Friday 29 January 2010

29 Jan 2010

Day 29:
Along North Road West, which is my normal cycle path to and from uni, I ride by (and have walked past) this 'garden' or public space most every day, but have never taken the time to stop and see what it is all about as I really only ever have paid attention to the two obelisk's within the garden itself. Today I decided to stop on my way to uni as I thought that it might make a good photo. What I found was something much more interesting. As it turns out, this site was redeveloped in 1999/2000 as a new memorial garden to over 3000 Royal Navy servicemen who died in the 1800's and who were initially buried in the St. Dunstan's Abbey School playing fields, some of whom died in the Royal Naval Hospital in addition to ~200 cholera victims. It has taken a fair amount of effort to find any of this information online as there is no plaque stating what this garden is about and what it represents and it isn't even included on the official list of Plymouth memorials. Shameful indeed. In fact, it can often be full of junkies, drunks and trouble-making teens after the sun goes down. After 10 years of existence one would think that a city so rich in UK naval history would be able to appropriately honour its servicemen by erecting a sign or plaque as to why this is such a sacred place, but so far nothing has been planned.

For more info about the No Place Memorial Garden, check out this link: State Burial Site. This was the only information I could find...

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