The Shoreham Memorial Cross is a

Christian cross The Christian cross, seen as representing the crucifixion of Jesus, is a religious symbol, symbol of Christianity. It is related to the crucifix, a cross that includes a ''corpus'' (a representation of Jesus' body, usually three-dimensional) a ...

hill figure A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and ...

carved into a

chalk 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 ...

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

above the village of

Shoreham, Kent Shoreham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 5.2 miles north of Sevenoaks. The probable derivation of the name is ''estate at the foot of a steep slope''. Steep slo ...

. The concept of the cross was the idea of a Shoreham man, Samuel Cheeseman, two of whose sons had been killed on active duty during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. It was carved between May and September 1920 on land donated by Francis Mildmay who had also served in the war. In October 2021

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

designated the cross a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

History

The village of Shoreham is located in the Shoreham Valley, an area of undulating and wooded escarpments depicted by the artist

Samuel Palmer Samuel Palmer Hon.RE (Hon. Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers) (27 January 180524 May 1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and p ...

in the 1820s. In 1920 Samuel Cheesman, a local resident, determined to carve out a cross on the hillside to the west of the village, to commemorate two of his sons and the other forty-eight men of Shoreham who had been killed during the

Great War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The site was donated by a local landowner, Francis Mildmay, who cut the first

turf Sod is the upper layer of turf that is harvested for transplanting. Turf consists of a variable thickness of a soil medium that supports a community of turfgrasses. In British and Australian English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', ...

Empire Day Commonwealth Day is the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations, held on the second Monday in March. While the date holds some official status in select Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, member states of the Commonwealth ...

, 24 May 1920. The cross was complete by September 1920. On

Remembrance Sunday Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...

Samuel Cheeseman would drag a small cannon to the cross and fire salvos to mark the beginning and the end of the

Two-minute silence In the United Kingdom and other countries within the Commonwealth, a two-minute silence is observed as part of Remembrance Day to remember those who died in conflict. Held each year at 11:00 am on 11 November, the silence coincides with the ...

. In 1921 the official village war memorial was erected near the bridge over the

River Darenth The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford. ' Darenth' is frequently found as the spelling of the river's name in older books and ...

. The cross is referenced in the inscription on the war memorial, which reads; ‘SHOREHAM / KENT / REMEMBER / AS YOU LOOK / AT / THE CROSS / ON THE HILL / THOSE / WHO GAVE / THEIR LIVES / FOR / THEIR COUNTRY / 1914-1919’. By the early 21st century the sightline from the church to the cross had been blocked by trees, but the view was restored by

felling Felling is the process of cutting down trees,"Feller" def. 2. and "Felling", def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd ed. via CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press. 2009. an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the trees is ...

in 2010.

Description

The cross is cut from the chalk hillside and surrounded by an edging of carved chalk blocks. It is 30m long and 18m wide, the left hand bar being slightly longer than the right to correct the perspective when viewed from the village. In 2021

designated the cross a

. Its listing record describes the cross as "an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on this local community" and notes its near-unique status as a "very rare surviving example of a hillside memorial cross".

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