Jacksdale War Memorial

Jacksdale war memorial, built in 1921 to the designs of monumental masons Beresford & Son.

MATERIALS: Stancliffe stone plinth with replacement slate panels and Portland stone statue.

PLAN: square in plan-form.

DESCRIPTION: The memorial is positioned prominently in the centre of the village at the junction of Main Road and Wagstaff Lane, set on a traffic island bordered by a modern, low-set iron bar fence (excluded from this listing). It stands at a height of approximately 4.4 metres and is square in plan with a Stancliffe stone plinth featuring corner pilasters, a dentilled capstone and a carved relief of a memorial wreath in the upper portion of the frontal (north-west) elevation. On top of the plinth, a shallow, stepped platform is surmounted by a sculpted figure of a First World War British soldier, looking ahead and supporting a rifle which rests on the ground. This sculpture, which was added in 2009 (along with the upper step of the platform on the top of the plinth), is a close replica of the original 1921 sculpture. The replacement sculpture was the work of Centreline stonemasons and was carved from Portland stone, this in contrast to the Carrara marble original.

The four elevations of the plinth (north-west, north-east, south-west and south-east) bear slate panels which were fixed to the memorial after 1945 when the names of the fallen from the Second World War were added. The frontal (north-west) panel is inscribed with the dates of the First World War (1914-18), an epitaph “BY THEIR SACRIFICE WE LIVE”, and the names of 48 men from Pye Hill, Jacksdale and Westwood who fell in the conflict. Beneath this inscription are the dates of the Second World War (1939-45), and the names of 20 of the fallen with the epitaph “WE WILL REMEMBER THEM”. The other three sides of the plinth are also mounted with slate panels, each of these list the names of those who served in the First World War, numbering 255 in all, and headed “SERVED, 1914 – 1918.” These slate panels replaced earlier Carrara marble versions which adorned the memorial when erected in 1921 (these having matched the material of the original soldier monument). The inscriptions on the replacement panels are the same as those on the original panels (barring the Second World War inscriptions), from the evidence of a report in the Eastwood & Kimberley Advertiser in July 1921.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act, 1990, the paved area surrounding the memorial and the modern, iron-bar fence are not of special architectural or historic interest.