The level of damage left by the war is almost as unimaginable as the conditions in which the war was fought – and it was unprecedented, although such scenes became all too familiar later in the century. By November 1918 some places no longer existed, all their buildings pulverised by artillery shells and intense fighting. The long periods of trench warfare and the struggles of battle in 1916 and 1918 caused terrible destruction in the Somme; even in the area behind the lines, the constant use by troops and the demands of managing the war left disruption, piles of war materials, hutted camps and hospitals, all the detritus of war.

In the main battlefield area, roads, railways and canals were virtually unusable.
Thousands of people had no homes; towns like Albert and Péronne were uninhabitable, all services needed reconstruction, local authorities could not deal with the scale of need. Military control was necessary for some time after the war and in the worst-hit areas refugee families were not allowed to return until facilities could be restored.

Look out for Reconstruction buildings from the post-war decade. Some places were reconstructed exactly as they had been before the war (look for 1920s dates on the façades); others represent 1920s design and architecture. A few modest wooden houses remain as examples of the thousands of temporary houses hastily set up while rebuilding took place. Modern concepts of hygiene and planning were incorporated, including some ‘garden city’ housing developments. It was an opportunity to rearrange street lay-outs to improve traffic circulation and to provide better standard of housing. Farms changed too: instead of the ancient pattern of ‘open-field’ management, cultivating several different scattered plots of land, farms now owned the same amount of land but in fever and larger plots. Tractors were introduced, although ploughing continued to be dangerous for many years as hidden artillery shells exploded under the plough or the tractor.

For many of the villages and woods around, the place-names, or the English names allocated by the British Army, became part of local history in the home towns and communities of the soldiers who lived and died here. Post-1918 streets or squares often bear English names, recording places or individuals with a special war-time link. In some cases the link was sustained after the war with aid programmes to help the stricken communities return to normality.

Most of the department of the Somme was occupied and devastated during the war years, 1914-1918. These four years were even spoken of at times as "the crucifixion of Picardy". Albert, Péronne and Montdidier were reduced to a pile of rubble.
A few modest wooden houses remain as examples of the thousands of temporary houses hastily set up while rebuilding took place.
The 1920s brought a rearrangement of land holding patterns, with the small fields of pre-war days swallowed up into large open areas. This was also the time of reconstruction; all too rarely based on fundamental thought, houses and public buildings were rebuilt in haste to pre-war plans, although they made use of specific architectural models and design competitions. The small brick house is typical of this period. Houses consist of a kitchen/living-room, one or two bedrooms, an attic and a cellar, with larger farms built of rendered brick. Public health specialists of the day encouraged the construction of wider streets, and the move of cemeteries to the outskirts of towns.
Some towns, however, adopted an overall design of town planning which reflected new architectural ideas, with Albert presenting a fine example of the height of Art Déco style. Two types of building - churches and mairies or town halls - received particular attention. The Art Déco town halls of Albert, Moreuil and Montdidier are impressive examples, designed on a large scale and highly decorative.

Although some churches were rebuilt in haste in neo-romanesque or neo-gothic style, and have few features of interest, others received close attention. The basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières in Albert was rebuilt as an exact reconstruction of its original neo-Byzantine style. Others were commissioned from architects who developed new styles.
The church of St. Nicolas at Coullemelle was three-quarters destroyed in the final German offensive of March-April 1918. In 1923 two architects, Morel and Petit, began to build a new church in Neo-romanesque style. Coullemelle is remarkable for its architectural design and its interior décor, the work in 1925 of Pierre and Gérard Ansart (hollow brick arches, stylised capitals, mosaic high altar, stained glass windows and Stations of the Cross and sgraffiti frieze by Gaudin).
At Moreuil, reconstruction of the church began in 1929 under the direction of architects Duval and Gonse. The nineteenth-century nave and choir were given a deliberately modern façade built of reinforced concrete and cement with geometrical forms and vertical lines, and sculptures created by Couvègnes. Moreuil church also has interesting stained-glass windows created by the glass-makers Rinuy and Hébert Stevens.
The church at Roye also has a very distinctive feature: the fifteenth-century apse now adjoins a conspicuously modern nave of reinforced concrete and brick.
There are many discoveries to be made in this department with its treasures of the period (the churches at Moislains, Villers-Bretonneux, Brie, Authuille, Mesnil-Martinsart, etc.). Sadly, almost all of them are locked - visitors should enquire at the mairie.