When soldiers were out in rest billets, perhaps in an old French barn behind the lines,

they sat around in groups delousing their uniforms. This process was called chatting.

They spoke to each other.

They recounted the stories of their last time in the trenches or news from home.

They chatted.

It was a chat and this bit of verbal currency is still in use by us today.

So welcome to our first trench chat on the old front line

I'm joined for our first old front line chats by a battlefield guide Tim Thurlow

I've known Tim for many years and for the past few years we've worked together on

ledger battlefield tours Tim where did your interest in the Great War start? You've been

visiting the battlefields for some time now, haven't you? Yeah, I think like you, certainly my first

visit to the song was 1985. And again, probably like many people, my generation really, it was

just something we grew up. The veterans were everywhere. If you switched on the

telly, it was war films, comics were all aimed at sort of war stories, Victor, that sort

of thing. So it was just all around me and I had the opportunity to visit the battlefields

in 1985 and I've had the hook ever since. So for all those years, it was a hobby, but now it's part of the job that you do.

You work as a guide.

Yeah.

For many years, it was just going over to France, the battlefields of the First World War with my brother.

But an opportunity arose 2017, I think it was,

was my first season with Ledger.

And yeah, it's been a really good three years.

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