THE PROJECT
THE HISTORY
THE SURVEY
LOCATIONS
Update
Hello all, this project is still open but is currently hibernating. We would love to complete it, but this is very dependent on time and whether we can secure additional funding to pursue it.
Thanks to everyone who has been involved, including those who still are, and all those who visit and comment or share, it has so far been a terrific success, we hope to extend that in the future.
In the meantime we fully intend to keep the site live in its current form, and are still taking any info you have with a view to one day finishing the database as time allows.
Nick & Tim. April 2023.
Recent marker reports
Coleshill – All Saints Church, Oxfordshire.
Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie Location: All Saints Church, Coleshill, Oxfordshire. Postcode: SN6 7PT Coleshill is a small village sat on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border, owned by the National Trust. For over 500 years, it was owned by one family, the Pleydell family....
Lansdown – Christchurch, Gloucestershire
10th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment Location: Christchurch Lansdown Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL50 2JH Details on cross: RIP OFFICERS NCO AND MEN 10TH BATTN GLOSTER REGT KILLED IN ACTION HIGH WOOD AREA AUGUST & SEPTEMBER 1916 Text type: Black hand painted...
Winterton-on-Sea – Holy Trinity & All Saints, Norfolk
Arthur Perceval Green Location: The Parish Church of the Holy Trinity and All Saints Winterton-on-Sea Norfolk NR29 4GN Details on cross: LIEUT. A P GREEN. 7th NORFOLK REGT Killed in Action Aged 22...
Flore – All Saints, Northamptonshire
Bruce Lorence Capell Location: All Saints Church Flore Northamptonshire NN7 4LZ Details on cross: Cross is heavily built and has side supports at 45 degree angles. In Loving Memory of Bruce Lorence Capell 2nd Lt (MC) 2/1 North Midland (Staffs) R.G.A....
Nackington – St Mary the Virgin, Kent
Brothers William & Charles Chapman Location: St Mary the Virgin Church. Nackington, Canterbury Kent. CT4 7AD Details on the Cross: There are actually two crosses, located next to each other on the wall, through the church, turn right and located beside the 2nd...
Sotterley – St. Margaret, Suffolk
Seymour and Miles Barne Access to the church is by walking about half to 3/4 of a mile across the Estate lands, no direct vehicular access to the Church, on a private estate. Car parking is literally on the side of the road, cross a stile and follow painted black...
Shamley Green – Christ church, Surrey
Cyril A.G.Hodgson Location: Christ Church, Church Hill Shamley Green Guildford Surrey GU5 0UD Details on cross: The simple cross is situated outside the church to the East of the main South door. It is formed of a cross with a ‘roof’ for protection. The ‘roof’ is...
Arngask Old Parish Churchyard, Glenfarg, Perthshire
George McArthur Location: Arngask Old Parish Churchyard, Glenfarg. Perthshire, Scotland PH2 9QA Details on cross: (Trooper George) McArthur Guards Plaque on stone base reads: ORIGINAL CROSS ERECTED IN MEMORY OF 3545 TROOPER GEORGE McARTHUR 1st LIFE GUARDS KILLEDIN...
On the blog
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About the project
Wooden Battlefield Crosses and grave markers exist all across Great Britain and indeed across the world. You can find them in churches, memorial halls, chapels, museums and private dwellings. Although various lists exist there is no definitive study of them; the available information is often buried in collections of other memorials. These are deeply personal connections with the people involved in the conflict and form a direct link to the families, loved ones and communities who were left behind.
The aim of this project is to try and provide an online resource which creates a place to find the information about these curious objects, where they exist, how to access them and what they meant a century ago, how they continue to be part of the communities they still exist in and how people continue to engage and respond to them as a link the link to First World War.
Ultimately the intention is to list every single battlefield cross or wooden grave marker returned from the lines in Europe to Great Britain after the war ended. The website will hopefully provide a resource that will give everyone access to information on as many of the locations and as much detail as possible about the stories surrounding the people whose graves they marked in France and their symbolic return to the people they left behind.
We need your help…
You can send us information on your local wooden crosses and battlefield markers, whether it be your own photos, photos you have permission to use from a local archive, details of the building and how the marker has become part of the story of it. We also need your research on the soldiers, their life and service, their families, the incidents surrounding their death and the eventual return of the grave marker to Britain and back to the community where the person came from.
We have provided an easy guide to help you to survey, photograph and research these sites and a rough but growing list of locations which we will hopefully be building on as more information comes to light. We will also be putting together an online guide looking at how and where to research the stories of the men these crosses are named for and how you might be able to look into the story behind them to build an online collection which everyone can use to explore these fascinating memorials.
Contact us
Have you done a survey or do you fancy having a go at one? Maybe you aren’t sure what to do or maybe you have already completed some research on a battlefield cross you’d like to add to the project or share via the website.
Perhaps you think you may have something nobody has seen in nearly a century in your loft or shed? Let us know.
Please send us an email to info@thereturned.co.uk
