Wiswell School War Memorial

First World War memorial of 1925 with an additional name of the Second World War.

MATERIALS: built of local buff sandstone.

PLAN: comprising a sandstone tablet inset into the wall of a former school, with an altar-like plinth below.

DESCRIPTION: built into the E wall of the Old School and with an adjacent semi-circular forecourt* of traditional stone setts and cobbles.

The tablet is inscribed with the names of the 14 old boys of Wiswell School who fell in the First World War, in well-carved letters picked out in black paint. The inscription above the names reads: REMEMBER/ THE OLD BOYS OF/ WISWELL SCHOOL/ WHO FELL IN THE WAR/ 1914-1918.

The names are alphabetised by surname with no ranks. The tablet has a decorative roll-moulding surround, whose sill is inscribed with the single name from the Second World War, flanked by the dates 1939 and 1945. At the head, a central tongue projects downwards, which is concave at the base, forming a calvary for a carved wheel-head cross within the tongue, painted gold. To either side of the tongue are wheels in relief with a black-painted recessed centre containing swastikas in relief, also painted gold. The tablet is surmounted by a hood-mould, possibly of C17 date.

At ground level below the tablet is a shallow, rectangular plinth, resembling an altar, with a recessed centre to the front face and a projecting table-like top, depressed in the centre to form a trough used for planting.

*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the aforementioned items are not of special architectural or historic interest.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 20 July 2017.