On 5 December 2019, a hundred years and six months after the formal ending of the First World War at the Treaty of Versailles, work began on the open ground between Bramble Road and Honeysuckle Way to create a living and long term memorial to those men of Witham who gave their lives in that bloody conflict.
The opening of the World War 1 Memorial Park project, devised by Braintree Council, with the support of Witham Town Council, and led by the Tree Group was marked by the attendance at the start of the day of representatives of the two Councils – Councillor Gabrielle Spray of Braintree Planning Committee and the Mayor of Witham, Councillor Clare Lager, together with officers and members of the Witham Branch of the Royal British Legion.
It had been planned that students from the Maltings and New Rickstones Academies would assist the Tree Group in the first day’s planting but in the event this was not possible. This left seven members of the Group and the Braintree officer who is leading the project to carry out the work, with support from two staff contracted by Braintree from Bee Brook to support and cage the new planting. It was clear that the original plan to plant 25 trees on this first day would have to be scaled back, given the unexpectedly reduced resources, but estimates of what could be achieved varied from the pessimistic to the wildly optimistic.
In the event we ended up decidedly at the highly optimistic end of the scale. It was hard going, particularly as half the trees were oaks with an unusually large rootball requiring appreciably wider and deeper holes, but by 1 o’clock 14 and a half holes had been dug with trees in 12 of them. However, by that time we were all very much feeling our age. Fortunately at that moment the cavalry arrived in the form of Bradley, Chloe and Emma from Aegon Insurance, as promised and on time. With their enthusiasm and skill, and despite having to dig the last hole (a large one for an oak of course) in the one really difficult patch of ground which we had encountered, they helped us get 6 more trees in the ground before the light began to fail. As we dragged weary limbs off the site, leaving the excellent Will and Ollie of Bee Brook to fit the last few cages in the half dark, we agreed that 18 trees planted was a very satisfactory achievement.
But it was not of course what we had planned and so we will be back again on Wednesday 11 December to finish this first stage of the project. The second stage is on 16 January 2020, when we hope to plant another 25 trees. Then we will carry on until there is at least one tree for each of the more than 80 men from Witham who were lost in the First World War. Whether we can complete the Memorial Park in this planting year or will have to defer some of the planting until next year remains to be seen. Meanwhile, if anyone would like to help us on future planting days for this project, do contact us through this website.
Richard Hawkes
6 December 2019
