While everyone in Europe (except the French)this week has been celebrating the 200 years since Wellington defeated Napoleon a monument dedicated to Wellington and his victory is quietly crumbling away .
It's just 2 miles away from a town called Wellington(also named after the Duke ) here in my lovely home county of Somerset . Many of the UK members would have glimpsed this travelling on the M5 down to Devon or Cornwall , I've seen it a more than a hundred times in my travelling around as it's only about a 40 minutes drive from me .
It seems this monument is now owned by the National Trust (A CHARITY )who are blaming the collapse on the poor quality building at the time . I know from dealing with them on a business side of life the National Trust is full of overpaid old Fart's and Hooray Henry's only interested in high salaries and living in nice surroundings in which they manage . Is it time national monuments belonged to the nation , and not a selected chosen few .
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/...met-Waterloo/story-21655097-detail/story.html
chippy

Blimey, with such a delayed history and a shoddy build I'm surprised it ever made listed status at all!

There are a lot of cuts in this country at the moment, and the heritage sector has been hit enormously. Although not a fan of the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, I was very pleased when he committed 1.5 million Euros to the restoration of the remains of Hougoumont farm.

I'll be heading down to Somerset in a few weeks time for my hols, so I might pay it a visit (if the kids let me!).

Cheers,
Jon.

It's sad to see such things happening, but I can see the point. With so many monuments there must be a lot of competition for funds. This is not the prettiest nor most important One I dare say, although I realize that can be a personal thing and it's still sad.
Personally I find the situation in other places much more worrysome....think about Pompei crumbling and countless other centuries or millenia old structures and the amount of money that cost. Not even mentioning the world heritage that is being deliberately destroyed in the Middle East.
It's a nice idea to have the public own monuments, but ownership brings responsibility. Who's for a monument maintenance tax...? I would be ok with that, but then I'd also pay for a 'warp drive development tax'.

Cheers
Adrian