A £5,000 conservation project to renovate and repair Chippenham’s 94-year-old war memorial begins today. The First World War memorial to honour those from the town who died in the war between 1914 and 1918.

The sandstone, granite and slate memorial in Market Place, which was unveiled on September 4, 1921, will be cleaned up by Chippenham based specialist stonemason Howlett-Neal Masonry and Conservation.

It will also repair defective stones and repoint crumbling mortar, paid for by Chippenham Town Council.

The work is due to take about two weeks, and three parking spaces in Upper Market Place will be taken out of action to make way for scaffolding while the work is carried out.

Chippenham Mayor David Powell said: "Given that a lot of town council events at the moment are focusing on World War One, the memorial should be in good condition. It is extremely important we don't forget the sacrifices they made then, so that we can live in a safe, secure and free country. It was a fight for freedom."

In addition to the names of 160 Chippenham men who died in the First World War, three extra panels were added after the Second World War. Since then, the names of service personnel who died in more recent conflicts, such as the Falklands and Iraq, have also been added.

The memorial was last refurbished in 2006 when the three panels were amalgamated into a single one including all the names from 1939 to the present day.

A lot of the names featured also appear in the Pewsham estate, described by Chippenham researcher John Belcher as "the largest and least known memorial in Chippenham".

It has 39 streets named after men who were killed in one of the World Wars. Pewsham's streets commemorate 53 men, the difference in numbers because some are named after more than one person, for example Chivers Close honours Albert, Edwin, Sydney and Michael Chivers.