The monument in Anfield Cemetery has been cordoned off to visitors for months after deterioration meant it was deemed unsafe
Work to restore a historic Liverpool war memorial in one of the city’s largest cemeteries is to be completed in time for this year’s Remembrance services. Grade II listed Anfield Cemetery on Priory Road is roughly 110 acres with a French design, by Edward Kemp.
Opened in 1863, the cemetery has three chapels and entrances, designed by the Liverpool architects Lucy and Littler. Back when it was known as the Liverpool Corporation, the city council built a Blitz memorial at a cost of £4,400 in 1951.
It was proposed by Alderman Alfred Ernest Shennan, who also designed the Abbey Cinema in Wavertree. However, the monument has been cordoned off to visitors for months after deterioration meant it was deemed unsafe.
Now, Liverpool City Council has said it hopes to complete renovations in time to mark the annual Remembrance Day services in November. When it was first built, the memorial read: “Erected by the citizens of Liverpool to the memory of all those who gave their lives during the attacks from the air upon the city whom five hundred and fifty four are buried in this communal grave 1939-1945.”
In 1949, city architect Dr Ronald Bradbury was instructed to invite tenders for the work which the Liverpool Daily Post said presented a problem.
It said: “Existing conditions in the cemetery surrounding the communal grave, which is extremely long and narrow, limit the form the memorial can take.”
The communal grave is 170 feet long and three feet wide. A friends group working alongside the city council wants to restore the memorial to its former glory.
Friends of Anfield Cemetery helps to preserve the history around the site and the stories of those laid to rest within. Last summer, Alan Sheldon, Liverpool Council’s head of bereavement services, said around £50,000 would be spent to reimagine the site.
Mr Sheldon said there were also plans to line the memorial with poppies, a symbol of remembrance. It is understood around 370 of the bodies in the communal grave have been identified over time, with more than 100 unaccounted for.
Because of the nature of the damage over the last two decades, the memorial is to be replaced.
A Liverpool City Council spokesperson said: “We will be starting work shortly, with ground works and landscaping taking place over the next few months.
“The aim is to have the memorial ready for commemorations this November.
“There has been an extensive lead in period due to the time taken to produce the granite memorial.”
