Asfordby remembrance event to take place by new memorial

A large chunk of ironstone has been sunk into the ground on grassland off Main Street.

It is the centrepiece of a new garden renovated by Asfordby Parish Council in the heart of the village, off Riverside Walk.

Sunday’s act of remembrance service will be the first to be held outdoors in the village for many years.

Rev Peter Hooper, who will take the service, said: “It is quite fitting that we have this new war memorial on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

“The significance of using ironstone is because many, many of those men who didn’t come back after fighting in the war worked at Holwell Works.”

The stone has been recently quarried from the local hills at Wartnaby on land belonging to local fencing supplies contractor David Musson.

Villagers will gather near it on Sunday for an act of remembrance at 10.45am followed by a two-minute silence at 11am.

Although Asfordby has some name boards commemorating the war dead in the village hall and All Saints’ Church, it has never had an outdoor war memorial or a place of remembrance, which is quite unusual for a village.

Rev Hooper, area dean for the Framland Deanery of parishes, added: “I don’t know of any other place which has a new war memorial which is being used for the first time on this 100th anniversary, so we are quite blessed to have it.”