Three cheers for JCB ( the real thing ...)

Dr Ferris writes: "Following on from all this manly posting about earth-moving machines, I don't think Crickley Hill Man is aware of my direct experience of working with JCB the company on an archaeological project in their home village of Rocester in Staffordshire many years ago. Between 1985 and 1987 JCB sponsored a dig on the so-called New Cemetery site there, smack in the corner of a three-phase Roman fort. They bought us a disused Methodist Chapel to act as our base, provided a yearly grant towards costs, of course laid on machines for us with expert drivers from their display team, and sponsored the eventual monograph publication. We got shown around the amazing factory complex there and on a few occasions I met with Sir Anthony Bamford to discuss the project. This all culminated in Sir Anthony getting nominated for, and presented with, an honorary degree from Birmingham University where I worked at the time. I have no Massey Ferguson tales to tell, though."

Big digger

When you need to shift a lot of spoil fast nothing better than a JCB. Which indeed is the caption on this 1983 photo belonging to Dr Phillpotts. But the Chronicler's evidence must be slightly re-interpreted: JCB is one of those brands which, in the UK at least, has become so well known that the manufacturer's name is used to mean the product itself e.g. Hoover. But just as there are vacuum cleaners other than hoovers, so there are front-hoe loaders that are not made by JCB. This particular effort is a Massey-Ferguson 50HX.

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 ...

How to use socks, trousers, gym shoes & dumper trucks to date photographs ...

Thank heavens for Bernie Dawson's hockey socks.  I have been able to use them as dating evidence to satisfy myself that this study, - forgive me, Dr Ferris - largely of legs, was taken in 1980.  The legs, L to R, belong to Ros Cleal, Dave Southwood, Terry Courtney, Philip Dixon, Jim Gale, Anna Collinge, and Bernie Dawson.  I didn't write anything on this photo, so have been searching for dating and identification clues.

The dating sequence is this.  Dr Phillpotts's Cutting AXV photograph here shows that the dumper truck(s) during the 1979 season were yellow.  I am certain from my own personal recollection, having driven the dumper trucks quite a bit, in both the 1979 and 1980 seasons, of two things: first, that there was no mid-season change of dumper trucks, second that the 1980 dumper truck was grey.  But memory can mislead, so I checked.  Bernie's dated top photo here, shows the 1980 cuttings. Four photos of mine, taken at about the same time, from the opposite end of the cutting, here, bottom photo, here and two here pan across that same cutting, in sequence from right to left. The fourth photo (the bottom one in the third link) has the dumper truck in the background and it is grey.

(I also remember having a conversation with Richard Savage about the change of truck model, comparing 1979 and 1980, as the latter model had a smaller bucket, was less powerful, and was harder to drive - it was so old that it did not have a synchromesh gearbox, which involved a different technique with the clutch.  I was pining for the superior 1979 version.  I recall Richard patiently explaining to me that reason for the inferior truck was, of course, cost: the 1979 version had been quite expensive on hire charges and the 1980 one was either cheaper or free because it was a vintage model.)  

Next step: the top photo here clearly shows Bernie Dawson sitting on a grey dumper truck wearing distinctive red and blue socks.  Doubtless, given Bernie's predilections, they were hockey socks.  Thus the legs in the right foreground of today's photo belong to Bernie, and the year is 1980.

The three sets of legs on the left are easy to identify as this photo, obviously taken at the same time, shows Ros, Dave and Terry.

The identification of the last set of legs on the right was quite tricky, but I think I've cracked it.  Step 1: this shot shows Jane Dineen eating her sandwich. Crucially, the dumper truck in the background is grey. Thus 1980. Step 2: this one, obviously taken at the same time, shows Jane eating the same sandwich: this time there is no dumper truck but Anna Collinge is sitting next to Jane wearing a pair of white trousers. Step 3: the photo at the bottom of this older post shows an empty wheelbarrow by the a hut door. Comparison with today's photo shows that the bits of paper on the hut door are the same: 1980 again. Usefully, Miss Dineen, as further corroboration, is clutching the same pair of trousers that she is wearing in the earlier sandwich photos. Note also the wheelbarrow and Mr Parry's garb.  Step 4: this photo plainly shows Mr Parry in the same clothing and Anna Collinge, sitting in the second wheelbarrow away from the hut door on the right as you look at the photo. Step 5: an additional photo from the Parker archive is needed:

This shows the bottom half of Mr Parry, in the same garb and Anna, in the same clothes as the photo in step 4.  In the bottom corner of this photo, Anna is wearing a white gym shoe, the top of which can just be glimpsed. 

