The Sheffield War Memorial also known as Sheffield Cenotaph, is a Grade II* listed [1] war memorial located at Barker's Pool, Sheffield, standing to the south of Sheffield City Hall, which is also Grade II* listed.
The Sheffield War Memorial also known as Sheffield Cenotaph, is a Grade II* listed [1] war memorial located at Barker's Pool, Sheffield, standing to the south of Sheffield City Hall, which is also Grade II* listed.
There was much debate about the appropriate location and format for a war memorial in Sheffield after the First World War. A committee considered fourteen serious suggestions, including an obelisk at the junction of Bow Street and Church Street. Eventually a decision was made for a memorial to be constructed in Barker's Pool, with the demolition of shops to the north of Barker's Pool to create a suitable location. A design competition was opened to architects working in Sheffield, which was won by Charles Denny Carus-Wilson, then head of the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield. He had served with the Middlesex Yeomanry and was awarded the Military Cross; the memorial was his first significant public project. The £5,435 cost of the memorial was raised from public donations.
The memorial is made up of a cenotaph with a 25 metres (82 ft) high flagpole. [2] The central flagpole is a ship's mast, made of mild steel by Earle's Shipbuilding of Hull. It is painted white, and topped by a gilded ball and crown.
The pole is supported by a 5.3-metre-high (17 ft) bronze base by sculptor George Alexander, cast by the Parlanti foundry. It includes four statues of soldiers, standing with heads bowed and rifles reversed, above an octagonal section. The base also shows four emblems - the British Army, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, and the coat of arms of the city of Sheffield - facing the cardinal directions, and also the badges of the eight army units: the Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons, the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers, the Machine Gun Corps, the Tank Corps, the York and Lancaster Regiment, the Royal Army Medical Corps, and the Royal Army Service Corps. The bronze base stands on an octagonal plinth of Derbyshire Hopton Wood stone, surrounded by circular paving to form a traffic island. The original design featured four female figures between the male figures, but they were left out to reduce the cost.
The memorial was unveiled on 28 October 1925 by General Sir Charles Harington, GOC Northern Command, and it was dedicated by the Bishop of Sheffield Leonard Burrows. The memorial suffered shrapnel damage from bombing in the Second World War, which was left unrepaired. Further dates were added around the plinth after the Second World War. It became a listed building in 1983, upgraded to Grade II* in 2016.
The memorial was restored after Barkers Pool was closed to traffic in 1989. Further restoration work took place in 2005, and the flag raising mechanism was replaced.
In October 2009, a drunken Sheffield Hallam University student was photographed urinating on the memorial, during a night of heavy drinking organised for students by Carnage UK. The photograph was published by the Daily Mail's website, generating widespread public anger, and the student identified as 19-year old Philip Laing of Macclesfield, Cheshire. He was subsequently charged by police, and admitted to outraging public decency. Laing had been warned of the possibility of a jail sentence; however, in court, a judge sentenced him to 250 hours' community service. He was also ordered to pay costs of £185. [3]
Other war memorials in central Sheffield include a War Memorial Hall which opened at Sheffield City Hall in 1932 with a Roll of honour recording 5,000 names, and the York and Lancaster Regiment War Memorial in Weston Park.
The Sheffield City Battalion Memorial, commemorating the Sheffield Pals of the 12th Service Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment, is located in Serre-lès-Puisieux in the French Pas-de-Calais, between Albert, in the Somme, and Arras.
Sheffield City Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Sheffield, England in Barker's Pool, one of the city's central squares. It was built and is owned by Sheffield City Council but is now managed by the Sheffield City Trust, under a 99-year lease and is operated by Sheffield International Venues as a venue for concerts and other events in its various rooms.
Barker's Pool is a public city square and street in the centre of Sheffield, England. The focus of Barker's Pool is the Grade II* listed 90-foot-tall (27 m) war memorial that was unveiled on 28 October 1925 to commemorate the First World War. The Grade II* listed Sheffield City Hall is on the north side of the plaza facing the Grade II listed former John Lewis & Partners department store.
Hobart Cenotaph is the main commemorative military monument for the Australian state of Tasmania. It is located in the capital Hobart in a prominent position on the Queens Domain, on a small rise overlooking the city and River Derwent. The Cenotaph sits directly above what was once the location of the Queens Battery.
The Belfast Cenotaph is a war memorial in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in Donegall Square West, to the west of Belfast City Hall. Like the City Hall, it was designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas. The cenotaph was unveiled in 1929. It became a Grade A listed building in 1984.
Manchester Cenotaph is a war memorial in St Peter's Square, Manchester, England. Manchester was late in commissioning a First World War memorial compared with most British towns and cities; the city council did not convene a war memorial committee until 1922. The committee quickly achieved its target of raising £10,000 but finding a suitable location for the monument proved controversial. The preferred site in Albert Square would have required the removal and relocation of other statues and monuments, and was opposed by the city's artistic bodies. The next choice was Piccadilly Gardens, an area already identified for a possible art gallery and library; but in the interests of speedier delivery, the memorial committee settled on St Peter's Square. The area within the square had been had been purchased by the City Council in 1906, having been the site of the former St Peter's Church; whose sealed burial crypts remained with burials untouched and marked above ground by a memorial stone cross. Negotiations to remove these stalled so the construction of the cenotaph proceeded with the cross and burials in situ.
