Can anyone help Charles Lindsay, please?

Charles Lindsay writes "crickley hill man, a 2009 reunion! over 3,000 volunteers - that sounds like some big big party! afraid i dont have any photos to share but i'm interested in trying to track down something related, any clue would be much appreciated...  i worked for 9 months at the gloscat base (gloucester rd?) as archaeological illustrator for crickley hill archaeological trust, from approx sept '85 - july '86. we used to trace the 1 metre square initial excavation drawings, maintaining the 1/10 scale; onto A1 size sheets.. and also i spent many an hour rendering flint arrowheads & broken pieces of pottery in fine stipple work, to exact scale & in three views; face on, 45 degree angle, and from above. i have always wondered why the finds were not simply photographed, but really enjoyed the work anyway. anyway, the main purpose of this correspondence is that there was an open day, around april/may i guess, for which i designed the poster, but also, pretty much against my will, ended up being photographed for a local cheltenham newspaper that was publicising the event, hunched up over my drawing board, and possibly hungover! i did have a copy, which i lost at some point. these days i am an artist living in manchester, but any advice or suggestions you may have regarding the feasibility of me locating a duplicate archive copy of my only appearance in the cheltenham press... much appreciated ... not sure i'll make the reunion, but a big shout out to ken, sam, miles & all the class of '86. 
warm wishes, sincerely yours.. charles lindsay."

Anyone got a copy of the poster?

It was a double-bowl sink after all ...

I speculated the other day here, that the sink at Ullenwood might not even have had two bowls.  Amanda Jones rides to the rescue to settle the point once and for all with this excellent photo of "Jill Hummerstone in CH93 doing a bit of a 'tap' dance as you can see", which reveals that my fear was needless - there were, after all, two bowls.  I don't imagine that the photographer's primary purpose was to capture the sink, but the resolution of my query is a happy by-product.  Hope Jill's still got those trousers and above all, the bootlaces!

Thoughts on hair loss ...

Dr Ferris writes: "Given the number of years that have passed since we were digging at Crickley, it is unfortunate, though perhaps apposite, that Crickley Hill Man is now running an advert on his blog relating to hair loss (just under the recently-posted photo of Phil in 1985). 'Hair loss has a cure' it informs us and, more sternly, 'Regrow your hair NOW'. If only.   However, I seem to recall that Crickley Hill Man has in his archive a photograph of a particularly hirsute young man on the hill operating what I now believe to have been a giant spray applicator containing this miracle liquid hair loss remedy. Its successful use that season may account for the suspiciously lustrous, though obviously tinted, hair of one of our former colleagues at the Crickley reunion a few years ago. If indeed I am correct in thinking you have such a photograph, perhaps Crickley Hill Man could post it on his blog and bring back memories of those happy days when we all needed to own a comb." Your wish is my command, Iain ...  Hands up any Crickley male who still does own a comb?

Lunch break portrait 1981

Those summers really were sun-drenched as Dr Ferris was musing the other day. Here in 1981 relaxing during the teabreak (see correction below), Jane Dineen and Richard Savage. I rather think purple flip-flops may not have been easy to come by in those days. Perhaps Jane can advise ... Update: Fiona Wilkes rightly points out that I've missed the clue from the bread trays that ought to have told me that this must have been a lunch break not a tea break...

What on earth is going on?

I am at a loss to find a reasonable explanation for this picture which Dr Phillpotts has simply labelled "Julian v Matthew Garner 1979".  I have no recollection of the contest. I seem to be armed with an empty dumper truck and Marion Barter's sunglasses. Matthew appears to be armed with one 2 metre ranging rod ready to throw and one in reserve stuck in the ground. A member of the public looks on, doubtless as bemused thirty years ago as I am now ...

A rampart taller than a man ...

Fine dramatic shot through the 1982 rampart cutting with John Parry cleaning up on the left, Peggy Poole in the middle and Mike Taylor, helpfully posing as a ranging rod on the right.  Even with his splendidly untamed hair the rampart is still a good few inches taller than he. The JCB backfills behind ...

