HUNDREDS of people turned out to pay their respects to Bury’s fallen heroes on a poignant Remembrance Sunday.

War veterans, members of the Armed Forces, past and present, councillors, schoolchildren and religious and civic leaders gathered outside Bury Parish Church in The Rock.

The Last Post bugle call was played outside the church before the clock struck 11am, and the packed crowds marked the start of a two minutes’ silence to remember all those, who have lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars and other global conflicts.

The Rector of Bury, The Rev Dr John Findon, led the main service and prayers inside Bury Parish Church.

Earlier in the day, the parade – led by the Band and Corps of Drums of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (Lancashire) set off from the town hall, followed by the 1036 (Bury) Squadron Air Training Corps and the civic procession.

Rev Findon, who is preparing to retire in January after 18 and a half years as Rector, said: “As we remember together the losses from the last century and peer forward into what our futures may be.

“This is the eighteenth time – and it will be the last – that it has been my job to say a word from here, six feet above contradiction, to our town – I hope I have earnt the right by now to speak of Bury as our town – as we remember together the terrible losses of the wars of the last century, and try to peer forward into whatever our future may be.

“During these years I have come to have the deepest affection for Bury and its people.

“I specially call to mind the centenary commemorations of 2014, and the seemingly endless list of our young men whose names we read here in the gloom on the anniversary of the day that war broke out. Words fail you to do justice to such things.

“We all in fact know that sacrifice, the giving of yourself for the good of another, is the most beautiful thing in the world. It is what we were made for.”

A special Remembrance Day service was also held at St John the Baptist Church, in Bircle, where wreaths were laid and poppies were placed on the Remembrance Tree.

In the south of the borough, the largest Remembrance Day event was held in Prestwich, where hundreds of people, led by the 22nd Prestwich Scout Group, marched from the Royal British Legion in Bury Old Road to the cenotaph where St Mary’s Road meets Rectory Lane.

There was also a service at the cenotaph in Radcliffe, in Blackburn Street, followed by a procession to St Thomas and St John’s Church, in New Church Street.