Dr Ferris stirs from his post-Christmas torpor ...

Iain writes: "Knowing that Crickley Hill Man is a great fan of eBay, I expect he has noticed the two latest pieces of Crickley Hill esoterica for sale on that august internet emporium. If not, he might want to bid to add a pre-1945 postcard of the hill (based on a watercolour apparently) to his growing collection, along with a must-have Crickley Hill jigsaw. The latter item, despite being 'of Crickley Hill' is based on a rather dull photo of some trees on the hill; what a better jigsaw could have been made from Crickley Hill Man's recently-posted snapshot of John Parry herding cows on the hill."

Thank you for the tip, Iain: I hadn't noticed, because my eBay saved search, designed to alert me to new Crickley Hill desiderata, included only the category "Books, Comics and Magazines": I had not realised the wisdom of including "Toys & Games" and "Collectables" as well.  Without your hawk-like eye and devotion to doing a thorough job, these gems would have passed me by. To be on the safe side, in case anyone offers for sale a figurine of Mr Parry, in fine porcelain, I've changed my search to include all categories.

The postcard I snapped up in a trice and readers will see it soon on the blog, the vendor and Her Majesty's Mails willing.  The jigsaw, I must agree, is a bit dull, as well as being more than 4 times the price of the postcard, so I fear I must, on this rare occasion, disagree with Iain's description of it as being a "must-have" item.  In order to let readers judge the desirability of the item for themselves I show the jigsaw puzzle picture below:

Article from Gloucestershire and Avon Life July 1983

The following article, written by Richard Savage, was published in the now defunct "Gloucestershire and Avon Life" in July 1983.

" Fifteenth season at Crickley Hill.  Richard Savage issues an invitation to one and all to visit the Country Park that is the focal point of one of the region's most intriguing long-term archaeological digs.

On July 15 volunteers from all over the world will begin the 15th season of archaeological excavation at Crickley Hill, 4 miles south of Cheltenham.

The site is now a Country Park, a promontory of the Cotswolds Scarp with breathtaking views over the Severn Vale and into Wales.  Its prehistoric settlements are clearly marked, access and parking are easy, and visitors to the excavation of welcome during the hours of work 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, including Saturdays and Sundays, but not Thursdays.  Ask at the finds hut if you would like a guided tour.

The season runs until August 25, and visitors are particularly welcome on the open days, Saturday and Sunday, August 13 and 14, when extra attractions are provided. The trust's splendid new mobile exhibition coach will be there at weekends.

As before the team of volunteers will be led by Dr Philip Dixon of the University of Nottingham. All are unpaid - in fact most pay for their own food - and while their ages range from 14 to 70, the majority are between 16 and 25.  More than 2000 have now worked at the site, the archaeological importance of which has attracted them from most of the countries in the Western World, and several from the Eastern bloc was well.  

Since 1976 their work has been sponsored and organised by the Crickley Hill Trust, an educational charity which must find the difference between volunteers' contributions and the true cost of the excavations.  The trust believes that the project offers an invaluable experience of physically and intellectually demanding teamwork, with important scientific results.

The first 14 years of work has shown an extraordinary series of settlements on the site, with great deal of Gloucestershire's past represented there.  Its earliest occupants were neolithic (New Stone Age) farmers, about 3500 BC, using only stone and flint tools.  They built rectangular timber houses on the hill in an enclosure defended by stone walls and ditches.

Their successors - about 2000 BC - were protected by a far stronger and better planned defences, but these did not avail them: they were attacked by bowmen, whose flint arrowheads are found concentrated along the walls and in the entrance, giving a dramatic picture of a New Stone Age battle which is at present unique.  The attackers were victorious, and the walls were destroyed.

After their destruction, a long earthen mound was built, incorporating at regular intervals flat slabs of stone, some of which cover deposits - presumably sacrificial - of butchered meat.  The Long Mound seems to have been used as a source of processional way, perhaps religious.

