Waterloo battlefield visit

A trip to Brussels gave me the opportunity of visiting the battlefield of Waterloo. I had been there many years ago when it was hard to get to unless you had a car and all that was there was the Lion Mound and the panorama painting of the battle.

Having heard about the new memorial centre, the opening of Hougoumont farm and that there was now a direct bus route from Brussels I armed myself with the Brant guide to the battlefield and set off on a rather grey, wet day. After a short walk from the bus stop it seemed not much had changed:

Appearances can be deceptive though and there was a whole new display area underground containing lots of information about the battle and a large number of full size figures dressed in the various nation's uniforms.
The British:

 French:

Brunswick infantry:

Dutch Belgians:

Prussians:

There was then a "4-D" movie to watch which was interesting though quite what the 4th dimension consisted of was hard to say! The new part was very much a 'modern' museum with many panels and maps explaining things and not so many items as an old-type museum.

I then moved on to the Panorama which hadn't changed at all:

It is impressively large and would probably have been much more so when it was made:

After this it was time to venture out into the rain and climb to the top of the Lion Mound which gave a great, if very wet, view of the battlefield (having unfortunately in the process of raising it changed the way the area looked!):

The farm of La Haye Sainte:

Quickly tiring of the howling gale and rain I moved on to Wellington's crossroads and the memorial to General Picton:

The view across the fields:

Another memorial,this time to the 27th Inniskllling Regiment which lost over half it's men in the battle:

Another monument, this one to the Belgians:

I then moved on to a closer look at La Haye Sainte, having fond memories of constructing the Airfix kit of the farm when I was a kid and having seen the many versions made by modern wargames terrain makers:

 The farm is still privately owned and has a major road literally going past it within a few feet:

The gate:

There are some more memorials on the wall, mostly to the French troops I think:

The barn:

The gate again:

It did still look remarkably like it did in the Airfix model (and also paintings of the battle) if a little run down and with loads of traffic racing past it at high speed.

After a break for a surprisingly nice lunch in the cafe and drying out a bit it was time to set off across the fields to Hougoumont first passing a monument to Augustin Demulder, a Belgian born in Nivelles in 1785 who served, as still many of his countrymen did in 1815 in the French army. He was a lieutenant in the 5th Regiment of Cuirassiers. He was wounded at Eylau in 1807, Essling 1809, Hannaut 1813 and he finally found his grave at Waterloo on what would be Belgian soil 15 years later after the Belgian Revolution.

And secondly a marker of where Captain Mercer's RHA battery fought in the battle:

Finally after a fair walk Hougoumont came into view:

A relatively new memorial to the defenders of the farm:

These gates are not the original ones:

The interior of the farm, the damaged chapel is original but the rest (apart from the barn I think) is from a later date as a result of battle damage:

The crucifix that survived the battle:

The remains of the chapel:

The chapel interior with wreaths for the various defending units:

Part of the walls, these might be original I think:

The Lion Mound in the distance and a French memorial:

Unlike La Haye Sainte, Hougoumont was not how I expected it to be at all from the impression I had from paintings of the battle or models I've seen. It was much smaller and well newer but of course that was because it was so badly damaged in the battle which I'd not taken into account.

From Hougoumont another walk over the fields took me to La Belle Alliance where Wellington and Blucher met after the battle:

Apparently it is now a nightclub! I then caught the bus to my final stop, the Wellington Museum in Waterloo itself:

An interesting day and something I've wanted to do for a long time. The movie 'Waterloo' was one of the things that inspired me to take up wargaming and I have fond memories of playing games with the Airfix La Haye Sainte, Highlanders and French infantry. The bus was easy to use and linked all the main sights, a definite improvement on last time I went.