BUSHY HILL JUNIOR SCHOOL

Sheeplands Avenue, Merrow, Guildford, Surrey. GU1 2SG

Tel: 01483 598544 Fax: 01483 598546 e-mail: office@bushy-hill.surrey.sch.uk

Headteacher: Mr John Abbott BSc(Hons), P.G.C.E.

“Working Together, Learning Together, Growing Together”

11^th July 2007

Dear Gary,

Maisy Battery

Having followed, via the internet, the hard work you have put into locating and exposing the Maisy Battery, we were fortunate enough to visit it during “D Day Week”.

What a fantastic experience! From the moment we set foot on the trail down to the first gun platform until we returned, we, staff and children, were enthralled. Here was a site that was open to exploration, that you could touch, feel, sense and begin to re-live! The gun emplacements, the underground rooms and offices, the Hospital area and the trenches are all examples of a living history; a history that provides the children with an insight to the conditions of war that they are unlikely to find anywhere else.

Given that the site is still “a work in progress”, the potential for further discoveries is exciting! The artefacts lying on the ground, where they have been exposed, the wine bottles lying in the mud, the remains of trolleys, the solitary bed in one of the rooms, all fire the imagination! We discovered, in conjunction with a number of Ranger Veterans, the boot of a soldier – we could pick it up and examine it! How exciting is that – an object, a relic of the war not behind glass but on the ground in front of you!

Within seconds of arriving, my Year 6 children were the soldiers, were firing the guns, were manning the trenches, were using the look–out posts! They were absorbed by the atmosphere, caught up in the experience, they were the soldiers!

We have already modified our plans for our next visit in 2008; the Battery is now an integral part of those plans!

I would recommend a visit to every school visiting the region – it is an experience not to be missed!

Yours sincerely

Mike Danson

Mike Danson

Educational Visits Co-ordinator