1985 in black and white

Resting during a break in 1985: Dr Phillpotts's snap shows Nadine Munn-Baron, Thomas, Cleo Demetriades, Pippa Gilbert and Adrian Corrigan. Looks as though it must have been a particularly sapping day: almost everyone had to have a lie down.

Sometimes we all just needed to have a lie down ...

A sunny day in 1985: L to R, Nadine Munn-Baron, Adrian Corrigan, Lucy McShane and, in the foreground, snatching some zeds under that extremely splendid hat, Alan Lupton.  Probably also one of the better discoveries of late twentieth century representative mug assemblages in Gloucestershire ...

On their way to work or stopping for a break?

For some reason, my hunch is that they're on the way to work first thing in the morning: there's a freshness and purpose about the picture, I think.  Who knows?  A 1985 Phillpotts archive picture of Cleo Demetriades, Sasha Judelson, Nadine Munn-Baron and Jacqui Durrup.

One Thursday in 1985 ...

For reasons I know not - but I'm sure enlightenment would come from Messrs. Dixon or Savage - Thursday was the rest day. By and large, because the bus that stopped at the end of Greenway Lane went to Cheltenham, almost everyone went into Cheltenham on Thursdays to do a little bit of shopping and to relax.  Few people, especially in the first 15 years of the excavations, had cars, so other destinations than Cheltenham were a rarity.  (Much for the same reason, public houses other than the Air Balloon were rarely honoured with the diggers' custom.  There were occasional trips to the Green Dragon at Cowley, but not much else.)

Favoured haunts included the Montpellier end of town, the Promenade and the Imperial Gardens.  The latter, I think, is the location of the above Phillpotts 1985 picture of Sasha Judelson and Alan Lupton (with a hint of Nadine Munn-Baron on the left).

Hat of the Year 1985 ...

It could sometimes knock a chap out, all that digging. A occasional lunchtime snooze was not unknown, but few of us, over the years, snoozed under a hat as stylish as this effort, worn by Alan Lupton in 1985, which caught the Phillpotts eye.  Careful comparative examination of other pictures in the Phillpotts archive reveals that the legs above Alan's head belong to Nadine Munn-Baron and the foot to her left to Adrian Corrigan.