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Went to Tyne Cot last September and asked one of the CWGC interns , if it was okay to climb up to and take a photograph. 

 His answer yes that is what the steps were designed for !

 

 Malcolm 

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12 minutes ago, Malcolm Linham said:

Went to Tyne Cot last September and asked one of the CWGC interns , if it was okay to climb up to and take a photograph. 

 His answer yes that is what the steps were designed for !

 

 Malcolm 

 

I don't see a problem with that Malcolm.  I assume there weren't many of you and you weren't running around it shouting and screaming.  When I visited it was a lovely, sunny Sunday afternoon in a relative heatwave for February.  I got the impression it was more about "where can we take the kids for an hour or two".  We would probably go to a park or the seaside for that.  I have no problem with Neil (post #25) sitting down on the steps or, indeed, using them as a vantage point to take a photograph or two.  But my experience of Tyne Cot veered more toward it being a theme park.  Needless to say, I won't be going back there anytime soon.  Give me the solitude of the Somme - although it too has its issues at certain locations (which I also try to avoid).  Grumpy - moi?

 

Reg

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6 hours ago, Neil Mackenzie said:

Actually it might be better to try the Pond Farm page on Facebook as it includes a booking facility.

 

https://www.facebook.com/www.depondfarm.be/

 

Neil

 

Why is access to Pond Farm Cemetery and a "booking facility" being discussed ? The right of way to the cemetery is from the Vooilandstraat directly north of the farm and is clearly signposted. If problems are being experienced accessing this cemetery then they should be reported to the CWGC and highlighted here. Access to CWGC sites is not at the behest of landowners in France and Belgium.

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10 hours ago, Tom Tulloch-Marshall said:

 

Why is access to Pond Farm Cemetery and a "booking facility" being discussed ? The right of way to the cemetery is from the Vooilandstraat directly north of the farm and is clearly signposted. If problems are being experienced accessing this cemetery then they should be reported to the CWGC and highlighted here. Access to CWGC sites is not at the behest of landowners in France and Belgium.

 

There are 2 discussions going on: one about people being rude at various cemeteries and the  other about gaining access Pond Farm Museum, which is private and requires advanced booking.

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I have now contacted Stijn and arranged our October 2020 visit. I would recommend a trip to Pond Farm to anyone trying to understand the Third Ypres battlefield. 

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1 minute ago, Mark Hone said:

I have now contacted Stijn and arranged our October 2020 visit. I would recommend a trip to Pond Farm to anyone trying to understand the Third Ypres battlefield. 

 

Did you use the Facebook page?  If you're booking for October, I need to get cracking if we're going in May!  

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1 hour ago, Mark Hone said:

I have now contacted Stijn and arranged our October 2020 visit. I would recommend a trip to Pond Farm to anyone trying to understand the Third Ypres battlefield. 

 

You won't regret it - great place to visit.

 

Neil

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On 17/01/2020 at 17:38, Neil Mackenzie said:

So, as CWGC deliberately refuse to say whether or not it is OK for people to climb the base of the Cross of Sacrifice, we cannot say that people doing so are being disrespectful. I must admit, in smaller cemeteries, I often sit on the base of the Cross of Sacrifice, and I am sure many, many cemetery visitors do as well,

Yes, I don't have a problem with that. I think it is a good place for peaceful contemplating: to think about your lost relatives, the war in general or just where to go next.

What I don't understand is people climbing the base (or trying to get even higher) to get a better signal for their smartphone, just to tell everyone - who don't want to hear it - that they had no chance to go shopping that day (as happened to me at Tyne Cot).

Or my absolute favourite: the pupils who opened their energy drinks and started a burping challenge on top of the mass grave of the unknown soldiers at Langemark. I don't believe that this is a behaviour that the CWGC or the Volksbund would encourage.

 

Markus

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3 hours ago, Jaeger6 said:

Or my absolute favourite: the pupils who opened their energy drinks and started a burping challenge on top of the mass grave of the unknown soldiers at Langemark. I don't believe that this is a behaviour that the CWGC or the Volksbund would encourage.

Definately not!

Neil

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just coming back to the Tyne Cot discussion... a few years back I yelled at a few youths for playing around on the cross and had a discussion with their surveyor. I stand by my interpretation of the rule; there's a difference between climbing the steps in order to  take in the view accross the battlefield and playing monkey on the steps and the cross. 

 

@Jaeger6: those guys are lucky I wasn't around!! 

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When I first started visiting Tyne Cot over 30 years ago I think that it was quite accepted for people to climb onto the cross to see the view etc. I can remember this happening on e.g. Holts and WFA tours and nobody batted an eyelid. However the number of visitors and the misbehaviour of some has steadily changed attitudes. We all have our horror stories but most groups in my experience act with perfect decorum. The worst behaviour I have seen at Tyne Cot was not by one of the much-lambasted school groups but by a party of young  British squaddies (not cadets) who clambered all over the cross and generally larked about without a word of admonishment from those supposedly in charge of them. It is they, like teachers in the case of school groups, who should have made clear what was appropriate behaviour in such a place. 

Edited by Mark Hone
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 03/11/2019 at 14:51, Andy davidson said:

Hi Mark

 

Bit of a drag from Warrington to Dover but always worth it, a bit of info, you can park at hooge crater and walk up onto the ridge, and there is a face book page

bellewaerde  1915 which is worth a look.

 

if you have kids with you there is a theme park next door to hooge.

 

cheers

 

Andy

Andy,

 

you need to do the overnight boat from Hull to Zeebrugge... I live in Warrington and would never consider driving to Dover anymore... 2 hours to Hull, get on the boat, have dinner, have a drink, watch a show, go to bed and wake up in Belgium.... Last time I tried the Dover route, took 7 hours to get there, spent a night in a hotel with dinner and all the extra time, stress and fuel that entails!

 

Never again.

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8 hours ago, bazunitec said:

Andy,

 

you need to do the overnight boat from Hull to Zeebrugge... I live in Warrington and would never consider driving to Dover anymore... 2 hours to Hull, get on the boat, have dinner, have a drink, watch a show, go to bed and wake up in Belgium.... Last time I tried the Dover route, took 7 hours to get there, spent a night in a hotel with dinner and all the extra time, stress and fuel that entails!

 

Never again.

That's a better way of doing things, will look at this option which looks easier to get to the Somme, 5 hrs less driving !!, Thanks for the tip. I'm off to the Somme in May but already booked the ferry / hotel in Dover, will try this next time, thanks.

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I have used the Hull crossings for all of my school battlefield tours from the northwest in the past decade, Normandy excepted. The cost of the tours is slightly increased but the price of the crossings is partly offset by the fact that you spend one fewer night at the hotel, not to mention the convenience of not leaving school and arriving back at the dead of night, coupled with trying to snatch a couple of hours of fitful sleep on the coach before launching into the tour. Mrs H and I would use it for our personal visits to Ypres as well but we find the prices we get quoted for our jalopy pretty horrendous. We've never managed to emulate these people who claim to be able to get cut-price tickets easily on the overnight ferries. We tend to compromise these days by going out on Dover/Calais or Dunkirk and coming back Zeebrugge/Hull. This avoids the nightmare return journey via the Bermuda Triangle of the M25 and the Sargasso Sea of the M6. You just have to keep your fingers crossed on the M62 but that seems to have been a bit better since they completed  those huge road works around Leeds

Edited by Mark Hone
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Hill 60, the Caterpillar crater next to it and the Bluff are always worth a visit. The Bluff area can be explored nicely by using the photo book "Palingbeek 2015 - the battle for the ridge between The Bluff and Hill 60.

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