Journey’s End: The Dugout Experience

Regional departure by coach, then to our hotel in Belgium, where we stay for three nights.

Our first day is spent at Ypres where we visit the impressive Passchendaele Memorial Museum at Zonnebeke, where they have reconstructed a dugout giving an insight into what real dugouts – like those featured in the play – were like. We see Tyne Cot Cemetery and have our lunch period at Hooge, including a visit to the trenches.

We then see where R.C. Sherriff fought at Passchendaele and go into Ypres for an afternoon performance of the Journey's End play. We remain in Ypres for the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate.

Today we travel into France where we visit the Vimy Ridge battlefield, where R.C. Sherriff first served on the Western Front in 1916. After lunch in Arras, we travel to the battlefields around St. Quentin, the real location where the play was set. Here we look at the German offensive, the Kaiser’s Battle, and examine the areas were fighting took place on 21st March 1918, including Manchester Hill and also the area where Sherriff’s battalion, the 9th East Surreys, fought.

Return home.