WWl , Church Commemoration.

[Viktoria]

Well ,looked on the site about what is going on in our town and Rammy Rocks have already organised for lots and lots of rocks painted with poppies to be placed in Nuttal Park for Nov 11th.
That is good,it does not matter who does it it will be done.
They are asking for as many as possible so the S.School’s efforts will add to that.
Day schools have already been approached.

I did not know hence my suggestion but I am glad something is being done.
Just did not want people to think it was all my idea.
Viktoria.

[Maiden Stone]

Pictures of poppy displays in Bury Parish Church on the church's FB page. Scroll down past pictures of the Victorian wedding dress. The post is dated 29th Sept.
 https://en-gb.facebook.com/buryparishchurch

Bury Archives has obtained Heritage Lottery funding to remember WW1. Results will be shown on a new website. See "Bury Times" 1st November, pages 7 & 19.

Also in "Bury Times" 1st. Nov. p.28, a report on the restoration of a war memorial to employees of Porritt & Spencer, Stubbins Vale Mill. The memorial has been handed over to Ramsbottom Royal British Legion.
The memorial is a roll of honour. It was damaged in the Boxing Day floods 2015. Photos of the damaged and restored plaque are on website of Rossendale branch of Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society  www.rossendale-fhhs.org.uk/files/war_memorials/stubbins_vale_mill_roh.html

[Maiden Stone]

Colonel Austen Townsend Porritt served in WW1; his name is on Stubbins Vale Mill roll of honour. He gifted Chatterton Playing Field in thanksgiving for peace following the Great War.
Names of employees of Stubbins Vale Mill who died in both World Wars are engraved on 2 plaques set in a wall of Stubbins Vale Mill memorial garden. Among the names is that of Colonel Porritt's son, Captain Richard Porritt, a director of Porritt & Spencer.

Richard Whitaker Porritt (1910-1940) of Grange-over-Sands and Ramsbottom was the only child of Austen Townsend Porritt and Annie Louse (nee Law-Schofield). He was elected M.P. for Heywood & Radcliffe in 1935, becoming the youngest M.P. in the House of Commons. Ramsbottom was then in Heywood constituency. A captain in the Lancashire Fusiliers, he was killed at Seclin, 26th May 1940 during the Dunkirk retreat. He was the first British M.P. to be killed in WW2. Another M.P. was killed 4 days later. Heywood's M.P. in WW1, Captain Harold Thomas Cawley, was killed in action,  Dardanelles 1915.
A town square in Seclin was named in memory of Captain Richard Porritt.
Richard's parents are buried in Grange Fell cemetery, Grange-over-Sands. Richard's name is on the gravestone. Colonel Austen Porritt gifted pews to a church at Grange in memory of his wife and son.

Colonel Porritt also gifted the Stubbins Estate to the National Trust in his son's memory.
www.rossendale-fhhs.org.uk/files/war_memorials/stubbins_estate.html

Pictures of war graves at Seclin and the town square naming ceremony are on a website about Lancashire Fusiliers.
 https://www.lancs-fusiliers.co.uk/features/HarryWroe/Harrywroe.htm
This has personal memories of the Dunkirk retreat.

Website of Rossendale branch of Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Society contains a list of war memorials in Rossendale. The oldest of these is in Rawtenstall Municipal Cemetery. It is reputed to be the earliest Great War community memorial in England. It was erected in 1915 and had only 8 names at the time.  www.rossendale-fhhs.org.uk

[Viktoria]

The last time I walked through Stubbins Estate the plaque telling of Colonel Porrit’s gift in memory of his son was so badly decayed,it was literally falling to bits.
I reported it but nothing was done by N.T.
I have not walked there for a couple of years ,hopefully it will now be renewed if it has not already .
Thankyou you for the information,I don’t take The Bury Times anymore .
Viktoria.