Posted in Art Deco, Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 19 March 2026
Cleadon is a village in South Tyneside, just north of Whitburn where a friend of ours lives.
We had never actually stopped in Cleadon – apart from to buy petrol once – until Oct 2024.
While stopping to photograph Cleadon’s War Memorial I spotted this minor Art Deco building:-

Cleadon War Memorial is a stone pillar on a pedestal. Details of the memorial are on this website.
View from side:-

Names of Great War dead and those who served:-

Second World War names:-

Dedication:- In memory of those young men and women from Cleadon Cottage Homes who served
during the World Wars 1914-1919 1939-1945.
“They that put aside today
All the joys of their today
And with toil of their today
Bought for us tomorrow.” – Rudyard Kipling

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Posted in Events dear boy. Events, History at 12:00 on 18 March 2026
The once prolific writer Len Deighton – whose surname I share (apart from its pronunciation: he rhymed it with Dayton, my family rhymes it with Brighton) – has died: at 97, a good innings by any standard.
Back in my youth I was a keen reader of his spy fiction – he and John Le Carré were the two preeminent spy writers of the time – but it was his Bernard Samson stories, the Game, Set and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker and Faith, Hope and Charity trilogies and their prequel, Winter, which I consumed most avidly.
Then there were his forays into Altered History, SS-GB and XPD, which I greatly enjoyed.
His interest in the Second World War was explored further in the novels Bomber and Goodbye Mickey Mouse, both excellent, before he embarked on History proper with the books Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain; Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk; the lavishly photographically illustrated Battle of Britain, an interest consummated by the much later review of that war in its entirety in Blood Tears and Folly.
Of these latter I only read one during my blogging years.
Leonard Cyril (Len) Deighton: 18/2/1929 – 15/3/2026. So it goes.
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Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 11 March 2026
A stone wall with two columns surmounted by a pediment with wreath.
Radcliffe was a town in Northumberland just south of Amble.
Its War Memorial was relocated to Amble’s War Memorial garden in the 1970s when the former mining town was demolished and its residents moved to Amble.

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Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 9 March 2026
Amble is a town at the mouth of the River Coquet (pronounced to rhyme with croquet) in Northumberland.
It can be seen from the top of Warkworth Castle:-

Amble’s War Memorial is a clock tower set in a memorial garden:-


Great War Dedication. Second World War names below:-

Great War names, Adamson – Henderson:-

Great War names Henshell – Wintrip; plus T Bain, R Coulson, J Feretti:-

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Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 24 February 2026
Warkworth is a village in Northumberland. Its War Memorial is a cenotaph in a recessed corner near the Church:-

Closer view:-

Dedications and names:-

Warkworth also has a War Memorial Hall. Entrance doorway:-

There is a side entrance down a path to the right:-

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Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 20 January 2026
Inside St Martin’s Church, Bowness-on-Windermere, are several war memorial windows and plaques.
To the men of the parish who fell in the Great War:-

Great War memorial window:-

Now on the wall of the Church of St Martin is a plaque commemorating the war dead of the Church of St John the Evangelist, Windermere, which closed in 1995. My photograph came out blurry so I link to this, which believe it or not is a clearer photo.
Plaque to four brothers, Thomas, John, William and Joseph Atkinson who were killed in the Great War. Erected by fellow-worshippers and neighbours:-

The central window here has a dedication to Lieutenant John Reginald Lingard, Suvla Bay, 21/8/1915:-

Central window dedicated to Lance Corporal James Everett Bownass, killed near Ypres, 1915:-

The church has a memorial chapel with a memorial to those who served in the Great War:-

Second World War memorial plaque:-

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Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 13 January 2026
Just up Lake Road from the Royalty Cinema in Bowness-on-Windermere lies Windermere’s War Memorial, a stone wall with plinth in the centre surmounted by a tapered rectangular column. A laurel wreath and sword of sacrifice are on the front face of the column.
The WW1 inscription on the wall reads “In undying memory of the men who fell in the Great War.” Posts at each end bear WW2 names on the internal panels:-

Central column:-

The plinth contains names for the Great War:-

The external left hand post bears a name from the Korean War 1951. Great War names beyond.

The right hand external post contains a dedication “On active service 1985.” Great War names beyond:-

Second World War Names on internal faces of the posts:-


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Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 6 January 2026
Swarthmoor is a village/hamlet between Barrow-in-Furness and Ulverston. Its War Memorial (for the Parish of Pennington,) in the form of a simple stone cross, is at the southern end of the village.

Inscription: “1914 – 1918 Pennington Memorial of the Great War for the world’s freedom and of the men who gave their lives for their King and their country. Simply to thy cross I cling.” The words “They shall be had in everlasting remembrance” lie around the remaining three faces of the plinth:-

Dedications, Swarthmoor War Memorial, Plus D-Day Anniversary wreath:-

World War 2 dedication and names:-

A plaque to the front of the Memorial is in remembrance of a VC recipient, Private Harry Christian, of the King’s Own (Royal Lancashire Regiment) 18/10/1915:-

Great War names:-



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Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 15:00 on 11 December 2025
Barrow’s War Memorial is a cenotaph standing on a hill in Barrow Park.
View uphill from the memorial to a VC winner:-

Closer view:-

Poppy detail by side of steps up to the Memorial:-

Upper detail; crest and inscription “AD 1914-1919”:-

Barrow War memorial plaques. Upper plaque reads, “To the glory of God and in honoured memory of the men of Barrow-in-Furness who fell in the Great War.” Lower plaque reads, “To the men and women of Barrow-in-Furness who died as a result of enemy action 1939-45.”:-

Great War names B W Adams – W Glover:-

Great War names W Gott – JJ Nicholls plus plaque reading, “In memory of those who died in the struggle for freedom.”

The Second World War names are set into the railings surrounding the memorial plinth:-


A photograph of the opening ceremony and details of the figurative cartouches at the corners of the memorial are on this Facebook page.
By the side of the memorial is a Second World War Memorial Bench:-

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Posted in War Memorials at 12:00 on 30 October 2025
Thornhill is a village in Stirlingshire.
Its war memorial, dedicated to the men of the Parish of Norrieston, stands on the corner of Main Street and Kippen Road.

Reverse view:-

Dedication plaques:-

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