There is no information on when the house on the site in 1914 was built. The in-fill of the trench gives a fair indication of its construction. It was built of brick and had a slate roof. Some chalk bricks were used, perhaps in the gable end and the cellar was entirely constructed from them. Aerial photographs show the farmhouse standing well back from the road in almost the same position as the modern building. The outskirts of the village were very much more heavily wooded than they are today. 

There is an "L" shaped garden at the back of the house, projecting into the orchard and an open farmyard at the front with an object in the centre, which may be a midden. A square outbuilding near the main road may correspond to the structure partly excavated in April 1999, which has a half-cellar. This building was investigated during the April 2000 excavation and produced a strange feature comprising a rectangle of close packed rubble enclosed within a number of substantial angle irons. This was aligned with a pipe protruding from the well in the front garden and appears to be the remains of a canvas  water trough.

In 1914 10 Rue Delattre was owned by Desire Fay, a 41year old farmer. Monsieur Fay was a local man, listed in L'Annuaire Albertin for 1914 as "un cultivateur".  He had married Zoé Gérard of Auchonvillers in 1900 and had three children, two boys and a girl. It seems probable that he and his family left their home in October when the Germans shelled the village. 

When the British arrived in July 1915 four cottages were still occupied by French civilians but they were all swiftly evacuated. It is not known where the Fays spent the war years or when they returned but the existing house was built on the site of the old one in 1923. Most villagers are believed to have found accommodation with relatives after they left. It is clear from British accounts that the inhabitants had left in a hurry, abandoning furniture and cutlery, which was appropriated to make the newcomers comfortable. 

The French army had handed the village over in what looked like a tidy condition but closer inspection by 2nd Monmouthshire Regiment "subsequently found cesspits had only a small covering of earth, cellars full of straw under which were dead rats and dirt." (W095/1506). Photographic evidence suggests that damage to buildings in Auchonvillers was far from uniform. 10 Rue Delattre appears to have had a substantially intact roof in the winter of 1915/16 and a British aerial photograph taken in April 1916 shows buildings at the west end of the village virtually undamaged. In contrast the schoolmistress' house, on the other side of Rue Delattre had been reduced to a complete ruin before the French had left. The church had also been severely damaged.

Evidence so far accumulated suggests that during the 1915-1917 phase of occupation the cellar of 10 Rue Delattre was used by the reserve company of the infantry battalion occupying the front line in that sector. It was equipped with a telephone during at least part of the war as a wire was found leading into the cellar during the uncontrolled excavation. The floor of the cellar was cleared before the beginning of the organised excavation. It was found to be covered in rabbit netting and the accumulated fill yielded a variety of objects including cap badges, coins, cutlery and webbing buckles, of British and French origin. 

The most substantial item found was a badly rusted British '07 pattern bayonet. A find that has excited considerable interest was a cache of six glass ampoules, the significance of which will be discussed below. Another intriguing discovery in the trench fill was a piece of white tile with the legend "In case of fire only" written on it in chinagraph pencil. This was presumably placed near the cellar entrance and was intended to warn against improper use of fire buckets and their contents.

The chalk bricks of the cellar still bear graffiti written by British soldiers. Of particular interest is a carving on the west wall bearing the initials "J.C." and possibly relating to James Crozier, a soldier of 9th Royal Irish Rifles, who was shot for desertion in 1916. Other graffiti can be linked to traceable individuals and it seems significant that they are all from infantry units, thus reinforcing the theory that the cellar was used by reserve companies, rather than medical personnel as has been suggested by some. 

Edmund Blunden described the village as he remembered it in September 1916 and states that one of the cellars housed the reserve company HQ. It is impossible to pinpoint its location exactly but it could be the cellar of 10 Rue Delattre. A feature mentioned by Blunden is that  the cellar had a thin roof and had to be reinforced. The cellar roof at No.10 is not substantial although this is hardly conclusive. It is certainly in the right area.  Blunden does however tell of "some very respectable and sizeable farm buildings, with conspicuous holes in the bottom of the walls, admitting to desired cellars, and nettles flocking rankly about the gaping windows, and even green doors hanging a little recklessly on their hinges." and this appears to be a description of the buildings in Rue Delattre.

