Summary
A First World War memorial, designed by Healing and Overbury architects of Cheltenham, built in 1920 with alterations made after the Second World War.
Description
A First World War memorial, designed by Healing and Overbury architects of Cheltenham, built in 1920 with alterations made after the Second World War.
MATERIALS: local limestone.
DESCRIPTION: the memorial consists of a plain wheel-headed cross on a tapering square shaft. The shaft rises from a square plinth on a three-stepped octagonal base.
INSCRIPTION: The dedication is inscribed on the plinth. The front face reads: IN GLORIOUS MEMORY OF THE MEN/ OF SOUTHAM AND CLEEVE HILL WHO/ FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1919/ 1939 - 1945/ (NAMES). Two further faces are inscribed, the first with: IS IT/ NOTHING TO YOU/ ALL YE THAT/ PASS BY and the second with: GREATER LOVE/ HATH NO MAN/ THAN THIS, THAT/ A MAN LAY DOWN/ HIS LIFE FOR/ HIS FRIENDS.
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 on communities of the loss of 750,000 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 this great loss.
One such memorial was raised at Southam, as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by the members of the local communities of Southam and Cleeve Hill who lost their lives in the First World War.
The memorial was erected in May 1920 in a prominent location on a triangular green at a crossroads within the village. It was designed by Messrs Healing and Overbury, who were also responsible for the Grade II Listed Northleach War Memorial, and was built at a cost of £150 by Messrs H H Martyn and Co, Cheltenham, specialist designers and manufacturers of ecclesiastical sculptures and furnishings. The ceremony of dedication was performed by Canon Morgan–Brown. The memorial commemorates 15 local servicemen who died during the First World War. Following the Second World War, a dedication was added to commemorate the one man who fell in that conflict.
In 2005 the memorial was conserved with the help of grant aid from the War Memorials Trust.
Reasons for Listing
Southam and Cleeve Hill war memorial 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 design, a well-executed stone cross, by known local architects Healing and Overbury, and made by HH Martyn and Co.
External Links
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Recommended Books
Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
For the Record
Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey