Antiques Roadshow to feature the National Memorial Arboretum in unique “Remembrance” recording.

As part of this year’s remembrance celebrations, the BBC will be recording a special edition of the ‘Antiques Roadshow’ programme at the National Memorial Arboretum on Thursday 1st September.

This special filming is due to air on Remembrance Sunday 2011, will be presented by Fiona Bruce, along with a small team of antiques experts.  Visitors are welcome to come and watch the filming which will take place between 9am and 7pm.

Visitors are asked not to bring items for valuation as this is not a normal Antiques Roadshow format.

Participants in the filming have been selected in advance following an appeal at the end of a programme last year.  As a result, the public will not be able to bring personal objects for valuation.  The show’s resident Arms and Militaria specialists, Graham Lay and Bill Harriman, will be joined by Hilary Kay and Paul Atterbury, both of whom have extensive knowledge of objects with an interesting social history.

The screening of Antiques Roadshow is expected to further build the national and international profile of the Arboretum, which is part of The Royal British Legion family of charities.  Filming is scheduled to take place around a wide range of different memorials on the site, describing the stories behind them and illustrating the wide diversity of the organisations and individuals represented within its 150 acres of wooded parkland.

Paul Kennedy, Curator of the National Memorial Arboretum, said: “We feel incredibly honoured to be hosting this special Remembrance episode of the Antiques Roadshow. It will further confirm that we are the place “Where our Nation remembers”.”

“We understand the programme will be including family stories ranging from the Boer War right up to the Falklands conflict. Anyone with an interest in military history is most welcome to come along and listen in to the recordings.”

This is expected to be a very busy day at the Arboretum, so those wishing to visit and watch the filming are advised to come early and to use the signposted Park and Ride service.

The Arboretum is free to enter but donations are appreciated. For further information go to www.thenma.org.uk or call 01283 792333.

As the UK’s year-round centre of Remembrance; The National Memorial Arboretum is a spiritually uplifting place which honours the fallen, recognises service and sacrifice, and fosters pride in our country.  The Arboretum is part of The Royal British Legion family of charities.

Sited in the heart of the Nation, with 50,000 maturing trees and over 200 memorials, it is a beautiful and lasting tribute to those who serve their country or who have died in conflict.

Visitors from all walks of life number around 300,000 per year, including Service personnel, veterans, students of all ages, groups and individuals.  Over 200 special events are held annually.  The Act of Remembrance, including a Silence, is observed daily in the Millennium Chapel.

The Arboretum, situated on land gifted by Lafarge, is home to the striking Armed Forces Memorial which commemorates those who have been killed on duty or as a result of terrorism from the end of the Second World War to the current conflict in Afghanistan.

An £8 million redevelopment campaign has been launched to create a world-class Remembrance Centre worthy of those who give so much to our Country.

Whilst researching a family tree, we came across The Cumbrian War Memorials blog site… an amazing labour of love and an absolute must visit, for anybody interested in military history.

‘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. An example is this delightful sundial that stands in St Mary’s churchyard, Longsleddale commemorating the village dead from the Great War.

This blog has been set up in the hope that it may inspire others to contribute towards establishing a comprehensive listing of memorials in the county. If recorded they are less likely to be destroyed, as many have been. They pose many questions; about the validation of war, of death and remembrance and of ideas of community or nationhood’.

Visit the Cumbrian War Memorials Blog and help them to conserve the memorials to Cumbria’s fallen, from Jacobite rebellions to the more recent events in Afghanistan and Iraq.