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CRIMEAN CANNONS - WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Bridgenorth
Shropshire
Great Britain


This cannon was captured at the siege of Sebastopol, 1855, during the Crimean War. It was placed in this position in 1858 and later unfortunately was taken for scrap in World War II and melted down. All that remains today are the Cannon Steps giving access to the castle and gardens. 'Directions: Main entrance at the southern end of West Castle Street, also accessible via Cannon Steps from New Road almost opposite the footbridge to the Severn Valley railway station, from Library Steps from Underhill Street (B4363) and from the top of the Cliff Railway via Castle Walk.'

The following historic background information is based on an extract from: Britain's Crimean War Trophy Guns: The Case of Ludlow and the Marches. (2014) ROGER BARTLETT University College London, ROY PAYNE Ludlow History Research Group.

There was considerable debate as to what might happen to the Russian guns after the Crimean War. The brass/bronze cannon were sought after and given prestigious placements. The iron cannon were less attractive and in greater numbers.

Finally in January 1857 the authorities settled upon a solution to the problem of the captured artillery, with a plan to distribute Crimean trophy guns to British military and naval establishments and to deserving or desirous British and Irish towns and cities 'having room to contain them'. There are records of nearly 300 cannon distributed in this way across the British Isles and to British dominions and dependencies - Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, New Zealand, etc.

Useful 2014 Sources for researchers, quoted in the above publication:

A survey of Crimean trophy guns is being carried out by Major Colin Robins of the Crimean War Research Society.
Jana L. Bara, 'Russian artillery: the political and commercial background of the eighteenth-century Anglo-Russian relationship and its results', Arms Collecting, 23/2 (1985), pp. 43-9, is unreliable in historical detail.
R. H. Billett, 'Australia's trophies from the Crimean War', Sabretache, 38/1 (1997), was unavailable to us.
The latest contributions are Ruth Rhynas Brown, 'Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them: the Crimean trophy guns in Britain and its empire', ICOMAM Magazine, Issue 11 (Feb. 2014), pp. 26-32, (accessed 12 July 2014), which came too late to be used here; Flickr, The Crimea Cannon Pool, (accessed 12 July 2014).





ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Click to discover this grotto









LANDSCAPE

Country town/village

REGION

England - Central

THE FEATURES PRESENT

Crimean Cannon Location, past or present

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