How Lara Unger came to Crickley ...

Lara Unger found the advertisement in 'Archaeology' magazine that led her to Crickley together with the prospectus she was sent for the Training Week. The piece in 'Archaeology' read:

"Crickley Hill (year- round, excavations July 6th to 20th August) Villages, fortresses and religious grounds dating from the Neolithic period to the Middle Ages have been discovered at this site. Archaeologists are examining the remains to gain further insight into both the secular and sacred life of the various settlements over time. Nearby attractions include hillforts, barrows and mediaeval towns in the Cotswolds. Getting there: take the train or coach to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and a taxi to the site (about 4 miles); wheelchair accessible. No appointment necessary to visit the site (open daily). Accommodation and restaurants in town. Volunteers accepted. Write for application. Contact Philip Dixon, Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham N97 2RD, England (tel.) 602 515151."

Taking her courage in both hands after reading that mildly confusing flyer, Lara wrote off: Tina Dudley replied, enclosing the Training Programme. Tina's letter is on notepaper with a Crickley Hill Excavations logo in the shape of the postholes of an Iron Age Roundhouse: very good!

"Training Week

The Training week is designed to provide a concentrated period of excavation and post excavation experience, and a general understanding of archaeological methods. The week includes site visits, practical experience in digging, finds processing, planning and post-excavation work, all accompanied by regular lectures and seminars. All members of the training week have the opportunity to take part in all stages of the excavation process during their stay and will be attached to staff members, in order to observe the practices and duties of the digging team, who will provide immediate help and advice. [C-H-M would like to see a cartoon from Mr Andrew Powell depicting training week members attached to staff members who are providing immediate help and advice ...] Those on the Training Week stay in the accommodation of the Crickley Hill Excavation team, and share with the team in their social activities. [Hmm... should this have said: all Training Week members are automatically inducted into the Crickley Hill Formation Drinking Team?] Full information about the excavation and about the site visits will be provided upon arrival at Ullenwood.

Proposed programme

• Sunday 1 August on arrival you will be greeted by the Site Manager who will show you to your accommodation. All Training Week members will then assemble before dinner (7pm), which is followed by an introduction to the staff members and a lecture about the work at Crickley Hill over the past 25 years
• Monday 2 August In the morning we shall visit the site, and have a discussion of the excavation and its results. The visit will include a full site tour and explanations of our archaeological methods. After lunch you will receive your initial practical experience in either digging or finds processing. A member of staff is allocated to provide advice and answer any questions. At 8pm there will be a lecture on excavation methods.
• Tuesday 3 August Coach excursion to local sites of interest. This field trip is aimed at the earlier periods of archaeology. The timetable proposed for this trip is as follows: Leave Ullenwood at 9:00 am to travel to the late Iron Age hillfort at Uleybury Arrive at Neolithic Barrows of Hetty Pegler's Tump and Nympsfield. Minchinhampton earthworks: these probably belong to the late Iron Age Visit to Frocester Court which has something for everybody. The site has been excavated by its owner for over 30 years, and includes a Neolithic settlement, an Iron Age farmstead, a Roman Villa, and an important mediaeval grange, with a massive tithe barn. Visit to Cirencester, capital city of half of Roman Britain, and a well preserved mediaeval and early modern town; we may have a chance to visit the museum dependant upon time Return to Ullenwood for dinner. [Phew - there seems to be an element of time-travel about this day in the programme, but with Lofty at the wheel anything was possible...]
• Wednesday 4 August Half your day will be spent digging on site and half processing finds. This is designed to ensure that all members of Training Week receive good, all-round experience. There will a lecture in the evening on prehistoric settlements.
• Thursday 5 August Coach excursion to sites of interest on the Welsh Border. This field trip is aimed at the later periods of archaeology. Sites we intend to visit include: the 11th- century castle at Chepstow, a 12th century castle and 15th century manor house at Tretower, the rocky hillfort at Castell Dinas and the ruins of Tintern Abbey. Return to Ullenwood for dinner.
• Friday 6 August Planning, surveying and drawing. This will be in the form of practicals and lectures. Evening lecture on Fringe archaeology.
• Saturday 7 August Post excavation work, this includes the use of computers, processing of finds, site reports in the form of practicals and lectures. Evening lecture on publishing archaeological reports.
• Sunday 8 August This is your last day and by now you should have established where your interest lies in the field of archaeology. You have the choice of digging, drawing, finds, computer work or planning.

The cost of the Training Week is £140. This covers all tuition and transport costs as well as accommodation and board. Paces are limited: if you wish to take part a deposit of £40 is payable (cheques made payable to the Crickley Hill Trust and sent to me at Nottingham). The balance is due when you arrive at Ullenwood at the beginning of Training Week. If you have any queries or problems write to me at the Department of Archaeology, Nottingham. Your address during your visit will be Ullenwood Civil Defence Centre, Greenway Lane, Leckhampton, Cheltenham, Glos."

It almost makes me want to apply, especially the field trips ... to which I have now added some links.

A sombre scene of dereliction

The view across Ullenwood towards the big hangar with Lofty's house on the right: it all looks rather sad in this black and white shot from the Cold War project 1999 series by Michael Hesketh Roberts. Thanks as ever to English Heritage National Monument Record for permission to reproduce the photos.

All the way from Illinois: how about a photo of Lofty?

The postman brought Crickley Hill Man a wonderful treat this morning: a letter from Corky Gregory in Illinois containing some splendid Crickley and Ullenwood photographs.

Corky writes: "How about a photo of Lofty? This is quite a bit later when the front of his house was no longer well kept. He never allowed anything on his front lawn so I don't know why there's a cart full of stuff. I don't have a classic photo of him in the blue and white striped pyjamas with open shirt and clogs. You can make out the clogs on his house. Lofty was the first person I met when I arrived. Beth and I were about to start to walk down Greenway Lane (I think we took the bus) when a loud car came rattling up the lane. Lofty rolled down his window and bellowed "Are you diggers?" When we nodded yes he added "You're not supposed to be here until tomorrow!" Before we could respond he got out of his car (all six foot five or more) and he grabbed my suitcase and Beth's huge backpack with giant hands with missing fingers and threw them into his car. "I have not got room for you also". He drove our bags into camp."

What an introduction to Ullenwood life. The photo is rather intriguing: it slightly has the air of a surreptitious long lens "paparazzo" shot: maybe Corky was thinking Lofty would spot her and start hollering and gesticulating as only he could...

Corky easily wins the 'hawk-like powers of observation' prize for spotting the clogs attached to the front of the house: I really had to enlarge the picture to see them. You can't beat a good finds supervisor...

Ullenwood from the air, 1990

Click on the photo to enlarge

I've been saving up this wonderful 1990 shot of Ullenwood Camp from the air which Phil kindly sent me some months ago.  From the angle of the shadows it was taken when he flew over the camp during the early evening, I should think at about 6:30 p.m. ish.   Five weary diggers can be seen trudging back over the fields, one in Greenway Lane and half a dozen in the camp itself, including a couple outside the mess hall and one approaching the Ablutions block.  There's a lone horse and rider in the lane as well, just arriving level with Dorm 3.  Within the camp itself are 21 cars, the Yellow Bus containing the mobile exhibition at the far end of the car park, and a couple of dozen tents in two groups.  The hangar, the bunker, the mess hall, Lofty's house and all the huts and the dormitories show up very well. I'd forgotten that the dormitories all had small roofed porches at the entrances.  A Phillpotts photo of the city of tents, taken during the same season, is here.

Ode to Ullenwood

Dr Phillpotts, in his definitive history of the Below Average White Band, which I posted here, in November, makes reference to the performance of the "Ode to Ullenwood". Dr Ferris remembered John Boden's recitations, in the style of John Cooper Clarke, here.  One such recitation, after a session at the Air Balloon, took place in 1980: the accompaniment to JB consisted of Phillpotts on hosepipe, teapot, kazoo and jug, Ferris on cider jars filled with varying amounts of water to change the pitch of the notes, and Parker on Piano. I seem to remember playing the pianowires, inside the piano itself, with the assistance of some cutlery purloined from the kitchen. Hmm...

