Summary
First World War memorial gateway, erected around 1922, with Second World War additions.
The contemporary sections of brick walls and piers which flank the north-east and south-west sides of the gateway, forming the Memorial Park's northern boundary to Church Street, are excluded from the listing.
Reasons for Designation
Donisthorpe War Memorial Gateway, erected around 1922, with Second World War additions, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* as an eloquent witness to the tragic impacts of world events on this community, and the sacrifices it made in the conflicts of the C20.
Architectural interest:
* as an accomplished and well realised war memorial that takes the form of a memorial park gateway displaying good workmanship, decorative detailing and use of materials.
Group value:
* it forms an important group with Donisthorpe Memorial Park, a public recreation ground which opened as a war memorial in 1920.
History
The aftermath of the First World War saw the biggest single wave of public commemoration ever with tens of thousands of memorials erected across England. This was the result of both the huge impact on communities of the loss of three quarters of a million British lives, and also the official policy of not repatriating the dead, which meant that the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss.
Local commemoration in Donisthorpe initially took the form of a public recreation ground which was laid out on the south side of Church Street. It was opened on 17 April 1920 by Mr John Turner, High Sheriff of Leicestershire. In the ensuing years Donisthorpe War Memorial Committee held a series of local events to raise funds to erect a memorial gateway at the Church Street entrance to the playing field. A news report in the Nottingham Journal on 21 August 1922 records that the Committee, who having raised about £600 for the purchase of a recreation ground as a war memorial, organised the Donisthorpe Musical Festival and Allotment Holders’ Exhibition on 19 August 1922 with the aim of raising funds towards the £600 estimated cost for the gateway. It is therefore believed that the memorial gateway was erected shortly afterwards.
Following the Second World War the names of the local men who died in that conflict were added to the memorial.
Details
First World War memorial gateway, erected around 1922, with Second World War additions.
MATERIALS: of brick and wrought iron.
DESCRIPTION: Donisthorpe War Memorial Gateway stands on the south side of Church Street and originally formed the entrance to a recreation ground (now Donisthorpe Memorial Park) which was laid out as a war memorial in 1920. In the late C20 a new entrance was created at the corner of Church Street and Ramscliff Avenue and the gateway is now permanently closed.
The gateway comprises a pair of elaborate wrought-iron gates set between red brick piers of square section. The piers have deeply moulded caps surmounted by elaborate wrought-iron mountings supporting an overthrow with the inscription WHO DIES IF ENGLAND LIVES / IN MEMORIAM.
The First World War dedicatory inscription is inscribed on two bronze plaques fixed to each gate pier. The left-hand side plaque reads IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE / MEN OF THIS PARISH / WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR US / IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918 / "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS", while the right-hand side plaque reads IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE / MEN OF THIS PARISH / WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR US / IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918 / "THEY WERE AS A WALL UNTO US / BOTH BY DAY AND NIGHT" / "AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN/ AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL / REMEMBER THEM". Beneath each dedication are the names of the Fallen who are listed alphabetically by rank.
Placed above each plaque are two smaller plaques which commemorate the local men who died in the Second World War. They both read IN MEMORY OF THOSE / OF THE PARISH WHO / GAVE THEIR LIVES IN / THE SECOND WORLD WAR / 1939 - 1945 / [NAMES] / RIP.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the contemporary brick walling and piers to the north-east and south-west sides of the gateway, which form the Memorial Park's northern boundary to Church Street, are architecturally modest. They are therefore excluded from the listing.
