Day out

It was a really nice day weather wise today, the best of our week away in fact. We visited a village called Wickwar in Gloucestershire. As you know  I collect medals amongst other things, and I have in my collection a 1914/15 Star to a Lance Corporal of the 3rd Bn,Grenadier Guards. Sadly he was killed in action in October 1915. He was from Wickwar. The War Memorial outside the church was odd as it didn't have any names on at all, in the church porch was a memorial stone with all the names on including my man Nathaniel George Toms. He was killed in an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a very strongly held fortification during the Battle of Loos,he has no known grave. He was only 23 years old, got married in May of 1915 and went to France in July and killed on 6th October.
 Every Remembrance Sunday all the names of the fallen are read out in the church which I think is a nice touch. There's another memorial in the village hall that we didn't see and he's remembered on the Loos War Memorial in France.
Tried to find where he and his family lived in the High Street  but was unable unfortunately.  A few years ago Medal News magazine published research I'd done into L/Cpl Toms, I'll have to post it as a blog another time. Wickwar does have a very good tea rooms that we had lunch in, couldn't take Ida inside unfortunately so sat outside.

Memorial stone in the church porch

The village recently had a scarecrow competition, didn't realize these were at first!

  We drove on to a really interesting place in Wales called Caerwent known in Roman times as Venta Silurum. There's alot of Roman structure and walls left, the outer town wall  which was quite spectacular as well as alot of the footprints of buildings including shops and a farm house within the town. The church as two large pieces of inscribed stone, the bigger one a statue plinth of  Governor Tiberius Paulinus , the smaller an altar block dedicated to the god Mars still with an indent on top for a flame. It's well worth a visit, its all well signposted, I had a kick around in any molehills I saw  especially around the wall but found nothing. Time Team excavated in 2008 and discovered more buildings and a  penknife handle depicting two Gladiators. There is still much that hasn't been excavated  at all so there could be more goodies to find!

Plinth and altar stone in the church