Olivia
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The Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
@TFOStRo
🌿 Volunteer-led community group caring for historic Stoney Royd Cemetery, Halifax. Preserving graves, sharing stories & bringing history back to life.
Halifax, England
Joined August 2026
15 Following
41 Followers
39 Posts
https://t.co/v1b5j5npdK
🕯️ A Little Update About Two Very Special Events
As we get closer to two of our most meaningful events at Stoney Royd, I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who is planning to join us. Both gatherings are about something very simple — remembering people who mattered, while reminding those still here that they don't have to remember alone.
🩷💙 Wave of Light
If you are planning to attend our Wave of Light, could you please let me know?
This will help us understand roughly how many people will be joining us and allow us to prepare appropriately.
I would also like to offer families the opportunity to have the name of their baby read aloud during our remembrance.
There is absolutely no pressure whatsoever to do this. Some people find comfort in hearing their baby's name spoken; others prefer to hold that name quietly within their own heart. Both are equally valid.
If you would like a name read, please send it to me privately if you would prefer not to put it publicly in the comments.
Every little life matters. Every name matters. Every memory matters. 🕯️
🎄🕯️ Christmas at Stoney Royd — “Leave a Light On”
For our Christmas gathering, we would also like to remember by name the people who will be especially missed around Christmas tables this year.
If there is a relative, friend or loved one whose name you would like included in our remembrance, please let me know.
Again, there is no pressure to submit a name. You are equally welcome simply to come, listen to the music, share the moment and remember quietly.
It would also be really helpful if you could let us know if you are intending to attend, so we can get a rough idea of numbers as we continue planning.
Christmas can be beautiful, but when somebody is missing, it can also hurt.
So this year at Stoney Royd we will do something very simple:
We will say their names.
We will remember their lives.
We will leave a light on.
And perhaps, surrounded by other people carrying their own memories, none of us will feel quite so alone. 🕯️❤️
Names and attendance can be sent privately to me or emailed to [email protected].
Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
📖 Well… it’s real. It’s actually a book.
Amen: Entering the Mass, Living the Mystery is now available to order in paperback.
There were plenty of moments during the writing of this book when I questioned myself. Moments when the words came easily, and others when they absolutely did not. Moments when I wondered whether what I was writing was worth finishing at all.
So tonight, more than anything, I want to say thank you.
Thank you to every person who encouraged me.
To those who pushed me when I needed pushing.
To those who told me to keep writing when I was tempted to stop.
To those who believed that something which began as thoughts, prayers, reflections and scribbled ideas might one day become something another person could actually hold in their hands.
You know who you are — and a little part of each of you is in this book.
Amen: Entering the Mass, Living the Mystery isn't intended simply to explain what happens at Mass. It is an invitation to look again at something that can become so familiar that we sometimes forget just how extraordinary it is. Because the Mass doesn't end when we walk out of the church doors.
The mystery we celebrate at the altar is supposed to follow us into our homes, our workplaces, our struggles, our relationships, our joys, our grief and the ordinary messiness of being human. And perhaps that is what Amen really means.
Not simply the end of a prayer.
But yes.
Yes, I believe.
Yes, I trust.
Yes, Lord — let what I have celebrated become part of how I live.
To everyone who encouraged me and pushed me to keep going: Thank you. We got there. ❤️
📖 Amen: Entering the Mass, Living the Mystery
✍️ Krzysztof-Piotr Pawel Wojtyla
Available now in paperback: https://t.co/Zt10YRcxDV
🌿 Chairperson & President’s Weekly Update
This week's update is going to be a little quieter than usual.
Normally, by the time I sit down to write these updates, I have a list in front of me involving volunteer work, meetings, graves, ideas, plans, emails and usually at least one scheme that causes the rest of the committee to wonder whether leaving me unsupervised was a sensible decision.
This week has been different. And I think it is important to be honest about that too.
