Description

HAYES

804/0/10092 SHEPISTON LANE
23-FEB-10 War Memorial Cherry Lane Cemetery

II
Civilian war memorial and gravestone, probably mid-late 1940s, to commemorate the 37 workers of the Gramophone Company, Blyth Road, Hayes killed when a V1 flying-bomb hit a factory surface air-raid shelter on 7 July 1944. Restored in 1994 and again in 2009.

DESCRIPTION:
The memorial is located to the immediate west of the main axial north-south path through the cemetery. It takes the form of a simple 'head' stone set to the west of a stone flagged rectangular enclosure, approximately 2.25m square. This has a raised stone surround with chamfered edges and corners with stops at the eastern entrance; also a central octagonal stone vase. The memorial stone, which is approximately 1m wide by 1.75m high, has a gently curved top and stands on a chamfered plinth. Top centre of the stone is a carved flame wreath with ribbons to either side above the long inscription which fills the remainder of the stone. The legend is bi-partite with incised, blackened lettering in capitals in a serif font, and reads: `IN MEMORY OF/ [12 names]/ WAR WORKERS OF/ THE GRAMOPHONE COMPANY/ WHO DIED THROUGH ENEMY ACTION/ 7TH JULY 1944/ AND LIE BURIED HERE/ [25 further names]/ WHO DIED ON THE SAME OCCASION/ AND ARE BURIED ELSEWHERE/ THIS STONE WAS ERECTED BY THEIR/ FELLOW WORKERS AND THE COMPANY. The memorial is therefore both a burial marker to those in the mass grave on site and a memorial to the remaining casualties. Comparison with late C20 photographs indicates that there has been some re-working of the inscription. Most noticeably, there was originally a gap separating the last two lines (now closed) which were in a smaller font. Also, there has been some re-working and blackening of the wreath.

HISTORY:
Cherry Lane Cemetery is a municipal cemetery run by the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was initially laid out in the mid 1930s to provide a new burial ground as the churchyard at St Mary's Hayes had run out of space. The grave marker and memorial was erected in remembrance of the 37 employees of the HMV Gramophone Factory, Blyth Road, Hayes who were killed when a V1 flying bomb or 'doodle-bug' hit a factory surface air-raid shelter on 7 July 1944. Secondary sources differ in their records of the event but the original bomb census form, now held in the National Archives, confirms that it was a flying bomb which landed at 1459 hours killing 24 and seriously injuring 21 (some of the seriously injured clearly died later). Hayes on Record (1992, 142-3) states that the V1 came down at the main entrance to one shelter such that the concrete roof collapsed and although some of the badly injured were able to be rescued from the emergency exit to the rear others were trapped for some hours. Twelve of the victims are buried in a mass grave in the cemetery here. The Imperial War Graves Commission registers indicate that while some of the victims were from Hayes, others were from more distant parts of London so were undoubtedly buried closer to home. The date of the memorial's erection is unknown, but it is assumed to have been within a few years of 1944.

During the Second World War, the HMV Gramophone Factory was the largest employer in Hayes. Originally known as 'The Gramophone Company' it gradually became known as HMV from its trademark 'His Master's Voice'. The company merged with the Colombia Gramophone Company in 1932, becoming Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) although still retaining the HMV brand name. The Hayes factory had a history of war work as it manufactured munitions during the First World War and during the Second World War was involved with radar and communications equipment. The destruction of the shelter and the considerable death toll of July 1944 is believed to have been the most serious single incident, in terms of casualties in Hayes during the Second World War.

SOURCES:
P Hall & C Brown (1992), Hayes on Record: A History of the Processes Involved in the Manufacture of and Development of Vinyl Record and Music Cassettes at Hayes, Middlesex, pp142-3. EMI Music Services (UK)

UK Civilian Dead, 1939-45 for the Urban District of Hayes and Harlington in Imperial War Graves Commission Registers (1954-7), Volume 5, pp1670-2

REASON FOR DESIGNATION:
The EMI memorial, Cherry Lane Cemetery, which is both a grave marker and commemorative stone for workers from The Gramophone Company, Hayes killed during a V1 attack in July 1944, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* A simple yet poignant memorial
* Of historic and cultural special interest as a grave marker and memorial to the 37 civilian casualties of the Gramophone Company and an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on their families and the local community.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Online. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 16 February 2017.

Reasons for Listing

Yes list.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672824

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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