Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Willaston War Memorial

Christ Church, Neston Road, Willaston, CH64 2TL

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

First World War memorial of 1921 with later additions and alterations. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1467991
Date first listed:: 13-Jan-2020
List Entry Name:: Willaston War Memorial
Statutory Address:: Christ Church, Neston Road, Willaston, CH64 2TL

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Also of interest

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1467991
Date first listed:: 13-Jan-2020
List Entry Name:: Willaston War Memorial
Statutory Address 1:: Christ Church, Neston Road, Willaston, CH64 2TL

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Christ Church, Neston Road, Willaston, CH64 2TL

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Cheshire West and Chester (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SJ3285577760

Summary

First World War memorial of 1921 with later additions and alterations.

Reasons for Designation

Willaston War Memorial, 1921 with later additions and alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest: * as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the sacrifice it made in the conflicts of the C20.

Architectural interest:

* for the strong design interest of the square pillar with angle buttresses, and octagonal domed turret surmounted by a bronze Latin cross.

Group value:

* with Christ Church (Grade II).

History

The aftermath of the First World War saw the biggest single wave of public commemoration ever with tens of thousands of memorials erected across England. This was the result of both the huge impact on communities of the loss of three quarters of a million British lives, and also the official policy of not repatriating the dead which meant that the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss. One such memorial was raised at Willaston as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by 34 members of the local community who lost their lives in the First World War.

Willaston War Memorial was designed by Mr Ronald C Ashworth, with the stonework carried out by Griffiths and the metalwork cast from the foundry of Mr Roberts. £1,130 was subscribed towards the cost of the memorial, which was unveiled on 27 February 1921 by Lt Gen Sir Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle and dedicated by Rev W Francis.

Following the Second World War the names of the Fallen from that conflict were added to the memorial with a plaque on the east face. In the 1980s the memorial was cleaned and re-pointed. After the theft of the two plaques on the south and east faces of the memorial in 2011, these were replaced by a new plaque on the south face which combined the inscriptions on both of the two former plaques. A man was jailed for the theft after trying to sell the plaques, but they were never recovered.

The memorial is thought to stand in the former location of an oak shrine to Arthur Graham, the son of a prominent local family. Pte Graham is named on this memorial, and the faculty for its erection mentions the relocation of the shrine (now lost) to a position close to the church porch. Many temporary memorials, probably thousands, were erected during and after the First World War. Some indicated what a permanent public memorial might look like, and they provided a physical, public encouragement to donate funds or prompt to submit names for inclusion. Others provided a focus for the grief of individual families before public memorials were agreed on. Only one extant example of a temporary memorial structure is known, which is the Prestwich (Bury, Greater Manchester) temporary memorial, which was relocated after permanent memorials were built (Grade II - List entry 1440259).

Details

A First World War memorial of1921 by Ronald C Ashworth with later additions and alterations.

MATERIALS: Storeton sandstone, bronze.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial takes the form of a square pillar with angle buttresses, from which rises an octagonal domed turret surmounted by a bronze Latin cross. The pillar stands on a three-stepped square base. A bronze plaque on the south face of the memorial reads: IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF/ THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ FOR THEIR KING & COUNTRY/ DURING THE GREAT WAR 1914-19/ THEIR NAMES SHALL LIVE FOR EVER/ (34 NAMES)/ IN SACRED MEMORY OF/ (9 NAMES)/ WHO FELL IN THE WAR/ 1939-1945.

Sources

Websites
Imperial War Museums register etnry, accessed 14/11/19 from https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/9946
War Memorials Online entry, accessed 14/11/19 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/node/248073

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.