Thursday, December 31, 2009

Crickley New Year Prize Crossword


Posted by Picasa
It's the time of year when newspapers produce their prize crosswords and C-H-M thought the Crickley blog readers, especially those of a strong constitution, might enjoy the crossword set out above.

I'm very grateful to Jane Dineen and Terry Courtney who tested it for me and have proved that it is (very nearly) soluble. They've got 3 clues to go ...

It is vital to have a working knowledge of the wit, wisdom and aphorisms of John Parry but many of those who dug at Crickley will have obtained the necessary familiarity.

Jane kindly points out that a better clue for 3 across would be 'Thy' rather than 'Thine' and also points out that there are 7 letters, not 6, in 12 across.

A prize will be offered at the 2010 reunion for the best solution submitted. Teams are permitted so that Jane & Terry have a chance of winning the prize, which will doubtless be food or drink related ...

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Parry by Griffiths

Posted by Picasa
Griff, whose photo this is, snapped this shot of John Parry "in classic pose" in 1984. Scrattin.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Cattle and hornbeam


Posted by Picasa
Top photo: proof that Belted Galloway also come in dun and white as well as black and white; bottom photo shows the hornbeam that grows on the top of the hill taken looking south towards Barrow Wake and Birdlip. Any readers who are taken with the Belted Galloway breed can acquire their own from the members' pages of the Belted Galloway Society. They thrive on poor pasture.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Just beautiful ...




Posted by Picasa
More views from Crickley yesterday afternoon, together with a couple of shots of the Belted Galloway cattle which are currently adorning the slopes on the approach road. There is clear evidence everywhere on the top of the hill that they have recently been carrying out the duties imposed on them there by the Cotswold wardens: keeping the grass down and preventing the spread of scrubland.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

The Long Mound 27 December 2009

Posted by Picasa
C-H-M's Volvo turned up the Hill of its own accord this afternoon on the way back from a splendid Christmas with friends in Herefordshire. This is the beautiful light and clouds looking along the Long Mound out towards Wales at about a quarter to three this afternoon. It was bitterly cold and windy on top of the Hill but nothing affects the pleasure that view always brings ...

A peaceful pose

Posted by Picasa
A peaceful shot of a meditating Paul Noakes absorbed in observing the lie of the limestone before continuing to draw his plan. I think from the angle of the rampart that this may be the south west corner of cutting AXVII. Barrow Wake in the background behind the dumper truck.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Under the wire

Posted by Picasa
This must be somewhere in Greenway Lane near Ullenwood camp, I think, and shows Sue Bauman (Lee Jeffs), whose photo this is, helping Lucy Loveridge under the barbed wire fence into the lane whilst Corky Gregory and Ros Cleal look on.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Antics on a dumper truck

C-H-M wishes all his readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy & Prosperous New Year and thanks all those who have contributed to the Crickley blog during the course of the year. Send me more photos, please!

The Christmas Special features three pictures of many of the usual suspects taken by Anna Behan (Collinge) during the 1979 season. It was obviously a slow day on the hill as we found time to devise a sketch involving the dumper truck to demonstrate various principles underlying Health and Safety at work.

Picture 1 shows Messrs Courtney and Noakes at the controls of the dumper truck, with Flight Lieutenant Southwood posing at the back. C-H-M is in the bucket of the dumper which is tipping forwards ... there is someone as yet unidentifiable lurking under C-H-M's rear.


Picture 2, taken a few seconds later from further back, reveals that Mark Spivakowski is also with me in the bucket of the dumper truck, which turns out to have a plank propped on the end of the bucket leading to an Iron Age rampart. As you do. On the plank (obviously) are Mr Bernard Dawson pushing a wheelbarrow and behind him Sarah. The person lurking behind C-H-M turns out to be Mike Taylor.


Picture 3 includes John Parry as well as the previously identified miscreants, and isn't posed at all ...


Posted by Picasa

The Health & Safety Executive would be proud of us. I'm glad my mother never saw these photos, I think, but they have a suitably festive feeling about them and we were obviously having a ball. Until Anna produced these photos I had absolutely no recollection of this episode at all ...

Thursday, December 24, 2009

It was a shed for buckets, honestly, ...

Posted by Picasa
Some time during the 1980s, Arwel Barrett looks on as John Gale, Steve Vaughan and Joanne Milroy construct what I was assured by Rebecca Chambers was a hut to keep buckets in, even if it does look like a privy. Well it actually looks as though Steve and John are building it while Joanne watches, sorry, supervises ...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Married quarters ...

Posted by Picasa
Another Mike Sims shot of the huts at Ullenwood in July 2004 as the wrecking took place. These are the huts at the top of the camp on the left that were sometimes allocated as married quarters. This picture could be an allegory for the state of the UK economy. Actually, come to think of it, the huts aren't in that bad a state ...

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Alone they did it ...

Posted by Picasa
On the left, David Whittaker and, on the right, Keith Wilkinson pausing to display the fruits of their labours in this Jill Hummerstone photo from 1987 of which she writes " ... last days on site in 1987: on our own we re-built the Long Mound". That must have been a fair job, at that. Beautifully raked, too by the look of things.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Max Glaskin & the Irvines in 1977

Posted by Picasa
Jim and Kath Irvine pictured here by Becky Spencer (now Sanderson) in 1977 with Max Glaskin as the prime mover in making a hat appear to levitate in thin air above their heads. In the background C-H-M thinks he recognises the purple-adorned door of the lorry that was hired that year from Brockworth for transporting huts and tools between the hill and Ullenwood. Its presence means this picture was taken either right at the beginning, or more likely, I suspect right at the end of the digging season. Update from Max: "More likely the start because I don't think I was there at the end. Mind you, it's easy to forget minutiae after a gap of something like 32 years, 5 months, 11 days and 19 hours."

