Memorial Stone erected on Castleton village green

A war memorial has been erected on Castleton village green in just 30 hours.

Roy Down, Rochdale In Bloom chairman, suggested to Councillor Billy Sheerin that a fallen tree on the green gave the village an opportunity to erect a war memorial.

Permission was granted by the council and Councillor Sheerin started the process of building the memorial. Paul Ellison, project manager for the In Bloom committee, agreed to help.

On Thursday 7 June at 12 noon Chris Ashton of Special Branch ground out the tree stump, at 2.00pm Byron Radcliffe of BR Excavations dug out the foundations, 3.30pm Peter Cordwell, of Creamy Crete, filled the base with concrete and at 4.30pm he borrowed fencing from Crewe Industrial in the Carnegie Library building to protect the concrete. 

On Friday 8 June at 10.30am Councillor Sheerin met Paul Rogers of Marshall quarries on Scout Moor to pick the rock, by 12.30pm the rock had been delivered to the village green and at 2.00pm a Creamy Crete special fork lift truck lifted the rock onto the plinth and then the rock was cemented to its plinth.

At 3.00pm, the same day David Collins, Hydro Dynamics pressure washers, cleaned the stone and Roy Down and Paul Ellison banked up the stone with soil, the Memorial Stone was in place.

A total of 30 hours of action.

On Wednesday 13 June, Roger Gregson, J Child Stonemasons, ground out the area for inscription and then carved the inscription in the stone.

Tracy Hibbert from the councils environment management department planted red geraniums around the stone and inserted Silhouette Soldiers on Monday 18 June and a flag pole was ordered.

All services, materials and labour were donated totally free, the only cost to the council was the flag pole.

Rochdale In Bloom chairman, Roy Down said: "When you start a community project like this, you can never be sure how successful it will be.

"Sunday 23 September just showed what you can achieve when things go right. I am particularly pleased for my fellow In Bloom volunteers, Paul Ellison and Billy Sheerin, Sunday was the result of a lot of hard work they both put into the whole memorial project."

Paul Ellison, vice chairman of Rochdale In Bloom said: "After Roy Down came up with this idea, I relished the chance to put thoughts into something real and enjoyed delivering this meaningful project to Castleton. I would like to thank everyone involved, especially Paul Rogers from Marshalls Plc for donating the piece of stone."