And the weeds grew tall at Ullenwood

C-H-M can't quite believe it's the end of August already. But here's a summer picture from Mike Sims of nature reclaiming dormitories 1 and 2 at Ullenwood in 2004. Already pretty overgrown.

The 1982 season in a few sentences ...

My thanks as usual to the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society for their permission to reproduce this abstract from their Proceedings about the 1982 season: "Badgeworth/Coberley, Crickley Hill, SO 927161. During the 14th season of excavation at Crickley work concentrated on the extreme southern end of the Iron Age rampart. Here, the final rampart, stepped at the front in our other cuts, had been only partially rebuilt after the first destruction. Behind the rampart a series of structures was uncovered. The final occupation in this area postdated the final abandonment of the fortifications. Dating evidence is still unclear, but includes three abraded sherds of Roman pottery. A Dark Age occupation cannot be ruled out."

Late in the season at Ullenwood

From Fiona Wilkes (Sharpe): "Ullenwood at the end of season 1990 or 1991. I'd stayed to the bitter end and this was the last day or so, I think. Those outside the main building are Sarah Ely, Chaz and Joel." The mess hall looking rather neat after a relatively recent coat of paint both on walls and woodwork. Can anyone remember when that refurbishment happened?

Happy while they work ...

Dave Southwood and Rick Cleal look cheerful enough as they dig down in this photo taken in 1985 by Rebecca Chambers. Hard hats are the concession to a 7' section edge and a 4' high baulk, which would at least have meant their craniums would have been found in tact. That looks like a pick-axe handle resting on the top in front of Dave who's spotted the camerawoman. Rick seems too absorbed in pulling bits of limestone into the bucket in his left hand to have noticed her.

Special delivery

Another fine action shot from Corky Gregory. The grey dumper truck tells me this is from 1980: who knows what led Bob Alvey to induce Kate Gilbert to consent to hop into his wheelbarrow and be carted around in it? He looks from the grip of his right hand as though he is about to try and heave upwards and tip her out onto the ground, but I can't imagine Bob for a minute actually doing that. Kate is plainly enjoying the experience and squealing with glee. Was there a wheelbarrow race in the offing? Update from Corky: "Bob WAS about to dump Kate out of the wheelbarrow. I missed capturing the gleeful grin on his face at the time. Can't remember why though. It was all in fun. He would not have hurt anyone."

Phillpotts and Tea-Cosy

Dr Phillpotts throws a shape and wears a tea-cosy at the same time, poised (or should that be posed?) on the top of the rampart for Anna Collinge pretending to give an exposé of the joys of the Iron Age rampart walls emerging from cutting AXV in the course of the 1979 season. Is that a glimpse of Mark Spivakowski on the right? Barrow Wake lies in the distance.

Soil sampling at Ullenwood

Les Capon took this picture of the team working on the soil samples amidst the tents in 1984. Until I saw this I'd forgotten that there were occasions where the soil sampling, under Frank Green supervision, transferred its sphere of operation to Ullenwood, presumably on the basis that it was somewhat simpler to bring the dirt to the water than the other way round on the top of the hill. Might that be Sue Lee Jeffs in the orange? Not sure. Messrs Dixon and Courtney's holiday homes in the background.

Let's hope things aren't quite what they seem ...

Dr Ferris has been honing his observational powers on the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome: he instantly spotted the insalubrious possibilities of this shot from Anna Collinge (now Behan)'s series: "It doesn't look as though Arwel's wearing any clothes!" observed the shocked Sage of Selly Oak. Too much scrutinising of naked barbarians for his new book, if you ask me.

Anna herself cannot be the photographer of this 'Health & Efficiency' snap as she's on the left with her planning board. And is that Julie-Ann Souter in the background? From 1980. Update from Julie-Ann who writes: "Yup that's me in the background, and I don't remember Arwel not wearing clothes that day, although maybe my brain has just blocked out the memory ..."

The Long Mound 1990

Cuttings V97-98 and W97-98 or thereabouts of the Long Mound are well shown in this 1990 season picture sent by Lara Unger. The two people on the right are Colin and Kristen. The turf lifted from the cutting surface is carefully laid out behind and protected by planking.

Throwing a few shapes ...

From the Hummerstone collection: Les Capon, sporting an utterly splendid pair of yellow trousers, throws some shapes at a 1990 Ullenwood Wednesday night party. Love the scarf.

