HistoryFare 💙

Honour the fallen and discover the incredible military heritage right on our doorstep as we approach Remembrance weekend. Join HistoryFare on Saturday, 7th November 2026, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm for the Melton Mowbray Military History Walking Tour. Please note that this is the last public tour scheduled for 2026—making it your final chance to join a public group this year! However, if you miss out, private tours can still be booked directly through HistoryFare. This special guided walk is a deeply meaningful way to mark the season of remembrance, taking you on a journey through hundreds of years of local heroism and wartime history. The tour begins at the Military Working Dogs memorials outside the @MeltonBC offices. Over two hours, you will stand at local war memorials and hear the moving, real-life stories of the brave individuals who served with the British forces across various conflicts. Discover the history of the local volunteers from the Leicestershire Regiment and the Leicestershire Yeomanry called up in World War I, learn about the pioneering airmen of the Royal Flying Corps, and explore Melton's deep military roots spanning from the Medieval crusades to the Cold War. Tickets are just £7.50 and even include discount vouchers for local cafes so you can warm up with a hot drink afterward. Spaces are strictly limited to 20 participants to keep the experience personal. Secure your spot today to pay tribute to those who served. Book your tickets now at 👇 historyfare.co.uk/events/mel… #MeltonMowbray #RemembranceWeekend #MilitaryHistory #LestWeForget #LocalHistory #HistoryFareTours #remembrance #GuidedTour #leicestershire #WW1 #ww2

On 13 August 1944, a Wellington Bomber crashed in Melton Mowbray, a tragic event in our wartime history. Tonight, I am privileged to share this story with the Muskham History Group in my talk, "Just Another Trip!". Beyond exploring the heartbreaking loss of the RAF aircrew, the presentation will focus heavily on the incredible bravery that followed. We'll look at the incredible courage of the RAF airmen, paratroopers, and young air cadets who risked everything to rush to their rescue. Looking forward to an evening of remembrance and community history with everyone tonight! Hope to see a great turnout tonight! #MuskhamHistory #MeltonMowbray #WW2History #RAF #AviationHistory #WellingtonBomber #LocalHistory #WartimeHeroism #HistoryFareTalks

Honouring the missing, remembered always. Sharing a special look into history today from my personal collection: the original Order of Service from the official unveiling of the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial on this day in 1953 along with a few vintage postcards. #OTD , 73 years ago at 2:30pm on Saturday 17th October 1953, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Runneymede Memorial to Officers and Men of the Air Forces of the Commonwealth in Surrey. It marked her very first official visit to a @CWGC site as the reigning monarch, following her coronation earlier that year. During the unveiling, Her Majesty laid a wreath of pale pink carnations, orchids and lily-of-the-valley on the first step leading to the central arch of the Runnymede Memorial. Designed by Sir Edward Maufe, this breathtaking memorial stands on Cooper's Hill, overlooking the River Thames. It serves as a sanctuary of remembrance for more than 20,000 Commonwealth airmen and women who lost their lives operating from bases in the UK and North/Western Europe during #WWII, and who have no known grave. Holding these pieces of history really brings the scale and emotion of that day to life. Their names are forever engraved into the cloisters, ensuring their bravery and ultimate sacrifice are never forgotten. "The sky was their battlefield. They shared one glory and one grave." I'm interested to know why the CWGC website quotes a figure of 20,252 total identified casualties commemorated but the order of ceremony quotes 20,455. Why the differeince? Have over 200 bodies of RAF airmen subsequently been found and identified since the memorial was unveiled? cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemet… #RunnymedeMemorial #Remembrance #LestWeForget #RAF #AviationHistory #WWIIHistory #CWGC #HistoryCollection #Ephemera #OnThisDay #PerArduaAdAstra @RoyalAirForce @RAFAssociation

Looking for information on Melton artist Dora Webb’s bronze works! 🔍 Last year, I published a Substack post about one of Melton Mowbray’s famous but often overlooked artists: Mahalia Theodore Webb, widely known as Dora (1886–1973). Around the same time, I provided information to the BBC Antiques Roadshow regarding her incredible miniature portrait of Major John Pott MC, which she painted right here in Melton back in 1944. Thsi was started here in Melton and finished whilst he was in Arnhem. Recently, I was contacted by a gallery in Southern England regarding a bronze statue that Dora created. The figure is a classicised, athletic nude young man triumphantly hoisting a bird with outspread wings topped by a crown. This is the official emblem of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Sculpting a nude youth holding an eagle aloft was a popular allegorical theme in the early-to-mid 20th century, often symbolizing the "Genius of Aviation," victory, or a memorial tribute to fallen airmen. The figure is signed Dora Webb 1944. While I know her sister, Cecilia Webb, was well-known locally for creating numerous figures, dolls, and models, this is the very first time I have ever encountered a bronze piece of this nature attributed to Dora. We do know from a 1947 exhibition at their Burton Road home that the sisters worked across various mediums, including casts and busts but details on her specific bronze works remain elusive. Can you help? I would be extremely grateful if anyone in the local community, or any art collectors, have any information, photos, or records regarding Dora Webb’s bronze sculptures. 👇 You can read more about her fascinating life, her commissions for Queen Mary’s Dolls' House, and the story behind the Major Pott portrait in my full post here: historyfare.substack.com/p/m… #MeltonMowbray #LocalHistory #DoraWebb #MeltonArtists #AntiquesRoadshow #ArtHistory #BurtonRoad #WW2 #parachuteregiment #RAF

