Attractions and Places To See around Douchy-Lès-Ayette - Top 20

The Sheffield Memorial Park in Hébuterne pays tribute to the men of the 31st Division of the British Army who served in the Pals Battalion and fell in combat in this sector. The Pals Battalions were formed in the autumn of 1914 following recruitment campaigns launched by the War Office. Thousands of volunteers, brothers, cousins, neighbors, friends, and work colleagues enlisted at local recruiting offices at the same time. The regiments were thus composed of soldiers who knew each other very well and thus formed battalions of "friends," the Pals Battalions. During the fighting in the early days of the Battle of the Somme, these Sheffield Pals Battalions fought in the Hébuterne sector. Their objective was to advance east through the German lines and retake the fortified village of Serre.

The monument to the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders is a Celtic cross symbolically erected on the embankment of a sunken road, at the spot where the men of this regiment rushed to capture the village of Beaumont-Hamel on November 13, 1916, at the end of the Battle of the Somme. First, on July 1, when it was located in no man's land, exactly equidistant from the British and German trenches, and served as a refuge for so many soldiers wounded during the fighting; then, five days before the end of that same battle, when the village of Beaumont-Hamel was finally captured on November 13, by the men of the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who had rushed from that position. The 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was a Scottish regiment that fought on several fronts. A reading of the inscriptions engraved on the different sides of the base of this monument tells us this. Thus, this cross is dedicated to the glory of the battalion's glorious dead and to the memory of those who will never return. Its combat losses, throughout the war, amounted to 51 officers and 831 men and non-commissioned officers, including 105 wounded officers and 2,527 men and non-commissioned officers. Finally, a Celtic inscription reveals "it is good to have friends on the day of battle." Mobilized from August 4, 1914, to November 12, 1919, a period of five years and 100 days, the regiment fought from May 1, 1915, to November 11, 1918, in Belgium and France. Until 1918, the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders belonged to the 51st Division; In 1915, it fought at Richebourg, Festubert and on Thiepval Ridge, which was to leave a sad memory for the British on 1 July 1916 (this is where the memorial to the missing now stands); in 1916, it fought at the Labyrinth, Vimy Ridge, Fourcaux Wood (High Wood), Beaumont-Hamel (there, therefore) and Courcelette; in 1917, it was Roclincourt, Arras, Roeux, Ypres and Cambrai. In 1918, the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders fought as part of the 61st Division at Saint-Quentin, Holnon Wood, Villéveque, Nesle, Villers-Bretonneux and on the Lys; but also within the 15th division which distinguished itself at Soissons, at Buzancy and in the final advance which would lead to the armistice

Today the chapel is primarily a pilgrim chapel and resting place with a guest book.

Chapel built in 1934. The chapel is located outside the village on a hiking trail. It is a small square building. On the facade is the entrance door. On each side are two Corinthian-style pilasters. Above the door is the name of the chapel and above it is a triangular molding. Then we have a cornice. On each side of the wall, a bay in a pointed arch. The roof is a bulbous roof with four sides. The chevet is a regular apse, Inside is a niche where you can see a statue of the Virgin. Just below the Virgin is a small altar. On each side of the walls there are two small shelves.

Hawthorn Ridge Crater is a mine crater that was exploded during the First World War. This crater, located at the entrance to Beaumont-Hamel in Picardy, France, bears witness to the tragic events that unfolded on July 1, 1916, when British soldiers attacked German fortifications on the ridge. The mine exploded eight minutes too early, allowing the Germans to regain the upper hand and inflict heavy losses on the attackers. You can access the crater via a muddy path between two pastures, and admire the vegetation that has reclaimed the site. You can also learn about the history of the battle and the second explosion which took place on November 13, 1916. The crater is part of a wider network of memorials and cemeteries which commemorate the soldiers who fell on the Somme.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the flow of the Crinchon (river of about twenty kilometers which flows between Bailleulmont and Saint-Nicolas before flowing into the Scarpe) is weak, irregular and its waters are of poor quality. The city of Arras needs healthy and abundant water for the inhabitants and for the drinking troughs of the cavalry barracks. In 1723, at his request, the springs that gush out in Brétencourt, a hamlet of Rivière, were collected in a reservoir, it is a vast rectangular basin surrounded by brick walls now called "Carré des sources". Its dimensions: 33 m long, 11 m wide and 8 m deep. The works were carried out by the Military Engineering on the orders of the king, who financed them, as recalled by a sandstone sealed in a wall: "In the year 1723, under the reign of Louis XV, the sources of the Crinchon were sought and enclosed in this basin at the expense of the king" Le Carré des sources delivers 64 liters per second of water that is extremely fresh and remarkably clear. The stream thus formed crosses the park of the castle and joins the initial bed of the Crinchon, after a course of 500 m. The flow being capricious, the system was completed by the digging of a few artesian wells, from the end of the 18th century.

An impressive place, furrowed earth, craters and memorial stones: this is where the British advance against the German position in Serre began in 1916.