Saturday 11th January 2014
Danny Howell writes ~
Thought you might appreciate an update on the “Vandals” story regarding the Lych Gate at Copheap, Warminster. The Town Clerk Heather Abernethie and I exchanged emails yesterday and “yes, we are still talking to one another.” In fact, we spoke at the Civic Trust meeting held yesterday evening at Warminster Civic Centre.
It seems the Police still believe “there was some vandalism at the Lych Gate at Christmas”. Maybe they are saying that to ‘save face’ but we all know there wasn’t any vandalism. The damage to the Lych Gate was evident back last year and my photographs taken in November 2013 show this to be true. The sorry state of the Lych Gate is due to rotting timber and missing roof tiles, mainly due to weathering and neglect. What has been happening recently is when I and other community-spirited people like me visit Copheap (and I visited Copheap several times over the Christmas and New Year period walking my dog and checking the area where the First World War dog’s grave is (initial moves towards the Copheap dog’s grave restoration project) we pick up the Lych Gate pillars off the ground and put them back in situ, only for them to soon fall out again until the next time we visit. Sometimes, children mess around with the fallen pillars, but it’s not vandalism per se, and sometimes, adults pick up the pillars off the Lych Gate floor and put them to one side again, or even place them to the back of the Lych, in an effort to stop others from tripping over them. Sometimes the pillars just fall out of their positions and end up on the ground behind the base walls of the Lych. That’s all.
I have also heard from the Mayor of Warminster, Paul Batchelor. I guess he may be embarrassed or annoyed that he has found himself part of the story in the Warminster Journal (although he hasn’t said that to me), but he has emailed me to say he wishes he had known about my reporting the sorry state of the Lych back in November before the Journal asked him for a quote and a photograph. I am told that the story in the Warminster Journal was initiated by the Police and not the Town Council. Unfortunately there is now some flak doing the rounds, mainly aimed at the Town Council. I only hope this publicity, bad as it is, will speed up efforts to get the Lych Gate repaired and in a condition befitting the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in two World Wars. We owe it to them.
I would like to publicly thank everyone who has emailed me about this. I appreciate your interest and I am inspired by your support. Several of you have suggested we should raise the money for the repairs ourselves and go do the work ourselves if the Town Council or Wiltshire Council can’t carry out our wishes. I don’t think we need to do that. The Town Clerk Heather Abernethie assures me she is on the case and I have every faith the work will be carried out in due course, hopefully sooner rather than later! You can, of course, always contact the Town Council, by email: admin@warminster-tc.gov.uk