LIGHT IT UP!

Colne’s War and Wallace Hartley memorials are once more illuminated at night, thanks to the efforts of Conservative councillors.

After the town’s former library and Providence Methodist Church, The Gables, was sold for development in 2015, the lighting to the memorial was extinguished. This is because the lighting was powered from the former public lavatories next door to The Gables and this building was also sold to act as a cycle store to residents.

Wallace Hartley Memorial

Colne and District Area Committee asked for the project to be repriced and, owing to complex electricity supply issues, the total cost was almost £7,000. The Committee, voted £4,000 from its central pot to be spent on the reillumination of the War Memorial and Wallace Hartley Memorial. Cllr Neil Butterworth, who, as a veteran, was prominent in calling for the refurbishment of the Memorial in 2010, said: “This reillumination is great to finally see and is important to both veterans and residents alike.”

The Gables was built in 1867 as the home of Nicholas England Jr, an influential businessman in the cotton trade, and the Memorials were erected in its former front garden. The Gables became Colne’s library in 1907 and later a Methodist Chapel and is once more returned to residential use.

ColneLife Autumn 22