Vendresse British Cemetery
The cemetery, created after the Armistice as a concentration of nearby battlefield burials, occupies a sloping plot above the road, reached by a monumental stair whose axial Cross of Sacrifice leads to a central path ending at Truelove’s standard sandstone shelter, all within birch‑framed walled bounds.
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Description
The cemetery was constructed after the Armistice when graves from small cemeteries and the battlefield in the vicinity were transferred here. The field with graves lies on a slope, and is higher than the road. The field is accessible via a monumental stairway on which the Cross of Sacrifice has been placed. The Cross of Sacrifice stands on the axis of the central path with a shelter in local sandstone at the end, of the standard type that Truelove applied to several cemeteries in the neighbourhood: in La Ville-aux-Bois, Raperie and Buzancy. The detail of the plinth that blends into the plateau calls to mind the foot of pillars that True- love applied in Klein-Vierstraat British Cemetery. Lutyens placed the Cross of Sacrifice at a similar position on only one other occasion, and that was in an unrealized design for Kemmel No. 1 French Cemetery. In other cases, he had a plateau stairway turn around the Cross of Sacrifice, so that the Cross was positioned just off the axis, as in Hangard, or embedded it in two plateau stairways, as in Villers-Bocage. The field is bordered by a wall on three sides. There are birches on three sides around the cemetery. (Geurst, 2010, p.424)
Bibliography
Geurst, J. (2010) Cemeteries of the Great War by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
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