Celebrations to showcase
£5m rescue and restoration
of Victorian ‘garden’ cemetery

Diary date: 11am, Thursday 29 April 2010

Horse-drawn Victorian hearse delivers a tree and rare floral display for the Lord Mayor of Bristol to lay at Arnos Vale to mark the cemetery’s official re-opening following a £5m rescue and restoration programme, followed by a Bank Holiday Weekend of public explorer events and activities.

ARNOS VALE CEMETERY, BATH ROAD, BRISTOL, BS4 3EW

One of Britain’s finest Victorian garden cemeteries – Arnos Vale, Bristol – will officially re-open on Thursday 29 April following a £5m project to restore its historic grounds, monuments and buildings and transform the 45-acre site into a heritage, wildlife, education and visitor centre.

To mark the event, a horse-drawn Victorian hearse, flanked by local children in Victorian dress, will deliver a yew tree for the Lord Mayor of Bristol (Cllr Christopher Davies) and other invited guests to plant outside one of the cemetery’s four Listed buildings – a former chapel which now houses a small museum, history displays and classrooms.

The hearse will also bring in a fresh flower tribute to the 300,000 people laid to rest in Arnos Vale since it opened in 1839, replicating one of the rarest objects uncovered during the cemetery’s restoration – a delicate porcelain wreath known as an ‘immortelle’.

Guests at the ceremony will include major funders, sponsors and donors along with members of the Friends of Arnos Vale action group - which led the campaign to save the cemetery from re-development and years of neglect - and of the volunteer labour force which continues to play a vital role in Arnos Vale’s care and upkeep.

The ceremony will be followed by a Bank Holiday weekend of events and activities, showcasing the improvements made to the site’s buildings, monuments and grounds. Visitors will also be able to watch skills and crafts demonstrations, explore the site’s new DiY trails, hear music from community choirs and instrumentalists, get help with family research, sign up for hands-on activities or take a guided walk, including a dawn chorus walk with TV wildlife presenter Mike Dilger.

Rachel Schofield, chief executive of the charity now managing the site, the Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust (AVCT), says: “Arnos Vale holds a very special place in the hearts of many people, not just in Bristol but across the world. It is rare to find a location which combines art, architecture, history, wildlife, natural beauty and tranquillity so close to a city centre, especially one which offers so much insight into past lives, great and humble, and into how times, lives and values have changed.”

She added: “We are greatly indebted to the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage, Bristol City Council and the many other organisations which have funded the restoration, so enabling many more people to discover and enjoy this Victorian gem. We owe our biggest thanks, however, to the huge number of ordinary people who insisted that cemetery should be saved and who continue to back their commitment to Arnos Vale with gifts of time, money, energy and hard labour.”

Volunteers remain crucial to the upkeep of Arnos Vale and the Trust is hoping to sign up more during its open weekend, Friday 30 April to Monday 3 May.

The opening ceremony also concludes the major phase of grant-aided building work and the start of a quest to improve the charity’s self-generated earnings. To this end, AVCT now runs a shop, has introduced new cemetery services, offers educational, venue hire and corporate away day packages and has launched a new-look supporters’ scheme, the Arnos Vale Angels.

Details about how to get involved or lend support are available from the main office , Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust, West Lodge, Bath Road, Bristol, BS4 3EW, telephone 0117 971 9117, or from the website: www.arnosvale.org.uk. The website also provides information on Arnos Vale’s history, its most notable burials and monuments, cemetery services and family history research opportunities.

ends

MEDIA QUERIES

For further info, interviews, pix or site visits, please contact:

Pam Beddard, on 0117 987 0442 or 07767 621207; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it OR

Sarah Cox, on 0117 971 9117; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

MEDIA INVITATION: Thursday 29 April, 11am start

Media representatives will be most welcome at the opening ceremony on Thursday 29 April but - please note - on-site car parking will be severely limited so it is best to travel by other means or park elsewhere (e.g. in the streets near the Cemetery Road entrance, off the A37 Wells Road). Special arrangements may be possible for anyone with heavy equipment to carry, or restricted mobility. To discuss, please contact Sarah Cox (see above).

NOTES TO EDITORS

Arnos Vale is one of Britain’s finest examples of a Victorian garden cemetery. It opened in 1839, using architecture and a layout echoing a classical Greek landscape. Over the next 150 years, the site became the last resting place some 300,000 souls, including many of Bristol’s most notable citizens and important reformers. But in the mid 20^th century, financial problems saw it fall into disuse and disrepair and threatened by re-development. This sparked a mass clamour for the site to be saved and a long and bitter legal battle which eventually resulted in compulsory purchase and the creation of the Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust, a UK registered charity. Campaign leader, Richard Smith became the Trust’s first chair and held the office until his death in July 2009.

The principal funders of Arnos Vale’s restoration are: the Heritage Lottery Fund, using money raised from the National Lottery (www.hlf.org.uk); Bristol City Council (www.bristol.gov.uk) and English Heritage (www.english-heritage.org.uk) . In addition, the work has benefitted from numerous other gifts of cash or kind from companies and individuals from Bristol, other parts of the UK and from around the world. For a more detailed list, please see the AVCT website.

During the May Bank Holiday Weekend – Friday 30 April to Monday 3 May - the cemetery is hosting a variety of events and activities to showcase what has been achieved and what Arnos Vale now offers. For more details, please see www.arnosvale.org.uk , collect a leaflet from the cemetery offices at West Lodge or East Lodge shop or call 0117 971 9117.

“We think we may in all safety predict, that when all the arrangements are completed, the grounds planted, the various tombs and memorials erected, that few, if any, cemeteries in the kingdom will surpass the cemetery at Arnos Vale”

FELIX FARLEY’S BRISTOL JOURNAL, OCTOBER 1840