And Merry Christmas too from Squadron Leader Wingham

This is, alas, the last shot I have of Crickley taken by Harold Wingham and thanks to English Heritage National Monuments Record for the permission to reproduce it on the blog.  You can find the others by clicking on the "Wingham Collection" label either on the left hand side of the blog or at the bottom of this post. Ditches, ramparts, causewayed enclosures, quarry pits, ramparts and the Long Mound, all beautifully visible.

I must hop off and bake some bread and make a raspberry, blueberry and mango clafoutis to take to the friends I'm going to later for lunch (just in case the Christmas pudding isn't enough, and anyone's still feeling peckish you understand!).  While I'm slaving over the ovens, there's a rather natty feature in the Blogger software that lets you write a post and then schedule its release at a given time, so I've prepared a few Christmas treats which will automatically post themselves on the blog during the course of the day.  A very Merry Christmas to all my readers. 

Another great aerial shot from Sqn Ldr Wingham ...

© English Heritage.NMR: from the south looking north: fine delineation of just about everything: Iron Age rampart, Neolithic causewayed enclosure, the Long Mound, later quarries and the steep quarry cliffs on the south side. Angle of sun from west makes this a near perfect shot for showing all the hill's best features. My thanks, as ever, to English Heritage National Monuments Record for permission to reproduce photos from the Wingham collection.

3rd Sqn Ldr Wingham view shot from the west ...

© English Heritage.NMR (Wingham Collection) . This perspective, from a greater height, shows Iron Age rampart, Neolithic bank, the quarry pits and, just visible, running from below the quarry pits right in the middle of the picture, the trace of the Long Mound. Update 2 November 2008: now that I have a copy of "Crickley Hill and Gloucestershire Prehistory", which has this as its cover photo, I see from the credit there, that this photo was taken at 9 p.m. on 17 May 1959.

Marvellous light from the North as we look from the South ...

© English Heritage.NMR. Wingham Collection: Sqdn. Ldr. Harold Wingham had a very steady hand on the shutter and a fine camera: the definition is remarkable. The Long Mound is clear, running, on the left side of the photo, to the west, from the quarry pits (slightly below and to the left of the centre of the photograph), just above, and not quite parallel to, the line of the drystone wall. (Try punctuating that sentence, at this time of night, after three glasses of vino). The Neolithic bank runs north east, from the junction of the quarry pits and the Long Mound; the Iron Age rampart shows up quite beautifully on the right, in an arc from south to north, or vice versa, depending upon the direction from which you begin. This is the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put.  Churchill fans, please click on the link.

A different aerial perspective...

 

© English Heritage.NMR (Wingham Collection) Harold Wingham's fine views continue: this time from the south looking north. The Iron Age rampart and the quarries are easier to see than the Neolithic bank.

Sqn Ldr Wingham does another flypast ...

© English Heritage.NMR (Wingham Collection). Again approaching from the west, the quarry pits on the National Trust side show up exceptionally well as do the footpaths inside the Iron Age rampart on the left hand side of the picture. Photograph from between 1951 and 1963. Interesting to compare this shot with the one posted yesterday Wingham Collection No 1 : in the first shot you can scarcely see the quarry pits but you can see the Long Mound and in this shot it's the other way about which just shows how much difference angle of approach and light make for aerial photographs.

Crickley Hill before the digging started

© English Heritage.NMR (Wingham Collection)

English Heritage have very kindly granted me permission to reproduce the above image of Crickley from the air taken by Harold Wingham who "served in the RAF and was an important practitioner of aerial photography for archaeology. The collection of 2,000 negatives covers the South-West of England for the period 1951-63." There are many beautiful photographs in the collection which can be searched here: NMR Viewfinder

The Iron Age rampart and the Neolithic bank and the Long Mound all show up beautifully. I cannot see any sign of the fence that now separates the National Trust land from the County Council land so that must have been erected later.