Uxbridge War Memorial

The Old Graveyard, Junction of Windsor Street, Cross Street and Cowley Road, Uxbridge, Hillingdon, UB8 2DA

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1464803
Date first listed:: 04-Sep-2019
List Entry Name:: Uxbridge War Memorial
Statutory Address:: The Old Graveyard, Junction of Windsor Street, Cross Street and Cowley Road, Uxbridge, Hillingdon, UB8 2DA

Uxbridge War Memorial — Uploaded by Alec Martel This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1464803
Date first listed:: 04-Sep-2019
List Entry Name:: Uxbridge War Memorial
Statutory Address 1:: The Old Graveyard, Junction of Windsor Street, Cross Street and Cowley Road, Uxbridge, Hillingdon, UB8 2DA

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: The Old Graveyard, Junction of Windsor Street, Cross Street and Cowley Road, Uxbridge, Hillingdon, UB8 2DA

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Hillingdon (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ0543483935

Summary

Reasons for Designation

The Uxbridge War Memorial, dedicated in 1924 and moved to its current location within the Old Graveyard, Windsor Street, Uxbridge in 1972, 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, and the sacrifice it made in the conflicts of the C20.

Architectural interest: * for its high quality Winged Victory sculpture by Captain Adrian Jones. Group value: * with the Grade II listed entrance gateway to the former burial ground in which it now stands.

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 the country. This was the result of both the huge impact on communities of the loss of three-quarters of a million British lives, and also the official policy of not repatriating the dead: therefore the memorials provided the main focus of remembrance.

Uxbridge War Memorial, commemorating those from Uxbridge Urban District who served in the First World War, was designed by Captain Adrian Jones and unveiled on 11 November 1924 by Lady Hillingdon. It originally stood at the junction between Uxbridge High Street and Park Lane outside the entrance gates to the Hillingdon House estate, which became the headquarters of the Royal Flying Corps (the predecessor of the RAF) in 1915. The memorial was moved to its present site in 1972.

Adrian Jones (1845-1938) was born in Ludlow, Shropshire. A veterinary officer in the Royal Horse Artillery from 1867-90, he set up in Chelsea on his retirement as a sculptor and painter, specialising in animals, mainly horses. His work includes a number of prominent public monuments - most notably Peace Descending on the Quadriga of War (1912) on the Wellington Arch, Hyde Park – and war memorials commemorating the Boer War and the First World War, including the Royal Marines Memorial, St James’s Park (1903); the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Yeomanry, Gloucester (1922) and the Cavalry Memorial, Hyde Park (1924). He exhibited at the Royal Academy several times. In his autobiography, Memoirs of a Soldier Artist (1933), Jones reflected that, as he prepared to cast the figure for the Uxbridge war memorial: “I thought we had quite enough memorials that seemed to revive the war spirit rather than to consider peace, which is, after all, the aim and end of every great struggle."

Details

War memorial. Designed by the sculptor Captain Adrian Jones (1845-1938) and dedicated in 1924. A Second World War dedication was subsequently added. The memorial was moved to its present location in 1972.

MATERIALS: rough-hewn granite with bronze statue and leaded lettering.

DETAILS: the memorial stands in a former burial ground, now a public garden. It consists of a square tapering column with a Corinthian capital, supported on an octagonal base and three-step plinth. The column is surmounted by a bronze Winged Victory figure bearing a laurel wreath aloft in her right hand (symbolising victory) and an olive branch in her left (symbolising peace). At her feet is a British soldier's steel helmet and cartridge bandolier (symbolising loss).

On the front of the base a leaded inscription reads: ERECTED / IN HONOUR AND MEMORY / OF ALL THOSE / MEN AND WOMEN OF / UXBRIDGE / WHO SERVED OR FELL / IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914-1918 / AN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE FROM / THEIR FELLOW TOWNSMEN. Further inscriptions around the base read: SONS OF THIS PLACE LET THIS OF YOU BE SAID / THAT YOU WHO LIVE ARE WORTHY OF YOUR DEAD / THEY GAVE THEIR LIVES THAT YOU IN PEACE MAY REAP / A RICHER HARVEST ERE YOU FALL ASLEEP and IN MEMORIAM / 1939-1945.

Sources

Books and journals
Pierce, Ken (Author), Uxbridge Through Time, (2011)
Websites
Imperial War Museum - War Memorials Register: Uxbridge - WW1 and WW2 Figure - Ref. 12088, accessed 29 May 2019 from https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/12088
War Memorials in Uxbridge , accessed 29 May 2019 from www.hillingdon.gov.uk/article/21123/War-memorials-in-Uxbridge

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.