Sunday, August 31, 2008

The stakeholes for a fence line CH 1980



The stakeholes for the fence can clearly be seen from these two shots of (top) and from (bottom) Cutting N7 during the 1980 season. I remember a short period whilst the layers were being taken off when it was unclear whether it was human or rabbit works. After a bit you start to form the view that rabbits can't do straight lines of holes in limestone ... F3833 at corner in top photo but there is no sign of me dozing in it.
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Friday, August 29, 2008

The end of the 1980 season - re-turfing


JCB (not, as I originally thought, the dumper truck) in the background, the backfilling almost complete, the re-turfing team literally lies down on the job. Among others, Frank Green, Anna Collinge and Jane Dineen. Think the legs on the left belong to Rebecca Chambers. The lifted turf was periodically watered throughout the season to try and minmise shrinkage. But there's never quite enough to cover the whole area. Unusual care was taken to try as far as possible to put the turf back exactly whence it had been lifted a few weeks before. This was a year when the cuttings were protected at night from the attentions of the cattle on the National Trust land by an electric fence.
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Monday, August 25, 2008

The limestone dust got everywhere on Cutting AXV in 1979 ...



A remarkable duo: Messrs Noakes and Dawson each seem to be suffering from the same excavatory complaint. I was plainly in luck to capture such fine moments for posterity ...
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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Crickley 1980 Cutting N7 and F3833




I have vague memories of excavating this feature, F3833 during the 1980 season under, I think Ferris's supervision: recall being gently reprimanded one afternoon having fallen asleep trowel in hand lying half in and half out of the hole. Good shot of the stratigraphy in the top layers...

[Update from my dear supervisor: "Crickley Hill Man, in his younger days, should have been aware that Denis Healey's advice on what to do when you find yourself in a hole was 'to stop digging', not 'to start sleeping.'" It's like being savaged by a dead sheep ...



Thursday, August 21, 2008

Bernard Dawson sends these from Crickley 1980 ...



Top: Dr Phillpotts recognises Mike the Whale, Maryam Ghaffari (in posthole); others unidentified. I can spot Phil under the tree on the left by the camera tripod. In the distance can just be seen a pretty sizeable spoil heap and the beginning of the excavation of the Neolithic Long Mound.

Bottom: ? Paul Noakes, Arwel Barrett and others unknown. I'd forgotten quite what it was like bailing out a flooded cutting where the base of the cutting was meringue and this brings back that sodden feeling!
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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Iain Ferris contemplates Cuttings O7 and N7 Crickley Hill 1980

No posing here... What does it all mean? [Update: careful scrutiny of page 29 of Dixon 1994, Crickley Hill, The Hillfort Defences which shows the location and number of cuttings leads me to think that I must have mis-labelled the photo as N7 appears right but O7 was never dug.]

A late 17th century Act to repair the road: longest sentence ever?

The Parliamentary draftsman must have been being paid by the yard. Below, after the references is the first sentence alone of an Act concerned with keeping the road from Gloucester to Crickley maintained.

'William III, 1697-8: An Act for repairing the Highways from the Towne of Birdlipp and the Top of Crickley Hill in the County of Gloucester to the City of Gloucester. [Chapter XVIII. Rot. Parl.9 Gul. III.p.3.n.7.]'

Reasons for passing this Act

Quarter Sessions to appoint a Surveyor of the Roads yearly; Notice to Persons appointed.; Surveyors to meet to survey ruinous Places, and take Order for repairing the same; and certify to Quarter Sessions, who are to make Order thereon; Surveyors to require Carts, &c. to work in such Places; Surveyors to pay for working beyond limited Time; Two Justices may settle Rate of Payment.

