Wigan Album
Ince Parish Church
7 Comments
Photo: Rev David Long
Item #: 33959
The wording on both plaques is very striking - I have not seen such wording on the hundreds of memorials I have researched around the country - praising the efforts of three Council officials or members (T B Barnes was its Accountant - he died on the bowling green at the Bellingham in 1969).
I don't know what 'efforts' are referred to - I have looked through the Council's Minutes for the time, and the only reference to a WW2 memorial is the approval in December 1945 for the launching of a public fund to buy land near Ince Station as a Memorial Playing Field. This is never mentioned again - but nor is the idea for bells at Christ Church.
I think it's a very strange affair - carried out in haste, so many qualifying names are missing from the plaque. Most WW2 memorials were usually associated with the existing WW1 memorial - with names being added either directly to that memorial (as at Wigan), or on a screen wall behind (as at Westhoughton). The WW1 cross in Ince Cemetery on Warrington Road would seem to have been adaptable - names could have been inscribed, as elsewhere, on the steps. It would also have continued to be on 'neutral' ground (some Councils, as at Standish, erected their own memorials even though the church was planning to erect the Peace Gate, because they wanted a 'public', not a 'church-owned', memorial). Ince UDC went in the opposite direction. It would be good to know the full story....
Very interesting. I remember when the playing field near Ince Station was opened...it was around 1960 or so and I would have been about 7 or 8 years old. It was, (and still is, I think,) known as William Foster's Playing Field. The brass plaque certainly appears to be beautifully polished and well-looked-after!
From what I read in the Council Minutes and newspaper reports, William Foster was granted permission to use the site he'd used during the war, which had, I understand, been a woodyard, as a post-war dump for surplus military material. In exchange, he purchased the site - he must have been leasing it before - and promised to give it to the Council for a playing field when he'd finished with it.
I think that decision probably ruled out the idea of its becoming a War Memorial Playing Field, as no one would know when it would finally be handed over to the Council - as you say, that happened about 15 years later.
Such meaningful words, the kind that strike home how much sacrifice was given in the fight for freedom…”God Made Trial Of Them And Found Them Worthy Of Himself”… so very touching.
Irene, went to William Foster's last Friday with our grandson, but could not get on it looks like there's work being done, most of the field as been covered with foundation and it looks like it's going to be built on.
I wonder if William Foster's Playing Field was formerly what my much-older brothers, (19 years and 12 years my senior), knew as "The Kimmick" , which was, I believe, a derivative of "The Chemical Fields"? I believe it was a dump for something but not sure what. They used to tell me tales of playing on "The Kimmick" and there was also a "Rubber Dump" somewhere in Ince, where they used to get tyres to burn on Bonfire Night. Unfortunately, they are no longer here to ask, and it would need an older Incer than me to know the answer.
Can remember people talking about 'the Kimmick' I(chemical fields) Irene,I think it was were William Foster's playing fields are.
Owd Viewer,
They are replacing the grass pitches with an all weather surface and building a clubhouse.