Batcombe War Memorial

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Overview

War memorial, and enclosing walls and steps, erected in circa 1920. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1443703
Date first listed:: 27-Feb-2017
List Entry Name:: Batcombe War Memorial

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1443703
Date first listed:: 27-Feb-2017
List Entry Name:: Batcombe War Memorial
Location Description:: located at the junction of Vining’s Hill and Gold Hill in Batcombe, Mendip, Somerset

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

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

District:: Somerset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Batcombe
National Grid Reference:: ST6908339044

Summary

War memorial, and enclosing walls and steps, erected in circa 1920.

Reasons for Designation

Batcombe War Memorial is listed at Grade II for the following reasons: * Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the sacrifice it made in the First World War; * Architectural interest: as an accomplished and well-realised stone war memorial with good attention to decorative detailing; * Group value: with the Church of St Mary the Virgin (Grade I), The Old Rectory (Grade II) and King Hayes (Grade II).

History

The great age of memorial building was in the aftermath of the First World War with tens of thousands of memorials erected across England. It is not known when the war memorial at Batcombe was erected and commemorated, but it was likely to be during the 1920s. The rubble stone walls that enclose the green on which the memorial stands, were repaired in 2016.

Details

War memorial, and enclosing walls and steps, erected in circa 1920.

MATERIALS: carved from stone.

DESCRIPTION: located at the junction of Vining’s Hill and Gold Hill in Batcombe, the war memorial comprises a tapered octagonal shaft with blind tracery to its bottom and top (that to the top is bordered by incised decorative carved bands), and is surmounted by an octagonal cross. Three of the cross arms have four decorative stone corbels, and are stopped by bevelled octagonal coping stones. The shaft stands on a moulded octagonal base and pedestal, comprising the dado and plinth. Below is a further octagonal plinth and the whole stands on a substantial square platform of roughly coursed, undressed stone. To the west face of the dado, in black metal lettering, is the inscription: IN PROUD AND / GRATEFUL MEMORY / OF THE MEN OF / THE PARISH / WHO DIED IN THE / GREAT WAR 1914 – 18

To the flanking faces are recorded the names of the eleven men of the parish who died in the First World War, and beneath those names recorded to the right-hand side, is the inscription: MAY THEY REST IN PEACE

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the memorial stands at the centre of a raised green, bounded by rubble stone walls with cock and hen coping stones, and approached from the roadside via a flight of four steps of roughly-coursed rubble stone.

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, 25 July 2017.

Sources

Websites
19326: War memorial, Vining's Hill, Batcombe, accessed 18 January 2017 from http://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/
War Memorials Online, accessed 6 March 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/250186
War Memorials Register, accessed 25 July 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/72661

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 is 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.