TWO men from Wirral took it upon themselves to fix a Cenotaph in Ellesmere Port which was destroyed by a tree earlier in the year.

Paul Dutton, 57, from Bromborough and Steve Walling, from Bebington, are both members of the Cheshire Military Vehicle Trust.

Steve is the owner of Stone Masonry Wirral Limited, based in Raby and Paul owns an engineering company based in Ellesmere Port.

In February, a tree fell on the Cenotaph, outside Christ Church, during Storm Franklin and destroyed it.

Wirral Globe: The damaged CenotaphThe damaged Cenotaph (Image: Tayler Davies)

Lisa Denson, Mayor of Ellesmere Port, confirmed online that she was working with local councillors and local MP, Justin Madders, to consider options for restoring the cenotaph.

After months passed and nothing had been done, Paul decided to get in contact with Cheshire West and Chester Council about it.

Speaking to the Globe, Paul said: “I was told there were no funds to repair it until next year.

“I thought something has got to be done about this. It was getting up to late-September and nothing had still been done.”

Tayler Davies from Cheshire Historic Buildings Conservation Department, helped Paul and Steve, by locating the damaged stones and eventually obtained the permission for the repairs to take place.

Steve, Paul, and their good friend Alex Jenkins visited the Cenotaph on Thursday, November 10, to ensure it was fixed in time for Remembrance Day.

Paul said: “We ended up hand cleaning the memorial and rear wall by hand due to our jet wash not working.

“We were literally on our knees scrubbing the stones and scraping the path around it to get it ready for Friday.

“We have done all this off our own backs, self-funded and in our own time. We haven’t and definitely wouldn’t accept any monetary reward for this.

“It took us less than a week to fix. Steve and his guys collected the stones and restored them at his workshops then reinstated them on their plinth.”

Steve and his team also fixed the memorial name wall which had been damaged and made sure it was repaired.

During the process, Steve received two private donations from people in the local community to help with the repairs.

Justin Madders MP posted the following on social media:

On Remembrance Day, Steve, Paul, their employees and members of the Cheshire Military Vehicle Trust all paid their respects at 11am on Remembrance Day, Friday November, 11.

Paul added: “There were a few veterans there who we spoke to on the day.

“We just did what people couldn’t or wouldn’t do.”

Cheshire West and Chester Council were contacted for a comment but did not respond.