Remembrance Service and Memorial Tour - November 11th

At The Eleventh Hour, on the Eleventh Day, of the Eleventh Month - We Will Remember Them. I took my 1944 Dodge to the Seaham memorial today, meeting a few other military vehicles nearby, then driving in convoy to the memorial for the Remembrance service. Being fairly new to the Durham area, I decided to see what other memorials I could visit on my trip and searched the web and Google Earth before hand to plan a route. Including Seaham, I found eight memorials in villages around the area that wouldn't be too far out of my way to visit.
The first two were visited on the way to Seaham. The first of these was Easington Lane. This was a combined memorial and clock tower and was the largest on the tour. While most of the memorials had nearby parking, there was a chance that residents would be parked there, so until I got there, I didn't know whether I'd be able to park.
Next along the route was Murton. Another impressive memorial with an area to one side to commemorate William McNally VC. He earned his VC during WW1,  survived the war and became one of the honour guard for the unknown soldier at Westminster. He joined the LDV in WW2, retired from work as a timber yard foreman in 1958 and passed away in 1976.
From Murton, I carried on Eastwards, towards the coast, stopping at an industrial estate a couple of miles from the Seaham memorial. I waited there a few minutes for the Jeep convoy that was coming North from Teesside. I tagged onto the end of the convoy and we then drove the last couple of miles to the memorial on the sea front.
There's two parts to this memorial. The first was a large stone cross, but more recently, a sculpture of a WW1 "Tommy" soldier was added near by. The Jeeps flanked the memorial while I parked up next to Tommy. There was probably a couple of hundred people in attendance, but we expect a much bigger crowd on Sunday.
After the service, the group split up, with the four Jeeps heading back the way we'd come. I set off in the other direction which was the most direct route to continue my tour. I passed back through Murton and Easington Lane before turning South to Haswell.
The Haswell memorial was in a church yard. From my Goggle Earth street view research, there was just empty grass next to the church, but when I got there, a new house was being built on that plot. The closest I could park was on the main road. There had been a service there as they were still packing up when I arrived.
From Haswell, it was only a short drive to the well kept Ludworth memorial. There was a guy walking passed who saw me and the Dodge, stopped and chatted for some time.
A little further on, through Shadforth, my next stop was Sherburn Hill. There had been a place to park right next to the memorial until someone put a fence there, so I had to park on waste land a little further up the hill.
Down at the bottom of the hill was Sherburn Village. There was an old bus stop next to the memorial which is no longer a bus stop. It allowed me to stop right next to the memorial.
The last stop on my tour was Pittington memorial, located at St Lawrence's Church, in the church yard. There was no parking next to the memorial, so I parked just outside the church yard, amongst the trees and walked in.
I grabbed a few pictures of the Dodge amongst the trees before heading for home. It was a little over a 26 mile round trip and with the sun out, not particularly cold, even on the coast.
Though tinged with sadness, it was a rewarding and educational trip. I saw a few Carrs inscribed on some of the memorials and couldn't help but wonder if they were related. My own grandfather, Joseph O. Carr, served in the Army Service Corps at Ypres during WW1 and thankfully survived.

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