Hey Folks, it’s been a little bit, hasn’t it?
The last two weeks have seen the beginning of the new school year here in the US, and as always these first days are busy for teachers. This year was no exception, although it was smoother.
So, here are the videos I took during our visit to the Hawthorn Ridge Crater. They feature battlefield archeologist Mr. Colin Winn talking to us about the explosives used in the mine below, the explosion itself, and how it shaped the crater. Later videos feature Mr. Winn discussing the creation of the second crater, and of other evidence found inside the two massive blast holes.
There are also a few corrections to be made to the interview episode with Mr. Winn, and these errors have been fixed thanks to an Englishman who is very passionate about WW1 and who is connected to the Hawthorn Ridge Crater Association (HRCA).
Well, it turns out that it’s not two brothers who were part owners of the crater who weren’t speaking. This is too bad, really, from the standpoint that I had hoped through a shared historical connection we could see a family dispute ended and brothers reunited–it’d make a hell of a story!
Alas, the two ornery owners are apparently two local village council members. Word is that any village council meeting where one speaks to the other ends in an argument, which confirms to us that hey, people are the same the world over.
In other information, the Hawthorn Crater is owned by the village of Beaumont-Hamel, and the village has leased the crater to the HRCA for the next 99 years. The pathway up to the crater has been cleaned up, widened, and covered with mulch to ease foot traffic on the slope. The Association’s goals are to eventually build up the area for tourists to come and reflect, and they hope to install panoramic information panels near the crater that will explain the history of the immediate area during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
So, here are the videos:
2nd Video Clip