From the start it was seen as a place of joy where the lives of people would be remembered by living trees that would grow and mature in a world at peace.

As planting began in 1997, it seemed most appropriate that the site should also celebrate the turn of the century. The Millennium Chapel of Peace and Forgiveness is a central part of the site and was created in such a way as to offer a place of tranquillity and reflection to people of every faith or none. This is in keeping with the planting philosophy which has always been inclusive as can be seen in the many and varied sites. Nearly all of these were designed in partnership and consultation so that every group could feel a sense of ownership of the plot to which they had contributed.

The project began with no money, no land, no staff and no trees. The National Lottery, in the form of the Millennium Commission, granted some forty per cent of the funds needed and this was matched by thousands of donations, both large and small, from a wide variety of organisations both military and civilian, men and women, corporate and voluntary.

The land was kindly leased for a peppercorn rent by Redland Aggregates (now Lafarge) who have generously supported the idea from the beginning. The site was created by a staff of thousands: a small paid group; a dedicated and very active Friends of the National Memorial Arboretum organisation; and countless others who have either planted individual trees or helped create a plot for their organisation. The initial planting took place thanks to grants from Forestry Commission and the, National Forest. We once estimated that the involvement of so many supporters made The Arboretum the most popular of all the Millennium projects - rightly so, in our opinion and it will, certainly, be one of the longest lasting.

The future of the project became assured when three proposals were agreed. These were: for the site to be the location of the Armed Forces Memorial; for the Ministry of Defence to pay a significant grant-in-aid to allow for free entry and that The Royal British Legion would accept the gift of the site as the focus for the Nation's year round remembrance. With those arrangements in place the trees can look forward to a very long, healthy and much visited future.

We hope that you enjoy your visit and take many thoughts away with you.

265 million years ago central England was part of a vast, hot landscape of shallow lakes in red sandy desert. These conditions produced the red marl that forms the local ‘bedrock’ and gives the soil its distinctive red colour.

Millions of years later, during the Ice Age, a drop in temperatures led to the breaking up and grinding together of rocks by frost action, which is the repeated freezing and thawing of water in rock. During warmer periods meltwater rivers carried gravels from higher land to form the mineral deposits that are worked for aggregates today.

At the end of the ice age thin layers of fine grained sediment were deposited over the gravels to form the soils which enabled plants to grow and farming to take place.

The sand and gravel deposited in the Alrewas area thousands of years ago is quarried by Lafarge for use in construction throughout the region, including homes, schools, hospitals and roads. The land where the National Memorial Arboretum has been established was quarried in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

When the first phase of quarrying ceased, the land was restored using inert wastes such as soils and clays which cannot be recycled. The arboretum’s many groves have been established on this land.

Lafarge will continue to quarry at Alrewas until the work is finished, and will restore the land progressively. The company is proud to have played a part in the development of the Arboretum and surrounding countryside.

In October 2002, the skull of a 40,000 year old woolly rhino was found in Lafarge’s Alrewas Quarry by digger driver Ray Davis. The woolly rhino lived during the middle part of the last major glaciation of the British region, about 30,000 to 60,000 years ago. Other finds at the quarry include remains of woolly mammoth, horse, bison and reindeer. Quarrying is important to archaeologists, who can quickly search for historical artefacts in large areas of land that are being quarried.