New memorial announced for Jersey slave labourers
A Jersey visitor destination has unveiled plans for a new public memorial to honour slave labourers who were brought to the island in World War Two.Jersey War Tunnels, which tells the story of life in the island during the German Occupation, is planning a large sculpture called Sentinel of Souls and a commemorative trail, said owner Lance Trevellyan.He said the aim was to "create a significant memorial that draws public attention to the terrible cost of war, the lives lost, and the human suffering endured during the Occupation".Thousands of slave labourers were brought to the Channel Islands by the Germans to build concrete defences, including a gun emplacement at Corbiere.
Mr Trevellyan said the privately funded project, part of wider plans under way to upgrade the tunnels, would involve a consultation with local communities, artists, and historians, with local artists expected to contribute to the final design.The tunnels are a former underground hospital complex in St Lawrence.
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The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Highgate cemetery families confront bosses in row over new building
Dozens of grave owners confronted Highgate cemetery's bosses and their architects this week in a growing row over a maintenance and toilet block in a part of the graveyard where almost 200 people were recently buried. The cemetery called Tuesday's private meeting in an attempt to placate objectors by setting out adjustments to a new building that is part of an £18m redevelopment of the graveyard. But the meeting descended into heckles, chants, a walkout, legal threats, demands for compensation and accusations that cemetery was putting the needs of tourists above mourners. A recording of the meeting, heard by the Guardian, revealed unanimous and often furious opposition to what grave owners have called 'the bunker'. The controversial block is due to be located on the mound, an area of the cemetery of about 170 recent graves including those of the sociologist Prof Stuart Hall, the artist Gustav Metzger, and the critic Tom Lubbock. Among those objecting were the actor Bertie Carvel, whose mother, Pat, was buried on the mound in 2019. He told the meeting it was 'crazy' to locate the 'brutalist' building in part of the cemetery 'most frequented by active mourners'. Pleading with the cemetery's managers, he said: 'I'm sure it is not deliberately insensitive but given the strength of feeling please, please, please will you stop. Go away and rethink.' His fellow actor Pam Miles demanded that the cemetery pay for the cost of exhuming the remains of her actor husband, Tim Pigott-Smith, if the scheme goes ahead. 'It leaves us no option but to exhume. In the circumstances it would be fair to expect you to repay us for these expensive graves.' Staff from Hopkins Architects, who designed the scheme, were repeatedly heckled and shouted down as they argued the building could not be placed in any other part of the 14.5-hectare (36-acre) graveyard. A lawyer, who afterwards asked not to be named, said he and others were planning to sue the cemetery for breach of contract. The man, who owns a double plot where his partner his buried, told the meeting: 'What we bought was a site with open views and you are changing that. You need to think about whether there are potential legal ramifications from people like me if you carry on with this.' Separately, a letter to the cemetery's trustees signed by more than 30 grave owners, claimed the charity had breached consumer rights of those who had recently bought plots by failing to inform them of the plan to redevelop the cemetery. It also threatened to report the trust to the Charity Commission over consultation failures and reputational damage to the cemetery. And it warned they were prepared to allege mismanagement to the National Heritage Lottery Fund, at a time when the cemetery is seeking £18m of funding for the redevelopment. At the meeting architects defended the building. One denied it was brutalist, saying: 'That's just not correct. There's more poetry to it than that.' One of the objectors shouted: 'Bollocks.' Undeterred, the architects outlined proposed changes to the block including removing an accessible toilet and reducing the height and width of the building. At this point Natalie Chambers, whose parents are both buried on the mound, left the meeting in protest. As she left she said: 'I'm appalled. You don't listen to us one bit. My father was in the Warsaw ghetto. And you are so disgusting I don't even want to come to the cemetery any more.' There followed a chant from the room of: 'We don't want the building.' A screenwriter, Anna Seifert-Speck, whose husband was buried on the mound in 2019, said: 'We are asking you to reconsider bulldozing over our complaints. Lowering the thing a little bit isn't going to work, it's not want we want.' Another grave owner said: 'It's a graveyard for us. It's not a tourist site.' A barrister said the mound area was the 'worst possible' location for the building. 'There is a concentration of nothing but contemporary graves there. That's why you have so many people in this room. My young daughter lies there. 'You must see that the notion of having toilets right next to the graves of loved ones causes pain and anguish. The solution is simple: don't build on the mound.' Speaking after the meeting, Carvel said: 'Mourning in a cemetery ranks higher than visiting a place of historic interest. The force of those arguments must have rung loud to anyone with an ounce of humanity. But we are also dealing with a corporate decision-making process and I remain somewhere between anxious and cynical about the extent to which that organisation will look itself in the mirror and admit it was wrong.' The architects and trustees agreed to reflect on the feedback and report back to the grave owners in the coming weeks. Elizabeth Fuller, the chair of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, acknowledged failures in the way recent grave owners had been consulted about the plans and pledged 'better communication in the future'. At the start of the meeting she said: 'As required by the planning process, and by [the] reality [of the site], we have had to balance the benefits and harms of all constituent elements. We will commit to amending our plans wherever possible.'
