The Ernie Wise Statue
Feature from 2009
One proposed design
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Lottery Bid
There were, of course, several objections raised, from a variety of sources. Some stating that if anything, a statue should be placed in his ‘home town’ of Easy Ardsley.
There are several problems here; Representatives from East Ardsley were asked to attend several meetings when the initial idea for the statue was voiced, around January 2008 – none turned up. It seemed they were not interested in a statue or the process of raising the money. Also, judging by official documents, Ernie did not spend most of his time in East Ardsley, nor was he born there. (see our feature for full details)
Ernie, as we found out in our recent feature, was born in Bramley. He spent his early life moving from place to place, spending the least in Ardsley. For the record he spent nearly 6 years in Bramley (at two addresses), just over 4 years in Kinsley (Nr Wakefield) and less than 4 years in Ardsley.
He began performing while living in Kinsley, but admittedly he had most of his amateur success from his Ardsley home. He also always referred to Ardsley in his childhood anecdotes, never mentioning his other previous homes.
Regardless of who, why or where, it was great news that the statue would finally get the go ahead, and it was Morley who raised their game and continued to push, never giving up hope.
A design was needed now and several options were sketched out by Melanie and sent to Doreen for comment….
May 2009:
Work is due to start on the statue towards the back end of the month. We hope to bring you regular updates and images as the work progresses.
This is where we leave the story at the moment… as more information is released we will keep this feature updated, hoping it will eventually turn into a diary of events, finishing with the unveiling of the completed statue sometime in 2009.
UPDATE
You can now
follow the progress of the Ernie Wise statue….
Ernie Unveiled
On 4th March 2010, Doreen Wise unveiled the finished statue in Morley.
View the full article.© morecambeandwise.com 2009