THE head of the charity that looks after Undercliffe Cemetery says damage caused by a motorbike at the historic site is “soul destroying”.

A motorcycle was seen with several youths at the site, and the vehicle has churned up land at the Grade II* listed cemetery.

Allan Hillary, chairman of the Friends of Undercliffe Cemetery, which maintains and restores the 26-acre site, said: “They’ve been doing wheelies on the grass. It’s anti-social behaviour and sheer thoughtlessness, and it is soul destroying for all the volunteers who work so hard to look after the cemetery. They have been working particularly hard this year.

“The problem is that we’re unable to close the cemetery gates, and while the bollards stop cars from coming in they don’t stop bikes. Quad bikes can be a menace sometimes.

“Generally, though, we don’t get much trouble here. There were a few fires lit in bushes last year, and little parties, but on the whole the place is well respected.

“There have been far more people visiting it this year. I think it’s becoming more widely known, and people are amazed at the monuments and the scale of the place. This cemetery is Bradford’s history in stone.”

Undercliffe Cemetery, which opened in 1854, contains 124,000 burials and about 23,000 marked graves. Volunteers recently uncovered the grave of a Bradford man who survived the Battle of Waterloo. “He was called Thomas Firth, and he died in 1871, aged 84. It’s incredible that he survived Waterloo,” said Mr Hillary.

“Near to that grave is another one recently discovered, of a man who died aged 20 in the First World War - he died on November 10, 1918, just a day before the Armistice.

“There are so many stories behind these graves, and our volunteers are doing a wonderful job clearing overgrowth and restoring the areas around graves. They’ve found another three First World War names on family plots, bringing the war graves to 289 in total so far.

“We’ve had more volunteers this year; we have 15 in total and they’re making inroads to bits of the cemetery I’ve never seen before..

“It’s unstable land and a lot of the graves have sunk. It will take years of work, but some really good progress is being made.”

Added Mr Hillary: “To meet safety guidelines all our volunteers have to sign in and they have radio mobiles on them so when they’re working, at a distance from each other, they can get in touch with the office. They do a range of work, from picking up litter to heavy manual work. Some of the overgrowth is up to the armpits.”