Memorial plaques in place at West Kirby - one is a tribute to Otis
Buying a plaque to remember a lost loved one – and installing it at a spot that they had held particularly dear during their life - is an enduringly popular act of memorial for families and friends in Wirral.
When plans to construct a new flood wall at West Kirby were being developed, it was clear that the memorial benches installed along South Parade would have to be relocated.
Even at that early stage, council officers made a pledge that all memorial plaques attached to those benches would be recreated and installed on the continuous bench seating that is an important feature of the new wall.
Residents were also able to decide what they wanted to do with their bench – whether they wanted to take it home, have it reinstalled elsewhere, gifted to a local organisation to allow them to re-use it or have it recycled in some other way.
One person that approached the council when she was told about the plans for the new wall was Claire Grundy from Warrington. The memorial plaque that Claire had installed in West Kirby was a little different – it was still to pay tribute to a sadly-departed member of the family, but in Claire’s case, the plaque was in memorial to her beloved black Labrador, Otis.
And it served a dual purpose – not only did it commemorate the many times Otis had accompanied Claire up to West Kirby to enjoy a day out and the obligatory splash around in the water, it was also a geocache location.
Geocaching is a popular hobby for many which bills itself as ‘the world’s biggest Treasure Hunt’. People leave items or other ‘treasure’ hidden at a location and other geocachers use the GPS facility and an app on their smartphone to navigate to it.
As Otis’ plaque is now back in-situ in more or less the same place as the original bench, Claire and Otis’ geocache site is now fully operational once more.
Claire says:
Our plaque is close to the marine lake that is where I remember Otis swimming, going to see people sailing - and eating any spare bread thrown for the gulls; he was the most hungry of them all!
West Kirby was Otis’ favourite day out and we’d drive an hour from Warrington for him to enjoy it. As we also enjoyed geocaching, the plaque is also somewhere that other geocachers come to the area to search for.
Many have said they’ve taken a detour to find it and then spend the day there with an ice cream or coffee and enjoy the view. More than 120 people have visited to find it so far, so it has other benefits as well as being a place I come to remember him. He was very special to me.
