Pegasus Bridge and the British Memorial

On our travels from Calais to our holiday stay in Port-en-Bessin-Hauppin we crossed, and stayed a while, at Pegasus Bridge. 

The original bridge (second photo) is now in the museum, we saw the original bridge from the road as we didn't have time for a visit. Next to the existing bridge is the memorial to the men who landed in the gliders, each glider has a memorial stone at its landing point. 

It's quite a moving place, it's incredible how the gliders landed - wikipedia details.

On 6 June 1944, during the Second World War, the bridge was the objective of members of D Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. A glider-borne force who were part of the 6th Airlanding Brigade of the 6th Airborne Division during Operation Tonga in the opening minutes of the Allied invasion of Normandy. 

Under the command of Major John Howard, D Company was to land close by the bridges in six Airspeed Horsa gliders and, in a coup-de-main operation, take both intact and hold them until relieved by the main British invasion forces. The successful capture of the bridges played an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in the aftermath of the Normandy invasion.

Later in 1944, the Bénouville Bridge was renamed Pegasus Bridge in honour of the operation. The name is derived from the shoulder emblem worn by British airborne forces.

We also visited the British Normandy Memorial at Vers-sur-Mer. Having seen many news items about the various D-Day memorials and especially Harry Billinge's MBE tireless campaign to honour those who did not return. He passed away earlier this year aged 96 having raised over £50,000. 

Harry's words when on BBC Breakfast touched so many and standing at the Memorial they filled my thoughts and certainly brought a tear to my eye...

'I'm no hero, I was lucky, I'm here. All the heroes are dead and I'll never forget them'

It was such a peaceful location, on a cliff top looking out across the English Channel. The British Normandy Memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and servicewomen under British command who fell on D-Day and during the battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944.

Their names are inscribed in stone along with their age and rank, they are from more than 30 different countries. The site also includes a French Memorial which is dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during this time.

The British Normandy Memorial was opened on 6th June 2021, 77 years on from the D-Day invasion.

The structure of the memorial is breathtaking, each column engraved on all four sides. I made sure I walked past each column to pay respect to each one, it was a shock to discover the oldest age I noticed was 55, younger than I am now. 

It was also a shock to not only read my maiden name but to see my actual name, although I have no idea who C Mellor was.

They died so that Europe may be free 

Cadw - Raglan Castle

 As Hubby and I are now in our third year of membership with English Heritage we can enjoy free admission to all properties in Wales (CADW),  Scotland (Historic Scotland) and OPW (Ireland).

On our recent trip to Cardiff we visited Tintern Abbey,  Chepstow Castle and Raglan Castle. I have blogged each property separately and although my photos show just how superb the properties are I have added notes taken from the Cadw website.

Our third visit was to Raglan Castle.

Raglan Castle stands high on a ridge in the glorious Welsh countryside and is the grandest castle ever built by Welshmen.

Sir William ap Thomas, known as the ‘blue knight of Gwent’, was responsible for the moated Great Tower of 1435 that still dominates this mighty fortress-palace. However it was his son Sir William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who gave created the Raglan Castle that still stands today.

In less than 10 years Sir William became the most powerful Welshman at the time. He had a dazzling career fighting in France, where he was captured and ransomed, and was knighted in 1452. He grew rich by importing Gascony wine and was made Sheriff of Glamorgan and Constable of Usk Castle. He played a crucial role in a decisive defeat of Lancastrian forces during the Wars of the Roses in 1461.

The grateful new king Edward IV rewarded Sir William by making him Chief Justice and Chamberlain of south Wales – and grandly styled him Baron Herbert of Raglan. The young Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VII, was sent to Sir William to be brought up at Raglan Castle.

Sir William’s final accolade, in 1468, was when he was created Earl of Pembroke as a reward for his capture of Harlech Castle, the last Lancastrian stronghold in England and Wales. It made him the first member of the Welsh gentry to enter the ranks of the English peerage.

Unfortunately he was defeated and captured at the battle of Edgecote in 1469 – and brutally beheaded the very next day. The reported death of 5,000 men, mostly Welshmen, in his army makes it one of Wales’s greatest losses in battle. His body was brought back to south east Wales and buried in the Cistercian Abbey church at Tintern.

Under various Earls of Worcester Raglan was then transformed into a magnificent country seat with a fashionable long gallery and one of the finest Renaissance gardens in Britain. 

An amazing castle that had so many levels and doorways leading to another room. We really enjoyed our exploration of this very Welsh castle. 

