A WAR memorial to honour Wincham's fallen heroes is being unveiled.

Representatives from the Mercian Regiment, Royal Navy, Royal Artillery Association and Royal Engineers Association will attend an inauguration ceremony today.

The first remembrance day service will be held on Sunday when civic dignitaries, veterans, villagers and VIPs will pay tribute to the fallen.

MP Esther McVey will lay a wreath on behalf of the Government.

It marks the culmination of a colossal effort by dedicated villagers to honour 23 service men from the village who lost their lives fighting for their country.

The Friends of Linnards Lane Memorial, a community-supported group, was formed in 2016 after Wincham Parish Council discovered they were forbidden by law to create a war memorial.

Initial efforts concentrated on the legal aspects of building a new memorial as it was to be built on Wincham Parish land and whilst parish councils couldn't build memorials, it was confirmed that the people of the parish could.

This small team of residents worked on the planning, design and creation of the war memorial, securing planning permission and fundraising to complete the project in time for this year's centenary of the end of the First World War.

The Friends worked on establishing the full set of names to be engraved on the granite plaques and the production of a book to titled Our War Heroes which includes information on the 23 servicemen of Wincham village.

This has been distributed to every home in the village.

The project has been achieved thanks to major donations from Manchester Airport Community Fund, Thor Specialities (UK) Ltd and M Igoe Ltd, local companies and villagers.

The project also aimed to reflect on what it takes to maintain peace.

Pupils from Wincham Primary School were invited to write poems and produce drawings in a competition.

The winning entries are featured in the book and the winners will be unveiling the memorial at the inauguration today.

Villagers were asked to submit proposals for the epitaph on the back plaque.

The winning entry was 'Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding' Albert Einstein 1930.

At the end of July 2018, the Friends only had enough money to order one of the granite slabs let alone the whole war memorial.

However, full funding for the memorial finally came together in the early August 2018.

Tony Psaila, from the Friends group, said: "This allowed us to place the order with KJS Memorials for the two large granite slabs with gold engraving which was on a critical 10-week delivery time for mid-October 2018.

"The order for the building of the memorial was placed with B T Builders, at the same time acknowledging that the two contracts had to come together at the middle of October.

"The foundations were laid in early August and the lower level stone work built first ready to receive the plaques.

"Thankfully the engraved plaques were delivered on time and the build was completed on November 3.

"KJW Landscapes then laid the path around the memorial and the garden.We are very proud of our new war memorial after all who builds war memorial these days!"