Sphinx

En route to Manchester this morning I stopped at the Crescent, and took a photo of the cenotaph. Fire Station Square is looking a bit sad at the moment, but has loads of potential.

It is strange how you can pass by things and not notice them, until looking closely. I was puzzled about why the memorial was surmounted by a sphinx with the word "Egypt" inscribed below. But both are the insignia of the Lancashire Fusiliers, which would have meant a lot more when the cenotaph was unveiled in 1922 by the Earl of Derby.

The old municipal borough of Salford raised four pals regiments in the great war. and a lot of men never came home. Apparently 1st July was for some time known as Thiepval day in Salford, as over 1000 men died there on the first day of the battle of the Somme in 1916.