{"id":764490,"date":"2026-09-09T00:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T00:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764490\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T00:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T00:24:22","slug":"missing-york-cat-trail-sculpture-returns-to-goodramgate-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764490\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing York Cat Trail sculpture returns to Goodramgate home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Gerald the Minster Cat, a stone sculpture in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yorkpress.co.uk\/news\/25004297.york-church-celebrate-historic-same-sex-couples-union\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Holy Trinity Church<\/a>, was removed from the popular York Cat Trail recently after being damaged.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The memorial, located in the churchyard off Goodramgate, has now been fully restored and reinstalled.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Recommended reading:\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A spokesperson for the Churches Conservation Trust said Gerald and his brother Donald arrived in York in 2017 and quickly became favourites among residents and tourists thanks to their playful personalities.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The spokesperson said: &#8220;Gerald died in September 2020, prompting the Minster Bells to toll in tribute.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;A memorial sculpture was commissioned shortly after his death.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Following recent damage to the sculpture, Anthony Bartyla, the Minster stonemason who originally created the memorial, carried out the repairs.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Mr Bartyla has also contributed to conservation work on Lady Row, York\u2019s oldest terrace, which stands next to the the churchyard where Gerald\u2019s statue is located.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The restoration effort also involved Holy Trinity volunteers, Gerald\u2019s owner Justine Spencer, York Cat Trail director Sonia Halejak and site coordinator Gemma Murray.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The Churches Conservation Trust spokesperson said: &#8220;Today, Gerald&#8217;s stone stands as a lasting tribute, bringing joy to his devoted owner, Justine, and continuing to watch over his brother, Donald, the sole remaining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yorkpress.co.uk\/topics\/york-minster\/?ref=au\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">York Minster<\/a> cat.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  John Hopkinson, founder of York Cat Trail said: &#8220;Gerald has been a wonderful addition.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;He adds variety to the trail being set in stone and not resin, and he&#8217;s also unusual being found on the ground rather than on a building.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;We are happy to have covered the costs of restoration for Gerald&#8217;s sculpture.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Gerald\u2019s story will be featured during free tours of Holy Trinity Goodramgate on September 12 and 13 as part of Heritage Open Days.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Tours will begin at 11.30am and 2pm and will explore the stories of people connected to the site throughout its 800-year history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gerald the Minster Cat, a stone sculpture in Holy Trinity Church, was removed from the popular York Cat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-764490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}