Does the Town Really Pay Due Respect to its War Dead?

The Highlight Memorial

Radclffe Gardens

The Wall of Commemoration Radcliffe Gardens

The Town's Cenotaph the greenery that can be seen on the steps to the left of the picture are weeds.

The Highlight Memorial - Lest We Forget?

It was opened with all due ceremony including a short service. The town's new Highlight Memorial was to be dedicated to 'All Those Lost At Sea'. Appropriate speeches were made and photographs were taken of Councillors and dignitaries duly displaying their respect to the dead ready to appear in the Hartlepool Mail soon after. Not long after the memorial was dedicated, brainless morons ripped the brass letters of dedication from the stonework presumably to sell for scrap. Councillors were quick to condemn a mindless act which disrespected the memory of the people to whom the memorial was dedicated. Barely two years later,  the memorial itself stood in its own sea of weeds, a victim of a hand washing of responsibility exercise and of sheer neglect. It has remained in this state ever since.

The Council claims that it is not responsible for the site of the memorial while the Marina Company awaits the sale of the derelict Jackson's Landing before spending any money to clean up the site. Looking back on the dismantling of the then Stranton Highlight and its reassembly as a memorial, it now seems to have been little more than a publicity stunt to use up surplus funds from the T.D.C. and to provide some useful photo-opportunities for local Councillors and dignitaries. Had their thoughts of remembrance been genuine, they would never have allowed the memorial to deteriorate to the state it has now reached. Indeed, it would have been better if the names on the memorial plaques had been left largely forgotten rather than to resurrect them into the town's memory only to be insulted in this way. In its present state, the memorial serves not to remember those lost at sea but to demonstrate how little we who remain actually care.

Radcliffe Gardens

The Headland has been undergoing something of a renaissance lately thanks mainly to S.R.B. funding from the Government  and the efforts of local people. One of the most noticeable area to see improvement is the promenade walk from the Block Sands to the Heugh Lighthouse and in the middle of this walk is Radcliffe Gardens or 'The War Memorial' as it is known locally. The Memorial itself has benefited from this renaissance with refurbished walls and railings and a refurbished plinth for the 'Winged Victory' statue which itself is getting something of a facelift. As a result, Radcliffe Gardens is everything a War Memorial should be providing a pleasant and well kept area for quiet reflection. The Gardens are undoubtedly a credit to all those involved.

The inconsistency between this and other town memorials would lead anyone to believe that the good condition of the Radcliffe Gardens owes much to local residents and they would probably be right. However, given that the Headland suffered so badly during the Bombardment perhaps this is not surprising. One small point: the seats within the gardens seem to have missed out on the renaissance - has anyone got a tin of Cuprinol?

The Commemorative Wall

When I was a small child living on the Headland, occasionally the word would go round that they were 'polishing the plaques.' We would rush down to the War Memorial to find a man, complete with a tin of Brasso, busily cleaning the five bronze plaques that commemorate those fallen in two world wars. The righter-most plaque remembers those killed during the Bombardment and many of the surnames would still be familiar to local residents.

Quite what was so fascinating about this event I don't know, but it was a simpler time and there was something reassuring about seeing the same man coming to perform the same task year after year. The headland seemed at that time to have had its own calendar: the springtides in March, the Fairy Lights that indicated the nearness of Carnival week, the opening of the putting green and bowling greens and the tennis court cafe. The Brasso man was part of this calendar. Amalgamation put paid to many of these events - but that's another story. Suffice to say that polishing the plaques was an annual event whereas these days things are routinely left to deteriorate to a level which annoys local residents before anything is done. Certainly, it must be a while now since those same plaques were cleaned. It doesn't take long for the sea air and salt to take its toll on the metal and the green colour of oxidised copper soon begins to show. If memory serves me well it used to take our Brasso friend about two hours to clean all five plaques. Perhaps someone in the Council could spare those two hours sometime.

The Cenotaph - Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

The Cenotaph in terms of its size is the town's principle memorial and sitting as it does, directly in front of the Civic Centre, it occupies a prominent position in the town. Some years ago, the Cenotaph underwent significant work costing tens of thousands of pounds. Concerns were expressed by the British Legion at the time but after assurances by the Council the work went ahead.

Whatever intentions the planners and designers had at the time, the end result has been the provision of little more than a litter strewn concourse for skateboarders and a gathering place for teenage ne'er-do-wells. The designers have clearly gone for the low-maintenance option for there isn't a single flower in sight. Concrete paving and easily mown turf is the order of the day. "Yes, we should remember the dead, but let's do it at a minimum cost of either time or money," seems to be the thought process behind the work. Those who remember how the area was will be saddened to see the Cenotaph in its present state.

The town is blessed with having an excellent Parks and Cemeteries department so we can conclude that it is not their efforts that are short-changing the Cenotaph area but rather those within the Civic Centre who would view the recruitment of yet another Co-ordinator as having a higher priority. Low maintenance turf is not an appropriate way to remember our war dead. It's time to bring back the flowers.