There are only hints of human activity on the hill from then until the beginning of the Iron Age, when, about 600 BC, a substantial village of long timber houses was built and defended by majestic stone wall and ditch.  This, too, was destroyed after a battle, and replaced by a village of round houses, with defences rebuilt and strengthened.  In its turn, this was destroyed and abandoned about 500 BC.  Even in periods not notable for their tranquillity, Crickley Hill seems to have had more than its fair share of violence.

Until 1982, the destruction of this second Iron Age village seemed to mark the end of permanent occupation on the hill.  But last year excavation just inside the Iron Age wall at its southern end showed that a small village, probably of earth houses, had huddled there after the end of the Roman occupation of Britain.  It is one of the windiest and least sheltered parts of the hill, and there must have been a compelling reason for the villagers to avoid more comfortable areas. Perhaps they chose to place least visible from the Vale, at a time of lawlessness and hunger when a few hovels or even a wisp of smoke might have invited attack.

In the coming season Dr Dixon and his team intend to examine this post-Roman settlement further, to establish its date and nature.  They will also investigate the Long Mound, in the hope of finding out more about the date and purpose of this odd structure, at the point where it crosses the ditch and bank of the first New Stone Age enclosure.

With the help of sponsors, the trust has fitted out the mobile exhibition to make the results of the work easily available to schools and the public.  In scale models, photographs, drawings and finds from the site, the exhibition shows the successive occupations on the hill and the archaeological methods used to examine them.  It has proved very popular at schools, and is a big attraction at charity fairs, fêtes and similar events.  If you would like it to visit you, contact the author, Richard Savage, at Jarolen House, Old Rectory Close, Walkley Hill, Stroud, GL53 3TY."  

(The captions to the photographs read as follows: (Top) drystone walling two 2,500 years old dominates this picture of volunteers at work on the Iron Age defences of Crickley Hill; (above) new this season is a well equipped mobile exhibition aimed at spreading word of the project far and wide.)"

Alas, I fear that the yellow bus went to meet its maker long since, so cannot come to your fête ... 

Dan Johnson brings the tartan to Crickley ...

Fine shot of Dan Johnson dressed for a spot of formal excavation in 1982: this rare item from the Phillpotts archive records the only appearance on the hill of kilt and sporran that I'm aware of: the boots are an exceptionally fine and practical touch. Did Dan use his dirk rather than a trowel for digging that day?  

Resting in the shade between the huts ...

Some of the pictures taken during the teabreaks and lunchbreak seem, with the benefit of many years' hindsight, to have a virtuous, exhausted contentment about them: it must have been all that exercise and fresh air. Here in 1988 or 1989, from the Phillpotts archive, L to R: Sally, Ian Wykes, Rob, Richard Ozanne and Alan Ford (according to the caption Alan "The Sheep" Ford - presumably a hairstyle reference ...)

Savage 1988: The Crickley Environment ...

I've avoided getting crushed at the Woolworths' closing down sale (or indeed any other melting-down parts of High Street, UK) and focussed instead the effect of the cooler climes after the last ice age on the hill, as set out in Richard's 1988 booklet. My thanks to him and the Trust for the permission to reproduce his oeuvre.

"By 8000 BC the last ("Devensian”) ice age had ended, leaving a tundra-like landscape in southern England in which birches will probably the only trees growing. The "Pre-Boreal" and "Boreal" periods followed ushering in warm, dry conditions last until 6000 BC. With the summer temperatures of recent times today birch, pine and hazel appeared, succeeded by woodlands of oak, alder and elm. In the Atlantic period, 6000 to 3000 BC, with optimal climatic conditions and an increase in moisture, this next oak forest growth reached a peak, covering most of the Midland area and Severn Valley lowlands.

At Crickley Hill the first settlement, of Neolithic farmers, seems to have appeared about 3500 BC. It is only floral remains are poorly preserved carbonised cereal grains, evidence of the occupants' agricultural activity. On other British sites farming brings a decline of elm in the pollen record, suggesting tree felling, and charcoal layers indicate forest burning. The introduction of agriculture affected the floor in many other ways, including the introduction of alien crops and the encouragement of "weeds", "ruderals*" and shrub growth.

