Battle of Lansdowne 1643

Today there is a pleasant walk along the fields on the top of the Western edge of the Cotswold hills near Bath on the borders of Gloucestershire and Somerset. The weather was tolerably warm but mizzly and somewhat overcast but we were still able to see views towards Bristol and Welsh mountains beyond. We were out for a stroll and a breath of fresh air so we didn’t walk very far – just enough to admire the view and to read the information panels about the Battle of Lansdowne during the English Civil war in the Summer of 1643. It took place in and around where we walked on Wednesday 5th July 1643 although trees have been planted and modern roads have since been put it in with accompanying street furniture. Fortunately there are way-markers to follow.

I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow account but here are a few details.

The strategic goal was for the Royalists (supporters of King Charles I) to take the city of Bath from the Parliamentarians (Oliver Cromwell was their leader). It failed During the battle, the leader of the Cornish infantry, Sir Bevil Grenville died. Some seventy-seven years later in 1720 his descendents put up a memorial to him to mark the spot where he died. We had driven past that memorial several times and it had piqued our curiosity – one reason for our walk. Apparently it is the oldest surviving war memorial in the country. Apart from the futility of war, there was a particularly poignant note. The two generals Waller (for the Parliamentarians) and Hopton (for the Royalists) had been childhood friends.

 

a spindle tree that caught our eye

way marker for 1643 Battle of Lansdowne

Cotswold hill

towards Bristol

Valley view

Sir Bevil Grenville’s memorial

 

 

Hitler’s Canary

This book was first discovered in the school library and I have since been able to read a copy from our local public library (yes, there are still some left in this county).

Set in the 1940’s during the Nazi occupation of Denmark during the second World War, we read about Bamse (‘Teddy’), his family and friends as they come to terms with the dramatic and dangerous times they find themselves in. It is fiction based on fact: a small nation overwhelmed by a large modern army; persecution of Jews; acts of resistance both large and small. We learn that blanket distinctions, e.g. Germans=bad, Danes=good, simply were not true. In fact, many people simply acted more out of fear than of malice – though there was plenty of malice to go round. We also learn how the vast majority of Jews were saved from the concentration camps and sent to neutral Sweden with the help of bravery shown by Danish citizens and sympathetic German soldiers. All this as experienced and seen through the eyes of a young boy whose childhood comes to be characterised by some tough lessons.

As a children’s book it took me less than a day to read, even with other duties to do. The author is probably better known as a comedian and as a radio presenter. Here, we learn through fiction and the end notes, something of her Danish family’s history and, for me at least, some of a largely forgotten or ignored part of the history of World War II. I would recommend this book for anyone 9 years, or so, and up; particularly to broaden their historical knowledge, but it is a good story as well.

Overall, I think I would give it fours stars or 7 and a half out of ten.

“Hitler’s Canary” by Sandi Toksvig

Bletchley Park and Museum

Bletchley Park is the site of the World War II forerunner of GCHQ (where spies listen in to radio and other messages). At the heart of the operation was the British need to crack the codes of the German armed forces. The Germans used a device nick-named an enigma machine which had been available on the open market a few years before war broke out. With ground-breaking computing hardware and a team of mathematicians and others, the codes could be cracked – and had to be cracked again and again because the machine could be reset with a new complex code every day.

The most famous wartime resident was probably Alan Turing and there is a special statue of him in the museum. It is worth noting as well that the hall of fame in Bletchley House has at least two dozen other men and women in it. We also discovered that the House and Park had their own history before and since the war and we were also given a glimpse of a another world from decades and centuries past.

If you want to find out more I suggest you try their website:  http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/.

encoding machine

A replica of the “bombe” used in decoding

Colossus rebuild project

Hut 1

Alan Turing statue

Bletchley House

Aerial view in Bletchley Park