CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO CLEAN UP FENTON’S WAR MEMORIAL
Organisers aim to raise £5k for centenary
A CAMPAIGN has been launched to raise £5,000 to help clean Fenton’s landmark war memorial.
The Grade Ii-listed monument, which stands in the town’s Albert Square, was unveiled on Armistice Day in 1922.
The total cost of cleaning the memorial is estimated at £10,000 and some funding has been secured from the Stoke-on-trent City Council’s conservation budget and other sources. But there is a shortfall of £5,000 which needs to be raised before the memorial can be cleaned.
An online Crowdfunder campaign launched last week has already brought in more than £300 and collection boxes will be in place at locations around Fenton, including Temple Street Methodist Church, the town hall cafe, the Locomotive Inn and the Art Bay Gallery.
The Albert Square monument, paid for by public subscription, was sculpted by W & R Mellor Ltd of Moorland Road, Burslem, and is linked to a Minton tiled plaque, in the nearby town hall, which lists the names of soldiers from Fenton who died in the First World War.
The memorial features a life-sized sculpture of an unknown private at the foot of an obelisk, with carved laurel wreaths and the inscriptions Honour, Sacrifice and Courage around the base, as well as the old Fenton coat of arms and the motto ‘Onward and Upward’ on the side facing the town hall.
Albert Square last year received a £450,000 makeover which included new paving, tree planting and landscaping. But it is thought that the works may have led to the bottom half of the memorial being sprayed with dirt and contributed to its poor condition.
Campaign organisers believe the memorial may only have been cleaned once since it was unveiled almost 100 years ago, although the soldier’s rifle was repaired in the mid-1990s after it was snapped off by vandals.
Cheryl Gerrard, independent ward councillor for Fenton West and Mount Pleasant, is leading the fundraising campaign, as well as providing funds from her ward budget.
She said: “The redevelopment of the square has been great and it would be fitting for the memorial to be cleaned up as well. It’s a major focus for Fenton and it’s important to a lot of people in the community and in other parts of the city.
“It’s a very striking and iconic memorial and it is recognised as nationally significant, as it features on the homepage of the War Memorials Trust. When you look at the face of the soldier it is a very moving experience. We know people don’t have a lot of money at the moment but every donation will make a difference, even just a pound. “We hope the campaign will build momentum, even if it might take longer to reach the target than it might have done a couple of years ago, because our history and heritage is so important.”