HARDWORKING volunteers who have put hours of work into restoring an old cemetery to its former glory have had their efforts knocked back by vandals.

Volunteers have been working for around 18 months to restore Prudhoe’s St. Mary Magdalene Cemetery on the West Road.

The cemetery, which opened in October 1870, had fallen into disrepair and volunteers hoped to turn it back into an open public space.

But last week the group, which includes members of Prudhoe and District Local History Society, found that a woodland feature and small mammal habitat that the workers had constructed had been destroyed.

Eddie Graham, one of the volunteers, said some of the large logs which had been used to construct the feature had been taken, with the rest of the feature left dismantled.

“What was particularly annoying was that the wood chip we used is kept outside the cemetery and it took about 40 barrow loads, so it was quite a long job,” he said. “We only completed this one last week before somebody came and destroyed it.

“The chap who had done most of the work was Mark Elliott. He spends an inordinate amount of time working on the woodland site of the cemetery project, and he does a lot of trimming the trees and strimming the grass. He was very annoyed and very disappointed. We are an enthusiastic bunch and a lot of work has gone into it, and this just seems like mindless vandalism.”

But the group is determined not to let the damage set them back, and members began work on Wednesday to rebuild the feature. They hope to create more of its kind throughout the cemetery, and get local schoolchildren involved with planting flowers for next spring.

The group has asked local residents to keep an eye on the cemetery and is encouraging people to report anything suspicious to police.