John Keats

John Keats

The 1st July marks the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, one of the most important battles of the First World War. The losses incurred on just this day were terrible: some 57,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers were made casualty including 19,000 killed; the French suffered 20,000 losses. Never had Great Britain and its allies from the Commonwealth been involved in such a conflict and never had they experienced such a military catastrophe. When the battle came to an end in late November 1916, more than one million French, German, British and Commonwealth soldiers had been killed, wounded, reporting missing or captured.

We set off on our journey a bit later than we intended but we still managed to arrive at the cafe we planned on visiting in time for lunch. There was a bit of a saga getting served, we were being ignored by the waitress. Eventually we got served and the food was as good as I remembered it from our last visit there.

After lunch we made our way to lower Lincoln which we did not explore when we were in Lincoln last year. We visited the waterside and viewed the Empowerment sculpture along with the high bridge. I popped into Bon Marche to see if they had a jacket that I had seen on their website. It was something I thought would be suitable for my brother’s wedding later in the year. They had the jacket, but not in the colour I was after. I tried it on but one of the assistants pounced and put me off exploring further. We visited a small indoor market which had an interesting second hand book shop which had a lot of military and religious/spiritual books although neither of us was tempted to buy anything.

There were some interesting and colourful characters wandering around this part of Lincoln. As we walked under a bridge we had to negotiate three rough sleepers, one of whom was high on drugs. I was left thinking that if I had stayed in that part of Lincoln last year I wouldn’t have wanted to return for a second visit. We returned to the car and made our way to the Charlotte House hotel where we checked in and took our bags up to the room which was in fact a suite. It was a fabulous room with his and hers tellies and his and hers shower and bath.

There was champagne waiting for us on arrival but we left this for later and made our way through the castle grounds to see the Poppy Wave which is currently being displayed there. After taking a few photographs we made our way into town for a drink and a slice of lemon cake before returning to the hotel to enjoy the champagne whilst we got ready to go out for our evening meal in The Old Bakery. The food was delicious and the service excellent. After dining we visited a pub called The Strugglers which was rather small with no seats available. Mr C asked if there was another room to sit in and we were advised that there was but the room was a snug with only two tables so we would have to share. We popped our heads through the door and a gentleman plumped up the cushions on the end of the bench next to him, inviting us in. After a while we got into conversation about the upcoming EU vote, Timothy Taylor beer and micro breweries in Lincoln.

After the conversation it was time to return to the hotel for a well earned sleep in the fourposter bed.

During 2014-2018 a series of nationwide and international events are taking place to commemorate the centenary of World War One. The series of events is being led by the Imperial War Museum, which has a dedicated website entitled 1914.org.

The events will serve to remind us of those who sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today as well as reminding us to be grateful for their sacrifice.

One of those events was the planting of 888,246 poppies in the moat around The Tower of London, one poppy for each fallen British and Commonwealth servicemen. As Remembrance day 2014 approached, a sea of poppies filled the moat as a visual reminder of the number of those who sacrificed their lives and the blood lost…

Following Remembrance day in 2014 most of the poppies were sold to members of the public in support of six service charities; Cobeso, Combat Stress, Coming Home, Help for Heroes, The Royal British Legion and SSAFA.  Poppies that were part the ‘Wave’ and the ‘Weeping Window’ were held back so they could ‘Go on Tour‘ and be displayed at different venues around the country to allow more people to have the chance to see them and reflect. When the country tour concludes in 2018 the touring poppies will be permanently housed at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester.

The poppy fields as described by the ‘War Poets’ are a poignant reminder to me of the lives that were lost in both World War One and World War Two and also the lives lost in more recent wars.

Poppies to me are a simile of the lives that were lost. They are vibrant, standing strong and bold yet fragile and defeated by a heavy downfall or a spring breeze. They remind me of the fragility of peace and freedom and how easily our freedom can be lost.

Reflection on World War One (and the more recent World War Two) serve as a reminder of what might have been if the outcome of those wars had been different…

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
1915

Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London which crosses the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name, and has become an iconic symbol of London.

The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers. The vertical component of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers. The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower.

History:

A huge challenge faced the City of London Corporation – how to build a bridge downstream from London Bridge without disrupting river traffic activities. To generate ideas, the “Special Bridge or Subway Committee” was formed in 1876, and opened the design for the new crossing to public competition.

