School & cadet group tours
Baxter’s Battlefield Tours can offer WW1 Battlefield Tours to schools and cadet groups, with a ‘tailor-made’ itinerary, educational and full of personal experiences.
Paul served for 13 years in the RAF Regiment.
After 25 years as a Warrant Officer with the Air Training Corps, he now works with The Victoria Cross Trust, and has taken over 30 school & cadet tours in the past 7 years.
He is DBS registered and can devise a bespoke itinerary to fit any schools’ needs, curriculum based if required.
Paul engages with younger tour groups, showing them the life of “Tommy Atkins” in the Great War, bringing him to life by showing groups where the actions took place, and the equipment that he had.
Paul usually brings along a bag full of genuine artefacts associated with WW1, and groups get to hold history in their hands.
The tours are enhanced visually by the use of appropriate DVDs on the coach, all carefully designed to keep the interest of students and cadets.
The Tours
Tours generally last for 3 nights and 4 days, travelling from and dropping off at the school or Cadet HQ and will usually be guided by our most experienced tour guide Paul Grimley.
We travel by coach to Dover, crossing to Calais, and then on to Ypres (Ieper).
Staying in basic but clean and well-priced accommodation, we can take up to 45 students and staff on our coaches (the minimum number that we can operate a coach with is 22).
Meals can be arranged including packed lunches if required, and all excursions are included in the price.
Having a guide allows the staff to concentrate upon their students, and enhances their experience too.
Where do we go?
Tours can visit two of the main theatres of WW1.
Ypres, the Salient where British troops were surrounded on 3 sides for almost all of the war.
The Somme, where the battles raged for four years with little movement and great sacrifice.
Each has a special story, and each will leave visitors understanding the true meaning of Remembrance.
Ypres visits include:-
Tours can visit two of the main theatres of WW1.
Ypres, the Salient where British troops were surrounded on 3 sides for almost all of the war.
The Somme, where the battles raged for four years with little movement and great sacrifice.
Each has a special story, and each will leave visitors understanding the true meaning of Remembrance.
At The Menin Gate
EVERY evening at 8pm, the Last Post Ceremony is done and wreaths can be laid by visitors.
It has now been done over 32,000 times since 1927!
Tyne Cot Cemetery
is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world.
Over 12,000 burials, and over 34,000 names commemorated on the memorial walls.
The Brooding Soldier
is a tribute to 3,000 Canadian soldiers who experienced the first ever use of gas as a weapon, and gave their lives defending the area.
The Ramparts
surround the town of Ypres and provided defences through the war. The Menin Gate is one of two entrances into town through these 30ft thick walls.
Hill 62
is a small museum with original trenches in the rear so that you can experience what life must have been like for the soldiers. (Entry is around 4 Euro/head extra)
The Somme visits include:-
Newfoundland Park
is a huge preserved battlefield with memorials to those who fought in the area on July 1st 1916, particularly the Newfoundland Regiment, which almost ceased to exist by the end of that terrible day.
Thiepval Memorial
built on the highest part of The Somme holds the names of 72,000 men who died during the battles there and who have no known graves
Lochnagar Crater
is 32 metres deep and over 85 meters across and is the result of the largest ever man made explosion, formed at 07.30 on July 1st 1916
Sheffield Memorial Park
is on the northernmost part of The Somme battlefield and is a tribute to the Pals Battalions, formed from men across the north of England from Hull to Ackrington, who lived together, joined the army together, fought together and many died together causing huge gaps in the populations of their home towns.
The Ulster Tower
is a tribute to the 36th Division soldiers from Ulster, Northern Ireland who fought in the area and were the most successful participants in the battle of The Somme.
Vimy Ridge
holds a special place in the hearts of Canadians.
They fought there taking the ground in just 3 days at Easter in 1917 after British and French had been unable to move the Germans out.
There are tunnels here that can be safely explored, and trenches that have been preserved which you can walk through with one of their guides.
If we can help you put together a tour, we can arrange to visit you before hand to make suitable arrangements.
We can cover almost any requirements that you might have on such a tour, and we can provide you with the experience of a lifetime.
Our aim is to make these tours available to as many as possible so that the memories of those sacrifices are not forgotten, and to do it in a way that suits YOU.
If you require any further details, or for a quote, please contact us on the numbers or email links below.
Remember you will be walking where bravery was common, and heroism never far away, come and join us, a battlefield without a guide is just a field…..
Email – enquiries@baxters-battlefieldtours.com
or
Telephone – 07545242257
For a quote
or contact Paul Grimley
rockape617@gmail.com