Volunteers have worked tirelessly to clean up a number of gravestones after fly-tippers dumped their rubbish.

Sylvia Crossley, who lives in Stoneclough, says she was “so sad” when she saw that an 18th century gravestone had been covered by soil and rubbish last Tuesday (February 20).

She worked with her fellow litter pickers from the Farnworth and Kearsley Litter Pickers, and Love Stoneclough Action Group, to get the gravestone on Market Street, behind the shops in Farnworth, back into a better state.

The area where the gravestones are is known to many as ‘the quiet area’, which is a well-used public footpath that people often enjoy, especially in the summer.

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Sylvia said: “They are people’s loved ones, and people from the past should never be forgotten.

“It looked like someone had reversed with a load of soil and rubbish.

“There is still half of one of the gravestones covered, and so we want to try and uncover that one.”

Sylvia has been a litter picker for 12 years and says that she loves cleaning and making the borough tidier.

The Bolton News: Sylvia added: “There’s not many of us, but we do it and we have made such a difference.

“I find green areas and make them into gardens, and I cover Kearsley, Stoneclough, and Farnworth.”

The soil collected will be recycled for use in the garden area the team are working on, which will include planting daffodils.

It comes as Sylvia and the litter pickers collected 30 bags of flytipping on Sunday, which Sylvia says the council have been really helpful in collecting.

Sylvia said: “The quiet walk is a really nice area and people use it as a shortcut.

“We are going to carry on sorting all of the gravestones out, and I want to start finding the other graves.

“We will be cutting back brambles and maintaining it.

“We want to get people involved in the community and encourage more volunteers.”

In September 2017 Cllr Paul Sanders went on a mission to search for the gravestone of Thomas Barnes, a successful Farnworth cotton trader and Bolton MP, who gave Farnworth Park to people of the town in 1864.

The large flag stone, a memorial to Barnes and four family members, was laid in the ‘quiet area’.

At the time the pathway had become weed-strewn, full of litter and a target for vandals.

If you have a story and something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at jasmine.jackson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @JournoJasmine.