Surveying and recording the hidden memorials of the Great War in the Waveney area

In the years immediately following the First World War a massive programme of memorial building took place across the whole of England. In almost every parish in the country stone monuments, graveyard memorials and obelisks inscribed with the names of the fallen were erected to commemorate the losses that the parish had suffered.

Today it is these memorials that remain the focus for all annual commemorations. However, these stone monuments formed only one part of the process of commemoration that took place in the post-war years. Alongside these formal reminders to the fallen were many hundreds of more discrete and personal memorials to the losses suffered by these communities. These memorials could take many forms; from the rededication of a local amenity, such as a village hall, to the keeping of a Roll of Honour or ‘Flanders Cross’ within the parish church. Many of these less formal memorials now lie overlooked and unrecorded, with their significance forgotten to the wider population, and their removal and loss remains a very real threat.

About the project

This aim is to survey and record these ‘hidden’ memorials in the Waveney area, bringing them to wider attention, and preserving this truly hidden history of commemoration. The project aims to share the information gathered with a variety of groups. The digital archive will be made freely available through this website, and as a permanent record it will be accessible to academics, professionals and those with a legal responsibility for the care of these monuments, potentially safeguarding them for the future.

Our stories

Private Pook

Private Pook

Beatrice Watling was born at the City Maternity Home, North Heigham in Norwich in 1882. She grew up in Fritton in South Norfolk, one of five daughters and two sons of Thomas and Emma Watling. In 1901 she was working as a nurse domestic in Norwich. Ten years later she...

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Lieutenant Flowerdew VC at Moreuil Wood – The Fog of War

Lieutenant Flowerdew VC at Moreuil Wood – The Fog of War

Gordon Muriel Flowerdew was born near Scole in South Norfolk on January 2nd 1885, the son of Arthur and Hannah Flowerdew of Billingford Hall. One of ten sons and four daughters, he, like all his brothers, was sent to Framlingahm College which he attended from 1894 to...

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Herbert Garnham and the Burston School Strike

Herbert Garnham and the Burston School Strike

Herbert Garnham was born in Burston early in 1891, one of twelve children of Henry and Sarah Garnham. There are a lot of gaps in Herbert's story. With luck we'll be able to fill some of them in in time. The 1911 census found Herbert, then aged 20, living at home with...

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A Thankful Village

A Thankful Village

St Michael South Elmham church stands on the edge of a large green about one mile north of Rumburgh in Suffolk. Inside the church on a wall behind the font there is a simple plaque. This simple plaque marks out the village as having a very rare distinction, one shared...

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Events

Standing Building Recording – June 28th

Standing Building Recording – June 28th

We're holding our first Standing Building Recording training day on June 28th. The day will be split into two sessions, the theory side in the morning and a practical session in the afternoon. This course is part of our Hidden Commemoration project training but the...

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Events page

Events page

This is the Hidden Commemoration Events page we will add any events here held by either The Hidden Commemoration project, Waveney Valley Community Archaeology Group (WVCAG) or other groups and organisations in the area that might be of interest or that relate to the...

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