← Main Road from Arras. To Douai. →
The Day after the Unveiling.
Owing to the many shell-holes and the unsettled state of the ground, it was found necessary to sink a circular raft of concrete, reinforced with steel rails, twenty-four feet in diameter and five feet thick. The cairn stands on this, circular in plan, eighteen feet in diameter at the base, fourteen feet at top, and over thirty feet high, and is on a mound of earth which rises about two feet from the general ground level. It is built of large rough blocks of grey Belgian granite, from the quarries of Soignies. Stones containing red iron stains and quartz seams were specially selected. The stones diminish towards the top. The largest are over six feet long, and the highest over three feet high. The stones are built up dry, naturally keyed together, or wedged with smaller stones.
The method of building was as follows. On the foundation raft a ring of stones was placed in position, forming a circular wall three feet thick. The centre was then filled up solid with concrete formed of cement, granite chips, and granite dust. The wall was then continued all round, but not in distinct rings, and the centre again filled up solid. This procedure was followed right up to the top. Thus no scaffolding was used, the cairn itself acting as a platform on which the men worked, and a hand gear hoist erected stage by stage for raising the stones. The backs of the stones are embedded in the concrete core and frequent long stones project a considerable distance into the concrete.
At the projecting cornice level the concrete core is finished with cement, weathered from the centre, and the top ring of stones is filled with earth of a depth of about two feet six inches and then is turfed over, dome-shaped.
Above the inscription stone, down the entire length of the front, are nine stones, bearing the names of the battles, their size suiting the inscriptions they bear.
Nineteen stones project from the cairn at a height of about eight feet to bear wreaths.
A sloping and irregularly paved pathway leads to the road, the ditch being spanned by a monolithic granite bridge, about seven feet square.
The four corners of the site are marked by square granite posts, about six feet high, each bearing the Divisional sign carved in a sunk circle. To the front, along the road, on the top of the bank, are twenty-six stones. Each bears the name and crest of a unit of the Division. These are grouped in brigades.
The site has been planted with clumps of gorse and broom, and the mound round the cairn with heather sent from Scotland by many members of the Division.
The contractor was Octave Bouchez of Arras, and it was built with his own local labour. Among his many difficulties was the complete lack of water. Before beginning he had to construct a tank close by, and a horse-drawn water-cart was almost continuously employed filling this from Athies.