Not all commemorations of the First World War were locally well received.

This gun lies not on a battlefield, but in the beck in Steeton’s then new memorial park in March, 1920.

In the aftermath of the war Steeton, like many other communities, acquired a ‘war trophy’, in the shape of this captured German field gun, which many residents did not want. Emotions ran high. There were comments like “We have seen enough of such things” and “What do they want reminding us of those terrible times?”

Notwithstanding, the gun was trundled into position in the park, adjoining the site of the future Steeton-with-Eastburn War Memorial, which was to be unveiled later that year. In the middle of a Saturday night, however, the gun was toppled into the beck. Nobody admitted to knowing how it got there.

Although police enquiries suggested the culprits may have been teenagers “at the instigation of some older persons”, nobody was ever charged.

This symbolic disapproval having been expressed, the field gun was returned to its position and cemented down, to remain a familiar sight until its removal during the Second World War.