Branch History
Standish
Branch of The British Legion was formed 11
February 1922.
The Motto
of The Royal British Legion is SERVICE not
SELF.
History of The Memorial
Gardens
Ordnance
Survey maps of Standish show that the area in front of the Globe at
the intersection of Church Street and High Street, and now known as
the Queen Victoria memorial Gardens, was open in 1897.
In that
year public subscription resulted in the erection of the water
fountain as a permanent memorial for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Victoria. On Tuesday, 21st June 1897, the day appointed by the
Queen for the public holiday thanksgiving, the people of
the township of Standish celebrated in a most enthusiastic manner,
and the Wigan Observer for 25th June commented that:
"All the inhabitants seemed to be united in their
rejoicing and the otherwise quiet little village was a ferment of
joy during the whole day."
The paper
went onto say:
"The celebrations began at the early hour of six in
the morning when the bells of the parish church rang out a joyous
peal, and the inhabitants were soon astir!"
At the
conclusion of the Great War, the Standish Urban District Council
appointed a War Memorial Committee to consider a permanent memorial
to the fallen, and this was unveiled by Councillor Henry Fairhurst
on 17th April 1920, on the land between the Globe and the Victoria
Jubilee Fountain. The memorial itself is unusual in that it dates
the First World War as ending in 1919 (when the treaty was signed)
rather than the more usual 1918 (when hostilities ceased). The
perimeter, with iron railings atop, was erected, and the gardens
have evolved over the years.
The names
of those who died in the war of 1939-1945 were added
later.
From the
Local Heritage Initiative, a partnership between the Heritage
Lottery Fund, Nationwide Building Society and the Countryside
Agency, the project was two-fold; firstly to refurbish and restore
the War Memorial gardens, and secondly to celebrate its historic
significance within the Township through a series of events and
visits, and the production of a commemorative booklet.
The ideas
of the project were to be able to refurbish the Queen Victoria
Gardens which did not include the fountain.
The first
idea was to refurbish and to replace the railings and these were
taken to Robrite at Shevington to be melted down. A committee of
the Standish Royal British Legion and Standish Community Forum
was formed. People included were David Williams, Gordon Buckley,
Bob Allen, Keith Douglas and Graham Wilcox. Quite a few meetings
followed involving Wigan Township people including Linda Coe and
Andrew Meadows who were the people to help and advise which way to
go, and the filling in of the forms to apply for the
grant.
It was
decided to go for a grant to the Heritage Lottery, Couuntryside
Agency,Nationwide Building Society. Dealings with the Heritage
people took around six months and we also had to have plans and
drawings and all these had to be submitted to Wigan MBC's Heritage
Department, firstly to Mr Powell and Kath Brogan as we were dealing
with a listed monument.
Planning
Permission
To be
able to do the work, Planning permission was needed. This was seen
through by Councillor John O'Neill. Once this was given, we had to
apply to the Legal Depatment for the lease of the gardens and the
War Memorial which was part of the conditions to be able to apply
for the grant. We received a ten year lease from the Metro which
enabled us to go forward to apply for a grant and the format
had been decided and Gordon Buckley (clerk of works) where
estimates had to be submitted. Once sorted, a tremendous amount of
work was done by Gordon and there were many hours of meetings
with various Metro Departments to get to the point where we could,
on that side of the project, be in a position to apply for the
grant.
We also
committed to overseeing to include various events involving the
people of Standish. All the schools were involved with a visit to
the Imperial War Museum. Over 400 children and British Legion
members were taken in turn to the museum at different periods. We
also had children's education man Geoff Bennett who does his shows,
Air Raid Archie of the 2nd World War. Also Geoff did 8 shows in
total in the Library for all the schools and 2 sessions for senior
citizens and also a show was done at Mere Oaks school. The whole of
this project was done entirely by the Library staff, Linda and
Heather who did these sessions when the Library was closed on
Fridays, which is much appreciated.
We also
had a project where we would research some of the names on the
Cenotaph, WW1 and WW2 to see if they had relatives who still lived
in the village. This proved to be very time consuming and alot of
time was given by the people involved to get the point of
providing information and the photographs in a book for the people
of Standish.
We had
a grand parade and opening. Only when the work was completed
(apart from the railings, as we advised not to put this in he grant
application as we could have lost everything) we were hoping to get
the grant for work started in February 2004. The parade and opening
took place on the Saturday, 8th May 2004. The opening of the
gardens was performed by Deputy Mayor and Mayoress of Wiagn,
Councillor John Hilton and Mrs Hilton. Also in the parade was MP
for Wigan, Neil Turner and M.E.P., Terry Wynn and Mrs Wynn and the
clergy of Standish, The Rector of Standish Rev. Michael Everitt,
Rev. Ann Hall and Rev. Simon Pritchard. Officials and members of
Standish Royal British Legion and Standish Community Forum were
also in attendance. On parade, RAFA Burma Star Association, Landing
Craft, Royal Naval Association, Far East Veterans Association and
members from other British Legions. Children from all 5
schools of Standish; Guides; Brownies; Scouts and Cubs. Following
the opening of the gardens by a Standish British legion member and
a serving soldier, Sergeant Chris Velone, Royal Engineers, a
reception was held in the Unity Club where Chris received and
inscribed tankard from the Deputy Mayoress. Also, the children who
represented their schools and laid flowers on the new British
Legion stone were all presented with a certificate.
This was
a long and worthwhile project and looks very nice at the entrance
to the village.
David Williams
project co-ordinator
