Teenage members of Whaley Bridge Band take on the responsibility from one of their veteran colleagues to play the Last Post at Remembrance Sunday services and ceremonies in the Whaley Bridge area on 14 November.
Teenagers rehearsing the Last Post: Cara, 13, and Daniel, 15
Daniel Sergeant , aged 15, will play the haunting piece on his cornet at the service inside Holy Trinity Church, Whaley Bridge and later at the Cenotaph in Memorial Park.
Cara Wheeldon, aged just 13, from Disley will play the Last Post, also on cornet, at wreath-laying ceremonies at the War Memorials in Furness Vale (on the main road, near the Imperial Palace restaurant) and Bridgemont (near the Dog and Partridge)..
Whaley Bridge’s main remembrance service is in Holy Trinity Church, starting at 10.30am, and conducted by the Rev Michael Peat, chaplain of the Royal British legion’s local branch. Whaley Bridge Band, with many young members, will play as the banners and flags are welcomed in the church. The names of the fallen will be read out.
Afterwards members of the British Legion, as well as councillors, local Scouts, Guides, St John Ambulance and the police, will move to Memorial Park for the wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph. That will be between 12 and 12.15 midday. (The Cenotaph is to be restored as part of a £470,000 project to improve the park, which was opened shortly after World War I on land gifted by the Jodrell family.)
Thursday 11 November is the 92nd anniversary of the armistice which ended World War I – the Great War – at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. There will be a short service at the Memorial Cross, Jodrell car park, near the station at 10.45am on the Thursday and another service, again at the same time, on Saturday 13 November. Children from Year 6 at the two primary schools in Whaley Bridge, who have been studying World War II, have been invited to the 11 November service. The public is welcome to join either service.
The Memorial Cross, made from Derbyshire stone, was donated to the town by the Middleton family, owners of the Jodrell Arms in 2008.
Memorial Cross at Jodrell car park is dedicated by Rev Graeme Lamb in 2008
- Daniel Sargeant has been playing the cornet since he was six. He was in the Stockport Schools Orchestra for six years, then the Hawk Green Band at Marple, before joining Whaley Bridge Band. In 2009, he was flugelhorn solo champion in the North Wesr Brass Band Association contest.He is fascinated by history, including World war II – where his great grandfather served in the RAF in Hong Kong. Daniel has played the Last Post at his school, Hazel Grove High, seven or eight times.
- Cara Wheeldon, a pupil at Poynton High, has been with Whaley Band for only a few months, She was previously a member at New Mills. Her mum’s father Roy Waterhouse, from New Mills, served in the Burma campaign in World War II, and was wounded.
- Marcus Bridge, musical director of the band, said: “We’re very proud of them both.”