School Trip Activities & Excursions - Ypres & Somme, Belgium

Recommended Excursions

Ypres
Almost completely destroyed in WWI, Ypres has since been meticulously restored to its original medieval state. As well as being the perfect base from which to study world war history, you’ll find many other amenities including: a sports centre, bowling alley and a cinema.

Yorkshire Trench
When this site was originally discovered at the end of WWI, 165 soldiers’ bodies were found beneath the earth. This permanent memorial is a reconstruction of the Yorkshire Trench including the original entrance and exit from 1917.

Cloth Hall
This is the first interactive war museum that allows students to investigate through varied methods of media technology the lives that were affected by WWI. Educational packages and workshops are available as well as the biographies of historical figures.

Essex Farm Cemetery
The poem, In Flanders Field, was written in the concrete dug-outs behind Essex Farm Cemetery. The cemetery itself is the burial place of Joe Strudwick who was one of the youngest British soldiers (aged 15) to die on the battlefields.

Hill 60
A visit here will show students the strategic advantage that can be taken from geographical location. The elevated land of Hill 60 was created through two mines that exploded at the beginning of the Battle of Messines.

Hill 62 and Sanctuary Wood
This is a museum that holds wartime artefacts and an interesting collection of slides taken by war correspondents. Outside, in Sanctuary Wood, students will find the only preserved trenches in the whole of Belgium.

Tyne Cot British Cemetery
This is the resting place for nearly 12,000 soldiers making Tyne Cot the largest Commonwealth Cemetery in the world. The tranquillity of this site helps to preserve the atmosphere of remembrance and will put the losses suffered during the war into context.

Menin Gate and the Last Post Ceremony
The Menin Gate has the names of 55,000 officers and soldiers who fell on the Ypres Salient. Every day, at 20.00hrs, the bugler sounds the Last Post and the traffic stops as a sign of respect.

Passchendaele Memorial Museum
There are a number of films, images and life-like-diorama's that make this museum a ‘must see’, especially when visiting Tyne Cot Cemetery. This is a fascinating example of how British soldiers used to live underground.