Plea for information for new war memorial in Lawley

Lawley and Overdale Parish Council wants to build a new outdoor war memorial to be put up to mark 100 years since the end of World War One in November 2018.

A consultation has been held with residents on where to site the new memorial, and the council is currently looking to find a designer to come up with an idea for the sculpture.

But they are calling on residents to come forward with details of people from the parish who lost their lives in wars from 1914 onwards.

Councillor Jayne Greenaway, chair of the parish council, said it has a working group of service people who live in Lawley, councillors and other local people including representatives of the Lawley History Group, working on the idea.

The group is being chaired by Councillor Kevin Guy, who was in the forces before he became a councillor.

But the council says that although 2018 may seem far away, it is not actually much time in which to have the memorial designed, built and installed ready for the anniversary.

As such, members are trying to do as much as possible to gather information of anyone that lost their lives from Lawley, Overdale, Old Park, The Rock and parts of Dawley Bank ready for the memorial.

Councillor Greenaway said the idea began about 12 months ago. She said: "The idea came about because Lawley is such a fast growing area, with a number of commemorative plaques in a number of churches.

"But there is no outdoor memorial to serve the whole of the parish."

So far the working group is collecting some of the records from existing plaques, but say many cross-refer and there are a number of duplications.

Councillor Greenaway said: "With the more recent conflicts, it is also harder to get hold of records if you are not family.

"World War One records are well documented by can be harder to obtain.

"We want to put out a plea to the people of the parish to make us aware of relatives and would ask them to come forward so we don't miss them out.

Residents in Lawley were given two options on where they thought the memorial should be sited and, following a consultation, it was decided that a patch of land behind the Grazing Cow Pub in Newdale would be the best position.

There is also a plan for the memorial to be designed in such a way that names could be added in the future if necessary.

Submissions should include the person's full name, rank, the year they died and in which war.

Anyone who would like to submit details should email clerk@lawleyoverdale.org.uk.