‘Neglected’ Stone of Remembrance in Spalding will be renovated

A ‘neglected’ remembrance stone to honour the war dead will be renovated.

The Stone of Remembrance which stands in front of the Grade I listed war memorial in Spalding’s Ayscoughfee Gardens is going to be cleaned and re-pointed after an application was given the green light recently by South Holland District Council’s planning committee.

Committee chairman Coun James Avery said: “I think this is long over-due and I am looking forward to it being pristine.”

Whaplode councillor Allan Beal said that it was a ‘shame’ that the work has not been done already considering its significance and proposed a motion that the application is approved.

Deputy leader of the council, Coun Paul Redgate, said the stone had been ‘neglected for some time’ while fellow cabinet member Coun Anthony Casson wants to see the work completed before Remembrance Day in November.

Council chairman, Coun Andrew Woolf said: “We have stood on Remembrance Day and looked at that and not been best pleased with it so it’s about time this came forward. It’s going to be a huge transformation.”

The committee had recently agreed to renovate the well-known memorial, which had been designed by Centaph architect Edwin Lutyens.