Mont St Jean Farmhouse

Mont St Jean Farmhouse was traditionally believed to have been far enough behind the Allied line to have been out of the direct fire battle. 

However, recent evidence hints that the fighting may have got close following the discovery of a French cannon ball. 

 Either way, the farm is principally known as the site of the Allied field hospital. Mick Crumplin states that “Many regimental surgeons and some assistant surgeons and staff surgeons collected at Mont-St-Jean Farm, about 400 metres behind Wellington’s line. This was the 1st Corps hospital, under the command of Dr John Gunning. Here wounds were redressed and cleaned, fractures were ‘reset’, and amputations and trepanning (skull surgery) performed.”

The farm was also on the main road to Brussels so most of the Allied wounded and French prisoners of war would also have made their way north past the front gate.  It would also be true to say that the many Allied soldiers who fled the field, such as the Duke of Cumberland's Hussars, would have passed this point.

There is plenty of evidence for what the  farm looked like at the front with many images giving supporting evidence:

Victorian photographs are also helpful:

The modern farm remains substantially the same but the central tower collapsed and was rebuilt:

The inside of the farm gives a sense of scale:

The difficulty is that the modern farm does not have the same rear as the farm of 1815.  We must rely on the Siborne model to show this, but a direct aerial shot is blurry:

We can superimpose the Siborne shot over a modern Google Earth image to get an exact sense of scale

Close up shots of the Siborne farm give excellent detailing and put the farm in its topographical context:

Here are some early shots of the farm, as built by my father.  The bails of hay are not right for the period and will go.  His realisation of the building is excellent.

We are very pleased with the results, but there is still much work to do before the surrounding scenery is correct:

Liam has been working on casualties to populate the farm:

In the coming weeks we will complete the farm and add the figures to what is promising to be an excellent new building for the diorama.

Casualties passing La Haye Sainte