A memorial to war dead is set be erected in time for Remembrance Sunday at a church which removed its rolls of honour decades ago.
At a public meeting on Monday night, the church announced that the unveiling of a newly created memorial would coincide with an exhibition on the impact of the World War I in November.
The idea was sparked following calls for the church to reinstate its rolls of honour taken away to Surrey History Centre in Woking during the 90s.
The Great War roll of honour at Surrey History Centre in Woking
Rev Michael Preston, the long-time vicar of St Barnabas who is retiring this month, said: "Hopefully as we are unveiling the memorial around Remembrance Sunday at the same time there will be an exhibition on the effects of the world war.
"The local school is very interested in connecting with the exhibition and looking at its own history."
He announced that the parochial church council (PCC) has set up a working group to look at different types of possible memorials and collect information for the exhibition.
The World War II memorial stored at the history centre
Among other options, the church council had discussed creating a plaque with all the names, a general plaque accompanied by list of names and a book of remembrance.
But Clive Gilbert, a volunteer researcher at Epsom and Ewell Local and Family History Centre, who first raised the issue, said he wanted copies of the original scrolls brought back.
He said an artwork restorer should clean the scrolls then high quality copies should be made, framed and displayed in the church.
He said: "That would be my fairly simple view."
Rev Michael Preston at the first public meeting in January
In response, the vicar said: "That argument is heard. Of course you have the other argument of permanence. There are other points of view. It’s an open book at the moment. The PCC at this stage is waiting for more information."
The church will then apply for permission from the diocese and seek funding from the National Lottery’s heritage fund, county council and elsewhere.
In response to a suggestion by British Legion member Jim Martin that plastic copies could be temporarily put up, Mr Preston said: "Nothing is ruled out or ruled in."
He said: "If this memorial had not been put in Surrey History Centre and was still at the back of the church none of us would be here and you would not know the names on it. It has been a happy circumstance."
Local historian Clive Gilbert speaks at a public meeting in January
Helen Lawrence, 81, from Watersedge, West Ewell, who was at the meeting, is the granddaughter of Sergeant William Maynard who is named on the roll of honour dedicated to dead from the Great War.
Sergeant Maynard, from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed during heavy fighting near Ypres, Belgium, in 1914 at the age of 35.
Mrs Lawrence said: "As long as he’s remembered and all the rest of them. All the time I’m alive I will remember but when I’m gone?"
A photo of Sergeant Maynard left at the Ashley Road War Memorial
Ex-serviceman Michael Tucker wrote to the Epsom Guardian from Australia last week urging the church to re-instate the rolls of honour.
He said "I ask now for the memorial to be re-instated in St Barnabas Church where it rightly belongs.
"Now in my 80th year, I was baptized in St Barnabas Church on 25th November 1934. Even as a young boy I remember that memorial, which hung near the church’s foundation stone in the Lady Chapel.
"My father explained to me the significance of that framed Roll of Honour, and how he had lost so many friends who fought and died for their country during the Great War."
Referring to the angel that is portrayed on the World War I roll of honour, he said: "It is often said that a picture is worth more than a thousand words and, being a writer, I know this to be perfectly true.
"That had a profound effect on me whenever I looked at it, as the reassuring angel comforts the bereaved person weeping.
"I always imagined the angel saying, 'Weep not, for those whose names that are inscribed here, and thousands more, are now with the Lord.'"
The meeting on Monday night ended with a minute’s silence and all the researchers, congregation members and residents said: "We will remember them."
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