Nelson & His World

Well, this morning we had the Trafalgar Day parade in Birmingham city centre. So I went with camera in hand to have a good look at the 2 cannon - in the hope that I would find some kind of engraved letters/numbers as referred to above.

Regretably there was absolutely nothing!

I think the problem is that the rear halves of the cannon had been buried underground for about 150 years and during that time had suffered severe corrosion. In an odd way it makes me feel better because if there had been visible engraving I felt sure that I would have noticed it in previous years.

Now for two bits of good news and one a bit of bad news.

Good news 1

The cannon are now mounted on brand new replica carriages and really look splendid!

Good news 2

For the first time I met the current owners of the cannon. They are relatives of the chap who bought them from the council in the 1960's. They have obviously gone out of their way over the last few years to make the cannon available to Birmingham each Trafalgar Day. And they seemed genuinely pleased that I was interested in their provenance.

Bad news

It seems that the owners are moving quite a long way North and the cannon will be taken to their new home. So it does raise the question whether the funds will be available to bring them to Birmingham for future Trafalgar Day parades.

I am sure that the various interested parties will do their best to make it happen - but I think it is a case of "watch this space".

MB