A normal evening at the Air Balloon ...

From Anna Behan's collection, an evening in garden of the 'Air Balloon' in 1978 or thereabouts: Dr Phillpotts, C-H-M beginning his entry for that night's gurning competition, Anna turning away in horror being comforted by Ollie Crick, Ranging Rod & Mike Webb looking on and Mike Taylor watching the unknown photographer. It is surprising that Flt Lt Southwood is not in the frame but perhaps the photographer was he, unless he was getting the next round in. It looks as though the lights of the bar, small as it was in those days, are in the background.

C-H-M has, somewhat unromantically for the time of year, been abed with a gastric bug (- what other kind would a student of cookery get?), which is why postings have been lacking, for which my apologies. Perhaps Bacillus cereus was the culprit or indeed Clostridium perfringens. Each can stalk a curry house ...

The management 1977

During a tea break in summer 1977, L to R: Cameron Moffatt, Terry Courtney, Philip Dixon, Robin Hall, Mike Webb and John Howell. Looks like it was one of the rare chilly days. From Anna Behan's collection.

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.

A curious urban coincidence?

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

C-H-M was out and about with Mr Boden in London a few weeks ago paying a visit to the V&A when he spotted something amusing on a Piccadilly Line train, but forgot about it. Last night C-H-M was hopping about on the Piccadilly line again, as he is wont to do & he spotted it again and this morning has found the item in question on the Transport For London website.

The top photo shows a decorative panel displayed on the trains as part of Transport For London's 'Platform Art'. It shows a scene entitled variously 'Fantasy Piccadilly Line' or 'Above Ground 2050' (in this example). It's a poster designed for TFL by an artist called Nils Norman. Depicted is "a series of unrealised and fantastical buildings and systems alongside other artists’ unrealised proposals for London. The map presents a vision of London as an ecological haven inhabited by Utopian and Dystopian machinery as an alternative to the more typical view of the city dominated by tourist attractions." Yeah, right.

There are fantasy locations with titles such as the 'Ministry of Love Peace and Plenty' and the 'Ministry of Truth'. Or the 'St James's Park and Buckingham Palace Gardens Adventure Playground Chain' or the 'Westminster Bog and Wetland Chain'. Not a monarchist, one suspects, Mr Norman, and perhaps not keen on politicians. But did he ever have a connection to Crickley Hill and Ullenwood? Why else would the lower photo in the enlarged version depict 'Mike Webb's Sin Centre'? It's on a slightly grander scale than a tent at Ullenwood ...



Here's the man himself having a bit of fun with an axe:

Sunday lunch 1979 from the Barter album

Marion Barter obviously had her camera up on the hill at the very same Sunday lunch, probably in August 1979, when I took a number of photographs that have already appeared on the blog.  Here, left to right, Phil Dixon, Terry Courtney, Anna Collinge, Rowena Dutton, Dave Southwood, and Mike Webb.   On the door of the finds hut, various postcards are for sale, together with copies of the booklet "Crickley Hill and Gloucestershire Prehistory".

The Guardian crossword, 1972

A rather crowded shelter in 1972, or thereabouts in this photo from Andrew Powell. He recalls that the object of attention was the Guardian crossword. Amongst others, L to R: Dave Southwood, Mike Webb and John Parry.  It's interesting to see that at this time the trestle tables for serving drinks and lunch were set up in the shelter.  In later years, unless my memory plays me false the tables tended to live outside the shelter, presumably because there were too many diggers to accommodate the tables as well.

That horse's head again ...

Another splendid addition to the team photo collection from Marion Barter, to whom thanks are due.  This shows the horse's head that was found in the baulk of F3351 part way through excavation, just before it was extricated from its resting place.  L to R: Phil Dixon adjusting the camera, Crickley Hill Man (still with some hair to my surprise), Mike Webb, ? and Dave Southwood. The later journey to the finds hut I posted here a few weeks ago. The work in progress on the digging of F3351 is here, here and here. The final cleaned up pit is here.  Now that I see Marion's photo, I have a vague recollection that the skull was poised so much on the edge of the baulk that it was in danger of falling out downwards before it had been photographed. I seem to remember briefly packing some stones against the side of the baulk to stop it collapsing, but I may have invented this.

Jim Irvine's 1979 portrait of Mike Taylor

Having spotted this photo on the blog the other day, Jim has sent me "a front view of the Whale man", in same regalia, with Mike Webb and, I think, Anna Collinge, in the background. 

Happy New Year! Even if it's a trifle chilly ...

Happy New Year to everyone. In London, it's distinctly "wrap-up-well-&-stay-snuggled-with-a-book" weather unless you are one of those hearty types who get a buzz from breaking the ice before going swimming. Which I'm not. Any more. Stood under a Lake District waterfall one New Year's Day - probably 1984 near Buttermere - and it was as startling as you might expect. 

From what I can tell by examining the weather maps of the world, my North American readers may well be shivering as well and the only person who's a regular reader of the blog who's got much of a chance of even some warmth today is probably Jane Lambert (nee Fitt) in Cyprus.  

