At the end of June Chester Cathedral Green will come alive with the sound of actors, singers, dancers, and children telling stories from the Bible to packed audiences.
Seven hundred years ago, people in Chester were doing exactly the same thing.

The Chester Mystery Plays date back to the 14th Century when members of the city's freemen and guilds performed tales from the Old and New Testaments to the city's populace who didn't understand church services in Latin.
Written by the monastic scholars of the Abbey of St Werburgh, now Chester Cathedral, the plays tell the story from God's Creation through to the Last Judgement of Christ.
They were originally staged on open pageant wagons which were trundled through the streets to "stations" where the audience gathered.

The first station was outside Abbey Gate and the 2008 audience will pass through the same place to see the modern version of the plays. The medieval route continued down Northgate to the Cross then along Watergate, cutting next into Bridge Street then Eastgate.
Original scripts of mystery plays survive from only five UK cities, with Chester's being the most complete in existence with a text of 24 plays.

An ecclesiastical ban in the 16th Century put a stop to the performance of mystery plays although Chester was the last to succumb, much to the fury of the ruling Archbishop.
Hundreds of years later, in 1951, the plays were revived as part of the celebrations of the Festival of Britain.

Chris Fletcher, 81, remembers being in that first revival.
"I was in the chorus of Noah and we performed the plays in the refectory of the Cathedral.
"I was 24 at the time, single and teaching art at Helsby Grammar School and two other members of staff and I thought it would be a good idea to get involved.
"It was really exciting. We had to plead with Noah to let us on the Ark and I remember God being up a pulpit. It was very effective."

Chris' grandchildren Daniel, 17 and Abbi 13, are both taking part in the 2008 production. Daniel, a student at Upton High School, is playing the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, head of the Order of Cherubim, a devil and a soldier. Abbi is performing as part of Jigsaw Music Theatre Company in the Creation and Noah.

Chris, of Great Sutton, is hoping to go and see her grandchildren's performance with her son Peter and his wife.
She says: "As far as I can remember I don't think we had as many rehearsals as Dan and Abbi are having now."

Chairman of Chester Mystery Plays Ltd, Jo Sykes, remembers first getting involved with the plays in 1962 when she was still a schoolgirl. She has been involved in one way or another in every production since then.
She says: "During the long, hot summer of 1973 a company of 20 Chester Guildsmen took to the streets of the city under the leadership of pageant master Kevin Catchpole, a local journalist and theatre enthusiast.

"The men, drawn from various guild companies and wearing simple costumes made by their wives and guild supporters, performed on a cart designed and built by Chester Gateway Theatre designer Robin Edwards.
"This production ran simultaneously with the main production which was directed by James Roose-Evans and was performed on the Cathedral Green in a Big Top.
"Animal heads, made by pupils of Christleton School, were hung around the colourful cart and children from the watching crowd were welcomed aboard the Ark at each performance.
"Among distinguished spectators was writer and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge who found the cart plays 'quite charming'."
In 1977 and 1982 she played the role of Mary Magdalene.

Artistic director of the 2008 cycle, Robin Goddard, has also had a long standing artistic involvement with the plays.
In 1977 he played Lucifer, five years later swapping sides to take on the role of Jesus.
Composer and musical director of the 2003 and 2008 cycles, Matt Baker, was first involved in 1992 when he was asked to compose a short Hosannah chant for the Judas play, in which he appeared as Caiaphas.
Jo added: "The 2008 production is almost upon us and this is where the magic begins. There is a spectacular new set and costumes designed by Judith Croft, exciting new music composed by Matt Baker and of course Robin Goddard's imaginative and at times breathtaking artistic direction which will astound and delight the audiences who will flock to Chester Cathedral Green."

The Chester Mystery Plays will be performed on Chester Cathedral Green from June 28 to July 19 (previews June 26 and 27). Tickets from Chester Festivals Box Office at Chester Racecourse 01244 304618.

The only thing 64-year-old Jim Tarbox (right) knows about his real father is that he was called G Moss and was in Chester during the Second World War. He tells Chester Chronicle ALLISON DICKINSON about the quest to find his roots.

JIM Tarbox only discovered the man he called Dad was not his father after his mother died two years ago.
As he started preparing her eulogy he looked through her papers to find out when Tamar Tarbox, née Garrard, was stationed at Saighton camp with the Auxilliary Territorial Services in Chester.

"I found that some of the dates didn't quite match up," he said.

