The Newfoundland Memorial Park lies less than 400m to the south of Hawthorn Ridge Cemetery No.1.  To reach it by road, return to the D174 and drive west away from Beaumont-Hamel into Auchonvillers.  In the centre of the village turn left and then, after a further 400m, branch left again onto the D73 to Hamel.  The Newfoundland Memorial Park is on the north of the road after about 1km.  A large car park faces the entrance to the Park to the south.

The Newfoundland Memorial Park occupies the ground over which the Newfoundland battalion (together with British battalions of the 29th Division) made their unsuccessful attack on 1 July 1916.  The battalion was part of 88th Brigade, the second wave of troops which attacked at 09.05.  The Newfoundlanders suffered 684 casualties, about 70% of their strength.  Praed Street trench, close to the Caribou monument, was manned briefly by Lieutenant John Tolkien and his battalion towards the end of July.  Also within this site are the trenches from which the 51st Highland Division launched their successful attack in November, and part of the German front line system at Y Ravine that was captured.

Among the Germans in these lines was Stefan Westmann, Medical Officer with Infantry Regiment 119.  In 1963 he recalled the British bombardment prior to the attack:

'For seven days and nights we were under incessant bombardment.  Day and night, the shells, heavy and light ones, came upon us.  Our dugouts crumbled.   They fell upon us and we had to dig ourselves and our comrades out.  Sometimes we found them suffocated; sometimes smashed to pulp.'

The Newfoundland Memorial Park is the biggest battalion memorial on the Western Front and the largest area of the Somme battlefield that has been preserved.  It was purchased at the end of the war by the Newfoundland Regimental Chaplain, Tom Nangle, with funds raised largely by the women of Newfoundland.  It was opened by Field Marshal Lord Haig in June 1925.  Since Newfoundland's confederation with Canada in 1949, the Canadian Government has been responsible for its maintenance and care.  In the grounds is an interpretation centre which provides leaflets for a comprehensive self-guided tour.