Since February 2007, some £107,000 has been received to pay for the charity’s work and ensure that the memorial is unveiled in February 2010.
Trustee Steve Williams checks on the progress of the statue, September 2009
On Christmas Eve 2009, planning consent was finally granted by Chorley Council to erect the memorial on a five foot square plot of land, owned by the Council, on Union Street in the town. At a meeting on the 15th January attended by Pals Trustees, contractors Eric Wright Civil Engineering Ltd. and Council officials, permission was finally given for work to start at the site on Wednesday, 20th January.
An impression of how the statue will look, opposite the Civic Offices in Chorley
The full sized clay model of the statue is down at a foundry in Essex, awaiting to be cast in early February. In mid-January, the Portland limestone for the plinth was cut into panels and shipped to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission facility in Arras in northern France, ready to have the names engraved upon them. Two Trustees, WW1 historians and authors, John Garwood and Steve Williams will be in Arras on the 22nd January to view the work.
All elements of the memorial should come together in Chorley by mid-February. The date when the statue is to be lowered onto the plinth is not being published, whilst the memorial will be screened off until the morning of the unveiling.
Steve Williams, the Chorley Pals Memorial Secretary, and Peter Wilson from Lindsay Hoyle’s office are working on organising the church service on the 23rd February and the unveiling ceremony on the 28th. They are also looking for sponsorship or contributions to pay for printing and catering at the two events, as well as the cost of the annual insurance premium for the memorial.
Updates, with photographs, will appear here on a regular basis.
