were relocated from their Washburn Valley homes before construction work on the dam began.

At the same time, the new cemetery was opened so that the bodies exhumed from the churchyard could be reburied.

Before the village disappeared Atlantis-like under millions of gallons of water, a final service took place at Holy Trinity.

The then Dean of Ripon, the Very Revd. Llewelyn Hughes, spoke about a place of Christian worship for a thousand years, soon to be in its own watery grave.

One person, who attended the service, said afterwards:

“Seeing the vacant churchyard with its open graves and tombs was an eerie experience, while the Dean’s oratory, delivered in the flickering light of hundreds of candles, was powerful, atmospheric and something I will never forget.”

It’s more than 55 years since the deceased men, women and children of West End were relocated to their new place of rest, high on the moors above the reservoir.

During the past two years, Norman Wheat and fellow Thruscross parish councillors, with support from parishioners at St Saviour’s Thornthwaite, have transformed the cemetery.

The Rev. Alastair Ferneley, who will conduct the rededication service

At 3pm on July 4, the lives of all those buried there, will be celebrated.

The service will be conducted by The Revd. Alastair Ferneley, Vicar of Dacre with Hartwith and Darley with Thornthwaite, who said:

“People may not be aware, due to its remote but lovely location, that the cemetery on Greenhow Hill Road, has, thanks to the hard work of Norman and others, been improved in the last couple of years.

“This has involved the laying of paths, and the planting of wildflowers and trees, making maintenance much more manageable and the cemetery much more attractive.

“Following the reburials of the dead from West End in the 1960s, other local people have been buried in the cemetery and there is space for centuries to come.

“All are welcome to attend, including local people, considering being laid to rest here, when the time comes.

“Others may simply want to peruse the memorials for a bit of local history, look for the grave of a relative, or enjoy the birdsong and moorland views.”

The rededication service will be followed by refreshments and a quiz/treasure hunt.

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With social distancing restrictions in place, the coronavirus crisis has impacted on the way in which families and friends are able to say their final farewells to loved ones.

Harrogate Crematorium currently permits a maximum of 10 people to enter the chapel building for a service, but funeral directors are using the technology to ensure that meaningful services can still be held while ever lockdown limits reduce attendance at cremations and burials.

Sarah Jones (pictured) founder of Full Circle Funerals, of Skipton Road, Harrogate said:

” In recent weeks we’ve seen lots of innovations successfully enter the industry that would have been unheard of a couple of months ago.

“We are now helping to organise online ceremonies, using video conferencing software, which has been very successful. Friends and family can also provide messages, drawings, flowers from their garden, or even personal items to go on or in the coffin, which can all play a profound and significant part in the grieving process. It also helps people deal with the fact that they are not able to carry the coffin for the person who has died, which many people have struggled with.”

The technology means celebrants can still lead ceremonies, or people can do this themselves and share the event online and include as many friends and family in it, regardless of where they are in the world.

The family of father of four and grandfather of seven, Bruce Hammond, who died from Covid-19 aged 89-year-old, arranged his funeral through Full Circle.

Daughter, Jo Hammond, said that after considering the social distancing restrictions that would limit the number able to celebrate his life:

“We decided to fully embrace what we could do, rather than thinking about what we couldn’t do.

“As the hearse left the family home, family and neighbours lined the street. We then held a service using Zoom that approximately 60 people logged into, with a couple of people watching on each screen, and one of his grandchildren logged in from Germany.”

In 2018, Sarah Jones wrote and published Funerals Your Way: A Person-Centred Approach to Planning a Funeral, and the book quickly became a successful seller on Amazon.