Angie & Arwel in 1976

A Becky Sanderson photo from 1976 of Angie Springate (now Morris), with Arwel brandishing his camera on the right of the photo. The bare-chested hand on the left belongs to Andrew Powell and sitting cross-legged in the background silhouetted against a wheelbarrow is Rosie who was from Lytham St Annes in Lancashire.

Angie very kindly wrote to me in June just before the reunion and my apologies to her for not having posted her note to me earlier: "I stumbled across your blog a few months ago and tipped off Becky (Spencer as was) about it. I would love to have attended the reunion but as luck would have it, will be in Canterbury on that day attending a university open day with my daughter.

I was thrilled to find myself immortalised in print in the account of the Wheelbarrow Race of 1976. I remember being absolutely terrified as Ian and Robert careered down the hill with Becky and myself clinging on for dear life. I had imagined when I volunteered a fairly sedate trundle but had completely underestimated the rivalry between Robert and Ian and suffered for it! Funny that you mentioned Health and Safety as I think someone (was it you?) took a spill during the race and wheelbarrow races were immediately banned by the 'Management' after that!
I kept in contact with Robert for a while and met up with him and Sarah for a drink later that year when I went to London for the Pompeii exhibition. Becky and I are still in regular contact and met up last year for the first time in 20 years when my son was attending a university interview in her neck of the woods. She hardly seems to have changed at all and I would have known her anywhere. (I really don't think she will thank you for publishing that latest photo however!)

Crickley was my first and only dig, as I did not pursue a career in Archaeology, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and remember all the wonderful people it attracted. I understand that the standard of accommodation and facilities at Ullenwood was actually some of the best and I think that may have been a factor in deciding that an archaeologist's life was not for me! I was also aware that we were very fortunate with the excellent weather that we all enjoyed that particular year (we probably haven't had another summer as good as 1976 since in fact!)

I left Crickley tanned and toned, with biceps like Madonna, despite all the calories consumed both at the camp and every night's indulgence at the Air Balloon!"

Improvisation

Corky Gregory writes, "Makeshift photographic tower. The cutting was a slope. This is 1987 or after because I had an actual nursing job in Plymouth and no longer could do a full season. Believe it or not (and many would not) I was actually digging - entrenching tools, bucketing, returfing etc and had to visit casualty on my return to work because I wrecked a big toe from sliding off the slope. You know Phil, Terry and Kris and I'm so sorry but I don't remember the name of the other man stabilizing the ladder - I blame that on being a weekend archaeologist. Pretty cool shot, though."

'Tis indeed.

And all that was left ...

"And all that was left was the beak and the feathers," read in a mournful tone, was the last line of a children's story that C-H-M remembers from his early years. Not much more survives of this building at Ullenwood shown in one of Mike Sims's 2004 photos. I suspect that this was the establishment second on the left as you entered the camp which Terry Courtney used to stay in. Must have been some party to emerge in this state.

What on earth did they find?

Dr Cleal reels away, in despair, clutching her brow. Was it something Mike Taylor said? Was it something Peggy Poole found? Doubtless the answer is lost in the mists, but the moment was beautifully captured by Corky Gregory on cutting AXVII in 1982.

Time for another Powell sketch ...

Andrew Powell's sketches from 1982, which appeared anonymously on the Finds Hut door, lovingly preserved by Corky Gregory, included this one about Dr Cleal, emitting a "Meep, meep" of mild distress:

"A supervisor named Ros

Had a nervous collapse because

After planning the interior

With planners inferior

She couldn't tell from what wasn't what was".

Doppelgangers of the Month - August

C-H-M recently noticed the striking resemblance between a young Mr Boden and Eric Clapton at a certain stage in the latter's meteoric career. The evidence is below:

-- Boden -- -- Clapton --

Dr Ferris has been musing on a similar theme and sends the following examples: "On the subject of lookalikes, I wonder if any of your readers have noticed the startling physical resemblance between the young Crickley Hill Man and the excellent film actor Philip Seymour Hoffman when he too was in his youth. There perhaps the resemblance ends because I very much doubt, however, that the Method-favouring Hoffman has ever prepared himself for a screen role by emptying dozens of overflowing elsan buckets."