The South Atlantic period, from 800 BC, apparently brought climatic deterioration to moister conditions with lower summer temperatures. Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age farmers continued to expand the existing area of cultivation.

Today the hill is a mixture of mown grassland, less disturbed calcareous grassland and some shrubland. At the back of the hill is a belt of beech woodland. This mosaic of vegetation, with cleared grassland and shrubland areas has probably been the general floral assemblage on the hill since Neolithic times, with only small modifications.
[Illustration: Aurochs, elk, pine-marten and wild boar were common after the last ice age. B Halford]"

* For the curious: more about ruderals here.

Cutting AXV 1979 - the site tour for the diggers ...

This must have been well towards the end of the season when Cutting AXV was more or less finished: fine view of the Period 3(b?) wall and gangbreak. It really is a magnificent piece of construction. Those listening to the Dixon commentary include Joanne Milroy, Ranging Rod, Rowena Dutton and Training...

Missing only the tumbleweed ...

Thanks to English Heritage National Monuments Record: this 1999 black & white Michael Hesketh-Roberts view of the kitchen and dining hall at Ullenwood in July 1999 seems to strike just the right note of post-Christmas ennui ...

Fourth Report 1972, part II : the Neolithic Enclosures

Thanks again to PWD for permission to post these extracts from his 1972 Fourth Report - click on the images to enlarge:

"The Neolithic Enclosures (Figures 2 – 4)

Two cuttings, CIII and CIV, were placed adjacent to the areas excavated in 1971; they confirmed the phasing established in 1971.

The two period bank identified in CII (Dixon, 1971) continued across cutting CIII (see figure 2).  In its latest phase, now called 1d, the bank was surmounted by a fence, the burnt traces of which were visible without a break as far as the north section of CIII. both phases of bank contained quantities of Neolithic pottery and worked flint, of types comparable to those found in 1971.

In the flat area behind the bank two hearths were uncovered.  These, and another in CII, are perhaps to be associated with post holes which may have supported screens, for no enclosed structures here can yet be identified.  At the southwest corner of CIII a pit contained only heavily burnt slabs similar to those of the hearths, which resemble in their construction the hearths, possibly of Period 3, found near the roundhouse and the hearth in CIV.  The design, however, is rudimentary, and in the absence of dating evidence any period ascription would be unwise. It is thus still unclear whether any of the structures behind the banks can be attributed to a Neolithic occupation.

The Period 1d ditch in CI continued without interruption across CIV (Ditch 304/603).  Some 45 m of this ditch have now been examined; the material from it and its bank is Neolithic throughout, including a fragment of a polished stone axe, but there is by now some doubt that it is in fact segmental, and the description "causewayed enclosure" seemed inappropriate for phase 1d.  Below the 1d bank ditch 853 (of Period 1b) formed a further section of ditch segment 384; at the northern side of the cutting the 1d bank has not yet been removed, and may conceal a causeway, but it is still possible that 853/384 is the same ditch segment as Ditch 319 which was exposed in cutting CI; thus the causeways uncovered in 1971 remain the only causeways across the two inner ditches.  From the primary silt of 853 came two decorated sherds kindly identified by Mr Humphrey Case as similar to material from the causewayed enclosure at Abingdon.

Towards the eastern end of CIV two segments of the ditch line (ditches 612 and 699) continued the outer ring of ditches excavated in 1971.  The broad causeway between 612 and 699 was matched by gap in the bank on their west sides. Through Across this area ran a structural weakness in the hill (a "gull"), filled with eroded limestone which had the consistency of concreted sand.  Unlike the normal oolite laminae elsewhere on the site, the material in the gull retained the impressions of stake holes, but the interpretation of the structures represented here and in the corresponding part of CIII was complicated not only by the continuing leaching of limestone into the gull but also by the activity of tree roots and rabbits which had taken advantage of the softer rock.  At least two phases were distinguishable (see figure 4).  The latest consisted of a hearth (628) set in a hard-trodden floor (629) of gull material mixed with earth and charcoal dust.  To the south and east the floor merged into a layer of clean yellow dissolved limestone; to the north it had been eroded by activity in the gull.  As a consequence it could not be established which postholes within the gull had been sealed by the floor.