Directing Crickley Hill during the 1985 season ...

Professor Dixon, untroubled by the cares of office, strides purposefully towards Dr Phillpotts's all-seeing lens in 1985. For some impenetrable reason, the Chronicler has given this picture the caption "PWD returns from the peeing tree". 

Framed by the fence ...

I thought we'd start the week with this shot from the Phillpotts archive of Sarah Roberts posing somewhat tentatively (is it the sun in her eyes?) with the cutting that she supervised in 1979 which abutted that of Ros Cleal to the left (east) and Marion Barter to the right (west) if Crickley Hill Man's memory does not mislead him.  Crickley Hill Man is wondering what he has been getting wrong for so long as his pension is unlikely to match Sir Fred Goodwin's.  In fact I don't suppose the pensions of most of those who dug at Crickley laid end to end would match it...

A beautiful view of the rampart in 1979

I finally got around to taking some slides that Iain Ferris lent me into a photoshop to have them turned into digital images.  I think the detail and the colours in this shot of the rampart cutting in 1979, AXV, are remarkable and show up a lot better than some of the other photos of the same cutting which I have posted.  Who would think that limestone and soil could have so many different shades?

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.

Planning from 1985

Fine example of a plan, perhaps one drawn by Dr Phillpotts himself, from his 1985 collection.  Features include "excavated trench" and "gully" as well as F5897, F6803, F6804, F6805, and F6869 and one or two others that can't be read even on large magnification.  The rest of the 1985 Phillpotts collection leads me to suspect that this is probably part of Julian Thompson's 'Slot City' cutting.

Ullenwood: the kitchen sink

How many cereal bowls, soup bowls, plates, mugs, knives forks and spoons did we all wash up in that sink over the years? And one can't quite see from this Michael Hesketh Roberts 1999 English Heritage NMR Cold War Project photo, but I rather think it may not even have been a double-bowl sink.  Looks as though a batch of pea soup has ended up on the floor ...

Planning perspective

A picture of peaceful concentration, all her requirements within arm's reach, oblivious to the presence of the Chronicler and his camera, Ros quietly works up plans of the 1982 cuttings.  Is that a drum of scrumpy behind her?  Sadly it's probably soil samples ...

Have Crickley Hill Man's early morning habits been rumbled?

Hula Hoop Woman writes: "Am I alone among the Crickley Hill Reunion blog readers to be concerned about Crickley Hill Man's nocturnal, or more exactly, early morning habits?  CHM's average time of posting appears to be around 6.20am in the morning.  On Saturday, 7th February he brought us news of 'CH85, high level conference' ( a picture of John and Julie Gale, with Julian Thomas on the tower)  at the improbable time of 6.03am. On Sunday, 8th February he appeared to have a bit of a lie in, and the post appeared at 6.32am, but back on Monday, February 9th he was back on the treadmill with a 6.20am blog.  Does Crickley Hill Man leap out of bed at the crack of dawn and dash off a blog while in his pyjamas?  Or does he luxuriate with his laptop in bed? Or perhaps he leads such a glamorous and late night life in Parson's Green that 6.03am in the morning is, in fact, for CHM still the evening before.  A nation needs to know."

CHM replies: alas I am undone! I was wondering how long it would take my readers to spot my apparently astonishing ability to blog at absurdly early hours, first thing in the morning.  Some answers to Joanne's questions: 

I am not an insomniac.  In fact I'm still seriously good at snoozing.

I have a desktop not a laptop, and no 3G card, so I cannot prop myself on the pillows and tap away. 

There are no pyjamas. 

I did stay up all night with some friends the other week for the first time since 1987, after a dinner party I was giving got a little out of hand, and it nearly finished me off.  Also at that point the narrative would have been none too coherent: trust me.

The truth is that I am usually either asleep or in the bath at the moment of posting.  

