Walmley War Memorial

The Walmley War Memorial is a First World War memorial that was unveiled in 1920. It is made of Portland stone and features bronze plaques. The memorial is designed as a cross with a Celtic wheel head and an octagonal shaft, along with a base, plinth, and platform. It is surrounded by paving and a low enclosing stone wall that has a generous coping, which serves as a bench.

On the south-western face of the monument, there is a wheel head cross adorned with a Celtic knot design in relief on the arms, along with tracery featuring trefoils between the arms. Below this, the tapering octagonal shaft has miniature buttresses on each side of its deep base, each with an elaborately moulded profile. The top of the plinth has a flared surface, and the tapered sides display bronze plaques with relief lettering. The central side reads: ‘ERECTED BY / THE INHABITANTS / OF WALMLEY / IN PROUD AND / GRATEFUL MEMORY / OF THE MEN / WHO LIVED IN THIS PARISH / AND NEIGHBOURHOOD / AND LAID DOWN / THEIR LIVES / IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914 – 1918’. The names and service details of the fallen are inscribed on the tablets on the flanking sides. Additionally, below the central tablet, there is a plaque commemorating one soldier who died in the Bosnia campaign in 1996. The northeast face features similar carving on the cross head.

The surrounding wall, which also serves as a fixed bench, extends to the north-east, north, north-west, east, and south-east sides of the monument, and is splayed to open out to the pavement at the south-west corner. It is constructed from low blocks of ashlar, and the broad coping has deep roll mouldings on each side.