What are these people doing?

Jane Dineen supplied this photo from her 1982 collection with the entirely appropriate question 'What are these people doing?' as the file name. C-H-M can identify Gail Boyle, standing on the left, the Chronicler, Dr Phillpotts kneeling to her right and, I think, Dr Nick Snashall second from the right. The location seems to be the Long Mound. There appears to be an unturfed portion from an earlier season in the foreground with one or two thistles growing out of the limestone. But what are they up to? Is this an impromptu rehearsal for the Below Average White Band? The cast list is not quite who one might expect but there are various shapes that might be (sub-) musical being thrown ...

1982 work scene

Early on during the excavation of the rampart cutting during the 1982 season: this Jane Dineen photo must have been taken on a chilly day as there are plenty of pullovers in evidence. Amongst others, Big Les and Steve Vaughan on the right and Terry Courtney in the foreground.

Catbashing, sorry, lump hammering exhibition

Was it time for that baulk to come down? It looks as though Gail Boyle went at this bit of cat-bashing with such verve that everyone else stopped to watch her demonstration. This 1982 episode was captured for posterity by Dr Phillpotts. L to R: Big Les, Gail, Tony and Rhian Locke. Stop press: Dr Phillpotts advises that Gail is using a lump hammer and not a catbasher to trim the baulk.

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."

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".

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.

The Management thinks it through ...

How far shall we go down next? A huddle on cutting AXVII in 1982 as Big Les, Steve Vaughan, Mike Taylor, Phil Dixon and Terry Courtney chew the fat in this picture by Jane Dineen. They got the answer right, as this photo of Jane's I posted a few days ago shows.

Another cut on AXVII

From the Dineen album in 1982: per Dixon 1994: "the front face of the Period 3b rampart, after removing the tumble and soil, showing the corner of the rebuilt defences, with a short gang length. A gang break is visible ... the collapse of the end of the bank has led to the spreading of the second gang-length southwards."

Pomatias Robertus

Corky Gregory and Andrew Powell think that 1981 or 1982 was the season when Andrew started turning out sketches, accompanied by verses, that were anonymously posted after lunch on the door of the finds hut. Corky lovingly preserved them and brought them to the reunion which means that they can now be made available to a wider audience. Andrew is understandably delighted to be reunited with his fine handiwork after all these years, having almost forgotten that he ever drew them ...

The first in the series is a tribute to Bob Alvey:

"If the tedium of trowelling makes you sob,

For a second consider poor Bob.

For molluscan examples,

He sifts all those samples.

Now that's a monotonous job."

Those who wish to learn more about Pomatias may do so here. Those who wish to admire what a good likeness Andrew made may do so here.

CH 1982 work scene ...

I think I've correctly identified this as being cutting AXVII across the interior taken from the top of the 1982 rampart cutting. Neither Jane Dineen, whose photo this is, nor I managed to recognise anyone even with the aid of a magnifier, so if you can do better and spot who's who, please let me know ...

The Chronicler ties up some loose ends ...

Dr Phillpotts stirs again in his garret and shares the following wisdom:

"The Giant JP originated I believe in the mysterious CH78, with a character called Bill who only dug with us that year. I don't remember much about Bill, except his wet weather gear, which comprised a bin liner tunic, a bin liner skirt, and a sample bag wrapped over his head and clamped into his beard with a large bulldog clip, making him look like a punk battleaxe granny. He did bring us the Giant Parrot joke (What noise does a giant parrot make - SQUAWK!!!). He liked to gather a group of 6 or 8 people and tell this at high volume in the porch of the Air Balloon, in order to provoke the locals. This then developed into the Giant JP, which had a variable text decided by committee.

I was present when the great man, on rising one day, uttered the immortal words: "Sod this for a lark; I've just found a piece of limestone under me foreskin". [I remember this bit. Ed] Not only was this incorporated into the Giant JP, but the piece of limestone afterwards became the trophy in the Personality of the Year contest. [I don't believe you - Ed.]

I was present for quite a lot of CH78, but had no camera. I only acquired my first puny point-and-poke in 1979, and it took very narrow film, hence the soft focus effect of my early shots. I only really learned to take proper photos in about 1984, way behind the Pentax-Brandisher [Mr Boden. Ed]. The person who never returned JB's slides was Sandra the Cook.

An American lady asked about CH78 (might she be Naomi Jackson?) [No, it was Amy Cay. Ed]. From my notes towards a social history of Crickley Hill I can report the following highlights:

JP and I prepared the kitchen at the start of the season by scraping it down with table knives and repainting ('You make very nice!' said Lofty's mother, looking through the window). Ken and Dave were the cooks.

There was a contingent of Phil's students from Nottingham Uni, and an even bigger group from Leicester Uni. There were also some Poles, who were contacts of John Howell. Wonderful section drawings resulted, but labelled in Polish and Russian.