"I also found two birth certificates for me - one in my mother's maiden name with no entry under the father's name dated 1944, and another dated two years later which gave me the surname of Tarbox, the man she married, and the man I had known as Dad.

"I called my uncle and he asked if I knew Les was not my real dad - it turned out that my aunts, uncles and cousins knew and they had kept this a secret from me for 60 years. I just couldn't believe it.

"Working back the months from my birth date, she was definitely in Chester when I was conceived - and I need to know if my father or any of his family are still in the area. Not to gain an extended family, but to fill the large gap that I have in my life. I simply need to know who my father was."

Jim, born John Montgomery-Garrard in Ongar, Essex in June 1944, discovered his mother had become pregnant while serving with the ATS in 1944. He does not know why the name Montgomery appears on his original birth certificate.

Tamar's Army records revealed she was 18 when she joined the ATS in December 1941. She had been stationed at Saighton from January 1942 to February 1942, when she went AWOL.

She was arrested and brought back to Saighton in March 1942, where she remained until being discharged for "family matters" in December 1943. Jim was born in June 1944.

Court records from June 1944 revealed that Jim's father, identified on court papers as G Moss, had to pay maintenance of 7/6 per week until his 16th birthday in 1960 - and according to elderly relatives, he never missed a payment.

There were rumours among some relatives that his father could have been an American GI at the camp, but Tamar's then best friend Marie Marshall, who is still alive, says the man spoke with a "local accent".
Marie has told Jim she knows nothing about his father except that, on the two occasions she met him, he was in civilian clothing.

Tamar joined the ATS after hearing that her fiancée, John Rennocks, was missing in action in Burma and was believed dead.
Jim, a retired police officer from Stanford Le Hope, Essex, thinks that her affair with the man he knows only as G Moss occurred because she was mourning the loss of that relationship.

Bizarrely, John survived and ended up marrying Tamar's sister when he eventually returned to their home town of Ongar and found her married with two young children.

Jim was at the time living with his grandparents and joined the family when he was six years old. He was eventually to become the oldest of 10 children.

Jim has been unable to gather any information about his biological father, and requests for details from the authorities have proved fruitless. He has even been on the television show Trisha to try and trace him, but to no avail.

He is looking for any information about G Moss, whether he was a local man or an American GI, and whether he is still in Chester or has family in the area.

He is appealing to Cestrians who lived or worked near the camp, or who attended one of the dances there, to search their memories for anything that could help me.

Contact Jim on 01375 403890 or you can post information to him, anonymously if you wish, at 5, Brampton Close, Collingham, Stanford Le Hope, Essex SS17 7NS.

THE Countess of Chester Hospital acquired its present title at a "naming ceremony" in 1984.
And although the West Cheshire Hospital site has been a venue for health care since 1829 it hasn't always had such a flattering name.

The site was first known as the Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum when it opened in 1829. The original building, which housed 90 patients, was designed by county architect William Cole Jnr.
In 1855, the first of a number of name changes occurred when it became Cheshire Lunatic Asylum and in 1870, it became Chester County Lunatic Asylum.

In 1889, Cheshire County Council became responsible for the asylum and in 1899 the original name, Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum, was restored.

The early years of the 20th century saw significant advances in the treatment of, as well as changing attitudes towards, mental illness.

These were reflected in developments at the site.
A new pathology laboratory was opened and in 1914, an annex was built.

In 1921, the name "asylum" was dropped and the title, County Mental Hospital, was adopted.
In 1948 the National Health Service took over the running of the hospital from Cheshire County Council and it was renamed Upton Mental Hospital.

In the early 1950s it became the Deva Hospital.

Following the amalgamation of Chester and District Hospital Management Committee and Deva Hospital Management Committee in 1965, it was renamed the West Cheshire Hospital.

In 1983, a new general hospital and an accident unit were opened on the West Cheshire Hospital site and following the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales on May 30, 1984, the present name, Countess of Chester Hospital, was acquired.

Since the closure of Chester Royal Infirmary in 1996 and Chester City Hospital in 1994, the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust has become the area's main district general hospital that we know today.

WEEDS, floods and dodging fruit were just some of the concerns facing the original members of a Chester tennis club that celebrates its 100th birthday this year.

The Glan Aber Tennis Club was founded in 1908 with just 21 members and the promise of two grass courts on the site of a former market garden at the corner of Glan Aber Road and Hough Green.
The rent was £6 per annum with additional, incidental costs for any fruit that was damaged during the fetching of stray balls.

