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Reinstatement of a former Tarmac quarry laid the ground for the National Memorial Arboretum
Set in 6oha of woodland in the National Forest in Staffordshire, the National Memorial Arboretum is the UK's centre of remembrance for fallen servicepeople. The arboretum was conceived by the retired Commander David Childs during a visit to Arlington Cemetery and the National Arboretum in Washington DC, believing that something similar could be established in the UK. This led to an appeal that launched in November 1994; initial development of the arboretum was funded by the National Lottery Millennium Commission, along with thousands of donations from a variety of military and non-military organisations and private individuals.
It seemed appropriate for the arboretum to sit in the area covered by the emerging National Forest, and the search for suitable land centred on Staffordshire. Tarmac, which was then Lafarge Aggregates Limited, was approached about using some of its land, and it offered the area to the east of its processing plant at Alrewas Quarry, which was leased by the National Memorial Arboretum from the firm on a peppercorn rent.
Tarmac is the custodian of more than 40,000ha of land across the UK, actively managing a mixture of agriculture, woodlands, grasslands and habitat-rich wetlands. Alrewas Quarry lies off the A38, midway between Burton upon Trent and Lichfield west of the River Tame. The land east of the processing area was worked progressively for sand and gravel from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, with...