Whereas the Highway between Birdlipp and the said Top of Crickley Hill in the County. Gloucester and the City of Gloucester being part of the ancient Highway and Post Road leading from the Citty of London to Gloucester by reason of the great and many Loads that are weekly drawne through the same are become very ruinous and almost impassable for att least Five Miles in length insomuch that itt is become dangerous to all Persons that passe that way and for that the ordinary course appointed by the Laws and Statutes of this Realme is not sufficient for the effectual repairing and amending the same neither are the Inhabitants of the several Parishes in which the said ruinous Places in the said High-way and Roads doe lye of ability to repaire the same without some other Provision be made for the repairing thereof May it please Your Majesty that it may be enacted and be it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritiual & Temporal and Co[m]mons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That for the surveying ordering repairing and keeping in Repaire the said several ruinous places in the said Road the Justices of the Peace att the Quarter Sessions to be holden for the said County or any Five of them next after the First Day of May One thousand six hundred ninety eight shall and may then and so from time to time in every Yeare nominate and appoint a convenient number of sufficient and able Persons residing & inhabiting in the Parishes or Places adjoining to the respective ruinous High-way and Road or any Part thereof so to be amended as aforesaid to be the several and respective Surveyors of the respective Places aforesaid for the Yeare from thence next ensuing and that the said Justices shall cause Notice to be given to the several Surveyors so chosen in Writing of their said Choice which said Surveyors and every of them having no lawfull impedim[en]t to be allowed by the said Justices by whom they shall be chosen in manner aforesaid or any Two of them within one Week next after such Notice to him or them given of their Election shall and are hereby required respectively to meet in some convenient place within their several and respective Divisions for the which they are respectively appointed Surveyors to the Intent to Review and Survey the said respective ruinous places and consider the defects thereof and the best Method and Means that can be used for the repairing the same & make their respective Certificates thereof to the Justices of the Peace att the next Quarter Sessions to be held for the said County who thereupon shall and may make such Order & Orders in and about the same as to them shall seem good which said Order or Orders so to be made shall be by the said respective Surveyors and all other Persons concerned in putting this Act in Execution duely observed & performed and the said respective Surveyors are hereby impowered to appoint and require such Carts and Persons who are within the said adjacent Parishes from time to time to come and work in the said respective Places as they shall think needfull for which the said respective Surveyors shall pay unto such Labourers and to the Owners of such Teams Carts and Wains according to the usual Rate of the Countrey in case they [shall (fn. 1) ] be required so to work beyond the times limitted by the Statutes now in force wherein if any Difference happen the same to be settled by Two or more of the next Justices of the Peace which is to be conclusive to all Parties.



So that's the first sentence. It goes on: William III, 1697-8 which I would only recommend if you're suffering from insomnia...

Monday, August 18, 2008

The fame of the Leisuredrome spans the globe ... everywhere in the branch, this forest is going a bit astray ...

Don't ask me what I was up to with a search engine when I found this: just admire my diligence. Other parts of this beautiful Japanese blog show some excellent shots of the Devil's Chimney on Leckhampton Hill. Japanese Cotswold Way Blog Perhaps someone who reads Japanese could translate? I cut and paste the text into the TranStar web machine translator and it came up with the following not entirely satisfactory results. Make of this what you will.

"National Highway No. A417 is the right-hander, and rotary-like HEYAPIN [hairpin? - Ed.] left to the right to progress to the national highway number and A436.

KOTTSUUORUDO [Cotswold? - Ed.] Way, Rotary north across the top of the national highway number A417 north of Crickley Hill parallel to enter the camp.

Many of the big trees such as beech woodland is even more dark and visibility is 50 m or less. Everywhere in the branch, this forest is going a bit astray. [Indeed it is, indeed it is ...]

500m-plus, toilets and pavilion (arbor), the parking area after a break. Circular Walks walking the course signs. In addition to thick haze and visibility is only 30 m long. [They didn't have much luck with the weather from the look of the photograph - perhaps not even 30m long is the visibility...]

Break away from your office to follow the signposts ahead, he will go to the southeast towards the north.戻ったろうaround 1km, maneuvering the footpath to the southeast into the dirt road running east to west to root out again."

That's really made my day!

Maintaining the Hill now...

... is hard work. I've found the website of the Gloucester Vale Conservation Volunteers who have been labouring for many years to conserve the habitats on the Hill and keep it looking good.




