Dr Ferris writes ...

I enjoyed Crickley Hill Man's recent elegaic posting about his most recent visit to the Hill. I too have experienced similar feelings of tremendous and transcendent well-being when visiting Crickley on a number of occasions in the past few years with parties of students. Can one die from an overdose of nostalgia of this kind or would Crickley Hill Man recommend that I seek professional medical advice? (Seek psychological help, Iain - Ed. But keep on taking the hills)

  

Crickley Hill Man's recent mention of Cold Slad made me recall that when I first came to dig at Crickley I was told that this was the village of Slad featured in Laurie Lee's 'Cider With Rosie'. It was only in 2002 or so that I learned that this was not the case and that Laurie Lee's Slad was in fact close to Stroud, though still in Gloucestershire. I wonder if Crickley Hill Man or any of his dedicated readers have laboured under this same misapprehension? (Like you, I was misled into believing that Cold Slad was the Laurie Lee one - you just disabused me of the notion.)

  

I note in Dave Butler's recent posting on Crickley Hill Man's blog that he had not remembered the names of the three cooks he referred to as having done the dig catering. I recall that 'the Chinese cook' was Aileen (or Eileen), while the 'two Geordie cooks' were Ken and Dave who did the catering two seasons' running.  (Ken Fussell is now in South Africa here)

Dr Phillpotts recalls Tony being the cook in about 1972.