Ww1 War Poets: Oh What A Literary War!

Itinerary

2020 Departures

• Day 1

  Local departure by coach, then to our hotel in northern France where we stay for four nights.

• Day 2 - Arras

  We begin our tour at Arras where we visit the grave of war poet and country writer, Edward Thomas, at Agny, also looking at the battlefield where he died.

  We move on to look at Bailleul Road East Cemetery learning about the work of Jewish poet Isaac Rosenberg and visiting his grave.

  After lunch in Arras, we travel to the Sambre Canal battlefield at Ors, seeing the ground where Owen died in the last battle of WW1, visiting his grave and also seeing the Wilfred Owen Visitor’s Centre, a small museum to him in the nearby Mormal Forest.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 3 - Flanders & Ypres

  Today we are in Flanders, where we start on the Pilkem Ridge looking at Irish war poet, Francis Ledgwidge, and Welsh poet, Ellis Evans or ‘Hedd Wyn’. We visit their graves, and look at the battlefield where they were fighting, seeing Yorkshire Trench and the nearby Visitor’s Centre. After lunch at Hooge, we look at the poems and writing of Edmund Blunden, seeing the battlefield at Mousetrap Farm where he fought during Third Ypres, and visit Vlamertinghe Château which he wrote about in 1917. At Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery we visit the grave of war poet Harold Parry, and we then travel to Ploegsteert, or ‘Plugstreet’, to look at the writing of Henry Williamson and his description of the Christmas Truce in 1914. We end the day in Ypres for the moving Last Post Ceremony.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 4 - The Somme

  We look at the poets and writers on the Somme today, including the story of Will Streets, at Serre, seeing the battlefield where he and his comrades from the Sheffield City battalion fought on 1st July 1916, as well as visiting his grave at Euston Post Cemetery.

  We then see the Thiepval Memorial to the missing before having our lunch in Albert.

  In the afternoon we follow poet Ivor Gurney from Ovillers to Pozières, then look at the poets and writers from the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, including Siegfried Sassoon, who described the battlefield at Fricourt. We also make a visit to the Point 110 Cemeteries.

  At the Devonshire Cemetery we see the grave of poet William Noel Hodgson, before we end our day at High Wood, one of the costliest corners of the Somme, where Robert Graves and ‘Old Soldiers Never Die’ author Frank Richards fought.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 5

  Return home.

  Meals - Breakfast

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Accommodation

You will stay for four nights at the 3-star Des Acacias Lille Tourcoing in Neuville-en-Ferrain. Back to top