Lest we forget

Norden war memorial, already bearing poppy wreaths.

I frequently stop and read the roughly carved inscription, whose direct speech carries across the years - this year as our lying Prime Minister lays false claim to the export of Freedom, further wastes national treasure and life in Iraq, it's inscription seems ever more relevant.

Erected by
The Inhabitants of Norden
In honour and ever grateful memory
Of THE MEN OF THE DISTRICT
Who nobly,forgetful of themselves
At the call of the KING and country
Left all that was dear to them
Endured hardness, faced danger
And finally gave up their own lives
That others might live in Freedom

An example for all time
Of stedfast courage

1914 - 1918

Emile Durkheim's Division of Labor in Society,[1] argued that improved transportation and communication in the industrializing world would someday eradicate the territorial units which had formed the basis of traditional society, so that counties, departments and so on would someday simply fade away.

If we compare Norden at the time the memorial wa consecrated, the village was industrious, powered and fed by moorland streams originally, followed by coal, most residents would work either within the village or in some of Rochdale's nearby mills, using the then new public transport. Datestones on the terraces designate the growing pains of the fast developing enterprise culture of the mid / late 19th century.