My injury has forced me to slow down considerably. I've also been feeling a little low this week and, on Thursday, I received the heartbreaking news that a very close friend of mine had died.
So I hope you'll forgive me that there isn't an enormous amount of Friends news to report this week.
Sometimes life tells you that you need to stop for a moment. And strangely, perhaps a cemetery teaches us that better than anywhere.
We spend so much of our lives rushing.
We worry about tomorrow. We answer emails. We make plans. We tell ourselves we'll telephone somebody next week, visit them when we're less busy, tell them how much they mean to us when the moment feels right.
This week, Stoney Royd has felt slightly different to me.
Suddenly, those names carved into stone don't feel quite so distant.
Every one of them represents somebody who once had people who couldn't imagine life without them.
Somebody once stood where we stand now and grieved.
Somebody once wished for just one more conversation. And somebody eventually discovered that remembering doesn't mean refusing to let go.
It means allowing love to continue in a different way.
Perhaps that is ultimately why the Friends exist.
We remind people that a cemetery doesn't have to be somewhere frightening, forgotten or defined entirely by death.
It can be somewhere peaceful.
Somewhere beautiful.
Somewhere you can sit quietly with somebody you miss.
Somewhere sadness and gratitude are allowed to exist beside one another. And sometimes somewhere you simply need to be.
🌿 Our next clean-up
Our next volunteer clean-up remains scheduled for Saturday 10 October, from 10am until midday, weather permitting.
We will be continuing our work around Stoney Royd and helping to prepare the cemetery ahead of the Wave of Light and All Souls' Day.
🎟️ Christmas Raffle
A quick reminder too that our raffle ticket sales are still very much live.
Tickets are 50p each or £2 for a strip, with the draw taking place as part of our Christmas gathering.
Thank you to everyone who has already bought tickets, donated prizes or supported us. It genuinely makes a difference.
And thank you, particularly, to my volunteers and committee for keeping things moving when their President has been operating at rather less than full capacity.
I'll hopefully be back causing trouble properly soon.
But this week, perhaps I will finish with something slightly more personal.
Tell people you love them.
Make the telephone call.
Send the ridiculous message.
Have the coffee.
Forgive the argument that wasn't really worth having.
Sit beside somebody without needing to fill the silence.
Because eventually every life becomes a collection of memories.
When somebody we love dies, we discover something those thousands of stones at Stoney Royd have been quietly telling us all along:
Love does not disappear simply because somebody is no longer standing beside us.
It becomes the stories we tell.
The photographs we keep.
The places that suddenly remind us of them.
The laugh we can still hear in our heads.
The tears that arrive when we weren't expecting them.
And eventually, hopefully, a smile when we realise how fortunate we were that our lives crossed at all.
This has been a difficult week.
Next week we carry on.
Not because we have forgotten those we have lost.
But because we carry them with us. 🕯️
Until next week,
Krzysztof-Piotr
President & Chairperson
Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
📖 A little announcement that means a great deal to me…
I’m incredibly pleased to announce that the first book in my new series is now available to purchase on the Written app.
AMEN: Entering the Mass, Living the Mystery
This book began with a simple thought: how often do we attend Mass, say the familiar words, make the familiar responses, and perhaps forget just how extraordinary the mystery unfolding before us really is?
AMEN is an invitation to slow down.
To listen again.
To rediscover the meaning hidden within prayers we may have spoken thousands of times — from the Sign of the Cross and the Confiteor, through the Creed and the Eucharistic Prayer, to that simple but powerful word we speak before receiving Christ:
Amen.
It is not intended to make the Mass more complicated. Quite the opposite. It is about rediscovering its beauty and allowing what happens at the altar to shape what happens when we walk back through the church doors and into everyday life.
I’m also particularly honoured that the book includes a foreword by The Rt Rev Marcus Stock, Bishop of Leeds, whose words of encouragement mean a great deal to me.
This is the first in what I hope will become a series of books, and seeing the first one finally available is a very special moment.
