A combined War Memorial, The Old Parish Churchyard, High Street, Upton-on-Severn, Worcestershire.
Posted by: greysman
N 52° 03.852 W 002° 13.044
30U E 553648 N 5768467
This memorial is a reused market cross with a sundial on top of the shaft.
Waymark Code: WMDA0C
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/11/2011
Views: 1
This is an old village market cross, with a circular base and an octagonal shaft. It was removed to Ham Court in the C18th and converted to a sundial. In 1920 it was returned to Upton-upon-Severn for use as a war memorial placed in the yard of the old parish church. It is grade II listed and topped by a much decayed iron wind vane, no cardinal points or vane left on it.
There are two brass plaques recording the dedication as a war memorial, to both WWI and WWII. The WWI inscription, quite well worn due to polishing and the open-air environment reads:
This Ancient Parish Cross
was placed here
in Memory of the Men
who fell in the Great War
1914-1918
whose Names are Recorded
in the Parish Church
The WWII inscription reads:
and in Memory of the Men
who fell in World War II
1939-1945
whose Names are Recorded
in the Parish Church
The sundial has four faces and four wrought iron gnomons. The faces each have hours marked in Roman numerals, east from V to XI, the south from VI to VI - hour marks each hour but numbered every other one - the west from I to VII - again hourly marks but numbered as the south. Although there is a gnomon on the north face there are no numbers and the hour marks are indistinct.
The old parish church was demolished in 1937 and there is only the tower left in the churchyard. There are four brass memorial plaques on the front wall of the Memorial Hall in Old Street.