Postholes 879, 615, and 880 can be associated with the hearth and floor, and a further small posthole between 615 and 880 was only doubtfully sealed;  within the gull postholes 640 and 621 resembled the former postholes in size; to this group posthole 860 seems an obvious addition, but this was larger and shallower than the others, similar in fact to postholes 861 and 858; posthole 858 predated 640 and it is possible 861 and 858 were earlier postholes in the group, replaced during a renewal of the structure by the adjacent postholes 640 and 621.  In either case the resultant plan would be a small boat-shaped house with a slightly eccentric hearth.  Daub was found in a hollow, 877, and some of the stake holes may have supported wattled screen wall.

Floor 629 merged eastwards into clean material ultimately derived from the gull.  This stratum overlay the edge of ditch 699, and a laid stone platform, 622, perhaps paving outside the house, similarly overlay the edge of bank 697 but neither ditch nor bank can confidently be placed in the overall phasing of the site; the absence of the causeway in 1d ditch 304/603 to the west perhaps would make otiose a gap here in the outer ring unless the latter pre-dates Period 1d, and ascription of the outer ring to 1b, or even as a single ring to the so far unenclosed period 1a and 1c, may be strengthened by consideration of the extreme erosion of the outer bank, which survived to a height of only 10 cm.  But with no general agreement about the function of causewayed enclosures the argument is weak.  The house itself could well belong to the hillfort occupation, and may be compared with the structures to the south of House 4, and perhaps should be associated with occupation debris, including a shard from a pot with a rounded shoulder decorated with finger tipping, in the upper levels of ditch 699.

Seal below floor 629 two large post holes, 878 and the complex around 884 and 879, can be linked with the ditches.  They sit midway between the bank terminals and were substantial enough to serve as supports for double or triple posts of a small gate; to the north postholes 894, 895 and 898 would then form a fence, but no corresponding postholes were found to the south, beyond the line of the gull.

The group of postholes cut pass into the sides of ditch 603 and part into the infill certainly belonged to the hillfort occupation of the site.  No posthole was found as a pair to posthole 654 but it should have lain entirely within the ditch and could easily have been overlooked in the rubble infill.  Spacing of posts exactly corresponded with that of the Period 2 longhouses and the house and its hearth, centrally placed at the top of the ditch infill, should be attributed to Period 2.  Beyond the crest of the bank in CIII four postholes of similar size and spacing to those of House 7 cut through the 1d bank, and perhaps formed a slightly trapezoidal structure of Period 2.  Immediately to the east of House 7 lay a palisade trench (617) from which the only find was an intact Neolithic arrowhead.  It lay parallel to the Period 1d ditch; equally, therefore, it aligned with the Period 2 house, and its date is uncertain.  A similar slot (682) to the east of ditch 612 belonged to the phase of the outer ditches.

Thus the inner bank excavations, in addition to producing problems about the interpretation of the Neolithic enclosures, have shown that the longhouse settlement, and perhaps the Period 3 settlement, continued at least 130 m within the rampart on the line of the hillfort entrance."

The 1983 vignette from the Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

My thanks to the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society for permission to reproduce extracts from their Transactions: here the 1983 comments on the Long Mound.

"During July and August 1983 work continued on the Long Mound (100m long by 3m broad). In previous seasons it was found that the mound was composed of sifted soil piled over a low core of small rubble.  The sides of the mound were edged by large slabs, and a squat wooden pole, perhaps an idol, stood at its eastern end.  It was found that the mound ended in a circle, 10m across, of slabs on end.  The interior of the circle was cobbled and in its centre lay a large flat slab, reddened by fire, and surrounded by small fragments of burnt bone.  It is certain that this is a place for ritual, involving burnt offerings, deposition of bones under slabs, and perhaps dancing within the ring, tucked away in fold in the hill.  The monument is stratified between the Neolithic settlements and the occupation of the Iron Age hillfort, and work will continue on it in 1984.  P.W.Dixon University of Nottingham"

It must have been some party ...

