A normal evening at the Air Balloon ...

From Anna Behan's collection, an evening in garden of the 'Air Balloon' in 1978 or thereabouts: Dr Phillpotts, C-H-M beginning his entry for that night's gurning competition, Anna turning away in horror being comforted by Ollie Crick, Ranging Rod & Mike Webb looking on and Mike Taylor watching the unknown photographer. It is surprising that Flt Lt Southwood is not in the frame but perhaps the photographer was he, unless he was getting the next round in. It looks as though the lights of the bar, small as it was in those days, are in the background.

C-H-M has, somewhat unromantically for the time of year, been abed with a gastric bug (- what other kind would a student of cookery get?), which is why postings have been lacking, for which my apologies. Perhaps Bacillus cereus was the culprit or indeed Clostridium perfringens. Each can stalk a curry house ...

A Medley from 1979

I've created this 1979 collage from a series of Dr Phillpotts's photographs, some of which, alas, are not quite in focus: see if you can spot Marion Barter, Elsa Charlot, Maryam Ghaffari, Guillaume, Anna Collinge, Ros Cleal, Paul, Ranging Rod, Zoya Spivakowska, Randall Motkin & me. Most of these photographs were taken on the cuttings which were supervised by Ros Cleal, Marion Barter, and Sarah Roberts.

Marion Barter's & Sarah Roberts's cuttings in 1979

Taken by Dr Phillpotts from the vantagepoint of the Iron Age rampart looking south west, on an uncharacteristically overcast day, sometime late in the 1979 season. L to R: ?, Sharon, Randel Motkin, Philip Dixon, Sarah Roberts, Matthew Garner, Mark Samuels, Ranging Rod. Randel, in the foreground, is examining F3351, one of the pits quarried for stone for the rampart. In 1979 the huts numbered only three: Phil's observations on their numbers over the years, and the agonies of getting them onto the lorry and up onto the hill, can be found here. The size of the spoil heap also catches the eye.

Cutting AXV 1979 - the site tour for the diggers ...

This must have been well towards the end of the season when Cutting AXV was more or less finished: fine view of the Period 3(b?) wall and gangbreak. It really is a magnificent piece of construction. Those listening to the Dixon commentary include Joanne Milroy, Ranging Rod, Rowena Dutton and Training...

A study in concentration ...

Finally we have a picture, from Dr Phillpotts, of part of Ros Cleal and Marion Barter's cutting that isn't centred on the F3351 pit: Matthew Garner looks very neatly set to his planning whilst, behind him Ranging Rod and Mark Samuels quietly work away. During 1979 season. I wonder whether the path down the rampart worn by walkers was re-worn after the excavation and is still there or whether it ceased to exist.

A man, his barrow and the Elsan tent ...

Ranging Rod, silhouetted against a grey sky, pictured at the moment of tipping the barrow contents down the far side of the spoil heap. The spoil heaps were of some size and it required strength and good balance to be able to negotiate a full barrow up the heap and along the planks, which always shifted a little as you came along. The bottom section of this barrow run would have needed a fair bit of momentum to succeed as it is reasonably steep. It may even have required a breach of the Ferris site rule "Never run with a barrow". In the distance, the faded green-blue canvas of the Elsan tent. I described here the slightly uncomfortable lavatory arrangements with which we used to have to contend before the Leisuredrome was built. This Phillpotts photo from 1979 makes me suspect that this was the last season with the Elsans.

The wind of change is blowing through this hillfort...

... from SSW to NNE if I have worked out the angles correctly.  This view is, I think, of the Irvine hair, being blown almost directly north. Ranging Rod, as he was known from his splendid height, looks SE or SSE - can any readers help jog my memory for Rod's surname?