I have unearthed the original typed manuscript of the Ode to Ullenwood: it was written one evening at my parents' house in Crouch End in London by Dr Phillpotts, myself and my mother. We were, if I remember through the haze of time, assisted by liberal libations of rough cider made by Westons of Much Marcle. That was my mother's preferred drink: one of my schoolfriends once remarked that my parents's house was the only place he knew where rough cider was treated as a soft drink that you were given if you couldn't think of anything you'd rather have.  My mother had been trained, in her schooldays in the early 1930s, to write verse: she was good at rhyming and very hot on scansion. But I digress. Here then, after a doubtless welcome absence of 28 years, since its one and only public performance, is the Ode to Ullenwood, together with a commentary, not all of which survives.

Ode to Ullenwood Line

Near Ullenwood a hill was found,

A fort with ramparts bless’d:

Courtney’s woeful Leisuredrome

Was built upon its crest. 4

An archaeologist came by,

Of Mediaeval bent,

And all at once he was inspired

His passions there to vent. 8

So Dixon set his crew to dig

With catbasher and pick,

Continuing ten years and more

Since work is scarcely quick 12

The Secretary, a bearded man,

Driving Volkswagen van,

Prepared the camp at Ullenwood

For Dixon’s rabid clan. 16

The end of Greenway Lane once reached,

Is met with Lofty’s glare

But girls may find reserved for them

A leering Parry stare. 20

The dormitories are bare indeed,

But homely all the same –

Straw mattresses which Michael Dash

Flea-powder’d into fame. 24

Are cubicles anathema

And cramping to your style?

Then tents erect and there inspect

Your partner’s winsome smile. 28

Each evening one is forced to queue

To fuel the hungry gut,

With beans and sausage pie and stew

And baps, that fearsome glut. 32

The vile corpse thus satisfied

Can never be too soon

Restored by running down the lane

To reach the Air Balloon 36

At closing time, the camp regained,

The Mummers take the boards

With kettle, hose and dustbin-lid

To tame th’unlovely hordes. 40

Cacophony is shrieked aloft

To make the rafters ring:

Three drunken diggers take the stage

Endeavouring to sing. 44

The Bacchic frenzy lingers on

Till one or two a.m.

Bewildering the new recruits

O! Who the tide will stem? 48

The breakfast eggs the stomach turn,

Reduce strong men to pulp;

The sausages and beans and grease

Resist your every gulp: 52

But soft! the Sound of Lofty’s horn

Summoning all in sight,

To mount the fearsome Magyar’s coach

Worsens your morning plight: 56

The summit reached, the dumper trucks

With clangor fill the air,

And Parry’s morning curse therewith

Chills the brave and fair. 60

But Parry’s curse, put into verse

Immodest here would seem:

The poet now discreet must be

To sully not his theme. 64

Scorn not the Bard whose noble aim

In doggerel is fram’d

The broaching of the tool shed door

By such verse is not shamed. 68

The supervisors name their tools

As Philip tugs his beard

Why blench they all at Bernie’s belch

And why is Courtney feared? 72

The limestone rings to trowel and pick,

The shovels scrape and swing,

The barrows climb the spoil heap side

Their weary loads to fling. 76

Then Corky’s cry – O blessèd sound –

Tea and relief provides,

One cup for each of us, no more,

And biscuits there besides. 80

The work continues then apace,

Till sandwich time arrives

Egg and mustard – mayonnaise –

Th’industrious digger thrives. 84

Another session yet ensues

Till four o’clock – more tea,

But two more weary hours must pass

‘ere diggers can be free. 88

He who would wash must rules obey,

Prevailing in this clime:

He gets the chance on each third day

To scrape away the grime. 92

The ladies’ fate, sad to relate,

Equality foreswears:

Two days in three the showers pour

Cleansing their matted hairs. 96

Despite such strife, the digger’s life

Congenial to few

To us is best, so let the rest

Dear Ullenwood eschew. 100

Commentary and notes on " Ode to Ullenwood"

Title: the poem is addressed to Ullenwood, more specifically to the Civil Defence Centre situated there. (NGR: SO 936 174). It has been the accommodation of numerous volunteer diggers who work on the excavation of Crickley Hill, an Iron Age and Neolithic site situated a few miles from Cheltenham.

