Thelwall War Memorial

Thelwall War Memorial

This war memorial, designer unknown, was erected around 1923 in granite on an elevated roadside site at the junction of Bell Lane and Lymm Road. It takes the form of an Anglo Saxon-style cross with a tapering, rough-hewn base set upon a rectangular plinth and small raised garden.

The cross shaft tapers slightly. The lower part of its front face incorporates a quotation in Old English from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recording the founding of Thelwall in 923. The upper part of the front face carries carved Anglo Saxon vine-scroll decoration. The shaft sides and lower part of the rear face are decorated with interlace patterns. The upper part of the rear face is worn but appears to include two carved depictions of King Edward the Elder. The cross head features a carved depiction of King Edward the Elder's head at its centre front, with arms depicting angels. The rear of the cross head is similarly worn, with angels carved to the centre and arms in comparable style to those on the front.

The base incorporates a carved recess to its front face with applied metal lettering recording the names of ten men lost during the First World War, along with the words 'IN REMEMBRANCE' and the dates '1914-1918'. Applied lettering to the front of the stone plinth records five names of those lost during the Second World War and the dates '19(39)-1945'.

The entire monument stands upon a raised flower bed with low sandstone walls and a yew hedge to the rear. A granite tablet set to the centre of the raised bed's front wall bears an inscription with a translation of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle text found on the cross shaft, reading 'DCCCCXXIII/IN THIS YEAR WENT KING EDWARD WITH A FORCE/AFTER HARVEST TO THELWALL AND BADE BUILD THE/CITY AND OCCUPY AND MAN IT. ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE C.C.C. LIBRARY CAMBRIDGE'.

The memorial was erected and unveiled in 1923 to commemorate both 1000 years of settlement in Thelwall, founded by King Edward the Elder in 923, and the men of the parish who died in the First World War. The names of those lost in the Second World War were added to the memorial at a later date.