Thank you to everyone who has encouraged my writing, read my reflections, challenged me, prayed for me and reminded me that sometimes an idea placed upon the heart is worth following.
AMEN: Entering the Mass, Living the Mystery
by Krzysztof-Piotr Pawel Wojtyla
📚 Now available on written
https://t.co/NprKl23pVS
And perhaps there is no more appropriate word with which to begin this new chapter than the word at the heart of the book itself:
Amen.
Footballers are often criticised for their wages, lifestyles and egos, so I think it’s equally important that we acknowledge them when they do something genuinely compassionate.
Leif Davis was born in Newcastle and came through Wallsend Boys Club, a club with a proud history of developing North East footballers and I think what he has done deserves recognition.
After playing for Ipswich, Tuesday evening Leif reportedly went to help search for young Noah Woods and stayed until the early hours. Following the heartbreaking news of Noah’s death, he has now donated £2,000 to help Noah’s family.
The North East can be proud of you, Leif thank you.
Above all, our thoughts remain with Noah’s family and everyone who loved him 🕊️
🕯️ A Life Remembered — James & Eliza Mortimer
Two lives, one stone, and a marriage remembered at Stoney Royd
Sometimes the most powerful thing written on a gravestone isn't a grand tribute.
Sometimes it is simply the word “also.”
Because that little word tells us that one person's story did not end entirely when they died. Someone remained behind. Someone continued carrying the memories.
And here at Stoney Royd, that person was Eliza Mortimer.
The beautifully carved memorial tells us that James Mortimer, of Bradford, was born on 19 February 1845 and died on 15 February 1893 — just four days before what would have been his 48th birthday.
Then, beneath his name, the inscription continues:
“Also of Eliza, widow of the above James Mortimer…”
Eliza was born on 13 June 1840 and died on 21 May 1919.
James and Eliza belonged to a world very different from ours.
They lived through the enormous changes of Victorian Britain: growing industrial towns, railways transforming journeys, communities expanding and the landscape of Yorkshire changing around them.
But those are the things history books record.
A gravestone records something rather more personal.
James.
Eliza.
Husband.
Wife.
And between those words lies everything we cannot see.
The ordinary mornings.
The conversations across a table.
The disagreements that probably seemed terribly important at the time.
The laughter.
The worries.
The people who came through their door.
The Christmases and birthdays.
The moments when one simply knew the other was there.
James died in 1893.
Eliza lived for another 26 years.
Twenty-six years in which the world continued changing around her, but in which she remained described here by one enduring relationship:
“widow of the above James Mortimer.”
We should be careful not to pretend we know what those 26 years were like for Eliza. A stone cannot tell us whether they were lonely or full of family, difficult or contented.
But it can tell us something important.
When Eliza's own life ended in 1919, her name was placed here with his.
And more than a century later, they remain together in stone.
That is one of the extraordinary things about walking through Stoney Royd.
At first you see monuments.
Then you read the names.
And suddenly they stop being monuments.
They become people.
This beautiful memorial has survived rain, frost, changing seasons and generations of Halifax life. Some of its surface has weathered; traces of its age are clearly visible.
Yet the names remain.
James Mortimer.
Eliza Mortimer.
Perhaps that is why caring for old cemeteries matters.
We cannot know every detail of every life represented here. We shouldn't invent the pieces history has lost.
But we can read their names.
We can preserve what remains.
We can wonder about the lives behind the dates.
And, for a few moments, we can give people who disappeared from living memory something remarkably simple: our attention.
James died more than 130 years ago.
Eliza more than a century ago.
And yet this morning, somebody stopped.
Somebody read their names.
And now, through A Life Remembered, so have you.
They were here.
They lived.
They loved.
They mattered.
And at Stoney Royd, they are not forgotten. 🕯️🌿
Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
🌿 Another Grave, Another Memory Cared For
Another wonderful transformation at Stoney Royd, carried out by two of our dedicated volunteers.