-- Philip Seymour Hoffman -- -- Crickley Hill Man --

But Dr Ferris is not finished. "Again, there is more than a passing resemblance between Crickley Hill Man and famed pop maverick David Johansen of the New York Dolls, wearing a top hat, as photographed most famously by Bob Gruen in the 1970s."

I leave readers to judge for themselves.

-- C-H-M -- -- New York Doll --

Dr Ferris didn't choose this photo of David Johansen for reasons that are inexplicable ...

The dormitories and ablutions

Click on image to enlarge

Ullenwood not quite as you ever saw it: a compilation of five of Mike Sims's photos taken in 2004 to create a panorama of the four dormitories and the ablutions block at Ullenwood: Dorms 4 & 3 on the left, the ablutions in the middle and dorms 1 & 2 on the right. At the very end on the right can just be seen the mess hall and the overflow dormitory.

The Open Weekend 1980?

From the angle of the shadows it looks as though Anna Behan took this photo during the afternoon teabreak during the Open Weekend in 1980. In the foreground, L to R, Philip, Dixon, Julian Parker, Jim Gale, Jane Dineen, Bernie Dawson. In the background I spy Richard Savage's Volkswagen bus of sainted memory, many grockles, a marquee (doubtless erected for a small exhibition and to provide refreshments to said grockles) a camper van with the roof up and the shelter. Behind the marquee is the hornbeam tree, unless I am mistaken.

Outer Neolithic ditch

If you like your ditches Neolithic but not continuous, this one's for you: Andrew Powell, whose photo this is, thought this view of the outer segmented Neolithic ditch was possibly from 1972: Prof Dixon thought it might be 1974 or 1973 and then came down in favour of 1973. Cheltenham dimly in the distance.

Same shot sixteen years apart

These two pictures were taken standing on the same spot with an interval of nearly sixteen years: the top photo was taken by Lara Unger, in August 1993, and the bottom one by C-H-M, in April 2009, standing just to the south of the viewing platform (demolished by 2009), looking south, down the Iron Age rampart, with Barrow Wake on the horizon. Interesting to see the effect of the maintenance by the Cotswold wardens: the erosion of path on the top of the rampart appears to have been arrested and the rampart looks better for the absence of bushes. Lara definitely has more interesting light and finer clouds.

Not for website publication ...

This 1988 or 1989 photo of Jill Hummerstone's bears the caption "Dodgy goings-on in a field: not for website publication": so I've respected her wishes up to a point ...

Arwel goes to Woodstock ...

For some unfathomable reason, Anna Behan wrote "Arwel goes to Woodstock" on the back of this 1979 photo. Grooving away with the scarf-adorned Mr Barrett are Jenny Harris, Marion Barter and Dave Southwood.

Five women and a hut

Another 1982 picture from the Phillpotts archive showing, L to R, Rhian Locke, Gail Boyle, Penny Locke, Nick Snashall and Angie "the Superfinds Person". All looking very happy and cheerful: Nick tells me that Gail these days is Curator of Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology at Bristol Museum. You can hear Gail's interactive tour of Pucklechurch which appears on the BBC website here.

I'd like a nuclear bunker for Christmas, please, daddy ...

This pair of photos by Mike Sims shows the Ullenwood bunker, wrapped up like a Christmas present, when all else at the site was being demolished in the summer of 2004. Presumably the new owner calculated that it would be easier and less expensive to bury the bunker and landscape it than to demolish it, which would have been an astonishingly hard task.

It would also have been a sad end for a Cold War relic, the existence of which the government of the day was not prepared to confirm, as late as 1981, as the following extract from Hansard shows:

"WARTIME HEADQUARTERS

HL Deb 20 October 1981 vol 424 cc744-5WA

744WA

§Lord Jenkins of Putney asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether one of the bunkers at Ullenwood near Cheltenham has become Sub-Region H.Q. No. 72; whether Bolt Head near Salcombe is the seat of Regional Government 7 or Sub-Regional H.Q. No. 71; whether Sub-Regional H.Q. No. 31 at Skendelby, Lincolnshire, is currently manned, and who will occupy this deep bunker in the event of nuclear war.

745WA

§Lord Belstead It is not in the public interest to provide information on current plans for the location of wartime headquarters. They are not staffed in peacetime. In a war emergency each would be manned by representatives of key departments and services under the control of a Minister."