A Liverpool city centre church is to create a lasting monument to the longest continuous military campaign of WWII.
An application has been made to Liverpool Council by Our Lady and St Nicholas Church on Chapel Street to upgrade its existing memorial ground to install a lasting design to commemorate the Battle of the Atlantic. According to documents submitted to the local authority, a large paved area will be adapted with a feature sandstone retaining wall with Winston Churchill quote engraved into the surface.
A design and access statement sent to the council’s planning department said there will also be a wave design incorporated into the new paving and a map depicting a point in time during the Battle. New, more accessible steps will be built and new sensory planting carried out.
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The existing flag pole will be relocated to the side of the site and other key features such as existing paving stones, Arctic Convoy memorial and Mill stones retained and incorporated into the design layout. The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest, continuing campaign during the Second World War, spanning from September 1939 until the end of the conflict in 1945.
The design statement said the new installation would “provide a suitable setting for this garden of reflection”. The area of the proposed Memorial Garden borders the retaining wall to the existing gardens.
The area was redeveloped in 1993 with the current landscaping scheme, the installation of the flagpole, and the erection of two memorial tablets, which will be maintained, commemorating the Arctic Convoys that were part of the Battle of the Atlantic. The document said: “The initiative and funding is as a result of partnership between Liverpool Parish Church and the Battle of the Atlantic Memorial Trust, with stakeholders including Western Approaches Museum, the Royal Navy, Trinity House, and various Merchant Navy Associations.
“There has been a long term ambition to memorialise the Battle of the Atlantic, and the memorial garden is one aspect of a larger scheme involving the development of a site in Birkenhead, a light installation in Exchange Flags, and an education scheme.”
The design document said the existing space will be redesigned to provide an enclosed garden of tranquillity and reflection. The focal point at its core will show a map depicting a point in time of the battle of the Atlantic and will be surrounded by a stone wave set into the paving.
The garden will be enclosed by a sandstone retaining wall that slopes down to meet ground level and directs the eye to the memorial and then out to views over the river. Perennial planting on the outside of the wall will be raised and cascade over the top, reminiscent of waves breaking on a ship’s hull.
A date for the application to be considered has yet to be determined.
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