War Memorial Cherry Lane Cemetery

Heritage listing

Details 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: Cherr

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.