Gatley War Memorial on Gatley Green is an important part of our village’s heritage. The past four years have been a commemoration of WW1’s centenary, and as such GVP has sponsored local events about our men who lost their lives, installed a commemorative sculpture and contributed to Remembrance Days. As the centenary draws to an end we want to mark this by markedly and permanently improving access to the war memorial for the disabled and those with limited mobility.

Currently, the war memorial has very poor access through a small hedge cut-through while the area around it is boggy and drains poorly. (Many a Remembrance Sunday is spent with our participants slowly sinking! ) In addition, there is no seating near the memorial so that it is difficult for those with mobility issues to spend time here. A quote from a Gatley resident sums up the issues we want to address: “My dear Auntie who has since passed, wanted to leave a tribute for my uncle. She couldn’t lay it herself as access didn’t allow her, but she enjoyed watching her son lay it in his name.”

Our goal is to improve access by building a proper path to the memorial, improving and enlarging the access and putting in hard standing around the memorial of sufficient size for wheelchair users to use safely. In addition, we wish to install a commemorative metal bench in the area so that people can see the war memorial and take part in Remembrance Day in a degree of comfort.