Parish War Memorials – Other

When this project started, we were aware of seven existing Memorials to War and two that were missing.  We have since come across two additional Memorials, one for the former Congregational Sunday School and one from the Boer War giving a total of nine existing Memorials and two missing..

A brief description is given below and further detail can be found by clicking on the memorial name.

We would be grateful for any further information on these memorials or indeed information about any memorial to the two world wars in the Tutbury area.  Two of the memorials described below are missing; one of them, the Druids, was a type of Memorial we had not come across before and it would be a very unusual Memorial if it were found.

All the Memorials listed are at St. Mary’s Priory Church unless otherwise stated.

Stone Cross War Memorial – (SCWM) – St. Mary’s Priory Church, Tutbury.  Located outside the south door of the church, commemorating 47 WWI and 13 WWI fallen

Commemorates: 1st and 2nd World War.

Condition: poor – requires conservation and repair

WWI Marble Tablet – inside St. Mary’s priory Church, Tutbury on the South wall, commemorating the 48 WWI dead.

Commemorates: 1st World War.

Condition: good.

WWII Marble Plaque – inside St. Mary’s Priory church, Tutbury commemorating the 13 Fallen of WWII.

Commemorates: 2nd World War.

Condition: good

Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Marble Tablet – commemorating 17 Fallen, originally mounted on the wall of the IOOF meeting hall in Tutbury High Street.

Commemorates: 1st World War.

Condition: the tablet currently in St. Mary’s church in the lady Chapel, below the other memorials to the two world wars.

Druids Tablet – the “Who’d Have Thought it”, Lodge 1489 of the Birmingham Equalised Order of Druids (chaired by H.L. Newton, DSO) Tablet listing 6 Fallen, unveiled by the Vicar in February 1920.  It also lists a further 36 who served.  This Memorial was erected at the Castle Inn, Bridge Street.

Commemorates: 1st World War.

Condition: whereabouts currently unknown.

Congregational Brass Organ Plate – a plate on the organ in the Congregational Church “To the Glorious Dead”.

Commemorates: 1st World War.

Condition: good

(7) Congregational Tablet – a framed memorial on the balcony in the Congregational Church listing 7 Fallen and 26 who served in WWI.

Commemorates: 1st World War.

Condition: Thought to have been damaged during the restoration of the Congregational Church and the remains discarded.

(8) WWI Roll of Honour Board in the Lady Chapel listing 333 men who served in WWI.  This appears to be paper enclosed in wood and glass frame; this is described at WWI Tablet.

Commemorates: 1st World War.

Condition: Fair but exhibiting some signs of damp – to be examined by a conservator.

(9) Roll of Honour for WWII – Leather bound Roll of Honour for WWII, hand written in a script style.  It lists the 13 Fallen and the 273 who served.  It additionally lists 16 men from the parish who died in the Fauld explosion.  The book also contains words of condolence and a letter from the Tutbury Parish Welcome Home Fund.  Found in the safe at St. Mary’s in early 2013, currently on loan to the Tutbury War Memorials Committee for examination and documenting.  This is described at WWII Plaque.

Commemorates: 2nd World War.

Condition: Very good – to be examined by a conservator.

(10) Roll of Honour Board – Congregational Church Sunday School – spotted in an advert for the sale of a private house that had formerly been the Congregational Sunday School.  Unclear what the relationship is between this item and the missing Item (7).

Commemorates: 1st World War.

Condition: Appears good.

(11) Boer War – Trooper E. Bentley – on the wall next to the west door – one of those items that some people knew was there but had forgotten about.  While not within the original scope (the two World Wars) we have decided to include it as it relates directly to a family of the parish.

Commemorates: Trooper E. Bentley – Boer War War.

Condition: Appears good but in need of a clean?

Trophy Guns – not a War Memorial (and not counted above) but relics of war, a Maxim machine gun and an unknown field gun were obtained as Trophy Guns after WWI – the machine gun going to the Boys School and the field gun to Bridge Street.  The machine gun is now in the Tutbury Museum, the fate of the field gun is unknown.  The Trophy Guns were the only ‘war memorial’ activity that the then Parish Council was involved in according to the Parish Council Minutes of the period in the Records Office.

Other Conservation Items

One other related item requires considering for conservation, all at St. Mary’s Priory Church.  The architectural drawing of the Stone Cross War Memorial, again paper enclosed in a wood and glass frame, resting on the floor of the lady Chapel; this is described at Memorial to the Fallen.

Notes:

• Only the SCWM is currently recorded on the Imperial War Museum’s War Memorial Register(formerly the War Memorials Archive, UK National Inventory of War Memorials –www.ukniwm.org.uk) – reference number 13421.  We intend to record the rest when their condition and fate is confirmed.
• We have not included in the list privately financed memorials in the churchyard (such as that to Alick Owen and Owen Bunting) or where an “in memorium” is an addition to an existing gravestone.