Saturday, November 8, 2008

Stanway, Gloucestershire


Remember them

Here are last year's snows on my favourite war memorial, not far from where I live. The 1920 bronze statue of St George and the Dragon is by Alexander Fisher, the column was designed by Sir Philip Stott, architect-squire of the nearby village of Stanton, and the lettering on the memorial is by Eric Gill. The memorial is wonderfully sited at a junction as the road begins to rise up the hill, past Stanway's few stone and thatched cottages, and on towards Stow on the Wold. Its sculpture, arresting in form and beautiful in detail, does its job well: makes us pause, and look, and remember. It's a work of real quality, and that is, after all, what those who died in war deserve.
Thanks to Zoë, who took the evocative photograph while I scraped the white stuff off the car.

6 comments:

Vinogirl said...

A worthy blog post in remembrance of those who died...Thank you.

Peter Ashley said...

This is a truly great memorial. One of my favourites, if you can have such a thing.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Yes, I think you can have a favourite war memorial - in the sense of the one you think is the most worthy of those it commemorates.

Peter Ashley said...

Actually, that photograph is brilliant. It looks like it's a monochrome print where the memorial itself has been hand-coloured in. I first discovered it on a very cold, foggy January morning and nearly drove off the muddy road in wonderment.

Vinogirl said...

Yes, you can have a favourite war memorial. Mine was in Huyton village, where I was born, by the council buildings...an angel standing with a laurel wreath in one hand. It freaked-me-out as a small child...but in a fantastic wonderment, awe, sort of way. I will have to check out if it is still there when I visit next May.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Peter: Zoë is very pleased that you admire her picture! She is always very modest about her photographs and regards this a praise from the master.