Heritage Open Day 2025
I’ll be there on Sunday, come see our beautiful space, and escape the world for a while ………………………………
Saturday night, to chill out before an early start for our seventh annual Heritage Open Day (HOD), we were in Leeds to attend a recital by the legendary, (and certified genius) Jazz Musician, Courtney Pine. Rain had commenced falling heavily in the morning and continued and continued until the early hours of Sunday morning – apparently over 26 mm of rain came down in the evening, (just over one inch) and it seemed like much more (some of the streets in Leeds City Centre had running streams).
However, in true Rehoboth good fortune, the morning arrived sunny and continued sunny until our last HOD tour which finished around 4.30 pm, the sodden ground for the first tour had dried out by the afternoon. All our tours were on our surface of all weather paths with no diversions or alterations required.
Pretty miraculous really, and a tribute to our volunteers, who prepared the Rehoboth during the week and those who directed the event all day Sunday, a great combination of experienced volunteers and new ones from the class of 2025 – many, many thanks.
HOD always provides a benchmark as to how our visitors see the change in the Rehoboth from either travelling past our walls, or from previous year’s visits. We had visitors from Leeds Civic Trust (who organise the HOD) and representative from the National Federation of Cemetery Friends/Beckett Street Cemetery.
The response from our visitors was probably the kindest and most complementary yet and made the last 12 month’s work worthwhile.
Two of our war graves (Matthew William Lee and Edgar Lee) had Matthew’s original framed World War One Victory Medal and Edgar’s original framed “Dead Man’s Penny” set on display, next to their headstones.
All visitors, as every year, received a white carnation to place on a grave of their choice.
Our King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) was on display, with the both the large crystal statue and the King Charles III personally signed framed certificate attracting a lot of interest.
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