Day 1, Dodge Weapon Carrier - 9th November

Over the last few years, I've been out to visit several memorials on and around Remembrance Day. For the last week, I've been searching for others to visit and found a few I'd not been to before. I like to keep my vehicles running all year around when possible and as the Dodge hadn't been out since August, it was an ideal opportunity to give it a run out. With Remembrance Sunday on the 10th, I decided to try and give each vehicle a run out to different memorials over the three days of the Remembrance Weekend - 9th to 11th.
 

The first memorial was one I tried to visit on my "Colours of Autumn" tour, but skipped due to nowhere to park. This time, the road was clear. In 1945, there were around 123 houses in the village. There are 66 names on the memorial, so around every other house lost someone.

I didn't know whether I'd be able to stop at Sherburn. There's only a small lay-by, which often has parked vehicles in it. Fortunately, as I approached it, I could see it was empty, so I was able to pull in.

I hadn't been to this memorial before, so this ride out was to check out where it was. I was planning on coming back in a Jeep. The memorial is located on one side of a junction, with a memorial to the former colliery on the other side of the road.

During World War 2, I believe one in ten conscripts were sent down the mines to keep the country's industries and railways running.

I ended the first day at the memorial in St. Laurence's Church yard. Since the memorial was within the church yard, I had to leave the Dodge parked outside.

One of the church members arrived just before I left and informed me of the service there the following morning. So I planned to return and start day 2 after the service.

The Ford GPW was the closest Jeep to the garage door, so that was the Jeep used for the day 2 tour. All of the memorials on the second day of the tour, are ones I've visited in past years.
 

The Remembrance service began in the church at 10:30, moving out to the memorial in time for the two minutes silence. Just before the silence, the names of the dead from the village were read out. It was a long list.

All my vehicles carry 100th BG markings, but as I don't live near the 100th Bomb Group Museum, I made some poppies, marked with "100th Bomb Group", to leave at several local memorials. 

After the Remembrance service was finished, I set off for the next stop at Littletown. It's quite a simple memorial, standing near the front of the village. 

In 1945, the village had around 70 houses, while the memorial carries twelve names. All but one of the names are from World War 1.

The memorial at Shotton Colliery is quite impressive and is located within a memorial garden. There were still a few people standing in front of the memorial, there from a service not long finished. 

Several took an interest in the Jeep and had a group photo with it.

The Haswell memorial is located within the church yard of St. Paul's church. This was quite a large village in 1945 ( the earliest Google Earth photo I can find ), but as you can imagine, that resulted in an equally large number of names on the memorial.

The last memorial for day 2 was at Ludworth village. There are twenty names from World War 1 and five names from World War 2. The 1945 aerial photo of the village, shows around 200 houses, so one in ten houses lost someone.

After Ludworth, I headed home to warm up.

The Ford was then driven back into the garage, parking it in the middle, behind the pillar. The M201 was then put away, which left it behind the garage door, ready for the third day of the Memorial tour.

Day three was a longer drive, planning to take in nine war memorials. As it happened, there were also some mining memorials on the way too, so the 25 mile drive took around two and a half hours. This time, for day three, it was the turn of the M201 Jeep.
 

The trip began at West Rainton again, this time leaving one of the poppies I'd made. I only had material for eight poppies, so they were left at random.

Next year, I'll have to be more prepared. I also have some new memorials to visit for next year, a bit further afield from home. Following Remembrance Sunday, there were additional wreaths at this memorial.

The next memorial at Belmont was one I hadn't visited before. It is located on a main road with no parking, so I had to park in a side street a couple of hundred feet away.

The WW1 memorial was moved from the church yard in 2009 and has additional pillars with names from other conflicts such as WW2, Korea and Iraq. From there, I went for a quick fuel stop before the rest of the trip.

I got to Bowburn at around 10:45am, so waited there for the two minute silence at 11am. Empty on Saturday, it was lined side to side with wreaths. 

At 11am, I was the only one there, as people rushed by, lost in their own lives.

I left a poppy at Bowburn.

After Bowburn, I headed to Coxhoe, a memorial I hadn't been to before. 

Once again, there was no parking on the main road in front of the memorial, but it is located outside the village hall and there was a car park next to that.

There were plenty of new wreaths, but it's a shame the memorial hadn't been cleaned before hand.

Not too far along the road, at the West end of the village was the Kelloe memorial. Coxhoe and Kelloe were two villages we visited during our first year with the Jeep in 2005.

Both were holding V.E. Day Celebration events on the same day, so we began the day at one, before all the military vehicles set off in convoy for the other event in the afternoon.

Kelloe also recieved a poppy from me.

At the other end of the village, there was one of two memorials for East Hetton/Kelloe Colliery.

This one was a general memorial to those who served at the colliery from 1836 to 1983.

It was my first visit to all of the Kelloe memorials.

The second memorial, opposite to Kelloe church, was to 68 men lost to a gas explosion in the mine. A further six miners involved in rescue efforts, were overcome by gas and also died, bringing the total lost to 74.

Quarrington Hill has two War and two Mining memorials. This is the first war memorial, located a little way back from the main road through the village.

This was also the first time I'd visited the Quarrington memorials.

The second war memorial is stone, located in the grounds of the community centre. The row of small wooden crosses had just been left minutes earlier, by students from the local primary school, visiting to mark Remembrance Day.

Back on the main road, on the other side of the junction to the war memorial, is this triangular shaped mining memorial.

In the grounds of the community centre, there is a mining wagon and miners lamp, which remains illuminated in memory of those who died at the mine.

The Thornley memorial is two memorials in one. The main wall of remembrance and garden are the main part of the memorial.

Most of the names on the wall are from World War 1. A small panel on the left side, has additional names from WW2.

A similar panel on the right, carries the names of those lost during World War 2.

'Jack' Youll V.C. was killed on the 27th of October 1918 at age 21, just fifteen days before the end of World War 1.

Four months earlier, he earned his Victoria Cross, after storming an enemy machine gun nest that was firing on his position.

His memorial stands within the Thornley memorial garden.

A return to Ludworth memorial was my last memorial of the weekend. I called in again as it was on my way back home anyway. The sun was in a bad position for photographs, but I managed a handful that turned out okay under the lighting conditions.

Over the three days of the memorial tours, I've driven around 56 miles, taking in fourteen war memorials and five mining memorials. So many names remembered in such a small area of just one county in England.

We Will Remember Them.