Campaign for Bolton-upon-Dearne war memorial won
A Bolton-upon-Dearne group have won their campaign to stop a war memorial being moved.
The fight by the Friends of Bolton-upon-Dearne War Memorial was supported by MP John Healey.
The Friends applied for the memorial to be listed and Mr Healey wrote in support of the group’s application. Last week (11 March), English Heritage informed Mr Healey they had agreed to grant the memorial Grade II listed status.
This was a big step forward, but the memorial was only confirmed to be safe yesterday (Monday 17 March) after a crunch meeting between Barnsley Council and the Charity Commission. A representative from Mr Healey’s constituency office also attended, as the MP himself had to be in London.
Mr Healey said: “Having helped the Friends of Bolton-upon-Dearne War Memorial battle bureaucracy over the last 18 months, I was delighted the campaign took a big step forward with English Heritage’s decision to award the memorial Grade II listed status.
“I was even more pleased the Charity Commission and council have now agreed the memorial should stay where it is.
“Bolton residents left the council, Charity Commission and English Heritage in no doubt about the strength of their feeling, their concerns about the memorial being moved and its historical importance to the village.
“This is the right outcome and local people should be proud they fought – and won – to keep the memorial in place.”
The war memorial stands in the grounds of the former Lacewood Primary School, off Furlong Road.
It was built at the instigation of the local school to commemorate the young men of the village who lost their lives fighting in the First World War.
There was concern about the future of the memorial because the land it stands on was acquired by a Trust for the provision of education. The Charity Commission had suggested the memorial should be relocated, but in the end the council resisted this because of the strength of local feeling.
English Heritage said they awarded the memorial Grade II listed status because of its historic and local interest and its design.