War Memorial

War Memorial

The war memorial in Breedon on the Hill, located on the village green at Main Street, was built in 1921 by local men Messrs Sault, Lester and Barsby, using stone from Breedon quarry supplied by quarry owner J. G. Shields. The cost of labour and other materials was met by public subscription, which raised £150.

The memorial is a small, round building in Norman style, constructed of polygonal Carboniferous limestone with a shallow domed roof covered in stone slates, surmounted by a stone-capped finial and Latin cross. The stone-capped parapet has four embrasures and is supported by a plain corbel table. There are four regularly spaced round-arched doorways with projecting imposts, fitted with elaborate wrought-iron gates. Between two of the doorways is a marble tablet set into a round-arched recess with jagged stones forming a chevron pattern. The tablet is inscribed "ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN OF BREEDON WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919" followed by names, and "1939-1945" with additional names. The interior contains four tall alcoves positioned between the doorways.

The memorial was unveiled by the Countess of Loudoun before a crowd of about 500 people, including around fifty ex-soldiers of the parish. An undated photograph from probably the 1920s or 1930s shows a low circular wall constructed of polygonal stone around the memorial, which has since been removed. In the 1950s, Robert Harvey, the local blacksmith whose smithy overlooked the memorial, created the wrought-iron gates that were fitted into the four arched doorways.