Memorial Clock Tower

Memorial Clock Tower

This memorial clock tower in Coalville, designed by architect Henry Collins and built in 1925, stands 68 feet tall in Memorial Square. It is constructed in Staffordshire brick with stone and granite detailing, and has a square plan with a stone top featuring concave sides.

The tower measures 13 feet 6 inches square at its base and is approached by a set of steps on each of the four sides, with associated wing walls built in local rubble granite. Close vertical projecting bands run up the sides of the tower, which is topped with a clock face on each of the four sides.

The main inscription reads: THIS TOWER / WAS / ERECTED / BY THE / INHABITANTS / OF THE DISTRICT / IN MEMORY / OF THE MEN / WHO WENT FROM / THE COALVILLE URBAN / AREA. The tower carries three identical tablets commemorating those who fell in the First World War, each reading: IN LOVING AND GRATEFUL REMEMBERANCE / OF (NAMES) / WHO, TO THEIR IMPERISHABLE HONOUR GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918. Four identical tablets commemorate those who fell in the Second World War, reading: IN LOVING AND GRATEFUL REMEMBERANCE / OF / (NAMES) / WHO, TO THEIR IMPERISHABLE HONOUR GAVE / THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1939-1945.

A separate memorial stone positioned close to the north side of the clock tower commemorates the end of the Second World War on 15th August 1945. Its inscription reads: FOR YOUR TOMORROW / WE GAVE OUR TODAY / THIS STONE COMMEMORATES / THE ENDING OF THE / 2ND WORLD WAR / 15TH AUGUST 1945 / THEIR SACRIFICE WAS NOT IN VAIN / WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

The tower was built by W Moss Ltd at a cost of £2,250, replacing an earlier cenotaph that had been installed in the boundary wall of the railway station in 1919. The memorial clock was officially opened by Mrs Booth of Gracedieu Manor at a memorial service on 31st October 1925, attended by approximately ten thousand people. The ceremony included a procession led by the Coalville Company of the 5th Leicestershire Regiment with the regimental band, followed by ex-servicemen and a detachment of C squadron of the Leicestershire Yeomanry who marched from Whitwick. Another party of ex-servicemen, including 22 surviving members of the 'first fifty', was led from the Fox and Goose public house by the Hugglescote and Ellistown Band.