In the wake of the end of the 1914-18 war, towns and villages all over the country erected memorials to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice whilst fighting for their country. Flempton and Hengrave also dedicated memorials to their war dead in 1920. There is a Sicilian marble tablet surmounted by the royal crest in St Catherine’s Church on the north wall of the nave. It commemorates the twenty-four brave men of the parish who died. Sir John and Lady Wood also gifted a wayside stone memorial at the spot where the two villages meet. In the photograph, you can see that it was a beautiful 18ft tall structure made of Clipsham stone standing in open countryside next to what was then a football field. The asphalt road we know today as the A1101 had not yet arrived. 

The unveiling ceremony at St Catherine’s was quite the event on the day with Lord Stradbroke of Henham Hall and Sir John and Lady Wood in attendance accompanied by the clergy, choristers and local parishioners. 

Unfortunately, at some point, the column was damaged and the local blacksmith fashioned a simple Latin cross to take its place. Perhaps at the time, this was seen as a temporary measure. The stone became grey with the dirt and roadside pollution of many years, the trees and shrubbery overgrown making it difficult to see it was even there. 

In 2024, the Parish Council placed a commemorative bench on the Green at Flempton to commemorate the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II. In 2025, there were national and international D-Day celebrations to mark the 81st anniversary of the Normandy landings and so the Parish Council voted to make its main 2025 community project the restoration of the village war memorial.

After consulting with various local stonemasons, it was agreed to replicate the original cross but at a reduced height to make it less susceptible to damage in the future. Chedburgh-based Abbeygate Masonry were appointed to clean and restore the war memorial and the installation was completed on the 15^th of December 2025. It was quite the operation to remove the Latin cross and install the new column and cross if anyone happened to see them working on the day. They have done a wonderful job and the memorial now looks like the fitting memorial for the ages that it was orginally intended to be.