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.