THEY are parks. They are a pair of candlesticks and a stained glass window. They are railway locomotives, fireplaces, church towers, cannons and benches. Somewhere prominent on all of them you will find inscribed the word "remember" or "memory". For these are all York war memorials.

Most of us imagine two sorts of memorial. The large, civic monuments such as the ones designed for the city of York and the North Eastern Railway by Edwin Lutyens; and church plaques.

Yet almost anything can be a war memorial. They come in all shapes and sizes, all with a tale of courage and sacrifice attached.

In the last few days, the Imperial War Museum has launched its archive, the UK National Inventory of War Memorials.

For 12 years, 500 volunteers have been collating the details of every memorial they can find for the database. They have given hours of their time to tracing memorials and recording their existence.

Among those involved in North Yorkshire are Linda and Ken Haywood. On and off, they have been tracking down York's war memorials - excluding those in the Minster - since 1990.

Ken, who has long had an interest in the First World War, was the first to get involved. He co-ordinated the efforts of a group of memorial detectives from the York and District Family History Society.

Linda, well-known for her work uncovering Bishopthorpe's history, then threw her formidable research skills into the project.

The result: they have helped find and chronicle more than 100 York war memorials. The most prominent are the Lutyens monuments. Linda discovered that the city war memorial, unveiled in 1925, includes a time capsule within the masonry. Not a great deal of imagination went into the contents, however, which included copies of city council minutes.

Among the smallest tablets are those dedicating hospital beds and even cots to loved ones. In the Borthwick Institute on Peasholme Green, York, there is one such plaque inscribed: "In Loving Memory of 2nd Lieut HE Jackson, only son of WE and AJ Jackson and grandson of Isaac Poad. Killed in Action June 11th 1917. This cot is endowed by his mother."

The York inventory covers memorials from the Crimean War through to the Falklands. For many years two cannons stood near Blue Bridge in York, captured from Sebastapol and transformed into a monument to the dead of the Crimean campaign. They were melted down for a later war effort in 1941. Linda would love to know if anyone has any knowledge of the plaques and the plinth that once sat underneath the guns.

By far the greatest number of the memorials are from the First World War. They are dedicated by families, by streets, by parishes, regimental associations, by sports and working men's clubs, by institutions and companies, by schools.

Everyone, it seemed, wanted to ensure that the heroes of the Great War were never forgotten.

"It's overwhelming, almost," said Linda. Why does she think there are so many? "Because there had never been a war like it, because of the mass impact of death on the community."

She said the Archbishop of York, Army majors and civic dignitaries were regularly involved in unveiling ceremonies between 1918 and 1925.

"It's most ironic in 2001 looking back that this was what they believed: that the First World War was the war to end all wars.

"They wanted to commemorate their friends from their bowling clubs, rowing clubs, their workplace or their parish."

Almost every time the team found one war memorial, it led them to another. Once found, all the details had to be recorded on a four-page form, detailing location, inscriptions, ornamentation, the history and condition of the memorial. Linda also took photographs of them all, some of which are reproduced on this page.

The very earliest First World War memorial in York was put up at the Bootham Row Mission before the war was even over, in 1916. That is now missing.

Nearby, at Bert Keech's Bowling Club, a very colourful memorial remembering members of Bootham and District York Bowling Club can be found. It includes a painting of a bowling match taking place beside a flower bed out of which poppies are flowering.

By far the biggest memorial is Rowntree Park, given to the city by the confectionery family to commemorate the dead of the First World War. The large iron gates on the river side of the park, dating from the 18th century, were added as a Second World War memorial.

All of the clock tower of St Saviour's Church, now home to the Archaeological Resource Centre, is also a dedicated memorial.

After the First World War, York's education committee commissioned memorials to former pupils' city schools. Some survive in new locations - Micklegate Trinity National School, which once stood on Queen Street, passed its memorial to Holy Trinity Church in Micklegate.

Some memorials include hundreds of names, others just the one. In Bishopthorpe Parish Church is a specially commissioned wooden altarpiece in the form of a triptych. It commemorates Edward Gibbs, who was curate to the Archbishop of York and who died on Good Friday, 1917, during the Battle of Arras.

The triptych is opened throughout the year, but closed on Good Friday to reveal the plaque in memory of the Rev Gibbs.

As well as the Lutyens' Station Rise memorial, the railway industry commemorated its dead with more unusual memorials: locomotive nameplates. Some of these are held by the National Railway Museum, with names such as Patriot and Remembrance.

Detective work has taken the Haywoods and other volunteers across the city. They have found neglected war memorials left in back rooms, museum stores and vestries, and hope that their work will persuade the relevant organisations to display them prominently once more.

Linda and Ken went down to the Imperial War Museum last Thursday to take part in the launch of the database. They are still looking for help finding and identifying memorials.

They found a large wooden First World War memorial, probably from a school, in St Saviour's Church. The names on it include: Philip Duncan, Walter Pollard, William Lowther and Frederick Leaf. Do you know where it belongs?

Among the missing memorials are those at Bilton Street School; Bluecoat School; St Sampson's Church; Yorkshire Insurance; Vickers Instruments and the West Yorkshire Road Car Company. If you can help or offer any information, please contact Linda and Ken at kenh@will.junglelink.co.uk or on (01904) 704584.

To find out more about the National Inventory of War Memorials, go to www.iwm.org.uk