THE team at the Ross-on-Wye Men's Shed have just finished restoring a First World War memorial.

The Greytree Shrine was brought to the team at Great Western Court, in a very poor condition.

Over the years, the original roof had become rotten and warped and the names of the fallen were starting to show significant signs of flaking and deterioration.

Despite the overall condition being very poor, shed members Mark Gunn took on the restoration project with Malcolm Shergold.

The original shrine was photographed and fully documented before the rotten timbers were carefully removed.

The name boards were also removed and another team member, Clive Brooks set about copying the font and style of the original names, which was then loaded into the shed’s laser etching equipment.

Replacement oak timber was then sourced, and the etching equipment set about recreating the original text on the new timbers.  This took over 15 hours to complete.

Mark and Malcolm stripped the remaining timbers of many layers of varnish back to the original surface, filled damaged areas and then sanded smooth ready for five separate coats of satin varnish.

Mark Edmunds then repainted the dates on the shrine. The roof was replaced, the name boards returned, and the final coats of varnish applied to ensure the shrine would last for many years to come. 

This whole process took six weeks to complete. The Shrine, which acknowledges the names of the 32 military men who served and returned and four men who died while on active service are these are indicated with a religious cross: T Cooper; J Freeman; AW Llewellyn and W Trigg.

The Shrine will be reinstalled at some time in the autumn, at its home on the Greytree Estate on Second Avenue, with a rededication service being planned for Remembrance Sunday in November.

Mary Sinclair Powell told the Ross Men's Shed team after the Shrine had been restored: “Words cannot express how emotional I feel about all this being done and the hard work that has been done by all of you gentlemen.

“Thank you seems so inadequate really. For so many years people who have family members on it have asked me where it is and what can be done about restoring it. They can all now see this for themselves.”