“This clearing by the old Roman road will do,
dusk is falling on the silver birch, purple heather
here’s a place, I’ll come back soon” Simon Fletcher.Back on Cannock Chase, a medieval hunting ground whose oak forests, never planted with crops due to poor soil, were progressively cut down by charcoal burners, until the bare ground that was left was turned over by the Earl of Lichfield- whose seat lay at Shugborough, my next destination– on the outbreak of war in 1914.
The heath was then used to hold military training camps– (4) is an image from 1917- and trained soldiers such as a certain JRR Tolkien. It was scarred by the camp and by a railway, remnants of which I saw (3) during the Two Saints Way.
Various regiments were stationed here including the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, whose beloved pet Freda was killed in 1918 and is commemorated in (5). Many are also staying here until the Reveille at the end of the world; there are several cemetaries on Cannock Chase including the Cannock Chase War Cemetary (8) and the German Cemetary, where men are united now in defeat by the common enemy.
In memory of 25,000 Polish prisoners of war and professional classes who were murdered on Stalin’s orders by the Soviet Secret Police in 1940 at Katyn Forest, Kharkov, Miednoye, Kozielsk, Starobielsk, Ostaszkov and elsewhere.
Finally admitted in 1990 by the USSR after 50 years of shameful denial of the truth.
Although it was a bit depressing to think Russia admitting things has gone out of fashion… I was cheered by the new growth in the forest (10) and headed for the museum in a thoughtful frame of mind.
Today and (2) June 2016, (4) 1917, (3,8) during the Two Saints Way in March 2016.
Za naszą i waszą wolność (for your freedom and ours).
A fighter plane buzzard wheels overhead
A woodpecker mocks the hammer of guns
The sound of a cuckoo signals peace at last.
BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking 