CROSS Roads residents are teaming up with amateur historians to highlight village men who fought in the First World War.

Cross Roads Park’s new Friends group is seeking details of soldiers whose names appear on the village war memorial.

The information will be passed to the Men of Worth Project, which researches the lives of local people who served in past wars.

The memorial is inside Cross Roads Park’s bowling pavilion and is rarely available to be seen by the public.

Villagers were able to study the memorial during the Friends’ recent inaugural event, held in the pavilion.

Almost 60 people went along to give their ideas on what improvements should be carried out in the park.

The pavilion is also known as the memorial room, and was built at the same time as the actual memorial in honour of those who fell in the First World War.

Friends spokesman Tito Arana, said: “The group would like to hear from any relatives of the men who are on war memorial, not just those that died but also those who fought.”

Men of Worth spokesman Andy Wade said the Cross Wills Memorial was unusual because it listed all local men who fought in the First World War, not only those who died.

He said, but those: “Most people don’t know about the Cross Roads war memorial because it’s inside the building.

“This has protected it over the years. The names are beautifully cut out in the stone. I reckon there are a couple of hundred names.”

Mr Wade has used the Cross Roads memorial as part of research for the Men of Worth weekly column in the Keighley News devoted to local men who served in the First World War.

Earlier this month Mr Wade related the story of Bertie Colledge, a favourite son of Cross Roads, who was born in the village in 1895 and joined the Army in 1915.

Bertie became a cheerful and good-natured member of his gun battery in France, where he was killed in 1918.

He had previously survived two woundings and trench fever before returning to the front line to meet his death.

Bertie’s brothers William, John and George survived the war, and are also mentioned on the Cross Roads Park war memorial.

Anyone with information about names on the war memorial, or any other Cross Roads men who served in the First World War, should e-mail titoarana2@hotmail.com.