Dr Ferris's photograph as he has never seen it before

Iain sent me a pair of slides a number of weeks ago and it suddenly occurred to me as I was examining them that they must have been taken only a few seconds apart. The first photograph is of Phil at the top of the photographic tower. The second photograph is of me and two other people, one of whom, on the left, I think I can tentatively identify as Dr Phillpotts, acting as ballast to stabilise the tower and make sure that Phil doesn't come a terrible cropper. The collage function in the Picasa software has enabled me to join together the two originals and represents as one what Iain originally saw. If I was really good I would have spent two hours touching up the join between the two photographs, but sometimes even I lose the will to live on a task like that. I'm guessing from the context that this was cutting N7 or thereabouts. But I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise.

The fence line in 1980

A slide from Dr Ferris's collection of the fence line of cutting N7: the diagonal view across the cuttings ends up, I think at about L9. I can identify some of the diggers: left to right, Dave Southwood, Rowena Dutton, Jim Gale and in the shade under the tree, I think, John Parry.

Ferris, I.M. reflects upon life and flint ...

"Even after two days of intensive regressive hypno-therapy I am unable to confirm that the photograph recently posted on Crickley Hill Man's blog is of Cutting N7. The N and O series of cuttings had quite complex geology/subsoil and there were many gulls cutting across them, as in your photograph, but whether your photo is of one of the cuttings I supervised I cannot say for certain, though I suspect it is. Speaking of the N and O series, I do recall cutting O1 extremely well, on which there was a leaf-shaped arrowhead chipping floor. We made every effort to recover even the tiniest trimming flakes and I remember Corky's determination in the finds hut that no flint debitage, however small, would escape proper washing, drying and marking. Dedication indeed. I wonder if the flint scatters plotted for O1 were ever drawn up ready for publication-perhaps Phil might be able to let us know.

 

The regressive hypno-therapy has, though, got me wondering why my mother locked me in that cupboard for so long, but I don't expect this will be of much interest to Crickley Hill Man and his dedicated readers."

1980: Cutting N7 ...

What happens when the gull fills up with dissolved limestone that then settles. After comparison with a couple of other shots posted a few months ago I'm pretty sure this is cutting N7, in 1980.  Perhaps Dr Ferris, who supervised that cutting can recall?  Or will he throw a well-deserved flowerpot at me for asking absurd questions?

The stakeholes for a fence line CH 1980

The stakeholes for the fence can clearly be seen from these two shots of (top) and from (bottom) Cutting N7 during the 1980 season. I remember a short period whilst the layers were being taken off when it was unclear whether it was human or rabbit works. After a bit you start to form the view that rabbits can't do straight lines of holes in limestone ... F3833 at corner in top photo but there is no sign of me dozing in it.

Crickley 1980 Cutting N7 and F3833

I have vague memories of excavating this feature, F3833 during the 1980 season under, I think Ferris's supervision: recall being gently reprimanded one afternoon having fallen asleep trowel in hand lying half in and half out of the hole. Good shot of the stratigraphy in the top layers...

[Update from my dear supervisor: "Crickley Hill Man, in his younger days, should have been aware that Denis Healey's advice on what to do when you find yourself in a hole was 'to stop digging', not 'to start sleeping.'" It's like being savaged by a dead sheep ...

Iain Ferris contemplates Cuttings O7 and N7 Crickley Hill 1980

No posing here... What does it all mean? [Update: careful scrutiny of page 29 of Dixon 1994, Crickley Hill, The Hillfort Defences which shows the location and number of cuttings leads me to think that I must have mis-labelled the photo as N7 appears right but O7 was never dug.]