Rochdale Cenotaph
| Rochdale Cenotaph | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
.JPG) |
|
| For servicemen from Rochdale killed in the First World War | |
| Unveiled | 1922 |
| Location |
53°36′58″N 2°09′35″W / 53.616238°N 2.159743°WCoordinates: 53°36′58″N 2°09′35″W / 53.616238°N 2.159743°W Rochdale town centre, Greater Manchester, England |
| Designed by | Sir Edwin Lutyens |
|
TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN OF ROCHDALE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR / THEY WERE A WALL UNTO US BOTH BY NIGHT AND BY DAY
|
|
|
Listed Building – Grade I
|
|
| Official name | Rochdale Cenotaph |
| Designated | 12 February 1985 |
| Reference no. | 1084274 |
Rochdale Cenotaph is a First World War memorial located on the Esplanade in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in the north west of England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is one of seven in England based on his Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, and one of his more ambitious designs. It was unveiled in 1922 and consists of a 10-metre (33 ft) high pylon topped by a recumbent effigy of a soldier, along with Lutyens' characteristic Stone of Remembrance.
A public meeting in February 1919 established a consensus for both a monumental memorial and a fund for the families of wounded servicemen. The meeting also agreed to commission Lutyens to design the monument. His first design, for a bridge over the River Roch, was abandoned after a local dignitary purchased a plot of land adjacent to the Rochdale Town Hall and donated it for use for a war memorial. Lutyens revised his design for the new site and Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, unveiled the memorial on 26 November 1922. The memorial today is a Grade I listed building, having been upgraded in 2015 when Lutyens' war memorials were declared a "national collection".
In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Virtually all towns and cities erected some form of memorial to commemorate their fallen. Amongst the most prominent designers of war memorials was Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation". Prior to the war, Lutyens established his reputation designing country houses for wealthy patrons but the war had a profound effect on him and from 1917 onwards, he dedicated much of his time to memorialising the casualties. Lutyens designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, which became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations; the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world; and the Stone of Remembrance, which appears in all large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and in several of Lutyens' civic memorials, including Rochdale's. The cenotaph in Rochdale is one of seven others Lutyens designed in England besides Whitehall's. It was among the most ambitious of his designs to come to fruition.
...
Wikipedia