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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

I've found a war memorial by some wheelie bins!


Andy Wade

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Thanks again to everyone for the messages of support.

Quick update for those following the story as it pans out so far.

I received an email today from a collections officer from the museum and they are definitely interested in looking at this memorial, particularly as it has strong provenance for being the Temple Street Memorial that goes with the stained glass memorial windows they already have on display. The officer agreed that they're part of a set so they should certainly be together.

The 'Collections Development Panel' meets in August and the officer has asked me to send a copy of the Police Receipt that proves I have the right to give it to the museum, plus the information on the men I've researched that connects them with the chapel itself. So far I have found good evidence for three of the names out of 23 total and I hope to find similar evidence for more of them.

Really pleased to be able to see a small glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

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Defiantly the best option - reunite the memorial with the windows to which it relates.

Look forward to the conclusion of a happy story for a change.

Martin

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Andy, I'm absolutely made up for you and now being the official (owner) custodian of the war memorial, and so glad the council people are taking a very keen interest in it.

As regards the situation with my Batley WMC Roll of Honour I am still waiting on the final outcome from the parish church about installing it in the church.

One quick question though, when you first went to the police about it did you have to lodge it with them for the 28 days or where you allowed to keep it at your premises.

Cheers Roger.

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Hi Roger,

When I rang them up on 101, the operator asked me where it was and I said it was in my garage and obviously they had my address. They didn't ask me to hand it in. I think that possibly because of the recent cuts they are so short staffed locally and it would have been quite a large item for them to look after, and to be honest I got the impression that they weren't sure what on earth they could do with it anyway.

From the start with my dealings with them, I was completely honest and matter of fact about what I thought should happen with the memorial and I think possibly because I'd made it clear that I had no material designs on it, they decided to leave it with me for the time being, although she did ask me if it was likely to be moved before the 28 days were up and I said it was too much heavy to move without help and I hoped its next journey would be to the museum if we could establish that we could legally pass it on to them.

When I went down to the station to ask for a Property Receipt, the Police officer on the desk looked at me as if I was from another planet. I think it was a first for him! He came back and asked me to take a seat as it could take a while and later he came back and said he'd just read through all the reports and was full of praise for me finding it and taking the action I'd done. He also said he'd twigged who I was as he had read some of our newspaper articles about local men who served in WW1 so he was already on board, so to speak. Then I signed on the dotted line and that was it, job done.

The Police have actually been extremely helpful, both with initial advice and their subsequent actions, so I'll be praising them very highly when we eventually find a permanent home for the memorial.

Great news about the Batley WMC Roll of Honour. Well done and fingers crossed for a good outcome with it.

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i'm sure the police were impressed with your sincerity &honesty & desire to do the right thing. Having the one man know about you & your work helped for sure as you had an ally in him if needed. Very pleased to see a happy ending coming too. By all means do give the police the proper mention for their cooperation in this & understanding of the goal of your efforts.

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FAO of Andy Wade,

Trying to send you a PM your inbox appears full.

Cheers Roger.

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  • 1 month later...

Update:

I've had an email from one of the museum's collections officers, telling me that their Collections Development Panel met on the 10th August and that they were all very much in favour of accepting this war memorial into the Museum's collection.

A few weeks back, I visited the archives in Keighley Library as the Methodist Circuit magazine during the war ran a series of articles on their growing roll of honour for all those who had enlisted in the war effort and a later edition of this magazine contains a full roll of honour for Temple Street Chapel. The names on the roll match those on the war memorial that I found and I'd passed this information to the panel before their meeting. We have proven beyond all doubt that this is indeed the lost Temple Street war memorial and it belongs with the stained glass war memorial windows that the museum already has on display.

We're delighted at this news and I'll update this thread again, once we've handed it over to the museum staff, hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks.

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Update:

I've had an email from one of the museum's collections officers, telling me that their Collections Development Panel met on the 10th August and that they were all very much in favour of accepting this war memorial into the Museum's collection.

A few weeks back, I visited the archives in Keighley Library as the Methodist Circuit magazine during the war ran a series of articles on their growing roll of honour for all those who had enlisted in the war effort and a later edition of this magazine contains a full roll of honour for Temple Street Chapel. The names on the roll match those on the war memorial that I found and I'd passed this information to the panel before their meeting. We have proven beyond all doubt that this is indeed the lost Temple Street war memorial and it belongs with the stained glass war memorial windows that the museum already has on display.

