Failsworth’s memorial is sited on the corner of Oldham Road and Field Street, on a space where a captured German gun from WWI was ex­hibited until its removal to the council yard prior to the erection of the monument. The memorial gardens were once home to a slaughter house which was demolished to allow the widening of Oldham Road in the late 1800's. During the First World War Failsworth lost 235 men in battle and feeling was strong in the town, it was a large number of the population and there was not a family in the town who were not affected. The Failsworth Urban District Council established the War Memorial Committee to investigate a fitting memorial to those who lost their lives. It was decided, after years of work, that they would open two new parks and build a cenotaph to remember the fallen. The result of this lead to Higher Failsworth Memorial Park and Lower Failsworth Memorial Park, in addition to the memorial garden and cenotaph on Oldham Road. The hours of opening of the Cenotaph Ground were to be the same as those for the Higher Memorial Park — suggesting that the plot was originally fenced and gated. The fences, gates, and copper troughs have long gone, but the inscription on the base, badly situated on the blind side for passersby to read is:

From the Oldham Standard. 11th June 1923

Mrs Elizabeth Chappell, representing the wives and mothers of our fallen heroes, who lost four Sons in the war, and sacrificed more than any other mother in the district, in that respect, at 3.5Opm on Sunday 10th June, unveiled the beautiful Failsworth War Memorial, which is surmounted. by a replica in gilded bronze of the winged figure of “Victory” at Naples. The memorial stands in Watchcote Park, the tiny ‘lung’ in a congested district. Designed by Mr J Henry Sellars of Manchester, it takes the form of a cenotaph l3ft 6ins high, and comprises an octagonal shaft mounted on a pedestal in Portland stone. The shaft is fluted on each face in colored gilt tiles. The memorial commemorates the supreme sacrifice of 235 men from Failsworth (in World War 1).

Excellent arrangements had been made by the War Memorial Committee, president, Councillor Edward Whitehead; and. secretary Councillor WGT Wade MM, for the ceremony, and the handling of the very lengthy processions and huge crowds was most commendable. It would be no exaggeration to say that nearly every family in Failsworth was represented. The scholars from church and school were drawn up in an enclosure behind the park, lead by Mr Murphy, and the public thronged Field Street and Oldham Road — the more daring mounting hoardings and house roofs to get a better view.

A driving rain which timed its onslaught just when the ceremony began did not deter the onlookers, but immediately before and after the unveiling the weather was fine but windy.

The long procession of parents, widows, and orphans of the fallen, and ex—servicemen, the latter under Major J Fitzgerald Jones MC, was a melancholy reflection of the toll of war; many of the ex—servicemen being disabled, and at least one having to resort to a wheeled chair.

A very large number of infant girls and boys were wearing their dead fathers’ and brothers’ war medals.

A detachment of the Manchester Regiment with a band under Major CC Stapleton was present, the buglers sounding the ‘Last Post’ and ‘Reveille’.

In 2005 Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council established the War Memorial Steering Group, chaired by Councillor Jim McMahon to investigate renovating the now ageing cenotaph.

The war memorial and it's gardens were listed in 2006 by English Heritage because of it's local and national significance, something we are all proud of.

The new Memorial Gardens were opened on 10th June by Col. Sir. John Timmons, Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester in a service attended by David Heyes MP and Alice Abbott, the Great Granddaughter of Elizabeth Chappell.
 

The Last Post - Played on Remembrance Sunday

A bugle call marking the end of the soldier's day. The Last Post has origins in the 17th Century British Army, where the duty officer was responsible for checking the unit's positions and sentry posts. A number of "posts" were sounded, with the Last Post ordering soldiers to retire for the night.

The Last Post, played on a bugle, has been incorporated into funeral and memorial services as a final farewell to the dead whose duty is over and whose souls can now rest in peace. At the famous Menin Gate Memorial in Belgium, the Last Post has been played every evening since 1927, with a brief suspension during the German occupation in World War Two.