For a small Warwickshire village, Berkswell paid a high price in terms of the young men it lost during the Great War, 1914-18.
Over thirty men died in the conflict and it was to honour their sacrifice that the village came together to erect a simple but evocative war memorial in the churchyard of St John Baptist, some 100 years ago.
Time has taken its toll on the sandstone structure with the roof and some of the walls badly affected by water ingress.
In 2024, The war Memorial Collaboration Agreement was signed by the Parish Council, the Berkswell Society, St John Baptist Church and Berkswell Charities to raise funds to restore the building.
And without generous public donations and with grants from both the HS2 Community Fund and the War Memorial Trust, the restoration would neither have been started or completed.
To celebrate the restoration completion, a service, organised by Berkswell and Balsall Parish Councils, was held at the Memorial with representatives from all the donors and public present, at 11.30am on Friday 15th August 2025. The day also marks VJ Day – victory over Japan which effectively ended the second World War.
Each November, at the closest Sunday to the eleventh, the Rector of St John Baptist conducts a Remembrance service where the names of every local man who died in both World Wars are read out while children from Berkswell School, Brownies, Beavers and Scouts place wooden crosses in front of the memorial. It is a simple but poignant service honouring those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
