1. Soil soaked in the blood of Middleton men

Middleton Guardian, Thursday 4 October 2007
"MEN stumbled forward through mud and slime. At every step they sank over the boot-tops in sodden soil; not a few sank waist-deep in the yawning, water-filled shell holes - but they staggered on with the grim persistency which is the outstanding attribute of the average Englishman and the source of wonder to foreign nations." This appalling, but chest-swelling, scene is painted by Major Chesnutt-Chesney, officer commanding the Middleton company of the 2/6th Lancashire Fusiliers who attacked the infamous Passchendaele Ridge on the morning of October 9, 1917.