When you look at the before-and-after photographs, it can be easy to see only the difference. What the photographs don't show is the time, patience, commitment and devotion that goes into achieving it.
This isn't a five-minute job with a brush. It is careful work, undertaken slowly and respectfully, remembering throughout that this isn't simply a piece of stone being cleaned — it is somebody's resting place and somebody else's memory.
Our volunteers give their own time to kneel amongst the weeds, carefully clear years of growth and debris, and gradually allow a grave to be seen and appreciated again.
And there is something rather beautiful about that.
They may never have known the person whose name is carved into the stone. They may know nothing about the life they lived.
But for those few hours, they cared for them anyway.
A huge thank you to our two volunteers for another beautiful transformation and, more importantly, for the care and respect they put into achieving it.
They were here. They lived. They mattered. And they are still remembered. 🌿
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
🌿 Chairperson & President’s Weekly Update
Another Friday has arrived, and with it another opportunity for me to share what has been happening with the Friends over the past week.
🌹 A grave beginning to breathe again
On Friday, two of our volunteers began phase one of a grave clean-up which we have been asked to undertake by a member of our community.
Needless to say, I was impressed.
Actually, impressed probably doesn't quite cover it.
What the two of them managed to achieve in such a short space of time was remarkable, and I am really looking forward to seeing the project develop.
When somebody asks us to care for a grave, they aren't simply asking us to clean some stone.
They are trusting us with somebody's memory.
Behind that stone was a person. Behind the person is a story. And somewhere, perhaps generations later, there is still somebody who cares enough to ask us to help.
That is a privilege we should never take lightly.
❤️ A little bit of care for Little Mary
Our volunteers also spent some time giving Little Mary's headstone a gentle tidy.
Again, I am incredibly proud of the result so far, and I am looking forward to seeing the completed project.
There is something particularly moving about seeing care returned to a child's grave.
We cannot change what happened to Little Mary. We cannot rewrite history or give her the years she should have had.
But decades later, we can still say:
You haven't been forgotten.
And sometimes that is what remembrance really means.
Not grand speeches. Not plaques. Not ceremonies.
Sometimes remembrance is simply somebody kneeling beside an old headstone with a brush in their hand and caring.
📄 Our formal complaint
We have also received an update from Calderdale Council regarding the Friends' outstanding formal complaint.
We have been informed that the investigating officer has had to be changed because the original officer is unable to continue with the investigation. Consequently, the Council has requested additional time to complete the process.
We will allow that process to continue properly and fairly.
We have raised our concerns formally, provided information and made our position clear. It is now appropriate to allow the Council the opportunity to investigate and respond.
Once we receive that response, the committee will consider it carefully and determine whether any further action is necessary.
For now, we wait.
📝 Permits, permits and more permits...
Our applications have now been submitted to Calderdale Council for permission to hold our forthcoming remembrance silence and Christmas gathering at Stoney Royd.
And when I say applications, I mean applications.
Risk assessments, weather considerations, public safety, accessibility, insurance, cemetery operations, emergency arrangements...
By the time I finished them, I felt less like I had completed an event application and more like I had written War and Peace: The Stoney Royd Edition.
But they are done.
They are detailed.
They demonstrate how seriously the Friends take our responsibilities.
And now we wait for the outcome.
As always, I will keep everyone updated.
🧹 Next Volunteer Clean-Up — Saturday 10 October
Our next volunteer clean-up is scheduled for:
Saturday 10 October
10:00am–12:00 noon
Weather permitting
The focus will be on preparing Stoney Royd ahead of the Wave of Light and Polish All Souls' Day, including the usual careful clearing of leaves and debris and giving areas of the cemetery some much-needed attention.
It would be wonderful to see you there.
Until next Friday,
Krzysztof-Piotr
President & Chairperson
Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
RIP
Tonight, a little boy I never knew has broken my heart.
His name is Noah Woods.
Three years old.
Just three.
There are some news stories we read, shake our heads at, whisper “how awful”, and then continue with our evening.
And then there are those which stop us.
Tonight, Noah stopped me.
Perhaps it is because he was so little. Perhaps it is because, for hours, an entire community held onto that fragile thread called hope.
Strangers pulled on their boots and went searching for a little boy most of them had never met.
For a while, Noah belonged to all of them.
In some small way, he belonged to all of us.
We watched. We hoped. We prayed.
And somewhere there was a family waiting for the words they desperately wanted to hear:
“We have found him. He is safe.”
Tonight, those words never came.
I keep thinking about how ordinary that day must once have seemed.
A playground.
A little boy.
A family.
The kind of day repeated thousands of times without anyone imagining that, within hours, everything could change.
That is the cruelty of tragedy.
It does not always announce itself.
Sometimes there is simply a last cuddle we didn't know was the last. A last smile we didn't know we needed to memorise. A little hand we fully expected to hold again tomorrow.
And suddenly tomorrow is a different world.
Tonight, above everything else, my thoughts are with Noah's family.
There are no adequate words for them.
And perhaps this is not the moment for strangers to speculate or apportion blame. There will be questions, and those questions must be answered by the people responsible for establishing what happened.
But tonight, surely, our responsibility is simply to be human.
To give a grieving family privacy.
To surround them, even from a distance, with tenderness rather than judgement.
There is something else I cannot stop thinking about.
When one tiny child disappeared, strangers became neighbours.
People who had never met Noah went looking for him.
In a world where we are constantly reminded of everything that divides us, one little boy reminded us of something much deeper: we still care for one another.
Perhaps that is something we should carry from this awful night.
Don't wait for tragedy to remind you how precious somebody is.
Hold the little hand a little tighter.
Give the extra cuddle.
Put the phone down.
Forgive the silly argument.
Say “I love you” one more time.
Because none of us knows which ordinary moment will one day become a precious memory.
And as a man of faith, tonight I cannot pretend to understand God's ways.
There are moments when faith does not provide neat answers.
Sometimes faith simply sits beside us in the darkness and cries too.
So tonight my prayer is a simple one.
Lord, receive little Noah.
Hold him where no fear can reach him.
Let him run where nobody has to search for him.
Let him laugh where there are no tears.
And somehow — somehow — place Your arms around the family whose arms tonight must feel unbearably empty.
Give them strength for the hours when strength seems impossible.
Give them people who know when to speak and, more importantly, when simply to sit beside them.
And when the questions become too heavy, carry those questions for them.
Little Noah, you were only three years old.
You probably never knew how many strangers were calling your name.
How many people were hoping.
How many hearts were willing you home.
But they were.
And tonight, your name is being spoken far beyond the place you called home.
Noah.
Three years old.
A little boy who should have had an entire lifetime ahead of him.
May those who loved him somehow find the strength to face tomorrow.
May those who searched know that their kindness mattered.
And may little Noah rest somewhere beyond all searching now —
safe,
held,
loved,
and finally home.
Rest gently, little man.
🕯️ Noah Woods 🕯️
🌿 Could This Become Stoney Royd’s Memorial Garden?
I am currently considering approaching Calderdale Council with another idea for Stoney Royd Cemetery — and, before doing so, I would really like to hear what the public thinks.
There is a small enclosed area within the cemetery which is currently unused and, in all fairness, isn't particularly attractive. Rather than allowing it simply to remain an overgrown and forgotten piece of ground, I have been wondering whether the Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery could, subject entirely to Council permission, transform it into a beautiful Memorial Garden.
I want to stress very clearly that this is merely an idea at this stage. Nothing has been agreed, no permission has been granted, and we are not suggesting that work is about to begin. I am simply gathering public opinion before deciding whether it is something worth formally putting forward to the Council.