Uncover the hidden history of Melton Mowbray this weekend! 🇬🇧 @FareBrian has 4 award-winning walking tours lined up this Friday 16th & Sat 17th Oct. Each tour is £7.50 per person. Spaces are limited! 👇 The Weekend Line-up 👇 📅 Friday 16th Oct 🎨 10am: Painting the Town Red – 1830s origins of the phrase & fox hunting history. 👑 2pm: Royal Melton – 1,500 years of history from the Saxon era onwards. 📅 Saturday 17th Oct 🪂 10am: Airborne & Commando – WWII history & the 'Red Devils' paratroopers. 🗺️ 2pm: Heritage Trail – A journey through centuries of social history. 🎟️ Book your spot now: historyfare.co.uk/events #MeltonMowbray #History #WalkingTours #awardwinningtours #tripadvisortravellerschoice

No engine. No second chances. Just canvas, steel tubing, plywood, and pure courage. Imagine crossing the English Channel in the pitch black on D-Day+1, 7 June 1944, towed by a C-47, only to be cut loose silently behind enemy lines. That was the reality for the glider infantry troops of the 82nd Airbirne based around Leicester and Nottingham, espcially the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment based at Scraptoft. Because the 325th GIR was so large, their deployment (split between Mission Galveston and Mission Hackensack on D-Day +1, 7 June 1944) required multiple locations. RAF Upottery (Devon, England) - The 2nd Battalion (along with parts of the 401st GIR, which served as their 3rd Battalion) departed from here in a mix of Waco and Horsa gliders. RAF Aldermaston (Berkshire, England) - The Regimental Headquarters and the 1st Battalion departed from this airfield. RAF Ramsbury (Wiltshire, England) - Additional elements of the regiment and their heavy support equipment took off from here. They crossed the English Channel and landed under heavy enemy fire at Landing Zone W, located just south of Sainte-Mère-Église near the hamlet of Les Forges. The combined force used 152 smaller, American-built Waco CG-4A gliders and 49 larger, British-built Airspeed Horsa gliders to deliver nearly 2,300 glidermen directly into the combat zone. At the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Église, you can stand face-to-face with history in a dedicated pavilion housing an authentic, beautifully restored Waco CG-4A glider, the only life-size example of its kind on display in France. The pavilion's unique architecture is shaped like a giant parachute shroud, and the diorama inside shows the Waco with its nose tilted open. Look inside to see exactly how these "flying coffins" were packed to the brim with a military jeep, heavy equipment, and 13 brave soldiers heading straight into the unknown. #DDay #Normandy #AirborneMuseum #WacoGlider #WWIIHistory #SainteMereEglise #GliderInfantry #WW2 #NeverForget #historyfaretours #us82nd #scraptoft #82ndAirborne

Yesterday started with a visit to Pointe du Hoc. Standing on the edge of the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, it is hard to comprehend the sheer bravery that took place on these grounds. During the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, the U.S. Army Rangers (specifically the 2nd & 5th Ranger Battalions who departed Weymouth Dorset) were tasked with an impossible mission: scale these 100-foot vertical cliffs under heavy enemy fire to destroy German artillery positions that threatened the Allied landings at Omaha and Utah beaches. Walking through the site today, you can still see the intense scars of battle: Massive bomb craters covering the entire landscape, looking like a moonscape. Ruined concrete bunkers and pillboxes that you can walk inside. The steep cliffs themselves, which give you a chilling perspective of what the Rangers had to climb. A deeply moving reminder of the cost of freedom. 🇺🇸🇫🇷 #PointeDuHoc #Normandy #WWII #DDay #LivingHistory #TravelFrance #ww2 #historyfaretours

