ONE of Bury’s premier military commemorative monuments is undergoing a £25,000 renovation and a relocation to a new home.

The finishing touches are being put to the restoration of the Grade II listed Lutyens monument which has been moved from its previous base from outside the town’s Wellington Barracks.

The structure is being transferred section by section to its new, permanent location in Gallipoli Garden in Silver Street, opposite the Fusilier Museum.

Earlier, protesters against the relocation had formed an action group and had collected more than 2,300 signatures in a petition to try to keep the monument at its existing location.

But several weeks ago, specialist contractors dismantled the monument in sections to allow cleaning and overall refurbishment work to get under way.

Lieutenant Colonel Mike Glover, regimental secretary Lancashire for the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, said: “There are a number of areas of the Lutyens monument that are being worked upon. Firstly, the definition on the carving of the monument is being redefined.

“And the colours on the Colours, so to speak, are being redone to restore them to their original condition. The third element of work involves improving the lettering on the script, listing those who have died in campaigns.

“When all the work is finished, the monument will look better than it ever has done. The work is costing £25,000 and we’ve brought in a specialist company to do it.”

Lt Col Glover acknowledges that the monument’s move had attracted opposition. But he hopes that the public will endorse the site of its new home.

The newly-restored memorial will be unveiled on Sunday, September 27 during a major Fusilier gathering event in the town.

The Lutyens monument is not just a memorial to those Fusiliers who died during the First and Second World Wars but to those who have lost their lives in subsequent campaigns.

Earlier, the transfer of the monument had been backed by several conservation groups, including English Heritage and the Lutyens Trust.

However, this is not the first time the memorial has had a new home. When it was unveiled in 1922, Wellington Barracks was a much larger site than it is today and the original location of the structure would now be somewhere in the middle of Bolton Road. It was resited in the early 1960s when the scale of the barrack’s buildings was very much reduced.

The design of the memorial centres on a Portland stone obelisk which sits on an octagonal granite block, inscribed with the words: “To the Lancashire Fusiliers their deeds and sacrifices for King and country”.

The Colours are in enamelled stone and at the top of the obelisk is a sculpted wreath and crest and the words Omnia Audax.

The sculptor Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens RA, who was also the designer of the Cenotaph in Whitehall, waived his fee as both his father and his uncle served in the regiment.