Northampton War Memorial

Northampton War Memorial
United Kingdom
For servicemen from Northampton
killed in the First World War
Unveiled 1926
Location 52°14′13″N 0°53′48″W / 52.23694°N 0.89667°W / 52.23694; -0.89667Coordinates: 52°14′13″N 0°53′48″W / 52.23694°N 0.89667°W / 52.23694; -0.89667
Wood Hill, Northampton, England
Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name The Town and County War Memorial
Designated 22 January 1976
Reference no. 1191327

Northampton War Memorial, officially the Town and County War Memorial, is a First World War memorial on Wood Hill in the centre of Northampton, the county town of Northamptonshire, in central England. The memorial, by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, consists of a Stone of Remembrance flanked by twin obelisks draped with painted stone flags, all standing in a small garden in what was formerly part of the churchyard of All Saints' Church. Discussions around a war memorial for Northampton began shortly after the armistice in 1918 and from July 1919 a temporary wooden cenotaph stood on Abingdon Street in the town centre. The Northamptonshire War Memorial Committee commissioned Lutyens to design a permanent memorial. The design was completed and approved by 1920, but the installation of the monument was delayed by six years as the site had to be purchased from the Church of England, which required a faculty from the local diocese. The memorial was finally unveiled on 11 November 1926 after a service and a parade including local schoolchildren and civic leaders.

Northampton is significant as one of the more elaborate town memorials in England, and for its use of several characteristics common to Lutyens' war memorials, namely the obelisks, the Stone of Remembrance (which Lutyens designed for the Imperial War Graves Commission), and the stone flags, which were rejected for Lutyens' Cenotaph in London but feature on several of his other memorials. Today it is a Grade 1 listed building, having been upgraded when Lutyens' war memorials were declared a "national collection" and all were granted listed building status or had their listing renewed.

Background

In the aftermath of the First World War, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Amongst the most prominent designers of memorials was architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation". Lutyens designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, which became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations, as well as the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing—the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world—and the Stone of Remembrance, which appears in all large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and forms part of several of his civic memorials, including Northampton's.[1]

Lutyens' memorial was a replacement for a temporary wooden cenotaph that had stood in Abingdon Street since July 1919 as a placeholder until a more permanent memorial could be erected. As in several towns and cities, there were discussions within the town as to whether its war memorial should serve a purely monumental purpose or some sort of community function; suggestions for the latter included renovation of civic building or a new concert hall. The Northamptonshire War Memorial Committee, however, eventually commissioned Lutyens to design a purely commemorative monument, and selected a site in part of the churchyard of All Saints' Church.[1]

Lutyens' designs were complete by 1920 and approved in November of that year, but as the chosen site was part of the churchyard, and several graves would have to relocated to accommodate the memorial, the war memorial committee had to seek a faculty from the Diocese of Peterborough (the diocese in whose jurisdiction Northampton falls), which delayed the installation.[1][2] The application was submitted in 1922 by the vicar of All Saints' Church, the Reverend Geoffrey Warden, and sponsored by two church wardens and two parishioners,[3] but construction work did not commence until 1926, six years after the completion of the designs. By July 1926, the Northampton Independent reported that the obelisks had been carved and were awaiting the colouring of the flags.[4]

Northampton is significant among Lutyens' war memorials as one of the most elaborate, especially for a town rather than a city, and for its use of three of Lutyens' characteristic memorial features: the stone flags, which Lutyens had proposed for use on the Cenotaph on Whitehall, but which were rejected in favour of fabric flags (though they were used on several other memorials, including Rochdale Cenotaph[5]); the obelisks; and the Stone of Remembrance, which Lutyens originally designed for use in Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries on the Western Front.[1][6]

History and design

The memorial was eventually unveiled on 11 November (Armistice Day) 1926. A large ecumenical service was held in the market square as the crowds, including 5,000 local schoolchildren, could not be accommodated within the church itself. At the conclusion of the service, the crowd processed to the new memorial with the parade led by veterans from the Battle of Mons and including nurses from Northampton General Hospital, other military representatives, and the town's civic leaders. Once there, the unveiling was performed by General Henry Horne, 1st Baron Horne and the memorial was dedicated by the Reverend Norman Lang, Suffragan Bishop of Leicester. Horne committed the memorial to the care of the town's mayor and Northamptonshire County Council, and in his speech referred to Northampton's role as the county town; he observed that communities across Northamptonshire would be erecting their own memorials, but he felt that it was "but right and fitting that there should stand in the county town some visible monument, some tangible memorial appealing to the heart through the eye, of the bravery, devotion to duty, and self-sacrifice of the men of Northamptonshire".[1]

The memorial consists of a Stone of Remembrance, flanked by twin obelisks with deep decorative niches. Each obelisk bears a pair of painted stone flags—the Union Flag and the flags of the Royal Navy (the White Ensign), Merchant Navy (the Red Ensign), and Royal Air Force (the RAF Ensign) respectively, and which drape to the cornices of the obelisks. The whole memorial raised on stone platform. The Stone of Remembrance is further raised on three stone steps. The obelisks are both mounted on a tall rectangular columns, which themselves stand on square plinths. The memorial stands in a small garden now just outside the All Saints churchyard, defined by a low stone wall to the front and a yew hedge to the rear with ornamental gateways to either side. The gates are of cast iron and supported by large stone piers with urn finials.[1]

The obelisks are inscribed with the dates of the First and Second World Wars in Roman numerals (the inscriptions relating to the Second World War were added at a later date). Unusually, the Stone of Remembrance is inscribed on both faces. The east face bears the same inscription as all other Lutyens Stones of Remembrance: "THEIR NAME LIVETH / FOR EVERMORE", as suggested by Rudyard Kipling, truncated from a verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes; the west face is inscribed "THE SOULS OF THE RIGHTEOUS / ARE IN THE HANDS OF GOD", from The Wisdom of Solomon. The low wall surrounding the memorial is inscribed "TO THE MEMORY OF ALL THOSE OF THIS TOWN AND COUNTY WHO SERVED AND DIED IN THE GREAT WAR".[1][2][3][7]

The memorial was designated a Grade II* listed building on 22 January 1976.[1] In November 2015, as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens' war memorials were recognised as a "national collection" and all of his free-standing memorials in England were listed or had their listing status reviewed and their National Heritage List for England list entries were updated and expanded. As part of this process, Northampton War Memorial was upgraded to Grade I listed building status.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Historic England. "The Town and County War Memorial (1191327)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 Skelton, Tim (November 2015). "War Memorial of the Month – November 2015 – Northampton". Memorials of the Great War Exhibition. The Lutyens Trust. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  3. 1 2 Skelton, p. 73.
  4. ↑ Skelton, p. 75.
  5. ↑ Skelton, p. 46.
  6. ↑ Skelton, p. 174.
  7. ↑ Skelton, p. 33.
  8. ↑ "National Collection of Lutyens’ War Memorials Listed". Historic England. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2016.

External links

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