Serre Road Cemetery No.1

• Country France
• Total identified casualties 699 Find these casualties
• Region Pas de Calais
• Identified casualties from First World War
• GPS Coordinates Latitude: 50.09989, Longitude: 2.65729

Location information

The village of Serre is 11 kilometres north-north-east of Albert. Using the D919 from Arras to Amiens you will drive through the villages of Bucquoy, Puisieux then Serre-les-Puisieux (approximately 20 kilometres south of Arras). On leaving Serre-les-Puisieux, 700 metres further along the D919, Serre Road No.1 Cemetery can be found on the right hand side.

Visiting information

ARRIVAL

The cemetery is signposted, located on the D919, Rue de Mailly Maillet, between the villages of Puisieux and Mailly-Maillet.

PARKING

It is possible to park in the layby along the front of the cemetery at the edge of the main road close to the main entrance.

There is space for multiple vehicles. The ground is flat and firm with a tarmac surface. There is a shallow concrete drainage channel between the edge of the tarmac and the paved area in front of the steps leading up to the entrance.

ACCESS LAYOUT AND MAIN ENTRANCE

The cemetery is a rectangular shape built over multiple levels with stone stepped access between the levels. It is possible to bypass the steps to each level by ramped grass areas along the boundary walls.

There is a stone perimeter wall along the entire front of the cemetery, the top level with the grass. There is a vertical drop up to 400 mm down to the parking layby.

There is a large memorial entrance building in the centre of the perimeter wall at the main entrance, with 6 stone steps up to the central archway. The archway is gate-free and there are two steps down from the interior paving to the grass inside the cemetery on all three internal sides of the entrance building.

The Register Box is located inside the memorial entrance building, built into the left side wall just before the steps leading directly into the cemetery.

The cemetery is on an uphill slope from the main entrance at the lower end, to the Cross of Sacrifice at the rear of the site on the top level.

The Stone of Remembrance is in the centre of the cemetery. There are three stone steps leading up to the paving around the Stone of Remembrance. Six steps lead up to the upper level of the cemetery to the right, left and rear of the Stone of Remembrance. The upper level of the cemetery has a vertical drop of up to 600 mm from the wall running the length of the cemetery on either side of the Stone of Remembrance on either side of the steps. There are grass ramps on either end of the walls adjacent to the boundary walls leading to the upper sections of the cemetery, allowing step-free access.

There are seating areas built into the boundary walls of the cemetery, midway up the cemetery, and against the rear boundary walls close to the Cross of Sacrifice. Paving under the seating is level with the grass.

There is additional seating inside the memorial entrance building.

All the internal paths are grass, the ground is firm with an uphill sloped gradient.

ALTERNATIVE ACCESS

There is an alternative entrance in the top left-hand corner of the cemetery next to a stone shelter building. There is a grass ramp leading up from the parking layby into the cemetery.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The cemetery is permanently open.

History information

In June 1916, the road out of Mailly-Maillet to Serre and Puisieux entered No Man's Land about 1,300 metres south-west of Serre. On 1 July 1916, the 31st and 4th Divisions attacked north and south of this road, and although parties of the 31st Division reached Serre, the attack failed. The 3rd and 31st Divisions attacked once more on the 13 November, but again without success.

Early in 1917, the Germans fell back to the Hindenburg Line and on 25 February, Serre was occupied by the 22nd Manchesters. The village changed hands once more in March 1918 and remained under German occupation until they withdrew in August.

In the spring of 1917, the battlefields of the Somme and Ancre were cleared by V Corps and a number of new cemeteries were made, three of which are now named from the Serre Road. Serre Road Cemetery No.1 was begun in May 1917 and these graves can now be found in Plot I, Rows A to G. The rest of the cemetery was added after the Armistice, when graves were brought in from the nearby battlefields and from the following smaller cemeteries:-

ACHEUX COMMUNAL CEMETERY FRENCH EXTENSION, in which two soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in April and May 1916.

ALBERT GERMAN CEMETERY ("am Nordwest Ausgang"), where 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried in April and May 1918.

BEAUCOURT-SUR-ANCRE BRITISH CEMETERY (V Corps Cemetery No.13), in the middle of the village, which contained the graves of 21 officers and men from the United Kingdom who fell in November 1916 and February, 1917.

CERISY-BULEUX CHURCHYARD, in which one soldier from the United Kingdom was buried in November 1916.

PUISIEUX CHURCHYARD, where two soldiers from the United Kingdom were buried by the enemy in September 1915.

TEN TREE ALLEY CEMETERY No.1, PUISIEUX (V Corps Cemetery No.24), 700 metres South-East of Serre, which contained the graves of 37 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in November 1916 - February 1917 (the present Ten Tree Alley Cemetery was No.2.).

There are now 2,426 casualties of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,728 of the graves are unidentified but special memorials commemorate 10 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 3 men who were buried in Albert German Cemetery, 7 men who were buried in Beaucourt British Cemetery and 2 men who were buried in Puisieux Churchyard, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. Most of the graves date from 1916.

The cemetery was designed by N A Rew.