The club is now based in Westminster Park and plans are afoot to celebrate the centenary in style with a dinner, a wooden racquets tournament and a children's fun day.

President Steve Telford describes the club at the turn of the 20th Century: "In 1908 subscription was one guinea with supplementary funding provided by a whist drive at the City Café and a dinner dance at the Holborn restaurant.

"A Ladies' Tea Committee was formed and the men were seconded onto the Ground Committee to tackle the formidable challenges of the playing surface, the weeds and regular flooding or drought."

After the First World War, membership had increased to 85 and matches were played against Hoole, Wrexham, Waverton, Tarporley, Prenton and Liverpool University with eight victories recorded. Team members wore detachable badges sporting the club colours of Saxe blue and white.

Ambitious fundraising projects included an Armistice Day Dance in 1919 and Christmas plays were presented at the Assembly Rooms between 1928 and 1931.
During the 1920s the club and its facilities steadily improved. A gramophone was purchased in 1923 to "entertain members waiting to play".

A new lawnmower was acquired in 1925 and by 1929 the four courts were converted to a shale surface.
Steve adds: "In 1934 a cigarette machine was installed by Chester Home Services, at no cost to the club, except perhaps to members' health!"

Standards of play at Glan Aber were not likely to produce a Wimbledon winner. In 1933, the club record was played 12, won 2, lost 10. By 1970 things hadn't improved with a record of played 24, won 2, drawn 2, lost 20.

The club bought the Glan Aber site in 1953 for £650.
Steve says: "During the 1950s there are recorded complaints about the junior membership, with the unruly summoned to a talk with the captain and the ground secretary.
"There was also a decision made that members be restricted from bringing babies to the club after 6pm on weekdays and on weekends.

"In 1955, members were reminded that they must not wash their feet in the wash basin."
By the 1960s membership had slumped and by 1978, the first year in eight that the club had made a profit, there was talk of closing it down.
It survived however and by 1990 discussions were under way with Chester City Council and the Grosvenor Estate Trust on a relocation to Westminster Park.

Ten years later, the dream became a reality and sale of the old site for building financed four floodlit all-weather courts, a new pavilion and four all-purpose courts for public use.
The club now has 200 members, a full-time coach, an extensive coaching programme, competitive teams and a thriving social calendar.

For details about the club's centenary events contact Steve Telford on 01244 674623 or Sue Britton on 01244 677936. The committee are keen to hear from past members.

Chester Folk Festival took place over the weekend at the Morris Dancer pub in Kelsall, where it has been based since 1979, four years after it was launched in 1975 in Chester Arts Centre (now the library).

Festival organiser Cheryl Hunt said: "This was at the invitation of Rusty Williams, a folk enthusiast and a dancer with Manley Morris Dancers, who had recently taken over the pub and renamed it from The Globe.
"The residents of Kelsall welcomed the festival warmly and have been doing so ever since."
She added: "The first festival held there is memorable for the excessive rainfall and is always referred to as 'the mud festival'.

"Conditions have improved somewhat since then and the organisers have developed various strategies for dealing with wet weather."
The festival was started by John Finnan, Mike Jenkins, Dave Boardman and Phil Stafford, who were all local folk enthusiasts and folk club organisers.
They were joined shortly after the move to Kelsall by John Evans and Barry Evans. This group ran it until 1990 when, mainly due to uncertainties about the availability of the site, the festival lapsed for two years and was restarted by the present organising group in 1993.

In the early days in Kelsall, the weekend events all took place on the main site - with the occasional singaround held in the upstairs room at the Oak (then known as the Royal Oak).
There were two marquees on the site - one for concerts and the other for dances; smaller events were held in an outbuilding adjacent to the pub, known as 'The Barn'.
This building is now part of the Morris Dancer restaurant and kitchen, but was once a very different room with a much more 'rustic' character. One of its notable features was a small balcony-style bar area, known as 'The Ashtray'.

Kelsall Community Centre and Kelsall Social Club were first used by the festival in 1994 and the events there are now an important part of the weekend activities, the community centre being the major dance venue and the social club having taken over from The Barn as the main venue for smaller events.
The Oak is still used, as is The Farmers Arms at the top of the hill, so the festival has now spread all round the village.

