Alrewas

On Sunday we decided to visit The National Arboretum. It is about a mile from our mooring so as we hadn't ridden the bikes for a day or two we decided to take them. The only problem with that was crossing the A38 dual carriageway. With cars doing over 70mph it was a case of seeing a gap and running and pushing the bike like hell.... Not good at my age.

There is no entrance fee to The Arboretum but they do ask you to give a donation to help with the up keep.

 In the centre of The Arboretum is The Armed forces memorial which has the names of over 16,000 service men and women who have lost their lives since the 2nd world war.

                                                 The 16,000 names on the walls.

                                                      The Armed forces memorial.

                     There are more than 50,000 trees with more being added all the time.

                                                      The main memorial from the side.

 

                   There are over 250 separate memorials scattered over the 150 acre site.

But the memorial which moved me the most was one entitled Shot at Dawn. For some reason it is positioned in a far corner of the Arboretum. The memorial has a semi-circle behind it with the names of every man that was executed due to cowardice or desertion in the 1st World war.

 The memorial was modelled on the likeness of Private Herbert Francis Burden who was only 17 years old when he was shot at dawn. In total 306 men were shot for desertion and cowardice. Today it is recognised as post-traumatic stress syndrome.

                                                    Private Herbert Francis Burden.

               If you are ever in the area The National Arboretum is definitely worth a visit .

Sunday afternoon was spent fitting our new smartgauge. We have always looked at the voltage of the batteries to work out how much charge they had in them. But this not a very accurate way of measuring battery charge. With the Smartgauge it shows you the true state of charge of the batteries as a percentage. So now we should have a better understanding of the way we use and make electricity.

For many years I have been a reader of narrowboat blogs. One that I have always followed is Seyella. So it was really good to meet Geoff and Mags at Alrewas. They were on their way down the lock and onto the river so we didn't have long to speak , but it was good to see you and we really hope to meet up with you again soon.

                                                                     Still catching fish!!!.

Our next move is up to Rugeley .We intend to make an early start on Wednesday the 28th . We are pointing in the wrong direction but we will drop down the lock onto the river Trent then wind (turn) in the river and head back up the Trent and Mersey canal towards Rugeley.

                                        Happy days