| The History of the 'Dear Ladies'
Bench in Taunton Deane Crematorium from 2006 - Present Day |
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The Bench in October 2006 after being installed. It cost £1,400 and money was raised from donations from fans and a percentage of sales of CD & DVDs that were available at the time. |
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May 2007 and the groundsmen have varnished the bench to protect it from the weather, it looks quite nice. |
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16th May 2008 (Late due to being on Holiday on May 11th) Beginning to weather a bit, but still looking good. |
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11th May 2009 Starting to lose its colour and not been varnished since 2007. |
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11th May 2010 Still not treated and going a bit green. |
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11th May 2011 Still not re-treated and greener than 2010. |
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11th May 2012 Still getting greener. |
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11th May 2013 Tarmac getting mossy, birds doing their business over the bench. |
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11th May 2014 OMG they painted it brown, but at least they did something to liven it up a bit. Shame they never clean all the moss off the floor. |
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11th May 2015 Looking OK after a wash down clearing the moss from the back supports and bird mess. |
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11th May 2016 Moss growing back again under bench and i forgot to take my scraper and brush. Doctor Hinge must have visited as there were cigarette ends on the floor too. I can imagine Hilda shouting "Birmingham......erm, Bournemouth..., Ermmmmm....Basingstoke". |
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11th May 2017 OMG It's getting darker brown and the moss on the floor is never cleared away. |
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11th May 2018 Last years repaint is flaking off and the moss and mess needed clearing up. |
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11th May 2019 Untouched again and flaking and filthy and tarmac was green with moss. |
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4th July 2020 LATE DUE TO COVID LOCKDOWNS The Moss was scraped away and the bench was washed and cleaned with antibacterial spray. It is showing signs of wear on the paint. |
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11th May 2021 Faded even more. |
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11th May 2022 It has been lightly painted but wasn't sanded down to remove old flaked bits. |
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11th May 2023 The moss under the bench took some scraping away before the bench was wiped down. Lots of moss on the back of the bench too which took some cleaning to get it off. The paint has washed and worn off since last year. |
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11th May 2024 OMG what a sorry state it looked, but at least they had cleared the tarmac and rubbish which i asked them to do for me before we arrived. |
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11th May 2024 As you can see the damage on Left hand rear leg and split in the arm. This day i also dropped in the order form for George's plaque and Patrick's Plaque refresh as it was faded, and then a few days later they called to take payment for it.  They wanted £250 for a refurb of the bench and it didn't mean sanding it down to the original colour, it just meant slapping more poop coloured paint on it, so i asked if it was ok to look after it myself from now on, they agreed. Thank you for all the fans who donated towards the new plaque and the money to pay for all of the tools I had to buy ready for sanding it all down this May. |
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A month or so later in 2024 George's plaque was fitted and they sent me this picture. The same company made Patrick's plaque in 2006 yet they stick George's one on a bigger piece of wood. |
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8th - 11th May 2025 Myself & Neil drove down to Taunton in the early morning of the 8th May and headed straight to Taunton Deane Crematorium where we started work on the bench almost immediately.
Sander, Paint Stripper and a lot of elbow grease
got the bench back to its original colour. We left there at
about 6:30pm and checked into our hotel. The next morning we
were there as soon as the gates opened and got to work fine
sanding the bench down before we started putting the Yacht
Varnish on. It brought the bench up to a nice glossy brown
colour and it looks so much better than it did each time the
Crematorium ruined.....i mean...painted it.
I popped down to the offices after we had fitted the bench
back and asked them to let the groundsmen know not to touch
the bench as i will look after every year from now on and
the lady said she will let them know. She printed out and
laminated a warning sign to say wet varnish and walked it up
to us.
On the 10th May Mo arrived and we all went to Cheddar Gorge
for the day as the bench was all finished.
On May 11th we got to the Bench and covered it with a brand
new white sheet ready for the unveiling, Mo arrived first
and soon after Diana arrived. We were chatting away about
how many people used to come to the flower laying and events
compared to now, and i saw out the corner of my eye someone
walking across the road and i looked and saw it was Louie
who had arrived to surprise us. He came over from France to
see family and tied up coming to Taunton at the same time
and his friend John saw friends in Taunton whilst he was
there.
I asked Louie if he would unveil the refurbished bench and
he agreed and said some nice words before doing so.
So all six of us had lots of pictures taken before moving to
Patrick's grave where we all got on with giving it a good
clean before laying the flowers which we got from Judith
Goss Florists again. More pictures taken and we all did the Lord's Prayer before saying our goodbyes to Patrick. As we got in the car the heavens opened and it rained for about 50 minutes. We went to Rumwells for a carvery before we all said our goodbyes to everyone and made our way home.
Thank you to all of those who
donated towards the Bench Refurbishment costs and the
flowers for this year, without you none of this could be
done.
You know who you are. I hope you like how well it came out?
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10th - 11th May 2026
Myself & Neil drove down to Taunton in the early morning of
the 10th May and headed straight to Taunton Deane
Crematorium where we started work on the bench almost
immediately. The two oval plaques from last year were removed as Hilda's one has cracked. I did get some new ones made up but they were too big for the wooden plaque so i will get smaller ones made for May 2027.
We had a good rest in the hotel and woke early on the 11th
to have breakfast before checking out and making our way to
the Crematorium. |