The poem consists of 25 four line stanzas and describes many features of life on the excavation and at the camp and several peculiarities thereof.

Line 1: "Ullenwood": cf. note on title.

Line 2: "A fort with ramparts bless’d": the centres of Iron Age and Neolithic occupation are surrounded by an extensive ditch and rampart defensive structure.

Line 3: "Courtney's woeful Leisuredrome" this refers to the decision of the Gloucestershire County Council in the late 1970s to deem the part of the site which belongs to them, and not the National Trust, a "Country Park". To ameliorate the facilities on top of the hill and therefore attract the general public, a public lavatory complex was built at the site. This was a cause of much chagrin to the diggers who, resenting the modernity of the lavatories and furthermore the sudden influx of tourists to distract them from their work, would have preferred to continue to use the "Elsan" chemical toilets which became such a prominent feature of the digging day, in the years from 1969 to 1979 when the toilets were built. Terry Courtney is the assistant director of the excavation, and an unidentified digger name to the lavatory block after him. Suggestions from one of the diggers, Flt Lt David Southwood, RAF, that he should bomb the Leisuredrome has been turned down because of the ensuing havoc, despite the desirability of the programme.

Line 5: “An archaeologist” : a reference to Dr P. W. Dixon, of Nottingham University, the Director of the Excavation.

Line 6: "Of Mediaeval bent": Dr Dixon's preference is for the aforementioned period.

Line 10: "catbasher": a word in vogue at Crickley meaning an entrenching tool, cf. refs to J. Parry Esq.

Line 11: "ten years and more": the excavation has been in progress since the summer of 1969.

Line 12: the site covers 9 ½ acres of which an area in the region of 4 acres has been completely excavated.

Line 13: "the secretary": R.D.A. Savage, lecturer at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, who is an expert on the British Iron Age Mirror series, and also upon Celtic myth. He is the secretary of the excavation, and in the evenings lectures upon these two subjects with great zest as well as on the maintenance of Ullenwood, notably the dangers of blocking the drains with foreign material.

Line 14: "Volkswagen van" Mr Savage possesses an "F" registration Volkswagen bus which has performed over 120,000 miles with a few technical hitches on some of the worst terrain in Great Britain. The van has only been known to collapse after conveying no less than 23 people from site to camp, along the old quarry road; this proved too much for the suspension but little else ever has.

Line 17: "Greenway Lane": the lane which leads from the B4070 to the Civil Defence Centre.

Line 18: "Lofty": the Hungarian caretaker of the camp who is tremendously helpful, but positively frightening if riled or if he suspects that all is not quite what it should be.

Line 20: "a leering Parry stare": you'll soon meet John whose principal occupation is coin dealing, though this is linked with colourful language, and leering at everybody. A fixture at Crickley.

Line 21: the dormitories certainly are bare but the rain is rarely known to penetrate the corrugated iron roof and the accommodation is much superior to that of most sites.

Line 23 to 24: the straw mattresses can be a trifle hard, but during his years of work on the excavation, Michael Dash of Sussex University, has by regular and extensive application of powder ensured that we can all sleep comfortably beds free from bites at the hands of any creatures that may be fool enough to attempt to inhabit the mattresses. The probability of getting respiratory problems because of the powder is, however, accordingly increased.

Line 25 to 28: It is, perhaps, worth noting that camping is available as an alternative to listening to other people snoring in the cubicles.

The rest of the commentary is lost, which is perhaps as well.

Life at Ullenwood 5: doing the chores ...

Every morning four people did not go to site but were kept at camp for the course of the morning to do the chores.  

The chores for a hundred people take a reasonable amount of  effort and were extensive: 

washing up after breakfast;

making the sandwiches for lunch;

vegetable prep for the chefs: ceaseless mountains of potato peelings (Crickley diggers will remember that we had to pay £10 a week for food);

cleaning the mess hall;

sweeping the dormitories;

beating the mattresses which were horribly dusty; 

washing the basins showers and lavatories; and

sweeping the ablutions block. 