Coppicing, Dec. 2000, Scrub Clearance, Feb. 2001, Coppicing, Christmas 2001,
More scrub clearance, Jan. 2002, Dry Stone Walling, July 2002, Coppicing, November and December 2002, Scrub clearance again! Feb. 2003, Coppicing Feb.2004, Fence removal, June 2004, Coppicing, Christmas 2004, Scrub clearance Feb.2005, Christmas 2006.



Pretty impressive persistent effort: well done GVCV and thank you.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

What a cheerful crew...


Following a tipoff from Dr Ferris, I'm delighted to have found Bernard Dawson again: he's still teaching but now in North London rather than Coventry. Bernie has sent me the above gem from his 1979 archive with a challenge to name the guilty parties. So here goes: back row, L to R, Mark Spivakowski [update from Dr Phillpotts: it's not Mark, it's Dmitri whose surname escapes both of us] , Terry Courtney, Julian Parker, Bernard Dawson, David Southwood, middle row L to R, Training (sorry I can't remember your real name but I do recall that this was how you were known), the Skeleton clad in Randel Motkin's jacket, John Parry, Randel Motkin, Mike Taylor, front row, L to R, David Hole, Zoya Spivakowska, Ros Cleal and Anna Collinge. Hope I've correctly spelled all the names. Why is RM clasping a large slab of limestone? Can anyone help answer that connundrum? Was it the Personality of the Year award or some such oddity? That rings a very faint bell. It looks as though the Skeleton is also wearing trousers as I can detect a hand that appears to be holding them up.

Update from Iain: "Yes it was the investiture of the Crickley Hill 'Personality of the Year', with all nominees on stage together. The 'PotY' competition was, I recall an idea of mine probably after one too many Gold Label ciders at the Air Balloon, which was surprisingly taken up enthusiastically by all present. The inspired idea for the actual award being a lump of limestone came from Dave Southwood, I think. What I cannot remember is what on earth was the significance of the piece of paper that 'Training' is holding in his hands and what had brought about Randel Motkin's 'thousand yard stare'. I don't know if this competition was held in subsequent years."
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Friday, August 15, 2008

Adult education class

A question of interpretation and irony. Iain Ferris discusses a possible new stratigraphic paradigm with Robert Roberts on the kitchen doorstep: "This word comes after the last one, so appears to be of more recent date. But if you examine it closely the font of the first word is more ornate (and thus thought, by some, to be likely to be later) than the second word, which might point to the first theory being wrong. It's all too much. Shall we go to the Air Balloon?" Roberts: "Yes"

Update: Dr Ferris replies:


While I think Crickley Hill Man was pretty much 'on the money' in reconstructing the last line of the conversation between me and Robert, the rest of it probably went more like this:

"IF: Don't you think there's something of Darley in all men when we fall in love?

RR: Who?

IF: You know. Darley, the main protagonist in Lawrence Durrell's 'Justine.'

RR: Oh yeah.

IF: We all delude ourselves, we're all naive and blinkered when it comes to the object of our affections.

RR: Oh yeah.

IF: We are all....

RR: Look, are we going down the Air Balloon or not?"

Thursday, August 14, 2008

What did he say?

 


1980.  JP exults having doubtless said something unspeakable, Anna Collinge hangs her head in despair and Frank Green sidles off past the huts....
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

That luxurious accommodation again ...

 


Messrs Dixon Dawson and Southwood one evening at Ullenwood.
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Monday, August 11, 2008

Crickley Hill, The Hillfort Defences 1994



For many years I've been hankering after a copy of "Crickley Hill, The Hillfort Defences" (Philip Dixon & Others, 1994 ISBN: 0-900572-84-1) but have never seen one except upon Dr Phillpotts's bookshelf. I don't think I was paying sufficient attention at the time of publication and the print run was only 600 copies.