In 1975 a full weekend ticket cost £5.50. In 2008, the price is slightly higher at £50 for three full days and four evenings of top- quality live music. Cheryl said: "During all these many changes the Chester Folk Festival has remained a small, friendly, family event which strives to present music of the highest standard in a relaxed and informal manner.

"This year's festival took place, as always, over the spring bank holiday weekend and the organisers welcomed many friends old and new."

When rough sleepers began congregating around hot air vents in a car park in 1972 the council responded by installing water sprinklers that sprayed the area every 30 minutes.

A group of local people were so concerned by this treatment of the city's homeless people that they found a derelict house to act as a night shelter, and Chester Aid to the Homeless (CATH) was born. Thirty-six years later, the charity's 36 full-time staff and 28 volunteers now run two night hostels, a day centre, five move-on homes, an education centre and a medical room. All the facilities will be on view during its open day next Thursday, May 22, when visitors can find out more about the charity's past and present work and future aspirations.

The first CATH shelter was at 27 Cuppin Street - a house earmarked for demolition - and provided basic shelter for up to eight people a night until it was knocked down in 1985. The shelter was soon oversubscribed so the group took on a garage opposite known as 'The Crypt' and later another garage in Oulton Place. These were basic shelters where 12 men simply slept on the floor or - if they were lucky - on a camp bed, sometimes without a blanket. Another problem was feeding the men. A small electric heater let them toast bread during the night but there were no facilities during the day.

In 1982 churches came to their help and established an inter-denominational group to run a soup kitchen every lunchtime. Lavinia Whitfield, of Newton, was one of the first volunteers at the soup kitchen from 1982 until it was replaced by the Harold Tomlins Day Centre in 2001. Today she still volunteers at the centre kitchen along with other former soup kitchen volunteers Barbara Clegg, Veronica Long and Philomena Humphries.

She said: "I was a teacher and had never done any work like that before, I didn't know what was going to come through the door. Then these very ordinary people came in and a lot of them were very nice. and I got to know them, had a laugh and a joke with them.

"We used to open for a couple of hours in the middle of the day and provide as much soup as they wanted and plenty of bread.

"It was amazing how they kept themselves clean. We gave them clothes but it was most unsatisfactory because there was nowhere for them to wash before they put the new clothes on."

In 1985 the first long-stay hostel was opened at Roodee House, Grosvenor Street, and Oulton Place was replaced in 1995 by the Crispin House direct access hostel. Lavinia says the charity has evolved - just as its clients have changed.

"When we first started this we thought it was a short term thing, that we would get everybody off the street and they would be fine, but it just doesn't work out that way.
"Back then it used to be middle-aged men with alcohol problems, whereas now unfortunately it seems to be younger men and more women.
"It certainly can happen to anybody at all. I have seen a young man come in who I knew and I was shocked to see him. His business had fallen apart, he lost everything, but he was one of the successes who got himself back on his feet.

"The charity has grown a lot and become very professional now. Imagine if you were to find a rundown old garage and stick some men in it now. You have got to have your policies and procedures in place."
Chief executive of CATH, Robert Bisset, feels it is "a pity" that charities can no longer act as quickly and directly as CATH's founders.

He said: "CATH started with a group of volunteers who realised there was a problem and did all they could with the few resources they had.

"In today's society it would be impossible to develop an organisation in that way. Central government funding is only given for projects that are strategically relevant to their programmes.
"I can see all the merits of this but if it is 11.30pm and you can give a homeless guy a makeshift shelter for the night and a hot bowl of soup, it is better than him being on the streets."

Event to celebrate gymnast's life uncovers snapshots of the past

BUNBURY'S claim to gymnastic fame may not have started with Olympic champion Beth Tweddle.
Decades before, in 1949, well-known village resident Marjorie Rumsey competed for England in Sweden's Lingiad, a world gymnastics festival featuring 13,360 of the world's finest gymnasts. This is twice the number of gymnasts that had appeared at the 1948 Olympic Games in London.

She also competed, at the age of 33, in the National Festival of Youth and Sport at Wembley in 1948.
Miss Rumsey moved to Bunbury in the 1950s and lived in the village until her death last December at the age of 92.

This week her friends will gather to share stories of her and view the many artefacts she kept from throughout her life.

She kept boxes of memorabilia from the Swedish event, including tram tickets, rules for competitors, the programme and the costume she wore for the competition.

According to her nephew Graham, she had to pay for the costume herself.

