Popular memorial site under pressure

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By Bob Walker BBC 5 live The National Memorial Arboretum was opened in 2001

The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire has become so popular its facilities are struggling to cope with the large volume of visitors.

The BBC looks at why an £8m appeal to fund an expansion of the site is needed.

In the driving wind and rain, Baz Bowyer stands before one of the 160 memorials dotted around the arboretum.

He bends down and lays a wreath of poppies at its base.

This monument and plaque is dedicated to the 419 men killed when HMS Dunedin was torpedoed in the South Atlantic exactly 68 years ago.

One of them was his father, Marine Musician William Francis Bowyer.

Baz Bowyer, who spent 25 years as a submariner himself, looks after three naval memorials at the arboretum.

His personal act of remembrance is repeated by others almost every day throughout the sprawling 150-acre site.

Focal point

"This is very important to me," said Mr Bowyer. "I only knew my father as a nine-year-old and I'll never forget the day we got the telegram and the hard times that my mother went through.

"To me, it's very important those times are never forgotten."

Maj Gen Patrick Cordingley wants the government to help with funding

It's always Remembrance Day at the arboretum. In the chapel they play the last post and the act of homage at 1100 GMT every morning.

But an increasing number of visitors also come to remember victims of more recent conflicts.

The names of those killed in Afghanistan are inscribed every year on the Armed Forces Memorial, which honours those killed on duty or as a result of a terrorist attack since World War II.

The National Memorial Arboretum, near Lichfield, was opened in 2001 with the intention of becoming a focal point for the nation's wartime commemorations.

Since the 2007 unveiling of the Armed Forces Memorial, visitor numbers have increased fivefold - to 300,000 a year.

Under strain

This figure is expected rise to half-a-million-a-year because of publicity and what appears to be a growing national appreciation of the sacrifice of modern day service personnel.

But the site is under strain.

The car park can be chaotic at busy times, commemoration services are held outside in the cold and rain and veterans have to hold their reunions in draughty marquees that have become semi-permanent structures.

I'm absolutely determined that somehow we are going to raise this money Maj Gen Patrick Cordingley

The government and every serving member of the armed forces is being asked to help fund an £8m expansion plan.

This will pay for a new car park, education facilities, meeting room and a covered area to be known as Heroes Square.

The appeal is being spearheaded by Maj Gen Patrick Cordingley, who wants the government to help with the funding.

He also hopes every serving member of the armed forces will be prepared to donate just a few pounds.

"I am very passionate about this place," he said.

"I was 40 years a soldier and I watch now as friends and people I know die in Iraq and Afghanistan and we've got soldiers going out on patrol with the ghosts of their mates going with them.

"I just think about these things and I'm absolutely determined that somehow we are going to raise this money so this does become a centre of remembrance in the middle of the country."