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21st August 2008

£30,000 Promised For Plinth

BAE Systems, former owners of the ROF factory at Euxton (now the Buckshaw Village complex) have promised £30,000 for the 8 foot high x 4 foot wide plinth.

Their generous donation means the memorial should be erected in the town in the summer of 2009.

The campaign will now major on raising money so that the names of the original 230 Chorley Pals can be added to the sandstone plinth.

20th August 2008

Statue Takes Shape

Sculptor Peter Hodgkinson revealed the first part of the statue to Trustees at a meeting in Chorley on the 18th August. He has started at the top by duly completing the head and shoulders of the proposed statue.

In an interesting twist, Peter topped out the clay bust with an original steel helmet from 1916 that was found on the Somme battlefield many years later.

Somme Trip raises £500 For Appeal

A five day coach trip organised and led by Steve Williams, one of the Chorley Pals Memorial appeal founders, raised £500 towards the appeal. Each of the 43 passengers agreed to £10 being added to the overall cost of the trip, with the remainder being donated by the organiser.

The trip spent three full days on the Somme battlefield, visiting many of the major sites as well as Serre where the Chorley Pals went over the top on the 1st July 1916. The trip ended at the British Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval.

Local Authors Start On New Pals Book

Back in May the appeal was granted £6,000 to write a book about the history of the Chorley Pals, with all monies from the sale of the book going to the appeal fund.

Local authors and appeal Trustees, John Garwood and Steve Williams, have started on writing the book. It will be based on John Garwood's 1992 book "Chorley Pals - a short history of the Company in the Great War, 1914-19" (copies available from Chorley Library or purchased at the gift shop at Astley Hall). The book will detail the history of the Chorley Pals from its formation in September 1914, their time guarding the Suez Canal in early 1916 and feature heavily their action at Serre on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on the 1st July 1916.

A major part of the book will be taken up with details (as available) of each and every man who served in the Pals, along with pictures. The aim is to have it ready by the 23rd February 2009 - exactly 94 years on from when they left the town to go to their training camp in North Wales and ultimately off to war.

More details soon.

4th July 2008

Pals Statue Receives Funding Boost

At Astley Hall Chorley on Friday, 4th July Lindsay Hoyle, the MP for Chorley, announced that funds had been raised to allow the project to go ahead, as well as unveiling the image of the proposed memorial. The image, drawn by local artist Peter Hodgkinson, is 5 foot x 4 foot pastel drawing of a WW1 soldier in full battle kit "going over the top". In addition, Lindsay Hoyle outlined details of the next stage of the campaign which will see the statue being unveiled in Chorley during early July 2009. The campaign will continue to raise money for a plinth for the statue which will have upon it all the names of the original 'Chorley Pals'.

The statue will be the first World War One memorial to be commissioned and erected in the U.K. in over two decades. Whilst there are two small informal and un-official memorial plaques in the trenches at Serre on the Somme in northern France, the project is unique as it will see a major memorial to the Chorley Pals actually in the town - 93 years on from when they left Chorley to go off to war and into history. It follows on from a recently un-veiled memorial tablet to the Chorley Pals, placed on the wall of Booth's Supermarket in Chorley by the local branch of The British Legion.

It will also be the first statue to be erected in Chorley town centre (the official town war memorial is a simple cross memorial with no names upon it, situated at the entrance to the local park). It will also be the first and only memorial to have names of Chorley men on it.

Astley Hall was chosen for the venue of the announcement, as it has a memorial room to all the men from the town who fought in the First World War. It is a suitable back drop, containing large photographs of the Chorley Pals Company - the men, their medals and memorabilia & an illuminated scroll of all the original Pals Company (215 men).

Also at the announcement at Astley Hall were Peter Hodgkinson - Preston based sculptor who has been commissioned to design the statue (his commissions include Tom Finney 'Splash' at Preston North End FC, Les Dawson and Wallace & Gromit). Sister Francis (Catherine Calderbank), a 92 year old nun from Chorley whose father Private Henry Calderbank survived the first day of the Battle of the Somme on the 1st July 1916, serving with the Chorley Pals; he was killed in action at Ypres in 1917. Veronica Abbott, the youngest daughter of Private Thomas Leach from Chorley who as wounded at Serre with the Pals on the 1st July 1916.

Stan Dickinson, a Normandy veteran and Secretary of the Chorley Ex-Serviceman's Association. Steve Penlington, Chief Executive of the Chorley Building Society who are supporting / promoting the appeal locally. Members of the British legion, locally, were also there.