It is sobering to think in these days where en suite bathrooms are commonplace, not just in hotels but in private houses, that between more than 100 of us we shared (I think!) 7 basins, 5 lavatories and 2 showers.  

I do recall a two day period, I think in 1979 when the drains blocked a long way down Greenway Lane, the gradient of which is minimal, which mean that occasional obstructions did occur. I assisted in the rodding out of the drain and it took a couple of hundred feet of rods screwed together before we managed to clear the blockage. 

In the meantime, we could not even use the ablutions blocks which lead to me and Flt. Lt. Southwood throwing buckets of cold water straight from the standpipe outside Lofty's house over one another and anyone else who was up for this rather spartan form of washing.  Needs must but I'm not sure I'd be up for such a bracing method these days.

A number of us of both sexes were engaged in this activity when Richard Savage arrived knowing that some parents were about to heave into view delivering, with some hesitation their 17 year old daughter to Ullenwood. For reasons that I can't begin to understand Richard thought that a clutch of naked, semi-naked, wet and muddy diggers might not give quite the impression that we wished to project to the parents: so he bundled about six of into the back of the Landrover and threw a tarpaulin over us while he greeted the 17 year old and her parents and welcomed them to Ullenwood, showed them round and assured them that no harm would come to her.  I don't think they noticed the shaking of the Landrover as a motley pile of wet diggers suppressed their giggles.

Life at Ullenwood 3: breakfast

Excavating a hillfort can be hard physical labour and a good breakfast was essential fuelling for the work that lay ahead.  Some exceptionally peckish (or greedy) people even occasionally went for three courses at breakfast. The menu varied little: the first would be a bowl of cornflakes with milk and sugar.  Then came the cooked second course: sausages, bacon, fried or poached or scrambled eggs, plum tomatoes, baked beans, and, very occasionally, mushrooms.  Any remaining hunger could be assuaged with bread or toast, brown or white, accompanied by marmalade or jam from catering tins. All washed down with tea, coffee, milk or water swigged from ancient mugs, both plastic and china, and duralex glasses. The metal sinks and drainers would ring with plates and cutlery being stacked for later washing up by the chores team.

Thus fortified it was time to get up to site.  The usual method was a lift in Lofty's bus with "Swanbrook Coaches" emblazoned on the side. He'd signal imminent departure by shattering the peace of the morning with a long blast on the horn. This was the cue for last-minute-bolting- down-of-breakfast followed by a mad scramble to get on the coach. 

Sometimes Lofty's horn would be the wake-up call that dragged a few exhausted or hungover diggers from their slumbers and you would see the odd unhappy face contorted with the effort of finishing getting dressed while running for the bus. Experienced practitioners could incorporate a spin through the mess hall swiping a couple of slices of bread and marmalade into the dash for the bus. The less practised went hungry.  

In the early years there were relatively few people who had cars, so anyone who missed Lofty's bus had to throw themselves on the mercy of a car owner or have a half hour walk and be late for site.  PWD used often to take pity on a straggler or two and give them a lift in whichever van or Landrover he had at the time.

Steve Vaughan writes: "Far be it from me to contradict Crickley Hill Man, but this posting fails to bring out the key point of Ullenwood breakfast - it was back-to-front. For those who had not gone to bed unreasonably early, getting-up was delayed to the last possible moment. This meant that, to guarantee cooked breakfast, one joined the queue for that first. Cereal then followed. Fishcakes and baked beans was always my selection.... "

Contradictions abound in this world: surely my memory is at fault - I had overlooked and indeed cannot remember the fishcakes, which is strange as I am rather fond of fishcakes? Perhaps I was better at getting up than Steve as I have no memory of reverse order breakfasts or maybe I put all of mine in one bowl to save washing up?  Ugh... then again maybe not ...

The long grass can rarely have looked more attractive ...

© English Heritage.NMR - thanks again to EH National Monuments Record for this verdant shot of the huts up to the left as you came into Ullenwood camp. From the series taken by Michael Hesketh-Roberts as part of the "Cold War project" in July 1999.  The long grass, inevitably, leads me to recall Richard Savage's periodic impassioned public appeals in the evenings after supper to the female diggers entreating them, at Lofty's behest, not to leave their contraceptive pills in the long grass. Lofty's fear was always alleged to be that the foxes would find the pills and eat them and then there would be no more fox cubs and that would be a sad thing.  Not sure about the science there. 

