Willy Collins Sheffield: Controversial headstone becomes lunchtime attraction to residents who 'had to see it'

It has been two weeks since the family of Willy Collins unveiled the lavish tribute to the much loved husband, dad and grandad in the form of a 37-ton mausoleum made of solid white marble.

Photos of the controversial monument have made international headlines and split opinions wherever they go.

But for visitors to the headstone in Shiregreen Cemetery, the verdict is – surprisingly – unified.

“It’s actually not as big as I imagined,” said one Sheffield mum, who spoke to The Star after she ‘nipped in for a look’ after seeing the headstone the papers.

“Now I’m looking at it, I say good on them. It obviously means a lot to Travellers’ culture.”

In the space of half an hour, The Star spokes to 25 visitors to the grave at lunchtime on March 29 – not counting the 11 cars that pulled up alongside the memorial, took a picture and drove off.

Most were Sheffield residents who were in the area, often after shopping at Meadowhall, and “had to see it”.

Three couples were visiting their loved ones at Shiregreen and walked over, while two couples had come specifically from Barnsley and Doncaster.

Despite the range of opinions on taste or Mr Collins himself, two unifying themes emerged.

The first was it wasn’t as big as they expected.

“The pictures in the paper made it look a lot bigger,” said one man, who had stopped while visiting a loved one. “Maybe the flagpoles are a bit much but I honestly thought it was bigger. I mean, it’s still big.”

“It’s like something out of America,” said another couple.

And second was, it wasn’t ‘as bad’ as they expected. Or rather, ‘in context, I can understand it’ – an opinion shared by all but one person The Star spoke to.

What’s missing from many photos of Willy Collins’ grave is the graveyard around it.

His 37-ton headstone is the most extravagant plot in Shiregreen Cemetery, but the others surrounding it are far from typical.

Any visitor to the bare-knuckle boxer’s grave will see it’s in a corner with other headstones from the Irish and Traveller community.

His memorial is not the sore thumb among a line of demure headstones one might imagine – the surrounding graves are a selection box of shapes, sizes, colours and decorations. His is just the biggest.

The one next to his, for a couple, is two-thirds the size of his, created from polished red granite and festooned with balloons, pictures and flowers. The one opposite, for a woman, is nearly as wide as Willy’s and about half the height. There are half a dozen others as big as three plots, and even the smallest ones are brightly decorated.

“It doesn’t stick out like I expected,” said one mum, who asked her daughter to come along with her on a visit as a late Mother’s Day treat.

“The others here are beautiful too. It’s clearly important to them.”

It seems, whether out of celebration or a “I had to see it to believe it” attitude, the controversial grave is nevertheless now a Sheffield attraction.