Belgium’s award-winning Hooge Crater Museum has launched a free curriculum-aligned GCSE History trail, created by British teachers and examiners, to help students explore the Western Front and Medicine Through Time topics at one of WWI’s most significant battlefield sites.

Hooge Crater Museum, Flanders, Belgium

The private museum has life-size reconstructions of World War One battle scenes, an extensive collection of weapons, equipment and photographs.

The free programme brings history to life and aims to invite students to develop a deeper understanding of the history that unfolded on the very ground they are standing on. 

Created by British history teachers and GCSE examiners, the trail is strongly aligned with the curriculum. It is primarily linked with the Historic Environment component of the Edexcel GCSE History Thematic Study: Medicine Through Time, with a clear focus on the British Sector of the Western Front.

However, the GCSE trail is also useful for any studies involving the Western Front, as well as for younger pupils who are learning about World War One. 

About the museum

Located on one of the most gruesome sites of the British front in the Ypres Salient during World War One, the museum is housed in what was the Hooge Chateau which dates back to 1317. It opened in 1994 and was then acquired by Niek and Ilse Benoot-Watteyne in 2008. 

Hooge Crater Museum, Flanders, Belgium

Source: Jan D’Hondt Ateljé

The Front Eye exhibition and viewing platform gives a unique view over the cemetery and landscape.

It has won the Best Private Museum in Belgium award for several years and has an extensive collection of equipment, weapons and photos along with interactive experiences as well as life-sized reconstructions of war scenes ranging from life in German bunkers and British trenches to horses ridden by cavalry troops. 

The museum caters for primary and secondary school groups. In the garden, original British and German trenches can be seen, with a view of the front line. Then, about 650 metres further is the Crater Forest with authentic mine craters and two monuments.

It is also across the road from the Hooge Crater which has some 6,000 graves and is said to be the fourth largest British cemetery in the world. 

The Hooge Boys, Hooge Crater Museum

Arthur and Louis (the museum owners’ sons) began making YouTube videos taking visitors around the museum virtually during the pandemic - their audio guides continued and now take children around the museum. 

Education package 

With a special rate for students, and free entry for teachers, the education package at the museum includes: 

  • An introduction to the Hooge Crater and the Great War.
  • Entry to the new exhibition, Medical Evacuation in WW1 & The Front Eye. 
  • The new GCSE History trail. 
  • An experience box with helmets and artefacts. 
  • Free visitor centre and a free walking app to the Crater Forest. 
  • A visit to the Hooge Crater Cemetery with worksheets, questions and stories about soldiers buried there. 
  • Free coaching parking. 

Schools can also add on a museum guide, trench visit as well as lunch/drink packages for the on-site cafe. There is also a combined ticket option that schools can book which includes a visit to the In Flanders Field Museum in Ypres. 

For more information about school visits to the museum go to www.hoogecrater.com

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