We removed vast quantities of backfill, and took huge soil samples. Baling out the cuttings.
We made a raid on Cheltenham Ladies College summer fête (Penny may remember that one, as she was running a stall). [I'm sure it is engraved on her heart. Janet Douglas will have imperishable memories of it too. Ed.]

Visits to the Golden Heart.

Late night visit from Fachtna McEvoy and P J Pikes, with their customary crate of booze.

Several of us dressed in drag for one of the dinner times, though I recall that Arwel looked more like a French curé in a long dress and straw hat.

Coach trip to Gloucester, Kingscote and Uleybury, with Lofty at the wheel.

John Howell gave a lecture about something.

An excellent dinner at Major Birchall's house.

Attempts to cram lots of people into small spaces (phone box, Mike the Whale's tent etc).

[A passage has been redacted here on the advice of C-H-M's lawyers - it was salacious, if not scurrilous and has no proper place on a family blog of this type. The usual fiver buys the details. Ed.]

Randal Motkin's first visit, I believe. I have missed out some of the lowlights, as it was in some respects a quarrelsome year. You may wish to edit some of the above. [Alas, I had to. Ed]

On Boden's shop steward speeches, I remember one from CH82, when he was exposed to some light drizzle whilst planning (I believe I have it verbatim): 'I don't think we should work in the rain. People don't work properly in the rain, they just piss about. (pause) I take myself as the prime example'.

I think we need Richard Savage to confess to the Great Bap Mountain and the Furry Turkey."

[This last paragraph, I think needs some illumination from the Chronicler: I will interview him on Saturday, if I remember. Ed.]

Er ... yes ...

What can one say? From Corky Gregory's album: was this a headgear competition? Big Les in his "Friends of The Guinness" T-shirt, Paul Noakes sporting an "Archaeologists Do It More Crickley" sweatshirt and in the middle, John Gale, who as Corky says hasn't got a special shirt but makes up for it with the hat. I'm guessing that this is c 1982.

OK, what are they up to?

Jane Dineen sends this odd 1982 offering. As she says, it looks as though the team are trying to find out how many buckets of rocks it takes to fill a site hut. On display Steve Vaughan, Arwel Barrett and John Parry, amongst others.

Does the clue lie in the padlock and the roof being folded back on itself? I think whoever had the padlock keys must have gone AWOL so the troops, ever keen to dig, took the roof off the toolshed and got their kit out through the resulting aperture. The fact that people are wearing pullovers and jackets indicates it's probably early in the day which is another circumstantial detail in favour of my theory. Anyone remember this episode?

A festive air at the tea break in 1982

Presumably the feet in the foreground, festooned in a pair of Dunlop Green Flash plimsolls belong to Dr Phillpotts. Left to right, Nicky, Duncan and Angie: surnames not known. Perhaps it was grockle day.

Under a moody sky ...

Corky Gregory sent me this great shot of Terry Courtney and Richard Savage silhouetted against some very threatening-looking storm clouds. Corky says she thinks she was given this photo by Ros Cleal. I think Terry and Richard might be standing on the rampart cutting in 1979. Is that Barrow Wake in the background? Update: thinking about this again, the angle makes it more likely to have been 1982 ...

The rampart cutting in 1982

Soft focus, or should that be out-of-focus shot from the Phillpotts archive: the rampart cutting in 1982 with, left to right, Mike Taylor, Angie, Phil Dixon, Duncan and Jane Dineen.

Thoughts on hair loss ...

Dr Ferris writes: "Given the number of years that have passed since we were digging at Crickley, it is unfortunate, though perhaps apposite, that Crickley Hill Man is now running an advert on his blog relating to hair loss (just under the recently-posted photo of Phil in 1985). 'Hair loss has a cure' it informs us and, more sternly, 'Regrow your hair NOW'. If only.   However, I seem to recall that Crickley Hill Man has in his archive a photograph of a particularly hirsute young man on the hill operating what I now believe to have been a giant spray applicator containing this miracle liquid hair loss remedy. Its successful use that season may account for the suspiciously lustrous, though obviously tinted, hair of one of our former colleagues at the Crickley reunion a few years ago. If indeed I am correct in thinking you have such a photograph, perhaps Crickley Hill Man could post it on his blog and bring back memories of those happy days when we all needed to own a comb." Your wish is my command, Iain ...  Hands up any Crickley male who still does own a comb?

A rampart taller than a man ...

Fine dramatic shot through the 1982 rampart cutting with John Parry cleaning up on the left, Peggy Poole in the middle and Mike Taylor, helpfully posing as a ranging rod on the right.  Even with his splendidly untamed hair the rampart is still a good few inches taller than he. The JCB backfills behind ...

Planning perspective

A picture of peaceful concentration, all her requirements within arm's reach, oblivious to the presence of the Chronicler and his camera, Ros quietly works up plans of the 1982 cuttings.  Is that a drum of scrumpy behind her?  Sadly it's probably soil samples ...