Dorm 3 the morning after a spectacular diggers' party that got a wee bit out of hand after slightly too much scrumpy? Alas no, this very beautiful, but rather sad shot, was taken by Phil at Ullenwood after the picnic on 7 August 2004 just as the final destruction of Ullenwood camp was in progress.

Ode to Ullenwood

Dr Phillpotts, in his definitive history of the Below Average White Band, which I posted here, in November, makes reference to the performance of the "Ode to Ullenwood". Dr Ferris remembered John Boden's recitations, in the style of John Cooper Clarke, here.  One such recitation, after a session at the Air Balloon, took place in 1980: the accompaniment to JB consisted of Phillpotts on hosepipe, teapot, kazoo and jug, Ferris on cider jars filled with varying amounts of water to change the pitch of the notes, and Parker on Piano. I seem to remember playing the pianowires, inside the piano itself, with the assistance of some cutlery purloined from the kitchen. Hmm...

I have unearthed the original typed manuscript of the Ode to Ullenwood: it was written one evening at my parents' house in Crouch End in London by Dr Phillpotts, myself and my mother. We were, if I remember through the haze of time, assisted by liberal libations of rough cider made by Westons of Much Marcle. That was my mother's preferred drink: one of my schoolfriends once remarked that my parents's house was the only place he knew where rough cider was treated as a soft drink that you were given if you couldn't think of anything you'd rather have.  My mother had been trained, in her schooldays in the early 1930s, to write verse: she was good at rhyming and very hot on scansion. But I digress. Here then, after a doubtless welcome absence of 28 years, since its one and only public performance, is the Ode to Ullenwood, together with a commentary, not all of which survives.

Ode to Ullenwood Line

Near Ullenwood a hill was found,

A fort with ramparts bless’d:

Courtney’s woeful Leisuredrome

Was built upon its crest. 4

An archaeologist came by,

Of Mediaeval bent,

And all at once he was inspired

His passions there to vent. 8

So Dixon set his crew to dig

With catbasher and pick,

Continuing ten years and more

Since work is scarcely quick 12

The Secretary, a bearded man,

Driving Volkswagen van,

Prepared the camp at Ullenwood

For Dixon’s rabid clan. 16

The end of Greenway Lane once reached,

Is met with Lofty’s glare

But girls may find reserved for them

A leering Parry stare. 20

The dormitories are bare indeed,

But homely all the same –

Straw mattresses which Michael Dash

Flea-powder’d into fame. 24

Are cubicles anathema

And cramping to your style?

Then tents erect and there inspect

Your partner’s winsome smile. 28

Each evening one is forced to queue

To fuel the hungry gut,

With beans and sausage pie and stew

And baps, that fearsome glut. 32

The vile corpse thus satisfied

Can never be too soon

Restored by running down the lane

To reach the Air Balloon 36

At closing time, the camp regained,

The Mummers take the boards

With kettle, hose and dustbin-lid

To tame th’unlovely hordes. 40

Cacophony is shrieked aloft

To make the rafters ring:

Three drunken diggers take the stage

Endeavouring to sing. 44

The Bacchic frenzy lingers on

Till one or two a.m.

Bewildering the new recruits

O! Who the tide will stem? 48

The breakfast eggs the stomach turn,

Reduce strong men to pulp;

The sausages and beans and grease

Resist your every gulp: 52

But soft! the Sound of Lofty’s horn

Summoning all in sight,

To mount the fearsome Magyar’s coach

Worsens your morning plight: 56

The summit reached, the dumper trucks

With clangor fill the air,

And Parry’s morning curse therewith

Chills the brave and fair. 60

But Parry’s curse, put into verse

Immodest here would seem:

