Video: Fallen honoured in new Ludlow memorial
Two years and £9,000 of fundraising came to an emotional conclusion when newly-lain slabs bearing the names of a town's fallen were unveiled.
The project to upgrade the memorial in Ludlow's Castle Square was started by residents and business owners in the town in 2014, who felt the roll of honour should have a permanent place at the town centre monument to mark the centenary of the First World War.
Sisters Margaret Edwards and Jean Parker at Poyner's clothes shop on Broad Street, came up with the idea and formed a committee which roped in businesses and individuals across the town to help raise the money.
The new slabs, engraved by Kevin Griffin, of W Griffin Monumental Masons, were revealed to all at a ceremony on Thursday evening.
Margaret said: "It was fantastic, such a wonderful day and there were a lot of people there supporting us.
"The sun shone all day, and when they were reading out the names a white dove landed on the memorial."
She said the moment was a coincidence but was a lovely sign. "Somebody said they thought I'd released it from a cage out the back," she said.
Taking part in the ceremony were Ludlow Town Band, Ludlow Male Voice Choir and school children from Ludlow School, who read out the list of names. The Rev Kelvin Price, acting rector of St Laurence's Church, led the service.
Local historians Derek Beattie and Clive Richardson, part of the committee of residents behind the project, said some words, and Ludlow-based folk singer Ann Gray performed a song.
Deputy Lieutenant of Shropshire, Colonel Mark Cuthbert-Brown, also attended.
Members of three local families who lost relatives in either the Great War, the Second World War or the Korean War – the Pitts, the Wrights and the Bradleys – cut the ribbon.
