Who are these women loaded with baskets? Who are the men with sticks accompanying them?

On the reverse a handwritten note can be read saying that this photo was sent from Fosses on 9th August 1916 to M. Fernand Evrard, Infantry Brigadier and prisoner at Soltau camp: the German stamp 'Geprüft… Soltau' bears testimony to this.

© Photo taken from 'The Messenger', the weekly newspaper of the Fosses-la-Ville region (No. 48, of Friday 12th December 1997).