The Batters

I am gradually discovering Corsham’s pockets of green space through my camera. The Batters is a narrow strip of woodland running alongside the railway line from Prospect, its steep and uneven terrain partly formed from spoil excavated during the construction of the railway cuttings leading towards Box Tunnel. Its name is thought to derive from the structures used to hold back these earthworks.

During the First World War, the area was used as a training ground by the Scots Guards. Billeted at Corsham Court—home of their Colonel-in-Chief, Lord Methuen—the soldiers trained here for the trench warfare they would encounter in France.

A century later, The Batters was preserved as a Centenary Field in commemoration of the First World War. Public access is maintained by Corsham Town Council with the help of teams of volunteers.

As I walked through the woodland, I was struck by the broken contours of the land. The steps, narrow paths and wooden handrails seem to echo the trenchworks that may once have occupied this place. Photographed in black and white, these ordinary structures take on a more sombre character, suggesting how the landscape continues to hold traces of its past.

Follow the sequence from the open woodland into its uneven, enclosed terrain and finally towards the railway line.