A vicar has been left “disappointed” after flytippers dumped rubbish in a Titanic hero’s churchyard. The Reverend Rachel Dale criticised the culprits who targeted the sacred ground in Rhos-on-Sea in Conwy county.
St Trillo’s Parish Church is the final resting place of hundreds of local people including Harold Lowe, fifth officer of RMS Titanic. Famously, he went back to save survivors after the cruise liner struck an iceberg and sank off Newfoundland on April 15, 1912.
Mr Lowe had gathered together lifeboats and managed to rescue four passengers. He died in Deganwy in 1944. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now
A fan and rubble were among rubbish dumped in St Trillo’s churchyard in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos in Conwy
(Image: Reverend Rachel Dale)
The flytippers dumped their rubbish in the churchyard near the church’s car park off Llandudno Road in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, known as Rhos-on-Sea in English. Mr Lowe’s grave is several hundred yards from the flytipped debris.
The Rev Dale told North Wales Live she suspected people drove into the car park and tipped the items – a fan and a bag of rubble – next to the gravestones. On a previous occasion someone left a mattress there. She said: “I’m disappointed, really.” The dumpers showed “disrespect” to the people buried there and their loved ones who visit their graves.
Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe who rescued survivors from RMS Titanic in 1912. He later lived in Deganwy in Conwy and is buried in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos (Rhos-on-Sea)
(Image: Hadyn Iball)
“I’m generally quite a generous person and look for the reason behind people’s behaviour. But who do they (the flytippers) think will clean it up?” asked Ms Dale. She said she was also sorry for the volunteers who looked after the churchyard and kept it clean and tidy.
“It is not looked after by the council. They are mainly older people and they do an amazing job. They put their life and soul into looking after it. There’s a view that churches are rolling in money but we aren’t. We don’t have pots of money – we rely on volunteers.”
She added that Harold Lowe’s grave was quite a long way from the dumping ground albeit in the same churchyard. Ms Dale posted photographs of the desecrated graves on Facebook on New Year’s Eve and they prompted a wealth of sympathy and support for her church. She said she was “surprised by the depth and breadth of feeling” of people who left comments.
Isobel Dale wrote: “What a shame to have so little thought for the feelings of others” and Lorraine C. Shorten claimed: “Very disrespectful.” Summing up the anger, Linda Moore typed: “What’s going on in there (sic) heads they could have picked anywhere!!!! Would they do that to there (sic) family’s graves I don’t think so”