How is this miracle achieved? I'm going to have to fess up, I fear: the clever people at Google who developed the Blogger software (courtesy of which the blog appears) have cunningly included amongst the posting options the facility for inputting a publication date and time in the future.  So I quite often put together a set of posts for the blog and then set their release dates for the forthcoming week or fortnight and usually for an early hour ... which is why I'm more than likely getting my beauty sleep as this slips out to an unsuspecting world at 22 minutes past 4.  Morning, all. 

The Bandstand in Montpelier Gardens

I suspect from the style that this postcard of the bandstand in Montpelier Gardens in Cheltenham may be not far off 100 years old. Look at the long skirts of the women to the left. Notice also the archery targets.  Practising for Agincourt the remake ... But the gardens still have the same feel to them now and did when we were digging.  Long lazy Thursdays to contrast with all the hard work the rest of the week.

Personality of the Year 1982

The companion photo to last week's Mr Crickley shows Cecile at her moment of accolade as 'Personality of the Year' in 1982. Looking on, L to R, Carole Anderson, Dan Johnson, John Parry, Rhian Locke, Richard Savage, Cecile, Gail Boyle, Mike Taylor as compere, ?, Ambrosio, ?, and Angie.

The 1983 to 1985 entry in the Transactions of BGAS

Thank you to the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society for permission to reproduce extracts from their Transactions.  Here is Richard Savage reporting on three seasons at once. 

"Badgeworth/Coberley, Crickley Hill, Excavations 1983-1985. Work, directed by Dr P.W. Dixon, was concentrated on the western end of the Long Mound, where it was possible tod efine in the neolithic:(phase 1a) three small subcircular buildings without traces of occupation; (phase 1b) the causewayed enclosure, with two successive entrances here, a fenced pathway running in from the second and postholes which may represent buildings; (phase 1d) within new defences, probably of the mid-third millenium BC a platform built of rubble, fenced and approached from the east through a gate. It seems to have had a ritual purpose and to have been destroyed at the time of the attack on the settlement.  In phase 1e a kerb circle was built on the same spot, also having a ritual purpose, perhaps in the second millenium.  In the post-Roman period, phase 4, the area was strongly defended, with buildings perhaps related to those found in 1982 at the south-eastern end of the site."

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. 

Beautiful view of Crickley

Another fine prospect from Peter Wakley's 1995 series for Natural England: this time Crickley from, I would imagine, Birdlip.  

Savage 1988, 4: The First Farmers

My thanks to Richard Savage and the Crickley Hill Trust for permission to reproduce these abstracts from his 1988 booklet.  

"Neolithic Villagers c. 4000 to 2500 BC 

The first farming communities, "Neolithic" or "new Stone Age", whose cutting tools were stone and flint, reached Britain from the continent in the centuries about 4000 BC, bringing with them forerunners of plants and animals whose management still supports us now: wheat, barley, cattle, sheep, and pigs.  They also brought the manufacture of pottery, from this time the archaeologists most consistent guide to cultural change and affinity.  They represented a way of life, with origins in the Near East six millennia earlier or more, which totally changed man's relationship with his environment. 

A hunter-gatherer community will probably move with the seasons as its resources change, and over-exploits them at its peril.  Its numbers must always be small.  A farming community on the other hand must be static in the medium term to protect its growing crops and granaries, and well stored grain will remain in good condition for long enough to feed it through the year.  Domestic animals efficiently convert grass, foliage and other rough vegetable matter to human use.  In the longer term, while there is new land to farm, ill-management or even an increase in population can be tolerated. 

The methods of these first farmers, which were efficient, will have been at their most effective of the light well-drained soils, either of the uplands - as at Crickley - or of the parts of the valleys lying on sand or gravel.  In Britain they enjoyed for many centuries a climate warmer and drier than our own. 

