War Memorial At St Margaret'S Church

612/0/10188 ST MARGARET'S ROAD 19-SEP-07 War Memorial at St Margaret's Church

GV II War memorial dedicated in 1920; designer unknown.

The memorial stands on the edge of the churchyard of St Margaret's church (listed Grade II) on the corner of St Margaret's Road, effectively open to the street and very much deliberately visible therefrom. It comprises a Calvary (with beneath the Christ figure on the stone plinth a bronze plaque with the raised inscription JESU MERCY) under a half-dome, with a low semi-circular limestone wall to the rear on which are copper plates bearing the texts (1) THEY LOVED NOT/THEIR LIVES UNTO DEATH (Revelations 12.11) (2) FOR KING & COUNTRY 1914-1918 followed by the names, in alphabetical order and without further details, of 47 men. When visited (June 2007) there was some strapping on one of the principal uprights which was rotten.

HISTORY: The memorial was dedicated on 24 July 1920. The cast-iron figure of Christ was cast by Lucy's Engineering Works nearby in Jericho, one of 200 such castings all presumably intended for similar memorials.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:

• Honouring the war dead of the parish, the memorial has strong historic and cultural significance.
• Standing on the edge of the churchyard on the street corner it is an ever-present reminder of the servicemen's sacrifice
• It incorporates a Christ figure cast by Lucy's Engineering Works in nearby Jericho

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 11 January 2017.