CHILDREN from a Darlington school have adopted a monument to a heroic airman.
Pupils at Red Hall Primary School have volunteered to help maintain the McMullen Memorial, in McMullen Road.
Groups of year six students will regularly clear the monument of litter and weeds, and clean the dedication plaque.
Headteacher Peter Boddy said all the children in the school would get to help out at some point.
"The children have been learning about World War Two recently," he said. "We've had speakers to tell them about McMullen, and have cuttings from The Northern Echo on classroom walls."
The memorial is dedicated to Canadian pilot William Stuart McMullen, who steered his Lancaster bomber away from houses when it developed engine trouble in 1945. He died on impact when the plane crashed into a field in Lingfield Farm.
Former headteacher Geoff Garrett has helped to encourage the children's enthusiasm by holding assemblies sharing his personal recollections of the crash.
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