Trench Location
"Trench for Hire!"
We have found appropriate locations for film and television work covering many periods and situations. However, the most common request is for WW1 trench systems. The Trenches are such an icon of The Great War that we realised that, rather than continually building temporary trenches for projects and then filling them in, we needed permanent trenches for this kind of work.
We now have a complete flexible trench system, both British and German, here in East Anglia - just over an hour out of London and easily accessible. We have already hosted numerous projects including BBC1's 'Last of The Tommies', The Channel 4 Secret History 'Britain's Boy Soldiers', and another Christmas Truce film for 'Days that shook the World'. Timewatch have filmed here with us, as have Blue Peter and Jeremy Paxman for BBC1's Wilfred Owen - A Remembrance Tale, shown in November 2007.
The trench system has been built specifically for this type of work with many of the firebays opened up to allow for better vision. Different periods can be catered for as 1914 trenches were constructed in a much more primitive fashion than later trenches. There is also plenty of room for expansion and, for an additional fee, custom-built sections can easily be added to the existing structure.
The British Trench System has a section of Front Line with firebays, a Listening Post or Machine Gun position, a Regimental Aid Post for stretcher cases, a length of un-revetted Communication Trench and some basic Assembly Trenches. Shell-shattered trees are dotted around the site and there is a short stretch of the kind of sunken lane which can be found in many places in France and Flanders.
We also have a Dugout 'set' built inside a barn. This can be reconfigured into many different locations including a typical Officers' Dugout, a Signallers' Post, Stretcher Bearers' Post, Regimental Aid Post, etc simply by altering the furnishings (below).
The German Trenches are deeper than the British ones and are situated, as always, on the high ground. The construction of the German Front Line (below) is mainly of split logs but there is a damaged section which features wooden hurdles too. A machine gun position is built in among the ruins and rubble behind the main trench position (bottom).
Open fields, woodland and a superb 1812 vintage farmhouse with period outbuildings are all on site. The farm owners also provide accommodation and onsite catering which can save productions a great deal of time and money.
In addition to easy access, there is plenty of hotel and B&B accommodation available nearby for cast and crew.
Around June every year the Poppies burst out in a riot of colour across the broken ground on the Battlefield. Nature dictates how many poppies and where they grow but, for a few weeks each year, the whole area looks exactly as it must have during The Great War, in areas where the fighting had moved on, or in the years after the war when the veterans started to return on Battlefield Tours...
