A SONG about the ‘incredible loss’ Otley suffered during the First World War will receive its debut performance this weekend.

Albion Street has been written by two members of local folk band Summercross - Greg Mulholland (the town’s former MP) and Jim Caswell.

The pair, who both sing and play guitar for the group, will perform the tune for the first time at a special commemorative service at The Bridge Church at 3pm on Sunday, September 30.

The event marks the conclusion of the Flowers of the Field festival - a week-long programme of activities organised to commemorate the end of the ‘Great War’ and the church’s east window, which was installed in 1920 in memory of the fallen.

Albion Street is described as ‘a song about the extraordinary fact that one small terraced street, Albion Street in Otley, lists nine of the town’s fallen’.

Mr Caswell was involved in Otley Museum’s research for its Legacies of War: Untold Otley Stories project, which found that the road had the highest concentration of the town’s casualties in the war.

He said: “I have always had an interest in the First World War and back in 2013 I became involved in the production of the Otley Museum booklet, Legacies of War.

“My particular responsibility was looking at the aftermath of the war.

“The story of the men from Albion Street stood out - nine men from the same little terraced street and the fact that this street was called ‘Albion’, the oldest known name for Great Britain, seemed especially symbolic.

“As a musician, I thought the power of the story should be put to music and I hope the song is a fitting commemoration of these men.”

Mr Mulholland added: “Every year at the Remembrance Sunday service in Otley it is extraordinary the time it takes to read the number of names of the fallen of the First World War.

“As songwriters we wanted to find a way to get across the incredible loss that the town and country suffered between 1914 and 1918.

“To find out, thanks to Otley Museum’s powerful research, that nine men were listed amongst the dead on one terraced street gave us the inspiration to try to tell their story and pay tribute to them, and all of Otley’s fallen.

“We are honoured to be performing the song for the first time at the special service at the Bridge Church as part of their week of events to commemorate the Armistice, and we hope through this song we can keep the memories of all the fallen alive, as well as reminding people of the tragic reality of this awful conflict.”

Only one of the nine men from Albion Street who served in the war, Thomas Varney, returned home but he was ill and later died in his parents’ house on the road.

The rest died where they fell and are commemorated at cemeteries in Belgium and France, as well as on war memorials in Otley.