Historic bus, trench recreation and poppy banner are all tributes
ABUS owner has spoken of his pride after a bus with links to the Accrington Pals was used on Remembrance Sunday.
Residents were transported to the service at Oak Hill Park on the Dennis ‘ ES’ type bus which was first used by Accrington Corporation in 1929.
The red and blue colour scheme was adopted in honour of the Accrington Pals regiment colours with the black around the window and mud guards to signify mourning.
Tony Buckland, who runs Buckland Coaches in Suffolk, was invited to use the bus as part of the Armistice commemorations.
He said: “We run the oldest bus in Britain that’s still in service. It was new to Accrington Corporation in 1929 so we have always had an affiliation with Accrington.
“We put it on display in the square on Sunday morning and then we transported people up to the cenotaph at Oak Hill Park. It is unique and of great significance.
“It was a brilliant day. We had an awful lot of elderly men coming up to us talking to us about their war experience or their uncles and fathers who had been in the war.
“There is still an awful lot of information and connections to the First World War in Accrington and I found it very moving.”
A First World War trench was installed inside Accrington Town Hall featuring a unique interactive database with history on the Pals.
The ‘interactive module’ includes more than 12,000 records on the famous regiment and uses information researched by historian Walter Holmes over more than two decades.
It was created, built and installed by Scott Dawson Advertising (SDA) to coin- cide with the centenary of the end of the war and is regarded as a ‘cumulation’ of Mr Holmes’s life work.
Murray Dawson, managing director of SDA, said they have been working on the project since 2013 and had been helped tremendously by Walter’s daughter Cath.
The installation was officially unveiled on Saturday, November 10, by eight-year-old Luke Holmes, great, great-nephew of an Accrington Pal, and Royal British Legion mascot Emily-Rose Hughes, age 11.
A commemorative banner was also created by residents young and old as part of Hyndburn’s Remembrance celebrations.
Organiser Kate Furey invited residents to paint poppies and sign their names during the latest handmade and fairtrade market in Accrington Market Hall. Kate said the artwork was a ‘real community effort’ from town dignitaries and veterans to teenagers and babies.