Cadw - Chepstow Castle

As Hubby and I are now in our third year of membership with English Heritage we can enjoy free admission to all properties in Wales (CADW),  Scotland (Historic Scotland) and OPW (Ireland).

On our recent trip to Cardiff we visited Tintern Abbey,  Chepstow Castle and Raglan Castle. I have blogged each property separately and although my photos show just how superb the properties are I have added notes taken from the Cadw website.

Our second visit was to Chepstow Castle.

Chepstow Castle stretches out along a limestone cliff above the River Wye and is a great example of how castles gradually evolved to cope with ever more destructive weaponry and the grand ambitions of their owners.

For more than six centuries Chepstow was home to some of the wealthiest and most powerful men of the medieval and Tudor ages.

Building was started in 1067 by Earl William Fitz Osbern, a close friend of William the Conqueror. It was one of the first Norman strongholds in Wales but the castle declined after the Civil War.

William Marshal, a soldier who took part in military tournaments, began to attract Royal patrons. The first was Eleanor of Aquitaine and then her eldest son Prince Henry. This gave William enough power to raise his own banner (half green, half gold with a red lion rampant) and have a company of knights.

When Henry was dying in 1183 he commanded the faithful Marshal to take his cloak to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Returning from the Holy Land in 1186 Marshal joined the military household of King Henry II and saw constant action in France.

It was Henry’s son, Richard the Lionheart, who rewarded Marshal’s loyalty by giving him the rich de Clare heiress Isabel in marriage. This is where the story of William Marshal and the history of Chepstow Castle began intertwined.

Isabel’s family had held Chepstow and other vast estates for most of the 12th century, and now William had become a chivalrous knight and was one of the richest men in the kingdom. However the castle had barely been touched for 100 years and it was William who brought it up to date building the first twin-towered gatehouse.

William also built a second line of defence, raising the height of the Norman walls and erecting a massive rectangular tower named Marshal’s Tower. The tired old Chepstow Castle became a formidable but suitably comfortable fortress.

William Marshal was one of those left in charge of the country when Richard the Lionheart went on crusade in 1190. He negotiated the Magna Carta on behalf of King John and ruled as regent of England for the young King Henry III until his death in 1219.

His was an extraordinary life and his legacy is preserved in the stones of an equally extraordinary castle, towering over the River Wye at this crucial gateway to Wales.

From the entrance Chepstow Castle looks a reasonable size but once you pass through the twin towers it becomes apparent that it is huge. Not only does it stretch on and on, building after building, but it also goes uphill. It was quite a climb to it's highest part. 

We had a super visit, it would be good to time our next visit with high tide when the River Wye would be higher.

Cadw - Tintern Abbey

As Hubby and I are now in our third year of membership with English Heritage we can enjoy free admission to all properties in Wales (CADW),  Scotland (Historic Scotland) and OPW (Ireland).

On our recent trip to Cardiff we visited Tintern Abbey,  Chepstow Castle and Raglan Castle. I have blogged each property separately and although my photos show just how superb the properties are I have added notes taken from the Cadw website.

Our first visit was to Tintern Abbey.

Tintern Abbey stands in roofless splendour on the banks of the River Wye nearly 500 years since its tragic fall from grace.

Originally a timber building it was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks, a simple stone church and cloisters came later. In 1269, thanks to the patronage of wealthy Marcher lords, the white-robed monks built a new abbey and created one of the masterpieces of British Gothic architecture. The great west front with its seven-lancet window and the soaring arches of the nave still takes your breath away.

The monks were still handing out alms on his behalf in 1535, but just a year after King Henry VIII’s English Reformation began Tintern surrendered in the first round of the dissolution of the monasteries — and the great abbey began slowly to turn into a majestic ruin.

The abbey ruins lay forgotten until the 18th century when Tintern experienced a second heyday as a major tourist destination.

A popular engraving by the Buck brothers, published in 1732, was the start of the interest, followed by the Reverend William Gilpin’s bestselling account of his Wye River voyage in 1770.

The ivy-covered ruins of Tintern were caught up in a surge of romantic interest in the ‘Sublime’ and the ‘Picturesque’. Travellers who were unable to visit Europe due to the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars had begun to visit the wild landscapes of Britain instead.

They flocked to the Wye Valley, arriving on small boats laden with picnic hampers. JMW Turner's magnificent watercolours of Tintern were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794-95, and William Wordsworth wrote his famous poem ‘Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey’ in 1798.

By now Tintern Abbey was a bustling tourist attraction, and today the great walls and arches in their setting of wild natural beauty haven’t lost their magic, it's an amazing sight.

We had a superb visit, it was quite overwhelming looking up at such a dominant structure.