One Thursday in 1985 ...

A day off in Cheltenham: this looks like a beautiful sunny day in the Imperial Gardens somewhere adjacent to the beer tent: amongst others, Corky Gregory, Rick Cleal, John Parry, Clive Anderson, Kate Heathcott and Ken Collier. Photo: Dr Phillpotts.

A 1985 medley

From the 1985 season, clockwise from the top left, Clive Anderson, Bob Hopegood, Katie Gold with David Griffiths behind her to the left, Ken Collier, Ken again and Bob again and finally Julian Thomas on his cutting that year dubbed 'Slot City'.

I know quite a number of readers like to download the photos which I publish: there are a handful of photos which have only been posted as part of a collage. If you would like a copy of any of the original component photos, please let me know by e-mail (link on the left approx 6th item down) and I'll send them to you.

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."

From Bernard Dawson: line gang removing rocks from the ditch, cutting AXV, 1979

Another splendid shot, this time of the team removing large bits of rock from the bottom of the ditch on the outer side of the rampart in 1979. Bernie Dawson sent the photo and Dr Phillpotts identified far more people than Bernie and I did: L to R on the baulk: Malcolm White, ?, ?, Ken Collier, ?, Julie Fissenden, ?, ?, Paul Noakes, ?, ?, Julian Parker. In the ditch: Terry Courtney, ?, ?, Elsa Charlot, Gill Drury, ?, ?, Zoya Spivakovska, Mark Spivakovsky (in hat), ?, Dmitri, ?, Pete, ?, Penny Locke, ?, Training (blue top at right), Mike Taylor in the background.