We're delighted at this news and I'll update this thread again, once we've handed it over to the museum staff, hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Great news Andy. I suppose that it was the only sensible outcome for the memorial really--will the museum be able to display it alongside the memorial windows?

I wonder who deposited it by the bins--did you ever find out?

Robert

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Hi Robert.

I'm not sure where they'll put it or if there's room for it with the windows which are in a special display of stained glass upstairs in Cliffe Castle Museum. I expect it will go into storage for now and I'll certainly ask them what they plan do with it as we'll want to put something about this in the Keighley News. I'll post it on here is it gets put on display as it will round off the whole story very nicely.
We never found out who left it by the bins. My best bet is that someone moved it round there after it had spent a few days on the pavement along with the furniture that was left out. Somebody definitely took the furniture away and left the memorial, according to one resident, but he didn't know who they were. I'm just glad it didn't happen close to bonfire night...

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Hi Robert.

I'm not sure where they'll put it or if there's room for it with the windows which are in a special display of stained glass upstairs in Cliffe Castle Museum. I expect it will go into storage for now and I'll certainly ask them what they plan do with it as we'll want to put something about this in the Keighley News. I'll post it on here is it gets put on display as it will round off the whole story very nicely.

We never found out who left it by the bins. My best bet is that someone moved it round there after it had spent a few days on the pavement along with the furniture that was left out. Somebody definitely took the furniture away and left the memorial, according to one resident, but he didn't know who they were. I'm just glad it didn't happen close to bonfire night...

Hi Andy,

It will be interesting to see if it is possible to display this very fine memorial, even if it is not close to the windows with which it is associated. I know that they do have limited space available at Cliffe Castle, but was there not talk of displaying some of these memorials in the new Civic Centre?

Close to Bonfire Night!!--well, we wouldn't be having this discussion now, as more than likely it would have gone up in smoke and been lost forever!

Well saved that man!

Robert

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Great story - surely a candidate for a classic thread?

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Robert, I think the Civic Centre was never really a candidate for the display of these memorials and indeed it's likely to close down anyway with the debacle over the funding of it.

We are talking to a number of people and looking closely into the issue of displaying all of our local war memorials that are currently in storage. There are at least twelve(!) memorials that we know of that are stored away. That will be thirteen in a very short while... :D

Simon, I think the 'classic threads' section was removed from the forum.

I think our experience shows that it can be possible to save a memorial if you go through the official channels and have a degree of patience. Mind you, it's only been four months since I picked it up off the street so I don't think we've done badly at all, time wise.

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Andy, many thanks for the update and delighted as well with your news. Congratulations and well done again - if it hadn't been for you goodness knows what would have happened to this memorial.

Anne

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Update:

I've been on the phone to Cliffe Castle Museum today and I'll be taking the war memorial down at 10.00 on Wednesday morning (19th August) to hand it over properly. They plan to clean and record it and then they intend to display it alongside the Temple Street stained glass war memorial windows (that are mentioned on the war memorial).

They were completely in agreement with my initial thoughts that this is exactly where it should go. It's a tremendous outcome for me personally.

We'll take some pictures of the handover and when there's a newspaper article of it, I'll post a copy of it on here.

Time for a beer I think...

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Andy

You deserve more than one, very well done and a great outcome.

Mike.

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This is the best result and having the memorial reunited with the actual windows is epic.

However as the new legal owner you could just change your mind and install the memorial in your lounge !!

I still think back to your very first post and find it difficult to imagine the type of person who would just "dump" "cast aside" "reject" "throw away" such an item.

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Thanks everyone for your messages of support!

We did the hand over to Cliffe Castle Museum this morning, I now have a 'Museum Object Entry Form' as my receipt.

The lady on the right is Heather Millard, a Social History Curator at the museum. She was very enthusiastic about this memorial being reunited with the memorial windows that they already have on display and they'll let me know when they have put it on display after their experts have examined and cleaned it properly. I haven't done anything other than dust it off and cover it with a dust sheet so it's pretty much as I found it on the street. The story is nearly complete, as it's it's now in the same building as the memorial windows, and I'll go and see it, and hopefully be able to take a picture of it in it's final position. Heather has said she'll email me when it is ready to view. We will also be supplying them with fully referenced biographies about each man named on the memorial, pending the completion of our own research.

post-9980-0-97258400-1439982888_thumb.jp

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A wonderful story indeed and a great photograph. Look forward to reading the newspaper article!

Anne

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