The internet is a wonderful place for running such rareties to earth and I am delighted to say that I have finally managed to acquire a copy in excellent condition from Cornell Books in Tewkesbury. So I hope the quality of the referencing on the blog will now improve as I can piece cuttings and years together much more easily having the masterwork to hand.

In case you have been wanting a copy I've just done a quick search on Google and found not one but two more copies for sale: Right now on sale on Ebay or else here: Antiqbook Worse than buses ... you wait for years and then three come along at once!

Anyway, for those of you who want a copy, now's your chance - the Ebay auction has got three days to run and is currently a bargain!

Joanne sends this photo of the 2008 picnic


Iain appears either to be about to declaim (possibly on the subject of Marcus Aurelius) or to dance, while Phil, Terry and JP pay no attention at all and Paul sees what else he's got to eat.
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Sunday, August 10, 2008

The Lardy Cake of Cheltenham recalled ...

Dr Ferris reminisces:

"Crickley Hill man's memories of days off in Cheltenham fail to include obligatory trips to the Oxfam shop looking for what we now must call vintage clothes, though this does get a mention elsewhere on the blog, the bakers in Montpellier for excellent lardy cake and, best of all, hours of browsing in Alan Hancox's secondhand bookshop at the end of the Promenade. I learned recently that Alan Hancox was a very good friend of Colin Wilson and provided the great man with many obscure books on the paranormal to aid his increasingly esoteric research in the 1970s and 1980s. Another day-off staple for those who stayed in town for the evening as well was to go drinking in The Cotswold pub - still there but a shadow of its former self. Incidentally, the Sandwich Box moved location some years ago, and when I went there in 2006 I spoke to a lady who remembered the Crickley diggers fondly."

I will see if I can find my grandmother's recipe for lardy cake, but I expect, given its ingredients, that I'll be committing an offence if I publish it.



1977 - the cutting at the western tip of Crickley

It's the spoil heap that just makes this picture, isn't it? Thinness of the layer of top soil visible in the section edge.

Need help here to identify anyone other than Phil hanging around the photographic tower. Mike Webb was the supervisor on this cutting that year, I'm pretty sure, but he must have been elsewhere when this was taken.
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Saturday, August 9, 2008

BBC SPORT | Olympics | Swimming | Video - Phelps storms to Olympic record



Yes, I know it's not about Crickley, but I have to test some of the new bits of software I've been installing, so my thanks to the BBC for providing the video.

Ullenwood from Googe Earth 17 April 2005

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Where you could have gone to get some peace on your Thursday off, but probably didn't ...



Gloucester Cathedral Cloister at it most serene. Trips into Gloucester were pretty rare, unless you were one of the fortunate few who had access to a car. Buses into Cheltenham from the end of Greenway Lane were the usual choice on Thursdays. Cavendish House, The Sandwich Box, the Beer Tent, the Cinema, Pittville Park

After the 1994 reception in Cheltenham


Almost certainly the cleanest and most decorous clothes in which this cast list has ever been seen on this hill. But what was the purpose of the fetching backdrop of upturned wheelbarrows and discarded cabinets and shelves? Was it a modern art installation? L to R, Julian Parker, Corky Gregory, Paul Noakes, Iain Ferris and Ros Cleal. [Update from Iain: "Do [you] not recall that this photo was taken on the day that tools and equipment were being delivered to the hill for the start of the 1994 season? Moments after the photo was taken two very shady-looking, feral youths appeared and proceeded to carry away some of the equipment; it was only the intervention of Messrs Parker and Ferris that prevented these two crims from making off with the loot. I am surprised you don't remember this fine piece of amateur crime-fighting."]
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Further WWII snippet from Alan Drewett's Gloucestershire Transport website

Despite its distance from the embarkation ports used by Operation Overlord, Gloucestershire played a vital role in the preparations for D-Day on 6 June 1944. As well as the GRCW produced Churchills, Sherman tanks were a common sight around Tewkesbury.

