00:00Hello, I'm Catherine Steinburn. I'm an Heritage Lead at Castlefoot Civic Society.
00:04Men were fighting for a better world and I really, along with the Civic Society,
00:10believe that the least we can do is kind of maintain the War Memorial
00:13to a standard befitting of what they gave.
00:16You know, many made the ultimate sacrifice, but also many men served and women.
00:21So we just felt it was really important that this memorial was befitting of that service.
00:29For a while, there's been concern about who actually is responsible for maintaining it.
00:34And in August, it was particularly looking untidy.
00:37So the Civic Society just thought, we're just going to get on with it.
00:40So we did a massive tidy up, we cleared all the weeds.
00:43It looked so much better.
00:45But also at that time when we were working here, one Sunday afternoon we were doing it.
00:49We had some great conversations when people were walking by.
00:51We noticed that the lettering was faded.
00:54Some of the wording you could hardly read.
00:56So we decided then that we would launch a fundraising campaign to get the lettering refreshed.
01:04And we did that.
01:05We got an amazing response.
01:06The Custlefoot Civic Society has been in existence since 1972.
01:11Within the last two to three years, we've undergone a revival.
01:14And we've seen a growth in our membership.
01:17And we're involved in all sorts of things, really.
01:20We have two strands primarily.
01:21We have the heritage aspect and we also have civic pride.
01:26Around about January this year, the Civic Society decided we would try and create our first attempt at a poppy
01:36installation.
01:37We called out to the community to help us knit red poppies.
01:43We envisaged we'd need about 1,600 red poppies knitted all to the same pattern.
01:53We actually got 2,256 if we've got our counting right.
02:00And the focus of all the activity was our much-loved crafting and yarn shop in Castleford, so Susie Bloom.
02:11For the first time at Castleford Royal Memorial, the Custlefoot Civic Society will be laying a wreath with yellow poppies.
02:20And this is in remembrance of the women who worked at Munitions Factory, both in the First and Second World
02:27War.
02:28But particularly the Castleford women, five of whom died as a result of an explosion at Bambo in East Leeds.
02:34The work of the Civic Society values our past and has pride in our future.
02:41I'm all about the community projects.
02:45What makes Castleford special?
02:48What makes us proud?
02:50And trying to untap that.
02:52Because Castleford people are very proud.
02:55Very proud of our town.
02:56And they're certainly very proud of our heritage.
