This series is really enjoyable; thank you so much. You should be aware that the French used field artillery at Waterloo; big guns, or cannons by any other name. If those were captured, as plenty were, and brought back to London, that's what we're looking at.
If/when RU-vid go to the Netherlands look at our bollards. There are many cities where cannon bollards can be found. Everywhere from Vlissingen in the South to Den Helder in the north have old canons as bollards along their docks and harbors
I never knew this , I must of past them a hundreds of times 😊 I find your site very interesting and informative. I always loved history Tjank you very much ❤
Liverpool and London were full of these cannons as gate posts and preventing wagons hitting brickwork and keeping them off pavements. They were English captured French. The French writing could be seen on them. The cannon in London's St.John's Wood had French writing on it. It disappeared about 10-15 years ago, never to come back.
@welshpete12 Not entirely. It was rumours to that extent for the first ones, but after WW1 and WW2 the metals changed and the present source is I believe from a 1860 Second-Aglo Chinese war cannon tie down part.
I recall many decades ago seeing what was obviously once a cannon standing by a wall I think but had been cut right down the middle, this was at Dover castle. Thanks for showing London's cannon, I had never seen these!
Not sure how often it occurred but I remember reading that captured cannons would sometimes be installed on British ships. So it might be possible that one or two could be French?
It's so funny how they were just using a thing- putting something to good use- but since people liked the look of it, now they make new bollards to look like old cannons. It's kind of like the 'SAVE' icon on the computer. Nobody uses floppy drives any longer, but that's what 'save' continues to look like.
Thank You for Sharing….. very interesting facts and history….. one ☝️ of the most important things and places one wouldn’t know unless people like you show and tell….. Great Job 👏 thanks again…..
Even if they didn't bring french ships back it's super likely all ships that were captured/salvaged had their cannons taken because they were extremely expensive to make and hard to come by
I love your glasses; your saucy feline good looks - that moustache is quite stylish in a lordly manner; precise presentation and good pun where it is apt! That cute and majestic British accent makes my heart flutter, of course! This is one of the best channels I have come across here; subscribed and all. Thank you! Keep making these videos!
All cannon barrels were limited to the number of shots they were safe for, otherwise would shatter because of metal fatigue. Their material could be recycled and recast, but eventually metallurgical science moved on and also breech loading became the norm so these became cheap surplus and so repurposed.
Cast Iron Cannon had a limited safe useful life. Cast Iron being fairly brittle, would in time begin to develop cracks, weakening the gun , which would esult in catastrophic failure. So once past their safe round count limit, they were good only for scrap, and since they were already Bollard shaped, it was just good sense to use them as such. Saved a lot of money.
I suppose they had to to count the shots then? funny image having a guy with note pad tallying shots in battle. Maybe hand them over to the enemy after, like handing a buddy a can of pop you just shook.....
Left london at 18months to emigrate to australia with family but you young man have a lovely voice and im thoroughly enjoying your videos and the info contained. Thank you from scotland x
They could still be french cannons but from captured french ships. During the Napoleonic wars lots of ships were captured as prizes and brought back to friendly ports to be bought, renamed and repurposed by the Royal Navy.
The cannons were taken from French ships so they couldn't be used again. Any that couldn't be used by the Royal Navy because of the smaller calibre were used as bollards.
Dr Andrew Marriott, in 2020, after examining 50 Victoria Crosses, concluded that none of the metal used to make them came from cannon seized at Sevastopol. Queen Victoria was sickened by the Crimean War and saw no honour in Russian cannon.
Had never heard the word, “bollard” before. Here in the US, I would simply call this type of object a traffic barrier post. I like “bollard” better. I’m going to officially incorporate that into my vocabulary. It will both impress AND annoy my friends 😂
Several French ships were captured immediately before the battle of Trafalgar. But this is nothing unusual as under prize rules, RN was regularly and repeatedly capturing French ships, as well as sinking many, many more. So the story that some of these are French is quite likely true.
What are they? Asking on behalf of Wales. Have we missed something that's keeping you north of the border? We all know that Anglos are the worst neighbours, but pretty things seem pretty much the same as usual. If we can just persuade the Yanks into giving Boris Johnson back his USian citizenship, and have referenda on the future of the union, life would be perfect
