Mark Hone Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 Can anyone shed further light on the re-opening of the Croonart Wood site? I remember being told that some British people had purchased the site and were about to re-open it-in 1989! As per a previous thread, aren't the Hooge trenches a re-creation in recent years rather than preserved? I know that the distinction is rather fine-viz Sanctuary Wood! I think that the Hooge Museum is great but you always get the same comment-where are the trenches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hill 60 Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 garyem - No matter how bad the place I will still be going there, whether I go back is open to debate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 Mark makes a crucial point when he points out that it is really a Museum of the 20's Western Front Museums/Visitors sites. Jack is a direct descendant of the people who catered for visitors/pilgrims then selling artefacts by the bucket load and using the monies raised to bring their country back to normality. SWTM is a must visit once , I think but then on to better or perhaps just different things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Thompson Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 "The trees rise tall again. Here is Santuary Wood - a museum. One (hard) franc to enter. See the original German trenches, the helmets, holed and fragile, machine guns, rifles... and this helmet (blackened with preserving paint) through which a young tree apparently is growing. It would make a dramatic photograph in colour, no doubt, but not for us, mate." Henry Williamson - Return to Hell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Lines Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 Sanctuary Wood Trench Museum, Is it furthering the study of WWI ? Yes, I believe so. O.K. it might not be real etc. etc. but it certainly appeals to the kids and holiday makers just passing through or on their first visit and may encourage further interest in some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchwalker Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 this helmet (blackened with preserving paint) through which a young tree apparently is growing sorry whats this ive never herd about this before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somme1916 Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 In my opinion it's worth a visit. I've been twice and I really like the stereographs! My advice; if you've never been go and make up your own mind. Who knows it may become one of your favorites or then again may be not. Cheers, Jon Enjoy your visit to Ypres, I always have! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Thompson Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 Trenchwalker, The quote is taken from a series that appeared in the Evening Standard in 1964 entitled 'Return to Hell'. Henry Williamson, author of 'The Wet Flanders Plain' (testimony to his experience in the Great War and his journey back to the battlefields in the 1920's), and 'Tarka The Otter' was commissioned by the paper to revisit the former Western Front battlefields to write about them fifty years after the start of the war. The quote was his observation of Sanctuary Wood Museum at that time, which clearly wasn't for him. Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 23 September , 2003 Share Posted 23 September , 2003 As per a previous thread, aren't the Hooge trenches a re-creation in recent years rather than preserved? Yes. But isn't this the case also with Yorkshire Trench? Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 24 September , 2003 Share Posted 24 September , 2003 Dave I sure don't think so, Yorkshire is definitely the 1915 trench uncovered recently . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 24 September , 2003 Share Posted 24 September , 2003 I know Paul. What I'm trying to say is that it's done on the same lines as the one at Hooge (ie. it's been "re-dug" rather than "preserved"). The one at Hooge is also re-dug on the exact place as a 1917 (front line) trench. In fact (like Yorkshire Trench), the dig at Hooge was that accurate that the original shoring for the walls and, I think, remains of the duckboards and sump were discovered during excavation. Hooge, also, was a scientific archaelogical dig rather than just "an example of a Great War Trench". Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Fisher Posted 24 September , 2003 Share Posted 24 September , 2003 Slightly off tack, but the concrete replica trench of Vimy Ridge illustrated far more to my daughters than Sanctuary Wood could have. And has anyone walked in the woods to the right of the Canadian memorial? That seems a tad more real than anything preserved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hone Posted 25 September , 2003 Share Posted 25 September , 2003 Are the trenches at Cambrai dug for the 'Trench' TV series being maintained? On a related point does anyone know what progress has been made on the Union Flag memorial at Flesquieres? It was in outline when I visited last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchwalker Posted 25 September , 2003 Share Posted 25 September , 2003 Are the trenches at Cambrai dug for the 'Trench' TV series being maintained? My society helped with the series and apparently its now Taffs along with all the equipment and uniforms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Morgan Posted 25 September , 2003 Share Posted 25 September , 2003 I believe that Philippe Gorczynski (of "the dug-up tank" fame) bought the land off the farmer who owned it. Apparently, just ordinary day-to-day maintenance is a very time-consuming job. Sandbags don't last that long, rain washes bits away - that kind of thing. It illustrates the difficulty of maintaining trenches in anything like a "real" condition without a whole army of workers to do it - which is just what they had on hand in 1914-18 of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Heyvaert Posted 25 September , 2003 Share Posted 25 September , 2003 Personally, I think the sanctuary wood museum is more interesting as a leftover of immediate post-war battlefield tourism than as a testimonial of trench-life in the great-war. There must have been quite a few of these 'trench museums' along the Belgian and British front line in Belgium. Unfortunatly, sanctuary wood is one of the only ones that survived, and I don't think it changed much over the years. I think it's something people expected to see in the 1920's. Upgrading it to the wants of a modern day battlefield tourist would be a serious mistake. Just one other thought. Isn't the actual 'sanctuary wood' more north of the place of the museum? I visited the wood once that is indicated as 'sanctuary wood' on trench maps. Part of it seems to be privat, and is used to bread animals for hunting purposes. However, someone who was feeding the animals told us it was all right to walk through the wood, as long as we stayed away form the animals. This was a few years ago, and I don't know how the situation is nowadays. I found walking in the wood with a trench map and a topographical map a rewarding experience. Several circel-shaped depressions can be found on the place where large shell-holes must have been according to the trench-map. These were clearly not the remnants of three-holes. But please, don't feel encouraged to walk the wood without permission of the owner or one of the caretakers. Best, Bert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Kane Posted 28 September , 2003 Share Posted 28 September , 2003 I have visited the museum twice, the shot up trees made the visit wothwhile for me Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchwalker Posted 22 October , 2003 Share Posted 22 October , 2003 our group from school just got back from the wood yesterday . someone had a panic attack in a tunnel. but someone broke there leg slipping into the trench. also someone bought a live grenade. apart from that a good day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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