This year we will be holding a special Centenary Service at 3pm on Saturday 11th November 2023 in the Remembrance Garden which will be preceded by a Parade from Norbury Parish Church. This will be in addition to the usual Remembrance Sunday Parade and Service at 10.45am on Sunday 12th November 2023.
At the Centenary Service we will replicate the original service from 1923 as best as we can. The service will be opened by the King’s representative The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater Manchester and a Poppy Tree Carving will be unveiled by the Mayor of Stockport to mark the occasion. The Service will be conducted by Rev. Joshua Askwith of Norbury Parish Church, Fr. Peter Sharrocks of St Peter’s Catholic Church and Rev. Cathy Bird of Hazel Grove Methodist Church.
Everyone is welcome to attend both Services at the Remembrance Garden.
For more information about the Royal British Legion in Hazel Grove please see our Facebook Group “TRBL Hazel Grove Branch” or our website, search RBL Hazel Grove.
As ever we are always looking for new members and volunteers to help with the Poppy Appeal, so please get in touch.
Back in 1923 when the War Memorial was unveiled and dedicated
The Front Page of the Original Order of Service 11th November 1923
The Remembrance Garden in 1923
Hazel Grove War Memorial Centenary
This year in Hazel Grove we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the unveiling and dedication of the War Memorial in the Remembrance Garden on Sunday 11th November 1923.
The memorial is in the form of a tall octagonal monument of Darley Dale stone, surmounted by a Gothic cross. It is twenty feet high and is set on a plot of land that was near to the Mechanics’ Institute at the time. This ground which is just over half an acre in area was presented for the purpose of the memorial by Mr Peter Peirce JP and is set out in the form of a garden, bounded by shrubbery and on the London Road and Argyle Street frontages by ornamental railings and gates. The principal entrance is on the London Road side. The monument bears on it’s face fronting this entrance the inscription: -
“Erected to the enduring memory of the men of Hazel Grove
who died for their country in the Great War, 1914 – 1918”
On the other sides of the octagonal base are inscribed the names of the men in whose memory the monument is erected.
The monument was designed and made by Mr J W Hulme, monumental mason, of Hazel Grove. The garden was designed Mr George A Marriott, the Hon. Treasurer of the War Memorial Committee.
The memorial was unveiled by Mr Ernest Bagshawe JP, who was president of the Memorial Committee. The service of dedication was read by the Rev. A J Humphreys BD vicar of Norbury.
The proceedings began on Sunday 11th November 1923 with a procession from Council School to the memorial site via Chapel Street, Hazel Street, Commercial Road and London Road.
When the procession arrived at the site of the memorial Mr Ernest Bagshawe opened the main gates of the garden with a key handed to him by Mr Peter Peirce.
A sloping stone slab listing the names of the men who died in the Second World War was added to the memorial after that war.