Marjorie Rumsey was born on January 21, 1915 in Burton on Trent and trained to be a teacher, specialising in gymnastics, games and dance. She taught in Christleton, Nantwich and Crewe.

When she first settled in Bunbury, she lived at Ivy Cottage, close to the woods at Sadlers Wells. It was here that an interest in birds and photography flourished and Graham has discovered slides, cine film and photographs of wildlife and village life.

Miss Rumsey never married after her first love was killed in the Second World War.
She was always very active and enjoyed hockey, Scottish dancing, walking, rock-climbing and tennis.
After her retirement she joined the Bunbury Wednesday Club.

Graham is preparing to share his aunt's work with friends and neighbours at the Jubilee Playing Fields Pavilion in Bunbury on Thursday May 15.

The memorial party will take place from 2.30-4.30pm and later from 7.30-9.30pm will focus on the photographs and cine film that she took of the village and village events in the 1960s and 1970s.

A CELEBRATION of Chester's historical gardens, parks and green open spaces is being held during Cheshire Year of Gardens.

The exhibition, Chester's Parks and Gardens, at the city's History and Heritage Centre at St Michael's Church also features a photographic exhibition by David Heke entitled Human Spaces In Open Places.
The photographs are a study of Hoole allotments.

A showcase of the city's parks includes Grosvenor Park with its Victorian formal avenues, Westminster Park which was leased from the Duke of Westminster in the 1940s and Hoole's Alexandra Park, named after the Queen in 1911.

Visitors will recognise the city centre's Water Tower Gardens and Edgar's Field in Handbridge and notice the changes around the amphitheatre which used to be gardens.

The exhibition tells the history of the Roman Gardens which was created in 1949 as Chester's contribution to the Festival of Britain in 1951 and improved in 1997.

Private residences also form part of the exhibition. Hoole House, formerly situated on the corner of Hoole Road and Piper's Lane, had an important alpine rock garden, a camellia house and a geranium house.
A central lawn was surrounded by 27 circular flower beds.

A grotto is all that remains of the gardens at Hoole Bank House, which now houses the Hammond School.
Designed by the owner Mr Hayes, the space included a maze for his two sons. This was uprooted during the Second World War to make an American base camp and only the grotto survived.

Chester's Parks and Gardens featuring Human Spaces in Open Places by David Heke, is at the Chester History & Heritage Centre until May 25.

IT WAS once said that every day of the year, somewhere in the world, a gang show is playing - and Frodsham was once home to this theatrical phenomenon of the Scouting movement.
Between 1978 and 1993 at the town's community centre, hundreds of Scouts and their leaders from throughout North West Cheshire staged eight memorable productions of this unique musical variety show that was devised by the late Sir Ralph Reader and originally produced in London 76 years ago.

All the gang shows at Frodsham Community Centre included keynote comedy skits, comic songs and sketches and were produced by the late Allan Hull, leader of Runcorn's Cestrian Explorer Unit.
He is fondly remembered by everyone involved for his commitment and infectious enthusiasm that was rewarded with full houses for every performance.

The ultimate accolade of the coveted Red Scarf (necker) was bestowed on the team by the London Gang Show Fellowship for the consistent high quality of the Frodsham productions.
Scouts were always eager to take part and each one boasted a cast of about 200, from eight to 70 years old, who staged the performances in the February half-term school holidays.
Allan and his co-producer Trevor Shore - a 1st Frodsham Scout leader who now lives in Holland - started work in September.

Throughout the winter months the community centre buzzed with the excitement of regular rehearsals and senior citizens were always invited to enjoy a free final dress rehearsal before opening night.
Production values needed to be high enough to attract the ticket-buying public, however, and the gang, plus an army of volunteer helpers, devoted many hours to planning, writing, composing, choreography, building stage scenery and props and making costumes.

"It was hard work and fraught with problems, but we always found a way round them and everyone just loved doing it," said former District Scout Commissioner April Nicholas, of Frodsham, a gang show veteran whose husband, Ian, was also stage administrator.

April was wardrobe mistress for the earlier shows before Joy Coxey took over the demanding task of designing costumes and leading a team of volunteers - mostly supportive mums - who toiled over a battery of hot sewing machines making them up. "And the Scouts were ever so proud of their costumes!" she said.

Musical directors for the Frodsham shows were Ken Street and Barbara Maddock.
"It was a magical time for everyone involved and a great experience and achievement for all these youngsters," said April. "Most of them had never done anything like that before and probably never will again, but I think a few did actually go on to do something in theatre.

