The war memorial was unveiled in March 1921, originally dedicated to the town’s dead of the First World War (1914-1918), the memorial was subsequently also dedicated to those who died in the Second World War (1939-1945).
It was designed by a local company, Messrs Holbrook & Co, and built jointly by the Council and local tradesmen. The memorial is in the form of an obelisk and plinth sculpted in Italian marble and standing on a two stepped base of Whatstandwell (Derbyshire) stone. The memorial, including the cobblestones were originally sited on a plot of land near to the Cemetery Chapel off Church Street (approximately 1 km away), but was moved to its present, more prominent location at the junction of Plumtree Way and Nottingham Road in 1978. The area around the memorial is laid with cobblestones, it is surrounded by metal railings and to its rear is a low brick wall.
The front of the obelisk has a carved wreath and the front of the plinth is carved with a crossed rifle, sword and standard and inscribed with “ERECTED IN PROUD AND GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE MEN OF EASTWOOD, WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918, AND WORLD WAR 1939-1945.THE MEN WERE VERY GOOD UNTO US, AND WE WERE NOT HURT. THEY WERE A WALL UNTO US, BOTH BY NIGHT AND BY DAY.1 SAMUEL, CHAP 25, VERSES 15 & 16.”
The other faces of the plinth are inscribed with the names of the dead from the two World Wars; 81 names of the men who died in the First World War and 20 names of the men who died in the Second World War. A further 62 names for the First World War are commemorated on new wall plaques behind the obelisk. Amongst the names is that of a soldier who served with the Yorkshire Regiment.
More details about the names of those commemorated on the memorial can be found on Nottinghamshire County Council website:
Eastwood – Nottingham Road (nottinghamshire.gov.uk)
Eastwood – Nottingham Road (2010 additions) (nottinghamshire.gov.uk)
Information taken from Historic England Website War Memorial at Plumptree Way, Eastwood – 1391721 | Historic England