We meet on the 1st Wednesday of each month (except January) at The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, Clifton Road West, Runcorn, WA7 4TE
We start at 7pm until 9pm. Members £2 Non-members £3
Free for first time visitors on research nights only.
The venue has Wi-Fi, during our research nights we have access to Ancestry, Find my Past, Geneanet, Puzzilla. These are all free to use on your own laptops or on our groups laptops during the meeting while inside the Church. The Church also has two desktop computers in their research room for use, one is for disabled people the desk moves up and down which is most handy if you use a wheelchair.
Penty of parking space. Free cold refreshments and biscuits
For more information please contact acting Group Leader Sue Bowden via
John Street was a local man who was killed in WW1 his body was never found for 106 years. His great nephew Michael Jackson sent me this article as he thought the Runcorn Group would be interested to know that his uncle's remains had been found and identifed by DNA. John will be buried with a full military funeral on the 10th April 2025. Please read Michael's story.........................
Fragments of Remembrance: Chapter 3.
For King and Country Lance Corporal John STREET 1st Battalion,
The Kings Own Lancaster Regiment Killed in action 10th April 1917 Arras Memorial
Commemorated by Great Nephew Michael Jackson London Underground Training Manager (Rtd)
Who writes;
When I was growing up it was a family obligation to attend the Remembrance Service on the given Sunday in November. We had four family members who fought in the Great War and two in WW2. Out of the six, five returned, one was killed in action and one died in the mid-fifties, due to injuries received during WW2. There was one person missing from our family group when we attended the ceremony at the Cenotaph in my home town of Runcorn in Cheshire. That person was my grandmother and I did not question why, but it was because of her brother John who never returned from France in the Great war. I was told she actually went to the unveiling of the Memorial in 1920 and the occasional service in the years to come. This was strange, as she would frequently walk past the Cross and go to the wall behind, on which granite plaques were embedded with the names of over four hundred townsfolk who had lost their lives in both conflicts. Under the surnames of “S” was the name of my Great Uncle, Street J. There was no rank, regiment or date or death. My Grandmother had hoped for many years that John was held as a prisoner of war and would one day walk back through the door in the regimented rows of the terraced houses in Runcorn that had in common, the loss of so many of the town’s menfolk. (My Grandmother passed away in 1976 yet much more sadness was to pass over her door step in her lifetime, as she experienced the early death of her husband (My Grandad) in a war time industrial accident and three out of her six children (my Aunties) were to die in early life) In civilian life, John Street was a staff member at Astmoor Tannery Runcorn and was just 24 years old when he met his death on the 10th April 1917, the second day of the bloody Battle of Arras. This is one of the main factors that started my interest in military history and research. Even today there is still a mystery about John’s service that I can’t get to the bottom of. His obituary says he went to France at Christmas 1915. Both the local newspapers carried the same wording but one carried a uniform picture and the other a civilian picture. This was common to save distress to the family, one reporter would pass the details to the other paper news desk and ensure that the photographs were returned to the family. However, his service records don’t survive but his Medal Index Card just shows entitlement to the Victory and British campaign medals. No entitlement to 14/15 Star and only shows a new army number and not the old regimental number to the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. We have a photograph of him in the South Lancashire (Prince of Wales Volunteers) pre-war economy uniform, with a leather belt not webbing. The family talk is that he had a fiancé somewhere and went to France pre-1916 but I can find no trace of her, or of him serving in France. The records of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment show that a block of numbers was issued in November 1916 and that he had reached the substantive rank of Lance Corporal in that regular army battalion in which he was killed. Had he been promoted during his training it would have been unconfirmed. So where was Great Uncle John serving and what was he doing from October 1915 to November 1916? I have yet to find out. I have gleaned information about his last action from the Battalion, Brigade and Divisional War diaries, written at the time and very detailed. At the start of the battle on the 9th of April 1917 over 25,000 British Soldiers had passed through the relative safety of the Arras tunnel network on their way to the front line. No such safety was afforded to the KORL who made their advance above ground, through the ruined villages of St Laurent Blangy and Athies, then on to Fampoux whilst under continuous shell fire from the enemy artillery. At one point, the battalion was briefly held up by uncut barbed wire but this was taken with little resistance. Many large and small artillery pieces, machine guns and mortars were captured and over 60 prisoners taken. Nevertheless, this successful breakthrough did not come cheap and 12th Brigade diary, of which John’s regiment was part, records the loss of 14 Officers and 153 Other Ranks killed, wounded and missing. Following the capture of the village of Fampoux during the afternoon of 9th April, the battalion was temporarily withdrawn from the line and primed for the attack on Roeux and the Chemical Works the following day. There was very heavy shelling of Fampoux but a reasonably quiet night was experienced by the battalion. On the morning of the 10th April, L/Cpl Street answered the roll call and prepared for his last action. What was left of the battalion advanced around midday, alongside the railway embankment towards the heavily defended Chemical Works and Railway station buildings of Roeux (which would take a month of hard fighting to subdue).
