Bury Cemetery War Memorial

Summary

First World War memorial of the 1920s, after Sir Reginald Blomfield’s ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ design.

Reasons for Designation

Bury Cemetery War Memorial, standing at the St Peter’s Road entrance to the cemetery, is listed at Grade II for the following principal 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 conflicts of the C20.

Architectural interest:

* for its good design quality, closely modelled on Sir Reginald Blomfield's Cross of Sacrifice and unusually not directly associated with a Commonwealth cemetery.

Group value:

* with the cemetery gatepiers and gates (1869, Grade II).

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 England, both as a result of the huge impact the loss of three quarters of a million British lives had on communities and the official policy of not repatriating the dead, which meant that the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss.

One such memorial was erected at Bury cemetery. The precise date of erection is unknown at present (2018). The memorial is first marked on the 1:2,500 Ordnance Survey (OS) map published in 1930. The memorial is also identified on the 1931 1:10,560 OS map, for which the surveying was revised in 1928. The town's main war memorial was erected in 1924 and this memorial is likely to have been raised at the same time. No inscriptions were added following the Second World War. The only visible repair is a small stone indent behind the blade of the sword.

Details

First World War memorial of the 1920s, after Sir Reginald Blomfield’s ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ design.

MATERIALS: yellow sandstone and bronze.

PLAN: octagonal.

DESCRIPTION: prominently-sited in an open green space at the junction of two major paths near the cemetery gates.

Modelled closely on Sir Reginald Blomfield’s 1918 design for the Cross of Sacrifice, the cross and base have an octagonal section throughout. The overall height is approximately 4m. The shaft has slight entasis, and both the shaft and the arms taper subtly towards lipped, flat terminals. The principal face is on the south-west and is adorned with a reversed bronze sword with ogee pommel and trefoil guard. The shaft flares at the base, to a short foot.

The cross stands on a two-stepped base approximately 1.5m high, the upper section having a flat top and small plinth, the lower section with an overhanging weathered top. The front face of the upper section of the base is inscribed:

TO THE/ HONOURED MEMORY/ OF THOSE SAILORS/ AND SOLDIERS WHO/ GAVE THEIR LIVES/ FOR THEIR COUNTRY/ IN THE GREAT WAR/ 1914-1918 AND WHO/ LIE BURIED IN/ THIS CEMETERY

while the plinth of this section is inscribed across five faces:

THEIR/ NAME/ LIVETH/ FOR/ EVERMORE

The whole stands on an octagonal area of paving in the same stone, which ramps up at the junction with the base and forms part of the design.

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