"They were really good times with lots of good, clean fun and I think everyone was sorry when our gang shows came to an end, but everyone involved in producing them eventually moved on to other things.
"I'd love to see them again but I think it's the old story of finding the right people with the enthusiasm and time to do it."

AT 9.13am on Saturday, October 28, 1944, Wellington bomber XHF465 took off from RAF Chipping Warden in Oxfordshire. A crew of seven were preparing for raids over Germany and were in advanced stages of training. But horrendous weather brought the aircraft down in Bridgemere, Cheshire, just over three hours into the flight. The main part of the fuselage fell at Prince Hill near the A51, half-a-mile clear of what is now Bridgemere Garden World.

Those killed were Flight Sergeant Leonard Joseph Timperley, Pilot Officer Cecil Frank Holmes, Sgt Laurence Edwin Harrison, Sgt James David Milne, Sgt Arthur Fred Baker and Sgt Ronald Whiteley.
Sgt Douglas Stuart Hollis Wilson, the only survivor, sustained spinal injuries after baling out by parachute.
To this day little else would be known of those young heroes if it were not for the meticulous research of Nantwich historian and author Derek J Inskeep. The author of new book Wings of White Linen was so moved by the tragedy of the deaths of these airmen that he was compelled to tell their story.
The coffins of the dead airmen were transported by rail to their home towns with the exception of Canadian pilot Flight Sgt Timperley, whose body was transported to RAF Regional Cemetery in Blacon, where he was buried with full military honours.

His grave stands among fellow airmen - 192 Royal Canadian Air Force, 93 Royal Air Force, 90 Royal Australian Air Force, 18 Royal New Zealand Air Force and 3 South African Air Force graves.

An Air Investigation Board report into the crash states "pilot may have been descending due to engine trouble. Aircraft flying in cumulonimbus clouds when loss of control occurred".
Mr Inskeep has gone into painstaking detail into the background of the RAF airmen who died on XHF465.
His book also details how Cheshire aircraft factories Boughton and Byley which produced Wellington Bombers played a vital role in winning the Second World War.

The book recalls how in 1944, a "group of 50-60 assembly workers at the Vickers Armstrongs Ltd, Broughton Factory working overa weekend in their own time, carried out a timed exercise assembling a Wellington airframe from start on the factory floor to its test flight, achieving this in a record 24 hours and 48 minutes of non-stop work".

This almost halved the world record held by an American aircraft factory which assembled a Douglas Boston twin engined bomber in 48 hours. By the end of production, the Blackpool and Broughton/Byley factories had produced 8,946 Wellington airframes from a total production figure of 11,461.
The book also refers to Cheshire girls who helped to win the war by helping to build the Wellington bombers in Boughton and Byley.

Nancy Kershaw née Hughes, Tarvin was born at Ashfield Street, Middlewich. Nancy worked at Byley working at the Time Rating office with Barbara Baston, Holmes Chapel and Edith Tattershall. The distance to Byley from Middlewich was two miles with workers using a local coach company, cycling or often walking.
At the end of a working day girls and women would sometimes get a lift from a low loader named Queen Mary. The working hours at Byley were 8am-6pm with one hour for lunch with occasional night shifts. Starting wage was 15 shillings with full pay at five pounds.
At difficult stages of the war, workers were allowed time off to visit Byley church. During busier times the congregation spilled into the churchyard.

In a foreword to the book, Mr Innskeep writes: "Not having myself served in the armed forces though always having a sense of gratitude for those who have and still serve their country, for this reason The Bridgemere Memorial came into being.
"Although dedicated to one aircraft crew who lost their lives nearby, the memorial is intended to remind those of my generation and subsequent ones of the debt we owe to all who fought and worked for our freedom.

"Being present at Bridgemere one day last summer when a grandmother took the time to show her grandchildren the memorial reading to them the names and ages of the aircrew ending with the epitaph They gave their tomorrows for our today. My intended reasons for its building gratified by just one visit."
Derek was instrumental in getting a memorial stone and plaque built in 2003 to commemorate the aircrew of the downed Wellington bomber. It was dedicated in October that year with family members in attendance at the service.
He was aided by Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council, Cheshire County Council Oxley's Funeral Services and The Royal Air Force Association, and Nantwich and District Branch of The Royal British Legion.
Wings of White Linen is available from the author on 01270 841912 and proceeds go to the Royal British Legion.