"I'd like to drive a tank," enthused my husband, when I told him that an attraction in England offers you a chance to drive a tank.
What a great idea for a birthday for the boys, or men, or the whole family. I have no desire to drive a tank. But I can instantly see or imagine their excitement and get vicarious satisfaction. I picked up the leaflet on tanks at the motorway stop near Leicester. Years ago Leicester was not on the tourist map. Just a name. Then I had stopped to visit a good friend, but did not bother diverting to see the cathedral. I was far more excited learning from her husband that when you stand on stage, you engage the audience by opening your arms wide.
In those days I would have been bored by the idea of a tank and acting out a WWII scene. Paintballs, I thought, were games for toddlers and men who have not grown up. But this time somehow my perception of Leicester was different. What was lurking at the back of my mind? Richard III? I knew Leicester and it was a place with modern activity, ancient activity, the ghosts of the past come alive.
Let's start with the leaflet on tanks which helped England fight and win wars, win battles, engaging ordinary soldiers. Later we shall come back to VIP-not-to-be Richard III losing his battle with an older form of battlefield transport for advance, attack, and escape, the horse. When you drive into battle with your horse towering over foot soldiers, or your tank on the horizon, you feel all powerful. If your horse crumples, you are a dead man. The same applies to a tank.
But as a tourist, you are alive, excited, invincible.
Tanks
The tank place is built on an old military range. You start with a ride around the area in a tank driven by an instructor. As I looked at the leaflet, the rain poured down outside. Yes, but what if it rains? If it rains, you won't mind diverting into the museum which contains more than 70 wartime vehicles, all in giant aircraft hangars. You will learn why those hangars were there later.
Ages
If you are over 17 years of age and have a driver's license, you can book to drive one of several vehicles, and play paintball games. Children must be over 8 years old. Some activities are for different minimum ages, including clay pigeon shooting, and archery. No problem if, instead of saying 'we' are going to do such an activity, you say, 'we are going to watch Dad,' or them, 'doing so and so,' or, 'We are going to sit in a tank!' instead of we are going to drive one.
When?
The outdoor activities, the whole place, is open like many UK attractions in the tourist high season, in good weather. April to October. Wednesday to Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm. How do you remember that? By looking at the logic. So the staff are there for you at the weekend, but take off the dead days of Monday and Tuesday. The tanks are out and about in daylight hours, ten to four. Like on a film set, for photographs.
So they won't bother opening in the hope of attracting a random stray visitor in the off season.
However, you can book group activities throughout the year. Where, again? It's near Market Harborough. And Leicester.
Whilst in the area, look out for the aviation monument on a roundabout just south of Lutterworth. That memorial is not just a random piece of decoration. It is an essential part of the story, the history, of the area. The jet engine started here. Engines don't sound romantic. But when you think of Icarus trying to get off the ground, engines are the heart of flying, the power, winning in peace and war. Winning the battle in olden times - and in modern times they are winning the modern battle for tourists' attention.
Wikipedia says of Lutterworth:
Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine, developed some of the world's first jet engines at the British Thomson-Houston works in Lutterworth, and in nearby Rugby, during the late 1930s and the 1940s, with his company Power Jets. A replica of his first jet aircraft the Gloster E.28/39 stands in the middle of a roundabout just south of the town as a memorial, and a number of papers and documents relating to Whittle's development of the jet engine are displayed at the town's museum.[7]
Photo from Wikipedia in public domain.
Rugby is famous for the school. The game of Rugby, supposedly started there. Wasn't there a saying about war being won on the playing fields of Rugby, where the upper class boys, the future leaders, practised fighting to win, keeping fit, and playing in a team.
Er, no. I checked. The saying was that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing frields of Eton. Eton is near Windsor, which you pass driving west from London, on the M4. Leicester is on the road north from London, the M1. Yet somehow the idea of the playing the game on the battlefield persists. The good old days when you fought the oposite team with every ounce of your energy, but, at the end of the game, you shook hands with the enemy if you won, and the losers, with good grace, conceded defeat to the winners and congratulated them on their prowess.
Next, near Leicester and rugby, you can travel further back in time, before tanks and before engines. The big excitement for those studying history and literature was the discovery of the body of Richard III in a Leicester car park. It sounds odd, doesn't it?
But modern excavations unearth all sorts of exciting and interesting relics of the past, weapons, food, skeletons. The first time I heard about Richard III, I thought, Who cares?
The infamous Richard III. Did he or didn't he? Kill the princes? Lose his horse?
A Canadian visitor to a Writers' Summer School at Swanwick was at first baffled by our enthusiasm for Richard III. I must admit, when I first read the newspaper reports about his body, I thought, Richard III? I could not place Richard the first, Richard the second or Richard the third in my memory bank.
But the phrase 'my kingdom for a horse' resonated. In England, people often use that phrase as the base for a comment on something else urgently wanted. Such as, 'my kingdom for a cake', or, 'my kingdom for a cup of coffee'.
It is one of many phrases from Shakespeare's plays which have landed into daily conversation, unnoticed by the average person. Like, 'Oh, woe is me for you are undone'.
The lady from Leicester lit up like a tourist guide when the name of Richard III was mentioned. Our Canadian friend was illuminated by the collective glow as five of us leaned forward and competed to tell the story of Richard, desperate for a horse on the battlefield, as he lost his life, and kingdom.
So, if you visit the Leicester area, stop, or at least stop on the motorway and think about the area and plan a return visit. After thinking of tanks, or instead of 'my kingdom for' a tank, there's 'my kingdom for' a horse. Continue on to Leicester to see the story of King Richard III, last of the Plantaganets, before the throne was taken over by the Tudors, notably Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I.
Remember the Wars of the Roses. One was white and the other was red.
More about Richard III in the next post.
Southfields Farm
Husbands Bosworth,
Lutterworth,
Leicestershire LE17 6NW
Tel: 01858 880239.
Useful Websites
www.armourgeddon.co.uk.
www.militarymuseum.uk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_E.28/39
https://kriii.com Richard III Visitor Centre
https://www.visitleicester.info/good-to-know/visit-leicester-information-centre
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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