Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14/10/2015

SE3033SE
714-1/79/231

LEEDS,
KIRKGATE (South side),
North boundary wall and steps, NW gate & piers, war memorial and East Bar Stone

(Formerly Listed as: KIRKGATE, Gatepiers NW and SW of St Peter's Church and churchyard wall north and west)

08/05/74

GV II

Boundary wall to church with entrance steps and piers, gateway, memorial to First and Second World War casualties and boundary stone. Walling and piers after 1841, East Bar stone possibly early C19 and reset, war memorial 1921.

Wall
Squared gritstone blocks laid to ashlar finish approx 110m long and 1m high, 2-4 courses, triangular coping with seatings for missing railing. NW gateway: the 2 gate piers have chamfered plinth, panelled sides, cornice with quatrefoil panels, 2-tier pyramidal caps. North entrance to church: wide shallow steps flanked by low wall as front, massive single-block piers with octagonal moulded caps. East Bar stone built into wall to east of war memorial; chamfered block with lettering: 'EAST BAR', the first word in Italic, both deeply-cut with strong serifs. Marks line of a gateway on the old town boundary.

War memorial
The Leeds Rifles (the Leeds Batalions, The Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment was the only regiment to choose a Lutyens War Cross as a memorial. The chosen site was the edge of the churchyard of St Peter Kirkgate, in the centre of Leeds. It was unveiled on 13 November 1921 by Captain G Sanders VC MC who fought with distinction for the regiment.

Sir Edwin Lutyens OM RA (1869-1944) was the leading English architect of his generation. Before the First World War his reputation rested on his country houses and his work at New Delhi, but during and after the war he became the pre-eminent architect for war memorials in England, France and the British Empire. While the Cenotaph in Whitehall (London) had the most influence on other war memorials, the Thiepval Arch was the most influential on other forms of architecture. He designed the Stone of Remembrance which was placed in all Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries and in some cemeteries in England, including some with which he was not otherwise associated.

The memorial is a relatively small War Cross of Portland stone, set in a break in the churchyard wall facing out to the street. The fall in levels accommodates a stone bench beneath the cross that doubles as a ledge for wreaths. Elaborate iron railings with arrow-head finials to bars flank the cross.

Inscriptions:

On the cross: 7TH AND 8TH BATTALIONS/ WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT/ THE PRINCE OF WALES’S OWN/ LEEDS RIFLES/ 45TH (LEEDS RIFLES) BATTALION/ ROYAL TANK REGIMENT/ 66TH (LEEDS RIFLES) HAA REGIMENT/ ROYAL ARTILLERY

On the wall: TO/ THE MEN OF/THE LEEDS RIFLES/ WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ 1914-1918/ 1939-1945
Bronze regimental badges on cross: above the inscription: Leeds Rifles; below (L to R) Royal Artillery, Prince of Wales’s Own (Leeds Rifles), Royal Tank Regiment.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 1 February 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Leeds Rifles War Memorial at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26655868

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)