Overview

Leicestershire and Rutland, occupying the area between the Great North Road and Watling Street have seen the movement of armies from Roman times to the Civil War, with the decisive battles of Bosworth and Naseby fought within or close to their borders. The Victorian era saw the development of both the regular and volunteer forces that would later fight in two world wars, while the development of military flight in both defensive and offensive roles was a twentieth-century theme. Leicestershire and Rutland witnessed defence against the Zeppelins in the First World War; jet engines and US airborne forces in the Second World War; and elements of Britain's nuclear deterrent during the Cold War. The eavesdroppers of the 'Y' Service at Beaumanor Hall provided much of the raw material for Bletchley Park's code-breakers during the Second World War. Evidence of this military activity is visible in the landscape: castles of earthwork, stone or brick; barracks and volunteer drill halls; airfields, missile sites and munitions factories; pillboxes, observer corps posts and bunkers. This book places sites into their social, political, historical and military contexts, as well as figures such as William the Conqueror, Richard III, and Oliver Cromwell.

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9781781555781

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Dr Mike Osborne's interest in fortification began with childhood visits to castles, and has developed over the years to include all aspects of the topic, from Iron-Age forts to Cold War bunkers. He was a volunteer-coordinator for the Defence of Britain Project, recording the military structures of the twentieth-century, and, after a thirty-year-career in education, took early retirement. Since then, he has produced nearly twenty books on topics that range from Civil War sieges and fortifications, to drill halls and twentieth-century military structures. He has also written a series of county surveys of defences, as well as the best-selling Defending Britain.

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