A BROTHER and sister from Oakdale want a dangerous private cemetery to be restored after being unable to visit their father’s grave for five years.

The Jerusalem graveyard in Woodfieldside near Blackwood was closed to visitors in 2004 on the advice of the Health and Safety Executive.

Since then the Synod of Wales of the United Reformed Church, which is responsible for the site has tried without success to raise the tens of thousands of pounds required for its repairs.

Grace Brown, 75, used to regularly visit her father’s grave, after he died in a mining accident in Oakdale Colliery in 1945 at the age of 47.

Before his death Richard Thomas served for the Royal Welch Fusiliers during World War One in Belgium.

Mrs Brown said: “I was very close to my father and it is very sad that I cannot go and see where he is buried.”

Her brother, also called Richard Thomas, 72, said: “It is vitally important to us that we get a chance to see our father’s grave again.

“We previous couldn’t afford to place a headstone at his plot, so we would now really like to mark the spot where he lies.”

The Jerusalem graveyard was deemed dangerous because of its unsteady headstones and its steep gradient with an unsafe grass footpath.

It is on a rocky, sloping site, with streams running though it and terraces and culverts have collapsed.

A final attempt is being made to re-open the dangerous site with a public meeting set to take place in the hope that those with relatives buried there, or other local residents, will come up with ways of restoring it.

One possibility put forward is that a small Garden of Remembrance could be created at one corner of the site which contains 900 graves.

“I think it would be great if the community can find some way of coming together to raise the money”, Mrs Brown added.

The graveyard was opened in 1839, alongside a Congregational chapel, which closed 30 years ago.

Revd Peter Noble, Moderator of the Wales Synod, said the organisation could not afford the tens of thousands of pounds it would cost to re-open the site and if no way forward is found, the graveyard will have to remain closed.

He said: “Relatives could arrange to have graves re-sited elsewhere. We understand the distress of those who want to continue to visit the graves of loved ones, but our over-riding responsibility has to be for safety.”

The public meeting will take place in the Newbridge Memorial Hall, at 8.30pm on Wednesday, March 18.