The person whose legs I seek to identify in today's picture is wearing white trousers, white gym shoes and sitting in the second wheelbarrow on the right as we look at the photo.  I suggest, given that we were largely creatures of break-time habit, that there is some likelihood that Anna usually sat in the second wheelbarrow.  The balance of the evidence comes from the proof from the other two photos that during the 1980 season she had a pair of white trousers and white gym shoes.  

And that, My Lord, concludes the case for the Crown.

The detective work involved in arriving at the above conclusion has revealed a number of inadvertent dating and textual errors in earlier posts.  These I have corrected: I realised that I had misled myself twice by wrongly identifying parts of the (always) yellow JCB as the 1980 dumper truck.  Careful re-examination at enhanced magnification clearly reveals the hydraulic arms and the front shovel of the JCB backhoe loader in the top photo here, and the bucket of the eponymous backhoe in this one.  I should of course have spotted before that it couldn't be the dumper truck as it wasn't grey!  Phew!

Cutting AXV, JCB, Dumper Truck and JP 1979 ...

This was right at the end of the 1979 season as the backfilling of cutting AXV, the big rampart cutting, was nearly at an end. I drove the dumper truck quite a bit during this particular episode of backfilling which was, at times, tricky because we had a big ditch at the bottom and a narrow rampart at the top. Dumper trucks can fall into ditches and off ramparts even if you're being pretty careful and in 1979 they did not come with rollbars. There were some very unsteady, even if carefully planned, pieces of filling where I had to take the dumper across spoil that had not yet become compacted. I'd forgotten until I saw this Phillpotts shot of the JCB and the dumper cosying up to each other that there was more than one occasion where my lack of skill at judging the compaction of the spoil led to the dumper getting stuck. I rather suspect that this picture shows an imminent rescue of the dumper truck by the JCB driver who was very adept indeed at hooking out the dumper truck without damaging it. JP in the foreground.

Julian Thomas in 1985 ...

Another fine view from Dr Phillpotts, this time of Julian Thomas planning on his cutting which seems to have been dubbed "Slot City" according to the captions in the Chronicler's album. Good example of the way planning frames sometimes have to be carefully supported in mid air. Doubtless the plumb-bobs were in use to ensure accurate planning on gradients. Looks rather an interesting cutting and that's a seriously large spoil heap ... must have been getting near the season's end if the JCB was on site as well as the dumper truck. Backfilling can't have been far away.

Clearing up in 1983 ...

Not entirely sure what's going on in this 1983 cameo from the Phillpotts collection: L to R John Gale, with someone else's arm around him, probably Julie's, Arwel Barrett and Terry Courtney shovelling into the dumper truck, Philip Dixon, Magda, and, Dr P's caption informs me, Les Capon - is that him in the JCB? Odd perspective of the fence line appearing from Terry's ears and what is/are the object(s) hovering in the air above the dumper bucket? Probably Terry's most recent shovelful still in transit, I suspect.

End of season 1983: JP in excelsis ...

Two cracking pictures from the Chronicler's archive: it doesn't look comfy but John looks happy enough to have a ride! From the tyre tracks it looks as though the JCB driver is reversing away from the camera in the bottom shot. Deconstructed huts lie behind against the drystone wall waiting to be stored away until the next season, so this must be right at the very end of the 1983 dig. No HSE Inspectors anywhere in view which is probably just as well...

1980: Racing ahead of the JCB ...

Robert Roberts contemplates one last bit of frantic cat-bashing to reveal some final puzzling detail as the JCB (not, as I originally wrote, the dumper truck) begins the backfilling at the end of the 1980 season. Work was usually at a pretty good pace but it became quite frenetic for a few days as we had a lot to finish off and no possibility of extending the season by an extra day or two.

A day or two earlier, all hands to the cuttings to finish it off. PWD on the left & Flight Lieutenant Southwood by his bucket looking towards a line of diggers, with Rowena Dutton below the theodolite tripod, ending with JP on the right. Digging, cleaning, planning and photography all at once. Anyone help with who else is in this one?

The end of the 1980 season - re-turfing

JCB (not, as I originally thought, the dumper truck) in the background, the backfilling almost complete, the re-turfing team literally lies down on the job. Among others, Frank Green, Anna Collinge and Jane Dineen. Think the legs on the left belong to Rebecca Chambers. The lifted turf was periodically watered throughout the season to try and minmise shrinkage. But there's never quite enough to cover the whole area. Unusual care was taken to try as far as possible to put the turf back exactly whence it had been lifted a few weeks before. This was a year when the cuttings were protected at night from the attentions of the cattle on the National Trust land by an electric fence.