The poet now discreet must be

To sully not his theme. 64

Scorn not the Bard whose noble aim

In doggerel is fram’d

The broaching of the tool shed door

By such verse is not shamed. 68

The supervisors name their tools

As Philip tugs his beard

Why blench they all at Bernie’s belch

And why is Courtney feared? 72

The limestone rings to trowel and pick,

The shovels scrape and swing,

The barrows climb the spoil heap side

Their weary loads to fling. 76

Then Corky’s cry – O blessèd sound –

Tea and relief provides,

One cup for each of us, no more,

And biscuits there besides. 80

The work continues then apace,

Till sandwich time arrives

Egg and mustard – mayonnaise –

Th’industrious digger thrives. 84

Another session yet ensues

Till four o’clock – more tea,

But two more weary hours must pass

‘ere diggers can be free. 88

He who would wash must rules obey,

Prevailing in this clime:

He gets the chance on each third day

To scrape away the grime. 92

The ladies’ fate, sad to relate,

Equality foreswears:

Two days in three the showers pour

Cleansing their matted hairs. 96

Despite such strife, the digger’s life

Congenial to few

To us is best, so let the rest

Dear Ullenwood eschew. 100

Commentary and notes on " Ode to Ullenwood"

Title: the poem is addressed to Ullenwood, more specifically to the Civil Defence Centre situated there. (NGR: SO 936 174). It has been the accommodation of numerous volunteer diggers who work on the excavation of Crickley Hill, an Iron Age and Neolithic site situated a few miles from Cheltenham.

The poem consists of 25 four line stanzas and describes many features of life on the excavation and at the camp and several peculiarities thereof.

Line 1: "Ullenwood": cf. note on title.

Line 2: "A fort with ramparts bless’d": the centres of Iron Age and Neolithic occupation are surrounded by an extensive ditch and rampart defensive structure.

Line 3: "Courtney's woeful Leisuredrome" this refers to the decision of the Gloucestershire County Council in the late 1970s to deem the part of the site which belongs to them, and not the National Trust, a "Country Park". To ameliorate the facilities on top of the hill and therefore attract the general public, a public lavatory complex was built at the site. This was a cause of much chagrin to the diggers who, resenting the modernity of the lavatories and furthermore the sudden influx of tourists to distract them from their work, would have preferred to continue to use the "Elsan" chemical toilets which became such a prominent feature of the digging day, in the years from 1969 to 1979 when the toilets were built. Terry Courtney is the assistant director of the excavation, and an unidentified digger name to the lavatory block after him. Suggestions from one of the diggers, Flt Lt David Southwood, RAF, that he should bomb the Leisuredrome has been turned down because of the ensuing havoc, despite the desirability of the programme.

Line 5: “An archaeologist” : a reference to Dr P. W. Dixon, of Nottingham University, the Director of the Excavation.

Line 6: "Of Mediaeval bent": Dr Dixon's preference is for the aforementioned period.

Line 10: "catbasher": a word in vogue at Crickley meaning an entrenching tool, cf. refs to J. Parry Esq.

Line 11: "ten years and more": the excavation has been in progress since the summer of 1969.

Line 12: the site covers 9 ½ acres of which an area in the region of 4 acres has been completely excavated.

Line 13: "the secretary": R.D.A. Savage, lecturer at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, who is an expert on the British Iron Age Mirror series, and also upon Celtic myth. He is the secretary of the excavation, and in the evenings lectures upon these two subjects with great zest as well as on the maintenance of Ullenwood, notably the dangers of blocking the drains with foreign material.

Line 14: "Volkswagen van" Mr Savage possesses an "F" registration Volkswagen bus which has performed over 120,000 miles with a few technical hitches on some of the worst terrain in Great Britain. The van has only been known to collapse after conveying no less than 23 people from site to camp, along the old quarry road; this proved too much for the suspension but little else ever has.

Line 17: "Greenway Lane": the lane which leads from the B4070 to the Civil Defence Centre.

Line 18: "Lofty": the Hungarian caretaker of the camp who is tremendously helpful, but positively frightening if riled or if he suspects that all is not quite what it should be.

Line 20: "a leering Parry stare": you'll soon meet John whose principal occupation is coin dealing, though this is linked with colourful language, and leering at everybody. A fixture at Crickley.

Line 21: the dormitories certainly are bare but the rain is rarely known to penetrate the corrugated iron roof and the accommodation is much superior to that of most sites.

Line 23 to 24: the straw mattresses can be a trifle hard, but during his years of work on the excavation, Michael Dash of Sussex University, has by regular and extensive application of powder ensured that we can all sleep comfortably beds free from bites at the hands of any creatures that may be fool enough to attempt to inhabit the mattresses. The probability of getting respiratory problems because of the powder is, however, accordingly increased.

Line 25 to 28: It is, perhaps, worth noting that camping is available as an alternative to listening to other people snoring in the cubicles.

The rest of the commentary is lost, which is perhaps as well.

And Merry Christmas too from Squadron Leader Wingham

This is, alas, the last shot I have of Crickley taken by Harold Wingham and thanks to English Heritage National Monuments Record for the permission to reproduce it on the blog.  You can find the others by clicking on the "Wingham Collection" label either on the left hand side of the blog or at the bottom of this post. Ditches, ramparts, causewayed enclosures, quarry pits, ramparts and the Long Mound, all beautifully visible.

I must hop off and bake some bread and make a raspberry, blueberry and mango clafoutis to take to the friends I'm going to later for lunch (just in case the Christmas pudding isn't enough, and anyone's still feeling peckish you understand!).  While I'm slaving over the ovens, there's a rather natty feature in the Blogger software that lets you write a post and then schedule its release at a given time, so I've prepared a few Christmas treats which will automatically post themselves on the blog during the course of the day.  A very Merry Christmas to all my readers. 

Merry Christmas: nothing whatever to do with Crickley, & very silly indeed ...

... but fun.  The Parker family were en vacances en famille near Semur-en-Auxois in April 1976 when my father brought the car screeching to a halt at the sight of some goats. He was very fond of goats for some inexplicable reason: they were, I think, the only animals that would have caused him to stop. He was otherwise always pretty determined to get wherever we were going and at great speed. 

The unexpected occurred: one of the two goats leapt over the fence and started tap dancing on the bonnet. No other beast than a goat would have been tolerated in such appalling behaviour: my father was very proud of his cars and always kept them spotless. His rather sweet prejudice in favour of goats would have been the only thing that would have let him get beyond the thought of the scratches on the bonnet.  A sheep or a dog would have been given pretty short shrift but the goat was allowed to dance aways to its heart's content.

Life at Ullenwood 6: the discovery of poison gas ...

My appeal for Crickley and Ullenwood memories has elicited the following gem from Malcolm White. Thanks, Malc:

"Does anyone remember finding the poison gas? It happened when a group of us were clearing out the Civil Defence hut at Ullenwood for use as a dorm or storage hut. Unfortunately I can't remember which year it was but almost certainly some time in the 80s.

 

Many odd and interesting things were found in that hut, gas masks and gas mask filters, a map showing fallout levels for a 1 megaton bomb dropped on GCHQ, a Civil Defence Volunteers flag (which I had and used at Glastonbury rock festival as a sunshade until my rats ate it) and then there was the poison gas.

 

We unearthed two small display cases. Both were about 9 inches square and about 1 inch deep. One was made of plastic and the other wood with glass fronts. Inside were 6 glass phials with various liquids inside. I recall Mustard Gas and BBC (Bromobenzyl cyanide?). When Phil turned up we rather hastily (and carefully) gave him the cases and washed our hands of the responsibility.

 

The story then becomes third hand as far as I'm concerned. But from what I was told, Phil took the cases to the police station in Cheltenham where the officer behind the reception desk asked "Are they dangerous then?" to which the reply was "That's why I'm standing by the door!"

Richard Savage's Prologue 1988

My thanks again to Richard Savage and the Crickley Hill Trust for permission to reproduce material from Richard's 1988 booklet "Crickley Hill: Village, Fortress, Shrine". If you click on the images they will enlarge, but for ease of reading I reproduce the text below.

"Between 210 and 135 million years ago, much of the area which is now Britain was covered by ancient seas.  In their warm waters were deposited the clays, sands and limestones that make up the Cotswolds we see today.  The plants and animals living in them are preserved as fossils in the rocks of the period, known as the Jurassic, which stretch obliquely across England from Dorset to Yorkshire.  The hard limestones end in a scarp on their western side which drops abruptly for several hundred metres to the valleys.  These rocks were lifted from the seabed by earth movements which also tilted them so that in the Cotswolds they sloped gently downwards towards the southeast.

Crickley Hill is a promontory of the Cotswold scarp, 8 km from Gloucester and 5 km from Cheltenham.  The nature of the limestone uplands has had a profound influence on the use of the hill in ancient times and our approach to studying it.  The Stone ("oolite") is permeable to water, providing a light well-drained soil with clear springs issuing at a lower level - 60 m below the summit of Crickley - where the limestone meets impermeable clay.  Much of the stone, especially that near the surface, splits easily into pieces of the size and shape suitable for building.  Post holes and stake holes can be made in it with simple tools, though the rock is hard enough to discourage casual digging.  It is easily and permanently discoloured by fire, and at high temperature (900 - 1,000°C) turns to quicklime, which, when slaked, forms a powdery mortar-like aggregation.  The Crickley stone is not of the best quality, so there has been only local demand for it as building stone, though it has been burned for line and used as road stone.  Accordingly the damage to the promontory by quarrying has been limited; it has removed several metres from the south side, and made both sides steeper.  They were always steep enough to make ascent troublesome and to prolong a climber's exposure to observation from above. (Illustration: Exposure of oolitic limestone in the Crickley Hill quarry)

Within 25 km of Crickley more than a dozen hill-forts take advantage of similar conditions.

Flint, on which everyday technology depended in Britain until after 2000 BC, does not occur in limestone, though small pieces of poor quality may be found in gravel deposits.  In this, the inhabitants of Crickley and their neighbours could never be self-sufficient, and they had to obtain supplies from areas of chalk to the south and east, none nearer than 50 kms away.  All flint found on the hill was brought by man.  

A natural hollow, 100m long and 25 m wide, runs beside the southern edge of the hill at its western end.  It represents a fissure in the rock which it will eventually break the mass to the south of it away into the valley, but it has been stable for at least 6000 years, since the neolithic period. The limestone along its bottom and has degraded to a matrix of small particles which is easy to dig into.  The traces of neolithic houses the best preserved here, where substantial postholes could most easily be made with the tools of time, and here, too, we can follow the small grooves and stake holes intended for wattle fencing. (Illustration: Typical fossils of the Crickley Oolite)

The soil on the hill is shallow, seldom exceeding 15 cms thick. Because of this the stratigraphy - the sequence of deposited layers which can be distinguished from one another and analysed to establish a succession of events - is severely limited.  There are substantial accumulations only in such large features as ditches and quarry pits, and not always there.  On the other hand, all but the most trivial ground-work has always had to affect the bedrock, in which its traces are usually permanent and unmistakable.

Since the stone resists erosion fairly well, and even the normal methods of building "drystone" (mortarless) walls make surprisingly durable structures, we can usually recognize even slight remains of walling, the residues of ancient demolition.  It is a feature of the site that the prehistoric walls have not been much robbed of their stone in recent centuries. Unofrtunately the Crickley soil preserves seeds, pollen, and other organic remains only when they have been carbonised by heat, and not always then.  On the other hand, it preserves snail shells very well indeed.  These can often be used as evidence of the nature of the environment during the snails' lifetime at the places where they are found; species can be identified which prefer grassland, for example, or shady woodland.  It also preserves bone, when this has been buried, and thus protected, in pits and ditches.

Crickley Hill may have had a key position in the prehistoric geography of the region, offering a near approach of the Cotswold upland to the lowest part of the Severn at which it could be crossed into Wales without much difficulty, perhaps on the northern side of Gloucester.  The hill has easy access eastwards to the Thames Valley and south-east Britain while any trade with running from south-west to north-east along the high ground of the limestone scarp must have passed close to it.  It is tempting to speculate that Crickley may have stood near, and at some periods on, a cross roads, where apart from the river crossing in the Vale reached the uplands and divided into north, south and eastward routes, and this was recurrent motif in its long story. (Illustration: Prehistoric use of oolite. The wall of the second hillfort"