Lower Swell war memorial

Lower Swell's war memorial stands on the small green at the heart of the village, a mile west of Stow-on-the-Wold. It is a flaming urn on a square stone pedestal, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect of the Cenotaph in Whitehall, and unveiled on 31 July 1921. It is listed Grade II.

History

Lutyens designed 58 war memorials at home and abroad after the First World War, and Historic England assumes the commission came through Mark Fenwick, who had bought the Abbotswood estate on the far side of the river in about 1901 and for whom Lutyens remodelled and enlarged the house in 1902. Historic England, the Imperial War Museums' War Memorials Register and the Victoria County History all name Lutyens as the designer.

Unveiling and after

Colonel Brooke DSO of the Grenadier Guards unveiled the memorial on 31 July 1921. After the Second World War the parish added its dates and the dead of that war, and turned the inscription's "great war" into "great wars" by adding a final S, one of many small changes villages made to their memorials then.

What to see

The memorial is a bulbous urn with carved flames rising from it, on a square pedestal of limestone ashlar set on a shallow base of three steps.

• On the south-west face, the inscription: in memory of the men of Nether Swell who gave their lives in the great wars, with the added S
• On the south-east and north-west faces, the years of both wars in Roman numerals
• On the north-east face, the names: nine men of the First World War and two of the Second, as the Imperial War Museums' register records

The village grew in an L along the main road and a road running south, and the green is drained by a culverted stream, with the village hall of 1912 beside it on the site of the old pound. Close by, Rosemary Cottage and the wall and conduit head to the west of it are listed too.

Visiting

The memorial is on the open green, free and open at all times. Please be respectful of the green and of any wreaths laid there.

Getting there

Lower Swell is on the B4068 a mile west of Stow. Parking is easiest in Stow, at the Maugersbury Road car park (GL54 1HH, charged); Pulhams bus 801 serves Stow about hourly every day, with a shorter day on Sundays. On foot, the Stow and Lower Swell walk comes up Mill Lane from Hyde Mill to the green and goes on to the church, 3.6 miles (5.8km) round from Stow.

Nearby

A few steps away is the Norman church of St Mary, with its Tree of Life doorway, and on the road towards Stow the Pineapple Spa of 1807. In Stow are St Edward's Church, the Old Bakery Tearoom and the Old Stocks Inn. For another village memorial in the North Cotswolds, see the war memorial at Bourton-on-the-Water.