At Leckhampton Hill 6 July 2019 Part 2

At Leckhampton Hill 6 July 2019 Part 1

Crickley Hill July 2019 lecture by Philip Dixon

Arrangements at RAU for Friday for the 50th Anniversary

On arrival:

"Dear Julian

Can you advise all those arriving on Friday to report to the Tithe Barn (where tea will be available from 4.30) so that they can check in.

Saturday’s arrivals are requested to present themselves to the porters lodge if staying over night. Otherwise 
Go to the Tithe Barn for tea/drinks."

View from Crickley a couple of days ago

Videos by Spencer Hann of the Crickley Excavations may be found on the links below

Crickley Hill Excavations 1980s (A) from Spencer Hann

Crickley Hill Excavations 1980s (B) from Spencer Hann

Crickley Hill Excavations 1980s (C) from Spencer Hann

Crickley in the 1590s

To my delight, I have discovered an embroidered map of the area dating from the 1590s now on show at the Bodleian.

"A huge Elizabethan tapestry map of Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties has gone on public display for the first time in more than a century. Visitors can see the map for free at the Bodleian’s Weston Library in Oxford where admission is free.

Woven in wool and silk, the map shows Oxfordshire as well as a vast area stretching from Cheltenham to central London and measures 3.5 by 5.5 metres. The map is only partially complete but what remains features beautiful and incredibly detailed illustrations of sixteenth-century towns and villages, rivers and streams, forests, castles and cathedrals."

50th Anniversary Crickley Hill Archaeological Conference

50th Anniversary Crickley Hill Archaeological Conference

A residential conference has been arranged to mark this momentous anniversary at the Royal Agricultural University Stroud Rd, Cirencester GL7 6JS between Friday 5 July and Sunday 7 July 2019. Those not wishing to stay overnight are welcome to join us for all or part of the proceedings.

Adjustments have been made to programme and timetable & reducing cost. Payment details are available from me if you send me a message on Facebook or to the email address on this blog.
Programme
Friday 5 July

15.00 onwards - Arrival & check-in for those staying
16.30 Welcome & tea
18.15 Drinks
19.15 Dinner followed by welcoming speech & reminiscence

Richard has arranged for the Warden at Leckhampton to open the gates so we can get up to that site on Saturday morning and suggests that we then have picnic lunch at Crickley.
He also suggests a visit in the afternoon to the barrows at Emma’s Grove.
In the event of seriously wet weather, it is proposed that we visit Corinium Museum and Amphitheatre, but still plan to rendez-vous at Crickley for the picnic lunch (there is now a very good café up there run by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust).

Saturday 6th July

08.00 – 09.00 Breakfast for overnight residents
10.00 Field trips/churches/museums dependent on weather (packed lunches provided for residents)
16.30 Tea (if you’re back)
18.15 Drinks
19.15 Dinner followed by PWD lecture

Sunday 7th July
08.00 – 09.00 Breakfast for overnight residents
Residents check out

10.00 Field trips etc 

Costs

Bed and breakfast per night:
Single en suite £49.00 Double en suite £86.00 Twin en suite £81.00

Packed lunch on Saturday per head £5.60

Afternoon tea & dinner per day per head £24.25 (drinks to be paid for separately)

The Trustees have kindly agreed to collect the money and pay RAU.

Please pay the money in advance by credit transfer to the Trust’s bank account having obtained the bank details from me by Facebook message or email address on this blog .
Please confirm to me no later than 22nd June, which dates/parts you plan to attend, and that you have paid.
Please also let me have a note of any allergies or special dietary requirements so that they can be passed on to the RAU.

Other options for excursions on Saturday afternoon and Sunday include:
Painswick Beacon
Chedworth Roman Villa
Witcombe Roman Villa
Painswick Church
The Rococo Garden in Painswick is genuinely that, restored by excavation – it was simply abandoned – and from a very detailed contemporary picture which I think was done using a camera obscura. The result is stunning, and although I am no garden historian I believe it is unique. It might be particularly appropriate for Sunday afternoon.")
We appreciate, not least because we are dependent on the weather that the sites visited may need to be adjusted, though I suggest that Crickley at lunchtime on Saturday be a fixed point, no matter what the weather.

Will it be "Time, Ladies & Gentlemen, please" for the very last time at the Air Balloon?

Plans may finally be afoot to put a road through the Air Balloon.

CHM spots this in Gloucestershire Live.  This too.  And this on ITV.

And here's the Highways England consultation.

