National Memorial Arboretum & Armed Forces Memorial.

Return visit.
Motorway service station prices in the cafe - bring a picnic!

 

So with that little bit of irritation passed, and a 6&1/2 year gap since my last visit, some thoughts.

The site is growing up.
The 'Arboretum' part of it's title is no longer such a misnomer as trees are starting to mature and you get a sense of how things will look in 20 years time - rather good I suspect. Some of the better memorials have, I think, considered this future and have sited in pre-planned woodland glades that will be rather pleasant/peaceful areas.
Flooding's been conquered.

Far less temporary feeling memorials, less crude statuary or concrete and brick lumps, and more admission that Marble & bronze has become the public norm for a good reason.
Whether that's down to funding gradually being sorted, or organisations feeling uncomfortable with their memorial's quality I don't know.

Still a strange place, still sort of filling the 'garden' around the Armed Forces Memorial, but a real feel of it starting to make more sense - less of the slight sense of gratuitousness I felt before.
CO/FEPOW hut still superb. Sharp-edged.

Wasn't the best day for photography.

The Airborne Forces have not mucked about.
Superb memorial, hiqh quality statuary:


New Dunkirk memorial nicely done too:


Household Division:




Essex Regt. Disbanded 1971 - a few like this, where the memorial is almost as much to the lost Regiment as to the men.
Fascinating how Old Comrades organisations still linger on 40 years later, and are still able to fund something.


Naval Memorial MUCH better in the flesh than it looks in any photo I'd seen.
Modernist but very well executed modernist.


DLI


Some memorials make me smile.
(Interesting one in the background there - a little display by Britain's memorial masons. Really rather good.)

 

Nine year gap since I last went. Pottered down Saturday with Fishwife & sprog Alpha to see how it's coming on.

There are trees!
I mean, still not quite what you'd call an arboretum, but things are maturing and you're starting to get a sense of the very long term plan involved in such an endeavour.
Some of the memorials will eventually sit in leafy glades, or maybe just be damned hard to find... or a pleasing 'discovery' aspect will come within mature woodland... one day.

It's still worth a visit. Maybe for the sheer strangeness of concentrating memorials in one place, maybe for continued aesthetic judgements as you walk around.
I think sprog Alpha summed it up when asked what he thought: "Really weird, but interesting."

Random shots. Didn't take the proper camera so potato quality 'can't see the bloody screen on a sunny day' phone images.

Fishwife slightly spoilt this fine Highlanders statue by pointing out the smiley face at rear.
(Serious point - if nothing else, it's a place to think about the overall planning of every style of monumental work imaginable.)



New avatar for Drew on the PTI memorial?


EOD 'Long Walk' statue not half bad & quite affecting.
One of those with just a hint of understandable bitterness about it.
The equipment well-represented, and I'm sure I'm not alone in reading the names/locations while muttering about pointless murderous bastards.


The Polish forces memorial remains strong stuff.
I don't know that I like the modern style of statuary so much, but it very much works as a whole. The non-military-history-obsessed Fishwife gave it full credit for the panels explaining different actions and theatres (Doubt you'll see such stats and explicitly stated kill rates/percentages on a memorial anywhere else). She's dead right. Very good work in such a 'Families walking the kids/dogs' place to forcibly inject some explanation. The bitterness is tangible, though the pride overrides it so it hits home.

And who can blame the Poles for a touch of WW2 bitterness...


We wondered if the Small Arms School were alarmed at the price of a full size statue, or maybe punning on Small.
Nonetheless, a rather nicely executed setup.


No idea.
Must look it up. Some organisation that still apparently keeps old soldiers entertained.


The Para's Pegasus remains a brilliantly bombastic piece of classicism.
It would grace any city centre. A sense of 'we're not messing about', or even some very monied donors.


Told by a volunteer that this submariners one was the newest on site.
Half a million quidsworth, with the conning tower being built at the same place as current subs.
Rather good. A sensation of darkness as you pass through on a sunny day.
This stuff can still be done well.




The AFM remains the central 'high rent' star.
As I looked at the late C20th/EarlyC21st names up to 2022, I was perhaps more irritated than anywhere else on site. You can't beat 'living memory' for thoughts about politicians and the damage done.
What really got me this visit was the acres of space left for future names.
Both a practical &, I suspect, symbolic gesture.
'This never ends.'



The Far East section and FEPoW/CoFEPoW hut remain ridiculously strong stuff.
I'm not sure there's much more you can do for ramming something home than the Changi Lychgate & chunks of the actual Sumatra & Burma railways.
The hut remains the most marvellously well-kept concentration of 'this was done, by bastards' I could imagine. It's genuinely refreshing walking around a 'museum' environment without any equivocation or needless attempts at balance.
The case and reality well-stated.


A slew more of iffy images, but won't bore further with them.
It remains worth a visit.
It also remains a rather strange/brave project. I often think there's too many new memorials going up generally, and still wonder at the validity of a concentration in the Staffordshire countryside. Glimpses of the end game as the trees mature, though whether it remains as a strong testament to service, or more like some Victorian novelty park when more forested, I don't know.
I admire the intent, though it could honestly go either way. Some of the earlier placements are already crumbling (With a fair few I think having replaced their slightly shabby 'brick plinth & aluminium plaque' with something more substantial).
It's free to visit (give or take a very reasonable parking charge), and seems well-attended. Its direction maybe complicated: eg. I honestly think such a massive site needs a few more picnic spots and small kids playgrounds. Fully understand there's an intense difficulty with 'taste' there, offending some while satisfying others, but it is going to have to decide more clearly what it is. There's plenty of space to fit a few more amenities in while not diminishing the stone. Do not envy the committee that possibly exists to deal with such matters.
The whole place engenders thought, and hopefully some similar conversations to those we had, and I suppose that alone justifies the scheme.
Some memorials make you smile, some have bitterness displayed, and some are just fascinating and/or poignant.






Not a single laser cut silhouette bench spotted across the whole site.
Which was nice.
We'll see how it looks in another decade or so...