Up to 50,000 people visit Somme shrouds exhibition
Up to 50,000 people are estimated to have visited the poignant Shrouds of the Somme Project in Exeter that depicts all 19,240 allied soldiers who fell on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.>Organisers say that in just one week they have been inundated with visitors to the exhibition from all over the UK, and beyond.
The project was opened in the city's Northernhay Gardens on 1 July, exactly 100 years since the whistle was blown to go ‘over the top' in one of the bloodiest battles in British Military History.
Artist Rob Heard took three years to complete the project and hand-stitched every shroud, reading the name of each man out loud from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's list of the dead as he completed each figure.
The influx of people coming to pay their respects and see the site has astounded organisers.
Visitors have been openly crying on seeing the exhibit and some are said to have been moved to write poetry and prose to share their thoughts and feelings prompted by the sight of a field of 19,240 shrouded figures.>The project has been open to the public for free. Commodore Jake Moores says he's seen people reduced to tears.
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