Summary
First World War Memorial of red sandstone, with a disused drinking fountain.
Reasons for Designation
Minshull Vernon cum Leighton War Memorial, a First World War Memorial of red sandstone, with a disused drinking fountain, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the sacrifice it made in the conflicts of the C20;
* Design interest: as a relatively unusual memorial incorporating a drinking fountain.
History
Parish records indicate that discussion regarding a memorial to local men killed in action began in 1917, but initial ideas included adding an inscription to the Victoria Jubilee Cross, and from 1920 a memorial plaque in the parish church. It is reported that in the 1920s a Mrs Sellars gave the land to enable construction of the memorial. War memorial accounts were presented in 1922, amounting to £78 3s 0d (roughly £3,100 in 2016), which suggests that these included the cost of erection of the monument being assessed, and that it stood by this date. The first map of the site after this date is the 1:2,500 OS map of 1962, which shows the memorial. Over the last 20 years the original plaques have been replaced twice and the original sandstone bollards have been replaced in concrete. On the 4 June 2016 additional plaques were installed on the N and S faces, dedicated to the memory of airmen who died in training crashes in the parish during the Second World War.
Details
First World War memorial of the 1920s, designer unknown.
MATERIALS: built of local red sandstone.
PLAN: the memorial stands on two square stone steps, and above this comprises a tapering, square obelisk.
DESCRIPTION: standing on open land at the junction of Middlewich Road and Eardswick Lane, surrounded by a small garden. The obelisk is divided into three stages by stone bands with cavetto mouldings, and is of regularly-coursed, rock-faced blocks. The centre stage does not taper, and panelled recesses with a dressed margin around them fill each face. The E face contains a slate plaque with an incised and filled inscription reading:
PARISH OF/ LEIGHTON CUM/ MINSHULL VERNON/ IN GLORIOUS MEMORY/ OF THOSE WHO DIED/ FOR FREEDOM/ AND IN HONOUR/ OF ALL WHO SERVED/ THEIR KING AND COUNTRY/ 1914 - 1918
On the W face is a similar plaque listing the twelve names of the fallen, with no military or other information.
The N and S faces contain plaques inscribed:
(S) IN MEMORY OF THE FOLLOWING RAF CREW/ WHO DIED IN THIS PARISH:/ 4TH FEBRUARY 1941/ ON WELLINGTON R1298/ , followed by ten names, and
(N) IN MEMORY OF THE FOLLOWING RAF CREW/ WHO DIED IN THIS PARISH:/ 20TH MARCH 1943/ ON WELLINGTON X3547/, followed by eight names, and
ON OXFORD DF477/, followed by four names.
The lower band on the E face contains a quarter-spherical stone basin with the remains of a metal drinking fountain above.
This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 26 January 2017.