The idea would be to create something colourful, peaceful and respectful, with carefully selected planting providing interest throughout the seasons. We could incorporate wildlife-friendly flowers and plants to support bees, butterflies and other pollinators, perhaps alongside a small bird bath or wildlife feature.
Most importantly, however, it would remain appropriate to its surroundings — a garden of remembrance within a cemetery, not simply another flower bed.
A currently rather ugly and forgotten little corner could become somewhere alive with colour; somewhere people could stop for a moment, reflect, remember and enjoy a little bit of nature amongst the history of Stoney Royd.
I've included some concept designs simply to show what might potentially be possible — they are ideas, not final plans.
So, before I consider approaching the Council, would you support the Friends taking responsibility for developing and caring for this area as a Memorial Garden?
Please let us know your thoughts below — positive, negative or somewhere in between. Genuine public feedback is important because, ultimately, Stoney Royd belongs to its community.
Sometimes preserving a cemetery isn't only about looking after what previous generations left behind.
Sometimes it's also about leaving something beautiful for the generations who come after us. 🌿
Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
📰 A Little More Attention on Stoney Royd…
It seems the Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery are attracting a little more local media attention again, following last week's incident in which volunteers from a local business, who had generously given up their time to help at the cemetery, were turned away by the Council.
Perhaps inevitably, this has brought our existing petition concerning the management and future of Stoney Royd firmly back into the spotlight.
What is particularly important for us to make clear is that this was not an unplanned group simply turning up at the cemetery.
Before the volunteering day, the Friends had carried out a detailed and in-depth risk assessment, identifying specific hazards and areas that volunteers should avoid. The participating business had also undertaken its own risk assessment and safety procedures. This was on top of the Friends maintaining £5 million Public Liability Insurance.
We took our responsibilities seriously because we always do.
The volunteers were there specifically to help prepare an area of the cemetery for Heritage Week, as well as beginning preparations for the Polish All Souls' Day commemorations. When they were turned away, that preparation could not take place as planned.
As a consequence, the Friends made the difficult decision to cancel our remaining Heritage Week events, because we could not reasonably invite people to activities in areas we had intended to prepare beforehand but had been prevented from doing so.
That is an important part of this story.
Prior to this incident, the Friends had deliberately been keeping our side of the deal. We had stepped back from publicly highlighting our concerns, concentrated on constructive engagement and continued trying to build a workable relationship with the Council.
We didn't go looking for renewed publicity.
The incident brought the issues back into public view.
Our formal complaint will be allowed to proceed through the appropriate process, and we remain ready to work constructively with Calderdale Council. What we want is not an argument, but clear communication, consistency and a genuine working partnership that recognises responsible community volunteering as something worth supporting.
If the renewed media attention achieves that, then perhaps something positive can ultimately come from a very disappointing situation.
Because this has never been about the Friends versus the Council.
It is about what is best for Stoney Royd, its history, those resting there and the community that cares deeply about its future.
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
https://t.co/pCuXwS5T1p
Causing trouble again - but its needed after the councils antics last week
https://t.co/aCY9XdkSVj
#calderdale #Halifax #cemetery #community #care #grief #presentation #society #solidarity #wewillfight
PLEASE SIGN — BUT JUST AS IMPORTANTLY, PLEASE SHARE.
Stoney Royd Cemetery belongs to the history of Halifax, but more importantly, it holds something far more precious than history — our people.
Parents. Grandparents. Children. Veterans. Priests. Community figures. Ordinary men and women whose lives helped shape the Halifax we know today.
This petition is asking Calderdale Council to formally discuss the management of Stoney Royd Cemetery and, importantly, to listen to the people who visit it, care about it and want to see its future protected.
This isn't about attacking anybody.
It is about asking questions.
It is about accountability.
It is about constructive dialogue.
And above all, it is about respect for the living and dignity for the dead.
The Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery have seen first-hand just how much this place means to people. We've watched forgotten graves rediscovered, hidden history brought back into the light, families reconnect with loved ones, and complete strangers stop and tell us their memories and given the recent events, that is why your signature matters.
