Two Pints of Leffe and a Packet of Frites...

Your intrepid correspondents were in Belgium at the weekend. The intention of our trip was to meet once more with M. Delrue, whose land we are investigating, Claude, chef-patron of the Auberge and all round good chap, and our friends from the Warneton Historical Society.

We are pleased to report that all the signatures are in place and that we have now formally applied for the permit to dig again. We hope the Wllon authorities will look kindly on us again!

While we were out there we stayed at the Messines Peace Village again and look set to use them as Dig HQ again this year. As ever we got a very warm welcome and we salute Louise, who is customer-service personified. Good luck with the pregnancy!

We are several steps closer to another season at Plugstreet.

Peter Chasseaud's panorama drawing looking east from Ultimo Crater

Photos of a 3-section panorama drawing I made from the north-east lip of Ultimo Crater, looking east. The coverage is approximately an arc from north-east to south-east. The photo below shows the whole panorama obliquely. The three above show the individual sections in the sequence: left - right - centre. All images Copyright Peter Chasseaud 2007.

Such panoramas were drawn during the First World War to show the views from observation posts for artillery and intelligence purposes. The drawing was often overlaid with a degree grid, sometimes showing bearings right and left of a centre-line, e.g. Warneton Church. The bearings given on my drawing are very approximate, and the whole thing needs to be recalibrated to give correct bearings.

Our partners from Comines-Warneton

We have received emails from Jean-Michel, on behalf of the Comines-Warneton Historical Society. They are our key, local partners in the Plugstreet Project. Members of the group will be working with us on site and they have already helped with documentary research. Some members of the Society have plenty of experience in Great War archaeology and one member was associated with discovery and identification of Private Lancaster, about whom I wrote on 4th July. We are looking forwards to working with them.

Like us they have a blog and it includes details of two Great War exhibitions, as well as photos of the Flanders Giants, which are quite a phenomenon.

http://www.vanelslande.org/blog/

We intend that the excavation report will appear in the Society's Journal.