Visit to the National Memorial Arboretum

Saturday 21st April

Armed Forces Memorial

We are staying put today and are going to walk to the National Memorial Arboretum which is about a 20 minute walk but we have to cross the A38 so hopefully we can get across there.  We walked down through the village to the A38 and there was a safety island we could cross at, it was quite hairy getting across but we made it.  We also had to cross a railway line but fortunately it wasn't a mainline so over there and then we were at the Arboretum.

Royal Air Force Memorial

The Arboretum is set in more than 150 acres of formal gardens, wildflower meadows and maturing woodland.  It was first opened to the public in 2001 and contains more than 350 memorials for military and civilian organisations and associations together with tributes for individuals.

Lovely Bench

We went into the visitor centre where we picked up a map and then we set off into the grounds.

They have a huge memorial in the centre dedicated to the Armed Forces.  It is done in a circle with tall trees planted all around and it is on a hill so you go up steps to it.  It is very moving with all the thousands of names listed for all the conflicts up to the present day.

Christmas Truce Memorial

SAS Garden

We followed the paths around and looked at the many memorials including the Royal Air Force memorial, there was a lovely bench dedicated to the Ulster Constabulary Widows Association in the area relating to Northern Ireland.

We had some lunch in the cafe and then carried on wandering around.

Lewis Collins Plaque

Gulf War Memorial

There was a lovely garden dedicated to the Special Armed Forces and there was a plaque there for Lewis Collins of Bodies and Doyle fame who completed 21 SAS Selection as a civilian volunteer.

There was many memorials in different sections, the 1914 Christmas Truce memorial representing when English and German troops sung carols, played football together, exchanged gifts and chatted together then went back to the trenches and the next day carried on fighting.

Shot at Dawn Memorial

Parachute Regiment

The most moving memorial was the one to the Shot at Dawn, so very sad as lot of them were sick and couldn't fight but their illnesses weren't recognised and so they were shot.

It had been a glorious sunny morning but during the afternoon, it went cloudy and then started raining, so we made our way back to the visitor centre and walked back to the boat calling into the butchers in the village on the way back for some sausages and bacon as it isa very good butchers and we got back without getting too wet.

Railway Memorial

We really enjoyed our visit to the Arboretum, it is a very beautiful moving place and well worth a visit, we shall certainly be going again when we next visit this area.

When I went to do my blog this evening, our laptop died and wouldn't boot up, what a disaster as I hadn't back up my photos for a while.  We are off to Armitage on Monday and we found a computer firm there not far from the canal so we will go and see them and hopefully they can fix it and recover my photos.