Andrew Knowles and Sons Collieries War Memorial, Pendlebury, Salford

Summary

First World War memorial of 1919.

Description

First World War Memorial of 1919 by Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson for Andrew Knowles and Sons Ltd.

MATERIALS: buff Derbyshire sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: prominently-sited in a memorial garden with stone walls, overlooking the site of some of the firm’s collieries.

The memorial faces south. It comprises a roughly-oval area, bound to the rear by a sandstone wall with inset slate plaques, and set with river cobbles with a central stone-flagged area on which stands a four-stepped base and an ornamental cross.

The cross is 8ft high. It has a square plinth with filled chamfers to an octagonal top, rising to the foot of the shaft. The plinth is incised with the inscription:

LEST WE FORGET

The shaft is octagonal and slightly tapering, with a fluted upper section with tapered collar and roll moulding. The Greek cross surmounting the shaft has octagonal arms with flared ends and short terminals.

The retaining wall is of regularly-coursed, quarry faced stone, with channelled hog’s back copings. It steps down from the left. At the left and right are short, straight wings. The central section is flanked by square ashlar pillars. Above narrow-coursed ashlar is a broad entablature course, with a flat coping over the whole. The entablature course is incised with the inscription:

THIS CROSS WAS ERECTED BY ANDREW KNOWLES AND SONS, LTD, TO THE MEMORY OF THE BRAVE MEN FROM THEIR COLLIERIES/ WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY. A.D. 1914 – 1918

Within the narrow-coursed ashlar are inset eight vertical slate plaques, each incised with 24 names, and below these a central, horizontal plaque with 20 names. The Fallen are listed alphabetically by surname without ranks, with the same applying to the additional last 24 names. The lettering is serifed and expressive.

History

The aftermath of the First World War saw the biggest single wave of public commemoration ever with tens of thousands of memorials erected across England, both as a result of the huge impact the loss of three quarters of a million British lives had on communities and the official policy of not repatriating the dead, which meant that the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss.

One such memorial was raised at Pendlebury as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by the 212 men from the Andrew Knowles and Sons Ltd collieries who lost their lives in the First World War. The cross was designed by Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson. It was dedicated on Tuesday 25 November 1919, witnessed by a crowd of between 2,000 and 3,000. The site on what was then called Smithy Brow overlooked the company’s Agecroft and Clifton Hall collieries.

The cross was unveiled and dedicated by the chairman of the company, Robert Knowles. There were also speeches from Mr T Greenall, JP (Chair of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners’ Association) and Brigadier-General Sir Edward Thomas Le Marchant (who had previously commanded a brigade almost entirely comprised of Durham miners). The hymn, 'O God Our Help In Ages Past' was sung, and the dedication concluded with the sounding of the 'Last Post' and 'Reveille' by a party of buglers from the regiment of Lancashire Fusiliers, for whom many of the men fought.

The memorial is first marked on the 1929 1:2,500 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, which shows it in its current form. Shortly after the unveiling, four names were added to the bottom of the eighth plaque, and then a further plaque was added to the wall with twenty more names. At the unveiling it was acknowledged that there might be names which had been inadvertently omitted but that if so this would be rectified as soon as possible.

Andrew Knowles and Sons Ltd was the largest company on the Manchester Coalfield by the end of the C19 and employed almost 4,000 people. More than 300,000 British miners enlisted for service before the Government stopped recruiting them in order to preserve productivity.

Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson, 2nd Baronet (1867-1949), was a pupil of JD Sedding, and subsequently worked with Henry Wilson, another of Sedding's pupils. In 1893 he set up in practice for himself and that year won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Tite prize for architectural design. He became a fellow of the Institute in 1905. In the course of his career Nicholson was consulting architect to five English cathedrals: Lincoln, Wells, Lichfield, Sheffield and Portsmouth. His cathedral work included the new east chapel at Norwich, various additions to Chelmsford, and the reconstruction of Portsmouth. Internal work and restoration were carried out at Brecon, Carlisle, Exeter, Leicester, Lichfield, Lincoln, Manchester, Salisbury, Wakefield, Wells, and Winchester, as well as at many dozens of parish churches. He also designed a large number of new parish churches, principally in the Gothic style.

Reasons for Listing

The Andrew Knowles Collieries War Memorial at Pendlebury, a First World War memorial of 1919, 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, in particular the miners of the Manchester coalfield, and the sacrifice it made in the conflicts of the C20.

Architectural interest:

* a good-quality design by the eminent architect Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson, 2nd Baronet (1867-1949), with an elegant octagonal cross on a fluted shaft with decorative plinth, and two hundred and twelve names on rolls of honour in expressive, cursive script;
* enhanced by standing in a natural-stone paved and cobbled area set back from the pavement.

External Links

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