Listed Building: MINSHULL VERNON CUM LEIGHTON WAR MEMORIAL (1436479)

List Entry Summary This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest. Name: Minshull Vernon cum Leighton War Memorial List entry Number: 1436479 Location Middlewich Road, Bradfield Green, Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 4QX The listed building is shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act. The building may lie within the boundary of more than one authority. County: District: Cheshire East District Type: Unitary Authority Parish: Minshull Vernon National Park: Not applicable to this List entry. Grade: II Date first listed: 15-Nov-2016 Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry. Asset Groupings This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information. List entry Description Summary of Building First World War Memorial of red sandstone, with a disused drinking fountain. Reasons for Designation Minshull Vernon cum Leighton War Memorial, a First World War Memorial of red sandstone, with a disused drinking fountain, 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; * Design interest: as a relatively unusual memorial incorporating a drinking fountain. History Parish records indicate that discussion regarding a memorial to local men killed in action began in 1917, but initial ideas included adding an inscription to the Victoria Jubilee Cross, and from 1920 a memorial plaque in the parish church. It is reported that in the 1920s a Mrs Sellars gave the land to enable construction of the memorial. War memorial accounts were presented in 1922, amounting to £78 3s 0d (roughly £3,100 in 2016), which suggests that these included the cost of erection of the monument being assessed, and that it stood by this date. The first map of the site after this date is the 1:2,500 OS map of 1962, which shows the memorial. Over the last 20 years the original plaques have been replaced twice and the original sandstone bollards have been replaced in concrete. On the 4 June 2016 additional plaques were installed on the N and S faces, dedicated to the memory of airmen who died in training crashes in the parish during the Second World War. Details First World War memorial of the 1920s, designer unknown. MATERIALS: built of local red sandstone. PLAN: the memorial stands on two square stone steps, and above this comprises a tapering, square obelisk. DESCRIPTION: standing on open land at the junction of Middlewich Road and Eardswick Lane, surrounded by a small garden. The obelisk is divided into three stages by stone bands with cavetto mouldings, and is of regularly-coursed, rock-faced blocks. The centre stage does not taper, and panelled recesses with a dressed margin around them fill each face. The E face contains a slate plaque with an incised and filled inscription reading: PARISH OF/ LEIGHTON CUM/ MINSHULL VERNON/ IN GLORIOUS MEMORY/ OF THOSE WHO DIED/ FOR FREEDOM/ AND IN HONOUR/ OF ALL WHO SERVED/ THEIR KING AND COUNTRY/ 1914 - 1918 On the W face is a similar plaque listing the twelve names of the fallen, with no military or other information. The N and S faces contain plaques inscribed: (S) IN MEMORY OF THE FOLLOWING RAF CREW/ WHO DIED IN THIS PARISH:/ 4TH FEBRUARY 1941/ ON WELLINGTON R1298/ , followed by ten names, and (N) IN MEMORY OF THE FOLLOWING RAF CREW/ WHO DIED IN THIS PARISH:/ 20TH MARCH 1943/ ON WELLINGTON X3547/, followed by eight names, and ON OXFORD DF477/, followed by four names. The lower band on the E face contains a quarter-spherical stone basin with the remains of a metal drinking fountain above. Selected Sources Imperial War Museums online entry, accessed 02/06/16 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/2052 online inflation calculator, accessed 10/06/16 from www.moneysorter.co.uk/calculator_inflation2.html#calculator war memorials online entry, accessed 02/06/16 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/node/134201 National Grid Reference: SJ6797658735