COUNCILLORS in Crewe are insistent a full Remembrance Sunday service will be held in the town this year.

The event, which is managed by Crewe Town Council and the Royal British Legion, typically attracts up to 3,500 people into the town centre.

But there is uncertainty about gatherings with Covid infection rates remaining high across Cheshire East and the event on November 14 may yet have to be scaled down.

This could include reducing the amount of time people spend in Memorial Square, for example by cutting back on the time spent on wreath-laying.

Councillors at this week's marketing and events committee looked at the options of staging a reduced service without a parade or even an invitation-only service with the wreaths laid in advance.

But it was agreed to proceed with a full service dependent on public health advice.

Committee chair Cllr Joe Cosby said: "There were 4,500 people at Gresty Road [watching Crewe Alex] last Saturday so I can't see why we can't have 3,500 in the town centre for Remembrance."

He was backed up by a defiant Cllr Dennis Straine-Francis, who said: "Most of us are ex-servicemen and that is why we feel a passion for Remembrance Sunday.

"That's why we still went last year even when the RBL said we couldn't - we just went there early and didn't go home."

This year's two Remembrance Services are planned, one on Thursday, November 11 aimed at schools and college pupils, and the main event on Remembrance Sunday.

The Sunday Service begins with a parade starting at 10.20am from the Civic Centre and onto Memorial Square. Wreath-laying will take place after the two-minute silence is observed at 11am.

Meanwhile, to coincide with Remembrance Sunday a video screen is being displayed in the Market Hall featuring more than 200 of the people listed on the War Memorial who have been identified as a result of the work of local historians Mark Potts and Tony Marks.

The town council's events and communications manager Rachel Rhodes said: "There is some concern about mass gatherings in Cheshire East and it is being discussed at the moment. The advice is to carry on as a normal event but reduce the risks as much as we can.

"We will have options to reduce the service, including reducing the amount of time spent on wreath laying."

The council is to submit a health and safety risk assessment to Cheshire East Council's director of public health.

The video has been produced from the work of the "More Than a Name" project, which has identified around a third of the names of those inscribed on the memorial.

Photographs have been combined with background details and personal information to commemorate the men and women who fell during the two World Wars and other conflicts.

They include Private Albert Lockett, who served in the 19th (Service) Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment and worked for his father, a boot repairer in Earle Street. He was killed in action on May 11, 1918 in Belgium.

The research undertaken by Mark and Tony culminated in the publication of a book entitled, 'Where the Fallen Live Forever: Commemorating the men on the First World War memorials of Crewe and Nantwich'.

Mark initially started investigating his own relatives on the Crewe and Nantwich war memorials.

The duo also worked with Steve Benson – who runs the Cheshire Roll of Honour – to gather photographs and material.

Mark said: "I thought it would be good that when people come to Crewe for Remembrance that these people were more than a name on the memorial.

"To see that they had jobs, see where they lived, when they died, where they were buried and to see an actual image of them. The majority of people walk past and just see a load of names, but they had wives, husbands and children.

"We also feature a number of civilian photographs, including families completely wiped out on Earle Street in the 1941 bombings of Crewe."

Mark hopes the project will inspire others to get in touch with their own photographs of the remaining names on the memorial. He can be contacted via [email protected]