The loss of the Beaucourt Ridge in the months after the fall of Beaumont Hamel deprived the Germans of direct observation and thus they could not accurately shell Auchonvillers and the roads in and out of the village. When the Germans withdrew in February 1917 the army moved on and there was a much reduced British presence. It is not clear if any civilians returned to Auchonvillers, although there is some indirect evidence for civilian activity in the area. 

John Masefield the poet was allowed access to the battle area in the spring of 1917, a visit that he recorded in The old front line, published later that year. Much of the battlefield was still deserted and many villages were merely heaps of pulverised bricks. Masefield says that Auchonvillers at this period had "several fairly well preserved red-brick buildings in it." After the fall of Beaumont Hamel the 60cm trench railway system was relaid and extended down to the River Ancre

A considerable salvage operation was undertaken in the old German positions and much timber was removed  by 252 Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers. Many of the dugout entrances seem to have been deliberately blown in after all the useable material had been extracted. The trenches seem to have been left to fall in and much of the barbed wire was still in place in March 1918. It is not unlikely that some French civilians did  return; there was, after all, no expectation that the Germans would ever come back.

As we now know Auchonvillers was once again in the front line in March 1918 during the great German offensive; it is possible that it was in 1918 that the cellar of 10 Rue Delattre was used by medical personnel; the Canterbury Regiment of the New Zealand Division certainly occupied the cellar in March and April as a cap badge was found in the floor fill. This has sadly since been stolen and Avril Williams would greatly appreciate its return. 

Graffiti on the walls indicates later occupation by units of 17th Division. Of particular interest is the name of Signaller J.E. Hargreaves. John Edward Hargeaves joined the Army in 1917 and served with 7th Border Regiment in 17th Division. He carved his name in May or June 1918, together with the crossed flags of his trade badge. 

Only two aerial photographs of the area in 1918, dated April and August, have so far been examined. Both photographs  appear to show the brick-lined ramp, which is absent from another photo dated to the winter of 1915/16. The additional and inferior quality brick flooring round the cellar entrance seems to be associated with the ramp and suggests that both features may be from a later phase.There is evidence of heavy shelling around 10 Rue Delattre with several fresh shell holes and a direct hit on the house next door. 

The alarming collapse of the British line in March 1918 led to a rethink by the General Staff concerning the layout of the defence. From April these  were organised in a very different fashion to that prevailing in 1916. There was no complete front but rather a series of self-supporting defensive areas, known as the Green line, which included the Auchonvillers defences. This was supported by an additional system to the west of the village, called  the Purple line, from which counterattacks were to be launched. Should the Germans penetrate the Purple line, they would be faced with a third Red line. A similar scheme had existed in March but the new ideas emphasised the necessity of interlocking fields of fire, mutual suppport and the importance of holding on even when  the flanks had gone. A huge amount of  labour was expended on the Purple and Red lines and they  actually existed on the ground, which was not true of much of their equivalents in the system that failed in March. 1918 aerial photographs show that some but by no means all of the 1916 trenches had been reused in the Green line and it is clear that many were derelict and overgrown. It has to be said that the plan was never put to the test as the enemy's  efforts were directed elsewhere after early April. As the summer went on  the German army became less capable of offensive effort and in this sector the British increasingly had the upper hand.

It is possible that it was felt, in the absence of a linear front, that it was safer to place the RAPs further back. 10 Rue Delattre may have operated as a replacement for the RAP previously situated at Thurles Dump, which was about half way to the present day entrance to Newfoundland Park. It may be that the glass ampoules, mentioned above, date from this phase of occupation. This interpretation is tentative and may be changed in the light of further research.

In August 1918 the British Army again advanced west from Auchonvillers and this time did not return. However there was still a vast amount of work to be done and there were Labour Corps units in the neighbourhood until at least December, presumably disposing of munitions and filling trenches. The battlefield was carefully searched for bodies several times. At some stage the communication trench outside 10 Rue Delattre was backfilled with a jumble of material that had been lying on the surface and in the ruins of the house. 

Monsieur Fay and his family finally returned and the present house was built in 1923. It is believed that civilians were not allowed back into the village for a considerable time as there was still a huge quantity of unexploded ammunition in the district. Desire Fay lived until 1944 and is buried in Auchonvillers communal cemetery. Born in the aftermath of one war against the Germans, he was made homeless in the next and died just before the end of a third.