Burnhope War Memorial

First World War memorial, 1920 to designs of Cackett and Burns Dick of Newcastle; with Second World War additions including a Garden of Remembrance.

MATERIALS: slender, orange hand-made brick with a red tile roof and concrete plinth; white polished granite plaques and sandstone plaques.

PLAN: a U-shaped open-fronted shelter opening onto a square Garden of Remembrance.

DESCRIPTION: set on the north side of the main village street, the memorial is in the form of a shelter, constructed of slender orange brick laid in English garden wall bond beneath pitched tiled roofs. The rear side has five bays, the central, wider one occupied by a tall, rectangular-headed archway with a wooden lintel inscribed: TO THE GLORIOUS DEAD. It is surmounted by a wooden cross, whose pedestal is inscribed: 1919. The central archway is flanked to either side by paired, recessed seating alcoves (with replacement metal seats), repeated to the two-bay right and left returns. The inner rear walls of each bay are detailed by the addition of a brick soldier course above which there are three shallow recessed panels. Six of the engaged columns dividing the bays have a white polished granite plaque with incised lettering, blackened listing the 78 Fallen of the First World War in alphabetical order. The shelter is reached by three continuous stone steps, curving to either end. The roof of the shelter is supported by oak beams, and a sandstone plaque containing a Fallen serviceman in 1930 and two similar plaques recording the 19 Fallen of the Second World War are attached to the rear inside walls.

The war memorial opens onto a square formal garden, with a south opening through flower borders surrounding a central, kerbed area. The centre-piece is a sandstone bird bath inscribed on all four sides: TO THE GLORY OF GOD/LEST WE FORGET/THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD/A GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE.