Landscape reflects personal journeys

Fathers, grandfathers, great grandfathers, WWII flight crew. Now between the ages of 90 and 102, we’ve heard little of their stories, but it is these hidden memories that have inspired the landscape design of the International Bomber Command Centre, Memorial Park.

Conceived as a landscape narrative, a descriptive journey, representing the anticipation, flight & hopeful return of the ‘Bomber Boys’. Of course many didn’t return and so their names remain on the Memorial Walls surrounding a Spire, visible and forever etched on the Lincolnshire landscape.

Today we celebrate the creation of this Lincolnshire ‘field of remembrance’, among the wildflowers and expansive landscape, surrounded by agricultural fields and views over the City and Cathedral. Influence Environmental Ltd, Landscape Architects, have designed this Memorial Park as a fitting tribute to those lost and for those who remember.

The landscape required a simple response – that of a generation who just did, in their view, what was asked of them. Unassuming but unyielding. In this landscape you will eventually find two peace gardens, one representing Lincolnshire, an open expanse, where 27 lime trees will be placed, one for each Lincolnshire Station of Bomber Command. Poppies will grow, lying in carpets between the Memorial walls that bear the names of those who didn’t return. Grass hummocks and lawns stretch out to unite the landscape of Lincoln’s South Common with the agricultural fields south of the Park. The other an International Peace Garden where five continents, represented by sculptures from five artists will sit within a space defined by a ‘coastline’ of planting.

October 2nd 2015, celebrates the completion of the first phase of works – the Memorial Spire and Walls. Work will be ongoing until the end of November 2015 to complete phase two – the initial landscaping of the Memorial Park, funded by WREN Landfill Communities Fund and Veolia Environmental Trust. Phase 3 – the Chadwick Centre itself, surrounded by the International peace garden will be completed by June 2017.

This is a landscape of quiet contemplation where the Memorials take centre stage, and the surrounding views and landscape character are merely complementary. A place to sit, reflect and remember their personal journeys.

Shona Hatton, CMLI, Landscape Architect, The International Bomber Command Centre, Memorial Park
shona.hatton@influence.co.uk
07809 344624

Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment process

LVIA- Before view from South Common