Molloy
Specialist
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2007
- Messages
- 250
Hello all,
I thought some of you might have some interest in the slightly jumbled collection of pictures and videos below taken during a visit last month to a very chilly and snow-blanketed battlefield of Waterloo:
http://s859.photobucket.com/albums/ab157/Molloy1988/Waterloo - January 2010/
I was lucky enough to spend two days on the battlefield on one of those occasional trips which manages to combine ‘business’ (of sorts) with pleasure.
Officially, I was there to carry out field research for my final year undergraduate dissertation; which will hopefully do a serviceable job of using the Waterloo experiences of 1st Battalion, 27th (Inniskilling) Foot as a template for examining the wider human realities of battlefield service during the Napoleonic Wars. In reality, however, the field of Waterloo and I were already firm friends – the trip marked my fifth visit to the site, and hopefully not the last: so it definitely wasn’t too onerous a college assignment.
This is my debut at attempting to display my own pictures on the forum, for very good reason. My skills with the camera are decidedly workmanlike at absolute best, so apologies all round in advance for the quality of the photographs and footage. You’ll also have to excuse the fact that my images aren’t filed in the strict chronological order they were taken – I’m a relative newcomer to Photobucket, so I’m still very much learning as I go.
As it was at the tail end of a particularly bad patch of winter (at least, by European standards), I was somewhat concerned about what effect conditions might have, and even about whether I might be able to fly out at all. Thankfully, however, all went without a hitch, and although the battlefield was certainly snowy and icy, things weren’t so bad as to preclude getting out and about and walking as much of the ground as was possible over the two days.
This visit was the first time that I was able to venture out to visit two locations of particular interest: the village of Plancenoit, and the Wellington Museum in the town of Waterloo itself: the former inn building where the Allied commander spent both the evening before the battle and the night of Waterloo, and the site which saw the drafting of his despatch announcing the victory. Sadly, I have no proper pictures of either, due solidly to my own ineptitude with my borrowed camera – my girlfriend was greatly amused to inform me afterwards that what I took for a malfunctioning zoom was simply an optional light setting. Such is life!
For all my lack of solid evidence, it was still very enjoyable to finally get an opportunity to explore both spots, and in particular, Plancenoit. Although the vast majority of the houses and buildings in the village postdate 1815 by a considerable extent, the basic layout of the settlement remains remarkably unchanged from contemporary descriptions and pictures: it’s all narrow, twisting cobble stoned streets and alleys. Walking around the very, very sleepy village for even a short length of time provides an excellent impression of just how difficult an objective it must have been to capture for its Prussian attackers; while the tight, constricted layout offers a glimpse of just how appalling and pitched the close-quarter fighting would have been during the later afternoon and evening of June 18th.
Plancenoit is also, I have to admit, a somewhat eerie place. True, I found myself there toward dusk on a very bleak, chilly January day; and lingering around spots like the graveyard attached to the village’s church, which saw some of the most brutal back-and-forth combat of all, is always apt to produce a slight feeling of unease; but even allowing for that, there was still something indefinably sad and sombre about the spot.
I’m running the risk of rambling at this point, however, and as it’s also getting rather late here in Dublin, I’ll let the pictures do the rest of my talking for me. I do hope they’re of some use!
Take care,
Molloy.
I thought some of you might have some interest in the slightly jumbled collection of pictures and videos below taken during a visit last month to a very chilly and snow-blanketed battlefield of Waterloo:
http://s859.photobucket.com/albums/ab157/Molloy1988/Waterloo - January 2010/
I was lucky enough to spend two days on the battlefield on one of those occasional trips which manages to combine ‘business’ (of sorts) with pleasure.
Officially, I was there to carry out field research for my final year undergraduate dissertation; which will hopefully do a serviceable job of using the Waterloo experiences of 1st Battalion, 27th (Inniskilling) Foot as a template for examining the wider human realities of battlefield service during the Napoleonic Wars. In reality, however, the field of Waterloo and I were already firm friends – the trip marked my fifth visit to the site, and hopefully not the last: so it definitely wasn’t too onerous a college assignment.
This is my debut at attempting to display my own pictures on the forum, for very good reason. My skills with the camera are decidedly workmanlike at absolute best, so apologies all round in advance for the quality of the photographs and footage. You’ll also have to excuse the fact that my images aren’t filed in the strict chronological order they were taken – I’m a relative newcomer to Photobucket, so I’m still very much learning as I go.
As it was at the tail end of a particularly bad patch of winter (at least, by European standards), I was somewhat concerned about what effect conditions might have, and even about whether I might be able to fly out at all. Thankfully, however, all went without a hitch, and although the battlefield was certainly snowy and icy, things weren’t so bad as to preclude getting out and about and walking as much of the ground as was possible over the two days.
This visit was the first time that I was able to venture out to visit two locations of particular interest: the village of Plancenoit, and the Wellington Museum in the town of Waterloo itself: the former inn building where the Allied commander spent both the evening before the battle and the night of Waterloo, and the site which saw the drafting of his despatch announcing the victory. Sadly, I have no proper pictures of either, due solidly to my own ineptitude with my borrowed camera – my girlfriend was greatly amused to inform me afterwards that what I took for a malfunctioning zoom was simply an optional light setting. Such is life!
For all my lack of solid evidence, it was still very enjoyable to finally get an opportunity to explore both spots, and in particular, Plancenoit. Although the vast majority of the houses and buildings in the village postdate 1815 by a considerable extent, the basic layout of the settlement remains remarkably unchanged from contemporary descriptions and pictures: it’s all narrow, twisting cobble stoned streets and alleys. Walking around the very, very sleepy village for even a short length of time provides an excellent impression of just how difficult an objective it must have been to capture for its Prussian attackers; while the tight, constricted layout offers a glimpse of just how appalling and pitched the close-quarter fighting would have been during the later afternoon and evening of June 18th.
Plancenoit is also, I have to admit, a somewhat eerie place. True, I found myself there toward dusk on a very bleak, chilly January day; and lingering around spots like the graveyard attached to the village’s church, which saw some of the most brutal back-and-forth combat of all, is always apt to produce a slight feeling of unease; but even allowing for that, there was still something indefinably sad and sombre about the spot.
I’m running the risk of rambling at this point, however, and as it’s also getting rather late here in Dublin, I’ll let the pictures do the rest of my talking for me. I do hope they’re of some use!
Take care,
Molloy.
.