About Us
The Durand Group is a UK-based association of volunteers who research military tunnelling, mining and other historic underground works. Its members bring together experience in historical research, surveying, the military and underground investigation. The Group studies places that are often difficult to reach, recording the evidence they hold and sharing what it reveals about the people who built and used them.
Maps and written accounts cannot show everything that happened below ground. A surviving passage may reveal how it was built or adapted. A name carved into its wall may identify someone missing from the official record. By studying these physical traces alongside historical sources, we build a fuller understanding of each site.
Our History
In 1988, Canadian authorities at the Vimy Ridge Memorial Site in France asked the British Government for help investigating what they believed might be a large cache of black powder some sixty feet beneath the park, close to areas used by visitors. Lt Col Phillip Robinson, a British Army Royal Engineer, travelled to Vimy with a team of volunteers. Their investigation of the La Folie tunnel system established that the material was an abandoned First World War mine charge. Known as the Durand Mine, it lay at the end of a tunnel constructed by French tunnelling engineers and contained approximately 6,000 pounds of ammonal. Initial tests suggested that the explosive had degraded and could no longer detonate.
Robinson returned to Vimy in 1996 after further research indicated that another, much larger charge remained beneath the ridge. The Broadmarsh Mine, named for the area above it, was estimated to contain 20,000 pounds of explosive. It lay near a busy road junction within the memorial grounds, an area crossed by large numbers of vehicles and pedestrians. With the agreement of the Canadian authorities, Robinson assembled a team of civilian and military specialists. In October 1997, they returned to Vimy and investigated the charge.
In 1998, one of the team, Lt Col Mike Watkins, proposed that their work should continue. Inspired by the First World War tunnellers and by what the investigations at Vimy had achieved, those involved formed the nucleus of the Durand Group.
Further examination of the Durand Mine in February 1998 overturned the earlier assessment. Although the upper layers of ammonal had degraded, material beneath them remained active, and the primers and detonators posed a risk. The charge was subsequently made safe. The team also dealt with a smaller charge—a camouflet intended to destroy an enemy tunnel—farther south in the La Folie system. At the time, the Group did not believe that any other charges of British origin remained within the memorial site boundary.
In August 1998, tragedy struck. While attempting to enter an incline into the O Sector mining system south of La Folie, Watkins was killed when a section of clay sheared away. His death is an enduring part of the Group’s history and of its understanding of the risks involved in underground investigation. The Group continued the research begun at Vimy, extending its work to other subterranean sites on the former Western Front.
What We Do
We study military mining systems, subways, shelters and other underground features. Archival maps, war diaries, photographs and personal accounts help us understand why they were built and how they were used. Field investigation allows us to compare those records with what survives.
Our work includes historical research, surface and underground survey, photography, and the recording of surviving structures, objects, inscriptions and graffiti. Measured plans and individual records show where features were found and how they relate to the rest of a site. Specialist digital methods, including 3D recording, are used where they suit a particular project; they are not a routine part of every investigation.
The evidence can be modest in appearance but revealing in context. Construction details show how tunnellers responded to local conditions. An inscription may identify a person or unit. Alterations to a passage may show how its use changed over time. Investigations such as those at Maison Blanche and the Hulluch Subways illustrate different aspects of this work. We share our findings through reports, publications, presentations and other forms of public interpretation.
How We Work
The Group is led by elected officers and a committee. Each field project has an appointed manager who oversees its planning and conduct, supported by members with the skills the work requires. We develop a plan around defined research questions and the conditions of the site, working with landowners, public authorities and relevant specialists to establish permissions, responsibilities and appropriate methods.
Our protocols help us record historic features consistently and preserve the context in which they are found. We aim to cause the least disturbance needed to meet a project’s aims and generally prefer to leave objects where they are found when that is appropriate. Where work may affect archaeological remains, we plan it with the relevant authorities and qualified specialists under the permissions required for that project. If conditions or a discovery change what is possible, we reassess the plan with those responsible for the site.
Activity and project reports, survey records and photographs become part of the Group’s archive. They can inform later research and help those responsible for a site understand what survives. Many of the places we investigate are also places of commemoration. We remain mindful of the people who built, occupied or died in them, and that respect shapes both our fieldwork and the way we share its results.
Health & Safety
The investigation of former battlefields presents risks that must be taken seriously. Sites may contain unexploded munitions and other remains of industrial warfare. Underground, those hazards can be combined with unstable ground, falls, flooding and poor air quality. Excavations, mechanical plant, and possible chemical or biological hazards add further demands to a project.
The Group has developed methods for assessing and managing these risks. The project manager prepares a documented risk assessment for work involving excavation or entry into underground systems. Project plans identify responsibilities, equipment and emergency arrangements; participants are briefed on the hazards relevant to their tasks. Risk registers and structured “what if” analysis help the team consider how conditions might change. Assessments are reviewed as work proceeds, and safety takes precedence over recording when the two cannot be reconciled.
Our members bring specialist experience to this work. Group project plans record a practising French doctor, a professionally qualified health and safety paramedic, members with extensive explosive ordnance disposal experience, and members experienced in mountain or cave rescue. Most members operating in France were recorded as holding the ITC Certificate in Outdoor First Aid at SCQF Level 6. Members have also undertaken cave and mine self-rescue training. These skills strengthen our preparations and response arrangements, while every site still requires its own assessment.
The Group draws on British Caving Association equipment and technique guidance and considers BS 6164:2019, Health and safety in tunnelling in the construction industry where it applies. We also consult specialist guidance on underground support. Historic military galleries differ from modern construction tunnels, so these sources inform our judgment rather than provide a single set of rules for every site.
The Durand Group is a recognised club of the British Caving Association. The Group’s administrative protocols set out third-party liability cover through that association for members and associates, alongside requirements for participants to arrange appropriate personal health and accident cover. The scope of cover is considered when planning each activity.
For enquiries about our research or potential collaboration, please contact the Group.