Recreating the Rustington War Memorial:

A Story of Craftsmanship and Care

There are some jobs where getting it “close enough” simply isn’t good enough. The Rustington War Memorial, on The Street in West Sussex, was one of them.

Commissioned by Rustington Parish Council, this project asked our stonemasons to do something we take very seriously: give a community back its memorial, stone for stone, letter for letter, exactly as those who built it in the last century intended.

ABOVE: Watch the full restoration video.

A Memorial That Had Given All It Could

Our site inspection in July 2025 told a familiar but difficult story. The memorial’s surface was finely encrusted with biological growth – moss, algae and lichen – encouraged by the shrubs and hedging that surround it, alongside a build-up of carbon deposits from general air pollution and the passing traffic on the nearby road.

More seriously, there were clear signs of surface erosion, most pronounced at the base of each stone block. This pattern is typical of trapped moisture – often the result of an incompatible mortar that doesn’t allow the stone to “breathe” and release the water it absorbs. Over time, that trapped moisture does what water always does to stone: it breaks it down from the inside.

By the time our team returned to site, the deterioration had gone beyond what conservation and repair could fix. The only way to give Rustington a memorial fit for the next century was to recreate it.

BELOW: The extent of deterioation to the memorial saw repairing unviable.

Precision from the Ground Up

Working from careful measurements and photographs of the original, our stonemasons carved a complete replica in Portland stone – the same material used in the original memorial, and in war memorials the length and breadth of the country.

Modern CNC cutting machinery gave us the accuracy to match the memorial’s proportions and mouldings precisely, but the details that make a memorial feel right still come from hand skill. Our carvers hand-cut the entire inscription, V-cut and finished with black enamel to match the original lettering style, and hand-carved the wreath – one of the most demanding and rewarding pieces of detail on the whole memorial – to the same depth and character as the piece it replaces.

BELOW: 3D models were created using detailed reference diagrams to prepare the Portland stone blocks for CNC cutting.

BELOW: The CNC machine cut the four Portland blocks with intricate precision.

BELOW: The memorial body block surfaces were finished by hand. 

BELOW: A new precision-cut base was also created as part of the new memorial.

Where the Machine Stops and the Hand Begins

Words matter on a war memorial. The inscription is the whole point of the stone:

“TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN HONOURED AND GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE PEOPLE OF RUSTINGTON WHO FELL IN THE WARS”

Each letter was V-cut directly into the face of the new Portland stone, set out to match the size, spacing and character of the original inscription as closely as possible. The one deliberate departure from the original: rather than replicate the small hand-cut inconsistencies of the 1920s lettering, our stonemasons set the inscription out with a true, even computer-drawn font before cutting – the memorial gains the crisp, legible lettering it was always meant to have, without losing anything of its character.

The cutting itself is unforgiving work. A V-cut groove is carved by hand at a precise angle on both sides of every letter stroke, so the light catches the incision and throws each word into sharp relief – miss the angle and the letter looks wrong from every direction but the one you cut it from. Once the lettering was finished, each groove was carefully filled with black enamel, painted in by hand letter by letter, stroke by stroke, to bring the inscription forward from the stone and make sure it reads as clearly in fifty years’ time as it does today.

The wreath started life as a rough ring, milled from a solid block of Portland stone by our CNC cutter – accurate to the millimetre for size and outer profile, but flat and featureless. From there, it was over to the stonemasons.

Before a single tool touched the stone, the leaf pattern was marked out by hand, pencilled directly onto the surface from the original design references, so every leaf, overlap and binding knot would sit exactly where its 1940s counterpart did. Only then did the carving begin – first with an angle grinder to remove the bulk of the waste stone and rough in the depth of the relief, working carefully around the pencil lines in clouds of stone dust.

The finer the work got, the more the tools changed. Grinders gave way to hand chisels and a mallet, cutting each individual leaf, vein and fold by eye and feel rather than by measurement. It’s a slow, deliberate process – take off too much stone in the wrong place and there’s no putting it back – but it’s exactly that risk that gives a hand-carved wreath its life. No two leaves are quite identical, the same way they weren’t on the original memorial, because they were never meant to be machine-perfect. They were meant to be carved by someone who cared about getting it right.

The finished wreath, sanded smooth and ready to be set into the memorial’s face, carries that same quiet detail the people of Rustington would have seen on the day it was first unveiled – recreated not by scanning and printing, but by a stonemason’s hands doing what CNC machinery still can’t.

The cutting itself is unforgiving work. A V-cut groove is carved by hand at a precise angle on both sides of every letter stroke, so the light catches the incision and throws each word into sharp relief – miss the angle and the letter looks wrong from every direction but the one you cut it from. Once the lettering was finished, each groove was carefully filled with black enamel, painted in by hand letter by letter, stroke by stroke, to bring the inscription forward from the stone and make sure it reads as clearly in fifty years’ time as it does today.

