Little Lever Library War Memorial Plaque

War Memorial Plaque, unveiled 17 August 1940, sculpted by Mr W H Doxey of Levenshulme.

MATERIALS: the bas-relief carved panel is of Stancliffe stone; the name panels and frame are of Coniston slate.

DESCRIPTION: a rectangular wall plaque set within the front wall of Little Lever Memorial Library, the base of which is approximately 0.74m above the building podium (the library is not listed). The sea green coloured slate plaque forms a frame for a central buff coloured sandstone bas relief carved panel. The panel displays the date 1914-1918 over a recumbent dead soldier lying on a slab as if asleep, wrapped in a shroud with the head exposed. A Brodie steel helmet and a 'new pattern forage cap with peak' are propped up at either end of the slab. The panel is signed W H DOXEY at the bottom left-hand corner. The frame has stepped moulded exterior edges and re-bated interior edges, and has a projecting keystone displaying the Lever coat of arms of a knight's helmet, with a feather on either side beneath a small shield, and a motto that reads: VELTIMERE MUTARE SPERNO, (I scorn to change, or to fear). The base panel of the frame is inscribed IN MEMORY OF THE MEN / OF LITTLE LEVER / WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR / THEIR NAMES LIVETH FOR EVER MORE. Two large panels carved with the 79 names of the Fallen from the First World War form the two ends of the plaque. Two secondary rectangular tablets of Coniston slate are butted up together, immediately beneath the main inscription, and are inscribed 1939-1945, and record the 28 names of the Fallen from the Second World War.