[Illustration: Neolithic Axe E. J. P. Wilczynska]

 The earliest farmers left their traces in two parts of Crickley Hill.  On the shelf above the tip of the promontory to the west, they built at least four small insubstantial huts, from 2 m x 1m to 3 m x 2 m in size, with no finds or hearths associated with them at all.  It is possible that they were shelters for hunters or herdsman, but they may even have served a ritual purpose, perhaps as spirit houses or something similar.  Near the highest point of the hill, and overlooking the Vale, they left a series of pits in a long oval surrounding a space about 10 m by 4 m which had probably carried a small mound. The mound was removed and the pits filled in.  This structure, too, may have served some ritual purpose.

 About 3500 BC an area of about four acres at the highest point of the hill was enclosed with a bank built of stone quarried with antler picks from a line of shallow pits immediately outside it.  Along the inside edge of the bank was a wooden palisade, but the bank was less than half a metre high and palisade less than 2 m, so that the physical barrier was not very formidable.  It would have served at best to protect the defenders of the enclosures against arrows and other missile weapons, and to force attackers to break step at the ditch.  It may also have provided a moral or psychological boundary. 

[Illustration: The Neolithic ditch was quarried with antler picks R. Bryant] 

It seems likely - not yet quite certain - that this enclosure defended a settlement on the highest part of the hill, for the Neolithic finds of flint and pottery are most due densely clustered there.  A second bank and palisade, quarried from deeper ditches, was later added about 30 m inside it, to defend the same central area.  The original outer defence had at least five entrances, three to the east to the west where the tip of the promontory runs down to the Vale, and four of these were now matched by entrances through the inner defences.  Post holes suggest that all the entrances had wooden gates, and in through the southeastern entrants led a straight, fenced roadway with at least one rectangular wooden house beside it.  This was at the edge of the settlement, in the natural hollows some 50 m from the dense finds scatter which marks the centre of Neolithic occupation.  We can recognize this as a house because it stands in bedrock eroded to small particles in which large post holes were easily dug, and preserved by silt washing down into the hollow.  The bedrock at the centre of occupation is stone, and the soil deposits are very thin; the shapes of individual houses are here much harder to make out. 

[Illustration: Conjectural reconstruction of the first Neolithic village. The positions of the central houses are not yet known. C. Clark] 

The inner and outer defences were demolished, with deliberate burning, and their stone was used to refill the quarry pits.  The stone was later in part extracted and the banks were rebuilt.  This process was repeated a number of times, and finds of arrowheads suggest that several times the defences were attacked by bowmen.  The sequence of methodical destruction and rebuilding is hard to account for on strictly practical grounds, though it is common among sites of this kind, the "causewayed" or "interrupted-ditch" enclosures, of which over 40 are known in the Neolithic of south Britain.  It may have had a religious purpose.  We are dealing with people who invested in ritual structures and effort comparable with that which the Iron Age was to spend on fortifications, and were unlikely to have seen them as less practical.  For them the symbol and ritual provided indispensable indispensable part of the mechanism of everyday reality.  But there is no reason to believe that the arrow-attacks at Crickley were anything but serious and effective. 

[Illustration: Flint brought from 50km away was worked on the hill. P. Saxby]

 A kilometre to the north of Crickley Hill (on private ground) stands the Crippets long barrow.  It is the nearest of these Neolithic burial mounds, and although no certain evidence links it to the Crickley community, we may wonder whether some of their dead lie beneath it.  It is placed near the edge of the scarp and would be visible from the Vale for many miles, but for a modern planting of trees.  A kilometre to the south, at the Peak, Birdlip, trial excavation has shown another causewayed enclosure, and there are at least two scatters of Neolithic flint near the scarp edge between Crickley and Birdlip.  It is likely that Crickley forms part of a well-developed Neolithic landscape, whose long-distance trading links are made clear by its abundance of good flint, imported from no nearer than 50 km away to the east and southeast, and by its finds of polished stone axe-heads from much further afield. 

Before 2500 BC the site was abandoned.  The pits of the outer defence had been refilled, and not re-dug, sometime before; now the inner one, too, was left filled, and silted up.

 [Photograph: The Crippets long barrow. This stands on private ground]"