Discovering Churchill's underground army

Join archaeologists and other volunteers as they search for evidence of the headquarters

and training grounds of Churchill's secret Auxiliary Units at Coleshill House in Wiltshire.

An earlier evaluation weekend has already located the remains of previously unknown

structures in the woodlands where the men would have trained, along with various finds

including a very well preserved bayonet. Come and be part of our first season and reveal

even more of the lives of the men who trained here.

For further information visit www.coleshillhouse.com/coleshilluncovered/get-involved.php

To book a place contact Richard Alexander at churchills_underground_war@yahoo.co.uk

Minimum attendance for this first season of the Coleshill Uncovered project is 3 days, with

the induction day of Sunday 3rd July a must for all volunteers.

Dates: 3-7 July 2011
Cost: £75 flat fee. Day rate = £20 per day
Coleshill House, Wiltshire

Aside - an essential tool..

...and some stop line/standing building references.



Anyone want to buy a hat?

;-)

Rog

Places still available at Sedgeford

Places are still available for this years field season at the Sedgeford Aerodrome in Norfolk.

We currently plan to investigate and record the visible remains of several areas of buildings identified as being related to the First World War use of the aerodrome. In addition we will be investigating an area that seems to have been used as a dump. This will involve the excavation and collection of a range of material culture. The plan is to set up a finds processing station within the building that housed the Officers Quarters during the First World War.

We will be running two volunteer weeks for experienced diggers and a one week course as an introduction to Modern Conflict Archaeology.  

Volunteer week 1 - Sun 11 July - Fri 16 July:

MCA course - Sun 18 July - Fri 23 July (more details can be found at here.

Volunteer week 2 - Sun 25 July - Fri 30 July:

An application form can be downloaded from the SHARP website by clicking here

See the GWAG bulletins for a quick round-up of what happened at the Aerodrome in 2009. Link here

GARP places still available for 2010 season

Places still available on GARP 2010 dig - see main web site for info.

http://www.jordan1914-18archaeology.org/

or click below for the prospectus
http://www.jordan1914-18archaeology.org/prospectus

Thanks

Roger

Bulletin 34 - New GWAG project - Investigating Auxiliary Units

We are hoping to launch a new project at a meeting in Bristol on 23 February. It will take an archaeological and anthropological approach to investigating the Auxiliary Units, which were set up in 1940 with the intention of creating guerrilla resistance/sabotage cells that would become active behind German lines in the event of an invasion. The British Government created a network of small, secret, elite Home Guard units and a network of underground bunkers, signal-stations, and store-bases.

 

These remains represent a 'virtual' guerrilla war - a planned guerrilla war that never happened. They offer an opportunity to study an entire guerrilla-war landscape at macro-level, while using individual sites and artefact assemblages to explore how the war would have been waged and experienced by individual participants at micro-level.

 

We have excellent preliminary contacts with people heavily involved in recording these remains for the Defence of Britain Project surveys in the 1990s, and our planned initial study area will be Somerset and perhaps Monmouthshire. However, there is great potential for establishing local projects elsewhere. All those interested in becoming involved are welcome to attend the preliminary meeting:

 

5.00pm, Tuesday 23 February

Department of Archaeology and Anthropology

University of Bristol

43 Woodland Road

Clifton

Bristol

Angie Hibbitt

Bulletin 33 - Lawrence Conference

Current World Archaeology/Great Arab Revolt Project

one-day conference

Lawrence, the Arabs, and the genesis of modern guerrilla warfare

Saturday 15 May 2010

Clore Management Centre

Birkbeck University of London

Bloomsbury

On the 75^th anniversary of T E Lawrence’s death, three leading academic specialists assess his role in the desert war of 1916-1918 and his relevance in understanding the conflicts of the last 90 years. Neil Faulkner and Nick Saunders are joint directors of a pioneering new field project that is investigating the archaeological remains of the conflict along the line of the former Hijaz Railway. Jeremy Wilson, author of Lawrence of Arabia: the authorised biography of T E Lawrence, is widely recognised as the world’s leading authority on his subject. Together, on the basis of radically new evidence and interpretation, they offer a day of illustrated talks and discussion that will reassess Lawrence, his role, and his legacy. And they will draw some stark lessons: about the parallels between the failure of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and unfolding disaster of the ‘war on terror’ today.

