Rebuilding the Pullan Memorial 2022
There are very few photographs of the Rehoboth from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. However we have been able to locate a commercially produced postcard by Haynes of Farsley, taken circa 1910 which shows in great detail the view up the Carriage Road from what is now our entrance area.
The centrepiece is the series of Memorials featuring the well known surnames of Isles and Gaunts but also that of John and Mary Ann Pullan and their family. The Pullan Memorial has the largest surface area in the burial ground, and was bordered on two sides by high supporting walls due to the steep nature of the Rehoboth and the landscaping carried out by the Victorians around 150 years ago.
John Pullan was an Eccleshill, Bradford quarry owner, with no apparent links to Farsley. However his wife, Mary Ann was the daughter of one of the co-founders of the Rodley Crane Works, David Smith and the Pullan Memorial “points” from the corner of its retaining walls down the hill to where we uncovered her parent’s graves in 2021. Unlike the neighbouring memorials, the inscription on the front facet also looks down on Mary Ann’s parents grave. Mary Ann was the sister of Thomas Smith who founded the crane works that bore his name.
In total four members of the Pullan family are interred in the Memorial, with ages ranging from 83 years to 49 years and interments spanning the years 1919 to 1937. There are also dedications inscribed on the sides of the Memorial to three other family members (including two daughters of John and Mary Ann), who died in the 1870’s and who may be interred in the large plot.
The memory of the Pullans is still strong in Eccleshill with streets named after them and also their former home, Acre House.
A century or more after the Haynes postcard was produced the two walls were close to collapse endangering the base of the Memorial and the tall stone structure itself. This was further complicated by huge tree stumps and coping stones (weighing circa 350 kilos) that were detached from the wall.
The restoration began on 9th January 2022 and was completed 11 months later at the beginning of December 2022.
This is the largest and most complex grave restoration undertaken since our charity purchased the Rehoboth in May 2019.
The taking down and subsequent rebuilding of the retaining walls took several months as each course of newly mortared stone had to be cured and dry before the next course was laid. To move the huge coping stones and remove the largest tree stump to date through our proven technique of straps, chains and ratchets were employed as can be seen in the gallery link in our “Restoration Timeline section”. Here’s the link:
All materials removed were recycled and reused as the project progressed.
A fitting tribute to the Rehoboth volunteers and also the Pullan family. The only motto amongst the family details inscribed on the memorial relates to Mary Ann and reads ““Know whom I have believed".
The January/February 2023 edition of “The Squeaker” featured a double page article detailing the restoration.
