Headstones moved from graves in an Ilkley churchyard in the 1960s may finally have found a permanent home in a new “memorial avenue”.

Ilkley Civic Society is about to officially unveil a newly created avenue of gravestones – some dating back to the 19th Century or earlier – at Ilkley Cemetery, Ashlands Road.

The graves were left piled up in a corner of the cemetery for decades, since they were moved from the churchyard of All Saints Parish Church in the Sixties.

Visitors and researchers of family history will be able to walk along a gravel path created between the rows of gravestones, in the leafy and tranquil surroundings of the Victorian cemetery, and see the names of townspeople buried at All Saints.

The society, supported by the Friends of Ilkley Cemetery, has been working with local organisations and businesses to find a final resting place for the headstones.

An opening ceremony will take place on the afternoon of Friday, September 2, at 3pm.

The headstones were removed from All Saints’ churchyard during the redevelopment around the junction of Church Street, Brook Street, and Leeds Road in the Sixties.

This involved the demolition of the old Wheat Sheaf Hotel, and the creation of the car park area by the church, intended as a turning area for funeral hearses.

The graves themselves were left intact, but the old headstones were taken by Ilkley Urban District Council to the Ashlands Road cemetery.

There they lay, piled up on blocks of wood, in a quiet corner of the cemetery for the following decades.

Several years ago, talks began over moving the gravestones to free more space for burials in the cemetery and allow visitors to see the details on the headstones clearly.

An Ilkley Parish Council-funded project saw them laid down around the edges of the cemetery. But it was found that this left them at the mercy of the elements.

The stones have now been secured upright, or raised at an angle, forming an avenue in the grounds of the church. There are plans to plant daffodil bulbs close by, to enhance the new memorial avenue.