War Memorials Worcestershire
- 27th August 2013
Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service (WAAS) and Worcester City Council Historic Environment Record (WHER) are considering applying to Heritage Lottery Fund to run a project to record our County’s war memorials.
Our war memorials are at risk for a number of reasons:
· The locations of many of them are unknown;
· Many are falling into disrepair and we do not know who is responsible for their upkeep;
· Some have been vandalised or targeted by metal thieves;
· Some have vanished because they were inside now closed chapels or local businesses;
· Some have been moved from their original locations to facilitate development;
· There is often a lack of funds to restore those in a state of disrepair;
· In many parishes there is a lack of public awareness about their local war memorial(s);
· Some are constructed from the local sandstone, which wears easily, and we are in danger of losing the names of those recorded upon them.
The project aims to develop a programme through which we will engage local communities with their military heritage through the recording of the county’s war memorials and those commemorated upon them. Alongside facilitating a programme of memorial recording and archival research, direct engagement with the local armed forces community will enable groups to gain a broader awareness and understanding of the conflicts from which these monuments emerged, and a deeper appreciation of the sacrifices of those which they commemorate.
WAAS and WHER will only go ahead with the application if we feel that local communities and groups in Worcestershire would welcome the project and wish to participate, therefore, we would be very grateful if you would complete a short survey to let us know your thoughts.
Simply email ehancox@worcestershire.gov.uk to receive a copy of the survey. Completed surveys should be returned to Emma Hancox at the previously mentioned addresss, or posted to Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, The Hive, Sawmill Walk, The Butts, Worcester WR1 3PB.
I don't know if you are aware, but there's a very similar project to this already up and running. Sandra Taylor has been documenting all the county's war memorials for some years and all the data is now being collated on the website http://www.rememberthefallen.co.uk. It too is Heritage Lottery backed. Rather than running over the same ground would it be an idea to work together with this project, as this would seem a very useful pooling of resources and save costs?
Dear Martin,
Thank you for your comment. We are pleased to say that we are working with Sandra Taylor on our War Memorials Project. We are proposing to use 'Remember the Fallen' as the online portal for the casualty information that we collect through this project and Sandra is happy to take the data and add it to her website. The first task of the project officer, should we be successful in our bid, will be to collate all the existing data and identify where there are any gaps. The volunteer programme will then look to fill those gaps, rather than duplicating any existing work. It is important we keep abreast of any current projects that we may collaborate on so thank you again for raising this point.
Very best wishes,
Archive and Archaeology Team.