Rochdale Cenotaph is a First World War memorial on the Esplanade in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in the north west of England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is one of seven memorials in England based on his Cenotaph in London and one of his more ambitious designs. The memorial was unveiled in 1922 and consists of a raised platform bearing Lutyens' characteristic Stone of Remembrance next to a 10-metre (33 ft) pylon topped by an effigy of a recumbent soldier. A set of painted stone flags surrounds the pylon.
Fulham House is a military installation at 87 Fulham High Street, Fulham, London. It is a Grade II listed building.
Moulton War Memorial stands in Main Road, Moulton, Cheshire, England. It consists of a marble statue of a soldier standing on a sandstone pedestal, and is surrounded by a wrought iron fence. The memorial was designed by Samuel Welsby, and unveiled in 1920. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.
Southport War Memorial is in London Square, Lord Street, Southport, Merseyside, England. It consists of an obelisk flanked by two colonnades in the form of Greek temples. Outside the colonnades are memorial gardens, each containing a Pool of Remembrance and fountains. The memorial was designed by the local architects Grayson and Barnish, and the carving was executed by Herbert Tyson Smith. It was unveiled in 1923 by the Earl of Derby. Following the Second World War and subsequent conflicts further inscriptions and names have been added. The memorial is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
The Guards Memorial, also known as the Guards Division War Memorial, is an outdoor war memorial located on the west side of Horse Guards Road, opposite Horse Guards Parade in London, United Kingdom. It commemorates the war dead from the Guards Division and related units during the First World War, and of the Household Division in the Second World War and other conflicts since 1918.
The London Troops War Memorial, located in front of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, commemorates the men of London who fought in World War I and World War II.
The Civil Service Rifles War Memorial is a First World War memorial located on the riverside terrace at Somerset House in central London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1924, the memorial commemorates the 1,240 members of the Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles regiment who were killed in the First World War. They were Territorial Force reservists, drawn largely from the British Civil Service, which at that time had many staff based at Somerset House.
Oldham War Memorial is a war memorial in Oldham, England, comprising a large bronze sculpture group on a granite plinth. It was built to commemorate the men of Oldham who were killed in the First World War. Bronze plaques on the wall of the churchyard nearby list the fallen, including Mabel Drinkwater, a nurse who died after an operation at Oldham Royal Infirmary. A mechanised roll of honour was added in the 1950s, listing the men from Oldham who were killed in the Second World War. The memorial became a Grade II listed building in 1973. The listing was upgraded to Grade II* in December 2016.
Norwich War Memorial is a First World War memorial in Norwich in Eastern England. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the last of his eight cenotaphs to be erected in England. Prior to Lutyens' involvement, several abandoned proposals had been made for commemorating Norwich's war dead, and by 1926 the newly elected lord mayor was determined to see the construction of a memorial before he left office. He established an appeal to raise funds for local hospitals in memory of the dead as well as a physical monument. He commissioned Lutyens, who designed an empty tomb (cenotaph) atop a low screen wall from which protrudes a Stone of Remembrance. Bronze flambeaux at either end can burn gas to emit a flame. Lutyens also designed a roll of honour, on which the names of the city's dead are listed, which was installed in Norwich Castle in 1931.
The Royal Berkshire Regiment War Memorial or Royal Berkshire Regiment Cenotaph is a First World War memorial dedicated to members of the Royal Berkshire Regiment and located in Brock Barracks in Reading, Berkshire, in south-east England. Unveiled in 1921, the memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, based on his design for the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, and is today a grade II* listed building.
The Lancashire Fusiliers War Memorial is a First World War memorial dedicated to members of the Lancashire Fusiliers killed in that conflict. Outside the Fusilier Museum in Bury, Greater Manchester, in North West England, it was unveiled in 1922—on the seventh anniversary of the landing at Cape Helles, part of the Gallipoli Campaign in which the regiment suffered particularly heavy casualties. The memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Lutyens was commissioned in light of a family connection—his father and great uncle were officers in the Lancashire Fusiliers, a fact noted on a plaque nearby. He designed a tall, slender obelisk in Portland stone. The regiment's cap badge is carved near the top on the front and rear, surrounded by a laurel wreath. Further down are inscriptions containing the regiment's motto and a dedication. Two painted stone flags hang from the sides.
Croydon Cenotaph is a war memorial, in Croydon, London, England. It is located outside the Croydon Clocktower arts complex, on Katharine Street in Croydon.
The Wagoners' Memorial is a war memorial in Sledmere, in the East Riding of Yorkshire in England. The unusual squat columnar memorial was designed by Sir Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet and built in 1919–20. It became a Grade II listed building in 1966, upgraded to Grade I in February 2016. The memorial stands near the Eleanor Cross, Sledmere, a copy of the Eleanor Cross from Hardingstone, which was built as a village cross in the 1890s and converted by Sykes into a war memorial for the men from his estate.
The Memorial to the Home of Aviation is a stone memorial sculpture at Eastchurch, on the Isle of Sheppey in the English county of Kent. The Grade II* listed memorial, unveiled in 1955, commemorates the early aviation flights from Leysdown and Eastchurch by members of the club that became the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain in 1910, and the air base established by the Royal Navy near Eastchurch in 1911.