Radcliffe War Memorial and the Old Town Hall

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 8 Nov 2020

The town hall was built in 1911 on the junction of Water Street and Spring Lane. It had a large council chamber with a public gallery on the first floor, along with four committee rooms; it formed the public administrative centre for the district for some time. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the town’s urban district status was abolished and in April 1974 Radcliffe became an unparished area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury. The town hall stood empty for many years until, in 1999 after extensive renovation, the building was converted to self-contained one-bedroom flats of various sizes to provide private accommodation for 10 single homeless people. The town’s war memorial stands in a small memorial garden, opposite the former town hall. First unveiled on 26 November 1922, it takes the form of an obelisk which rises to 35 feet above street level. The obelisk is mounted on a plinth set on a square raised terrace with surrounding walls and steps to Blackburn Street. The four main faces of the pedestal have large square bronze panels containing in relief 642 names of the fallen of 1914-1918; the narrow re-entrant sides have matching rectangular panels of names headed 1939-1945 (see Roll of Honour http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Lancashire/Radcliffe.html for a list). The memorial is designated as a Grade II* Listed Building by English Heritage (Historic England List Entry Number: 1067192 https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1067192).

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