New sculpture honours Accrington Pals soldiers

The sculpture shows two soldiers walking together, one wounded

A steel sculpture commissioned to honour the 585 soldiers from Accrington who were killed or injured during a single World War One battle is set to be unveiled.

The sculpture shows two soldiers, one of whom is wounded, walking together and honours the hundreds of men from East Lancashire who formed the Accrington Pals army unit and who were killed in the 1916 Battle of the Somme.

It was designed by the Chelsea Award-winning landscape gardener John Everiss and is part of a £260,000 project to revitalise the Accrington Pals Memorial Garden in Church Street.

Cath Holmes, from the Accrington Pals Commemorative Group, said the sculpture - 653 pieces of steel welded together in 210 layers - had "taken people's breath away".

Cath Holmes said the sculpture had "taken people's breath away"

"I've seen people in tears," she said.

"John Everiss has captured the spirit and bravery of our Pals in a way that is both poignant and inspiring."

The artist said it was an honour to be involved.

“It's a very moving experience making a sculpture for something so profound as the story of the Accrington Pals," he said. "I hope this is something really quite special for the town.”

The Accrington Pals was one of the British Army units specially constituted during the war and comprised of men who had enlisted together in local recruiting drives with the promise that they would serve together as brothers-in-arms.

The folly of the scheme was tragically realised on the first day of the Battle of the Somme when about 700 members of the Accrington Pals went into battle.

Of those 235 were killed and 350 were wounded within half an hour.

The sculpture was due to be unveiled at 10:30 BST on Saturday.