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Waggoner Memorial

Monument

What is recorded here

The Wagoners' Memorial at Sledmere was designed by Sir Mark Sykes and carved by Carlo Domenico Magnoni to honour local farm wagoners who formed a mounted transport unit in the First World War. Its detailed stone scenes record enlistment, training, service and return, giving rural support work unusual prominence.

Read the whole record

The Wagoners' Memorial at Sledmere was designed by Sir Mark Sykes and carved by Carlo Domenico Magnoni to honour local farm wagoners who formed a mounted transport unit in the First World War. Its detailed stone scenes record enlistment, training, service and return, giving rural support work unusual prominence.

Why it was made

Sykes commissioned the monument after the war to remember the men of the Wagoners' Special Reserve whom he had organised before 1914.

People and events

Farm workers trained to handle horse transport, then moved supplies under fire; Magnoni carved their experience around the monument in a direct picture sequence.

How it worked

Names and relief panels let viewers follow the wagoners from Yorkshire fields to military service, making transport labour rather than commanders the central subject.

What remains

The tall stone monument, carved bands, inscriptions and named men survive beside the road at Sledmere under continued care.

Why it mattered

The memorial mattered because armies could not fight without food and ammunition moving forward, and it gives that essential rural labour a rare complete public story.

Sources for this account

Sources checked 16 August 2026.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n87383479

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Photo credits
  • Martin Dawes, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Stuart and Fiona Jackson, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Ian S, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Pauline E, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Jonathan Thacker, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Stephen Horncastle, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Colin Westley, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Gordon Hatton, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • DS Pugh, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Andy Stephenson, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Paul Harrop, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
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