This is a British Centaur IV Close Support tank, a crucial piece of armour used by the Royal Marines Armoured Support Group (RMASG) during the D-Day landings in June 1944. The actual tank bearing the registration number T.185075 and named "SEAWOLF" is displayed as a historical monument in the coastal commune of Hermanville-sur-Mer, located right behind Sword Beach in Normandy, France. The Centaur IV was explicitly up-gunned with a 95mm Howitzer, rather than a standard anti-tank gun. It was designed to fire high-explosive or smoke shells to destroy concrete bunkers and enemy fortifications on the beaches. While it looks nearly identical to the more famous British Cromwell tank, the Centaur was powered by a less powerful 410hp Liberty V12 engine rather than the Cromwell's 600hp Meteor engine. The highly distinct degree markings (0 to 360) painted around the turret were not decoration, they served as a compass dial. Because the Centaur IV was designed to fire its 95mm howitzer directly from the decks of moving landing craft (LCTs) as they approached the beaches, the crew could not see their targets over the landing craft's ramps. To overcome this, an officer stationed high on the landing craft's bridge would spot the enemy bunker targets, calculate the bearing, and radio the exact direction down to the tank crews. The gunner would then rotate the turret to align with the matching degree markers on the turret ring to accurately bombard the shore before ever touching dry land. The RMASG operated these tanks to support the infantry assault on 6 June 1944. While they were originally ordered to leave the tanks behind on the beach once the ammunition ran out, many crews managed to find extra supplies and pushed several miles inland alongside British and Canadian forces to help secure the Normandy bridgehead. #ww2 #dday #normandy

The Grangues Massacre remains one of the most tragic, yet lesser-known atrocities of D-Day. In the early hours of 6 June 1944, amidst the chaos of Operation Tonga, the sky over Normandy became a graveyard. Heavy anti-aircraft fire and navigation errors led to a catastrophic series of crashes in the small commune of Grangues, France, where two Stirling bombers and two Horsa gliders went down near the Château de Grangues. The Allied aircraft, carrying elements of the British 6th Airborne Division, misjudged the local terrain and slammed into the hillsides and trees. • The First Bomber: Crashed into a field with no survivors among its 25 passengers. • The Second Bomber: Left roughly 15 survivors following its impact. • The Horsa Gliders: Splintered into the treeline, killing several men instantly, including co-pilot Sgt. Barry Powell. In total, 54 British and Canadian soldiers lost their lives during the crashes alone. The dazed and wounded survivors who made it out of the wreckage were quickly rounded up by German patrols from the 711th Infantry Division. While the most severely injured men were taken to a nearby military hospital, eight British prisoners including paratroopers and glider pilot Staff Sergeant Duncan Wright were bound and locked inside the château’s stable block. Later that night, under the false pretext of an "escape attempt," German forces led the eight unarmed men into the grounds of the château and executed them by firing squad. The perpetrators of this war crime were never brought to justice. Today, a memorial stone in the Grangues cemetery honors the 54 Allied soldiers who died that night, serving as an abiding reminder of the immense price paid for the liberation of Europe. #DDay #WWIIHistory #Normandy #Airborne #MilitaryHistory #LestWeForget

Private Michael Garner 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment was the son of Edith Mary Garner; husband of Cicely Jane Garner, of Freckleton, Lancashire. The 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, operated as part of the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division. Just days prior to his death, on 12 August, the 1st East Lancs had engaged in a famous, bloody encounter to clear the fortified village of Bois-Halbout (humorously nicknamed "Boiled Halibut" by the British infantrymen). After grueling house-to-house fighting and fending off German armoured counterattacks, they successfully broke through, capturing over 200 German prisoners. By 17 August, the division was moving past this sector toward the vital Falaise-Argentan road. Back home in Freckleton, Lancashire, his wife Cicely and 4 year old daughter Judith were going about their daily life. On 23 August 1944, just 6 days after Michaels death, Judith had gone to school as normal. During the morning, a massive thunderstorm was brewing and tragedy struck when an American B24 Liberator bomber from BAD2 at nearby Warton was struck by lightning and crashed into the village centre, demolishing the Sad Sack café killing the staff, as well as American & RAF servicemen who were using the café. Part of the aircraft also crashed into the school Fifty-one people (the three crew members on the B-24, 34 children, six American servicemen, one RAF airman, six staff at the Sad Sack Snack Bar and a 15-year-old boy within the cafè) died almost instantly, with 10 others (four children, two teachers, an American serviceman and three RAF airmen) later dying in hospital from their injuries. The 38 children were all aged between 4 and six. Almost five per cent of the village's population died in the Freckleton air disaster. Seven of the child victims were either first or second cousins to one other. Three others were evacuees from Greater London who had been relocated to Freckleton to protect them from German air raids. Only one of these three evacuees survived. Cicely write to her husband Michael to tell him of the devastating news as he was in Normandy. 7 other fathers were also serving in the forces across the globe. Sadly, the letter never got to him as he was killed a week earlier. The notification of his death didn’t arrive in Freckleton until the day of the mass funeral and Cicely wasn’t told until after the funeral had taken place. Judiths cousin Georgina Lonsdale was also killed in the tragedy. Their grandfather, and Michaels Father-in-law (James Barlow) erected a memorial in Freckleton church to the 3 of them. James was a farmer & butcher and a local councillor and had the farm at the other end of the village to my grandads farm. #WW2 #normandy #caen #operationgoodwood #freckleton

