Langley Park War Memorial

Summary

First World War memorial, 1921, with additions for later conflicts.

Reasons for Designation

Langley Park War Memorial, which stands at the corner of Front Street and Quebec Street, 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 local community, and the sacrifices it has made in the conflicts of the C20;
* Architectural interest: a monumental war memorial drawing on elements from the Classical style.

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. One such memorial was raised at Langley Park as a permanent testament to the sacrifices made by the members of the local community who lost their lives in the First World War.

Langley Park was the pit village for Langley Park Colliery. The colliery was opened in 1873 and closed in 1975. The village’s war memorial was unveiled in April 1921 by Colonel J H Ritson, commemorating 73 local servicemen who died in the First World War. The memorial cost £750. Following the Second World War the names of 26 men and one woman who died in that conflict were added. The death of an unidentified soldier, buried in the village’s churchyard in 1940, is also marked. The names of one soldier who died in Korea in 1951 and another who died in Northern Ireland in 1973 have been added. The original railings have been replaced.

Details

The memorial stands at the corner of Front Street and Quebec Street, in a square enclosure defined by railings carried on a low kerb. The granite structure comprises a large two-stage base, square on plan, on which stands a pedestal with scrolled angle buttresses. The pedestal supports the central section: that, square on plan, has corner columns that carry an entablature and pediment with corner pinnacles. From the pediment rises a domed octagonal drum, surmounted by a wheel-head cross.

The principal dedicatory inscription is recorded on the front face of the pedestal, framed by the corner buttresses, reading: THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED/ BY THE INHABITANTS OF/ LANGLEY PARK/ TO THE EVERLASTING MEMORY/ OF THE MEN OF THIS VILLAGE/ WHO NOBLY SACRIFICED THEIR/ LIVES, FOR THE CAUSE OF/ RIGHT, LIBERTY, JUSTICE, AND/ FREEDOM, IN THE GREAT/ EUROPEAN WAR with below: HE LIVES IN FAME THAT DIES IN VIRTUE’S CAUSE. The commemorated names are recorded on the remaining faces of the pedestal and on the central section of the monument, with the dates 1914 1919 and 1939 1945 incised either side of wreaths.

On the base, below the names of the soldiers who died in 1951 and 1973, the unidentified soldier buried in the local churchyard is commemorated with the inscription AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER OF THE 1939 – 1945 WAR/ BURIED 6 JUNE 1940 IN THE ALL SAINTS CHURCHYARD/ KNOWN UNTO GOD.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 23 November 2017.

Sources

Websites
North East War Memorials Project, accessed 19/08/2016 from http://www.newmp.org.uk/detail.php?contentId=7892
Durham Mining Museum, accessed 19/08/2016 from http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/l004.htm
War Memorials Register, accessed 7 February 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/41786
War Memorials Online, accessed 23 November 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/253789

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