Building Name

Skipton War Memorial, High Street, Skipton

Date
1920 - 1922
Street
High Street
District/Town
Skipton
County/Country
Yorkshire, England
Work
War Memorial

Over 370 Skipton men lost their lives in the 1914 18 war. At a meeting on 22 March 1920 the selection of a War Memorial Monument was made by the town's War Memorial Committee; John Cassidy was commissioned to execute and erect the Monument at a cost not exceeding £3,000. The monument was unveiled on 8 April 1922. The triangular limestone pillar, about 20 feet high, carries a bronze figure of 'Winged Victory' and at the base is a nude man modelled in the act of breaking a sword.

A fine shaft of triangular section has been designed by Mr J H Sellers. On the top of this is a flying figure holding a wreath and at the foot a man kneeling and breaking a sword. This is, both in conception and modelling, the best of the finished works exhibited. {Manchester Guardian 25 November  1920]

James Henry Sellers designed a number of memorials in which a stone column is topped by a winged victory, such as those at Mere, Cheshire (since destroyed) and Failsworth, Lancashire. His design for Skipton is the largest of his memorials located so far, and the most complex in the development of its Neo Classical geometric form, from its tri-lobe base to the three sided shaft with dished faces and fluted angles.  It is also the only one of his column memorials located so far to incorporate an additional and significant sculpture, Cassidy's figure of a man breaking a sword.

Reference    Stuart Evans of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London