A Bronze Figure Rising from Parkland Gifted by an Earl
You enter Dartmouth Park through one of five gates—from Reform Street, Dagger Lane, Herbert Street, Lodge Hill, or from the Sandwell Valley car park—and walk toward the centre of this Grade II listed open space. There, on a limestone pedestal carved with decorative detail, stands a bronze winged female figure: an allegory of remembrance, cast by public subscription and unveiled in June or July 1923. The inscription reads: "IN MEMORY OF THE GLORIOUS DEAD / THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE / 'THEY LIVE WHOM WE CALL DEAD' / THE FALLEN IN WORLD WAR II / AND OTHER CONFLICTS." The parkland itself was a gift from the Earl of Dartmouth to the town in recognition of West Bromwich's contribution to the war effort; the Prince of Wales presented the park deeds to the Mayor. This is not a solemn enclosure but a living memorial embedded in a place where families walk, children play, and the landscape breathes.
The Monument and the Park Around It
The war memorial sits within a £6 million restored landscape completed in 2014, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery. You will find lakes for fishing, walking and jogging routes that wind through floral displays, a sensory garden, outdoor gym equipment, a climbing wall, basketball and football courts, and a children's play area. The park lies between West Bromwich Town Centre and Sandwell Valley Country Park, offering views across the valley. The memorial itself remains the focal point—a composite work of both parkland and sculpture—but you experience it as part of a wider pattern of civic space, not isolated from it.
Visit When the Park Is Alive, and Cross-Reference the Names
Dartmouth Park is open every day from dusk till dawn, and the memorial is free to visit. A visit to the monument itself typically takes 15 to 45 minutes, depending on whether you linger in the park or walk further. For a fuller experience of remembrance, make time for the Book of Memory housed under the stairs in the foyer of West Bromwich Central Library, a short distance away on the High Street. This 1926 volume, displayed in a glass-topped cabinet with the inscription "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE," contains the names of all men from West Bromwich who served in World War I, written in calligraphy with rank, number, and regiment. A separate Book of Remembrance records those who served in World War II. The library itself, a 1906 Carnegie Foundation building, stands adjacent to the Italian Gothic Town Hall and holds its own quiet historical weight.
What Else Lies Close By
West Bromwich Town Hall, built in 1874–75 in brick and stone to an Italian Gothic design, sits a short walk away on the High Street. The Oak House Museum, a half-timbered yeoman's house built between 1590 and 1630, reopened as a period museum in 1951 and stands nearby on Oak Road. If you are interested in other war memorials in the immediate area, the James Chance Memorial, Oldbury Cenotaph, Rood End War Memorial, and Oldbury Interchange's Furnace Sculpture are all within reach of West Bromwich. Sandwell Valley Country Park and the RSPB Sandwell Valley nature reserve adjoin Dartmouth Park to the north, offering extended walking if you wish to explore further.
Start your visit at the park itself, stand before the bronze figure and read the inscription, then follow your feet into the wider landscape. The memorial speaks best when you see it as West Bromwich's citizens do: not as a museum piece, but as a marker within the rhythms of everyday civic life.