International Bomber Command Memorial, Lincolnshire

The Corten Steel may look battered and worn but stands defiantly to attention as part of the International Bomber Command Memorial Centre with its spire designed by Stephen Palmer of Place Architecture. The monument is 102ft in height replicating the length of a Lancaster Bomber’s wingspan with its base measuring 16ft, the width of the Lancaster’s wing.

The facility will ,when funds allow, include an education establishment, The Chadwick Centre, named after Roy Chadwick, the designer of the iconic Lancaster Bomber.

The Corten Steel ‘Walls of Names’ will eventually record every one of the names of those fatalities for posterity and each wall is complimented by a narrow strip of gravel allowing flowers or wreaths to adorn them. These areas are restrained by Kinley HiGrade Steel Edging also in Corten Steel to replicate the walls and spire. The landscape includes larger steel rimmed garden areas where miniature wild flower meadows perhaps representing a poignant reminder of the England they left behind.

The first phase of the project completed in October 2015 commemorates the 26,500 men who lost their lives serving in Bomber Command who flew out of the 27 bomber stations within Lincolnshire. The spire is formed of two wings which taper as they reach the sky leaving sufficient room between the plates to view Lincoln Cathedral, the sight of which offered comfort to crews, confirming they were ‘back home’. They were all men of steel with nerves of steel and the whole concept will be a fitting testament to the courage of all of the 125,000 aircrew from 60 nations who played their part in Bomber Command.