CH Reunion 2017

The Crickley Hill 2017 reunion picnic will be held on top of the hill on Saturday, 8 July 2017 from 1 p.m. onwards. All former diggers and their friends and relatives are, as ever, most welcome!

Hillfort Atlas

Dr Ferris draws my attention to Oxford's very fine map of all the hillforts you could ever want.

Here's what it says about Crickley:

EN0748 Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire

HER: Gloucestershire 170

NMR: SO91NW 44

SM: 1003586

NGR: SO927161

Status: Confirmed

Summary: Important, excavated promontory fort located on a W-facing Cotswold spur overlooking vale and Gloucester to E. Very steep surrounding slopes on N, W and S, moderate along ridge to E. Single bank and ditch cuts off the promontory in curving line N-S, encloses 3.85ha. Excavations by P. Dixon 1969-93 found evidence of earlier causewayed enclosure and Neolithic settlement and phased construction of hillfort with three phases of timber-laced ramparts and dry-stone wall facing, E ramparts dating from early Iron Age. Earliest phase (Phase 2) of timber-laced ramparts enclosing rows of rectangular buildings, with clusters of small square buildings, possibly 7th century BC. On flat approach and W tip of hill, ramparts with regular pattern of timber internal uprights, horizontal timber lacing. Elsewhere diminished in width and height to become dry-stone wall. Whether this continuous around promontory unknown because of landslips and quarrying. More substantial defences on W interpreted by Dixon as unfinished site. Later hillfort burnt and deliberately slighted. In Phase 3a some refortification of ramparts for 75m N-S of entrance, possibly first stage of reoccupation. Phase 3b intermittent reconstruction of entrance with large out-turned hornwork and solid stone bastions at gate, expansion of ditch to E, and digging of second ring of ditches outside main rampart. Neither completed. This ramparts enclosed settlement of roundhouses on different alignment to the previous settlement of 5th century BC. One larger round house (diameter of 15m) sited just inside entrance. As Phase 2 hillfort, all destroyed by fire and site abandoned. In Phase 3c, later Iron Age unenclosed occupation within old ramparts. Hornwork at NE entrance in third re-modelling phase. Pottery and metal working evidence. On 1st Ed. OS map (1884).

References: Clifford, E.M. 1964. An enclosure on Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire, Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc, 83, 40-8. Dixon, P. 1976. Crickley Hill, 1969-1972, in ed D.W. Harding , Hillforts. Later prehistoric earthworks in Britain and Ireland, London: Academic Press, 162-176. Dixon, P. 1994. Crickley Hill, volume 1 : the hillfort defences. Dixon, P. 1988. The Neolithic settlements on Crickley Hill, In eds Burgess, C., Topping, P., Mordant, C. and Maddison, M., Enclosures and defences in the Neolithic of western Europe, Bar British Series. Dixon, P. and Borne, P. 1977. Crickley Hill and Gloucestershire prehistory, Gloucester: Gloucestershire County Council. Guilbert, G. C. 1975. Planned hillfort interiors, Proc Prehist Soc, 41, 209, 211, 219. RCHME 1976. Ancient and historical monuments in the County of Gloucestershire, Vol. I: Iron Age and Romano- British monuments in Gloucestershire Cotswolds, London: HMSO, 5. Savage, R. 1988. Village, Fortress, Shrine: Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire, 3500BC - AD500, Gloucester: Crickley Hill Archaeol Trust.

CH Reunion 2016

The Crickley Hill 2016 reunion picnic will be held on top of the hill on Saturday, 2 July 2016 from 1 p.m. onwards. All former diggers and their friends and relatives are, as ever, most welcome!

Happy New Year to all Crickley diggers

Dr Ferris writes: "I am sure Crickley Hill Man is all too aware that summer 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of his precocious debut on the Hill. I wonder if he has any special commemorative event planned for the 2016 reunion? Perhaps a crack team of historical reenactors could recreate CHM's finest moments of that year, although given the nervous state of many of the regular reunion attendees that might not be advisable without a medical team present on site. Maybe he will let us all know what he might have planned." It's not about me Dr Ferris and your suggestion made me blush.

More seriously I have been neglecting this blog for far too long. Now that I am safely and happily ensconced in Louth in Lincolnshire I think it might be time quietly to post thing or two.

I found this postcard apparently from 1935 which shows the 'Devil's Stable Rocks'. I never knew they had a name but it would appear that the photographer mislabelled this picture as there are a number of references on the web to the Devil's Table, which makes a bit more sense.

