Brunner Mond Lostock Gralam (Northwich) War Memorial, Northwich, Cheshire West and Chester

Summary

First World War memorial of 1921 with Second World War additions, by Darcy Braddell for Brunner Mond.

Description

First World War memorial of 1921 with Second World War additions, by Darcy Braddell for Brunner Mond.

MATERIALS: Portland stone, bronze.

PLAN: a rectangular enclosure with projecting quadrant walls.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial, which faces west, comprises a rectangular paved area which is enclosed on three sides by ashlar walls 6 feet high, with low quadrant walls attached to western corner piers, and a central engaged obelisk 10 feet high.

The obelisk tapers on all three sides and has three carved channels near the base and a corniced top surmounted by a stone Latin cross. The front corners are indented, with pendant bronze garlands in the angles below the cornice. A bronze laurel wreath is fixed to the face. Beneath this is the incised inscription, with partial black infilling:

TO THE/ GLORIOUS/ MEMORY OF/ THE MEN FROM/ THESE WORKS/ WHO FELL/ IN THE/ GREAT WAR/ 1914 1919/

AND IN THE/ WORLD WAR/ 1939 1945

The rear and side walls have cavetto-moulded copings with foliate carving on the overhang. This continues around the caps of the corner piers, the piers tapering slightly and having rusticated joints. The quadrant walls have moulded copings and tapering terminal piers. Low stone slabs form benches infilling between the corner piers and the rear wall. Indented above these in the return walls are bronze plaques (one on each wall) with the names of the four Fallen of the Second World War, and above these are the incised dates of that war. At the outer edges of the rear wall are carvings of paired flaming torches with a laurel wreath. Between these and the obelisk, two per side, are bronze plaques with the names of the Fallen of the First World War, totalling 85 and listed alphabetically by surname with units but not ranks. The plaques are framed by carved rolls of bound laurel leaves.

The rectangular area is paved with artificial stone, while the strip between the quadrant walls has concrete flags.

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, both as a result of the huge impact the loss of three quarters of a million British lives had on communities and 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.

In order to preserve the memory of those who had given their lives for their country, the directors of Brunner, Mond & Co (Brunner Mond), commissioned Darcy Braddell to design memorials for each of their works and offices, inscribed with the names of the Fallen from that site. The names on each of these site-specific memorials were also included on the memorial at the company’s main works at Winnington (Northwich, Cheshire). A photo taken around 1921 shows the Lostock Gralam memorial at the time of the unveiling, which was led by Roscoe Brunner, the son of John Brunner, one of the company’s founders. It was originally surmounted by a large bronze oil lamp. It is not known when this was lost or the stone cross replaced it. After the Second World War, the names of the four Fallen were added to the side walls of the enclosure, and the additional inscription was added to the face of the obelisk. The soft Portland stone shows considerable signs of wear, especially on the carvings and in the black infill to the lettering of the incised inscription, probably due to the use of jet-washers to clean it.

Brunner Mond was founded as a private partnership in 1873 and became a public company in 1881. The company made soda ash for the cotton industry, by the new (Solvay) ammonia-soda process, which they introduced to this country. During the First World War the firm manufactured half of the high explosives used by Britain on every front, at lower profit than was offered by the Government. 2,688 of their employees served in the war, and 291 perished. This included sixteen men and two women who were killed in a huge TNT explosion at the Silvertown works in London in 1917. In 1926 Brunner Mond merged with three other British chemical companies to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), an organisation that grew to become one of the world's largest and most successful companies. The Brunner Mond name lives on as a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals Ltd.

Thomas Arthur Darcy Braddell (1884-1970) was articled to Sir Ernest George, who also tutored Sir Edwin Lutyens. He had an extensive Arts and Crafts domestic practice in partnership with Humphry Deane, as Deane & Braddell. He was admitted to ARIBA in 1920 under the war exemption scheme, and elected Fellow in 1922. He wrote 'How to Look at Buildings' in 1932. He designed the Mond family mausoleum (NHLE entry 1359069) in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery, as well as the War Memorials at Brunner Mond’s works at Winnington (NHLE 1432698), Silvertown (NHLE 1387182), Sandbach and Middlewich. He also designed Blacko War Memorial.

Reasons for Listing

The Brunner Mond Lostock Gralam War Memorial, a First World War memorial of 1921 with Second World War additions, 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 good design by the notable architect Darcy Braddell, in the form of a sanctuary with obelisk as altar, using good quality natural materials and classical detailing.

External Links

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