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Crudwell
Town or City: Crudwell
County: Wiltshire
Country: England
WMT Reference Number: WM439
Value of grant: £3700.00
Type of memorial: Freestanding
Type of work: Conservation and repair
Grant scheme: English Heritage/Wolfson Foundation Grants
Year: 2001
UKNIWM reference number: 24050
The war memorial in the Cotswold village of Crudwell in northern Wiltshire, close to the county border with Gloucestershire, is a lychgate; many villages chose to commemorate the fallen of World War I this way. The lychgate stands at the entrance to the churchyard of All Saints church and consists of a steeply pitched hipped roof covered in Cotswold stone tiles supported on brick piers and local oak battens. There are wooden gates between the piers, and on the inner sides of the piers simple stone plaques listing the fallen of World War I, beneath the dates of the conflict, are set into the bricks. Oak trusses arch from the piers on either side to support the roof. At the apex of the roof is a stone finial.
By the summer of 2001 the roof fixings had failed on about half the tiles and nearly that number of tiles needed replacing. It was becoming hazardous because some tiles were slipping and others falling to the ground. In addition some of the roof battens were rotten and some of the masonry needed repointing. In 2001/2 English Heritage offered a grant of £3700 towards work to re-roof the memorial and make minor repairs to the masonry.
The lychgate was designed by the architect F C Eden (who also designed WM381 and WM1288). It was built by Messrs Charles Baker and Son of Eastcourt and Mr E Sparrow assisted with the masonry. The lychgate was unveiled on All Saints Day, 1st November 1920 by Mrs J R Randolph, wife of Judge Randolph of Eastcourt House, Crudwell and dedicated by the Archdeacon of Swindon, Archdeacon Talbot. The Last Post was sounded by Richard Bishop of the Royal Engineers and Gen Sir Reginald Dyer of the Indian Army made an address. The newspaper report of the unveiling records that of the village of 700 people, 24 men were killed in the war and 28 returned “many of them badly mutilated from injuries from which they will never fully recover”.
Further information
War Memorials Trust reference WM439
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 24050
Heritage Gateway listing record: 315677
More information about F C Eden
More information about Gen Sir Reginald Dyer
If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org
