If you are planning a tour to Britian, and would like to take in some of the spectacle of our military heritage we can help you to take advantage of the dozens of re-enactment and other events staged around the country.
We will be adding an events calendar so you can see what is on and where!
A private
military museum covering mostly World War II but with other
exhibits ranging from the Boer War to the First Gulf War. Contains
tanks, guns, helmets, artillery, grenades and bombs, from British,
Canadian and Russian forces. Vehicles are restored not to pristine
condition but to how they may have looked in action. There is also
a home front display covering Civil defence and ARP, National Fire
Service, Home Guard etc.
Based at the
former RAF Davidstow Moor and devoted primarily to the history of
that airfield during World War II. The museum also covers the
history of other RAF airfields, army and Royal Navy in Cornwall.
Other displays include artefacts, vehicles and weapons from the
Royal Observer Corps and the Light Infantry.
Three fortifications on the island of Tresco linked with the Civil Wars. The Royalist Scilly Isles surrendered in 1646 but in 1648 they rebelled and became a privateering base attacking British and Dutch ships. In 1651 Parliament sent an expedition led by Robert Blake which landed near the Old Blockhouse gun tower on Old Grimsby Harbour. After fierce fighting they moved on to take King Charles’ Castle, the former Royalist stronghold. Cromwell’s Castle was built nearby as a new defence after the invasion.
Standing
guard over the Dart estuary, the castle was begun in 1388 by John
Hawley, Mayor of Dartmouth. The gun tower, added about a century
later, is the earliest English fortification built specially for
ship-sinking heavy cannon. More gun platforms were added by Henry
VIII. Besieged for a month in the Civil War it was taken and held
by the Royalists for three years until Sir Thomas Fairfax retook it
in 1646. The 19th century gun battery remained in use through both
world wars. Exhibition includes film recreating a Victorian
gun-firing.
Built by Henry VIII, like the smaller St Mawes Castle on the other side of the River Fal, to guard the south coast of Cornwall against the French and Spanish. One of a chain of coastal forts built in a clover leaf shape, with a keep surrounded by semi-circular bastions to house artillery. In the Civil Wars it withstood a five month siege and was the last Royalist castle in England to fall. Exhibitions include a Tudor gun deck, the restored Royal Garrison Artillery Barracks and a replica First World War Guardhouse.
Part of the
Museum of Somerset housed in the 12th century great hall of Taunton
Castle. The Military Museum’s collection covers the history of the
County Regiments of Somerset from 1685 onwards. Its exhibitions are
organised in two groups, one on historic conflicts and the other on
life in the regiments. Exhibits include a silver model of the
Gateway of India (a monument on the waterfront in Mumbai) presented
to the Somerset Light Infantry as the last British brigade to leave
India in 1948.
Dedicated to
the flying arm of the Royal Navy, with a large collection of
military and civilian aircraft, as well as models of Royal Navy
ships. Divided into four halls, the first covers the development of
naval aviation from early bi-planes on. Hall 2 has aircraft from
World War II and Hall 3 houses the aircraft carrier experience.
Hall 4 explains the theory of flight and contains the first British
built Concorde and two Delta wing test aircraft.
Despite superior numbers and holding a hilltop
position near Stratton, the Earl of Stamford’s Parliamentarian army
was attacked and overcome by Sir Ralph Hopton’s Royalist force.
Stamford lost half his army and left the way to Devon open for
Hopton. Though houses have been built on the top of the hill, much
of the slopes are undeveloped and defensive earthworks used by the
Parliamentarians can still be seen, with access via footpaths and
lanes.
The last pitched battle fought on
English soil and the last chapter of the Duke of Monmouth’s attempt
to seize the crown from James II. Faced with a smaller but more
experienced royal army, the rebels made a botched night attack but
at daybreak the king’s troops advanced and destroyed the rebel
army. Monmouth was captured three days later and executed. The
marshland of the battlefield has been drained but otherwise little
changed. A Pitchfork Rebellion Trail is displayed at Chedzoy
church.