BBC News
9 hours ago
- BBC News
Gosport D-Day embarkation point memorial unveiled
A new memorial to soldiers who set off from the Hampshire coast on D-Day has been unveiled by a Normandy Gosport D-Day fellowship raised funds for the seafront memorial, which has been erected alongside an existing memorial to Canadian Albert Westgate, aged 100, unveiled the memorial at a ceremony at Stokes Bay in site was used as an embarkation point for thousands of troops taking part in the landings on 6 June 1944 that led to the liberation of Europe and the end of World War Two the following year. The granite memorial at Stokes Bay bears the words: "We must never forget the Bravery and Sacrifice of those who fought on D-Day."The Gosport D-Day Fellowship was formed in 2012 by Malcolm Chapman, and Tony Belben to campaign for and raise funds for a memorial dedicated to all nationalities who took part in the men died before they could see the plan become a group's Jilly Salvat said: "I hope that the brave men who left these shores, and whether they returned home or paid the ultimate price for our freedom, are now also looking down, knowing that we remember them. "We honour them, and we commemorate their sacrifice."Mr Westgate was attached to a unit of US soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on after the unveiling, which was attended by members of the public and local dignitaries, he said: "To see all these people here, basically, if you like, saying 'thank you' to me... well it means everything, and quite honestly I'm still trying to come to terms with it." The beach at Stokes Bay was used as an embarkation point for men and equipment. Concrete slabs were laid directly onto the beach, to allow lorries and armoured vehicles to embark onto landing craft without getting bogged down on the site was also used for the construction of Phoenix caissons, which were part of the Mulberry giant artificial harbours were used to unload thousands of tonnes of vehicles and goods onto the Normandy beaches each day following the invasion. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- BBC News
Oldham mum's ashes put in bottle in sea to 'travel the world'
A woman has sent her mum's ashes out to sea in a bottle so she could fulfil her unrealised dream of travelling the world. Cara Melia, from Oldham, said her 51-year-old mum Wendy Chadwick's responsibilities as a single parent of five had meant she had not been able to see the world before her death in February. Ms Melia put the ashes in a bottle with a note that said: "This is my mum. Throw her back in - she's travelling the world. Thanks Cara, Oldham."The bottle was put in the sea in Skegness to "see where she ends up". After the bottle was found on the same beach 12 hours later, a Facebook post about it went bottle was returned to the sea. Ms Melia told BBC Radio Manchester that she hoped it would travel further this Melia, 24, said: "Life happened and my mum never got a chance to travel."Nobody was meant to find her for a bit - she was meant to be in a completely different country."I'd love her to end up on a beach in Barbados or Spain, which would definitely take a while." Ms Melia added she had originally planned to scatter her mum's ashes on a beach, but her cousin and best friend then came up with the bottle idea. They decided to put it into the sea on Monday while they were on holiday in said her mum, who died from a heart condition, was a "very quirky kind of person" who "absolutely loved the beach and sun" and would be giggling about this. Ms Melia said she thanked the woman who found the bottle, who told her it was an honour to have done said she expected the Facebook post about the discovery of the bottle to get about five shares, not to go viral as it did. "I wasn't expecting it to go viral and to touch as many people as it has."Ms Melia said she was looking forward to seeing where her mum's ashes might be found next. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