Over 50 designs were submitted for consideration, some of which are on display at Tower Bridge Exhibition. It wasn’t until October 1884 however, that Horace Jones, the City Architect, in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry, offered the chosen design for Tower Bridge as a solution.

It took eight years, five major contractors and the relentless labour of 432 construction workers to build Tower Bridge.

Two massive piers were sunk into the river bed to support the construction and over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the Towers and Walkways. This framework was clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the Bridge a more pleasing appearance.

When it was built, Tower Bridge was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge ever completed (“bascule” comes from the French for “see-saw”). These bascules were operated by hydraulics, using steam to power the enormous pumping engines. The energy created was stored in six massive accumulators, as soon as power was required to lift the Bridge, it was always readily available. The accumulators fed the driving engines, which drove the bascules up and down. Despite the complexity of the system, the bascules only took about a minute to raise to their maximum angle of 86 degrees.

Today, the bascules are still operated by hydraulic power, but since 1976 they have been driven by oil and electricity rather than steam. The original pumping engines, accumulators and boilers are now exhibits within Tower Bridge Exhibition’s Engine Rooms.

noun

1: a large body of matter with no definite shape.

“the sun broke out from behind a mass of clouds”

synonyms:
pile, heap, stack, clump, cloud, bunch, bundle, lump

2: a large number of people or objects crowded together.

“a mass of cyclists”

synonyms:
large number, abundance, profusion, multitude, group, crowd, mob,rabble, horde,

barrage, throng, huddle, host, troop, army, herd, flock,drove, swarm, pack, press,

crush, mountain, flood

“a mass of cyclists”

adjective

1: involving or affecting large numbers of people or things.

“the film has mass appeal”

synonyms:

wholesale, universal, widespread, general, large-scale, extensive, pandemic

“mass hysteria”

verb

1: assemble or cause to assemble into a single body or mass.

“both countries began massing troops in the region”

synonyms:

accumulate, assemble, amass, collect, gather, gather together, draw together, join together

Traitor’s (or Traitors’) Gate was a watergate – originally simply called the Water Gate – beneath St Thomas’s Tower at the Tower of London.

The gate was built in the late 1270s on the orders of Edward I to provide a convenient means by which he could arrive by barge. It acquired its present name as the Tower evolved into a place of imprisonment – and sometimes torture – for those accused of treason, notably in the 16th century during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

The archway was bricked up in the mid-​​19th century because the embankment works caused the river to run deeper, making the gate of little practical use for would-​​be visitors – traitorous or not – at most phases of the tide.

At the beginning of the week I was notified that my ‘Poppy from the Moat’ was due to be delivered within the next two days. After a delay it turned up yesterday and upon opening the parcel I found the poppy was still slightly damp after several weeks residing in the ‘Tower Moat’. I am pleased with it and I am pondering on where  to plant it. A photo will follow in due course, today I was far to occupied with another of this weekend’s deliveries…

My new computer (a belated birthday present, mostly from Mr C) arrived and I was busily copying files from the old computer and installing a virus checker, office and publisher on the new computer.  What took up most of my time was trying to get my Outlook files copied across, on that front I have so far failed.  The files that I saved from the old computer are not the files with the data I need… The newer versions of Outlook work in a very esoteric way!! I will have to go back to the old computer and try to figure out exactly where all that data is stored.

Apart from my frustration with Outlook my new computer is a joy; it is fast, it doesn’t freeze and lock up and above all it has sound which I have been missing for many months. There will be a bit of a learning curve with Windows 8.1, but I will soon get to grips with that

As to the other deliveries they were all to do with Christmas…

The Tower of London art installation entitled ‘Blood Swept Land and Seas of Red‘ is now complete. The last poppy was planted in the moat at 10.50 today during the final ceremony (among the poppies) commemorating the  centenary of World War One. The art installation marked one hundred years since the first day of Britain’s involvement in the First World War. Each poppy represents a British military fatality during the war.

I was lucky to be able to visit the almost complete installation on 8th November.  The sight of the poppies was stunning and poignant.

Tomorrow the poppies will be picked and packed for dispatch to those who ordered them. The proceeds of the sale will be shared between six charities; Cobeso, Combat Stress, Coming Home, Help for Heroes, The Royal British Legion and SSAFA.

• Poppies being planted during my visit in August
• Photos August 16th 2014
• Photos November 8th 2014