A plaque honouring fallen heroes of WWII has returned to Sunderland. The men will be remembered on Armistice Day with a re-enactment of the service which took place when the plaque was originally unveiled 75 years ago.
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00:00No, not good job.
00:31Alright, OK, cool.
00:35That's right, that's right.
00:37OK, and Reverend Chadwick, can you just explain to me the backstory
00:40as to how this memorial plaque ended up here in the church, then, please?
00:43This plaque came to Ryop a few years ago
00:46when a gentleman called at the vicarage
00:48and said that he'd acquired this plaque at a car boot sale
00:52but he felt bad about having it in his house in Durham.
00:55He traced it to Ryop.
00:57It originally came from Ryop Grammar School
00:59and he felt it should be given back to the people of Ryop.
01:02He felt that that was really the proper place where it should be kept.
01:06And the story was that when Ryop Grammar School,
01:08which became the company enter school,
01:10when the building was demolished,
01:12the plaque was disposed of
01:14and it went to a builder's yard
01:17and then to the car boot sale from which the gentleman bought it.
01:20So that's how the plaque ended up here.
01:23And I understand you've got an order of service booklet which goes with it?
01:26Indeed.
01:27So the story behind this is it's very good having the plaque.
01:31That's amazing enough.
01:33But my mum was mentioning to her friends in her church in Durham
01:37that we'd had this memorial plaque given to us here in Ryop
01:41and the lady that my mother was talking to mentioned
01:44that her uncle was the first person named on this plaque, Thomas Aikenhead.
01:50And she said that her family had been present at Ryop Grammar School
01:55when this plaque was first dedicated on 11 November 1949.
02:01And what is more, the family still had in their possession
02:05the original order of service.
02:08So our plan is on 11 November,
02:1275 years after the original dedication of the memorial plaque,
02:16to rededicate the memorial plaque using this service.
02:21We can see the other names.