The Royal Army Service Corps moved out of its base at Ashchurch ( only built in 1940 and now a British army vehicle depot once again) in July 1942 to make way for the US 3025th, 3026th and 3043rd Ordnance Units as well as the 622 Unit Ordnance Base Automotive Battalion. Within a year, over 2 000 GIs were stationed there - some being billeted at Tewkesbury's Royal Hop Pole Hotel while others found digs with local families.

More US service personnel took over Mythe House, which had previously been occupied by the Healing Family who owned Borough Mill in Tewkesbury. The fine country house became a military hospital, with wounded soldiers being brought to Ashchurch by train and transferred to Mythe House by ambulance. However, such was the damage that the Americans had inflicted on Mythe House by VE Day that it was too expensive to repair and was finally demolished in 1955.

A similar fate almost befell Cheltenham's Pittville Pump Room, where both interior and exterior embellishments were used for target practice and a large stuffed anaconda from a glass case in the Pump Rooms ended up in Pittville lake. The Queen's Hotel, meanwhile, became the American Officer's Club - and played host to such visiting entertainers as Bob Hope - and Imperial Gardens became a truck park. At Ullenwood, the 110th US General Hospital was built to accommodate 2 000 wounded: with every brick, pane of glass, length of timber and bag of cement being imported across the Atlantic.

However, Cheltenham was by this time even more cosmopolitan than usual with uniformed men from the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand and Australia and many of these visited Cheltenham Services Club in Regent Street. This was founded by local philanthropist Cyril Bird " for the moral welfare of Cheltenham as well as the pleasure and well being of the forces." The club was run jointly by Cheltenham Corporation, church groups, the WVS and YMCA.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Quick guide to all those Cotswold hills

Tewkesbury Borough Council website About Tewkesbury has collated this rather useful guide:

Birdlip Hill
Birdlip Hill is the way the Romans climbed the escarpment from Glevum (Gloucester) on their way to Corinium (Cirencester). Its steep and wooded route now links the Witcombes with Birdlip on the brow of the hill. Just to the north of the road as it makes its final ascent is "The Peak", reached up a bridleway and forming part of the Cotswold Way National Trail. This is a wonderful lofty viewpoint at the apex of the sharp spur dividing the Witcombe valley from Barrow Wake to the north. The wood on the top of the spur, behind the viewpoint stands on an iron age hillfort the boundary bank of which can be seen at the eastern end.

Cleeve Hill
Cleeve Hill's summit, Cleeve Cloud, at 1083 ft (330 metres) is the highest point on the great Jurassic escarpment stretching from Dorset to the North Sea coast. This high point lies at the back of Cleeve Common, important for many reasons including its archaeology, flora, geology and landforms. In terms of recreation it is used by walkers, rock climbers, riders (under licence) and not least by golfers. The common is managed by the Board of Conservators. Interpretation boards have been installed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust in order to explain some of the unique geology of the common. These can be reached from the public car park near the golf club. Most of the common is also identified as a site of special scientific interest because of both its geological and botanical importance.

Chosen Hill
Chosen Hill lies to the north east of Gloucester on the borders of Churchdown and Hucclecote, it is an outlier of the Cotswold escarpment. Used by ancient inhabitants as the site for a hillfort it now provides the site for a number of reservoirs and Churchdown Parish Church, this hilltop site for a mediaeval church is unusual locally.

Coopers Hill
In the Parish of Brockworth, this hill is well known for the ancient annual cheese rolling ceremony in which brave people race down a precipitous slope at the top of the Cotswold escarpment in pursuit of Double Gloucester cheeses. The top of the hill is also part of the Cotswold Commons and Beechwoods Special Area of Conservation, a site of European Nature Conservation Importance.

Crickley Hill
Crickley Hill is the site of one of the many ancient hillforts which crown many of the hills in the local area, this one is unusual for the extensive archaeological excavations carried out here over many years. The site, owned by the National Trust, is managed as a Country Park by the County Council and offers magnificent views across the vale and along the escarpment. In common with some of the other hills it is both scheduled as an ancient monument and is also identified as a site of special scientific interest for its limestone grassland and flora.

