"sand pit at Waterloo" Topic

Over the years I have read a lot of books on the Battle of Waterloo. I have always wondered what the Sand Pit at Waterloo that the 95th Rifles was defending. I have never run across any pictures or drawings of it and have never found it described any where. At a recent Waterloo game at my club, some one used a tan disk to use as the sand pit and it made me wonder what it really looked like. Any one have that information that they could share? Any pictures or drawings? As always, thank you in advance for your help.

Some hints:

YouTube link

link

Ive always imagined a cone-shaped hollow in the forward face of the bank lining the sunkn road, its forward lip, therefore, substantially lower than the rear but still offering cover to troops firing from prone or kneeling positions.

Checked Coppens "Carnet de la Campagne- La Haye Sainte"
A few maps depict it as a v-shaped excavation cut into a small hillock on the roadside.
Found this map:

link

Disused sand micro-quarry. Quite a bit deeper than a kiddies' sand-pit, I would say.

Some contemporary prints of La Haye Sainte & the sand pit area (appears deeper than might be expected) link

@ Prince of Essling

That's a great link, but isn't it just bl00dy infuriating that in every picture, the farmhouse is different? It has red bricks, or white render, or peeling white render over red bricks; the roofs are either quarry tiles or blue slate; the main gatehouse protrudes into the road and does not protrude into the road, and the line of its roof is either parallel to the road, at right angles to the road, or is a point. Take your pick.

I think this tells us not to rely too much on supposed paintings from life.

Worth looking at the two Siborne models

From Siborne's models:

Another print:
link

While of all of them Siborne seems to have demonstrated the most concern for accuracy, he was also starting longer after the event than the others. So it's not clear that his depiction was as accurate for 1815 as it perhaps was for 1830. With that said, I trust him most, so whenever I get round to my Airfix La Haye Sainte I think it's his depiction I'll be following.

In particular I like that he shows how the northern run of the wall becomes a retaining wall as the ground west of it rises.

He did even better than that for LHS. Notice how the barn to the South is shown as stopping short of flush with the west face. It was extended later, as shown in Camcleod's map above. Slow note that there is no gap between the West tables and the same South barn in the SW corner. There was an archway but it was indeed roofed over.

There is good evidence that he was right to show slates also, not red tiles. See reference 5 in this marvellous piece of research;

PDF link

@deadhead
If you have access to a high-res copy of the Craan map the archway footprint you describe has been shown.

Many thanks for that.

I should have proof read my posting! Slow note….also note. Plus the West tables make more sense as stables….

Even today it is not too hard to work out where would have been a good place for a sandpit up the road from LHS. In dry weather it is very noticeable, even after centuries of road widening and agriculture.

Does anyone know what the point of barricading the road was? You'd just walk around it, wouldn't you?

Not if you had artillery vehicles…

was not the road high banked ( sunken road ) as well?

From "Waterloo letters : a selection from original and hitherto unpublished letters bearing on the operations of the 16th, 17th, and 18th June, 1815, by officers who served in the campaign"

link

link

Also other useful maps in the book PDF link

I think that the sand pit would be a shallow area with gently sloping sides because the sand would probably been collected and moved using a hose drawn scoop. Not with a backhoe/front end loader with a dump wagon.

YouTube link
YouTube link