Punk on Parade

This morning I went to the Remembrance Parade  in Oswestry. It's always a large parade and wreath laying with big crowds watching but this year the event was even bigger than usual.

After the wreaths were laid at the Park Gates we went to the service in St. Oswald's Church before the parade returned to the Guildhall to be dismissed. An extra shows part of the parade led by the excellent Porth Y-Waen Band.  

I couldn't resist the main shot of a punk watching the parade!

This evening we went to see the beacon being lit on top of Old Oswestry Hillfort as part of a national chain to commemorate the 100 years anniversary of the end of WW1. There were practise trenches dug into the top of the Hillfort which were used by soldiers at Park Hall Training camp.  The Last Post and Reveille were sounded from the top and Air cadets spelt out "100" with torches.

The people attending were in a field at the bottom and had readings and music before it was lit .  Over 300 of us had been given stickers at the entrance to the field. We had to go to the front of the crowd and shine our torches - each of us represented one name on the town's War Memorial.

The other extra is nothing to do with the Remembrance events. While walking back through town they were putting up the Christmas lights which are like a blanket across the road.  A man was throwing ropes of lights up to two others in a cherry picker, they were catching them and stringing them up. So that's how they do it!