A replica Eleanor Cross was erected in

Sledmere Sledmere is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, about north-west of Driffield on the B1253 road. The village lies in a civil parish which is also officially called "Sledmere" by the Office for National Statistics, although th ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, in 1896–98. The tall stone structure was constructed by the

Sykes family of Sledmere The Sykes family of Sledmere own Sledmere House in Yorkshire, England. Family history The Sykes family settled in Sykes Dyke near Carlisle in Cumberland during the Middle Ages. The earliest correspondence in the Sykes archives relates to Richa ...

. Engraved

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the paveme ...

es were added after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, converting the cross into a war memorial.

Village cross

The high cross was commissioned by

Sir Tatton Sykes, 5th Baronet Sir Tatton Sykes, 5th Baronet (13 March 1826 – 4 May 1913) was an English landowner, racehorse breeder, church-builder and eccentric. ''Includes substantial section on 5th baronet'' He was the elder son of Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet and M ...

(1826–1913). His wealthy merchant family had moved to Sledmere in the early 18th century and resided at

Sledmere House Sledmere House is a Grade I listed Georgian country house, containing Chippendale, Sheraton and French furnishings and many fine pictures, set within a park designed by Capability Brown. It is located in the village of Sledmere, between Driffi ...

The cross was designed by the architect Temple Lushington Moore, as a village cross, closely modelled on the 13th-century

Eleanor cross The Eleanor crosses were a series of twelve tall and lavishly decorated stone monuments topped with crosses erected in a line down part of the east of England. King Edward I had them built between 1291 and about 1295 in memory of his beloved wi ...

at Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, with two square tiers on two octagonal tiers, standing on a base with eight steps and a plinth that is inscribed with the words of the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

. It was built from limestone

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

s by the stonemasons Thompsons of Peterborough, with ornamental carving by John Barker of Kennington, and erected at the west side of the village, near the Church of St Mary, part of the

Sykes Churches Trail The Sykes Churches Trail is a tour of East Yorkshire churches which were built, rebuilt or restored by the Sykes family of Sledmere House in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The tour was devised by the East Yorkshire Historic Churches Group ...

. The first tier has blind tracery panels separated by pillars with pinnacles, standing on a moulded base, with sixteen carved heraldic shields, representing the arms of England,

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-east ...

Beverley Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...

, the Holy Trinity, the See of York, Archbishop

William Maclagan William Dalrymple Maclagan (18 June 1826 – 19 September 1910) was Archbishop of York from 1891 to 1908, when he resigned his office, and was succeeded in 1909 by Cosmo Gordon Lang, later Archbishop of Canterbury. As Archbishop of York, Macla ...

, a Gallic cock, and the arms of families related to the Sykes family. Between the first and second tier is a band with carved flowers and animals. The second tier has four canopied open niches, each containing a different statue of Queen Eleanor designed by Moore; traces remain to indicate that these statues were originally painted. The third stage has four blind tracery panels. The fourth tier of the cross in Hardingstone has been missing for many centuries, so Moore created his own design for the top tier of the cross in Sledmere, with four closed niches each housing a statue of the Virgin Mary. The cross is topped by a stone pinnacle and a jewelled bronze crucifix.

War memorial

The cross was redesigned as a war memorial in 1918 by Lt Col

Sir Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet Colonel Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes, 6th Baronet (16 March 1879 – 16 February 1919) was an English traveller, Conservative Party politician, and diplomatic advisor, particularly with regard to the Middle East at the time of the First Wo ...

, to commemorate fallen officers of the 5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, the fallen from the Sledmere estate, and two other soldiers known to him, one who served in the 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment and the other in

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI, generally referred to as the Patricia's) is one of the three Regular Force infantry regiments of the Canadian Army of the Canadian Armed Forces. Formed in 1914, it is named for Princess Patrici ...

. Sykes added a bronze crucifix, and 22 engraved

es of the fallen soldiers made by Gawthorp and Sons of London. Some of the soldiers wear modern uniforms, but others (especially the officers) are in a 14th-century or

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style, often presenting the soldiers as knights or with chivalric references. The brasses were installed over a period of time from 1918 onwards, with separate unveiling ceremonies, ultimately filling in seven of the eight blind panels on the first tier of the cross, with one panel left vacant. They vary in size and presentation, with one panel containing six in three rows of two, and others containing one, two or three full-length figures. Sykes attended the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

in 1919 as an expert on the Middle East, as he was a signatory to the 1916

Sykes–Picot Agreement The Sykes–Picot Agreement () was a 1916 secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France, with assent from the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, to define their mutually agreed Sphere of influence, spheres of influence and control in a ...

, but he contracted Spanish flu and died in Paris in February 1919. The villagers of Sledmere commissioned one further figure of Sykes to fill the remaining eighth panel, depicting him as a knight with a shield bearing the Sykes arms and a scroll with the words "LAETARE JERUSALEM" ("Rejoice, Jerusalem"). The figure of Sykes was unveiled on 3 April 1921 at the same time as the last of the other brasses, at a ceremony attended by a

guard of honour A guard of honour ( GB), also honor guard ( US), also ceremonial guard, is a group of people, usually military in nature, appointed to receive or guard a head of state or other dignitaries, the fallen in war, or to attend at state ceremonials, ...

from the 5th Battalion, Green Howards, with which Sykes served in the Second Boer War and of which Sykes was the commanding officer when the First World War broke out in 1914. The ceremony was attended by veterans from the 5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, and members of the Sykes family, including Mark's widow. The figure of Sykes was unveiled by Father

Oswald Smith Oswald may refer to: People *Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name *Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbur ...

, Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey; that of Lt Col James Albert Raymond Thomson, commander of the 5th Battalion in 1918, was unveiled by Colonel Commandant George Dominic Price DSO. It bears an inscription: "THE NAMES INSCRIBED / ON THIS MEMORIAL ARE THOSE / OF OFFICERS AND MEN / OF THE 5 YORKSHIRE REGT / WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES / FOR THEIR KING AND / COUNTRY & THE LIBERTIES / OF MANKIND IN THE YEARS / OF THE GREAT WAR/LET YORKSHIRE MEN / CHERISH THE MEMORIAL/OF THIS HONOURABLE / COMPANY OF CITIZENS / WHO LEFT THEIR PEACE / (...) TO / UPHOLD JUSTICE PROTECT / THE WEAK AND DEFEND / THE RIGHT"; and then lists 24 names. The cross was listed at Grade II in 1966, upgraded to Grade I in 2016.

Other local memorials

The Grade I listed Wagoners' Memorial, designed by Sir Mark Sykes, stands nearby. Some miles away at Cowlam is a tall stone memorial to Sir Tatton Sykes, 4th Baronet. File:Sledmere, Waggoners' Monument.JPG, Wagoners' Memorial File:Sir Tatton Sykes's Monument - geograph.org.uk - 357503.jpg, Sir Tatton Sykes's monument, Cowlam

References

External links

5th. Batt. Yorkshire Rgt. Sledmere WW1 Cross
War Memorials Online
5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment – Sledmere – WW1 Cross
War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museum

{{coord, 54.0692, -0.5825, region:GB-ERY_type:landmark, display=title Grade I listed buildings in the East Riding of Yorkshire Grade I listed monuments and memorials World War I memorials in England Monuments and memorials in England Buildings and structures completed in 1898 British military memorials and cemeteries Monumental crosses in England Sledmere

Village cross

War memorial

Other local memorials

See also

References

Further reading

External links