June 18th 2025 marked the anniversary of Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. This famous battle was known as ‘The Battle that changed Europe’. It was fought between Imperial French forces commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte and a coalition of British, Prussian, Dutch and German forces under the Duke of Wellington. The decisive battle of its age, it concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ending French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon’s imperial power. The battle was both a tactical and strategic success as the threat from Napoleon was neutralised, resulting in his eventual abdication and exile. The battle heralded 40 years of peace in Europe and the emergence of France as a crucial ally to Britain.
Our town of Brandon played a major role in this battle, as the high quality gunflints that supplied the muskets fired by our soldiers were all produced in Brandon. At this time the Brandon gunflint industry employed up to 200 flintknappers and exported 1.5 million flints per month.
To celebrate this occasion, the society (BDLHS) decided to erect a stall in the market place on Thursday 19th June. Our stall contained information about the battle and exhibits of locally mined flint in the process of being turned into gunflints. At the same time, the stall enabled us to chat with the people of Brandon and tell them about our history society and encourage them to come to our meetings and consider membership.
Mike Willett, with the assistance of John Kennedy and Steve Dingley arrived at 8.00AM on market day to transport and erect the display stand. A gazebo canopy was kindly supplied by the market supervisor. During market hours from 8AM until 12 noon we chatted with several townspeople who visited the stand along with some society members who came along in support. I think we can say it was a success, and there are plans to repeat the event when a suitable opportunity arises.
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