Dumbleton Hill, Oxenton Hill and Langley Hill
These are all Cotswold outliers, whilst Nottingham Hill above Gotherington and Woodmancote will eventually become one as the escarpment continues to weather away (a process which will probably take many hundreds of thousands of years).

Lassington Hill
This hill in the south west of the Borough at Highnam, and there are fine views of the Leadon Valley to the north and the Severn Vale to the east from here.

Leckhampton Hill
Close to the southern fringe of Cheltenham the Cotswold Escarpment rises steeply to the remains of old limestone quarries and the ruins of early C20th limekilns. The routes of the tramway inclines can still be followed down into Leckhampton road to the west of the main road up the hill. The tramways were formerly linked to Gloucester Docks by the Cheltenham Gloucester Tramroad in the early - mid C19th. One particularly enigmatic feature on the hill is the Devil's Chimney, a substantial pillar of stone left standing next to one of the upper inclines, nothing is known as to who left it there or why. Part of the hill is scheduled as an ancient monument (an ancient hillfort) and much of it is also identified as a site of special scientific interest for its limestone grassland and flora.

Sandhurst Hill / Norton Hill
These are part of the Triassic geology of the River Severn, their make-up is exposed at Wainlodes Cliff geological site of special scientific interest where the Severn is wearing the hill away.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Cutting B6 porch posthole


Serious posthole on Cutting B6, August 1979, feature number not known by me. Shame no scale in sight, but I do remember this being an exceptionally large one. Must have been hard work hacking through the oolites to make this.
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Robert Roberts shows how it's dug ...


1976 and that was such a ridiculously dry summer. As can be seen in the background, there was almost no green left in the grass as the heatwave scorched it.
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Think this is 1976, but might be 1977 ...



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A cutting uncharacteristically messy when I compare it with most of my photographs,
with, L to R, (?) Max Glaskin, John Parry, Unknown, Mike Gething with the entrance through the ramparts behind them.

"If that's me, and unfortunately it does appear to be so, then I believe it must have been 1977, when tatty shorts were the height of fashion.
Max."

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Cutting AXV Front August 1979


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The rampart and ditch, after much very hard work in 1979, looking very spiffy indeed. The lower photo bears the legend "Period 3(b?) wall and gangbreak" which I have no recollection of ever consciously knowing or inscribing. I do have a very clear memory of the terrible summer gale that blew up towards the end of that season during the Fastnet yacht race. I was blown off the top and into the pit pictured. I was trying to rescue tools and finds before they blew off in the direction of the quarry. We all cowered in the shelter for quite some time.

I remember a sombre mood as many died in that yacht race: this BBC link shows that it was 14 August:
Fastnet tragedy.

Rumblings of crumble and anno domini ...

Joanne Vaughan writes:

"I very much enjoyed this year's picnic on the hill and seeing a number of old faces. I did happen to notice that within about 10 minutes conversation had lapsed into discussion of cholesterol levels (presumably raised significantly by the consumption of Crickley Hill crumbles and Air Balloon pints in bygone days). I also overheard Phil and Terry having a merry conversation about the benefits of their Over 60 Freedom passes. "You can get the length and breadth of the land on local buses" - Terry was heard to say - so be warned."

Jigsaw Puzzle - changes to the site layout

I've made quite a number of changes to the layout and features of the site overnight which I hope are an improvement & haven't made it too busy. In particular, I've gone back and labelled properly all the old posts so you can now browse by person or topic or place. I've also installed a custom search engine at the top which is slightly biassed towards archaeology, pottery and food. To clear the search results, use the back button in your browser. Also if you're interested and want to be kept up to date with new posts, you can now subscribe either via a reader or by email.

Plan of Ullenwood as we knew it ...

With more than a little experimentation I have managed to copy this image from half a page of a pdf on the Cotswold District Council Planning Service website, get it into a word document, convert that to a pdf, convert that to a jpg and finally load it to the blog so that the historic layout of the site can be shown!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Aerial shot of the rampart & entrance

I mentioned the other day (here) that the Courtney Memorial Platform was no longer there: heaven knows who named it that, and I'm delighted to say that Terry is very well. The source of the Memorial element of the name is lost in the mists of the Air Balloon: Platform.

