1,297 men and women from Cheltenham were killed in the Great War (WWI).
Following soldiers’ deaths on the battlefields, they were generally buried in shallow graves close to where they fell and these were often marked by their comrades fashioning crude wooden crosses made from whatever materials came to hand.
Following the war, the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) exhumed the bodies and reburied them with new headstones marking each grave in some 2,400 cemeteries close to the battlefields of France and Belgium.
The original wooden crosses were then sent home to the soldiers’ next of kin.
Many families were not sure what to do with the crosses. But in Cheltenham, the Council created a corner of the Bouncers Lane cemetery to house them and, eventually, ‘Soldiers Corner’ became home to 230 crosses.
Out in the open for the next 100 years, the crosses took the brunt of the weather and 90% of them simply disintegrated as a result of long-term environmental, physical and biological damage.
In 2018, CCS member, Freddie Gick, became concerned by the poor state of the remaining Battlefield Crosses – 22 individual crosses and one other cross that in total commemorate 31 soldiers.
So he then instigated a campaign to have the crosses conserved and then housed in a permanent exhibition.
In the name of Cheltenham Civic Society (CCS), he sought funding and CCS was granted £9,800 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to have the crosses conserved by Artefacts Conservation Services in Surrey.
Working with local historians, principally Neela Mann, the Society also involved the students of Pittville School in researching the lives of the soldiers that the individual crosses commemorated.
The students worked with their teacher, Hannah Taylor, to research the stories behind the crosses. They were supported by a helpful presentation by Stephen Umbleby of the Artefacts Conservation Society and guidance by Neela Mann.
The investigations by the students of Pittville School brought the soldiers’ stories to life and provided much of the content of a booklet about the project that you can download from this website. This booklet also tells how the crosses were conserved by Artefacts Conservation Services.
Following the research and conservation stages of the project, progress was brought to a halt in early 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic and the crosses were put into storage at the cemetery.
In 2013, after the pandemic, Cheltenham Borough Council identified a former gravediggers’ hut in the cemetery, which would be suitable for conversion into a small museum to permanently exhibit the crosses.
CCS trustees, Steve Bryson and Sarah Harvey, then planned the exhibition, and worked with CCS member, Colin Smith, to raise the necessary funds.
Colin’s efforts succeeded in raising more than £14,000, which in 2024 enabled the CCS team – together with numerous volunteers – to organise and manage all the work necessary to create a unique, dedicated museum for what is, we learnt, the UK’s largest collection of WWI battlefield crosses.
First, the brick-built hut needed to be properly damp-proofed. Being far from an electricity supply, it was then fitted with a solar panel and storage battery to power low energy lighting switched on when the movement of visitors triggered a sensor.
Other repairs to the hut’s fabric were made and then, once dried out, the whole hut was redecorated.
All of the crosses were then hung alongside information boards and details of the soldiers commemorated by their crosses. External signage was installed together with a life-sized WWI soldier silhouette next to the door. Smaller ‘silent soldiers’ were also installed to guide visitors along the route to the new museum.
Then, on 13th September 2024, the museum was opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Edward Gillespie. More than 80 people attended the opening, including many of those who donated money or had volunteered their services to help repair and decorate the building.
After the opening, the cemetery also helped to improve the area in front of the museum, including sponsorship of the local muralist ‘Danksy’ to paint an ugly utility box with an artwork depicting poppies and soldiers on the battlefields of France and Belgium.
In 2025, Colin Smith managed to secure sponsorship from the local funeral service, Mason & Stokes, for a museum website. He also persuaded the town’s leading engineering group, Spirax, to sponsor the museum’s maintenance and promotion.
Local web developer, Phil Daniels of thinwhite, created the website for the museum, which told the story of the crosses’ conservation and the creation of the museum. The website also re-published the individual stories of the soldiers which had originally been researched by the students of Pittville School.
https://cheltenham-battlefield-crosses.org
The individual soldier stories enabled CCS to enhance the museum’s visitor experience by adding QR codes next to the names of each soldier. This feature allows visitors to look up a soldier’s story while standing in front of his cross.
Just being in the presence of these crosses is a deeply moving experience, They allow us to come within a heartbeat of the young soldiers they commemorate.
We think the museum will attract many visitors in years to come, and younger generations will learn much from the experience. We’ve already seen floral tributes being laid outside the building on Armistice Day, so we would not be surprised if the museum becomes a regular focal point for such memorials.
