Songs and cemetery

We had a 90-minute guided tour of part of Scarborough's Dean Road cemetery this afternoon, under the Heritage Open Days scheme.

Originally, we heard, the cemetery was tended by 11 men and an apprentice. Now there's just one man, who does a wonderful job against the odds.

He made a special effort to tidy the grave of one of Scarborough's war heroes, Flying Officer WH Coverley, whose Spitfire was shot down in the Battle of Britain, so that it could be properly appreciated during our visit.

Unfortunately, the cemetery is plagued by drunks, drug addicts and feral children, who were creating a disturbance and smashing bottles while we were there.

The former chapel is now boarded up, fast deteriorating, and used only by pigeons.

The previous evening, someone had placed a mattress against the chapel door, set fire to it, and scrawled a swastika on the war memorial.

Why the area cannot be properly policed is beyond me.

We moved on to Peasholm Park, where an event called the Acoustic Gathering was taking place.

I would guess that about 1,000 people were sitting beside the lake, enjoying the music.

One of the singers commented that it was the most surreal gig she had ever attended.

You could see her point.

The performers were ferried by rowing boat to a bandstand about 20 yards from the bank.

They performed as people in gaily coloured plastic dragon boats pedalled between them and the audience. The backdrop was an island surmounted by a fake pagoda and an equally fake waterfall.

We heard a couple of solo singers and an excellent Irish band before walking round the lake, up Peasholm Glen and back to the car.