Poppy bloom time near Plugstreet World War One battlefield

The red poppy flower symbolises the WWI Remembrance Day, it grows again near former Flanders and Northern France battlefields

(Browse the collection : Hainaut Province stock footage videos, time lapses and cinematic shots)

The name of this small village, and of the nearby wood, is actually Ploegsteert, but to those who served here during the Great War it became known as Plugstreet. The village is eight miles south of Ypres and not far from the French border.Ploegsteert village is located to the south-west of the wood, and there are cemeteries and other sites of interest on all sides of, as well as within, the wood. There were no major set-piece battles in this area, and Ploegsteert remained in British possession during the major part of the War. Only in 1918 did the Germans take it briefly.There are a number of other CWGC cemeteries in the area around Ploegsteert which are worth visiting. Many of the place names used for locations in and around the Ploegsteert area during the war show a strong London connection. History lovers have recently recreated a small trench near the edge of the woods, in a part of the former No Man’s Land. At this supposed place, football games were staged and enemies spent some time to fraternise.

(Read more : WW1 Battlefields)