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Market Harborough gates

One of the war memorials in the market town of Market Harborough in south east Leicestershire is a Garden of Remembrance. Entrance to the garden from The Square is via blue-painted wrought iron gates - central double gates and single pedestrian gates either side of these - between four cast iron gateposts with spherical finials. The two central gateposts carry bronze plaques commemorating the fallen of World War II.

In 2006/7 English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation offered £4,200 towards work to remove the gates to a workshop for repair and conservation (including fabricating replacement parts for missing or badly worn parts of the iron work and re-painting) to strip and clean the four gateposts and paint them to match the gates, to clean and wax the bronze plaques, to set in a new drop bolt socket and to re-site a rubbish bin that was in front of one of the gateposts.

The dedication on one of the bronze plaques reads

"These gates
and garden of
remembrance
commemorate
the loyalty
courage
devotion
and sacrifice
of those of
this town who
laid down
their lives in
the service of
their country
during the
world war
1939 – 1945
To the
glory of God
and in
honoured
memory of ..."

There follows a list of names. The other plaque also lists names.

The land of the War Memorial Gardens was purchased in 1931 by Harborough District Council. The gates are nineteenth century wrought iron and came in 1951 from Gopsall Park in north Leicestershire, most of which was demolished in 1952. The central features of the memorial garden are a sundial and a flagpole. A marble tablet commemorating the dead of the South Africa War is fixed to the wall of one of the adjoining buildings just within the gates.

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM1806
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 55420

If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org

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