A new information board has been installed in a Wisbech park to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queens Coronation.

Cambs Times: Tillery Field information boardTillery Field information board (Image: Archant)

The new addition has been put in place along with gates, benches and lighting as part of a package of park improvements.

The board has been erected in Tillery Field at the bottom of Alexandra Road, contains a reference to two brothers killed in action during the First World War.

By chance, its installation coincides with this year’s centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, giving the mention of the two young men’s deaths a timely poignancy.

The board relates the history of the park from the 14th century when the area was called Le Tyllerie, meaning a ‘place where tiles are made’. In 1828 it became the New Burial Ground, an overflow graveyard for the Church of St Peter and St Paul.

The last person to be buried there was Susan Ann Piggins, who died in 1935. The fate of their two sons, Sidney and George, was recorded on her gravestone and that of her husband, who was also interred there.

Sidney Jack Piggins died in Egypt in 1918 and was buried in the Jerusalem War Cemetery in Israel. His brother, George Edward Piggins, went missing in action in France in 1916 and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial there.

Funding for the new information board has come from Fenland District Council, from council leader Alan Melton’s discretionary fund, the Friends of Wisbech Park, the Fenland branch of the Royal Society of St George and Councillor Simon King and his wife Jeanne.

Cllr King said: “This part of Wisbech has a fascinating history which deserves to be more widely known and this information board will help with that.

“The story of the Piggins brothers is just one detail that obviously has particular relevance during this centenary year.”

Cllr Peter Murphy, FDC’s Cabinet member responsible for the environment, added: “This is the latest in a series of improvements that we and other partners have made to the park over the past few years. It’s another thing that we believe will add to people’s enjoyment of what is now a very beautiful, peaceful part of the town.”

Other recent improvements to the park, which is maintained by Fenland District Council, include the installation of new gates, benches and extra lighting.

The unveiling of the board was attended by FDC Councillors Alan Melton, Simon King and Peter Murphy together with Steve Clark, chairman of the Fenland branch of the Royal Society of St George, George Hennessy from the Friends of Wisbech Parks and Bob Ollier, FDC’s parks and open spaces manager.

The board was installed by Barry Ketteringham of Fenweld Engineering Services.