{"id":811048,"date":"2026-10-23T03:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T03:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811048\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T03:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T03:42:17","slug":"scarborough-north-bay-freddie-gilroy-statue-could-be-moved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811048\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarborough North Bay Freddie Gilroy statue could be moved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A landmark seaside sculpture could be relocated as part of a plan to save it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The statue of Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers has faced the North Sea in Scarborough for 15 years, but could soon be moved due to concerns about weathering and deterioration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sculptor Ray Lonsdale&#8217;s work depicts a friend of the artist, a former soldier who participated in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, sitting on a bench in his old age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A Scarborough Town Council report said a move would be the &#8220;perfect opportunity to undertake repairs and restoration&#8221;, which could extend the statue&#8217;s life for a further 15 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The report, prepared ahead of a full town council meeting on 27 October, said North Yorkshire Council had drawn up a plan that would see the sculpture moved 200m (656ft) along the seafront to the raised part of Royal Albert Drive, which could provide more protection from wind and waves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Under the plan, which is expected to cost \u00a350,000, Scarborough Town Council could take ownership and management responsibility for the landmark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The statue was originally set to stay in the North Bay for only a month in 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, it was made a permanent feature <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-15832600\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thanks to a local campaign<\/a> led by Jakki Wilby, a donation made by Maureen Robinson, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-16125252\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who purchased the sculpture and gifted it to the town<\/a>, and the work of the Civic Society, which has managed and maintained the work since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A landmark seaside sculpture could be relocated as part of a plan to save it. The statue of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811049,"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-811048","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\/811048","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=811048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}