A ceremony to unveil Harthill, Eastfield and Greenrigg’s new warfare memorial lastly passed off two years after every little thing needed to be placed on maintain because of covid.
A dedication service was held which noticed locals be a part of Lord Lieutenants from each West Lothian and North Lanarkshire Councils and religion leaders to pause and keep in mind the 81 males whose names are on the memorial.
The brand new memorial was created earlier than the pandemic hit two years in the past and members of the Warfare Memorial Affiliation had been delighted to have the ability to formally unveil it.
Chairman John Walker mentioned: “We began in 2015, we had at all times had a dream of getting an out of doors warfare memorial, the present warfare memorial within the church was solely accessible when the doorways had been open, so we needed to have one that everybody may take pleasure in.
“So in 2015 we began the method of discovering out if we may organise a committee and we began elevating cash. Initially we had been going to have a VE Day celebration and had raised funds for that occasion and we had been going to have a road get together, after which covid got here alongside and cancelled every little thing.
“We had been additionally working together with North Lanarkshire Council on a little bit of floor to place it on and likewise concepts of what it ought to appear to be.
“All of us had out personal concepts after which North Lanarkshire Council put us in contact with considered one of their designers who got here up with what’s there now.
“We had been fairly near getting the funding from North Lanarkshire Council as covid got here alongside and we gave the go to present them the permission to start out digging after which it’s lay for about two years ready on the dedication ceremony, however in that point we discovered one other 18 names that had been lacking via extra analysis.”
John continued: “The funding to construct the memorial got here from North Lanarkshire Council however the funding to help the occasion itself got here from fundraising by us as a committee and from individuals within the village.
“We want to thanks everybody who has supported us. We additionally had a road get together that was a VE celebration and jubilee in a single, which we loved. I feel the village is kind of proud of it, I’ve not heard a foul phrase concerning the memorial and everybody was stuffed with reward for the dedication occasion.”
“The following job is to get lighting for the memorial together with the statue of the miner in the identical space, in order that’s the place we’re heading, which is able to price over £6000 for that.”
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