Conservation

Leicestershire County Council has been offering free, tailored conservation advice to war memorial custodians for over 20 years, and has contributed to the restoration of many war memorials through conservation grant schemes.

Looking after local war memorials

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Get in touch if you would like us to inspect your memorial to discuss its condition. Failed pointing (mortar in the joints), legibility of inscriptions, and surface dirt are the most common maintenance issues, and we can advise on a case-by-case basis on the most sympathetic way forward. Contact warmemorials@leics.gov.uk for further advice.

Specifying and getting quotes for work

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We can help you produce a list of maintenance or conservation issues that need to be addressed, so that you can approach qualified contractors to get quotes. These need to be contractors with a good track record in dealing with historic structures, materials, and decorative elements. Most war memorials are around 100 years old, and as historic monuments they need specialist care. Contact warmemorials@leics.gov.uk for help.

Funding war memorial conservation

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We can also offer advice about funding war memorial repair and conservation. Our War Memorials Conservation Grant Scheme unfortunately ended in 2020, due to financial constraints brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Other sources of funding maybe available via the War Memorials Trust (see www.warmemorials.org.uk ) and your local council Conservation Officer may be able to advise further on the availability of any other sources of potential funding.

Case Studies

Tilton on the Hill

We were delighted to help with the conservation of Tilton on the Hill war memorial. This involved reinstating a protective gravel surround, reducing the lean, cleaning, repointing, and repainting the inscription of the memorial.

Woodhouse

We were able to help Woodhouse with decisions about the list of names on the memorial by uncovering original evidence for the village’s criteria. The memorial was repointed, cleaned, some work done to reduce scratches on the slate plaques, and the spelling of a WW2 casualty’s name was corrected.

Thrussington

Thrussington war memorial required some cleaning, repointing with lime mortar, regilding in the inscriptions and the surrounding posts had to be re-cast after they were found to be crumbling and unsafe. We were happy to be able to advise and to give a conservation grant.

Houghton on the Hill

Houghton on the Hill was one of the War Memorials Project's earliest grant recipients. It needed to be cleaned of the dirt caused by its location on a village road junction. This required some skillful work to preserve the inscription, parts of which are carved in relief.

Ashby de la Zouch

The memorial was in need of specialist cleaning and repointing. It is unusual for not bearing any names, but also for having a decorative inscription carved in relief.

Edmondthorpe

This memorial needed some stonework repair, repointing, and cleaning. Delicate inscriptions on one particular face were left rather than re-cut, to preserve the original stone.