National Memorial Arboretum
Latest Reviews
A lovely space which gives a fitting tribute to those who have given there lives in the service of others. One feels very humble in the presence of such courage. The NMA is a managed space that provides the perfect setting for hundreds of memorials that tell stories of service to this nation most have forgotten. Everything from peace keeping to disaster relief and including "official" conflicts.
Make sure you have plenty of time to experience the tranquility of the NMA, we will have visit again.
Make sure you have plenty of time to experience the tranquility of the NMA, we will have visit again.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
We came to visit the Arboretum a few weeks ago on a cold Sunday. It is easy to find but tucked away from daily life in a pretty quiet peaceful area. Entry is free, all day car parking costs £3 and a donation can also be given towards the running of the facilities.
There weren't too many visitors when we came but people were still coming on a day with poor weather. It's difficult to describe the feeling when entering as there are so many memorials to to different services.
There are a lot of staff and volunteers around to help along with a large restaurant and smaller coffee shop and a gift shop.
During the spring and summer it is easy to spend the better part of a day here, wandering around the grounds looking at the different memorials and spotting different wildlife but winter and autumn can still offer at least half a day exploring.
The arboretum is a real eye opener and gives a scary wake up call and visualisation of the lives lost during war time.
There weren't too many visitors when we came but people were still coming on a day with poor weather. It's difficult to describe the feeling when entering as there are so many memorials to to different services.
There are a lot of staff and volunteers around to help along with a large restaurant and smaller coffee shop and a gift shop.
During the spring and summer it is easy to spend the better part of a day here, wandering around the grounds looking at the different memorials and spotting different wildlife but winter and autumn can still offer at least half a day exploring.
The arboretum is a real eye opener and gives a scary wake up call and visualisation of the lives lost during war time.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Very nice place to remember
Source: google.com
Great place. Great experience for a remembrance commemoration.
Source: google.com
Fantastic place
Source: google.com
Worth a visit by anyone.
Source: google.com
Very good family day out.
Source: google.com
We started off in blue skies and sunshine, but hit fog along the way. The staff here are all so welcoming...we wasn't sure what we wanted to do, because we had my 90 year old Mum with us, who has a walking aid. The lady on reception suggested we take the train, which we did, and my husband walked around on his own. It was a shame we couldn't see everything because of the visibility, but we will be back in the Summer months. We stopped off for delicious soup from the cafe, to warm us up and a nice cuppa, before we went home...Great place, still expanding and a wonderful place to reflect. Everyone should visit here at least once in their lives.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Thoroughly enjoyed our first visit to the arboretum - with a reservation
The land train is a great way to see most of the 300 memorials and see the site. Today was biting cold and foggy so perhaps the best way to get around. All of the staff we spoke to were friendly and enthusiastic about the venue, so it was a shame to be so disappointed in the newly opened restaurant ... we arrived after our tour at about 2:25 to find 3 sausage rolls and two pasties as the only hot food on display. There was a menu showing a vegetarian pasta bake or a turkey crown meal, but when ordered from that menu we were told the only food available was that on display! To his credit the kitchen manager (?) came out and said he could do a turkey crown meal, which we accepted. This was for my wife and I had what was by then the last pasty...
The turkey meal was perhaps one of the worst meals I've ever seen served at a professional restaurant. It was like a school dinner - warm, unappetisingly presented and with a stuffing ball that could have been used in a shotgun!
We were hungry after spending a couple of hours outdoors in freezing temperatures and were looking forward to a pleasant meal. This was anything but pleasant and left a bad taste in the mouth ( in all ways) at the end of our otherwise lovely visit
The NMA and its visitors deserves better than this!
The land train is a great way to see most of the 300 memorials and see the site. Today was biting cold and foggy so perhaps the best way to get around. All of the staff we spoke to were friendly and enthusiastic about the venue, so it was a shame to be so disappointed in the newly opened restaurant ... we arrived after our tour at about 2:25 to find 3 sausage rolls and two pasties as the only hot food on display. There was a menu showing a vegetarian pasta bake or a turkey crown meal, but when ordered from that menu we were told the only food available was that on display! To his credit the kitchen manager (?) came out and said he could do a turkey crown meal, which we accepted. This was for my wife and I had what was by then the last pasty...
The turkey meal was perhaps one of the worst meals I've ever seen served at a professional restaurant. It was like a school dinner - warm, unappetisingly presented and with a stuffing ball that could have been used in a shotgun!
We were hungry after spending a couple of hours outdoors in freezing temperatures and were looking forward to a pleasant meal. This was anything but pleasant and left a bad taste in the mouth ( in all ways) at the end of our otherwise lovely visit
The NMA and its visitors deserves better than this!
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
absolutely brilliant place to visit highly recommend.
Source: google.com
An amazing place to walk around and is very peacefull and humbling. You can easily spend a day walking round
Source: google.com
Beatifully thought through.
Source: google.com
We had been recommended to visit the Arboretum on several occasions so as usual, 'always meant to do it one day', so finally we got around to it and so glad we did. What a great memorial to those who lost their lives in past conflicts, I would find it hard to accept that visitors to this site aren't moved emotionally on reading some of the plaques in remembrance of so many who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Our son served in Iraq and northern Ireland and thankfully came home unscathed unlike so many other young people. As is inscribed on many memorial stones "We will ( and should) remember them.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Pre-booked motorised scooter - efficient and having paid the very reasonable fee of £5,00 it was ready and waiting. Excellent volunteer went through instructions in a friendly way. Headed off to scout memorial but couldn't find it. So a volunteer came down to meet us and take us to it - and then also guided us to the rest of our party who by that time had reached the other side of the park. Top marks to Michael Harrison, who was also full of interesting wildlife information. Café, toilets, parking also fine. All volunteers were impeccable, what a wonderful place.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
A very thought-provoking experience. Some of the memorials were beautiful and had obviously been well thought out, especially the main feature where at 11am on 11th. November the sunlight shines through a door that is ajar. I was fascinated by the many different designs of the memorials and the symbolism incorporated in them. I found the "Shot At Dawn" memorial particularly moving; it is a statue of a young soldier blindfolded and tied to a stake awaiting his execution. Behind the statue are hundreds of stakes, each one representing someone who was shot for desertion in WWI. Each stake has a name on it and the age at which he died, many as young as 17. What is sad is they were shot for cowardice whereas most of them were suffering from the effects of combat or "post traumatic stress disorder" as we would know it today. A terrible waste of young life - and for what?
Visiting this site is a very moving experience, particularly so on the day we visited as it was Remembrance Sunday, but it is also a beautiful place and very peaceful. Everyone should visit this arboretum at least once.
Visiting this site is a very moving experience, particularly so on the day we visited as it was Remembrance Sunday, but it is also a beautiful place and very peaceful. Everyone should visit this arboretum at least once.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Wonderful concept - great way to discuss with our kids wartime memorials. I would also recommend eating at their cafe.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Enjoyable day out and quite emotional.lots to see we visited the St John ambulance memorial of which I'm a member (serving sister.) Also saw the wooden soldiers to commemorate the battle of the Somme.Unfortunately we were not able to visit the main wall as it was close to Remembrance day and Royalty was to visit.its an amazing place to visit and really makes you think of how people in the past gave service to country.Parking price is reasonable.we took someone for their first visit and they were most impressed.For audio commentary or guided tour there is a charge.there is a train to help those who have mobility probs.I will definitely return.it is not possible to see it all in one day.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
We went to the Arboretum to see a specific memorial that we had helped fund. It is an amazing peaceful place. Each memorial is unique, it is a very large park and you could walk for hours. We found great comfort and peace for those lost that we wanted remembered. It was the perfect place to have a memorial in their honor. We are so thankful we chose this as the site for the memorial.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Wonderful memorial to the brave people who gave their lives that we can have our every day. Memorial to those executed without a reason except to encourage others to accept orders that bore no thought to the safety of the front line. A perfect opportunity here to give honour and remember the five hundred young men of Great Britain who were the first to make the sacrifice fighting fascism in Spain 1936-39. I can fine no sign of this.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Simply beautiful memorial to all our fallen service men and women, well worth a visit. Easy to get to and a beautiful place to wonder round any time of year.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
This is a place that the country has created to honour the memory of those who have defended us since the second world war. It is a wonderful, peaceful place which honours the memories of those who have given their lives to make our world and our lives safer.
My wife and I had the good fortune to live for a number of years close to this space and visited it regularly, We now live thousands of miles away, but on our first return to England, we made sure that one of our first stops was the Arboretum . With each passing year it looks better and better. The people honoured in this place deserve the support of everyone in Britain.
Every time my wife and I return to Britain we will visit this place and donate to those ho deserve our respect and our help.
Alan and Soledad, Chile.
.
My wife and I had the good fortune to live for a number of years close to this space and visited it regularly, We now live thousands of miles away, but on our first return to England, we made sure that one of our first stops was the Arboretum . With each passing year it looks better and better. The people honoured in this place deserve the support of everyone in Britain.
Every time my wife and I return to Britain we will visit this place and donate to those ho deserve our respect and our help.
Alan and Soledad, Chile.
.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
First visit for 6 years. The whole site has developed wonderfully. The memorial to the ww1 executed is deeply moving. The visitors' centre is lovely too.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
A peaceful and moving place set in lovely surroundings.
Source: google.com
This was our second visit here and managed to see more of the memorials. This is a special place and very thought provoking. Would definitely recommend visiting here - good paths for the most part and well kept memorials throughout...
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
Went just over 12 months ago and found main area closed off for repairs so had to go back when in the area again.
They appear to have done a lot of work and more going on, very rewarding place to go and be humbled. Always many service personal from all the branches to reply to any question you might have also taking private and personal family visitors around.
Good displays both inside and out , cafe good as well . parking good on site with overflow parking a little walking distance away.
They appear to have done a lot of work and more going on, very rewarding place to go and be humbled. Always many service personal from all the branches to reply to any question you might have also taking private and personal family visitors around.
Good displays both inside and out , cafe good as well . parking good on site with overflow parking a little walking distance away.
Source: tripadvisor.co.uk
