Wigan Album

A fine memorial. I see a Belshaw there. The Belshaw's figure in my family tree.
The other day I read that 2 more churches were closing in Wigan.
Here we have 6 churches.... that I can think of off hand......and all are well attended & Sheringham is not a big town.....they all do much good in the community.

Noticed the name Oskell Sumner standing out with being unusual, there's also an entry in Wigan Archives with his personal details, his regiment, where he died and grave, there's probably other soldiers entries too.
https://archives.wigan.gov.uk/entity/64404-oskell-sumner

I notice the Cox name I wonder if they are related to my Cox ancestry.
One of my Grt,Grt grandfathers was Francis Cox one of five brothers. All lived around Scholes with descendants.

Veronica - the Wigan Archives site mentioned by Cyril is probably the best place to start looking for family connections. Quit a few Cox's are listed. Armed with information from there (date of death, regiment, number, family are usually given) you can go on took at the records on the CWGC list (I use the Find-a-Grave site to do this - it's quicker). From there you'll have information to check on the Lancashire On-Line Parish Clerk site for any related family events registered in local churches. If you get hooked, you can subscribe to Ancestry....

Thanks for that Reverend and Cyril I have just looked on there and seen the details for Oskell Sumner it’s a really good site. I think I will need to join because I inserted both names of the Cox’s and nothing came up. I will need an account.

You don't need an account, Veronica. Just put the name you're interested in in the box which shows up here: https://archives.wigan.gov.uk
If you put 'Cox" in, you'll get all 53 times any reference is made relating to the name. War-related entries have the forename or initial first - the rest usually relate to payments made by the Guardians for the infirm. If you put both forename and surname in, you'll just get the entries under those names.

My grandfather and my uncle I can see their names on the memorial
Grandfather buried in France killed 5days before armistice uncle john died passchenddale1917

Rev what's go in to happen with these memorials

I've no idea, Tom. There are no official protocols - so it's left to individual Churches to make arrangements. The CofE is where non-conformist churches were two or three decades ago, and the experience from the closures of their chapels is not encouraging. Some successor chapels took in the memorials from the closed ones - but many did not, and the memorials have been lost.
It's something which needs looking at....

Veronica all the websites Rev David has mentioned are excellent, Lancashire Parish Clerks Online where volunteers copied BDM's. is very good. The only one where you need to to register & pay is Ancestry or Find my Past etc. That said the 1881 census on Ancestry is free to brouse through.

Thanks to you all for pointing me to these freebie sites. I haven’t done any searching since Covid interfered at the Library where it was free. I will make a note of all of them Helen.

Again, many thanks to Rev. Long for posting this picture. He was doing some research on the Causey family and as you can see Richard Causey is on this WW1 War Memorial.
Richard was my Grandmothers brother and was shot and killed by a Turkish sniper at Gallipoli in 1915. More of that on the Causey Family Grave C1672 Ince UCD Cemetery.

I am interested by the years at the top of the memorial the Great War 1914-1919. Nowadays it's known as the 14-18 war, why the extra year

Graham - the Great War was officially ended by the Treaty of Versailles, the Peace Treaty signed on June 28th 1919 - not by the Armistice on November 11th 1918. From my work on War Memorials around the country, I would say that almost as many are dated 1914-1919 as 1914-1918. The dates 1914-18 are the years of conflict, so are used almost exclusively when talking or writing about the war, so they're the dates we hear of most, but the official dates are 1914-19.
Names on War Memorials officially cover deaths in service from August 4th 1914 to August 31st 1921 - the date when the British Government declared the war was terminated - after all the Treaties with combatant nations (except Turkey) had been signed. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission uses these dates to determine whether a death attributed to wartime service qualifies for inclusion on its Register (and thereby for its care of qualifying graves and CWGC battlefield and cemetery memorials.
However, there were no regulations issued to local authorities and others erecting memorials. Most simply invited names to be put forward for inclusion on memorials, and most were accepted without argument. Thus families proposed the names of men whom they reckoned had died because of their war service, whether or not this was officially recognised by the CWGC. Names of men who died after the official cut-off date in 1921 were also often accepted. One of the names on the memorial in St Wilfrid's Peace Gate, Private John Fisher MM, was demobbed in 1919, and died in April 1926 - before the Peace Gate was Dedicated in October that year - so his name was included on the bronze plaque. He is buried in the churchyard - with a simple wooden cross without inscription marking his grave.

My uncles Nathaniel & Thurston Culshaw. on there both lived in lower Morris Street Scholes with 2 bothers my Grandad John Willie and their younger brother Johnathon, and their Dad Roger.
Of the 3 brothers who enlisted, Nathaniel was KIA in France, Thurston was KIA in Gallipoi , only John Willie returning. It must have been strange sitting around the table with 2 empty places.

Your posting is sad but nice.
Just shows that these people who gave their lives and left love ones bereft are still remembered and their ultimate sacrifice valued.