What little is left of Ullenwood now ...

There's almost nothing left now but you can see where the foundations were.
Ullenwood after the demolition

WW II - when Ullenwood was home to 32nd General Hospital, US Army

I remember being told many years ago that Ullenwood had served as a base for a US Army hospital during World War II. 32nd General Hospital Collection, ca.1918-1997, Ruth Lilly Special Collections and Archives, University Library, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 32nd General Hospital reveals part of Ullenwood's history:

"The 32nd General Hospital began when Willis Gatch, dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine, asked Drs. Cyrus J. Clark (son of Edmund Clark of Base Hospital 32) and Charles F. Thompson to organize a hospital unit late in 1941. On 13 May, 1942, 47 doctors and dentists and 72 nurses were formally inducted into the United States Army during a special convocation held on the grounds of the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis.
The unit was officially activated on 15 January, 1943 at Camp Bowie near Brownwood, Texas under the command of Lt. Col. Frank Alexander, a career Army officer. The doctors and dentists from Indianapolis arrived at Camp Bowie on 18 March and were joined by the nurses on 5 May. The enlisted personnel assigned to the unit came from all parts of the United States. Lt. Col. Cyrus Clark was named chief of medical service, Lt. Col. Charles Thompson became chief of surgical service, and 1st Lt. (Later Maj.) Aurelia Willers served as chief nurse.
The outfit trained at Camp Bowie until August, 1943 when it received orders to move to England. The medical officers and enlisted men sailed from New York to Swansea, Wales aboard the S.S. Borinquin. The nurses first sailed from New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the S.S George S. Simmons and then to Scotland aboard the Queen Mary. The unit then reassembled at Fairford, Gloucestshire.
The 32nd General Hospital remained at Fairford from 16 September, 1943 to 9 May, 1944. From 28 September, 1943 to 20 January, 1944, a group of doctors and nurses from the unit, designated as Detachment A, operated a station hospital at Ullenwood, Gloucestershire under the command of Lt. Col. Clark. On 31 January 1944, Lt. Col. Alexander was transfered to the 68th Station Hospital, and Lt. Col. Clark assumed command of the 32nd General Hospital. The unit was stationed at Minchinhampton, Gloucester from 9 May to 27 July, 1944, then shipped out for France.
The 32nd General Hospital was the first Allied general hospital to arrive in France after the D-Day landings. Stationed at La Haye du Puits in Normandy, the unit handled 5,350 patients between 17 August and 22 November, 1944. The 32nd was then placed on inactive status and transferred to Belgium, where it remained until early 1945. During this time, 3 officers and 27 enlisted men of the unit were slightly injured by V-1 and aerial bombings.
The unit became the first U.S. Army general hospital stationed in Germany when it moved into a civilian hospital in Aachen, Germany early in 1945. From 5 March to 30 July, 1945, the hospital treated 41,797 patients. The hospital was closed on 30 July and moved to Mourmelon, France on 12 August, 1945. Most of the personnel then left France at Marseilles aboard the S.S. Marine Angel on 3 October and arrived in New York 12 October, 1945. Other members of the unit sailed from other ports, and some of the officers flew back to the United States. The officers and enlisted men were discharged from the Army at Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, Indiana in late October, 1945 and the 32nd General Hospital was officially deactivated."

Monday, August 4, 2008

Cutting AXV, front, bottom of ditch ...


Ken Dash, behelmeted in the ditch, on the cutting edge, L to R, unknown, Mike Webb, Phil Dixon, Ros Cleal, Paul Noakes and, I think, Anna Collinge.
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Sunday, August 3, 2008

F3351's all cleaned up now ...


Dr Cleal will, I'm sure recall all exact details of this, so I stand to be corrected: this is F3351 completely excavated and cleaned, in, yet again, August 1979. I think this was the refuse pit in which we found, amongst other things, a horse's skull.
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