Fylde Memorial Arboretum and Community Woodland is a site of remembrance at

Bispham, Blackpool Bispham is a village on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England, a mile and a half north of Blackpool town centre. Geography and administration The village is part of the borough of Blackpool, and generally considered a suburb of the town. To ...

, Lancashire, England. It is the only one of its kind outside the

National Memorial Arboretum The National Memorial Arboretum is a British site of national remembrance at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire. Its objective is to honour the fallen, recognise service and sacrifice, and foster pride in the British Armed Forces and civilian ...

Alrewas Alrewas ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Lichfield District of Staffordshire, England. Geography The village is beside the River Trent and about northeast of Lichfield. It is located southwest of Burton-on-Trent. The parish is bounded ...

, Staffordshire. Its stated aim is to

Origins

The idea for the arboretum and community woodland was conceived by Don Aiken, the Vice-President of the Fylde Ex-Service Liaison Committee in the summer of 2008. Investigating the possibility of planting a memorial tree to commemorate comrades of the D-Day and Normandy Veterans, an article in the ''

Blackpool Gazette The ''Blackpool Gazette'' (locally marketed as simply ''The Gazette'') is an English daily newspaper based in Blackpool, Lancashire. Published every day except Sunday, it covers the towns and communities of the Fylde coast. It was founded as '' ...

'' from the Forestry Commission offered to fund the planting of woodland areas. After he contacted them they agreed to fund the arboretum, and subsequently, Blackpool Council agreed to provide the land.

History

The arboretum was unveiled on 23 February 2009 following a £14,000 grant from the Forestry Commission English Woodland Grant Scheme and funds from

First TransPennine Express First TransPennine Express was a British train operating company jointly owned by FirstGroup and Keolis which operated the TransPennine Express franchise. First TransPennine Express ran regular Express regional railway services between the major ...

. Blackpool Council's Parks Service designed the plans for the memorial woodland, while rangers worked with local school children and community groups to plant trees. Officially opened on 26 June 2009 with a service of dedication, the

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

has a main memorial plaque as well as 16 smaller plinths. It is run by the Arboretum Committee, an offshoot of the Fylde Ex-Service Liaison Committee, with the aim of providing the service associations, and the people of Blackpool and the Fylde, with "a place of peace and beauty in which to remember their fallen comrades and loved ones". The woodland has 2,500 trees, from the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

, all planted and available for dedication. In August 2009, the arboretum and woodland, which covers two hectares, received a grant of £35,000 from the Forestry Commission for the purchase of trees and the construction of paths.

Location

Located in fields next to Moor Park School, Moor Park Avenue, in the Bispham area of

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, on a site covering two hectares, it contains a multitude of young trees of diverse size and species with the intention of these trees developing over time into a well kept woodland.

Services Glade

At the centre of the Memorial Arboretum's "Services Glade" area is a simple monument topped by a large inscribed slab of polished

black granite In the construction industry, black rocks that share the hardness and strength of granitic rocks are known as black granite. In geological terms, black granite might be gabbro, diabase, basalt, diorite, norite, or anorthosite Anorthosite () is ...

. A large flag pole stands permanently flying the

Union Flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

. This is surrounded by a circle of 16 young

oak trees An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

, which were dedicated by member associations of the Fylde Ex-Service Liaison Committee, and special ex-service organisations connected with the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre areas. At the base of each tree is a polished black granite plaque, inscribed with a badge and an epitaph. Around this an outer circle of

Downy Birch ''Betula pubescens'' (syn. ''Betula alba''), commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia ...

trees has been planted by the parks department in 2010 to supply the need for further ex-service dedicated plaques.

Millennium Grove

Alongside the glade is the Millennium Grove, another defined wooded area. This is devoted to the memory of service people, previously resident in the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre boroughs, who were killed on active service this millennium. Commemorative plaques are placed alongside selected trees. By 2012, eight plaques were place in commemoration of local service people.

The Jim Houldsworth Bower

In 2012 Major Jim Houldsworth, a beloved leader and champion of the ex-service community, died. In his memory a new area was defined and named "The Jim Houldsworth Bower". This was planted with a half-circle of lovely Rowan trees in which was placed a memorial boulder and a timber bench inscribed with the Fylde Ex-Service Liaison Committee name and logo.

Community woodland

In the remaining woodland anyone in the community can commemorate a loved one by arranging to have a standard plaque set against a tree.

Memorial plaques

The Services Glade in the arboretum has one main monument and many plaques. The official monument bears, on its black granite top, the inscription: The 16 plaques in the inner circle are:

References

External links

Fylde Ex Service Liaison Committee website
{{Blackpool geography Arboreta in England Parks and commons in Blackpool