Marple WW2 Warship Week Plaque installed in Memorial Park

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Gas Mask from HMS Maple

In 2016 Friends of Marple Memorial Park installed the plaque from warship HMS Maple in one of the flowerbeds in the park. The plaque had come into Marple Local History Society's possession during 2015 after being donated by local lady Julie Clay. In 2017 an interesting video explaining Marple's link to HMS Maple and how the plaque found its way home was produced by Friends of the Park volunteer Anne Frazer.

In 2018, the story has continued after a gentleman in Scotland called David McNaught came across a WW2 gas mask during a house clearance. Inside the flap on the casing for the mask is printed “Maple 1941” and the name J Jarvis, who must have owned it, is also inscribed by hand.

David discovered Marple Local History Society's article about HMS Maple and the Warship plaque after searching for “Marple 1941” on-line. He decided to get in touch and soon after offered to donate it to the society's archives.

David also has a helmet labelled “DG” - Deck Gun, which he has also agreed to donate to the archives in the future.

To see the video about HMS Maple visit the Friends of Marple Memorial Park web site using this link:

https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/projects/warship-week-plaque.html

The gas mask is currently on display in Marple Library as part of the Poppy Appeal Art Exhibition. Here it is reunited with the plaque from the ship in Memorial Park:

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HMS Maple, How Marple Swept the Seas in WW2

The latest news on the Marple Warship Week plaque is that in May 2017 Friends of the Park volunteer Ann Frazer has completed a fascinating video about the story of how it came to be in the park. In order to be allowed to use the archive footage from the IWM it was not permitted to include any commercial references, so in the film we were not able to thank again the specific individual businesses who helped us. However, I can state here that these were:

Marple Blasting Services: for transportation, blast cleaning and sealing of the stone.

Benring Ltd: Supplier of synthetic resin products to HM the Queen, for resin bonding materials.

GT Landscapes and Construction for installation of the stone in the park.



To read the full story visit:

http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/projects/warship-week-plaque.html

http://www.marplelocalhistorysociety.org.uk/stories-from-the-archive/stories-of-people/259-hms-maple-marples-own-minesweeper.html

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The new plaque has now been fitted to the stone in the park:

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Further info:-

HMS Maple was an MS Trawler, commissioned in 1959 1929. She survived the war and, after changing hands in 1946, was renamed "Sumatra" and carried on until she was scrapped in 1956.

Yes, as explained in more detail in the MLHS article here: www.mlhs.org.uk/hmsmaple

The trawler "Maple" was built by Cook, Welton & Gemmell in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire and had a displacement of 357 tons. She was launched on the 9th July 1929 and was taken over by the Admiralty in February 1939 in anticipation of war and fitted with a 4” gun. She served throughout the war, having eight different commanders between September 1939 and the end of 1945.

Having survived the war HMS Maple was sold to the Dutch government in 1946 and renamed "The Sumatra". The ship was scrapped in the Netherland in 1956.

It's likely that the plaque was removed from the ship when it was scrapped but there is also a possibility that it was a copy given to Marple UDC in 1941 when the ship was adopted. It was somehow aquired by Bernard Mifflin, a Marple resident and a teacher at the Willows School, and is known to have spent the last 30 years in his garden. Its history and travels during the intervening years are not currently known. It was donated to MLHS in 2015 by Bernard's neice Julie Clay.

A new page has been added to the Friends of the Park site to explain how the project to install it in the park was achieved: http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/projects/warship-week-plaque.html

[My login is Henrietta]

Further info:-

HMS Maple was an MS Trawler, commissioned in 1959. She survived the war and, after changing hands in 1946, was renamed "Sumatra" and carried on until she was scrapped in 1956.

[admin]

Had a photo shoot with Julie Clay, the lady who donated the Marple WW2 Warship Week plaque, and Marple Local History Chair Hilary Atkinson yesterday.

There is still a small modern plaque to fit to the side of the stone and that should be done soon.

Thanks to Arthur Procter for the photos. Thanks again to Mike Atkinson at Marple Blasting Services , Tony Grimes at Benring Ltd and GT Landscapes and Construction for their help with this project.

More thanks also due to Ian Bradshaw, who made a donation to MLHS that covered the cost of the new plaque and other fixtures and fittings needed to complete the job.

You can now read the full story of the plaque on Marple Local History Society's web site here: www.mlhs.org.uk/hmsmaple

Look out for a story in the next issue of the Marple Review too.