How did it all begin?

It all started with the desire - indeed the need - to commemorate those who had given their lives fighting in World War II. A memorial to earlier soldiers had been erected in the Market Place and was officially unveiled to great acclaim on 13 February 1921. Now something had to be done for their successors in the fight for freedom and somebody, somewhere came up with the idea of a Memorial Park.

On the 23rd October 1945 an Inaugural or 'Town' meeting was held in the Parish Room when 83 persons were present. (Listed Here) The specific purpose of the meeting, called by the 'Parish Council', was 'to decide what form (if any) a War Memorial should take'. The meeting agreed unanimously that the project of a War Memorial Park should be taken up and that a designated area should be assigned to a 'Children's Playing field'. An acre of land had been acquired by the Easingwold Peace Celebrations Fund and was being specifically offered for this purpose and should be accepted. The Peace Celebrations Fund (funded by money raising efforts) was about to be closed and on 28th August 1946 the accrued surplus funds left after the VJ and VE Day Celebrations were to be transferred to the War Memorial Fund amounting to £60.1s.10d. The total cost of the War Memorial Park project was expected to be in the region of £1,000.00. This, members adopted as their target figure. Various sub-committees were formed at the Inaugural Meeting whose task it was to carry the project forward.

Six days later the first Executive committee meet comprising, Chairman, Mr J A Watson, the then Area Surveyor for the Rural District Council together with 15 other members were present. At that meeting it was agreed to launch a public appeal thereby starting to raise money immediately by involving the community. The 'Ways & Means' committee were given the responsibility of circulating a leaflet to every household in Easingwold inviting subscriptions. (One such leaflet has survived amongst the Memorial Park records.) Members of the committee then followed up the distribution with a collecting box and sheets of paper on which to record subscribers. Alternatively, it was suggested that subscriptions could be left at a Hut provided for the purpose in the Market Place and names and amounts would then be listed and published in the 'Advertiser'. A bank account was also set up using the then 'Midland Bank' (now HSBC). It was agreed that the planning committee would prepare and publish their plans as soon as possible.