Terril 49 rises above the fields between Vermelles, Mazingarbe and Noyelles-lès-Vermelles, one of the dozens of spoil heaps that punctuate the landscape of the Gohelle. Like many of them, it has gone green, with trees and scrub covering slopes once black and bare, and it has become a refuge for wildlife in a landscape of intensive farming and urban sprawl. Lizards, rare insects and birds of prey thrive on the warm, dry slopes of the terrils, which retain heat like stone.
The area around Vermelles was one of the most fought-over sectors of the Western Front. In the autumn of 1915, the British army launched the Battle of Loos here, its largest offensive of the year, and the first in which it used poison gas. The attack across open ground towards the German lines, including the formidable Hohenzollern Redoubt, cost tens of thousands of casualties in a few days. Among those killed was John Kipling, son of the writer Rudyard Kipling, whose grave was only identified decades later. The countryside is dotted with Commonwealth war cemeteries, carefully tended, and the Loos Memorial at Dud Corner records the names of over twenty thousand soldiers with no known grave.
Walking among the white headstones, in the middle of beet and wheat fields, you feel the weight of history in a landscape that looks so ordinary. The cemeteries are open, and visitors' books at the entrance record the names of descendants who come from all over the world.
The riding here is quiet farm roads between villages, with long straights, some sharp corners and occasional mud from tractors. The land is flat and open, and the wind blows hard from the west. It is not a destination for curves, but for remembrance and for the strange beauty of an industrial landscape slowly being reclaimed by nature. The spoil heaps make good landmarks for finding your way.
Vermelles and Mazingarbe have fuel and shops; Béthune, a little further, has a lovely main square with a belfry and plenty of restaurants. If you stop in a village café, the welcome will be warm, and if you are British, someone may mention a great-uncle buried nearby.