Work is finally underway on a project to restore the site where nearly 3,000 psychiatric patients are buried.

Campaigners have been battling to improve the derelict cemetery of the former High Royds Hospital, in Menston, for three years.

Workmen have now moved on to the site in Buckle Lane to install paths and a feature stone circle in the new memorial garden.

Raised flower beds and new seating will be included in the restoration project. The boundary wall will also be repaired and the main gates will be restored and painted.

A total of 2,861 patients were buried in unmarked paupers’ graves at the cemetery while the hospital was in operation.

The chapel has not been used since 1969 and the overgrown grounds have been labelled a “disgrace” by residents and families of the dead.

Negotiations to take over both from the developers of High Royds involved the Health Secretary and took more than three years, but the Friends of High Royds Memorial Garden became legal owners late last year.

  • Read the full story in Friday's T&A