CH Reunion 2014

The Crickley Hill 2014 reunion picnic will be held on top of the hill on Saturday, 5 July 2014 from 1 p.m. onwards. All former diggers and their friends and relatives are, as ever, most welcome!

Dr Christopher Phillpotts, MA (London), PhD (Liverpool), BA (York) AIFA, FSA

It is with the greatest regret that Crickley Hill Man records the death, peacefully on 27 January 2013, of his dear friend known on this blog as Dr Phillpotts or The Chronicler. Our sympathies go to his family.

Dr Iain Ferris has kindly drawn my attention to the following item in the newsletter of the Society of Antiquaries of London: "Finally, the Society has been informed of the sad news of the death of our Fellow Christopher Phillpotts, who was elected as recently as 1 November 2012 and who was one of the authors of the paper on ‘The King’s High Table at the Palace of Westminster’ published in last year’s Antiquaries Journal. Christopher was widely known as a specialist in medieval towns, to whose history and archaeology he brought extensive field experience combined with palaeographical skills in medieval French and Latin. He contributed many specialist reports and papers to monographs and journals on the London suburbs of Spitalfields, Shoreditch and Southwark, on medieval Winchester, Kingston, Uxbridge, Northampton, Bristol, Bath and Newport (Gwent)."

Chris dug at Crickley for many seasons and it was a rare summer when he did not put in an appearance. His first season was 1972 , an account of which appears here. As he wrote then this was his first publication. I've found at least the first page of his next publication in the 1984 EHR:

He worked for the Museum of London Archaeological Service for many years and then practised as a consultant in history and archaeology. I have compiled an online bibliography of some of his work set out below

Books to which he contributed as author or joint author:

Royal Navy Victualling Yard, East Smithfield, London 

Winchester Palace: Excavations at the Southwark Residence of the Bishops of Winchester

The Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Graces,East Smithfield, London

Holywell Priory and the Development of Shoreditch to C 1600: Archaeology from the London Overground East London Line

Excavations at the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital, London

Kentish Sites and Sites of Kent: A Miscellany of Four Archaeological Excavations (Wessex archaeology report)

A Quietly Active Community: The Historyof the Kennet Centre, Newbury

Charter Quay: The Spirit of Change - TheArchaeology of Kingston's Riverside

Other articles by Dr Phillpotts include

The Charter Quay Site, Kingston, Documentary Research Report

Park Farm, Thornbury, South Gloucestershire DocumentaryResearch Report

Excavations of the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital

Bishop Percy's House, 52-53 Cartway,Bridgnorth

Deptford Creek

The Priory of StLeonard Stratford-at- Bow and Parish Church of St Mary Bromley-by-Bow

His entry in British and Irish Archaeological bibliography shows further the breadth of the assessments and studies he wrote over the years.

He will be much missed.

Chris at Conwy Castle, September 2012

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.

What did Mr Boden hear next?

Mr Boden & C-H-M have been to Pembrey, Carmarthenshire to see Dr Ferris and Dr Bevan (a.k.a. Dr Mrs Dr Ferris). Very jolly it was too, with healthy walking on the delightful beaches nearby and not too much misbehaviour.  And on the way home we dropped in to see Richard & Lydia Savage to plot a little more for this year's reunion, of which more very soon.


Inevitably, as we were so close, the Boden Saab was irresistibly drawn to the top of the Hill after a quick snack at the Air Balloon.  Once Mr Boden had recovered from the shock being gouged for parking charges, we completed a circuit of the Hill in fabulous weather, noting blackthorn, hawthorn, vibernum, cowslips, speedwell, buttercups, a solitary campion, ditto an aquilegia.


And as we strolled C-H-M and Mr Boden had an experience neither of us has ever had before whilst atop Crickley. Nor, we suspect will many, if any, of those who dug the hill have ever had this experience unless you happen to live close by and time your visit as we did. As we stood drinking in the view, we heard cuckoos singing. Rather 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 ...

Click on this title for interesting material from Kirsten Jarrett about Crickley

Kirsten Jarrett recorded a day of research on the Roman and early medieval phases at Crickley Hill, for the 'Day of Archaeology'

CH Reunion 2012

The Crickley Hill 2012 reunion picnic will be held on top of the hill on Saturday, 7 July 2012 from 1 p.m. onwards. All former diggers and their friends and relatives are, as ever, most welcome! Here's a photo of PWD, in the old days, bringing the crockery for lunch ...