Plan to move Herefordshire village's war memorial

The Staunton on Wye war memorial stands alongside the busy A438 between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye, nearly a mile from the centre of the village.

“With the increasing amount of traffic and with the increased popularity of memorial services, it has become increasingly dangerous for those attending,” according to the application by Staunton on Wye parish council for planning permission (number 241497) to move it.

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The parish council is also concerned the memorial could be damaged by exhaust fumes and vibration from the “increasingly heavier” lorries on the road.

It ran an open morning in February to discuss the options for relocating it with residents, nearly a hundred of whom gave the proposal “one hundred per cent support”, the application says.

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A further public meeting was then held in mid-June, setting out the proposed new site and setting for the memorial, a small plot of mown common land at Doctors Pool immediately north of the village’s primary and pre-school.

The proposed new spot for Staunton on Wye's war memorial (Image: Google Street View)

“At the last Remembrance service conducted at the memorial no one could hear the prayers or the epitaph,” the application goes on to explain.

The proposed new spot “would be safer, quieter and would give the primary school an opportunity to become involved in any service”, it adds.

Erected in 1920 to the memory of the fallen in the Great War, the monument consists of a polished granite column topped by an orb and set on a plinth with commemorative bronze plates on three sides.

The monument is grade II listed, its official listing describing it as “elegant and well-executed”. Listed building consent for the proposal (number 241496) must also be granted.

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The parish council has taken on a specialist firm of stonemasons, McMillan and Holder, to manage the work if approved.

A letter from the firm says the paving around the relocated monument would likely be of “natural sandstone or cobbles, sourced locally where possible”.

The stone slabs around its previous spot would be left, though the railings around it would be removed.

Comments on the applications can be made until August 15.