Alan Ford writes:

"Having lately returned to the dwell in the Five Valleys of my youth I am now within a jar of limestone polishes throw from the hill.  As such it has come to my notice through a work colleague and fervent member of the Ermin St Guard that he and his father will be responsible for the setting of a beacon on that hallowed ground in celebration of the Jubilee. I'm not sure exactly where on the hill the beacon will be lit, but my money is on the end of the Long Mound. 

Weather and young lordling permitting I shall attend to watch the good loyal burghers of the district throw a few of the more radicalised local whigs on the fire in honour of our good Queen Bess 

In so doing I will also indulge myself in a bit of experimental archaeology as pretty much every beacon and hillfort on the scarp will have its own conflagration; and i'll warrant a goodly many more locations within that broad vista too. I shall see if I can make out how many and where.  

About the hour of ten and fifteen in the evening on Monday is, I am told, likely to be the time of the  incendiary event for those of you who may also want to enjoy the view."

Splendid.

Splendid photos from Kirsten Jarrett

Kirsten has published a number of sets of interesting photos from her Crickley Hill research on Flickr here. The sets are Iron, Finds drawings, Enclosed post-Roman settlement, Views of Crickley, Unenclosed late- to post-Roman settlement, Hand-made coarseware rim sherd, Hand-made coarseware bases, Hand-made coarseware body sherds, Lid, Short Mound bowl, Romano-British ceramics, Copper alloy. I was particularly interested to see that some of the sherds actually fit together! So do go and have a peek ...

Cattle and hornbeam

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.

The valley looking down from Birdlip

Another postcard, this time postmarked 1933, taken from Birdlip, looking across towards Crickley, before the road was widened and in the days when the lower slopes were not as well covered by the forest as they are now.

The view from Leckhampton

Oddly enough, given more than 30 years visiting a certain hillfort, one of C-H-M's omissions has been a visit to the hillfort next door. So it is a delight to find amongst Lara Unger's 1993 photographs this view "from Leckhampton fort towards our camp (which you can just barely make out in the centre". So that's what it looks like over there ...

Crickley panorama from Birdlip

The view of the hill from Birdlip on the morning of the reunion, again! Dr Ferris and I reckoned that you can't quite see the Long Mound even when you know where it is. But you cannot mistake the rampart.

The morning after the picnic before ...

View of Crickley from Birdlip, taken on the morning of Sunday 5 July 2009, when Lucy Loveridge, Corky Gregory, Paul Noakes and I went for a leisurely post breakfast stroll. All very peaceful.

Dr Ferris is mischievous ...

Here's 'that nice Mr Ferris' (as Julie-Ann Morrison would say) looking as though butter would not melt in his mouth. But he sends me the following mischievous e-mail:

"I wonder if it occurred to you, seeing the displayed friendship quilt on Saturday, that there might be a very fitting way to celebrate and recognise the fantastic romantic exploits of the Crickley diggers over the years by incorporating the information on Dr Phillpotts's flowchart into a textile design, something like Tracey Emin's tent, although you might feel that something the size of a circus big top is more appropriate in this case. Let me know what you think."

Lucy Loveridge, Kate Gilbert, Corky Gregory and Naomi Jackson would certainly have some sewing to do, but it's probably just as well Dr Ferris isn't within clouting distance. Do I correctly divine the views of the expert sewing team?

Perhaps Attic red-figure pottery, c. 520 - 460BC, would be a more appropriate medium? Who were the painters amongst us?

Simple beauty

Dr Ferris and I walked through the beautiful cool beechwood together on Saturday morning after breakfast. We nearly lost hope that we would find a break in the trees to see the view that we knew must be there: a happy chance encounter with a kind woman walking her dog, just as we were about to give up, meant that we could ask the way: "Through this gate and down to the end of the field, there's quite a good view", said she.

And this is what we saw...

The quarry road, Easter 2009

Looking north east down to the quarry road from the northern end of the Iron Age Rampart which runs up to the right of this photo, taken earlier this year. Did Richard Savage really once mash the suspension of the famous VW bus by driving 23 people up here?

Looking West

My thanks to Natural England for the last in Peter Wakely's 1995 series: is this looking down the northern flank of the hill towards the west from quite a distance or have I misread the perspective? 

A Small Celebration - the 400th post!

I am now back at home recovering from the arthroscopic relocation of two parts of my shoulder socket which have been successfully reattached by the amazing orthopaedic surgery team at University College Hospital: a couple of months in a sling and I should be fully  fit and well again. May I just say thank you to all those of you who have sent me good wishes for a speedy recovery?  You have been very kind and I have much appreciated your e-mails.

I thought I would mark my return with yet another beautiful picture from Peter Wakely's 1995 series for Natural England, to whom thanks, as ever, for permission to reproduce on the blog.

This particular post is the 400th since I started the blog last year and I'd like to give my personal thanks to the many of you who have contributed by sending photographs and penning reminiscences.  There's quite a bit in the pipeline which will be posted over the course of the next few weeks in the run-up to the reunion itself.

Meanwhile Google's 'Analytics' software tells me that there have been well over 4000 visits and more than 10,000 page views from 57 countries: what they make of the blog in Norway, Brazil, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia I do not know!  The readership is predominantly from the United Kingdom, America, Canada, Italy and Cyprus.

The Iron Age rampart

A couple more pictures from my Easter Sunday flying visit: above: the top of the Iron Age rampart looking northwards from the southern end and below: the outer ditch of the Iron Age rampart again looking north from the south. 

View of the interior looking west

Another shot taken on Easter Sunday, from the top of the northern side of the entrance through the Iron Age rampart. Parts of the top of the hill are really quite worn which tells you how popular the site is now - both the upper and lower car parks were full.

Looking back towards Crickley from a very long way off

The signboards on the top of Crickley tell you that on a good day you can see as far as Hay-on-Wye and the Black Mountains which are about 50 miles from Crickley: this is the view the other way from the top of Hay Bluff looking south east back towards Gloucestershire.  Can anyone tell me how the grassy humps turn out the way they do in the foreground? I've forgotten all my physical geography and would be intrigued to know?

Crickley Hill on Easter Day 2009

 

 

 

The hill at about half past one today: Crickley Hill Man was utterly unable to resist a brief diversion at lunchtime on his way back to London from Herefordshire.  Top: the view towards Barrow Wake and Birdlip along the line of the crest of the rampart, taken from the point where the fence-line divides the National Trust land from the County Council land. Middle: with the eastern end of the Long Mound at my feet, looking back towards the Iron Age entrance with the Neolithic bank in the foreground. Bottom: looking down the line of the Neolithic bank across towards Barrow Wake and Birdlip.  One could only see fifteen miles or so with any clarity today as there was quite a bit of mist and rain haze about.  Bracing breeze on the top but a few hardy souls were having a picnic. 

Panorama

Kate Dumycz kindly sent me this rather good black and white postcard of Crickley. "The dealer's mark of 10p is on each postcard - oh the joys of pre-eBay postcard collecting and good old fashioned rummaging around dealers' drawers!", she says: the card is postmarked 1927.