A MEMORIAL IS PROPOSED - 1919

Four months after the end of the Great War, in March 1919, a meeting was held in the National School at Bolsterstone to discuss the question of a War Memorial for the village.  Three suggestions were put forward: a stained glass window in the Church, a cross in the Churchyard, and a recreation field.  With each of these was the proposition of a tablet in the Church, bearing the names of the fallen.  Opinion was evenly divided, and another meeting was fixed for later that month, which was attended by around fifty people; the stained glass window idea had been dropped and in its place was a proposal for a square block of stone with a soldier on the top to be erected in the centre of the village.  After a thorough discussion it was decided by a large majority that the memorial should take the form of a large cross in the churchyard, made of Aberdeen granite [it was eventually made with Bolton Wood stone, a fine-grained Yorkshire sandstone].  The Vicar, the Rev. F. M. Brookes, was appointed chairman, with Mr. H. Steel as treasurer and Mr. F. Turner as secretary, together with a committee of nine, to consider the best means of carrying it out, and to ascertain the cost.

Within a year this had been accomplished, and it was noted at the time that the Stocksbridge War Memorial Committee were still discussing their memorial.  One local newspaper printed an article in August 1921 entitled, “War Memorial: To be or not to be?” and said that the residents of the district who had subscribed towards a public War Memorial for Stocksbridge and District were seriously considering whether some of them would live long enough to see it being built.  The proposed clock tower was still far away, owing, it was said, to the “apathetic attitude” shown by a great many people towards the project.  The article pointed out that nearly all the nearby villages and hamlets had already erected their own memorials.  In fact, the foundation stone of the Stocksbridge Clock Tower wasn’t laid until the 14th July 1923. 

David Brearley & Sons Ltd. was chosen for the Bolsterstone memorial.  Two of his sons had fought in France, Archie and David Ivor, but sadly Ivor did not return.  David also made a white marble memorial tablet, which is in Deepcar church, commemorating Anthony Button, who was killed at the battle of Loos on the 26th September 1915.  It was paid for by Anthony’s fellow choir members and unveiled in June 1917, a month after David’s son Ivor had been killed.  Sadly David Brearley died on the 28th March 1920 before he could oversee the siting of his cross the following month.    

The cross was erected just within the churchyard to the right of the lych gate.  Part of the Churchyard wall was taken down and iron railings set up so that it could be seen from the road.  It cost £300, and the money was raised by public subscription.  The cross is Saxon in style and stands 16’ 6” high.  The base consists of four super-imposed blocks of stone, on which are inscribed the names of the local men who lost their lives in the fighting.  Names have since been added from later conflicts.  The memorial was unveiled on Sunday 16th May by Mr. R. H. R. Rimington Wilson and a large crown numbering 1,200 to 1,300 people attended.  The “Last Post” was sounded on the bugle by Mr. H. West and the dedication was performed by the Bishop of Sheffield. 

At the memorial service in 1926 the service was preached by the Bishop of Sheffield and the congregation included members of the local branches of the British Legion, Stocksbridge Fire Brigade, the Ambulance Brigade, R.A.O.B., [Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes], the Oddfellows, and other Friendly Society organisations, who marched to Bolsterstone headed by the Stocksbridge Prize Brass Band.  Major H. McIntyre read the Roll of Honour, and wreaths were placed upon the war memorial by Mr. Ben Wood, who had lost a leg in the war, and Master J. France, aged ten years, whose father was the first local man to fall – he was killed on the 29th October 1914, three months after the outbreak of the war.  The cross remains the focal point for the two minutes’ silence.