Chalk Cross War Memorial on Downs above Lenham - geograph

The Lenham Cross is a

chalk cross Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

carved into the hillside to the north of

Lenham Lenham is a market village and civil parish in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, east of Maidstone. The picturesque square in the village has two public houses (one of which is a hotel), a couple of restaurants, and a tea ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, in England. The

Latin cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a ...

is high with arms wide. It was designed by Mr C H Groom, the headmaster of the village school, as a First World War memorial. It was created in a field on the south-facing slopes of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills ...

, close to the

Pilgrim's Way The Pilgrims' Way (also Pilgrim's Way or Pilgrims Way) is the historical route supposedly taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent. This name, of comparatively recent co ...

, by volunteers from the village, and unveiled in by Major General Sir Arthur Lynden-Bell, who had served as an officer with the

Buffs (East Kent Regiment) The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and ...

in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

and on the general staff in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

. The cross was filled in during the Second World War to prevent it being used as a navigation aid by the German

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

. It became a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in 2017. A dedicatory stone of rough-hewn granite was sited in an enclosure with steps and railings at the south end of the cross, beside the Pilgrim's Way, with a smooth face inscribed by the names of 42 men of the parish who were killed during the First World War. A smaller stone listing 14 more names was added after the Second Would War. The memorial stone was moved in 1960 to stand beside St Mary's Church, Lenham, about south west of its original location. A bench and plaque were added to the original memorial enclosure in 1977, donated by the Ashford branch of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Association.

References

'The Cross': a hill-figure war memorial at Lenham
National Heritage List for England, Historic England
Lenham Cross
War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museums
Lenham - WW1 and WW2
War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museums
Lenham Cross
War Memorials Online {{coord, 51.2424, 0.7291, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Hill figures in England Listed buildings in Kent History of Kent Monuments and memorials in Kent World War I memorials in England 1922 works

See also

References