"blenheim town 1704" Topic

I'm planning to build some 18th century buildings and looking to base them on the Blenheim battlefield. Any pictures on Blenheim at this time?

In 1704, most of the buildings would be 17th century, if not earlier.

Good call. That'll be 17th century then :)

I shot quite a few pictures of the area and in town (by the Church) as well as Hochstadt, where Franch call this battle of. Would be happy to send you my digital folder. They were shot in 2012 and the day was beautiful. This was the number one battlefield to visit on my bucket-list. My thanks to Chris Von Fahnenstock who drove!

The biggest change is the re-routing of the river. It now is about a mile away from the town. This was done to control flooding. The marshy ground still exists in some places, but overall, the area where the battle took place remains gently rolling, low rise hills of farmland. Several of the hills are large enough to mask units behind them from about a mile away. Hope that helps some.

We did the first battle of Höchstädt (1703) which is covered at my 18th Century Sojourn blog. Scroll further down for the battles.

18thcenturysojourn.blogspot.nl

However, the village:

At the Fanaticus Forum, there is a picture of the Blenheim diorama which shows the village quite well.

link

When I visited the battlefield in the late 1970s, I was pleasantly surprised that the terrain was still very similar to what was there in 1704, except for Tom's comment about the river and, of course, the new highway that runs down the north bank of the Danube. I had to search for the marker (denkmal) that was there. I finally found it perched up on a bank where the railroad crosses the highway. It was a little concrete tablet reading "17 Blindheim 04" in a small stone cairn. I wasn't surprised that the marker was both so small and hidden since Blenheim is in Bavarian and they were on the losing side.

Jim

Thanks , my email in highlandbevan at yahoo dot com.

That picture of the diorama is good, are the houses plaster with tiled roofs? Difficult to see, colouring looks like thatch.

Highlandbevan. Check your inbox for two emails. I forgot to add that tile roofs were common back then as well. Made from heavy ceramic tiles that are held in place by their weight and overlap. Thatch was more common back then for the poorer residents and larger barns (so I was told by a local).

Enjoy!

Tom

Jim. I asked the curator of the museum at Schloss Hoshstadt why so few markers and where were the ones for the French. She replued that she has never seen anyone from france ever visit the castle! Yes, bad memories for them and the Bavarians, yet there are memorials found for the French at other lost battles, I feel sorry for those that died there without recognition for their sacrifice! (Especially the 5 raw battalions (out of 9) that held their ground against Marlboro's cav and died in formation without breaking!) I suppose the fact that the site of their sacrifice is truly in the middle of some guy's field has something to do with it….

Best
Tom Dye

It's somewhere I keep meaning to visit. It's not too far from some of my friends in Bavaria but I always end up busy doing other things when I'm there. Really must make an effort next time I go!

I took part in the 2004 re-enactment there. There was a small museum set up for the 300th anniversary. Perhaps you could find more info from the town council or local historians etc.