Lees, Cross Roads and Bocking Memorial Building

Lees, Cross Roads and Bocking Memorial Building

A First World War memorial pavilion built in 1921, designed in the Arts and Crafts style by Albert Thompson.

The building is constructed of dressed gritstone blocks with a Welsh slate clad roof topped with red terracotta ridge tiles. It has a sub-rectangular plan with canted corners to the main elevation.

The structure is a single-storey, three-bay building beneath a hipped roof. The lower three courses of walls are built of narrow quarry-faced blocks, with the remainder constructed of dressed and pecked gritstone blocks. Window sills and door lintels are of flush ashlar, with moulded ashlar drip moulds above the doors. All windows are multiple timber casements.

The north-west front elevation features canted corners, each with a top-hung window. The central element is a distinctive four-light double-height bow window with a semi-conical roof, flanked on either side by four-light windows. All these windows are protected by painted steel wire grilles against vandalism. The right and left returns each contain a doorway with a plain timber door, flanked by a keyed ashlar oval window (now boarded over). The south-western doorway has an ashlar verge. The rear elevation is plain except for two four-light windows with ashlar flush sills. The hipped roof is clad with graduated slates and red terracotta ridge tiles with end flashing. The semi-conical bay window roof also has red ridge tiles with flashing to the side valleys. The ridge tiles have rolled tops, except those to the corners which are plain. A three-light skylight at the centre of the rear roof slope illuminates the memorial sanctuary. The roof rafters are exposed at the eaves with notched rounded ends attached to fascia boards supporting cast-iron guttering. A mixture of original cast-iron and secondary black plastic downpipes are present.

Internally, the building is divided by a centrally placed stone-walled enclosure (the memorial sanctuary) built against the rear wall. This separates a pair of rectangular-plan end bays (shelters) from an open space (verandah) at the front. The walls are un-rendered pecked gritstone blocks, the floor is concrete, and the ceiling is painted tongue and groove boards with a simple cornice. The boards above the windows in the north-west wall extend further down to the top of the window reveals. The two rear windows and end wall doorways each have a painted broken pediment lintel; that to the south-west door bears an attached painted plaque. The door is flanked by two brass plaques commemorating the pavilion's reopening in June 2000.

The memorial sanctuary is formed between the two shelters, with wall ends taking the form of ashlar pilasters supporting a plain frieze, moulded cornice and open-bed triangular pediment. Entry is through a pair of glazed doors with brass handles set in a glazed timber screen, flanked by glazed and decorated timber panels. The rear wall of the sanctuary displays an ashlar memorial panel with a projecting plinth. It consists of five columns of black-painted inscribed names separated by intaglio carved and gilded pilasters, beneath a cornice and open-bed segmental pediment. Black lettering reads "LEES, CROSS ROADS & BOCKING / WAR MEMORIAL" with a carved and gilded laurel wreath bearing "1914 1918" at its centre. The outer four columns form a Roll of Honour listing 217 names under the heading "NAMES OF MEN WHO SERVED". The central column lists 39 names of the Fallen beneath "NAMES OF MEN WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES", with the dedication "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE" at the base beneath an intaglio carved and gilded open-bed segmental pediment. The memorial panel is lit from above by a three-light timber-framed skylight resting on a moulded timber cornice.

The north-eastern shelter has lost its original seating and now contains a modern tea bar with parquet flooring and a disabled toilet cubicle. The south-western shelter retains its original stained timber bench with tongue and groove boarded back and cabriole legs. A similar bench without a back stands opposite beneath the glazed front wall.