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Rebecca and Ros

Posted by Picasa
Rebecca Chambers kindly sent this rather charming photo of her talking to Ros Cleal taken by Arwel Barrett in August 1984. For once a picture of Dr Cleal without either a planning frame or board in sight. Bet neither was far away.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Balancing act?

Posted by Picasa
Lucy Loveridge sometime in the 1980s captured by Corky Gregory either moving at speed or scratching the back of her left leg with her right foot or performing a balancing act - who knows? PWD's beloved green van with doors flung wide in the background.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Ullenwood crowd

Posted by Picasa
A group shot outside the mess hall at Ullenwood, belonging to Corky Gregory, taken during the 1981 season. L to R: Rowena Dutton, Terry Courtney, Julie Lancley, Jane Dineen, Julie Fissenden, Corky Gregory and Mike Taylor. "Is that Ros's mini in the background?", asks Corky.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

What on earth was the occasion?


Posted by Picasa
A curious pair of photos from either 1988 or 1989 from the Phillpotts archive. The team seems to have taken a break, or organised a party or decided in Arwel Barrett's case upon a nap in the middle of what is plainly an exhibition about the excavation featuring a hand-shovel and a catbasher pinned to the wall above Penny's head. Also featured are Ros Cleal and Bernie Dawson. Can anyone recall the event?

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A collector's item from 1985

Posted by Picasa
C-H-M thinks that this Phillpotts photograph from 1985 is rare indeed: Mr John Parry, of Ross-on-Wye, quite clearly wearing a tie. We never knew you possessed a tie, John ...

On a separate note C-H-M is relieved to say that he has passed his first term examinations for the diploma at Leiths School of Cookery and Wine. The practical examination was undoubtedly the toughest test C-H-M has ever undertaken including the Cambridge Archaeology Tripos and the attentions of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Essays don't burn irreparably if you stare out of the window and day-dream for 30 seconds but shallots can and do, but didn't, just ... C-H-M is off to celebrate.

Monday, December 14, 2009

No new road at the Air Balloon?

C-H-M notices a bit of a brouhaha about the A417 at the Air Balloon reported here in 'This is Gloucestershire' Some of the comments are reassuringly parochial ...

Update: the pressure group chaired by Mike Cuttell gives up in frustration at the behaviour of the Minister of Transport and the Highways Agency ...

Three cheers for JCB ( the real thing ...)

Dr Ferris writes: "Following on from all this manly posting about earth-moving machines, I don't think Crickley Hill Man is aware of my direct experience of working with JCB the company on an archaeological project in their home village of Rocester in Staffordshire many years ago. Between 1985 and 1987 JCB sponsored a dig on the so-called New Cemetery site there, smack in the corner of a three-phase Roman fort. They bought us a disused Methodist Chapel to act as our base, provided a yearly grant towards costs, of course laid on machines for us with expert drivers from their display team, and sponsored the eventual monograph publication. We got shown around the amazing factory complex there and on a few occasions I met with Sir Anthony Bamford to discuss the project. This all culminated in Sir Anthony getting nominated for, and presented with, an honorary degree from Birmingham University where I worked at the time. I have no Massey Ferguson tales to tell, though."

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Big digger

Posted by Picasa
When you need to shift a lot of spoil fast nothing better than a JCB. Which indeed is the caption on this 1983 photo belonging to Dr Phillpotts. But the Chronicler's evidence must be slightly re-interpreted: JCB is one of those brands which, in the UK at least, has become so well known that the manufacturer's name is used to mean the product itself e.g. Hoover. But just as there are vacuum cleaners other than hoovers, so there are front-hoe loaders that are not made by JCB. This particular effort is a Massey-Ferguson 50HX.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Gloucestershire shifts on its axis

Posted by Picasa
A rather splendid view from the hill at a rollercoaster angle from Lara Unger's 1990 series. Makes one feel as though the ground is moving.

Apologies for the late posting today: C-H-M has been slaving over a hot stove to produce lunch consisting of Parmesan and chive scones with red onion marmalade, Mushroom roulade stuffed with cream cheese & spring onions, Marinaded prawn, mango and spinach salad, Cherry tomatoes stuffed with mint and cream cheese, Avocado rillettes with tarragon and Greek yogurt, Chicken with saffron and lemon, Pumpkin, butternut squash and brown lentil strudel, Quinoa and lime salad, new potatoes baked en papillotte with rosemary and garlic, Lemon meringue pie and Brownies. Serious quantities of yummy leftovers lurk in the fridges ...

Friday, December 11, 2009

Ullenwood deconstructed

Posted by Picasa
C-H-M has a feeling that this building round the back at Ullenwood was used for training Gloucestershire Fire Brigade personnel but has no idea where that suspicion comes from. From Mike Sims's 2004 series as Ullenwood was under the wrecking ball. Update from Dr Phillpotts: "The Fire Brigade thing used to be part of the "Drains" lecture by Richard Savage - closely followed a dire warning to keep away from it and the radio tower."

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Ditch digging in progress

Posted by Picasa
The rampart cutting, AXV, in 1979 at an early stage in the proceedings. Most of the pictures that people took were much later in the season after an enormous amount of very hard and careful excavation had taken place to reveal the walls, gangbreaks and ditch that underlay this mound of largely undifferentiated tumble. Many days of back-breaking work were needed to clear this away. One of the tools of choice, a trusty pickaxe, lies behind Bernard Dawson at the front of the picture. Further up the cutting at the top Mike Taylor can be seen. From the Behan collection.