Summary
Clock tower built as First World War memorial. 1923 to designs by Wynyard Dixon. Two additional plaques added after the Second World War.
Reasons for Designation
Stocksbridge War Memorial Clock Tower, of 1923 to designs by Wynyard Dixon, 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 made in the two World Wars.
Architectural interest:
* a well-designed war memorial in the form of a handsome, crenellated clock tower that forms a prominent local landmark;
* it is a well-detailed and crafted building employing good-quality materials, designed by a local architect and benefiting from a Potts and Sons’ clock and four pealing bronze bells by J Taylor of Loughborough.
History
The proposal for a war memorial was initially raised at a Stocksbridge Urban District Council meeting on 2 November 1916, but it was not until a meeting on 20 July 1920 that a clock tower was proposed, with approval given at a public meeting in December that year. Subscriptions for its construction were slow and it was to be another two years before the foundation stone was laid on 14 July 1923 by Joseph Sheldon, chairman of the Stocksbridge, Deepcar and District War Memorial Committee, and F S Scott-Smith, general manager of the Stocksbridge Works of steel manufacturers Samuel Fox and Co. The land was donated by Reginald Henry Rimington-Wilson of Broomhead Hall and the public subscription raised £1,770 for the construction of the clock tower to designs by the architect Wynyard Dixon, a member of the local Dixon family, silverware and electroplate manufacturers. The builders were J Bradbury and Sons of Sheffield. The clock was made by Messrs William Potts and Sons Ltd of Leeds and four bronze bells which pealed out Cambridge Quarter Chimes were made by J Taylor of Loughborough. The largest bell, weighing over 9cwt, was inscribed “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them”.
The unveiling and dedication ceremony took place on 1 December 1923 by Mr Rimington-Wilson and the Bishop of Sheffield, attended by the Stocksbridge Brass Band, buglers from the York and Lancaster Regiment, ex-servicemen and around 4,000 people. Two bronze plaques recorded the names of the 108 local men and 1 woman who died in the First World War. Lucy Castledine nursed wounded soldiers at Fir Vale Hospital (Northern Hospital) in Sheffield before dying in the 1918 flu epidemic; her brother Fred is also on the memorial having been killed in action two months previously. In 1926 the triangular field in which the clock tower stood was sold by Mr Rimington-Wilson to be laid out as memorial gardens. Paths were laid out and a wide flight of steps built from Manchester Road rising up through the gardens towards the clock tower, flanked by stepped stone walls with gas lamps on piers and incorporating a rectangular platform with a fountain, sundial and bird bath donated by Stocksbridge Co-operative Society. At the top of the steps symmetrical paths curved to each side of the tower. The gardens were formally opened on 25 September 1927 by Joseph Sheldon.
In 1934 the women’s section of the British Legion, Stocksbridge, presented two stone planters, which were placed either side of the clock tower doorway.
After the Second World War two further bronze plaques were added commemorating the 51 local men who had died.
In 1966 an electric winding mechanism by Potts and Sons was added to the original 1923 clock mechanism. Also in the later C20 most of the flight of steps, their flanking walls and the fountain platform in the memorial gardens were removed due to subsidence.
Details
Clock tower built as First World War memorial. 1923 to designs by Wynyard Dixon. Two additional plaques added after the Second World War.
MATERIALS: rock-faced gritstone to exterior with brick interior walls.
PLAN: the square tower has two stages, a wider, lower stage forming a walled terrace around the upper, square clock tower. It faces south onto Nanny Lane with a gateway off the pavement opening directly onto the terrace and a doorway behind to the tower.
EXTERIOR: the clock tower is built in a Gothic style. It stands in a prominent location on the north side of Nanny Hill where the land falls away steeply to the valley bottom. The lower stage acts as a platform to bring the upper clock tower stage up to the road level. Both stages are built of squared and coursed blocks of rock-faced stone with ashlar detailing. The lower stage has a battlemented parapet with crenellations of overhanging, chamfered ashlar blocks which also forms a wall to the terrace. The clock tower has a corbel table to crenellated battlements with two cross arrow embrasures to each face. The concealed roof has a central flag pole.
The clock tower faces south onto the road. The central doorway has a shallow pointed arch with chamfered and stopped ashlar jamb stones, recessed spandrels and chamfered hood mould. The panelled oak door has a modern aluminium plaque attached commemorating the centenary war memorial rededication of the tower. Over the doorway is a horizontal bronze plaque set into the stone work. It has an inscription of relief lettering reading:
“TO THE HONOUR AND EVERLASTING MEMORY / OF THE SOLDIERS, SAILORS AND NURSE OF / THIS DISTRICT WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES / FOR THEIR KING AND COUNTRY IN THE / GREAT WAR 1914 – 1918.”
Flanking the doorway are two vertical rectangular bronze plaques set into the stonework with the names of the 108 men and one woman who died in the First World War. Flanking the original dedication plaque are two smaller, vertical rectangular bronze plaques headed 1939 – 1945 with the names of the 51 men who died in the Second World War in relief lettering. The names are given as first name/initial, surname, arranged alphabetically by surname with the exception of four First World War casualties (one on the plaque to the left of the door and three on the plaque to the right of the door) which may be later additions. Above is a louvered pointed arch with rock-faced voussoirs and a chamfered and corbelled ashlar sill, and a circular clock face with white glass and an iron frame and Roman numerals (now with a circular Perspex cover).
The east, west and north elevations all have a similar louvered pointed arch, but with a chamfered ashlar transom forming both a sill and lintel to a tall, vertical rectangular window below, with a chamfered and corbelled ashlar sill and external security frame of iron bars. Above, each face has a similar, circular clock face (that to the north face also with a Perspex cover).
On the south side, the battlemented parapet of the lower stage forms a low wall abutting the pavement with a central gateway now with a metal railing gate (historic photographs suggest the original gate was wooden). The terrace has a gravelled surface and on each side of the tower’s south doorway is a rectangular, stone planter inscribed PRESENTED / TO THE PUBLIC / BY THE WOMEN’S SECTION / BRITISH LEGION STOCKSBRIDGE / 1934.
INTERIOR: the interior has brick walls. It is a single space containing the clock mechanism on a metal frame, with various rods, pulleys and chains operating the clock and bells located above a plank ceiling and accessed through a trap by a metal wall ladder. The mechanism has two oval metal plaques with raised lettering inscriptions. The right plaque reads: W POTTS & SONS LTD. LEEDS, ENGLAND. MAKERS 1923. The left plaque reads: ELECTRIC WINDING BY W POTTS & SONS LTD. LEEDS 1966.