But your share matters too.
Please sign the petition, then share it with your friends, family and local groups. Ask just five people to do the same.
One signature is a voice.
Hundreds of signatures become a message that is much harder to ignore:
Stoney Royd matters.
Its history matters.
The people buried there matter.
And the community deserves to have a voice in its future.
Please sign. Please share. And help us make sure that those who can no longer speak for themselves are never treated as though they no longer matter.
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the https://t.co/vuwlsPJVJ2 can share the petition here: https://t.co/IgtdLSY315
🌿 Heritage Walk at Stoney Royd — History Brought Back to Life
What a wonderful morning we have had at Stoney Royd Cemetery for our Heritage Week walk.
Firstly, an enormous thank you to David, who led us around the cemetery and so generously shared his vast knowledge with everyone attending. Dates and names are one thing, but having somebody who can place them into their wider story and bring the history beneath our feet back to life is something entirely different. David did exactly that.
And, of course, thank you to every single person who joined us today. Whether you came because of an interest in local history, genealogy, architecture, the people resting here, or simply because you wanted to discover somewhere you perhaps hadn't properly explored before — thank you.
Today demonstrated exactly what the Friends have been saying from the beginning:
Stoney Royd isn't simply a cemetery. It is part of Halifax's story.
Yes, it is first and foremost a solemn place of rest, and that must always be respected. But within those gates are generations of Halifax — its families, workers, clergy, soldiers, children, community figures and ordinary people who together helped create the town we inherited.
We regularly promote that heritage and encourage people to experience it. Sometimes that enthusiasm has unfortunately been met with negativity or obstacles from the authorities.
But mornings like today are precisely why we will keep pushing.
When you see people stopping beside a memorial and listening to the story behind the name...
When somebody discovers something about Halifax they never knew...
When people begin looking at an old cemetery not as somewhere gloomy to avoid, but as a beautiful, historic and deeply human place deserving protection...
That's why we fight harder.
Not against people — for the place.
For its history.
For those resting here.
For the families who still visit.
And for future generations who deserve the opportunity to walk these same paths and discover these same stories.
Today wasn't simply a walk around a cemetery.
It was Halifax walking through its own history.
Thank you, David. Thank you to everyone who came.
And thank you for helping us prove, once again, why Stoney Royd is worth caring about. ❤️
The Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
🇬🇧 A Fantastic Morning with the CWGC at Stoney Royd
Today we had the absolute pleasure of welcoming the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to Stoney Royd Cemetery for what proved to be a genuinely fascinating talk.
It was informative, engaging and, importantly, delivered in such a personal and accessible way that I think every single person attending walked away having learned something new.
We heard not simply about headstones and inscriptions, but about the people behind them, the work that goes into remembering them, and the importance of ensuring that the stories of those who served continue to be told to future generations.
For the Friends, this is exactly what heritage is about. A grave isn't simply a piece of stone with a name carved into it. Behind that name was a person, a family and a story.
A huge thank you to the CWGC for giving their time, sharing their knowledge and answering our questions — including, inevitably, a few from KP! 😂
And thank you to everyone who joined us today. Seeing people come together to learn, remember and ask questions is precisely why we want to hold more events like this at Stoney Royd.
As usual, I've attached a couple of photographs from today 📸 — because apparently nothing happens at Stoney Royd anymore without photographic evidence!
Another little piece of Stoney Royd's history explored, another bucketful of knowledge gained, and hopefully plenty more still to come.
We remember not simply because they died.
We remember because they lived. 🇬🇧🕯️
The Friends of Stoney Royd Cemetery
Honouring the Past. Caring for the Present. Preserving for the Future.
#friends #history #war #wargraves #CWGC #community #education #Halifax #calderdale #heritage #culture #westyorkshire #heroes #werememberthem #life #greatwar #commemorations #cemetery #stoneyroyd
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