Beverley’s War Memorial Monument is in the form of a limestone obelisk with limestone panels around a square base showing inscriptions of the names of those commemorated. Arranged at the four corners between the base and the obelisk are seated figures holding bronze models of the machinery of War.
There are many Memorial plaques around the town but this Memorial Garden on Hengate is Beverley’s official location for commemorative services and the laying of wreaths. It contains the names of the people of Beverley who have died defending this country, not only in the two world wars but in actions around the world up to the present time.
The land for this memorial garden was gifted (plus an endowment) to the town of Beverley by Major Clive Wilson D.S.O. to be used specifically for a war memorial and garden of remembrance.
Although it is in the centre of Beverley the garden is a place for quiet reflective thought, a place to relax, meditate, contemplate. Perhaps think how our lives would have been different if the people named here had not given their lives for our futures.
Bare Trees, the time of year makes a great difference to the look & atmosphere of the Garden of Remembrance. In 2015 a working party of East Riding of Yorkshire Councillors plus Beverley & District Civic Society members undertook the renovation of the War Memorials of the garden in Hengate.
The “Great War” memorial (now World War 1 Memorial) was structurally secured and cleaned and the four models held by the figures were recreated from photographs. A plaque was added to the memorial recording the names of 28 others not shown on the original list.
The World War 2 memorials were also cleaned and masonry repaired and the plaques re-gilded and repainted.
The War Memorial Garden filled to capacity for the Remembrance Sunday Service and laying of wreaths 12th November 2017.
An earlier Wreath laying ceremony from Remembrance Sunday 13th November 2005
Beverley’s War Memorial shines in the sunshine on a cold but bright spring day in 2016 – the grass has just had it’s first cut.