Coach Trips 2010 & 2011

A regular visitor to France and Belgium since 2002, our Secretary Steve Williams has organised and led coach trips to the First World War battlefields on The Western Front for the last six years. In 2006 he organised a trip to the Somme, to be in the trenches at Serre at 7.30 a.m. on the morning of the 1st July – exactly 90 years to the minute when the Chorley Pals went over the top. In the summer of 2008, he organised a five day coach trip to the Somme for the Chorley Pals Memorial which generated £500 for the appeal fund.

WW1 Battlefields Coach Trip 2006 at Calais

Later this year, Steve will be leading a four day trip from Lancashire to Ypres for Rossendale Travel Ltd. It will take in the Service of Remembrance at the Menin Gate in Ypres at 11.00 a.m. on the 11th November and then back for the Last Post ceremony at 8.00 p.m. The following day there will be a guided tour around the Ypres Salient before heading for the overnight ferry from Zeebrugge (cabin included). The Chorley Pals fought on the Ypres Salient in 1918 and a Chorley Pal (Pte. Henry Calderbank) name is on the Menin Gate. For a brochure, click here.

Steve has organised a four day coach trip to the Somme in late May next year. It will visit all the major sites and memorials on the battlefield, as well as an extended stay at the Chorley Pals trenches at Serre; for a brochure, click here. The following month he is leading an eight day trip to Normandy and the D-Day Beaches for his local Historical Society (visit www.brindlehistoricalsociety.org.uk). He also plans to be on the Somme on the 1st July 2016 – the 100th anniversary of the battle (a dozen people have already expressed an interest). Finally, Steve can organise and lead similar trips for groups, but the minimum has to be 30 passengers.