West Derby War Memorial

Junction of St Helens Road and Burrow's Lane, Eccleston Lane Ends, Prescot, Liverpool, L34 6JN

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

First World War memorial. Erected 1922. Designed by Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner. Founders and stonemasons HH Martyn & Co, Cheltenham. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1389376
Date first listed:: 15-Aug-2001
List Entry Name:: West Derby War Memorial
Statutory Address:: Junction of St Helens Road and Burrow's Lane, Eccleston Lane Ends, Prescot, Liverpool, L34 6JN

User submitted image — Uploaded by War Memorials Online This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1389376
Date first listed:: 15-Aug-2001
Date of most recent amendment:: 09-Jun-2017
List Entry Name:: West Derby War Memorial
Statutory Address 1:: Junction of St Helens Road and Burrow's Lane, Eccleston Lane Ends, Prescot, Liverpool, L34 6JN

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Junction of St Helens Road and Burrow's Lane, Eccleston Lane Ends, Prescot, Liverpool, L34 6JN

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: St. Helens (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Eccleston
National Grid Reference:: SJ4737393313

Summary

First World War memorial. Erected 1922. Designed by Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner. Founders and stonemasons HH Martyn & Co, Cheltenham.

Reasons for Designation

West Derby War Memorial, erected in 1922 and designed by Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: a composition of individuality and dynamism by the designers and sculptors Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner; * Sculptural interest: the contrasting depictions of a junior officer and a spirited young woman in contemporary dress are notable; * Rarity: For its depiction of a woman in contemporary civilian dress sculpted in the round; * Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the sacrifices it made in the conflicts of the C20.

History

The aftermath of the First World War saw an unprecedented wave of public commemoration with tens of thousands of memorials erected across the country.

West Derby War Memorial was commissioned by the glass manufacturer Dr. Frederick Dixon Nuttall, whose son Lieutenant JF Dixon Nuttall of the West Lancashire Divisional Royal Engineers was killed in action. It commemorates the fallen of West Derby Hundred, one of the six ancient divisions of the County of Lancashire stretching from the Mersey to the Ribble, of which West Derby was the principal manor. The memorial was unveiled on 23 July 1922 by the Bishop of Liverpool.

The figures on the memorial were modelled on Lt Dixon Nuttall’s wife and brother.

Walter Henry Gilbert (1871-1946) was a designer and modeller, mainly in metalwork, who often worked in collaboration with the Swiss-born modeller Louis Weingartner (d1934) and latterly with his son Donald Gilbert. Born in Rugby, Gilbert studied at the Birmingham Municipal School of Art, and co-founded the internationally renowned Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts in 1898, under whose auspices he began his long and creative collaboration with Weingartner. Gilbert entered the firm of HH Martyn and Co. Ltd. of Cheltenham in 1918. Little is known about the career of Weingartner. He was from Lake Lucerne, and was a jeweller in the School of Art in Birmingham before moving to Bromsgrove in 1903. He returned to Switzerland in 1930 and died in 1934.

Gilbert and Weingartner’s catalogue of works includes the gates to Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Memorial under Sir Aston Webb; the reredos at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral under Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and metalwork at the Masonic Temple, London, architects Ashley & Newman. They undertook a number of war memorials including those at Crewe, Liverpool News Exchange and Burnley, Lancashire, which also features life-size statuary of women honouring the fallen.

Details

First World War memorial. Erected 1922. Designed by Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner. Founders and stonemasons HH Martyn & Co, Cheltenham. MATERIALS: Bronze figures on sandstone pedestal and base.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial stands at the north-west corner of the junction of St Helen’s Road and Burrows Lane, in a paved area enclosed by brick walls, gates and railings. It consists of a battered square Portland stone pedestal on a three-tier stepped plinth, supporting a life-size bronze statue of a junior army officer raising his field glasses in his left hand, his revolver in the other, his left foot resting on a Prussian helmet. Dress and weaponry are depicted in detail. A life-size bronze figure of a woman in contemporary dress climbs on the steps of the plinth, stretching upwards to offer a laurel branch to the soldier.

A bronze relief panel wraps around the four faces of the pedestal, which depict (anti-clockwise) marching soldiers, airmen, soldiers with camels and seamen loading a naval gun. The panels read: THE LAURELS OF THE / SONS ARE WATERED / FROM THE HEARTS / OF THE MOTHERS.

Affixed to the front (south-east) face of the pedestal a stone tablet is inscribed: TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY / OF ALL THOSE FROM THE / WEST DERBY HUNDRED OF / THE COUNTY PALATINE OF / LANCASTER WHO FOUGHT / & GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR / THEIR KING & COUNTRY IN / THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 488034
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Websites
History of the West Derby War Memorial from the Public Monument and Sculpture Association database, accessed 20 February 2017 from http://www.pmsa.org.uk/pmsa-database/5083/
Information on Walter Gilbert, Louis Weingartner and Donald Gilbert from the on line archive of Phillip Medhurst , accessed 20 February 2017 from http://ia902309.us.archive.org/28/items/WalterGilbert/WalterGilbertMainInventory.pdf
Information on war memorials from the Imperial War Museum database, accessed 20 February 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/1236
Information on war memorials from the War Memorials Online database, accessed 20 February 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/108047/

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

The listed building(s) is/are shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.