Over the top? I’ve built my own WWI trenches!
HE’S clearly the last one to believe that when you are in a hole you should stop digging. For First World War expert Andy Robertshaw has recreated trenches from the Battle of the Somme in a field in Kent.
He spent 18 months building the one-acre network, which has a British front line that can sleep 30 troops, a German front line big enough for ten and an area of no man’s land.
Hawthorne Ridge also features firing bays, a first aid post, a kitchen and a light railway to transport supplies, plus thousands of sandbags and yards of barbed wire. The site, on a farm near Canterbury, has already been used at a film set and hosted school trips.
Now Mr Robertshaw, 61, is offering enthusiasts the chance to get a feel for life on the Western Front – a 48-hour stay.
‘People get into uniform and have a boot camp-style introduction in the experience of a Great War soldier,’ he said. ‘They go into a night-time routine of working, resting and guarding the trench before an inspection and breakfast the following morning.’
Mr Robertshaw has led several archaeological investigations along the Western Front. He was the lead historical consultant for Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film adaptation of War Horse and a historical adviser on First World War scenes in the 2017 film Wonder Woman.
His projects digging replica trenches have lasted longer than the 1914-18 war.
In 2012 he completed a historically accurate reconstruction near his then home in Charlwood, Surrey. He switched to recreating Hawthorne Ridge – a German position blown up by British tunnellers in July 1916 – after moving to Faversham. Luckily, his wife Janice, 61, does not seem to think he has gone over the top.
‘She’s a historian and a history teacher so she can’t complain too much, but I suspect she’s a bit of a trench widow,’ said Mr Robertshaw, who has spent around £8,000 on the project, which he built with the help of ten volunteers.
His grandfather John Robertshaw fought at the Somme and the Battle of Arras with the East Yorkshire Regiment. He was gassed but survived. ‘When I asked him why he volunteered, he said he did it so he could eventually take his uniform off and live in peace and freedom,’ Mr Robertshaw said.
‘My ambition is for my trench to become a permanent site for people to visit. It’s not a memorial to those who fell, but it’s a memorial to the experience of living in a trench.’