We were joined on site on 5-6 March by a TV crew from Channel 5’s ‘Live with Gabby’ show. Their short film was broadcast on Friday 16 March’s show. It can be viewed for a further five days via this link: http://www.channel5.com/shows/live-with-gabby/episodes/friday-16-march-2. The film starts just after 30 minutes in to the show.
We also showed Frank Barrett, the Mail on Sunday’s travel editor around site and took him underground in W Adit. His article, entitled In search of Birdsong: Unearthing the scars of war on a drive through Northern France was published in today’s paper. It covers our work at La Boisselle, focussing on last June’s visit to site by Birdsong actors, Eddie Redmayne and Joseph Mawle. Frank’s article can be viewed online by clicking the image below.
Our thanks to Ruth Bray and all at Premier PR for organising this.
A group of 20 students and two teachers from Farnham Sixth Form College visited the site at the Glory Hole on 8 February. Despite bitterly cold temperatures the group was met and guided by La Boisselle Study Group member Richard Porter. Richard set the scene by pointing out the respective positions above ground of both sides, before giving an explanation of both defensive and offensive military mining in the immediate area from autumn 1914 to the opening day of the Somme offensive in July 1916.
He was also able to show the students some of the artefacts that had been found during October’s archaeological work. Many of the students were studying Birdsong as part of their ‘A’ Level English Literature course, and were fascinated at being taken a short way underground in W Adit to appreciate the work of the tunnellers, see the size of the underground workings and remains of the tramway system that had been installed. Richard was also able to tell them stories concerning individual RE tunnellers from 179 & 185 Tunnelling Companies operating at the site in 1915 & 1916.
Richard Porter greets the student group visit
Richard's briefing
With the group at the British front line
Showing the 179 Tunnelling Company mine plan
Dependent upon existing work commitments we will always endeavour to show parties around the site. Please contact us for details.
In June 2011 we were joined on site by Eddie Redmayne and Joseph Mawle, the two actors cast to play Stephen Wraysford and Jack Firebrace in the Working Title adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ novel ‘Birdsong’, a book which has come to occupy a permanent and celebrated place in First World War fiction. Filming in Hungary was yet to start.
LBSG member Peter Barton was Historical Consultant for the production. Because much of the film’s action takes place on the Somme battlefields (Beaumont Hamel) he invited the producers to visit La Boisselle to gain an understanding of the environment and conditions faced by tunnellers working beneath the Picardy battlefields. On Eddie and Joseph’s arrival the nature of surface and subterranean warfare at the Glory Hole was explained.
Peter Barton and Simon Jones show Joseph and Eddie the 179 Tunnelling Company mine plan
Peter Barton explaining the mine plans - there are up to eight kilometres of tunnels on site - all dug by hand
Trenches were flagged out, and shafts and inclines marked. Guided by Peter, they then went underground through the crown hole that gave access to the 1915 X Incline. They descended to a depth of about 30 feet, reaching the site of the now celebrated poem written in pencil on the chalk roof:
If in this place you are detained Don’t look around you all in vain But cast your net and you shall find That every cloud is silver lined… Still
We were delighted to show the actors the site and explain some of the difficulties and dangers endured by the tunnellers. The visit was filmed by LBSG member Mike Fox BSC; some of this footage may appear on the Birdsong DVD.
Speaking with Claudie Llewellyn, one of the owners of the Glory Hole
Eddie and Joseph at the collapse providing access to 1915 X Incline
The experience had a powerful influence on both men. In recent interviews Eddie Redmayne revealed that he wrote the poem, which he described as “hope in the most horrific of circumstances”, on the cover of his script as an inspiration for the role, and as a reminder of the tunnellers and their work in the Glory Hole at La Boisselle.
The following articles mention the actors’ visits to La Boisselle in June:
The BBC website for Birdsong is available by clicking the image below.
We are grateful to Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Mawle and the production team at Working Title for their permission to divulge this information and reproduce the images.