The hangar and Lofty's house at Ullenwood

© English Heritage.NMR.

I am again indebted to English Heritage National Monuments Record for permission to reproduce photographs of Ullenwood. These were taken in July 1999 by Michael Hesketh-Roberts as part of a survey by RCHME/EH of the defence installations built in Britain between 1946 and 1989. July 1999, "Cold War project". This photo is described as "Accommodation huts at the south-east side of site. This anti-aircraft operations room was subsequently a Sub-Regional Government HQ."

Crickley aficionados would say it shows the hangar, the bunker and the back of Lofty's house which was directly behind the end of the mess or dining hall. According to Wikipedia: "The word hangar comes from a northern French dialect, and means "cattle pen."

JP says there used to be a mortuary trolley that he thinks probably was found in the hangar which was handy for transporting hut components and such-like from winter storage to the flat-bed truck for transport up to site at the beginning of the season.

My memory of the hangar ends with me briefly in casualty at Cheltenham General to be patched up after injuring the top of my left thumb while struggling to open the rusted door to get at the kit we needed.

Life at Ullenwood 2: Dr Ferris writes ...

Like Crickley Hill Man, I thought I would also set down some memories of living at Ullenwood while digging at Crickley. Certainly the camp was very much as remembered by Crickley Hill Man even in the earlier seasons-I first dug at Crickley in either 1971 or 1972. There was also a private house, next to the mess hall and kitchen, lived in by Lofty, the exiled Hungarian coach driver for Swanbrook Coaches and Mrs Lofty his wife, whose real name we never knew. Beyond this was a large tarmacked area known, for obvious reasons, as the football pitch, and to the side of that a few Nissen huts dubbed 'the married quarters'. The most curiously monickered buildings were The Ablutions, the washrooms and toilets, but I cannot recall if there was a sign on the doors designating them this way or if the name originally came from Richard Savage. The mess hall or dining room was the hub of the camp, with book readers and letter writers spilling out of the mess hall to sit on the steps in the better evening weather. Dinner served at 7 o'clock was always somewhat of a stampede, though there were always inevitably seconds available. I cannot recall a season when the food wasn't really good, though those diggers who on a couple of mornings had their breakfasts cooked by John Boden and myself in order to give the hard-pressed cooks a sleep-in may beg to differ. In those pre-mobile phone days Ullenwood was amazingly quiet and restful, generally until after the Air Balloon had shut. There was no TV and record players or cassette decks only tended to be brought out on party nights-on two or three Wednesday nights every season. I do remember though many of us being gripped by certain dramatic news stories listened to on transistor radios whenever we could, these being the fall of Saigon in 1973 and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. After dinner, if we weren't on chores, we would go the Air Balloon or attend one of the evening lectures and then race down to the Air Balloon for last orders. I particularly remember Richard Savage's marvellous lectures on the Irish sagas which had a huge influence on me. Kenneth Jackson's Celtic Miscellany, recommended by Richard, is still a favourite book of mine. Getting back from the Air Balloon could either be by the simple direct route or on some evenings it would involve walking up Crickley Hill and along the scarp through the woods. In the dark this could be quite time-consuming, particularly when we stopped off to sit on top of one of the barrows near the top of Greenway Lane to drink cider take-outs- Gold Label, GL -and tell ghost stories. For a couple of seasons I was a member of the terribly-named Below Average White Band whose regular drink-fuelled late night performances of improvised 'sound sculptures' on 'found' instruments such as an old piano frame, a kettle with a rubber hosepipe attached and some biscuit tins and empty cider bottles gave GBH of the earhole to many more sober diggers back in the mess hall. Other members of the band included Chris Philpotts and John Boden but I cannot remember who else might have performed with this sadly not-missed floating collective of troubadours. Update: definitive history from Dr Phillpotts now posted here. About 20 people "performed" one way and another over the years.