The Friends of St Georges Churchyard, Brinsworth, group was formed in 2011 to take an active role in improving and maintaining the condition, environment and appearance of St Georges Churchyard, Brinsworth, Rotherham.
The church is an unlisted 19th Century church located in the middle of an urban hillside in Brinsworth, about 2 miles from the town of Rotherham.
The church was built in 1895 to accommodate the growing population of Brinsworth but was closed in 1974 and sold to South Yorkshire Opera Limited in 1980. By 2003 the church was in the hands of the receivers.
In 2004 the church was purchased by an amateur repertory company for storage but they went into liquidation in 2010. The liquidators served a notice of disclaimer, disclaiming the interest in the building.
The church then became subject to escheat to the Crown however the Crown is not the owner or responsible for the repairs, maintenance and insurance of the building. Sadly this is why this beautiful building has fallen into such a sorry state of repair.
Over the years the group of volunteers have spent a lot of hard work and effort bringing the churchyard back to its former glory and are constantly funding raising to keep the improvements going. Since they formed the landscape has been transformed the WW1 and WW2 war memorial has been moved and restored and a new footpath has been installed.
The next project is to restore the Boer War Memorial which has been left to decay and has been the subject of a lot of vandalism. The group need to raise a huge £9,000 and have managed to raise some of the funding but they now need your help.
The memorial is situated at the top of the Churchyard to the left of the Church and is clearly visible from the gates. It has been an agenda item for some time now, but the high cost has kept it beyond our reach. Many funding applications have been refused, and we are at this present time far away from our goal. This sum would completely restore the Memorial to its original state, it includes cladding the base in grey granite, new upstands on sides and corners black powder coated and connected with chain linking, a completely new granite spire and finally all inscriptions and poems renewed in guilt.
Below are pictures of how the memorial currently looks and a drawing of how it should look.
The group are constantly looking for fresh ideas to raise the remaining balance, if any member of our community or local business can offer any assistance which would enable us to reach our required target we would be very pleased to hear from you, please contact one of us on either 374500 or 375263. Thankyou.
