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 ...

A fine ewer & a catch-up on earlier posts ...

Dr Ferris sends me an e-mail entitled 'Cool Hand Luke' and seems mildly dissatisfied with my 'Catering tip of the week': "Having now tried out Crickley Hill Man's tip for pre-cooking poached eggs, I can verify that it works a treat. However, I would not recommend any of his readers to eat 34 reheated poached eggs in one sitting as I just did. I now know how Cool Hand Luke felt. Maybe the next catering tip could be geared towards the domestic kitchen rather than the restaurant kitchen. Hopefully I'll be well enough by then to give it a try."

C-H-M needed some extra kitchen equipment in order to make sure that he can test whether or not his catering tips work so this afternoon involved a trip to Divertimenti in Brompton Road. Whilst engaged on that mission, C-H-M found a moment to nip into the V&A and found this rather engaging 18th century Mughal dark green nephrite jade ewer with enamelled gold poppies. Stylish way to add liquids to brews on the stove, I feel.

Arwel Barrett writes: "Perhaps you could provide hotel chefs with a tip on how to scramble eggs? I have had rock hard lumps, granulated sitting in a thin whey or barely coagulated looking more like congealed phlegm." Thank you Arwel: when I've recovered from your description I'll post a note on how to scramble eggs ...

Max Glaskin observes of this post:

"Your memory for jokes is clearly phenomenal. Wibble I remember clearly although I have no recollection of one you have attributed to me about Moshe Dayan and a parrot and I'm not at all certain that I want to be reminded. [It's a very funny joke indeed, Max, but ultimately visual, which means it will have to wait until I see you. My skills do not extend to telling the joke on a webcam and posting on You Tube. Ed]

BTW, that formal dinner in 1977 was, I believe, a meeting of the heads of state who were engaged in a game of Diplomacy which was being held over several evenings. It led to all kinds of subterfuge and mistrust.

There was a boy who offered to spy on my rivals' plans for me, in return for Mars Bars. Bars and information were duly exchanged but, after I started losing territories unexpectedly, I learned that the boy had subsequently been "turned" by one of the other players who had access to a more toothsome selection of confectionery.

Jane (aka Wibble) may have come from the Wirral originally but I believe that her parents ran 'The Happy Return' in Chard."

Dr Phillpotts writes:

"Dear Chef Jules,

I hope you are enjoying your return to student life. In regard to a couple of recent posts of my photographs on the Crickley blog, Joe Stone's tool, on which Ros is laying a gently restraining hand, is actually an axe. She was trying to dissuade him from cutting down a tree in the middle of her cutting. The tree was removed later by Joe and Mike Webb; I think the picture of this has already appeared. If you look closely at the picture of Gail, you will see that she is wielding not a catbasher but a lump hammer; being a determined young woman she selected this to trim back the plates of limestone projecting from the baulk.

I saw Dr Dixon a few days ago at a conference on Dover Castle at which we were both speaking. He seemed on good form, although very busy with work projects, as am I.

Now get down in the kitchen and start rattling them pots and pans."

Further observations from J Arwel Barrett MD (Master of the Dosimeter):

"With the datum string and tape set up over the top, this looks as if Julie is following the "dig a bit and draw it" school of posthole excavation."

And:

"Is that Paul Noakes on his knees in the background of the top picture?"

And lastly:

"On coincidences ... I was trying to deliver a Christmas present (probably in 2004) to a friend in London who worked for a legal Headhunter but she had the day off. She arranged that I should deliver it to her boss at the office, one Cleo. I met her and handed over the present when she asked if I was the Arwel Barrett who had been at Crickley Hill in the mid-80s! She had dug with Dave Hollos on the Long Mound for a couple of seasons while a student. After my (boring!) meeting with the electricity industry I had lunch in a pub with them all and was recounting what a small world it was to a couple of the chaps. One, a Nick Trowell who worked for DTI at the time, remarked that it was indeed a small world as he had also dug at CH on Terry's Iron Age rampart cutting down in the National Trust part. Twice in one day."

That's enough coincidences. Ed.

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.

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.

Stop standing about and do some digging!

Scene from CH 1980 L to R: Jo Stone, Gail Boyle, Julie Gale, John Boden and Ros Cleal. Actually my headline is probably unfair: it looks as though JB is the shop steward making the speech calling on the comrades to withdraw their labour but they may just have been waiting for photographs of the cutting to be taken.

Personality of the Year 1982

The companion photo to last week's Mr Crickley shows Cecile at her moment of accolade as 'Personality of the Year' in 1982. Looking on, L to R, Carole Anderson, Dan Johnson, John Parry, Rhian Locke, Richard Savage, Cecile, Gail Boyle, Mike Taylor as compere, ?, Ambrosio, ?, and Angie.

Mr Crickley 1982 ...

