A TRIO of memorial crosses from a Somme battlefield will be re-united at Durham Cathedral as part of a series of commemorative events being held to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

All three wooden crosses were erected in 1917 on top of the Butte de Warlencourt in France as memorial to members of the 6th 8th and 9th Battalions of the Durham Light Infantry who died in battle there.

During the Battle of the Somme the Butte de Warlencourt, a prehistoric burial mound became a much contested point of high ground and the DLI was heavily involved in the fighting there.

Attempts to gain that higher ground ultimately took the lives of 273 members of the three DLI battalions.

After the battle had ended and the Butte (French for mound) passed into British hands the survivors erected three crosses to remember those who had died.

In 1926 those three crosses were taken down from the Butte and placed separately in the parish churches of St Andrew in Bishop Auckland, St. Mary and St. Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street and in Durham Cathedral, where it stands in the Durham Light Infantry Chapel.

The three crosses will once again stand together, this time in the South Transept of the Cathedral.

A series of services and events will be held at the Cathedral from Thursday June 30 to Saturday 2 . The crosses will be on display from July 2.

Full details of the Cathedral’s programme of services to commemorate the centenary of the battle, please visit: www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/whatson.