PLANS for listed building work on Wiveliscombe’s two war memorials have been put forward after two years of discussions by town councillors.

The council wants to renew the lettering on the grade two listed monument which stands in the churchyard of St Andrew’s Church and commemorates the loss of 55 men from the parish during the First World War.

It also wants to clean and repair the obelisk and drinking fountain war memorial in Wiveliscombe Recreation Ground, in West Street.

Councillors have discussed their plans with the local branch of the Royal British Legion, which is responsible for the annual Remembrance Day events.

The churchyard memorial takes the form of a Celtic cross on a square shaft mounted on a three-stepped octagonal base and is carved from Cornish granite.

The centre of the crosshead has a carved representation of the Crucifixion and the base of the shaft has a relief carving of a crown and a laurel wreath, the emblem of victory.

The war memorial was unveiled and dedicated by Colonel Braithwaite and the Bishop of Taunton in 1920, and at the same time two stone memorial tablets inscribed with the names, ranks, and regiments of the fallen were also erected in the church.

It was listed in 2016 partly because of its historic interest as an ‘eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on this community, and the sacrifice it made in the conflicts of the 20th century’.

The lettering to be renewed reads: “They whom this cross commemorates are numbered among those who at the call of King and country left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men, by the path of duty and self sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those who come after see to it that they be not forgotten.”

The memorial in the recreation ground also received a grade two listing in 2016 and is made of coursed, rusticated, old red sandstone which was quarried a mile from Wiveliscombe, in Ford.

The monument, on the roadside boundary of the recreation ground, stands on a two-stage stepped base and a tin containing contemporary objects is buried beneath it.

It was paid for by public subscription which raised £1,500 to fund the purchase of the land for the recreation ground and was dedicated a week before the churchyard memorial cross, with the drinking fountain added a year later.

The town council’s planning applications will be determined by Somerset Council, which is asking for any public comments to be received by Friday, November 15.

In Wellington, councillors commissioned the cleaning of the town’s Cornish granite war memorial standing in Wellington Park to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of ‘The Great War’ in 2018.

As part of the same anniversary project, the councillors also oversaw the installation of a fourth bronze plaque which contained previously missing names of the parish’s fallen from both world wars.