A.I.F. Cemetery Grass Lane Flers

[cockney tone]

Tim, Peter and others,

please keep posting, really interesting viewpoints.

Regards,

Scottie.

[Tims]

Peter

I have done a bit more digging on Serre 2. "Silent Cities" (which was published in 1929) has an artist's impression of the cemetery, showing the pair of rear pavilions and eight rows of graves, adding fuel to my thought that it was consciously designed with expansion space that has subsequently been filled.

Tim

[Peter Woodger]

Tim

I am not an architect but it just seems that in the case of Serre 2 and Grass Lane the main feature at the back of the cemetery seemed to be too small, in width, for the eventual size of the burial area. I was using these examples in an effort to work out when the designers got involved in the grave layout design. I did not feel that such eminent men as Lutyens, Bloomfield and Baker would allow a humble Captain/Lieutenant in the Labour Corps to choose the layout of the grave area which would dictate the eventual design. It is quite possible that the was an overall principle set of design rules for the burial area and the PA did not get involved until later. I still have the feeling that Baker designed the features for grass lane before plots 13 and 14 were made.

Another Lutyens cemetery of the leave gaps on the centre line type is Warlencourt. The symmetry has been lost by the addition of the 1st block of ten across plots 7 and 8 and they even forgot to fill the central gap in the second block of 10. I have not yet studied Warlencourt in detail but would look at the dates of burial of graves on the right side of plots 4 and 6 where they break the symmetry with the large space left for the stone on the left side of 3 and 4.

The main burials in many of the big concentration cemeteries took place whilst the policy for commemoration of the missing was in flux but included the possibility of Memorial Plots in the cemeteries nearest where the men died or later in 65(?) cemeteries chosen to represent the battle areas. Was there any allowance for space for these memorial plots.

The plots, in the cemetery nearest where he fell were still in thought in Feb 1920 and by Dec 1920 the thought was for a memorial tablet in the cemetery nearest where he fell. Were any of our spaces meant for these features?

Peter

On the question of keeping this on or off of forum, it is difficult to realise from say my last post that the heading to the thread is a simple history of grass lane. I suggest that Tim and I go off line to bounce ideas off each other but we create a thread on early cemetery design/history to which we report at times when we have sorted a little wheat from the chaff.

Peter

[Ken Lees]

Peter/Tim,

I am sure that I speak for many others when I say that I am finding this discussion absolutely fascinating and it will certainly provoke a new way of looking at the cemeteries I visit in future. Thank you for your contributions to date. please keep them coming.

And, please put me down for a copy of the book that you co-write on the subject.

Ken

[cockney tone]

Peter,

Think thats not a bad idea, it would make an interesting thread of its own and perhaps alert others to the subject.

Regards,

Scottie.

[Tims]

I'm pleased that our musings have a wider interest so it will be fascinating to see what emerges in due course. For those who are interested in the design aspects of the cemeteries, Gerald Gliddon and I covered it in some depth in "Lutyens and the Great War", where we looked at the individual components that make up the cemeteries - Cross, War Stone, shelters, landscaping, steps etc. We also looked at the history of the Memorials to the Missing and discovered some previously unpublished designs for Arras and Villers Bretonneux. Obviously this was all done from the viewpoint of Lutyens but, as far as the cemeteries are concerned, the comments can apply to them all.

We also looked in detail at the history of the War Stone, including Lutyens's fanciful suggestion that each one should rest in Westminster Abbey or on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace before making its way to the cemetery so that people could see and touch them!

Tim

[armidale]

G'day

I do not recall ever seeing the name of this cemetery before.

Today I visited a small display on soldiers of the WW1 from Australia's Northern Territory. It comprised only some 100 items, but one was a small publication, the CWGC booklet on Grass Lane, Flers. It was in a glass case and had no 'explanatory' note.