THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN OBJECTS
NO.33
Corporal Hewing’s fragment of the Cloth Hall.
Progressively destroyed by artillery fire from 1914 onwards, the great Cloth Hall in Ypres was in ruins by the time Corporal Hewing of the Tank Corps paused, whilst on his way through the Flanders town in 1917, to bend down and pick up a small fragment of the medieval building to keep as a souvenir. Located at the heart of Ypres, the Cloth Hall was, despite the extensive damage, as recognisable to the troops in the Salient then as it is to the visitor today.
