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Great Totham
Town or City: Great Totham
County: Essex
Country: England
WMT Reference Number: WM1584
Value of grant: £1500.00
Type of memorial: Freestanding
Type of work: Conservation and repair
Grant scheme: English Heritage/Wolfson Foundation Grants
Year: 2005
UKNIWM reference number: 45770
The war memorial in the village of Great Totham in east Essex is, unusually, a bus shelter. The shelter is a timber-framed structure, with herringbone brickwork nogging in the lower part of the walls and roughly rendered nogging above this. The floor is tiled with quarry tiles. There is a copper dedicatory plaque inside the shelter, which stands on Maldon Road, beside a crossroads.
The shelter needed to have some decayed timbers replaced, to be re-roofed and re-rendered. It was decided that the 60th anniversary of VE and VJ days would be an appropriate time for this. In 2005/6 English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation offered a grant of £1,500 towards work to clean the floor, to re-paint all the woodwork black, to replace damaged sections of timber, to replace damaged roof tiles, to repair and redecorate the rendered panels, to cut out and replace damaged bricks and to clean the copper plaque, re-patinate if necessary and apply a protective wax.
The memorial was built and dedicated in 1950 by public subscription. A local firm, Beadel’s, built the frame, and Messrs Tom and George Whiting and Harold Sach plus one other provided voluntary labour for building it.
The copper plaque inside the memorial reads
"This shelter was erected
By the people of this parish in grateful
Memory of those who gave their lives
In the service of their country
1939 – 1945
William George Frederick Barnard 2nd Lothian & Border Yeomanry
David van Oosterwyk Bruyn R.N. Reginald Thomas Clarke R.A.
Geoffrey Gordon Claxon Wilts. Regt. Barry Ryder Lewis F.A.A.
Edward Charles Quy R.A.F Guy Alban Stewart Richardson MC R.A.
Kenneth Frank Seager R.A.F. Arthur Smith R.A.F."
Further information
War Memorials Trust reference WM1584
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 45770
If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org
