TRENCHES.[Clarification Please].

accyplus · 18-02-2005, 09:56

Can some one out there please help clarify the use of the trenches on the coppice please.
The reason I ask is when I was younger I was led to believe that they were dug out to
stop enemy aircraft from landing on the coppice,also a well known Accrington historian
told me the same story.
Looking at the trenches they are not all that deep,and why do they run east to west.and
north to south.
So as anyone any one out there any firm evidence to say the Accrington pals constructed
and used them ..

Acrylic-bob · 18-02-2005, 10:08

The Accrington Gazette for January 4th 1915 reported that, following the christmas break, the members of the "Pals" Battalion were back at work on trenching excercises on the Coppice and Moleside. Aerial photographs of the site taken in 1940 show the trenches partially overgrown, indicating that they originate at some date well before the photograph was taken.

It has also been suggested that the trenches were dug at the outset of WWII as anti- aircraft defences. If this suggestion were to hold any water then there would be similar features in other flat areas of open ground surrounding the town. A detailed examination of the 1940 aerial photographs does not support this contention.

This question has sparked some debate in the past with no clear resolution being found. I suppose that the only way to confirm whether or not the trenches were dug by the "Pals" would be to examine the Battalion Diaries and possibly the Council Minutes for the period - I'm too busy, any volunteers?