Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

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Dominic
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by Dominic »

They are all over the place. If you look at any of my blogs on abandoned villages, they normally crop up there too. Here's one, but I think I saw them in all the villages I visited, so they were certainly built to last!
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by Dominic »

Here's the one in Foinikas:
08_water_supply.jpg
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by Mike.1940 »

Try the one in the museum area of Steni, this also is or was a drinking waterhole.
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by LouiseCastricum »

The one at Steni Village:
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by Dominic »

Um, I don't think they actually celebrate her coronation. It is just the date stamp that the Squaddies used when they built them I guess. There are a few dated 1947 too.
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by Dominic »

Well I've seen a few in 1954 too.
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by PeteandSylvi »

I'm bound to get criticised for asking this but could you please amend the thread title and spell Her Majesty's name correctly?

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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizibeths accession to the Throne

Post by TLR »

Hudswell wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2017 4:07 pm Really where are they? Perhaps they were erected to celebrate Royal Coronations, King George was coronated in 1947...so those ones should read...GR 1947.... Seems more plausible than random dates don't you think?
George VI was crowned in 1937.
To the best of my knowledge these drinking wells were built by the British, as were most of the water tanks serving the villages with clean water, and in the same fashion as schools, village halls and other civic amenities in UK of that period were marked by the date, ie in the reign of.....
Nothing to do with commemoration, just another example of the practice to mark the date of a building.
The house I grew up in had the date over the front door (but not the reign of the monarch, they had just cut his head off).
Our village here has a water feature similar to the one pictured, but there again so does the water tank feeding us.
It's just the date the work was done. Both dated 1953.
And I'm sure it was a great boon to the residents.
There were some good aspects to the old British Empire.
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by PaphosAL »

On my dozens of walks around the Paphos area, we've seen these drinking holes all over the place up there in them thar hills. Not only in populated or abandoned villages, but often in remote areas, on tracks connecting villages...

My/our impression were that they had all been built by the British Army in the late 40's to early 50's and that they were some kind of 'Hearts and Minds' campaign on behalf of HMG at that time, to give REME something useful to do?

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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeth's accession to the Throne

Post by PeteandSylvi »

I found references to these troughs here:

https://www.adkinshistory.com/newslette ... letter-27/

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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by PaphosAL »

Royal Engineers, REME, please explain the succinct difference, m8?

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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by PaphosAL »

Hudswell wrote: Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:09 pm The Royal Engineers build things....bridges, buildings, clear minefields, repair airfields, build roads..provide water supplies etc etc etc...the Royal Electrical and Mecanical Engineers
...fix things, vehicles,,tanks, helicopters,,optics, weapons....completely different branches of the Army...
Thanks for clearing that point up! Marvelous stuff to know and learn!
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by Kili01 »

Even some latter day British arrivals to Cyprus tend to denigrate the fact that the British Colonial Administration actually did many good things while they were the government here. Building water supply tanks and providing taps and drinking troughs in the villages and in remote areas which were used by the inhabitants and many animals such as mules,donkeys, and other animals who were used for transport and for carrying essential supplies for hundreds of years here. Even though there were village busses, some lorries, and probably a few early tractors in use in 1953.
There are also similar water troughs and taps which can be seen in N. Cyprus. There was a beautiful memorial to Queen Elizabeths Coronation which I saw while in Lefke last year. It was also very well looked after.
The British also built the first schools and roads all over the island. Among many other things during the period they were here. Cyprus was and had been a very poor island.

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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by PeteandSylvi »

The British contributed in many other ways too. For example:

Lapithiou is a village located on the southwest foothills of the Troodos mountain range, two kilometers southwest of Panayia Khrysorroyiatissa monastery. The village was completely destroyed during the 1953 earthquake, and in 1954 the government (British) rebuilt the whole village from prefabricated houses. http://www.prio-cyprus-displacement.net ... asp?id=504

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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by Jimgward »

Bitain’s colonialism and imperialism did bring benefits for many countries. Cyprus was occupied for its strategic position, rather than resources. Many countries similarly benefitted.

On the other hand, many others were raped and pillaged. There was little balance. If money was involved, morals went out the window.

There are still British post boxes in Nicosia as well,... BTW
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by Kili01 »

When they were built by the British Colonial Government, it was an effort to provide clean running water to the villages, especially the ones in the more remote villages.The way they were built was to provide a tap where jugs or other utensiles could be filled, the trough below would catch any spilt water and would also act as a drinking trough for hard working mules, donkey's and other domestic animals. In those days private cars were very few, there were some village busses, but mules and donkeys would have been used as the main means of transport to the fields from the village and for local travel betwen villages. (When we first moved to our house near Koilli in 1999, there were still around 100 working donkeys in that village alone. They were used extensively for the grape harvest. Each donkey was saddled with 2 large panniers).
These British built water taps and troughs can still be seen in many villages all over the island, both north and south. Also the road system around the,island was gradually built and tarmaced or hard surfaced during the Colonial period making it easier to drive around the island even in the wet season.
Do many members remember what it was like to drive from Paphos to Nicosia on the 'old' road, now the B6? That is before the new "highway" the A1 and A6 was built? Crawling over the hills behind ancient lorries dripping with grape juice!

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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by PhotoLady »

Jimgward wrote: Sun Jul 09, 2017 1:52 pm There are still British post boxes in Nicosia as well,... BTW
Here's such a one from April 2014 when we stayed over at Easter :-)
It's located on the street which runs parallel to Ledra Street by the Rimi Hotel:
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by Dominic »

Anyway Hudswell, in future blogs I will endeavor to include any ER related items I find, as there clearly is an interest. :)
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by PaphosAL »

Forgive me Photolady, smashing photo, but I'm boogered if I can see the water trough that the British Army built? Please enlighten us further, can you?

ATB- AL :)
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Re: Monuments to Queen Elizabeths accession to the Throne

Post by PhotoLady »

PaphosAL wrote: Sun Jul 09, 2017 10:07 pm Forgive me Photolady, smashing photo, but I'm boogered if I can see the water trough that the British Army built? Please enlighten us further, can you?

ATB- AL :)
LOL, AL - I will let you off in this instance..... but I did quote from Jimgward's post his line about there still being British post boxes in Nicosia ;-)

Next time, it's off to Specsavers for you! :D

Thanks Hudswell for putting AL out of his misery ;-)
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