A swift victory for Sir Ralph
Hopton’s Royalist army. Faced by a Parliamentarian force advancing
from Devon under Colonel Ruthin, the Royalists charged and
overwhelmed them, taking large numbers of prisoners and securing
Cornwall for the King. There is some dispute as to the site of the
battle. The English Heritage registered site is at Braddock Down,
now divided into fields with limited access. The alternative site
favoured by some historians lies partly in the parkland at
Boconnoc.
This 17th
century fortress in still in use by the military. It was built in
the 1660s, mainly as a defence against the Dutch, though its guns
also faced the town which had been a Parliamentary stronghold in
the Civil War. Its irregular outline is due to the incorporation of
an earlier fort dating from Elizabethan times. The Citadel was
strengthened several times over the years, notably in the 1750s.
Today it is the base of the 29th Commando Regiment of the Royal
Artillery
On 28th April 1944 a German patrol of fast motor boats torpeded a convoy of ships fuill of US soliders prepargin for D Day on a training exercise. The 4th US Infantry Division lost more men off Slapton Sands on 28th April 1944 than it did on Utah Beach. There is a sherman tank memorial at Slapton Sands.
A 19th
century coastal defence fort situated at the mouth of Weymouth
Harbour, in the 20th century Nothe Fort remained an important
defence for the naval base in the adjacent Portland Harbour. In the
Second World War it housed an anti-aircraft emplacement.
Constructed on three levels, with a labyrinth of underground
passages, the fort is now home to a museum featuring World War II
vehicles along with original cannons and guns. Regular events
including displays of musketry and cannon firing.
The museum of
the Royal Tank Regiment & Royal Armoured Corps, its collection
has almost 300 vehicles from 26 countries. Exhibits include a
British First World War Mark I, the oldest surviving combat tank,
and a German Tiger I tank in working order. The collection is
divided into four exhibitions: The Tank Story, from 1915 to the
present; the Trench experience, on the First World War and the
invention of the tank; Battle Group Afghanistan, recreating a
modern Forward Operating Base; and the Discovery Centre, with
interactive display and a cut-in-half Centurian.
The UK’s
National Museum of Army Communications. Tells the story of military
communications from torches and semaphore through telegraph, Morse
Code and wireless to satellites and cyberspace. Exhibits also cover
the work of Special Forces and covert operations, cryptography and
deception, code breaking and clandestine radio equipment. As well
as historic equipment used in both world wars there are hands-on
interactive displays involving cutting edge technology encompassing
electronic communications and cyber warfare.
General George Goring’s Royalist
army was heading for Bridgwater when attacked by a Parliamentarian
force at the Wagg Rhyne stream near Langport. The Royalists broke
under the Parliamentarian cavalry charges and fled. Langport and
Bridgwater fell soon after. The battlefield now consists of fields
crossed by a railway and a road running across the Wagg Bridge
which was at the centre of the fighting.
A picturesque
moated castle built in the 1370s by Sir John de la Mere.
Distinctive for its tower-keep with four corner towers and conical
roofs. Possibly built in the style of French castles, the keep once
stood within a larger courtyard. It was extensively modernised in
the 16th century. During the Civil War the castle was a Royalist
stronghold, and was besieged and damaged by Parliamentary cannon
before surrendering in 1645. A portion of the damaged walls
collapsed as late as 1910.
The last major victory for the
Royalists in the First Civil War. The Earl of Essex’s
Parliamentarian force, attempting to take Cornwall, was pursued by
a larger army led by King Charles and surrounded at Lostwithiel,
above the port of Fowey. While the Parliamentarian cavalry broke
through and escaped, the infantry and artillery surrendered to the
King. Fighting took place over ten days on two main sites close to
Restormel Castle and Castle Dore. These have only recently been
identified with the help of archaeological work and have now been
registered by English Heritage.
One of the
best preserved of Henry VIII’s coastal forts, built in 1539 on the
Isle of Portland, overlooking the harbour. The castle offered a low
profile to the seaward side and was moated on the land side. In the
Civil War Portland was Royalist though briefly held by Parliament
in 1643. During the Anglo-Dutch War, the naval Battle of Portland
took place not far offshore. Garrisoned for the last time in the
Napoleonic Wars, the castle was an ammunition store in World War
One and an anti-submarine base in the Second World War. Features
audio tours and informative displays.