The Katyn Memorial in Cannock Chase is in a peaceful woodland clearing and commemorates 25,000 Poles – mostly men – murdered by the Soviet Union’s security police in 1940. Mass graves were uncovered by the Nazis in Katyn Forest, near Smolensk, in 1943. The victims, many of them with bound hands and still with their
Coventry has had three cathedrals. The Priory Church of St Mary was founded as a Benedictine community in 1043, allegedly by the Earl of Mercia, Leofric, and his wife Godiva. It became a cathedral in 1102 but was dissolved and destroyed in 1539. The parish church of St Michael, founded as a chapel in the
Coventry Cathedral Read More »
The Battle of Stamford Bridge, near York, was a significant battle on 25 September 1066, between King Harold’s English army and an invading force of Norsemen under Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson, Harold’s brother. The Norsemen, camped on the east bank of the River Derwent, where the current village is, were attacked from the west
Stamford Bridge battlefield Read More »
The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) is both a memorial and a centre for learning. Situated in 10 acres of grounds with spectacular views over the City of Lincoln, at the heart is the enormous rusted steel spire, 102 feet (31.09 metres) high, the wingspan of an Avro Lancaster Bomber. The location is significant –
International Bomber Command Centre Read More »
The Freddie Gilroy statue, full name Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers, is an enormous twice-life-size steel sculpture of a former brick maker and miner on Scarborough’s North Bay. It was created by Ray Lonsdale, a friend of the subject. Freddie Gilroy, when a young man, was one of the first Allied troops to enter
Freddie Gilroy sculpture Read More »
Cleopatra’s Needle is one of several interesting monuments on London’s Embankment, not far from Westminster. It is an Egyptian obelisk, one of a pair originally made for the Pharaoh Thutmose III in c1500 BC, erected in Heliopolis and moved to Alexandria in 12 BC. The link to Cleopatra is spurious. It is a single piece
Cleopatra’s Needle Read More »
The Battle of Naseby on 14th June 1645 was one of the most important in British history, ranking alongside Hastings and Bosworth. The outcome of the battle – which lasted just a couple of hours – was the defeat and virtual annihilation of King Charles I’s Royalist army by the Parliamentary forces led by Fairfax
Naseby battlefield Read More »
The Glenfinnan Monument marks the place where Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, raised his father’s standard at the head of Loch Shiel and began the 1745 Jacobite rebellion that ended in defeat at Culloden a year later. The monument was built in 1815, is 59 feet (18 metres) high and has a lone,
Glenfinnan Monument Read More »
The Commando Memorial in the Scottish Highlands was unveiled by the late Queen Mother in 1952. In a dramatic setting, it commemorates all the officers and men of the Commandos who gave their lives in the Second World War, and who trained in the moors and mountains nearby. A garden of remembrance was subsequently added,
Commando Memorial, Highland Read More »
It is believed that St Winefride’s Shrine has been a place of pilgrimage for 1300 years, following the decapitation of a young, devout, girl by a brutal chieftain in the 7th century. Where Winefride’s head came to rest, a well sprung up. On the site now is a visitor complex that includes an architecturally unique
St Winefride’s Shrine Read More »
Eliseg’s Pillar is the broken shaft of a 9th century inscribed stone that was probably originally topped with a cross. It gives the valley and nearby Valle Crucis Abbey their names. The stone was erected by Cyngen, prince of Powys, in memory of his great-grandfather, Eliseg. Illegible now, Eliseg’s Pillar once documented the family tree
Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery contains almost 5,000 German and Austrian graves. Following an agreement between the UK and what was then the Federal Republic of Germany in 1959, the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraberfursorge) made arrangements to transfer the graves of German servicemen and civilians who had died in Britain during World
German Military Cemetery, Cannock Chase Read More »
