Wardle War Memorial
Wardle War Memorial, Memorial Gardens, Wardle Road, Wardle, Rochdale, OL12 9JA
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1441200
- Date first listed:
- 15-Dec-2016
- List Entry Name:
- Wardle War Memorial
- Statutory Address:
- Wardle War Memorial, Memorial Gardens, Wardle Road, Wardle, Rochdale, OL12 9JA
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1441200
- Date first listed:
- 15-Dec-2016
- List Entry Name:
- Wardle War Memorial
- Statutory Address 1:
- Wardle War Memorial, Memorial Gardens, Wardle Road, Wardle, Rochdale, OL12 9JA
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Wardle War Memorial, Memorial Gardens, Wardle Road, Wardle, Rochdale, OL12 9JA
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Rochdale (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SD9115315779
Summary
War memorial cross, erected in the early 1920s.
Reasons for Designation
Wardle War Memorial, erected early 1920s 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;
* Design interest: it is a dignified and well-executed monument in the form of a Celtic cross, which provides an elegant and fitting tribute to the Fallen of the town from both World Wars;
* Materials: an elegant polished and rubbed granite memorial.
History
The Wardle War Memorial was erected in the early 1920s to commemorate the men of the town who fell during the First World War. It is situated as the central focus of a rectangular-plan memorial garden. It was recorded in the Rochdale Observer (23 June 1945 issue) that the memorial had been vandalised and that some of the lead lettering had been removed, and that Wardle District Council had arranged for the monument to be repaired as soon as possible, and in a better manner than it had been up to that date. It would appear that this involved removing all of the lead lettering and carving the names directly into the memorial. Following the Second World War the memorial was re-dedicated and a plaque was added to record the fallen of that conflict.
Details
War memorial, early1920s.
MATERIALS: polished and rubbed granite.
PLAN: square base and round column.
The memorial comprises a Doric column of polished grey marble, topped with a stylised smoothed granite Celtic cross. The column stands on a polished grey granite pedestal with moulded upper corners and a shouldered base that is raised on a square three-stepped plinth. The front panel of the pedestal is inscribed: ERECTED / TO THE MEMORY OF / THE MEN OF WARDLE / WHO LAID DOWN THEIR / LIVES FOR US IN THE / GREAT WAR / 1914 – 1919. The rear panel of the pedestal reads: SONS OF THIS PLACE LET THIS / OF YOU BE SAID / THAT YOU WHO LIVE ARE WORTHY / OF YOUR DEAD / THESE GAVE THEIR LIVES THAT / YOU WHO LIVE MAY REAP / A RICHER HARVEST ERE YOU / FALL ASLEEP. The two side panels record the eighty-seven names of the fallen of the First World War. A secondary dedication stone has been added to the base of the pedestal, which reads: AND IN THE WORLD WAR 1939 – 45., listing the nineteen names of the fallen of the Second World War, and below this on the plinth a further stone has been added that reads: TO ALL THOSE / WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE / OF / THEIR COUNTRY. The plinth stands on a square base of tamped pea-gravel within concrete edging stones.
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, 27 February 2017.
Sources
Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 7 November 2016 from www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/13177
Rochdale, Wardle Village War memorial, Ramsden Road, accessed 7 November 2016 from www.mlfs.org.uk/data/war_memorials_images.php?memorial=192
War Memorials Online, accessed 27 February 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/110609
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.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jul-2026 at 06:20:21.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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