Richard Crosse Children Open New Play Equipment at Kings Bromley Village Hall

Children from Richard Crosse attended a community event on Saturday to open the new play equipment at Kings Bromley Village Hall, donated by Motherhood, Loss and the First World War.

Kings Bromley Village Hall has recently commemorated it’s green space as a Centenary Field in Trust. Kings Bromley Historians have kindly put together a plaque which will inform visitors about William Grundy, a soldier from the village, chosen as a representative of the 16 men from the village who died in the War, and whose house can be seen from the Hall windows.

Motherhood, Loss and the First World War is led by Big Ideas and funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), with additional funding from a National Lottery grant from the Big Lottery Fund. Its remit is to acknowledge the universality of bereavement as the defining experience of the First World War with a special focus on the impact on mothers — an overlooked aspect of grief from the period. The project is in partnership with Royal Holloway University of London and the Institute of Historical Research.

The Village Hall is a popular play area for children in the village, but parents had commented that equipment is not suitable for younger children. The new equipment is a Leap Frog trail, suitable for younger users.

At a community event to open the new equipment and unveil the plaque, parents from Richard Crosse made up part of Village Harmony Choir, which sang as part of the celebrations. Alison Howard read out poems written by Class 5 pupils Amy Barnes, Hannah
Norton, Meg Robinson, Jessica Henley & Lark Mincher. They had recently visited the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas and in the poems imagined themselves as bereaved mothers.

Rowan Hopson, Alex Bowman & Lucas Bowman, all from Richard Crosse, were the first children to try the new equipment out. Their verdict? “Awesome!”.

Kings Bromley Village Hall dates back to the 1800’s, and is the hub of the village. https://www.kingsbromley.com/organisations#C36

Big Ideas, and the Motherhood, Loss & 1st WW project https://www.bigideas.org/project/motherhood/