Richard Savage looks on bemused as Steve Vaughan presents Ambrosio with the inscribed limestone slab for 'Mr Crickley' 1982. Dr Ferris, I know, is rather startled to discover that the competition and vote was ever held again after the first time he suggested it (after a few too many slurps of GL cider and one ghost story too many on the barrow). L to R: Richard Savage, Rhian Locke, Ros Cleal, Cecile, Gail Boyle, Ambrosio, ?, Mike Taylor, Steve Vaughan, ?, Angie, Chris Phillpotts. Now what were the holes in the ceiling above the stage?

Axe no good? Let's push the tree over ...

And here's what happened next. Plainly the exertions of Mike Webb and Jo Stone caught everyone else's attention and they all stopped to watch. L to R Ken Collier, Bernie Dawson, Ros Cleal, Graham O'Hare, Gail Boyle, Mike, Jo, Marcia.

The power of a brand can be seen in this photo: even at a range of 40' and 27 years you can tell at a glance the Ros is wearing Hunter wellies, so distinctive are the green colour and the white tags on the front. I suspect she wouldn't have let us use them for welly wanging. Not entirely certain that Mike's footwear looks very suitable for tree-pushing, but it's hard to be sure.

The axeman cometh ...

A little light wood-cutting on Ros Cleal's cutting in 1981. L to R Ken Collier, Graham O'Hare, Gail Boyle, Gill, Bernie Dawson, Mike Webb wielding the axe, Marcia, Tarka, and Jo Stone holding the saw. There's nothing quite as satisfying as a good blow with an axe, eh, Mike?

To which Dr Ferris rejoins "I was surprised to see that Crickley Hill Man, probably somehow in error, had posted on his blog a publicity photo from the last series of 'I'm Not a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here', in the form of a photo capturing the almost-unforgettable moment in which ex-Boy Band member Mikey cut down a youthful eucalyptus tree in order to provide fuel to cook the kangaroo's penis that he had volunteered to eat in order to avoid this indignity falling upon Germaine Greer or one of the other desperate media figures ensconced in the jungle encampment. Following this act of ostentatious self-sacrifice, Mikey and his band 'The Oldest Swingers' re-entered the pop charts at No. 136 with their best-known song 'What You See Is What You Get', something that Crickley Hill Man might not have been aware of."

Possible wall, top of the bank, CH 1981 ...

Armed as I am with Dr Phillpotts's captions, I know to whom these fine legs belong: L to R Joe Stone, Gail Boyle, Julie Fissenden, John Boden and Ros Cleal. It would have been grossly unfair to set the identification of the legs as a blog competition, so I restrained myself...

Guess what was going on here ...

Can anyone help with what Dr Phillpotts is about here: rapt attention all round? I only know because of the caption that accompanied his archive when he sent it to me. This is during a 1982 party... L to R: Alex West, Mike Adams, Duncan, Gail Boyle, Dave, Ambrosio, Rhian Locke, Franklin, John Gale, Jane the Scot and the Chronicler himself presiding. Update: Steve Vaughan writes: "It's the wedding. Rhian is being joined in unholy matrimony with the hapless youth on her right by the hanging judge himself. John Gale acting as best man, I think. 1982?." Correct on all counts Steve, and amusingly different from your beloved's answer which was as follows: I think Phillpotts may have been presiding over the annual Awards - certainly Ambrosio was voted 'Personality of the Year' one season, and I think I have a hazy memory of this party. Was John Gale ever 'Mr Crickley' - I don't remember. In fact the biggest surprise of this picture is I don't ever recall Mr Gale being that darned handsome in a Village People meets Errol Flynn sort of way. On Mr Crickley - for some reason we still have one of the limestone Mr Crickley plaques in our hallway. Last time we moved - the removal man picked it up and said "Who's Mr Crickley then .... a dog?"

Gloucestershire & Avon Life July 1983

The Phillpotts archive is full of jewels: Terry Courtney, three in from the left in mid-picture, with a catbasher dangling from his right hand: anyone recognise anyone else? At least two non-standard issue buckets front left: there were a few green ones but I think the yellow one is a plant ...

"Gloucestershire & Avon Life" began, according to the Cheltenham Reference Library catalogue, as "Gloucestershire Countryside" and was published between 1931 and 1967. Thereafter, under the new title it appeared between 1967 and July 1993 after which I can find no trace.

Jim Irvine helps out: "The old eyes aren't too good these days but may I postulate? Thank you! How about Mr Noakes at the top right with what looks like beard and dark glasses. Also just below him in what appears to be a red cap with white wings may be Peggy Poole - who later became Mrs Mike the Whale. Even less certain, if that is possible, what about Les Capon in blue rainwear on top of the bank directly above Terry? And even lesser certainer - Mike Sims next to Terry? I believe he still has and uses that jumper."

You're spot on about Paul Noakes. Well done for seeing through the disguise: the toolbelt is the clincher. I've compared this with the Phillpotts 1982 series and now suggest that the two women in white safety helmets at the bottom of the picture are Gail Boyle and Rhian Locke but I don't know their surnames.