In the early years of the First World War, in some areas of England the people created ‘Street Shrines’, framed boards recording the names of the men of the street or neighbourhood who had joined the armed forces.
The shrines seem mainly to have been confined to London’s East End, and Hull and Beverley in Yorkshire, and were created by working class communities.
The ‘shrine’ was the combination of frame and roll that recorded the names of those serving, and not (a common misconception) those who had been killed.
Women left flowers and messages for their absent menfolk, and some photographs exist of women kneeling in front of the shrines.
Beverley had six street shrines. Although some people will tell you there were once more, these are the only ones that we can be sure existed, either because they were still there in 2014, or from newspaper accounts.
Very few street shrines have survived anywhere.
The first to be unveiled in Beverley was for the men of Beckside and Flemingate, on 21 October 1916.
This was followed by other shrines for St Andrew Street, Flemingate north of the railway, & Lurk Lane (11 November 1916); Holme Church Lane (25 November 1916); Grovehill Road and District (17 March 1917); and Norwood (23 June 1917). The Keldgate shrine is a metal plaque and is unlike the other more insubstantial shrines: it was unveiled after the war was over, in October 1919. There was and is still a street shrine for Molescroft, unveiled December 1916, which is now in Molescroft Pavilion.
In 2014, in connection with the commemoration of the First World War, Beverley Town Council decided to restore the existing street shrines, and to replace those missing for which there was evidence.
The Council was successful in obtaining a Heritage Lottery Fund grant for part of the work, and other money was provided from the Council’s budget.
Of the three shrines still on the walls in 2014, the bronze tablet in Keldgate needed no restoration. The other two, in Norwood and Holme Church Lane, were fragile cards held behind dulled glass: these have been taken to the Treasure House, and replaced by weatherproof replicas.
Three further rolls were recreated from the records of contemporary newspapers: this work was done by the Hull company R&R from designs by the Beverley company Print+Design.
War Memorials to the dead of two World Wars exist in many many places: but street shrines (for the serving men and not the dead) are now very rare. Beverley, now with six street shrines, has a unique collection.
Beverley Town Council has now finished the Street Shrine project, with the newly re-created Street Shrines being erected this week on Norwood, Holme Church, St Andrew Street/ Flemingate corner, Grovehill Road/Priory Road corner and Crane Hill Wharf.
The Mayor of Beverley, Cllr Paul McGrath said: “The Street Shrines project has been very interesting and informative, about what happened to the people of Beverley during the WW1.
“The Heritage Lottery grant enabled the Town Council along with local volunteers to bring the history back to the streets of Beverley, as the re-created Street Shrines are erected in places that they would have been located originally.”