The Fovant Badges Society and the First World War Centenary – Centenary Badge to be constructed in 2016
The Fovant Badges Society is the local charity that maintains the Fovant Badges National War Memorial. Five of the surviving eight badges on Fovant Down date from 1916 and were constructed by soldiers stationed at Fovant. The advent of the Centenary of World War One has presented the Trustees of the Society with an opportunity to widen the appeal of the Badges Memorial to a wider and younger audience, thus further securing their long term future.The Trustees of the Society have decided that this most important centenary can best be marked by the building of a new badge on the hillside to join the other eight. The design will be a poppy of 25m diameter with “1916” and “2016” legends. As far as possible the new badge will use construction techniques that would have been available familiar to the soldiers stationed in the area during World War One. The Society is delighted to announce that English Heritage have just granted the society Scheduled Monument Consent for the Centenary Badge. This is a very significant milestone in the project.
Many options were considered by the Trustees before deciding on the poppy design.
The design was chosen because it directly relates to the poppies that grew in “Flanders Fields” where so many soldiers fought and died in WW1. The wearing of the Royal British Legion “Poppy” is the way that we all remember the sacrifices made by British and Commonwealth service men and women since WW1. It is an image that we can all relate to and understand and we are sure that those soldiers stationed at Fovant 100 years ago would have understood and applauded our desire to follow their example and build a chalk “badge” on Fovant Down.
The society will now move to the next stage in this project and will start fundraising efforts.
For further details please contact:
Richard Bullard – 01722 714782, email: Fovantbadges1@outlook.com
Website is http://www.fovantbadges.com/
