Muncaster War Memorial and area wall

A595, Muncaster

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1086636
Date first listed:: 21-Jan-1985
List Entry Name:: Muncaster War Memorial and area wall
Statutory Address:: A595, Muncaster

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Date:: 2002-04-13
Reference:: IOE01/03003/05
Rights:: © Mr Julian Thurgood. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1086636
Date first listed:: 21-Jan-1985
List Entry Name:: Muncaster War Memorial and area wall
Statutory Address 1:: A595, Muncaster

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:: A595, Muncaster

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

District:: Cumberland (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Muncaster
National Park:: LAKE DISTRICT
National Grid Reference:: SD 09062 96684

Summary

First World War memorial, 1922, by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Reasons for Designation

Muncaster War Memorial is listed at Grade II for the following principle reasons:

* Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impacts of world events on this community, and the sacrifices it made in the First World War;

* Architect: by the nationally renowned architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-1944), who designed extant 58 memorials at home and abroad including the Cenotaph in Whitehall;

* Design: a simple yet elegant War Cross, fashioned from a local stone.

History

Lutyens had visited Muncaster Castle to discuss a possible scheme of alterations for Sir John Ramsden. Nothing came of this, but in 1919 Sir John commissioned Lutyens to design a war memorial in the form of a cross, symbolising the sacrifice of the troops. The memorial was unveiled in September 1922 by Mrs Cowan from Ravenglass, who had lost three sons in the war, and a daughter to typhoid.

Sir Edwin Lutyens OM RA (1869-1944) was the leading English architect of his generation. Before the First World War his reputation rested on his country houses and his work at New Delhi, but during and after the war he became the pre-eminent architect for war memorials in England, France and the British Empire. While the Cenotaph in Whitehall (London) had the most influence on other war memorials, the Thiepval Arch was the most influential on other forms of architecture. He designed the Stone of Remembrance which was placed in all Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries and in some cemeteries in England, including some with which he was not otherwise associated.

Details

The memorial stands by the roadside on the main road between Barrow-in-Furness and Gosforth (near Seascale) at the road junction leading to the coastal village of Ravenglass. It comprises a war cross of Lakeland granite, the shaft lozenge sectioned, which tapers into a rectangular plinth. That carries the inscription TO/ THE MEN OF/ MUNCASTER/ WHO FELL IN/THE GREAT WAR. Beneath is a laurel wreath carved in relief, the only example among Lutyens’ memorials of this type. There is a base of three broad, square, shallow steps. The memorial is set within a shallow, stone-walled, recess, with the names of the fallen from both world wars inscribed on blocks inset into the wall.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14/10/2015

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 2 February 2017.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 76269
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Skelton, T, Gliddon, G, Lutyens and the Great War, (2008), 32, 81-2, 174
Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 2 February 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/118772
War Memorials Register, accessed 2 February 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/3911

Legal

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