Standing With Stansted In Memoriam

The last few days of gloominess finally lifted today and the winter sunshine had returned. It was lovely to be out for our usual early run and whilst it might have been cold the sun was on our backs and we returned refreshed in body and spirit.
As it was such a glorious day we decided we should head out for a drive and after a pit stop for a pint at The George Inn in Trottiscliffe we determined to carry on along the nearby country roads to see where it would take us. The answer was the two tiny neighbouring villages of Fairseat and Stansted. Fairseat seemed to be more of a hamlet than a village but was still diverting enough for my brother to stop and get an image of a very picturesque duck house!
So after that brief interlude we continued our journey on to Stansted. The village's seclusion, after negotiating the narrow and twisting roads, in the rolling hills of the North Downs means it can be almost invisible to most.
In fact it is no more than a mile away from the busy M20 and A20, and only three miles away from Brands Hatch motor racing circuit, yet it still manages to convey a sense of remoteness and tranquility. The undulating nearby hills allow it broad views looking north towards Gravesend and the Thames Estuary and on a very clear day from the highest point in the village Canada Tower at Canary Wharf is said to be clearly visible. Today we were still trying to find our bearings on our first visit to this charismatic little village so we didn't locate the viewpoint to test this out but we'll hopefully return soon and try again.
Stansted's main claim to fame is that it somehow gets regularly confused with Stansted Airport - which in one rather alarming episode even involved British Airways!
In early 2007, BA mistakenly used inflight 'skymaps' for passengers that relocated Stansted Airpot in Essex to Stansted in Kent but the error was luckily not replicated on the pilots' navigation system. BA blamed the software used by outside contractors hired to make the map, with a spokesman saying "the cartographer appears to have confused the vast Essex airport, which handles 25 million passengers a year with this tiny Kent village, also called Stansted, which has a population of around 500".
2007 appears to have been quite the year for Stansted as the village was also used as a semi-fictional location for filming an episode of Eastenders!
Today's image is of the village's beautiful war memorial which sits and on a tiny triangular green just as you enter the village. It is such an unexpected sight once you've negotiated those narrow country lanes to get there. Shockingly the original statue by Alois Strool was actually stolen in 1995 and was replaced by this bronze figure by the sculptor Faith Winter 13 months later. 
The original bronze figure was cast in Budapest by the well known foundry 'Gallies Vignale" whilst the Portland stone square base was prepared and readied so that the names of the fallen in the Great War could be carved into the memorial stone as a lasting tribute.
One hitch before the memorial was to be erected was the delivery of the bronze statue from Hungary to Stansted in Essex as opposed to its namesake in Kent - an event which as you can see has been reported more than once since this time!
The memorial was unveiled on Sunday 15th July 1923 and the sadness and emotion at the ceremony can only be imagined as attendees would have included those who had lost fathers, sons and brothers killed in action during the war.
All who saw it immediately valued the bronze statue of the young man bearing a palm bough (a sign of peace). Its striking beauty and simplicity is said to have resonated with the lives of many young people of the locality who had served in the Great War. About a quarter of those who served did not return, having a huge and devastating impact on these small communities. It is placed against the rolling Downs and faces almost directly into the setting sun, which illuminates it emotively during Summer evenings and, on this occasion, on a cold but sparkling winter's day.