Accrington Web - View Single Post - Panopticon- the alternative view

Tealeaf · 09-08-2004, 16:57

It's years since I was last up on the top of the coppice, but I do seem to recall that these trenches are about 50 yards long, straight, parallel and 4 or 5 deep with gaps of 30 yards between (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)....If I am right on this, then they would bear little resemblance to the trench system as evolved by 1916 when the Pals arrived in France. In any instance, they would have had relatively little training in them given that they would have been constructed sometime between October 1914 & February 1915 when the battalion left Accy.

The real question to raise though is this - are these the only surviving WW1 practice trenches in the country? I am not aware of any others....certainly, if they are unique then there is real potential here for an educational/tourist attraction. I just hope that HBC, for once, may possibly respond to what is an imaginative idea instead of throwing money away on an endless trail of crackpot schemes.

09-08-2004, 16:57	#35
Tealeaf God Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Paradise Lost Posts: 7,220 Liked: 11 times Rep Power: 4266	Re: Panopticon- the alternative view It's years since I was last up on the top of the coppice, but I do seem to recall that these trenches are about 50 yards long, straight, parallel and 4 or 5 deep with gaps of 30 yards between (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)....If I am right on this, then they would bear little resemblance to the trench system as evolved by 1916 when the Pals arrived in France. In any instance, they would have had relatively little training in them given that they would have been constructed sometime between October 1914 & February 1915 when the battalion left Accy. The real question to raise though is this - are these the only surviving WW1 practice trenches in the country? I am not aware of any others....certainly, if they are unique then there is real potential here for an educational/tourist attraction. I just hope that HBC, for once, may possibly respond to what is an imaginative idea instead of throwing money away on an endless trail of crackpot schemes.