December 2, 2022 12:21pm
At the start of November, Year 8 and 9 students visited Ypres, Belgium. This residential trip was organised by the History department and students were accompanied by Miss Kendall, Mrs Williams, Miss Crown and Mr Bailey. Freddie, in Year 9, gives us his thoughts about each day of the trip below.
Wednesday:
On our first day it was a very early wake up and the coach journey was a bit long but very good. Then we arrived in Belgium and went to Tyne Cot cemetery and this was an eye opener as I did not expect to see this many graves and names on the wall and it really took me by surprise. Then we went into Flanders field museum and this gave me a real idea of how the battle was fought and whereabouts it was fought and just how it happened and that was extremely interesting.
Thursday:
Then we went to a site where dynamite was placed under a German territory. When it was blown up, it killed over 10,000 soldiers in one explosion. It left a massive hole that if anyone was alive would not be able to get out of. It amazed me how deep it was. Later on we went to a place where there was lots of trenches that we could see and it was very interesting to see how deep they were but also how close they were to each other. Then we went to another museum and this was very interesting. We were able to get into a reconstructed trench and again this was really interesting to see how narrow they were and also were the peaking points were so they could see into no mans land. Then in this museum we ventured up to the monument was there and it was amazing it was huge and it was different but it was still amazing.
Friday:
On the last day we went to Passchendaele museum and this was fantastic. It was really strange as we started off in a small house and it was very narrow but then it turned out to be amazing. We went downstairs and this is where we saw the essentials people did during the war and this was very well demonstrated with the waxworks. Then we went into the trenches and this gave us a real insight to their air raid shelters and if their trench was bombed where they would go. Afterwards, we went into a smaller cemetery where the poem In Flanders Fields was written and how scary it must have been to be in that environment trying to write a poem.
Overall:
I would say that my favourite part of the trip was Passchendaele as it really gave me an insight into really what happened not just from a fighting point of view from a behind the scenes point of view.
- Freddie, Year 9