It was intended to be a permanent visible reminder of the happiest day of their lives.
Meltham couple Paul and Sharon Hurst commemorated their wedding in 2004 in Las Vegas by paying to have a brick suitably inscribed and laid at the frontage of Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium.
The brick is one of dozens bought by Town fans to form the Centenary Walk – marking 100 years of the club, which was formed in 1908. The bricks include ones in memory of loved ones or marking happy events.
But Paul said he was disgusted on a recent visit to the stadium to discover a power generator had been parked on the Centenary Walk – with one of the semi-trailer’s legs directly on top of the brick he bought for Sharon.
“I just saw it and I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. “There are a number of bricks in that section. Now there’s a semi-trailer from an articulated lorry with a pair of legs parked on top of our brick. It’s not what you expect to get.”
He added: “The brick has our names on and where we got married. It is part of our memories of our wedding.”
Paul, 53, a minibus driver who regularly takes disabled supporters to watch Town at the stadium, said Town fan Sharon, 45, who works for a blinds manufacturer, had been “gutted” when he told her what had happened.
The semi-trailer is surrounded by temporary fencing and stands to the left of the main entrance to the stadium.
Phil Armitage, operations manager for Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd, said: “First of all, I would like to apologise to anyone who may feel offended and upset that the Centenary Walkway has had to be covered this season by a temporary generator.
“As part of the Premier League rules and regulations we had to provide a back-up power supply for the stadium as the existing back-up generator would not produce enough power to be able to continue a match if we had a major power failure.
“The only place we could position the back-up generator was immediately outside our transformer room as cables need to be connected from the generator to our transformer. This is only a temporary measure and the generator will be removed following the last match of the season.”
He added: “We did consider moving the Centenary Walkway, however, we felt that this area was the most suitable for it as, under normal circumstances, there would be no vehicle movement over it and minimal pedestrian footfall.”
