St Mary’s Churchyard, Marston on Dove, Lych Gate

The story of the memorial lych gate at St Mary’s Church is one of the Great War stories told in a new publication – A Parish Remembers – by R.H. Darlington and R. Sherratt. The book is dedicated to the memory of all the men from the Hilton, Marston-on-Dove and Hoon who gave their lives in the First World War.

The Committee for the proposed War Memorial, chaired by the Reverend Henry William Lamb, M.A., wrote the following:

To the people of Hilton, Marston and Hoon

At a public meeting held at Hilton, on July 14th, it was decided to join with Marston and Hoon in placing a LYCH GATE at the entrance to Marston Churchyard as a Memorial of the Great War. It was further decided that the names of all men of Marston, Hilton and Hoon, who have served in H.M. Regular Forces during the war shall be inscribed on panels inside the Lych Gate.

At a Meeting at Marston on July 21st, Marston and Hoon agreed to the proposals of the Hilton Meeting. We are therefore aiming to carry out this War Memorial, for which purpose it is estimated that a sum of at least £300 will be required.

We have just come through the Greatest War in the World’s History VICTORIOUS and victorious chiefly through the bravery and magnificent deeds of the men of Great Britain. Your fathers, brothers and sons were among them, and their names are to be inscribed on the Memorial as a record to go down to posterity. We implore you not to let this Memorial fall through want of funds.

We are all of us interested in a Lych Gate for, of whatever religious denomination we are, whether Church or Nonconformists, we have all to pass through it to our last resting place. Therefore we appeal to everyone to give and to give freely.”
The residents of Hilton, Hoon and Marston had collected £373 3s.7d. by November 1919. A list was prepared of the men whose names were to be inscribed and by September 1921, the Lych Gate containing the Roll of Honour was in place.

ISBN 978-0-9929356-9-6