ABSTRACT

This chapter concerns an intermediate area that is harder to define, the point where the senses, stimulated in one place, dominate the making of an art form in another. By the end of the war the south of England appeared to be covered in war material, abandoned, or left in dumps as the soldiers and airmen who once guarded munitions and stores were demobilized. A sizeable quantity of weapons, ammunition, equipment, vehicle parts and even tinned food was thrown into quarries or old mine-shafts. Some were placed in pits on land owned by the War Department or Air. Imperial War Museum curator Rose Coombs wrote the first modern guide to the Western Front Ministry. Today the Vauquois site has been tidied up and commercialized and made acceptable and accessible for the coach parties. There will likely be a café and souvenir shop below the ridge to cater for the tourists who arrive, take pictures of each other and depart.