Summary
First World War memorial cross to Lt John Manners, Grenadier Guards, and memorial plaque marking the gift of the Peace Park as a war memorial.
Reasons for Designation
The Manners Memorial Cross and the Peace Park Plaque, at Peace Park, Clovelly are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on this local community, and the sacrifices it made in the First World War;
* Architectural interest: an imposing memorial cross standing in a prominent position, and with high quality lettering;
* Historic association: the cross and plaque, contemporary with the park, mark Mrs Hamlyn’s war memorial gift to the National Trust.
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 the country. 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: therefore the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss.
The field known as Mount Pleasant, approximately one acre of ground above the village of Clovelly and overlooking the sea, was given to the National Trust by Mrs Christine Louisa Hamlyn on 17 August 1921 in memory of the men of Clovelly who fell in the First World War. The field was renamed the Peace Park and a memorial cross, dedicated to Mrs Hamlyn’s nephew The Honourable John Neville Manners, was erected on the hillside.
Lieutenant Manners had joined the Army in 1912. In August 1914 his battalion, 2nd Grenadier Guards, was sent to Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force. He died, aged 22, on 1 September that year in a rear-guard action at Villers-Cotterêts in which his platoon was covering infantry troops during the retreat from Mons. His name is recorded on the memorial at La Ferté-Sous-Jouarre.
Of the National Trust’s total land-holdings approximately one-fifth, some 50,000 hectares, has been given as a war memorial. Immediately after the First World War one of the Trust’s founders, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, led a call for open spaces to be given in commemoration of the tragic losses resulting from the conflict. Rawnsley had led the way when in 1915 he gifted the Trust land at Borrowdale that he named Peace How, referencing the peace that he hoped was to come. In addition to private gifts of areas of land the National Trust has bought property with money that was given for war memorial purposes, and was a major recipient of the National Land Fund that, following the Second World War, provided property to hold in perpetuity and open to the public as a memorial to the fallen of all conflicts.
Details
The memorial cross stands on high ground in Peace Park, looking out to the sea to the east. It takes the form of a tall stone cross, octagonal in section, raised on a pedestal and deep four-stage base. The upper-most stage is an octagonal step; the stage below is a low circular drum; whilst the next stage is a deep, circular drum of coursed stone, the upper surface of which is finished with large beach pebbles. The whole stands on the lowest stage, a wide circular platform of coursed stone.
An inscription on the front face of the pedestal reads: TE DEUM/ LAUDAMUS. The principal dedicatory inscription incised around the upper-most drum reads: TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN MANNERS LIEUTENANT IN THE GRENADIER GUARDS THE DEARLY LOVED SON OF A DEARLY LOVED SISTER THIS/ CROSS IS DEDICATED BY CHRISTINE HAMLYN HE FELL IN COMBAT WITH THE GERMANS IN THE WOODLAND OF VILLERS COTTERETS FRANCE/ ON THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER 1914 AND LIES WITH HIS COMRADES OF A DEVOTED REARGUARD AT PEACE IN THE SILENCE OF THE FOREST. The drum is decorated with an incised peacock.
SUBSIDIARY ITEM
A contemporary stone plaque set into a wall by the park entrance reads: MOUNT/ PLEASANT/ GIVEN TO THE/ NATIONAL TRUST BY/ CHRISTINE HAMLYN/ FOR THE USE OF THE/ PEOPLE OF/ CLOVELLY/ FOR ALL TIME/ IN MEMORY OF/ THOSE CONNECTED/ WITH THE PLACE/ WHO DIED IN THE/ GREAT WAR/ 1914-1918.
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, 8 December 2016.