So to remind us of what a warm day can feel like, here's a 1977 Crickley lunch break view of the Management sheltering from the blazing hot sun.  L to R Toni Webb, Terry Courtney, ? Carole Anderson, Philip Dixon, Robin Hall, ?, ?, Mike Webb in bandana.

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."

Arwel on the stump ...

Another Philpotts 1990 effort. Not sure JAB's audience is listening: L to R: Paul Noakes, Mike Webb, Nick Snashall, Arwel Barrett, Bernie Dawson and Terry Courtney. Not sure why the huts are in the middle of a patch of flowers ...

Another angle on the 1982 rampart cutting ...

Fair old section from the Phillpotts collection: Mike Webb, Steve Vaughan and Ros Cleal keeping a careful eye on what the men are up to and doubtless drawing some aspect of the cutting. Or she may just be doing a mermaid impression ...

The Sunday papers, August 1979

Iain Ferris, with hair an inch or two longer than it is now, reads the Observer magazine: presumably Anna Collinge and Mike Webb are reading another section. Kev Atkins in the background and also Dominique. Blue was the colour and denim was the cloth.

The decorative flowers are particularly fine ...

Another remarkable vignette from PWD: he wonders whether this was 1983 or 1984, Chris Phillpotts thinks it's earlier, probably 1981, and so do Iain Ferris and I after some discussion last night. The colour of the Westbury Homes hut is particularly startling. L to R: Sylvie Pendry, Terry Courtney, Rowena Dutton, Bernie Dawson, Richard Savage with live beagle mask, Steve Vaughan, Ros Cleal, me in the doorway, Chris Phillpotts, Mike Webb, Dave Southwood, Jane Dineen, Graham Byron O'Hare, John Boden (kneeling), Mike Taylor and Corky Gregory. Good effort by a number my correspondents to manage to identify all parties except the beagle which Phil suggests was called Spot! Dr Phillpotts says his beard does not look like his own and appears to have been stuck on. Update: Steve & Joanne say: "Definitely 1981. This is the "Yellow Peril" as it was known, and the step up to the door was actually cemented in to the bedrock. No scheduled monument consent gained in advance, I'll bet."

Laura de la Hoyde writes "This brings back ancient memories for me: I was 3 at the time, I'm Richard Savage's daughter, and over my childhood spent many happy hours hanging round annoying people (many of them in this picture!) at Ullenwood and on site. Happy memories..."

Ah, yes, the Elsans ...

No account of the first ten years of the excavation would be complete without a note on the Elsans. Providing lavatory facilities on top of the Cotswold scarp where you're a mile from running water was always a challenge. It was not until about 1979 or 1980 (update: the latter) that the current building by the car parks that contains the modern lavatories and the display room was built. To get the water up the hill involved laying the pipes and putting in a pumping station halfway up the approach road to boost the water to the top. It took a long time before the Council thought it worthwhile making that doubtless considerable investment.

Before that time, all water had to be transported: one of the chores PWD unfailingly did was the water run. Water was needed for 3 main purposes: drinking, (both cold and in tea or coffee), washing the excavation finds, and washing hands after going to the loo. Bear in mind that the excavation season was the middle of summer and the weather was often hot: more than 100 thirsty diggers, quite a number of whom on any day were engaged in hard physical work, could get through a considerable volume of water. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon several 5 gallon jerrycans would be filled with fresh water at Ullenwood and taken up to site.

The loos themselves consisted of a pair of chemical toilets which were quite basic: cream-painted circular metal drums with a plastic seat attached and an inner metal can with a handle round the rim. These were housed in rectangular 3' x 3' x 7' high tents with poles at all 4 corners and guy ropes. There was always an art to finding a spot on the top of the hill where you could get the pegs far enough into the ground to hold the tents securely. The door flaps were secured by three sets of tapes one could tie in a bow. The loos were primed with Elsan Blue fluid which overpowered the worst of the smell. Good to see they're still in business: Elsan



For several seasons one of my periodic duties was emptying the Elsans. We used to dig, with pick axe and shovels, a large hole: I remember at least once Mike Webb and I digging the pit together: I caught myself on the front of the left shin with the pick axe when it bounced off the rock. Brought tears to the eyes and doubtless the odd oath was uttered! I used particularly to favour that area of the quarries outside the rampart that is now the picnic area. Little do the day trippers know what lies buried under their feet as they enjoy their lunches...

1977 - the cutting at the western tip of Crickley

It's the spoil heap that just makes this picture, isn't it? Thinness of the layer of top soil visible in the section edge.

Need help here to identify anyone other than Phil hanging around the photographic tower. Mike Webb was the supervisor on this cutting that year, I'm pretty sure, but he must have been elsewhere when this was taken.

Cutting AXV, front, bottom of ditch ...

Ken Dash, behelmeted in the ditch, on the cutting edge, L to R, unknown, Mike Webb, Phil Dixon, Ros Cleal, Paul Noakes and, I think, Anna Collinge.