Penistone War Memorial

Market Place, Penistone, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S36 6DY

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

First World War Memorial, about 1924, designed by John Alfred Gotch of Kettering. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1470480
Date first listed:: 29-Jun-2020
List Entry Name:: Penistone War Memorial
Statutory Address:: Market Place, Penistone, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S36 6DY

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1470480
Date first listed:: 29-Jun-2020
List Entry Name:: Penistone War Memorial
Location Description:
Statutory Address 1:: Market Place, Penistone, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S36 6DY

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

Statutory Address:: Market Place, Penistone, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S36 6DY

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

District:: Barnsley (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Penistone
National Grid Reference:: SE2461903324

Summary

First World War Memorial, about 1924, designed by John Alfred Gotch of Kettering.

Reasons for Designation

Penistone War Memorial is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of the work of the notable architect John Alfred Gotch, who has numerous listed buildings to his name including several war memorials; * it is an attractive and distinctive monument, with an angle winged plinth decorated with a guilloche and flower motif.

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.

Group value:

* it benefits from a spatial group value with the church of St John (National Heritage List for England 1314709) and a possible late medieval cross base (NHLE 1191942) which was relocated to allow for the erection of the war memorial.

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 of communities of the loss of three-quarters of a million British lives, and also the official policy of not repatriating the dead, which meant that the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at their great loss.

Penistone war memorial was erected and incorporated into the west churchyard wall of the Grade I-listed Church of St John (NHLE: 1314709) as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by local servicemen who lost their lives. It was designed by leading Northamptonshire architect John Alfred Gotch of Kettering (1852-1942), architect and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and carved by local sculptor E T Moore, at a cost of £600; £500 of which was raised by public subscription. The memorial, dedicated to 48 Penistone men, was unveiled by Alexander Wentworth Macdonald Bosville, sixth Lord Macdonald of the Isles, on Saturday August 9 1924. The ceremony included a united service in which clergy and ministers of all denominations took part. About sixty ex-Servicemen of the district, under Colonel Charles Hodgkinson and Lieutenant Albert Ramshaw, R N formed a guard of honour, and brought with them a wreath of laurels and Flanders poppies, which they laid in the place of honour at the foot of the memorial. After the unveiling a further 15 names of First World War servicemen were added and following the Second World War the memorial was re-dedicated with the addition of 25 names of fallen servicemen.

Details

First world memorial with Second World War additions, about 1924, designed by John Alfred Gotch.

MATERIALS: Bolton Wood sandstone and slate panels.

PLAN: a semi-circular and half-hexagonal projecting plan form.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial forms part of the western churchyard wall to the Church of St John. It comprises a Latin cross-head set on a square tapering, and chamfered, 6m high sandstone shaft which rises from an upper moulded square plinth with words inscribed in raised lettering: (front face) IN GRATEFUL MEMORY/OF THOSE FROM/THIS TOWNSHIP/WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/IN THE GREAT WAR/1914 – 1919 (left, north, return) 1939 – 1945. The upper plinth rests on a lower square plinth with angled wings and moulded capping, the western end faces decorated with a guilloche motif and flowers. It contains slate panels with black inscriptions naming the Fallen: three plaques on the front (west) face and one on the central panel of the right (south) return name the 57 First World War fallen servicemen and two on the angled wings of the left (north) return name 25 Second World War fallen servicemen. The plinth stands on a semi-circular and half-hexagonal and projecting three-stepped base, which is enclosed to the south by a curving half coped and coursed stone wall terminating in square piers with rectangular panels and square apex caps.

Sources

Websites
'Gotch, John Alfred (1852-1942)', rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, accessed 7 May 2020 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33484
Other
Barnsley War Memorial Project - Penistone War Memorial, Market Place, Penistone, accessed 7 May 2020, via http://www.barnsleywarmemorials.org.uk/2014/03/penistone-war-memorial-market-place.html
Imperial War Museum War Memorial Register - Penistone, accessed 7 May 2020, via https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/28106
Sheffield Daily Telegraph Monday August 11 1924
War Memorials Online - Penistone War Memorial, accessed 7 May 2020, via https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/134950

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.