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The cannon has been there for
over 150 years and has come a very long way.
If you pass by Ely's magnificent cathedral regularly, the cannon
that stands guard outside will be a regular sight.
It's become part of the background of the city, but have you
ever stopped to wonder how it ended up being there?
The cannon itself is rather strange looking, held on a metal
carriage, with two small wheels at the front.
While most of ys don't see cannons everyday, popular culture
often depicts them in a wooden carriage perhaps on a pirate ship
or being drawn by four horses.
So while Ely's cannon might look a bit odd, it is completely
real and has been fired in anger.
The cannon that now stands silent outside the cathedral has more
than likely killed someone in its lifetime.
Travelling across the world, the cannon has come a long way
before residing in front of the magnificent cathedral.
It was built in Russia more than 150 years ago and was captured
by the British Army probably around 1856.
The cannon comes from the Russian port of Sevastopol on the
Crimean peninsular in Ukraine.
The port of Sevastopol which has remained in Russian hands for
centuries despite being on the Ukraine coast was at the time
under siege by the British forces during the Crimean War.
The conflict started over the rights of Christian minorities in
the Holy Land but was ostensibly about the French, British and
Ottoman Empires wanting to impede the Russian Empire from
expanding into Turkey.
While the history of the war has faded mostly into obscurity it
did give rise to some well-known people including Florence
Nightingale and Mary Seacole.
The cannon was won following the siege if Sevastopol which
lasted just under a year between October 1854 and September
1855.
Over 100,000 men are believed to have died in the battle, with
most dying from wounds and disease later on rather than in
action.
Once the war had ended there was a need back in Britain to
replenish the reserves of soldiers after so many had died on the
fields of Crimea.
Here in Cambridgeshire several volunteer rifle regiments were
formed, including the Ely Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1860.
Queen Victoria, the then ruler of Britain, awarded the cannon
captured in the siege of Sevastopol and awarded it to the Ely
Rifles in recognition of the successful formation of the corps.
It's not known how much use the corps got out of the rifle at
the time, but it remains to this day outside the cathedral,
while the Ely Rifles are no more, having been amalgamated into
the Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, then added to the
Suffolk Regiment before being disbanded in the 1960s after
fighting in both world wars including at the Somme and the fall
of Singapore.
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