Category Archives: Zillebeke

Memories of Spoilbank

I thought you might like to see this.  Drawn by Lieutenant (and later Captain) H. M. Boyd, Royal Engineers, and kindly lent to me for use on this site by a member of his family (who naturally holds the copyright), it shows the area referred … Continue reading

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A Tour of Zillebeke Part Nine – Spoilbank Cemetery

And so we arrive at the final destination of the first part of our Zillebeke tour, Spoilbank Cemetery, named after the banks of spoil heaped nearby when the cutting for the now disused Ypres-Comines canal was originally dug.  520 men, one fifth … Continue reading

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A Tour of Zillebeke Part Eight – Chester Farm Military Cemetery

On leaving the Bluff we need only travel half a mile or so west to reach the final two cemeteries on our tour. Only a few hundred yards apart, these cemeteries contain more than 900 British burials, mainly from between early … Continue reading

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A Tour of Zillebeke Part Seven – Woods Cemetery

Now Baldrick and I rarely do things the easy way, so no real surprise when we find ourselves failing dismally to find the entrance to Woods Cemetery.  Luckily for us the logs to the right of the photograph give us an … Continue reading

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A Tour of Zillebeke Part Six – 1st D.C.L.I. Cemetery, The Bluff

1st D.C.L.I. Cemetery, The Bluff.  The spires of Ypres on the horizon show not only how close the front lines here were to the city in 1915, but also how strategically important this slightly higher ground was to whoever could claim it, and why it … Continue reading

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A Tour of Zillebeke Part Five – Hedge Row Trench Cemetery

Our journey continues east until we reach the little village of Verbrande Molen.  Here, our road turns south beneath the low range of wooded hills, known as the Bluff and fought over almost continuously for much of the war due to the close … Continue reading

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A Tour of Zillebeke Part Three – Blauwepoort Farm Cemetery

Just a couple of minutes drive east from Railway Dugouts, a CWGC signpost points us away from the road down a short track towards Blauwepoort Farm Cemetery.

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