Somme Buttplate

[Roger Payne]

I'll back enfield 303t on that. I've stayed at Varlet Farm a couple of times. Charlotte is a lovely person & will positively spoil you with home made food. She also used to let everyone have a little (harmless) battlefield souvenir, though I'm not sure if that is still the case. I'm now fortunate enough to have a little place near High Wood on The Somme. Although it's the other end of the British Sector of the old Front Line, it's still only about an hour & a quarter from Ypres, so I just drive up these days. It's quite something to drive the Western Front....

Yes, it is what's left of a Vickers. Brought to light after nearly a century. I was scuffing about on the site of the old Meteorological Trenches a few weeks ago & found a Webley Flare pistol. Being largely brass it's in pretty good nick. If anyone's interested I'll try & get some photo's of some battlefield finds. A French friend of mine dug a German trench on the edge of our village about a month ago & unearthed about 5 G98's, a couple of German mess tins, caches of both German & British ammo......it fascinates me, so if there's any interest amongst others I'll bring back & post some pictures. The flare gun I left in France as they don't require a licence of any sort over there....!

ATB