Today the picture is somewhat bleaker, with the only real success really being the park, which is both well used and generally well maintained. Alas the stone tablets at the gates and the tree lined Avenue of Remembrance have not faired so well. The stone tablets are often vandalized and are deteriorating, they are mounted in a very unsympathetic way in 1970’s style concrete slabs with a small plaque informing the reader that they were removed from outside the original nursing home. The tree lined Avenue of Remembrance to the men of World War II is also not in the kind of condition that the sacrifice of a life must surely warrant. Some trees are missing, some have died and need replacing, many of the remaining plaques on the plinths are unreadable and that’s of the ones that remain, many have been stolen and empty plinths now line the footpath….

The plan as it stands today has been born from a number of like minded people who live locally and feel that we must surely be able to commemorate our ancestors better than this? With the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I coming up, in 2008, what better time to try and organize a fitting memorial? Our park is without doubt a beautiful and fitting memorial in its own right and seeing people enjoy themselves there is indeed a just memorial. However, the original tablets with the names of treasured lost ones deserves to be displayed in a more fitting manner than a vandalized concrete slab and these are what we would like to see presented in a new and more fitting manner. All such projects are of course expensive and we fully understand budget pressures on local authorities do not allow for war memorials to feature high on the priority list. It is therefore our intention to be able to fully fund the whole project, through the selling of the "Wickford and Runwell Roll of Honour" book, gaining local sponsorships, donations and seeking grants. We of course will need to secure the site to place the memorial which should surely stand near the entrance to the park. This would allow for a central focal point for the annual remembrance service, whilst more importantly reminding today’s community of the sacrifices made by those before them.

Please now you have found this site, take time to sign our guest book/petition to register your support and help us make the ideas and intentions reality.

/ Steve Newman, August 2006

Above: The memorial seen here before stage one - cleaning - took place

Above: And here is the gleaming result - next stage to mount the tablets in a more fitting mount