nicburch Posted 12 October , 2020 Share Posted 12 October , 2020 Is there good access to the Riqueval entrance of the canal from the road? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 12 October , 2020 Admin Share Posted 12 October , 2020 You can drive across the bridge and park. Walked to the 4th Australian Division memorial from the bridge. If I recall, there is a footpath to the canalside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancre1917 Posted 12 October , 2020 Share Posted 12 October , 2020 You can also pull off the main road opposite the café. Once you've walked (or driven) across the bridge, you can walk up the track, which will probably be very muddy now. If my memory is correct, it was a German communication trench linking the main Hindenburg line to the outpost lines on the west bank of the canal. This is probably the reason why the bridge was left intact and could thus be captured by Capt. Charlton and his party of North Staffordshire soldiers (aided by L.Cpl Openshaw and several men from 466th Field Coy RE). I wrote an article on the attack by 137th Staffordshire brigade which I would be happy to share with you if you pm your email address. Enjoy your visit. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 13 October , 2020 Share Posted 13 October , 2020 If you mean from the bridge down to the canal, yes, though it will be muddy and slippery. It is to the left of the bridge on the café (east) side of the canal. It's quite strange and gloomy down there. https://www.google.com/maps/@49.9401431,3.2424968,3a,75y,185.27h,79.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sYlszfCIEfgUnUl_8HjzYHw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 13 October , 2020 Share Posted 13 October , 2020 Ther is plenty of parking and a shale/dirt/ timber footpath down to the canal towpath. It is steep and a fair old drop. OK for anyone mobile but not easy for a wheelchair or anyone with difficulties in walking. Especially coming back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicburch Posted 14 October , 2020 Author Share Posted 14 October , 2020 Many thanks all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 14 October , 2020 Share Posted 14 October , 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aengland Posted 20 October , 2020 Share Posted 20 October , 2020 Great photographs.... thank you for sharing. Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horrocks Posted 21 October , 2020 Share Posted 21 October , 2020 Thank you. They are part of a series that I was commissioned to do for a CD cover/booklet, 'What Passing Bells (The War Poems of Wilfred Owen)' by Penny Rimbaud, released on the One Little Indian Records label a while back. The Manchesters crossed the canal at Bellenglise the day after the bridge fell, and went on to capture a section of the German Beaurevoir-Fonsomme backstop line behind Joncourt, where Owen won his MC. The photographs were taken on a rather stormy May day, and it had just rained quite hard. I found it to be a rather haunted, gloomy place. I've been back since with Penny Rimbaud when I took him on a tour of Owen related locations, and it was just the same, with thunder rolling around upstairs. Very atmospheric, almost as though something of that time and event is caught and held in that deep gash in the landscape. Below is the view from the bridge at Bellenglise in the direction of Riqueval. The Australian Memorial is on the ridge behind the mill building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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