There are many war memorials in Cumbria. The United Kingdom National Inventory of War Memorials at the Imperial War Museum lists over 800 in the county but this is a gross underestimate. There are perhaps two or three thousand commemorating conflicts from the middle ages to Iraq & Afghanistan. They take every imaginable form.
This occasional blog descibes some of the the finer points of memorial watching and some of my own thoughts on what they seem to say. Please leave comments; I have learnt a lot from peoples observations and memories.
Memorials are of a specific time - they pose many questions; about the validation of war, of death and remembrance and of ever morphing ideas of community or nationhood.
Following a rather dizzy hippy life in Northumberland in the 60s when I somehow got a degree in Fine Art I embarked on a career in the civil service which soon died a natural death. After a further period as a restaurateur I went to Lancaster and got a degree in Independent Studies followed by a Master's Degree in Historical Research. Now retired I do what interests me - history! And that means, among other things, war memorials - an excuse to explore the wonderful county of Cumbria; its towns, villages & churches.
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