Melton Constable War Memorial

Summary

First World War memorial, erected in 1922, with a Second World War addition. It was designed in the office of Mr W Marriott, Engineer and Traffic Manager of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Company, and was manufactured in Melton Constable's railway works.

The former school boundary walls and railings which enclose the memorial on its east, west and south sides are not of special interest and are therefore excluded from the Listing.

Reasons for Designation

Melton Constable War Memorial, unveiled and dedicated in 1921 to a design by the office of Mr W Marriott, Engineer and Traffic Manager of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Company, with Second World War additions, 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;
* as a product of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Company, to whom many of the dead had direct or close links.

Architectural interest:

* as an accomplished and well-realised war memorial which takes the form of a neoclassical style cenotaph;
* as an early example of a concrete war memorial.

Group value:

* with the late-C19 buildings that form Melton Constable railway town, especially the former school of 1896.

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. 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 in Melton Constable in 1922 as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by 19 local servicemen.

Many of the men who died during the Great War had direct or close links with the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. The arrival of the railway in 1882 and the construction of a railway works in 1883 transformed Melton Constable from a small parish of 19 houses into what became known as the 'Crewe of North Norfolk'.

The war memorial was designed in the office of Mr W Marriott, Engineer and Traffic Manager of the Midland and Great Northern Railway, and was executed in Melton Constable's railway works. It was placed outside the village school (dated 1896) on Briston Road. The school closed in 1984 and was subsequently converted to residential use.

After the Second World War the name of a single local soldier who died during this conflict was added to the memorial.

Details

First World War memorial, erected in 1922, with a Second World War addition. It was designed in the office of Mr W Marriott, Engineer and Traffic Manager of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Company, and was manufactured in Melton Constable's railway works.

MATERIALS: it is constructed from cast concrete blocks.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial stands outside the former village school (dated 1896) on the north side of Briston Road. It takes the form of a neoclassical-style cenotaph comprised of a tall, square-sectioned concrete pillar. The pillar is supported on each side by buttress piers surmounted by ornamental scrolled consoles. It is capped by a moulded entablature with the frieze inscribed with the date '1914 - 1918'. A carved laurel wreath which originally rested on the blocking course above the frieze has now been lost. On the south face is a bronze plaque inscribed: 'TO OUR / GLORIOUS DEAD / [Names] / THEIR NAME FOR / EVER LIVETH'. The whole stands on a three-stepped base which is curved at the front.

The former school boundary walls and railings which enclose the memorial on its east, west and south sides are not of special interest and are therefore excluded from the listing.


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 2018.

Sources

Books and journals
Melton Constable War Memorial in Concrete and Construction Engineering, Vol. 17 (No.9), (1922), 583

Websites
Information on Melton Constable War Memorial from the Imperial War Museum's War Memorials Register, accessed 12 December 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/20137
War Memorials Online, accessed 27 February 2018 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/212122

End of official list entry

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