Nympsfield War Memorial

Summary

A war memorial, in the form of a timber cross dating from circa 1918, with an earlier lead figure of the crucified Christ brought from the battlefield on the Somme. Further names added in 1996.

Reasons for Designation

Nympsfield war memorial is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on this community, and the sacrifices it made in the conflicts of the C20;
* Artistic interest: for its re-use of a small French sculpture of the crucified Christ, which was recovered from the battlefield of the Somme and sent to England.

History

The war memorial in Nympsfield was set up outside Chapel House (formerly The Red Lion Inn), which was used for Roman Catholic worship in the village from 1852 until St Joseph’s Church was constructed in 1923. There had been a strong tradition of Catholic worship in Nympsfield (alternatively spelled Nymphsfield) largely driven by the Leigh family. William Leigh, a Roman Catholic convert, purchased the manor and an estate, Spring Park, at nearby Woodchester in the 1840s, and whilst building his new house, Woodchester Mansion (listed Grade I, left unfinished in circa 1860) sought to establish a religious community nearby. Members of the family retained ownership of the manor and continued to live in the area until the death of Mary Blanche Leigh in 1946.

Mary Blanche Leigh was a prominent member of the village’s Catholic community, and took a close interest in the spiritual and physical well-being of the men who had left the village to fight in the First World War, writing to the Catholic newspaper The Tablet in 1917 to pass on a soldier’s distress at the lack of Catholic worship in the Army in France. Two letters sent to Leigh from the Front, from Company Quarter Master Sergeant Harry G Bown, T4/249014, then of the British Army Service Corps Transport, concern a small sculpture of the crucified Christ which he had sent to her. He had picked it up in the village of Beugny on the Somme, and carried it with him, to send home. In November 1917, he writes “You will observe that it is knocked about rather badly. A stray bullet has pierced it in the side passing out thro [sic] the arm. I know you will value it very highly as it was recovered in a village in which there was much fighting. I think it would look very well mounted on a cross… I must apologise for keeping it so long. It has travelled practically the whole of the British front with me.” A subsequent letter gives the name of the village from which it had been recovered.

The figure was indeed mounted on a timber cross, set into a polygonal stone base, with inscribed panels set into its sides, commemorating the men of the village who had lost their lives in the conflict. It was erected outside Chapel House.

In 1996 three further names were added to the memorial, in memory of one of the Fallen from the First World War whose name had previously been omitted and two men who lost their lives during the Second World War. In 2008 a vehicle collided with the war memorial, damaging the timber cross and stone base, but it was subsequently repaired.

Details

A war memorial, in the form of a timber cross dating from circa 1918, with an earlier lead figure of the crucified Christ brought from the battlefield on the Somme. Further names added in 1996.

MATERIALS: a metal figure of Christ on a timber cross set in a limestone base.

PLAN: the base is polygonal.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial takes the form of a calvary, with a metal, possibly lead, figure of the crucified Christ, recovered from the battlefield at Beugny on the Somme, affixed to a coped timber cross. The cross is set into a polygonal stone base, into three faces of which are set stone panels with carved lettering. The central panel is inscribed: THIS CRUCIFIX SHOT / & BROKEN WAS FOUND / ON THE BATTLE FIELD / OF BEUGNY ON THE / SOMME 1917 / THE MEN & WOMEN OF / NYMPHSFIELD HAVE / SET IT UP IN THEIR / MIDST TO REMIND / THEM OF GOD’S MERCIES / DURING THE GREAT WAR /& TO BEG HIS BLESSING / ON THE LIVING AND / THE DEAD. / HE WAS WOUNDED FOR / OUR TRANSGRESSIONS / HE WAS BRUISED FOR / OUR INIQUITIES / ISAIAS LIM 5 [sic]. The names of the Fallen from the First World War, numbering nine, and the two soldiers who lost their lives in the Second World War, are inscribed on the flanking panels. Two of the panels have been renewed.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Online. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 10 January 2017.

Sources

Books and journals
Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 1 The Cotswolds, (1970), 527

Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 15 June 2016 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/35227
War Memorials Online, accessed 10 January 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/89193

Other
Gloucestershire Archives D6598/1/1 : Mary Blanche Leigh – letters related to religious figure found in village on the Somme, 1917

End of official list entry

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