Smithill's Hall Show, Bolton 25 July 2010
Here is a selection of photographs from our first outing with the Loyals photographs show stand.
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This is Malcolm and Harold enjoying a quick cuppa before the rush. |
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Harold and Martin Hartley |
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Malcom at the stand with one of the many characters from the several ages represented by the pageant taking place at the show. |
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Harold on left Martin on the right with leaflets at the ready. The lady in-between is a DJ from the local Bolton Radio Station 96.5 FM. This lady was quite impressed with the Stand, and has asked Malcolm to be a studio guest next month to talk about how the Friendly Loyals started, and to chat about the Loyals in general. |
The Friendly Loyals Photo Exhibition Stand.
This new innovative photo exhibition stand was well received with the public at the first appearance at Smithills Hall Bolton on the 25th of July 2010.
The setting for our stand was directly in front of this historic hall. On this occasion Malcolm Vickers, Harold Hartley, and Martin Hartley manned the stand. Martin was great as a PR front man handing out our A4 size leaflet with all the details on it.
This being the first time out we monitored the public response very keenly. We were amazed that at least 75 to 80 per cent of people attending called by the stall to mention things like “My grandfather, Father, Uncle etc was in the forces; how can I find out about his Military service”.
Each of them were given a copy of our leaflet with details of the web site and instructed how to download the PDF file which contains information to help them contact the relevant government department. A form is included in this document to help all armed forces personnel or their families to obtain service records.
This is relatively easy for anyone to use; once you have printed out the one page file. Just the persons name, rank and service number is required, and then send that off to the MOD address supplied in the file.
The weather held up for us, and it was a great day out for each of us.
Smithills Hall
The hall listed as a Grade 1 listed Manor House and a Scheduled Monument located in Bolton, Lancashire in the North West of England.
It has a long and varied history beginning in 1335, when it was built by the Radcliffe family, who owned it until 1498. It was then owned by the Barton family intil the 1660's when it was bought by Joseph Byrom. It remained in teh Byrom family until 1801 when it was purchased by the Ainsworths who owned it until 1938. Extensive restoration and extension works were carried out under their supervision by George Devey. George Ainsworth sold the property to Bolton Corporation in 1938. It is now in the hands of the Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council and open to the public.