Standing on top of the white cliffs at Capel-le-Ferne, the Battle of Britain Memorial - Remembering the Few serves as a poignant National Memorial to the Few, honouring the brave airmen who defended the skies during the summer and autumn of 1940. The heart of the site features a famous statue of a lone pilot sitting and looking out across the English Channel toward France. Surrounding the statue, the memorial wall is engraved with the names of all the airmen who were killed in action during the Battle of Britain. Beyond the solemn monuments, visitors can explore full-scale replica aircraft of the Hurricane & Spitfire along with a sculpture depicting a crashed JU87 Stuka. Visitors can complete the Junior Aviator Trail with children, and step inside the unique, wing-shaped visitor centre known as The Wing. Inside, the high-tech Scramble Experience provides an interactive, immersive look into the historic aerial conflict. After exploring, you can stop by the Cockpit Café for tea and cake accompanied by sweeping coastal views across the English Channel to the French coast.

Looking forward to delivering my talk about RAF Folkingham & the 313th Troop Carrier Group tonight at the @RafMetheringham Airfield Visitor Centre. metheringhamairfield.co.uk/e… #ww2 #ww2history #localhistory #USIXTCC

🪂 From the Melton Pulpit to the Arnhem Drop Zone: The Story of Father Daniel McGowan MC 🎖️ Before he jumped into one of the most brutal airborne battles of WWII, Father Daniel McGowan was a familiar and reassuring face in Melton Mowbray. As a Roman Catholic Army Padre billeted nearby at Barleythorpe Hall, Father Daniel regularly walked through the doors of St. John’s Catholic Church in Melton Mowbray. He didn't just sit in the pews; he regularly attended Mass and climbed into the pulpit to preach to the local community and the young "Melton boys" who would soon go to war alongside him. When the sirens wailed for Operation Market Garden on 18 September 1944, Father Daniel jumped straight into the chaos of Arnhem with the 4th Parachute Brigade HQ under heavy fire. His war was defined by a series of miraculous, dangerous, and brilliantly defiant moments: The Lost Sacrament: Upon hitting the ground, his feet got tangled in his rigging lines, causing him to lose the Holy Sacrament. In an incredible stroke of luck amidst the flying bullets, it was found intact in the heather and returned to him. 24 Hours of Solo Care: When a British Main Dressing Station was captured by German forces, 40 severely wounded men were moved into a school building completely abandoned by medical staff. Father Daniel voluntarily stayed behind, single-handedly caring for them for 24 hours with whatever scraps of aid he could find. Defying the Enemy with a Clerical Collar: Following the Allied evacuation, he refused to leave the dead and wounded behind. He walked openly through German-controlled Oosterbeek with no weapon or armour, only his clerical collar. Though repeatedly arrested and interrogated, his sheer nerve allowed him to spend days recovering the wounded and documenting graves. Smuggling Guns via "Funerals": His most legendary stunt took place at St. Elizabeth Hospital. To help the Dutch Resistance, he successfully distracted German guards while a weapons cache, including 20 Sten guns and 3 Bren guns—was wrapped in blankets on stretchers. Father Daniel then led a solemn, immaculate funeral cortege and conducted a full burial service over the hidden weapons, which the resistance exhumed two weeks later. Brigadier "Shan" Hackett, whom McGowan secretly aided in the hospital, later remarked that the padre did "some of the strangest and bravest work I have ever known". When he failed to return, the Melton church where he used to preach held special prayers for their missing padre. Fortunately, after surviving a POW camp, he returned home and was justly awarded the Military Cross. A local priest, a fearless paratrooper, and a true hero. To hear more stories like this, join me on my Airborne & Commando General Tour on 17 October. For more detaisl and to book tickets, visit historyfare.co.uk/events/air… #WWIIHistory #MeltonMowbray #Arnhem #MilitaryHistory #LestWeForget #Paradata #marketgarden #localhistory #ww2history #operationmarketgarden #airborne