Mountsorrel’s war memorial and beacon have been upgraded to mark the Platinum Jubilee and are set to illuminate the local community for years to come.
Tarmac proudly sponsored the design and creation of a new beacon on Castle Hill and the new landmark was assembled and welded onsite by our own engineering team.
The beacon features a plasma-cut outline of the Butter Market and an inscription of the text MOUNTSORREL, allowing light to shine through when the beacon is lit.
The beacon replaces the one erected by the quarry in 1991, commemorating the opening of the Quorn-Mountsorrel Bypass (A6) which, after having been lit countless times over the last 30 years, had begun to show signs of age.
The Mountsorrel team has also been working to restore the Castle Hill war memorial, adding programmable LEDs to the bronze cross and new LED floodlights to illuminate the iconic landmark which looks out over the village.
Mountsorrel Quarry has looked after the Grade II listed memorial and maintained its upkeep since it was erected almost 100 years ago.
The completed work means that the cross can be illuminated with a changing pattern of colour, while the flood lights at the base of the memorial create better quality light which brightens up the entire monument.
New covers for the floodlights were also installed to keep the lighting system safe from any vandalism or weathering, while allowing light to shine clearly through the Perspex.
Rob Lees, area operations manager at Tarmac, said: “Mountsorrel Quarry is proud of the relationship it has with the local village, and so it’s great to be able to give back by to the community by supporting these upgrades which will increase the longevity of local landmarks.”
Councillor Kate Walker, chairman of Mountsorrel Parish Council, said: “We are very grateful to Tarmac for its tremendous support to the village in providing the new Beacon, along with continuing improvements to the War Memorial. It is only through the work of Tarmac that this has been made possible.
“Having the new beacon in place in time for the Platinum Jubilee ensured the celebrations were a great success.”
The old beacon has been carefully restored by Tarmac’s engineers, before being rehomed at the Mountsorrel and Rothley Heritage Centre where residents will now be able to enjoy it for years to come.
Originally unveiled in 1926, the memorial was designed to commemorate the 72 men from the village who lost their lives in World War I. An additional 19 names of villagers were added on the opposite side of the memorial, after the conflict of WWII.
The stone for the Castle Hill war memorial was originally donated by The Mountsorrel Granite Company and is the only one in the area to use Mountsorrel’s famous Pink Granite.
