Brief History of Cheadle's War Memorial
The first public memorial in Cheadle took the form of a printed Roll of Honour, which was unveiled in July 1919 as part of the town’s official Peace Celebrations. It was funded by the Masefield family and was outside the indoor market on the High Street.
​
Earlier that year, a committee had been formed to decide how the Cheadle men who had died in the Great War, would be commemorated. It was quickly decided that a recreation ground would be established, in which there would be a War Memorial. Donations were collected from the public and the Memorial Recreation Ground on Tean Road, was opened in September 1919.
​
The war memorial took longer to implement and was unveiled in 1921, the names of the fallen provided by the public. Rather controversially, the memorial incorporated a captured German machine gun.
Only two years later it was deemed that the memorial looked in a tired state, so it was decided that the names of the fallen would be transferred to metal plates. These were then fixed to the recreation ground entrance.
​​
The current memorial was unveiled in November 1949 following World War II. The plates bearing the Great War dead were incorporated into it and the names of the men killed in that war added.
​