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Leeds businessman's dog statue gift
NORMALLY it is a St Bernard who comes to the rescue of a stranded human. But now a Leeds businessman is about to save a St Bernard – or at least a statue of one.
For almost a hundred years a 5-foot pot figure of the famous breed stood on top of the St Bernards Mill building in Gelderd Road.
But thieves intent on stealing lead underneath the sculpture scaled the two-storey red brick property and knocked it off.
Ken Moorhead, whose firm Moorhead Properties Ltd recently bought the site, said: "My lads came in one morning and found it smashed to smithereens.
"They're cowards, the people who've done this. The worst thing is the lead was probably only worth 10.
"The statue was unrepairable.
"To be honest when we bought the site I was quite happy to keep the dog – it was a bit of a novelty.
"We have to restore the building as part of the planning permission anyway.
"I've commissioned a new statue. It will cost a couple of grand, but it was a local landmark."
The Leeds born and bred 58-year-old and his wife Wendy set up Moorhead Excavation Ltd in 1986, then expanded the firm with the addition of Moorhead Demolition Ltd.
Earlier this year the Wortley-based group were given planning permission to turn the St Bernard Mills site into a 5million waste transfer station to deal with commercial and domestic building waste.
Mr Moorhead, who is the group's managing director, said: "When this was a working mill a hundreds years ago, so the story goes, the owner had a St Bernard.
"There was a fire but the dog's barking woke everybody up and saved the building from going up in flames.
"The owner was so pleased that he had an image of the dog cast in and put on top of the roof.
"It's been there for 90 or 100 years and become a bit of a landmark.
"I've already had one old lad ringing me up asking what's happened to the dog. His dad used to work at the mill and he remembered it from when he was a kid."
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Weather for Leeds
Friday 25 May 2012
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