BELOW: The finished wreath finished the memorial when fitted.

BELOW: Preparation for careful transport to West Sussex.

A Respectful Removal, and a Careful Return

Before a single new block could go up, the old memorial had to come down – and it had to come down with dignity. Our team set out protective barriers around the memorial garden and used a small mobile spider crane to dismantle the existing structure section by section, removing it from site for respectful disposal.

The new memorial was then built up on the original foundations, each section fitted with stainless steel dowels and bedded in a lime-based mortar – the breathable material the original inspection identified as key to preventing the same deterioration happening again. Joints were kept to no more than 5mm, pointed in lime mortar, and washed down with clean water on completion.

The final lift and fit was carried out by our experienced fixing crew using a modern spider crane, chosen specifically for its ability to work with precision in the tight, planted confines of a village memorial garden.

Standing Again, for the Next Hundred Years

The people of Rustington gathered their memorial to honour those who fell in two world wars. Our job was never to make something new – it was to make sure that act of remembrance endures, carved with the same care and permanence as the original stonemasons intended in the first place.

War Memorial Conservation Co. is proud to have carried out this work for Rustington Parish Council, and prouder still that the memorial is now back where it belongs.

ABOVE: The memorial sits in a tranquille place in Hornchurch Country Park.

On 23rd March 2022, Havering Council officially opened the Covid-19 Memorial Woodland at Hornchurch Country Park in the London Borough of Havering, created to honour and remember those who were lost during the pandemic.

Under our monumental memorial masonry partners, Mossfords Memorial Masons, our artisans at War Memorial Conservation Co. were proud to play a significant role in this meaningful project. Working alongside our wider group of highly skilled hand engravers, carvers, sawing technicians, memorial fixers and project managers, the team helped design, craft and install the stone centrepiece located within the Central Memorial area of the woodland.

We also have a long-standing history of collaboration on large-scale memorial installations with Stone Sign Company, specialists in crafting striking monoliths and boulder-style monuments from natural stone.

Watch the design, creation, and installation of the stone monument at the Covid Memorial Woodland in Hornchurch Country Park, Havering, London:

ABOVE: Watch the full creation on our memorial mason partner’s YouTube channel, Mossfords Memorial Masons.

Over 4,000 Trees Surround Woodkirk Sandstone Monument

The creation of the central memorial took approximately six months of design and planning, followed by six weeks of skilled craftsmanship and a further two weeks for careful on-site installation.

The finished monument is carved from striking Woodkirk Sandstone and weighs approximately 2.8 tonnes. It now sits within a beautifully landscaped woodland environment surrounded by over 4,000 newly planted trees.

The memorial woodland as a whole serves as a place of reflection and remembrance for those who lost their lives to Covid-19, while also paying tribute to the dedication and resilience of key workers and the local community who supported the London Borough of Havering throughout the pandemic.

BELOW: Image credit – Havering Council

Community Support for the Memorial Woodland

In summer 2021, Havering Council consulted residents on proposals to create a Covid Memorial Woodland within Hornchurch Country Park.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, with strong community support for the project. In developing the site, the Council also committed to enhancing biodiversity and ensuring the space would allow trees, wildlife, and nature to flourish alongside the memorial itself.

Installation of the Monument

Opening Ceremony – 23rd March 2022

The Covid Memorial Woodland was officially opened on 23rd March 2022, marking both the National Day of Reflection and the second anniversary of the UK lockdown.

The ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Havering, Councillor John Mylod, alongside council representatives, members of the voluntary sector, and families who had lost loved ones.

The central memorial, including the stone monument created by our team, was designed to offer a peaceful and contemplative space for quiet reflection and remembrance.

As the Mayor of Havering, Councillor John Mylod, said:

“We have all been impacted by the awful Pandemic, all aspects of our lives changed. We had to come together as a community to do our best to keep everyone safe and protect our most vulnerable. Today was an opportunity for Havering to collectively reflect and remember all we have lost and endured. I hope this Memorial woodland gives comfort to all of Havering for generations to come.”

ABOVE: Image credit – Havering Council

ABOVE: Image credit – Havering Council

ABOVE: Image credit – Havering Council

A Lasting Remembrance

The completed Covid Memorial Woodland now stands as a lasting tribute within Hornchurch Country Park, providing a dedicated space for remembrance, reflection, and community healing.

At War Memorial Conservation Co., we are honoured to contribute to memorial projects of this significance, helping create lasting stone tributes that preserve memory and meaning for generations to come.

ABOVE: Image credit – Havering Council