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Post by Hawker Hurricane on Apr 4, 2012 10:46:47 GMT
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Post by Hawker Hurricane on Apr 4, 2012 13:07:46 GMT
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Post by prospectroad on Apr 4, 2012 15:52:16 GMT
Thanks for bringing this to our atttention ;D I've looked into it and ...
An Irlam man, Frederick Noel Heywood, was missed off the original Irlam WW2 plaque on the Irlam and Cadishead war memorial in Prince's Park. Some years ago his family asked for his name to be added, so the Council replaced the original plaque with a new one which bears his name. There is a bit of mis-information about. The plaque wasn't anything to do with the park gates and George Thomas had been dead for over 20 years when the WW2 plaques were manufactured. I don't know how the plaque came to be in a scrapyard in Yorkshire but it's not as bad as it seems, i.e. it wasn't stolen off the memorial.
Here's Frederick's story:
At some point during the period 19th and 29th May 1940, Corporal Frederick Noel Heywood (Service no. 3449057), of the 1st/8th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed in action during the retreat to Dunkirk. He was 29 years of age and lies buried at Dunkirk Town Cemetery, Pas-de-Calais, France. Frederick lived at 23 Lyndhurst Avenue, Higher Irlam. He was the first casualty from the Irlam and Cadishead area.
Returning the memorial plaque to Irlam would be disrespectful to his memory.
Cheers Pete
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Post by Hawker Hurricane on Apr 4, 2012 17:35:49 GMT
Thank you Pete. Perhaps we can work together to write some definitive history of the Irlam and Cadishead memorial. There seems to be a lot of confusion and a lot of misinformation about. When I was looking into this earlier today one source said that the memorial was demolished due to repeated vandalism! Think it would be good to put something together to ensure the real facts are available.
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Post by shred on Apr 4, 2012 19:20:15 GMT
Jim,
The memorial's history is covered in great detail in the book A District at War by Pete Thomas and Neil Drum.... pages 480 to 498. I am sure that with Pete's permission we could extract a concise history.
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Post by prospectroad on Apr 4, 2012 19:25:05 GMT
Hi Jim, as Garry has said "A District at War" covers the history of the memorials (the building and demolition of the old memorial and the building of the new one, including both opening ceremonies). It probably won't happen again but if you need info on Irlam and Cadishead, Garry's got my contact number. By the 1940s the original WW1 memorial was in a poor state of repair. It appears that children used to climb it and the comment about vandalism probably relates to this time. It was demolished because it was in a poor/dangerous condition. There was also a need to build a memorial to cover the casualties in WW2. The current war memorial is in the centre of Prince's Park and an area where the kids gather to play football, drink, smoke, etc. In all the time I've known it, I'm proud to say, there has never been, to the best of my knowledge, any vandalism ;D Garry/Jim, I have no problem at all with you using the info in the book for SWARM (please reference the book). Cheers Pete
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Post by shred on Apr 4, 2012 19:31:42 GMT
Many thanks Pete. For anyone reading this thread the memorial can be seen here.
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Post by Hawker Hurricane on Apr 4, 2012 19:52:51 GMT
Thanks guys. I made reference to the book, including giving Pete Bainbridge full details of it. Unfortunately, this was dropped on me at short notice and I was really pressed to get concise quick info. Just lucky I was on my day off from work or we'd have been really stuffed!! With a bit of luck they'll reference the book in the article and drum up some more sales for you!!
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Post by shred on Apr 4, 2012 19:55:26 GMT
drum up some more sales for you!! Jim, I like what you did there.
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Post by Hawker Hurricane on Apr 4, 2012 20:03:57 GMT
No pun was intended!!
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Post by prospectroad on Apr 4, 2012 20:08:50 GMT
;D
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Post by prospectroad on Apr 4, 2012 20:29:13 GMT
Thanks guys. I made reference to the book, including giving Pete Bainbridge full details of it. Unfortunately, this was dropped on me at short notice and I was really pressed to get concise quick info. Just lucky I was on my day off from work or we'd have been really stuffed!! With a bit of luck they'll reference the book in the article and drum up some more sales for you!! Thanks Jim, much appreciated. Cheers Pete
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mack
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 481
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Post by mack on Apr 4, 2012 20:30:16 GMT
the two missing WW2 plaques could have been scrapped by the council after they added pte heywoods name,there would be no need to keep them once the new plaques were made,if that was the case,then the scrapyard owner deserves a pat on the back for not melting it down.
mack
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Post by prospectroad on Apr 4, 2012 20:39:23 GMT
Hi mack, that's almost certainly what happened (it was only one plaque) ;D
Cheers Pete
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mack
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 481
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Post by mack on Apr 4, 2012 20:46:30 GMT
hiya pete. i enlarged the picture of the plaque and it looks like the one that didnt have pte heywoods name on it,you were spot on with your detective work,i wonder if the poor scrapyard owner is gettin grilled by the rozzers
mack
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