Programme

9.30-10.00:       registration (tea and coffee available)

10.00-10.15:     introduction to the day

10.15-11.30:     Jeremy Wilson: A legend on record?
                        Researching the archive of Lawrence’s war

11.30-11.45:     short break

11.45-1.00:       Nick Saunders: Fire on the desert:
                        conflict archaeology of the Great Arab Revolt

1.00-2.15:         lunch (not included)

2.15-3.30:         Neil Faulkner: Lawrence: seminal theorist of modern guerrilla warfare

3.30-4.00:         tea and coffee

4.00-4.30:         Images from Lawrence of Arabia’s war

4.30-5.30:         Plenary

The price of the conference for early bookings is £29 (before 31 March). Standard booking price (after 31 March) is £39. Payment can be by cheque in the post (payable to Current Publishing) or credit/debit card over the phone: Current Publishing, Lamb House, Church Street, London, W4 2PD, 08456 447707 or 0208 819 5580.

(Note - previous GARP team members, i.e. those who have been part of any of the fieldwork seasons in Jordan, are entitled to a discount. Please contact Angie Hibbitt (angie@gwag.org) for information and to register)

Bulletin 32 (September 2009) Sedgefield Aerodrome Course Report

Well, the first season investigating Sedgeford aerodrome was a resounding success. We had nine very enthusiastic students who, together with three supervisors, spent time doing desktop research and three days practical work up at the Aerodrome. Once suitable work locations had been agreed with the landowner we split the students into three teams, each with their own project to work on.

Team A investigated a building that, according to local hearsay, was used as a mortuary during WWI, one is recorded in the post-war sale of site buildings. They spent some time studying the construction methods, materials, and design of the building, before moving on to create a drawn record of all four external elevations and a plan. The structure, which is located in an area that was woodland during WWI, has elements of architectural design that gives it a chapel-like quality. These, along with some of the more utilitarian aspects of its design, such as high windows and air vents, led the team to conclude that it was the mortuary.

Team B spent most of its fieldwork time investigating a rubbish dump area. A large assemblage of material culture was collected from the trench, mostly found within the topsoil, and included glass bottles and jars, pieces of domestic china, leather boots, a couple of rubber bicycle pedals and a single .303 blank cartridge case (dated to WWI). Initial research undertaken on a small selection of items by the team during their course show that the artefacts span at least a 40 year period. However, the finds were jumbled up together within the area investigated which led the team to conclude that it was not a purpose made dump, but instead a result of continual activity, in particular site clearance and re-use post WWII.

Team C studied an air raid shelter believed to date from the First World War. Constructed of house bricks, it has an internal corrugated iron ceiling overlaid with a thick slap of concrete. A wooden door at the bottom of the steps leads into the one-room shelter, which has brick piers for wooden benches along both walls. A window, crudely hacked out of the south wall, was cut through at a later date, possibly when the shelter was used as a store. Just above ground level a brick capping layer, around the stairwell, suggests that the brick courses above this were a later addition to the structure. A wooden door post at the entrance to the stairwell tells us an outer door was added at the same time. When and for what purpose these later alterations were made is still a mystery. Were they made during its time as a military installation or are they associated with the site’s later life?

The week was finished off with Dave and Angie Hibbitt running a workshop on geophysics, whilst two local detectorists provided the students with an opportunity to try out the technique for themselves. An afternoon presentation on their findings to a group of SHARP volunteers and interested locals rounded off the course for the students.        Anna Gow