Cannington War Memorial

Cannington War Memorial

This is a First World War memorial dedicated in 1921, with later additions commemorating the Second World War. It stands at the junction of Rodway and the High Street in Cannington, constructed from Bath stone.

The memorial comprises a small floriated cross mounted upon a tall, slender tapering octagonal shaft. This shaft rises from a square plinth, which in turn sits upon a two-stepped octagonal base. The inscription on the west face of the plinth reads: "TO THE GLORY OF GOD / AND IN MEMORY OF / THE MEN OF THIS PARISH / WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914-1918 / 1939-1945". A bronze plaque on the south face records the names of twenty men from Cannington who died in the First World War and seven who died in the Second World War.

The memorial was erected following a proposal made at a parish meeting on 11 February 1919. A War Memorial committee was established to raise funds by public subscription, eventually collecting £274 10s 3d, of which £252 2s 8d was spent on the memorial itself. The site was provided by Philip Hales Pleydell-Bouverie of Brymore House. The memorial was dedicated on 11 November 1921. The architect's name is not recorded, though they received a fee of £5 5s 0d. The builder, Mr. Willis, received £168 9s 0d for the work. A howitzer shell was added to the site in 1922, but this was removed in 1942 as part of the scrap metal drive during the Second World War. After the war, additional inscriptions were added to commemorate those who had died in the conflict. In 1957, the cross was relocated 2.4 metres to the west to allow widening of Rodway for construction traffic accessing Hinkley Point Power Station.