A 60-year-old bench has been lovingly restored in a Skegness cemetery cared for by volunteers – and now they would like to know its history. Situated in St Clements Cemetery, the bench – which was originally renovated in memory of Mrs Eva Heather and Mr Erwin Ochemacher – had become worn and weathered. Barry Robinson reports:
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So we're here at the St Clement's churchyard. We've got Chris here who's just restored and
00:09renovated this bench to put back on here. We've got Adrian Finlay, he's here, he's going
00:15to put it all in place for us. And we've got Jackie. We expected a few more but have not
00:23turned up. But never mind, it's not about people, it's about the bench. So give us an
00:27idea Chris, how long it's taken you and all the rest of it, what you've done. It took
00:31me about three weeks to do, on and off, because obviously I'm working outside and I've got
00:36to depend on the weather. I don't have a shed to work in so I depend on the weather. But
00:41yeah, it took me about three weeks to do. I took it all, sanded it right back to the
00:46original paint by hand. I don't use tools. And then I just spent two or three days painting
00:53it and then about two or three days painting the wood and buying new nuts and bolts for
00:58it. It's been a pleasure doing it. It was a right bad state when I first seen it. I've
01:04been coming and doing the cemetery now for almost a year. I sit on there, have a break
01:09and it's not the comfiest seat to sit on and I just got to thinking, well, it's high time
01:15it got sorted. So I asked Aidy and Richard, who works here, and they gave me permission
01:20to take it home and re-sort it again. So now it's back to how it should be. I believe
01:27you do a lot of the grass cutting on here as well. Yeah, I come up here every 10-14
01:31days from end of March right through to about August, September. It takes me about two hours
01:38to mow the whole cemetery, which is absolutely brilliant. A lot of nice people walk by and
01:43say you're doing a great job. But I have had a few nasty comments, but I ignore that. You
01:49always get that on Facebook anyway. But yeah, it gets me out of the house for a couple hours
01:54and I love doing it. I'm doing it for the people in the cemetery, not for people, anybody
01:59else. I love doing it and I'll carry on doing it as long as I can. And again, there's a
02:04plaque on the bench. Let's see if we can bring it up. If you can't see that, I'll put a picture
02:15up anyway. If anyone knows who it is, it's renovated in memory of Miss Eva Hever and
02:22Miss Ewen Ockerminer. If any locals do remember going to school with them or anything like
02:33that, contact Chris because we'd love to find out who actually the bench was. We can't seem
02:38to find any records in the church, but it'd be interesting to find out who it was, I think.
02:44And also, the A.W. I've been trying to trace. Yeah, there's a big A.W. in the back of it there.
02:51And we can't seem to find out who it belongs to. So if you've got any information on it
02:57or can help out, you went to school with either of those, it would be between 50, maybe 60
03:02years ago. That's far between, about 60 years at least. If anybody knows who A.W. is, you
03:08can either contact me myself or you can get in touch with Barry. With any name we can
03:14try and put with the bench, we're grateful. Yeah, so if you've got any help on that one,
03:19any locals that do see this, give us a shout. You know, let's find out who it was.