St Edward's War Memorial, Leek

MATERIALS: Roche limestone.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial consists of a Celtic-style wheel-head cross with shortened cross-bar arms that rises from a tapering shaft. Both cross and shaft are rectangular in plan.

The front and rear faces of the cross and upper two-thirds of the shaft are recessed resulting in a border in relief that is flush with the lower third of the shaft. The side faces of the shaft are similarly recessed. The front face of the cross and shaft are decorated with Celtic-style carved interlacing motifs with the ‘IHS’ Christogram at the centre point of the cross arms in relief. The rear face bears a carved Sword of Sacrifice in relief. The shaft rises from a rectangular block plinth of broad frontage with rounded upper edges which is set upon a three-stepped square base.

The front face of the plinth is inscribed 1914 – 1919/ TO THE GLORY OF GOD/ AND IN HONOURED MEMORY OF THOSE/ WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR/ THEIR NAMES ARE GRATEFULLY RECORDED/ ON THE TABLET IN THE CHURCH./ ‘GRANT THEM LORD ETERNAL REST’.

The left face of the plinth read: ALSO/ IN HONOURED MEMORY/ OF THOSE WHO FELL IN/ THE WORLD WAR/ 1939 – 1945.