Article and Photographs: Jonathan White
Aerial drone photos of EIIR at the Barony attached with permission of Des Evans
Local football referee Des Evans has marked out ‘EIIR’ onto the turf at the Barony Park in Nantwich. Des regularly referees on the park in Crewe Regional Sunday Football League matches and also paints all the white lines on the four football pitches on the park.
He has now expertly marked out and painted the initials ‘ER’ with ‘II’ in-between on a large section of grass within the park. The EIIR measures 30 metres by 30 metres and is located between a football pitch and the former skatepark area.
This marking is found on the likes of stamps and post boxes. ER stands for something specific to our former, much-admired, longest-reigning monarch, the late Elizabeth II. The ER, or EIIR, initials were the Royal Cypher of Queen Elizabeth II. The ER stands for Elizabeth Regina. Elizabeth, of course, was her first name – and Regina simply means ‘Queen’ in Latin. Because she was the second Queen Elizabeth, her cypher included the Roman numerals to indicate this – II.
Des Evans said: “I was on my lunch and reflecting and thought to myself why not and marked E R on the Barony.”
