Highfields War Memorial Clock Tower

First World War Memorial Clock Tower, 1922, with Second World War additions.

MATERIALS: ashlar and rough-hewn sandstone blocks, and red granite tablets.

DESCRIPTION: the war memorial takes the form of a four-stage, square-plan campanile clock tower; each stage is narrower than the proceeding one. The tower is 8.53m tall and it rises off a two-stepped stone base; it has a coursed rough-hewn plinth, a slightly tapering pedestal with rough-hewn quoins and ashlar block panels, an ashlar frieze that houses a clock-face with Roman numerals in the main elevation, and is crowned by an ashlar domed belfry, with a knob finial, and pierced in each elevation by a pair of round-arched sound openings. The upper three stages all have moulded cornices. The lower panel of the pedestal is decorated by an oval wreath tied with ribbons that is carved in relief. A narrow timber door in the rear of the plinth, gives access to the clock mechanism, and a red marble tablet with gilded incised lettering is set into the front elevation; it reads: TO THE GLORY OF GOD/ THIS CLOCK TOWER IS ERECTED/ TO THE SACRED MEMORY/ OF THE UNDERNAMED WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY/ DURING THE GREAT WAR/ 1914 - 1919/ [32 Names]/ LEST WE FORGET. A smaller matching tablet to commemorate the fallen of the Second World War has been added at the base of the original; it reads: 1939 - 1945 WAR [13 Names].