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Shildon

Shildon war memorial takes the form of a crouched soldier with a rifle on top of a square, stone plinth with a bronze wreath at its top above the dedication. The names of the fallen appear on bronze plaques around the plinth. It is located outside St John's Church at the junction of Church Street and Central Parade. The memorial is grade II listed.

In 2017, £4,470 was awarded through War Memorials Trust Grants Scheme supported by the First World War Memorials Programme. It supported repair and conservation works which included cleaning the stone using natural bristle brushes and low pressure water washing, the careful removal of defective joints and loose mortar from the memorial’s construction joints and re-pointing with an appropriate lime-based mortar. The stone kerb was replaced to match the existing exactly in terms of stone type design and finish.

The metal railings were taken off site to the contractor’s workshop for repairs. They were welded with new stainless steel tips and blast cleaned and repainted. The damaged rear plaque was also removed and taken off site for repair. This was followed by the hand cleaning of all the metal elements of the memorial with renaissance wax. The railings and plaque were then reinstalled.

SmartWater was also applied to the war memorial as part of the In Memoriam 2014 project seeking to deter the theft of metal from war memorials.

The memorial was designed by W A Kellett and the statue was made by Humphries, Jackson of Manchester. The memorial was built by J Moore & Sons of Shildon and unveiled on 23rd October 1923.

The inscription on the memorial reads:

“See ye to it
that these
have not died in vain

In
grateful remembrance
of
Shildons Glorious Dead
1914-1918
1939 1955

Great love
hath no man than this
that a man
lay down his life
for his friends”

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM486
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 66

War Memorials Online: 173943

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

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