Monuments and Memorials

Weston Park contains 7 Grade II listed structures all of which provide a fascinating glimpse into Sheffield’s past. Here are just a few of the interesting features within the park.

 

 

 

Ebenezer Elliott was born in Masborough, Rotherham in 1781, and started writing poetry whilst working in the iron foundries. In his lifetime he wrote 315 poems. His great passion in life was to expose the injustice of the 1804 Corn Laws. Laws which put a tax on food and brought even more hardship and poverty to the poor of the country.

 

Owing to much of his poetry being written about the Corn Laws, he was nicknamed the ‘Paupers Poet’, and his poems were known from then on as the ‘Corn Law Rhymes’.

 

Following his death in 1849, a public collection raised £600 to commission a statue, which shows Ebenezer sitting on one of his favourite rocks in the Rivelin Valley.

 

 

 

Godfrey Sykes was one of the first people to enrol at the newly opened Sheffield School of Art in 1843. Here he learnt all elements of design work, and went from being a leading pupil to Assistant Headmaster in 1856.

 

In 1854 Sykes was commissioned to design a frieze, 60 feet long and made up of 13 panels for the Sheffield Mechanics Institute, showing a procession reminiscent of the Elgin Marbles, in which deities and everyday figures such as steelworkers, miners etc where combined. 

 

In 1859 he moved to London where he supervised the decorative design of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

 

The memorial to Godfrey Sykes was designed by one of his fellow students, James Gamble. It was erected in 1875, and consists of a stone base with bronze panels containing inscriptions, relief’s of the artists’ working tools and a portrait of Sykes himself.

 

The column is made of carved terracotta and depicts youth, maturity and old age.

 

 

There are two war memorials in Weston Park the first being the Transvaal War Memorial, commemorating the Boer War (1899-1902). This was moved to Weston Park in 1957 from its original site on the forecourt of the Sheffield Cathedral.

 

The main Yorkshire and Lancashire War Memorial was unveiled in 1923 in memory of 8,800 soldiers who died in World War 1. A later inscription records the death of 1,222 soldiers in World War 2.

 

This is the only surviving Victorian Bandstand in a Sheffield park. It is listed by English Heritage and was designed in 1874 by the Sheffield architects, Flockton and Gibbs. It was built around 1900, and was paid for from the profits of the electric tramways.

 

The Bandstand was made at a foundry in Glasgow as one of a pair for Sheffield parks, the other being for Hillsborough Park (no longer in existence).

 

Its most interesting feature is the retractable sash windows, which drop down below the floor. This unusual feature, as well as giving shelter to musicians, helps to project the sound from their instruments.

 

The Bandstand was in use until the mid 1970’s and has been one of the main structural projects in the restoration of Weston Park. The bandstand has been fully restored and is now back in use.