Welcome to The Briercliffe Society Forum

First and foremost - we need you!

Our ambitious programme of remembrance needs volunteers!

August 4th 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War. Of the millions who served from Britain nearly 1 million died. In Burnley about 4,000 died during or as a result of the war. We are planning a number of events to commemorate the war.

Mike Townend, Project Manager for ‘Little Children Weak’, said:

"This project will bring together all of the community, and we hope that as many people as possible will come forward and volunteer to help in whatever way they can, be it helping with planting, helping to lay crosses or being involved in the procession in August.

“We’d also love to hear any unusual or quirky war-time stories that people may have of their relatives. We’ll be hosting a series of ‘Descendants Days’ and hope that people will come forward and share these with us.”

If you wish to contribute and get in touch with Mike, please contact me for his email address. I don't want to post it here as it may cause his email account to be inundated with spam!

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Mel

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Burnley Council has received £33,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to commemorate the Centenary of the First World War.
The project, entitled ‘Little Children Weak', will take place between 2014 - 2018 and include a range of commemorative activities in Burnley and Padiham.

From June, over 4,000 small wooden crosses will be laid in Towneley Park, Burnley and Memorial Park, Padiham. They represent the 4,212 local men and one local woman who lost their lives during the conflict. Each cross will bear a soldiers name.
The ambitious project will work closely with local schools, residents and volunteers to ensure that their legacy will live on long into the future.

From February onwards, various commemorative planting displays, including one in the shape of the East Lancashire regimental badge, will be created in and around Townley Park and Hall.

Other aspects of the project include:

• Two exhibitions at Towneley Hall: one telling ‘100 Stories’ will take place in the summer and the other, based around local ‘war memorials will be in November.
• To coincide with the exhibition there will be a book and DVD of ‘100 stories’ These will feature the stories of local people about their wartime experiences and information from local historians and experts. A children’s book will be published in the same style.
• The restoration of a memorial banner which has been at Towneley since 1921.
• The production of a new roll of honour
• Short plays by Burnley Youth Theatre
• A series of guided historic walks and talks around the town
• Interviewing descendants of local war veterans
• A procession through Towneley Park on Monday August 4th to coincide with the time that the outbreak of war was announced.

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Mel

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Why Little Children Weak? Huntroyde military hospital in Padiham catered for wounded soldiers see http://www.burnleygallantry.co.uk/huntr ... spital.htm
Soldiers were encouraged to fill out forms which also left rooms for comments. Private. Purvey wrote
'were but little children weak
but now we are mighty strong'
The words are from a hymn but can be seen as an innocent going off to war and, in Bert's case, being wounded at 'Plug Street' and finding strength from his experience.

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Mel

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Did you know that, proportionately, Burnley suffered one of the highest number of casualties in the war? Something in the region of 12% of men of serviceable age. Who were these people who served/died. What is their story? How do we commemorate them?
Keep looking...

For anyone who is on Facebook - Little Children Weak can be followed there. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-C ... 44?fref=ts

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Mel

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Mike went to Burnley Youth Council last night who seem to be keen to be involved with the
project.

All Burnley schools on board 39 with 2 from outside the borough. The first time that all schools have involved with one project?

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Mel

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Mike Townend is looking for an original photo of people laying wreaths etc at the Cenotaph in Towneley Park. Searching for something between 1926 to about 1935. Contact me if you can help please.

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Mel

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Met with most of the schools who are involved with Little Children Weak. We have a number of volunteers who will be visiting these schools to start off the learning process with the young people. They'll be looking at one man from Burnley and through objects, scenarios and questioning bring out his story. This will be the start of the schools involvement. It's probably the first time for about 60 years that all Burnley schools have signed up to one project.

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Mel

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There will be a number of legacies. One is the restoration of a historic banner made in 1917. It's a memorial in itself being made to recognise those lost in the early battles of 1914. Banners were hung at a choral concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Ours bears the badge of the East Lancashire Regiment and was presented to Burnley in 1921.

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Mel

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Mike is looking for an original photo of people laying wreaths etc at the Cenotaph in Towneley Park. Searching for something between 1926 to about 1935.

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Mel

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Mel

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You've been busy Mel, or is the "I"---Mike Townend?

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

I have used this site to post a picture of my uncle who died in WW1.
http://burnleyinthegreatwar.info/
A full list of those who lost their lives is shown. For those interested it's worth looking at.

The 'I' is Mike Townend Gloria. I cut and paste his facebook updates.

Thanks Plaques, I think Andrew (from the site you linked) is also involved with the Little Children Weak project. Andrews site has always been an excellent one.

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Mel

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!