The Nantwich Branch of the Royal British Legion will hold a Remembrance Day Parade and Service to commemorate 100 years since guns fell silent on November 11, 1918.
The parade will form up at Nantwich Civic Hall on the morning of November 11.
Led by the Band and Drums of the Cheshire Constabulary, the parade will step off at about 10.20am to march along Beam Street, Oatmarket and High Street to Nantwich Square.
Members of the public who wish to be present at the service are asked to stand behind barriers which will be erected in the town square.
Rector of St Mary’s Church, the Revd Dr Mark Hart, Padre to the Nantwich Branch of the Royal British Legion, will lead the service around the war memorial on the square.
After the church clock strikes 11am, chairman John Dwyer will read the Exhortation followed by the sounding of the Last Post before the two-minute silence.
This will be followed by the sounding of Reveille and President Arthur Moran saying the Kohima Epitaph.
The service will continue with the reading of the names of the fallen by Nantwich Air Training Cadets and Nantwich Army Cadets.
The usual 10.45am service at St Mary’s Church will not take place and there will not be a service in church after the service on the square.
The evening service at St Mary’s at 6pm, remembering the fallen, will include Faure’s Requiem, performed by the Nantwich Singers.
Nantwich Town Council is supporting the Nantwich Branch of Royal British Legion with this year’s parade and service.
Prior to Remembrance Sunday, a “Poppy Cross” will be installed in front of St Mary’s Church.
For a small donation, the church and British Legion will supply crosses for people to add their own messages in memory of the fallen.
Is it possible to view the names of the fallen that will be remembered at the ceremony on-line?
The church bells will be rung half-muffled prior to the Remembrance Day service on the square, starting at 10:15am. The bells will be “rung down” by 10:40am so that the band can continue to perform after the procession has arrived on the square and, importantly, so that that the clock can strike the hour at 11am (note the first bong of the hour bell is the accurate one for 11am, not the Westminster quarters which precede the striking of the hour).
At 12:30pm, the bells will be rung half-muffled as part of the Government’s “Ringing Remembers” campaign which commemorates the more than 1400 bell ringers who died during the First World War. Included amongst those performing at Nantwich will be three new ringers who have been recruited during the Ringing Remembers Campaign.
At 2pm, a half-muffled peal of Plain Bob Major will be attempted which should last for around 3 hours – the peal is being rung in honour and commemoration of those who died during the First World War and subsequent conflicts, and in celebration of the peace that was agreed at 5am on 11 November 1918 which halted the carnage of the First World War. Normally, half-muffled ringing is performed on 8 bells with the heaviest bell remaining in last place in each change (i.e. by ringing what is termed Triples); ringing half-muffled Major (where all 8 bells are involved in moving about in the changes) is less common.
The bells will also be rung half-muffled for the Requiem Service at 6pm.
The Nantwich ringers will actually start their commemorative ringing on Saturday 10 November at or just after 5pm for an hour (some of us are ringing for the start of the Cheshire East Reflects ceremony in Crewe and will need to get back to Nantwich afterwards). We shall then ring prior to the 7:30pm performance in the Church of the “Armed Man: A Mass for Peace” sung by the Nantwich Choral Society.
If anybody is interested in learning more about bell ringing in Nantwich and the neighbouring area, please get in touch with me via the Parish Office and I would be happy to show you around.
Stefan Zientek (Tower Captain at Nantwich, St. Mary’s Church)