Scrapped: The mock Victorian street lamps from St George’s Square now sitting in a scrap yard

Oct 16 2009 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ELEGANT street lamps, which once adorned St George’s Square, are now laying dormant in a scrapyard – but the owner says they are far too good to crushed.

Defunct contractors, Wrekin, chose to scrap the lights rather than sell them off.

As the official contractors renovating the Square they had ownership of the lights rather than Kirklees Council.

But their new owner, Billy Wells of Wells and Moorhouse Scrap Merchants in Meltham, has vowed to sell the lights instead of crushing them.

He said he hoped to find a buyer for them, who would keep the lights intact.

In total Wrekin scrapped 14 mock-Victorian lights when they began working on the square in May 2008.

Wrekin went into administration in March this year and work on the square ground to a halt.

Mr Wells said he couldn’t understand why anyone would have wanted to pull the lights down.

Mr Wells said: “Only a fool would smash them up and we are no fools.

“Why anyone wanted to pull them down I don’t know.

“They’re good lamps and we hope they’ll go as they are.

“I’m not letting them go for scrap – they’re too good.

“Even though we’re a scrapyard we don’t scrap everything, maybe only 10% of what we get in.

“There are about 14 in total and some have two, three and four sections at the top.

“Maybe some Americans will want them as they love things like this.”

He said he wasn’t yet able to put a price on the street lamps.

An Examiner reader who spotted the lamps said it was scandalous the council could dispose of the lights.