Payhembury War Memorial, including the raised platform with associated dwarf walls and steps

Summary

War memorial, erected in 1921, with the dwarf wall and steps, added to the raised platform on which it stands, in 1949.

Reasons for Designation

Payhembury War Memorial, including the raised platform with associated dwarf walls and steps, 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 accomplished and well-realised design in the form of a granite cross on a raised stone platform.

Group value:

* with the Church of St Mary (Grade I) and the adjacent churchyard south gate and adjoining churchyard walls (Grade II), as well as several other Grade-II listed buildings.

History

The great age of memorial building was in the aftermath of the First World War which 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. The memorials, therefore, provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss.

Payhembury War Memorial is situated to the south of the Church of St Mary (Grade I) and adjacent to the churchyard south gate and adjoining churchyard walls (Grade II). It was unveiled in August 1921 to commemorate seven parishioners who died during the First World War. The names include the brothers Henry and William Pratt who are also commemorated on the Higher Tale War Memorial (Grade II), also in Payhembury. The name to the top step was added slightly later, and the additional name beneath was added in 2019 to include a local serviceman who died after returning home and is buried in the adjacent churchyard with a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.

The names of four parishioners who died during the Second World War were added to the memorial in 1949, and it was at this time that the dwarf stone wall and approach steps to the raised paved platform, on which the memorial stands, were also added.

Works to clean the memorial and repaint the inscription were carried out following a grant from War Memorials Trust in 2017.

Details

War memorial, erected in 1921, with the dwarf wall and steps, added to the raised platform on which it stands, in 1949.

MATERIALS: carved from granite that has been roughly hewn, and standing on a raised stone platform of crazy paving, with added dwarf walls and approach steps of Westleigh stone. The inscriptions are of painted lead lettering.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial takes the form of a chamfered granite cross set on a tapered plinth that stands on a three-step octagonal base. The inscription to the south-east face of the plinth reads:

IN GRATEFUL MEMORY / OF THE MEN OF THIS PARISH / WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914 – 1918 / (NAMES)

To the top step of the base are two additional names of parishioners who died as a result of the conflict. The date ‘1939-1945’ is inscribed beneath and the names of four parishioners who died in the Second World War are included on the second step.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the memorial stands on a raised stone platform with crazy paving, edged by a dwarf stone wall and approached by a flight of three steps.

Sources

Websites
Payhembury Memorial Cross, accessed 08 March 2022 from https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/25483
Payhembury Memorial Cross, accessed 08 March 2022 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/98667
Payhembury, accessed 26 April 2022 from http://www.warmemorials.org/search-grants/?gID=1457

Other
‘IN MEMORIAM Panel Unveiled At Payhembury’, Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, (19 August 1949), p3.
‘Payhembury’, Western Times (22 July 1921)
'Payhembury War Memorial', Devon and Dartmoor HER (MDV83077)
Devon and Dartmoor Historic Environment Record, 'Payhembury War Memorial' (MDV83077)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry