Waterlooville photos

I have been doing this blog for a while now and have focused on stuff that interests me, which inevitably means most posts have an environmental bias. The other thing is that I get a few people visiting the blog from outside the area, including foreign locations.

So I thought I would show some photos of locations around Waterlooville that are sort of connected to the history.

First of all, we have two pubs, The Heroes and The Wellington, that are linked to the Battle of Waterloo (by name) and the soldiers that camped in the area on their way back from the battle.
The Wellington:

The Heroes (i think the sign has a picture of heavy cavalry of the period)
Actually, isn't the foot soldier French?? I'll have to have a closer look in future!
(Added: having looked at some uniforms, the soldier on foot by the horse is closest to the uniform of the Kings German Legion):

As well as the two pubs, a few years ago the local government spent some money re-paving the town centre and created a bus only route through the centre. When they did this they got some artists to create plaques that are embedded in the floor, including this one that commemorates the Waterloo heroes (the text says "The infantry from the Battle of Waterloo camped here on the way back to barracks in 1815"):

Another plaque celebrates the ancient forest of Bere. Which of course is almost non-existent now (well you knew the environment would creep in some where didn't you!). Actually it does still exist as remnants in Jubilee Park, Park Wood and The Queens Enclosure, all of which are within walking distance from the town centre:

The plaques are located along some mock tram tracks that the same artists thought were a good idea. Trams once travelled along tracks from Portsmouth up to Waterlooville and on to Horndean. The mock tracks look nice, but I think I would prefer to see some real trams:

Then there are the new obelisks. Oh dear, does anyone really like them?
On each face they have a picture that is supposed to be linked to Waterlooville, some make sense, others are a bit tenuous: