Rochdale Cenotaph

Background

In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Virtually all towns and cities erected some form of memorial to commemorate their fallen. Amongst the most prominent designers of war memorials was Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation". Prior to the war, Lutyens established his reputation designing country houses for wealthy patrons but the war had a profound effect on him and from 1917 onwards, he dedicated much of his time to memorialising the casualties. Lutyens designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, which became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations; the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world; and the Stone of Remembrance, which appears in all large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and in several of Lutyens' civic memorials, including Rochdale's. The cenotaph in Rochdale is one of seven others Lutyens designed in England besides Whitehall's. It was among the most ambitious of his designs to come to fruition.

Commissioning

The mayor of Rochdale called a public meeting on 10 February 1919, almost three months to the day since the armistice, to discuss proposals to commemorate the town's war dead. The consensus was that the town should have a physical monument as well as a fund to provide for wounded servicemen, their families, and the families of the 2,000 war dead from Rochdale. Public subscription raised £29,443 10s, easily covering the £12,611 cost of the memorial.

Lutyens was appointed as the architect. He first proposed a war memorial bridge to cross the River Roch in front of the Rochdale Town Hall (the river at the time flowed openly through the town centre but has since been culverted). On either side of the bridge would be a recumbent effigy of a soldier lying on a bier, with a Stone of Remembrance on the bridge itself. This plan was abandoned after Alderman William Cunliffe, a former mayor of Rochdale, bought the dilapidated 18th-century house on the other side of the river, known as the Manor House or the Orchard. Cunliffe donated the site for use for a war memorial, which had particular poignancy as the building had been used as a recruiting station during the war. Lutyens created a new design which involved the demolition of Manor House to be replaced by a cenotaph and a Stone of Remembrance. The memorial was constructed by Hobson Limited of Nottingham.

Design

Rochdale's war memorial comprises two main elements, a 10-metre (33 ft) high pylon and a Stone of Remembrance, both of which are raised on a platform or stylobate of three steps, all made of light grey Cornish granite. The base of the cenotaph is raised by a further six steps above the platform, and then rises in diminishing tiers of broadly rectangular cross section, with their long axis oriented from southeast to northwest. Standing on the plain first tier are four carved and painted stone flags with gilt bronze poles, two to either side: the Union Flag and the White Ensign on the southwest side, and the Royal Air Force Ensign and the Red Ensign on the northeast side. The flags stand to either side of a second smaller tier with a semi-column at either end, which culminates in a yet smaller plinth supporting a catafalque on which lies a sculpture of a draped human figure, a similar design to Lutyens' Midland Railway War Memorial in Derby. Painted stone flags appear in several of Lutyens' war memorial designs. They were rejected for Whitehall's Cenotaph in favour of fabric flags, but appear on several other memorials besides Rochdale's, including Northampton War Memorial and Leicester's Arch of Remembrance.

Despite its name, the memorial is not strictly a cenotaph as the sculpture at the top is an effigy rather than an empty tomb. To either side of the plinth, above the flags, are carved wreaths surrounding Rochdale's coat of arms. The central part of the structure is inscribed in gold lettering: "1914-1919 / 1939–1945"; "TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN OF ROCHDALE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR"; "MCMXIV + MCMXIX / ET / MCMXXXIX + MCMXLV" and "THEY WERE A WALL UNTO US BOTH BY NIGHT AND BY DAY"—a quotation from the First Book of Samuel, chapter 25, verse 16, selected from several suggestions made by the readers of the Rochdale Observer.

The Stone of Remembrance lies to the southeast of the cenotaph, towards the town hall, and is also raised above the platform by three further steps. It is inscribed: "THEIR NAME LIVETH / FOR EVERMORE". Further inscriptions commemorating the Second World War were added at a later date, including a bronze plaque reading "TO ALL THOSE WHO DIED / IN THE / SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY". The surrounding memorial gardens are dedicated to the members of the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

History

Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby unveiled the memorial on Sunday 26 November 1922 while the Archdeacon of Rochdale gave a dedication. The earl was a descendant of a local family which had been involved in politics in the local area for generations, and he himself served in various public offices during the First World War, including Director General of Recruiting and later Secretary of State for War before being appointed Britain's ambassador to France at the end of the war. Two years after unveiling the memorial in Rochdale, Derby presided over the unveiling of Manchester Cenotaph, another Lutyens design.

Historic England designated Rochdale Cenotaph a Grade II listed building on 12 February 1985, noting its visual relationship with Rochdale Town Hall, Rochdale Post Office, and a set of lamp posts (all of which are listed buildings in their own right). Listed building status offers legal protection from demolition or modification; Grade II is applied to structures of "special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them", about 92% of listed buildings. In November 2015, as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens' war memorials were recognised as a "national collection" and all of his free-standing memorials in England were listed or had their listing status reviewed and their National Heritage List for England list entries were updated and expanded. As part of this process, Rochdale Cenotaph was upgraded to Grade I listed building status, which is applied to around 2.5% of listed buildings, those of "the greatest historic interest".