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Leire

The war memorial in the southern Leicestershire village of Leire is a Portland stone obelisk on a plinth and a four-stepped base. The plinth is shaped like a very shallow urn with acanthus decoration at the corners and fluting along the sides. On the front faces of the plinth and the base are black filled inscriptions and a laurel wreath carved in relief with a sword. The memorial stands in the churchyard of St Peter’s.

The structure of the memorial was sound, although there was lichen colonisation and some of the filling of the lettering had decayed. In 2002/3 English Heritage offered a grant of £150 towards work to wash the memorial with clean water and a natural or nylon bristle brush. A small amount of washing up liquid could be used to break down greasy deposits if necessary and a biocide could then be applied if there was still too much lichen. The grant also covered work to scrape the infill mortar out of the lettering using a sharp blade, to re-cut the small number of letters that needed it and and to re-fill the letters with lime-based mortar.

In 2014 a grant of £293 was offered under the Small Grants Scheme towards the cleaning of the war memorial. The war memorial was cleaned using a low pressure hot wash system. The joints of the memorial were checked at this time and found to be sound.

The text on the front of the memorial reads:

"To the glory of God
and in grateful memory of the men
whose lives were sacrificed in the
Great War of
1914 – 1918

N.W. Bray 3/4 Queens Royal West Surrey’s
S. Church 10th Leicester’s
T.E. Johnson 10th Leicester’s
R.S. Jarvis Leicestershire Yeomanry
Lieutenant F.A.D. Redfern General List
W.M. Spriggs 8th Leicesters
A.W. Spriggs Royal Fusiliers"

Nothing is known of the architect, builders or dedication ceremony. 

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM1290
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: WM1290

Heritage Gateway listing record: 191183

War Memorials Online: 86861

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

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