Browndown Common, Gosport: Unique Practice Battlefield

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The development of trench warfare meant that troops had to be well-prepared. And no known British training ground is more elaborate than the practice trenches at Browndown Common in Gosport. Their significance was only realised in 2013, when Rob Harper, Head of Conservations and Design at Gosport Borough Council was looking at a 1951 aerial photograph and noticed the crenelated outlines of front-line trenches; a pattern typical of trench systems from 1916 onwards. Two sets of opposing trenches appear to simulate a real battlefield. The scale of the site –60 acres approx – makes it unique in Britain. The trenches survive to a depth of up to five feet and are accessible to the public. English Heritage says that while “it is commonly believed that ill-trained troops were sacrificed in the trench war against the Germans, the Gosport system reveals the military’s attempts to provide soldiers with realistic training.” Location: Browndown Common, Gosport, Hampshire PO13 8AB Image: Troops of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in a front line trench near St Quentin (20 April 1917), courtesy of IWM