Cow parsley grows thick today in the gentle meadow beneath which lies the now infilled Guillemont Quarry, a strongly held German strongpoint which guarded the approaches to the benighted village from the direction of Trones Wood, part of a defensive network which defied British attacks for over 6 weeks in the heat of July and August of 1916. The shallow valley which it faced and overlooked became known to the British troops, with grim appropriateness, as 'The Valley of Death', and it was the site of many acts of extraordinary valour. Guillemont finally fell on 3rd September, by which time the village had been ground virtually to powder by continuous artillery barrage. It's tenure is considered to be one of the finest defensive actions on the part of the Germans on the entire Western Front.