Good afternoon ...

Well, good afternoon all. My apologies for the long interval on the blog. I rather ran out of steam after 18 months of continuous posting. The resumption of the blog features this rather strange picture from Alan Ford from the 1991 season: as he says "Kate Wescomb appears to be blowing up an inflatable Richard Ozanne." Alan must have waited hours in his hide on top of the photographic tower to capture the moment to perfection.

I have emailed everyone on the mailing list today with the revised date for the reunion this year: the picnic will be Saturday 24th July. My apologies for having to change the date at relatively short notice: the clash with the Fairford Airshow meant that those of us coming from afar were unable to find accommodation in the Crickley vicinity on the previous weekend.

Experimental Archaeology 12: crime and punishment in the Iron Age

What's all this about? Has C-H-M come across some photos from the Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees in US Custody? What's happening to this poor fellow?

Phew! We are still at Crickley: someone has bound Richard Ozanne up with rope and then tied him to what looks like one of the rods that were used for stringing the electric cow wire round the cutting.

Eric van Dorland explains: "Well, they took Will and tied him up to the observation tower. That called for retaliation, so Richard was kidnapped and tied down in front of the planning hut.. Poor lad... Looks like he can still smile... Dunno how long it took before someone untied him..."

And there I was thinking it might be an archaeological experiment: the reconstruction of punishment methods of the Iron Age?

A very happy pitch invasion ...

28 former Crickley diggers, partners and family sat down for dinner at the Royal George on Friday 3 July 2009, the night before the reunion picnic. Quite a few people were staying elsewhere, mostly at the Golden Heart, and came a bit later for drinks and Philip Dixon's talk. One of the great moments was the eruption, amid much cheering, into the dining room, part way through dinner, of a phalanx led by Les Capon and Jill Hummerstone, bearing this splendid RAC road sign, lovingly preserved from years gone by. L to R, C-H-M's jacket, Jill Hummerstone, Arwel Barrett, Les Capon, Terry Courtney, Richard Ozanne and Alan Ford. The scene was captured by Lydia Savage.

As will be seen on the blog in due course, Jill and Les also brought the sign to the picnic itself. Many covetous glances were cast in its direction and compliments were paid to the evident high quality of its manufacture. One attendee, who shall remain nameless, even mused to Crickley Hill Man about the dastardly possibility of finishing off Jill and Les and absconding with the sign as a trophy. The drink was beginning to talk, I fear, but I am delighted to report that the picnic did not turn into a crime scene and Jill and Les survived unharmed.

During the 2009 site tour after the picnic

During the picnic PWD took us on a site tour. This Dumycz shot captures just over 40 of the 60-plus who attended, grouped on the National Trust side of the hill. Apologies if I miss anyone in the following list: Jane Dineen, Ros Cleal, Marion Barter, Paul Noakes, Philip Dixon, Terry Courtney, Andrew Powell, Anna Behan, Chris Phillpotts, Nick Snashall, Bernie Dawson, Corky Gregory, Les Capon, Malcolm White, Alan Ford, Richard Ozanne, Rebecca Chambers, Jill Hummerstone, Emma Turner, Dave Foster, Penny Hart, Steve and Joanne Vaughan, John Parry, Julie-Ann Morrison, Penny Hart, Kate Dumycz, Lydia Savage, John Boden, Iain Ferris, Richard and Becky Sanderson, Lucy Loveridge, Dave Butler, Miriam Vallely and Mike Sims. Phew - who did I miss? PWD finished the site tour with a call "Back to drinking!"

CH 1990 Richard Ozanne & a cast of thousands ..

Well, cast of thousands is the caption Dr Phillpotts put in his album: I counted parts of at least 38 people in the photo but what intrigues me, as I was not present, is why everyone is facing the same direction. Plainly there must have been some entertainment or lecture of some kind that caused the assembly ... does anyone recall what was happening in a southwesterly direction? 

Fiona Wilkes (formerly Sharpe, who dug at Crickley from 1989 to 1993) writes: "Was this anything to do with the season when Channel 4 came and did a 'Down to Earth' programme which I think was their first attempts at bringing archaeology to the masses? I think they did a feature on the long mound from what I can recall as my hand trowelling featured in the opening credits. The main star of the show was an American girl called Trish. Just a thought??"

Resting in the shade between the huts ...

Some of the pictures taken during the teabreaks and lunchbreak seem, with the benefit of many years' hindsight, to have a virtuous, exhausted contentment about them: it must have been all that exercise and fresh air. Here in 1988 or 1989, from the Phillpotts archive, L to R: Sally, Ian Wykes, Rob, Richard Ozanne and Alan Ford (according to the caption Alan "The Sheep" Ford - presumably a hairstyle reference ...)