Although orders cancelling the attack had been issued, they failed to arrive in time and the depleted ranks of the 1st Battalion Kings Own Lancaster regiment advanced into a storm of machine gun fire across a flat and open plain, devoid of any cover. What did those gallant men think of, in the agony of their hopeless advance? The diary record that the battalion lost 4 officers and 175 other Ranks, killed wounded and missing. What price failure?
L/Cpl John Street failed to answer the roll call on the 11th April. He had answered a higher call. His body was never found or identified and his name is engraved on Bay 2 of the Arras Memorial. Due to the ferocity of the fighting, the ground on which he was killed was not cleared until the August of 1917 and during the heat of the summer many bodies, had become unidentifiable.
I have walked the ground over which the battalion advanced on that fateful day. The nearest possible burial place where John’s body might be buried is the large, Brown’s Copse Cemetery. Of the 2072 burials, the great majority of which are soldiers killed in the Battle of Arras 1917, 862 of the graves are unknown.
Within the walls of the beautifully maintained cemetery, which I have visited with the Hampstead Pals on many occasions, is a single headstone of an unknown soldier of the Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment and I always place my hand on the stone and say ‘hello.’
In my mind it is my Great Uncle John. At peace…
RUNCORN is an industrial town in the unitary authority of Halton, on the southern banks of the River Mersey. Before it became polluted, people from miles around would come to bathe and breathe in our clear air. Especially those who were convalescing.
Norman Cheshire, the first Earl of Chester, split his estate into baronies. The Halton barony held precedent over all other and Nigel, the constable of Chester, became its first baron. Nigel erected a motte and bailey castle on Halton Hill approx., 1071 to keep watch over the Cheshire and Lancashire plains and the river estuary. The stone-built castle, as is seen remained today, would have started progress in the latter half on the 12th century, being gradually built upon with each of the early barons undertaking various projects and adding to the work of his predecessor.
In 1115, Nigel’s son, William founded an Augustinian Priory at Runcorn. In 1134 the monks moved the priory to Norton. The barons of Halton provided Norton Priory with substantial amounts of money until 1200. In 1391 the priory was raised to the higher status of Abbey. In 1536 the monastery was dissolved, and a few years later the buildings and some of the monastic lands were sold to Sir Richard Brooke who converted the habitable part of the Abbey into a home for himself and his family.
Today, Runcorn is one of the most industrial parts of the UK with Ineos Chlor Chemical Plant, previously ICI and many other industrial buildings. Runcorn consists of the “old Town” a taboo word to those born and bred from Runcorn. Runcorn began expansion on farmland during the Industrial Revolution brought by the Bridgewater Canal and Runcorn New Town which was designated in 1964. This house overspill population from Liverpool, unfortunately there was insufficient employment for the additional population which has caused social problems.
Runcorn New Town was the first to pioneer the use of bus only roads over a large scale.
Runcorn retains ruins of the 12th century castle and the remains of the priory. Large chemical works are found at the furthest edge of the western part of the Town. This is offset by the vast greenery of the New Town to the East. The Catalyst Museum in neighbouring Widnes recognises the contribution of the chemical industry as it has developed around the North West.
The remains of Norton Priory, including its museum and walled garden are the main tourist attraction of the Town. Runcorn also has an award-winning arts centre called The Brindley which was opened in 2004.