Somme Vigil:
The Somme 100 Vigil & the planting of a hornbeam tree at the Forgotten Woodland Gardens of Lewtrenchard. 12.00pm on 1st July 2016.
The Woodland Garden of Lewtrenchard was, like a "Sleeping Beauty", forgotten for almost 100years .Forgotten in part because 100 years ago many young gardeners on the Baring-Gould estate of Lewtrenchard who had maintained this area joined the armed forces.
Many of these mostly teenage lads joined for the best of reasons - to be with friends, to do their bit for their community, to protect others, for excitement - every reason we can think of.
But now 100years later we remember the enormous loss of life and youth at the battle of the Somme. Maybe our lads weren't involved, but this one battle reverberates through our history like the whistles to go over-the-top or a bugle sounding the Last Post. The British army lost in 1day approximately the population of Tavistock and Okehampton combined and twice as many wounded. Were they poorly led? Were they poorly supported?
From here 100years later it does not matter exactly why this happened - what matters is that we don't forget our brave young lads and that we try to prevent it reoccurring.
The ceremony was overseen by the Revd. Tim Deacon of Lewtrenchard and organised by The Red Spider company. Hymns by Sabine Baring-Gould and WW1 songs that would have been well known by soldiers were accompanied by The Packhorse Singers and Marilyn Livingstone, who sounded The Last Post through the glen. Marilyn also sang her haunting song on Flanders Fields. Letters home from the front, bible readings and personal remembrance poems all set the scene on this damp day.
A hornbeam tree was planted by children from the Lewtrenchard primary school to signify the only tree of Delville Wood that survived the onslaught of the Battle of the Somme. It was noted that the hornbeam is named because it's wood is hard like horn and "beam" is old English for "wood" and sharing its origin with "Baum" the German word for wood. Let us not forget that there was suffering on both sides of the battle as we look forward to the future.
A point of interest relating to the ceremony is an old road sign across from the new tree and by the gate of Lew Manor for the village of Cambrin in Northern France and brought back as a souvenir from the battle front which is, by my reckoning about 15miles, from the Somme battlefields. Perhaps now it points the way home for our lost lads.
This Autumn a Somme 100 time-capsule is being produced by The Red Spider Company to commemorate the events and it will be buried in the Forgotten Garden.
G Yeo