On each 11th November at 11 am, every city, town, borough and village across the UK, falls silent for 2 minutes in remembrance of all those who fell in the two Great World Wars and later conflicts. The time and date are very significant as it was at 11am on of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 that the guns fell silent to bring and end to World War 1,
The village of Yeovilton in Somerset where I live was no different. For a small village of only 50 properties, Yeovilton attracts more than its fair share of royalty and dignitaries. This even included the the Head of the Anglican Church,Archbishop of Canterbury to conduct one Remembrance Day service.
The prime reason is the Church of St Bartholomew located in the village and which was unused when I first moved here. Adjoining the village is the Royal Naval Air Station, RNAS Yeovilton which established at the start of WW2 and which also has a military naval cemetery at the rear of the church.
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) purchased and restored the church for it to become the church for Naval Air Seamen.
At this years Remembrance Parade at St Bartholomew’s, the worlds last surviving Swordfish plane based at RNAS Yeovilton took part in a flypast dropping 25,000 remembrance poppies as it flew over.
The current building of St Bartholomew’s dates back to about the 1540’s but still contains elements of a Norman church which predated it and which in turn was built on an even earlier Saxon church.
The pictures below show a number of the poppies that drifted into my garden and the Swordfish flying over RNAS Yeovilton and Yeovilton Village.
Also the Photosphere at the bottom shows the military cemetery at Yeovilton with St Bartholomew’s in the background.
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Filed under: Armistice Day, Somerset Journal | Tagged: Armistice Day, military cemetery, poppies, Rememberance Parade, RNAS Yeovilton, St Bartholomew's, Swordfish, Yeovilton | Leave a comment »
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