Crickley Hill Reunion 2009 to 2025 and beyond ...

Volume 3 is published! The Long Mound

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 22:21:00 GMT

The Stone Circle at Crickley Hill, complete with central ‘altar stone’. It marks the NW end
of the Long Mound and the underlying Cairn, which can be seen in the background.

The strange pattern of grooves in the top of the Cairn under the Long Mound.

Excavating the Long Mound in 1990. The edges of the Mound were marked with stone slabs, some with special find underneath. The Stone Circle is under the turves in the background, commanding the view over the Severn Valley.

The Neolithic platform, dating to about 3400BC, which lay underneath the
Stone Circle. The shape of the rectangular ‘shrine’ building can be seen in
the lighter stone in the foreground.

New research reveals the long and complex story of the Crickley Hill Long Mound

Newly published research finally reveals that an enigmatic monument at Crickley Hill near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire was a religious or ceremonial complex dating back to the Neolithic period of about 3400 BC. What is extraordinary is that it continued to be used and was rebuilt numerous times over the next 3000 years, and perhaps even longer.

The spectacular site on the edge of the Cotswolds is famous for its views and an Iron Age hillfort of 5-700BC, but settlement there began 4000 years earlier. 25 years of excavation ended in 1993, with post-excavation work continuing since then.

The latest part of the site story has just been published, as Volume 3 of the excavation report. It explains the Long Mound valley, a shallow depression which held a 100 metre long earth mound. When excavated, a previously unknown stone circle was found at the north end, and underneath the mound were several earlier stone cairns and other clearly religious features.

Philip Dixon, the dig director, said It has taken us thirty years of research and analysis, but we can finally explain how this monument was built and used.’

The first development was a stone platform about 15 metres across with a small ‘shrine’ building, dated to 3400BC. Later this was destroyed, to be covered by a 30m long stone cairn with a strange pattern of grooves carved into the top. This was extended three or four times over several thousand years. When each new section of cairn was added, each in a different style, the previous segment was deliberately covered by an earth mound, starting at the north end and extending as each new segment of cairn was added. The last part to be added covers an Iron Age posthole with a C14 date of about 400BC, giving a period of use of more than 3000 years.

Hearths, platforms, apparently ceremonial deposits and lines of pits were found associated. The stone circle was built at the northern end of the mound, with a large ‘altar stone’ at the centre. It seems all of this was used for religious or ceremonial purposes, perhaps including sacrifices and feasts at various times.

It isn’t clear whether the site was in use continuously, but frequent rebuilds and additions show there was a long period of activity. It is very unusual for one place to have been actively used for religious purposes for such a long time. The mound, still clearly visible on site, continued to be used as a place to deposit special items, definitely in the Roman period and probably later. There are no other monuments in Britain which look like the Crickley Long Mound.

Crickley Hill Volume 3: The Long Mound Valley is published by the Crickley Hill Archaeological Trust. 320 pages and over 250 colour illustrations: £25 plus £5 postage and packing. For a copy, please email [crickleybooks@gmail.com](mailto:crickleybooks@gmail.com).

Richard Savage 1937-2024

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Mon, 5 Aug 2024 18:49:00 +0100

I am very sorry to tell you all of the death on 4 August 2024 of Richard Savage, loved and admired by all who knew him, aged 87, after a short illness.

A memorial service was held on Friday 20 September 2024 at 2:00 p.m. at St John the Baptist Church, Pitchcombe, Gloucestershire.

The following anecdotes about Richard's time at Crickley were read:

From Roz Cleal:

I’d come to Ullenwood for the start of the dig in 1976. with my friend, Jo, from University. We’d spent a depressing few hours settling in, sitting on our beds in Dorm 4, writing to our friend Kathy telling her what an awful place it was and how we were in a dorm with American girls who all seemed to know each other (they didn’t, actually- and one of them was Corky Gregory!)

We were so miserable that we decided to skip dinner and go to the pub, so we set out resolutely down Green Lane. We hadn’t got very far when a VW camper van coming the other way stopped alongside us. Richard asked us where we were going and when we said the pub, he said Not yet, as there was an important talk we needed to hear first.

So we were scooped up and returned ignominiously to the camp-for the ever to be remembered "Drains Lecture” - which became such an annual feature and for which the regulars always claimed front row seats! We would have been astonished, if we’d been told that evening, that in only two weeks we’d be asking if we could stay on, despite our University fieldwork grants having run out (and it was Richard who gave us the good news that we could - we’d both mastered the unpopular task of planning by then) ... and that I would return for 16 years! (and even Jo did for 4 or 5).

How long ago that all seems, and I can only imagine the amount of time Crickley must have involved for Richard and for you all, overall those years.

From Iain Ferris:

I am sure everyone from the Crickley Hill excavations who has written down their memories of Richard will have dwelt on him as an inspirational character and a charismatic presence. However, I may well be alone in also remembering Richard as a kind of style icon in the early 1970s, pre-punk times.

Arriving at 30 Painswick Road for the first time in 1972, knocking on the door which was answered by Lydia, wearing an Amish-style headscarf, I was ushered into a basement room which seemed quite bohemian. Others, all Americans as it turned out, were already there sitting on floor cushions, massive rucksacks beside them. After a short while, Richard arrived and announced himself, moving like a whirling Dervish. Wearing a plaid brushed-cotton shirt with rolled-up sleeves, faded straight-leg jeans (where on earth did he buy straight-leg jeans in 1972?), and heavy boots, with unruly, tumbling hair which he kept pushing back off his forehead, he seemed to be channelling a Beat character, - Jack Kerouac or Neal Cassady. After a slightly bizarre, schoolmasterly lecture to all of us on adders on Crickley Hill, and sex and drugs at Ullenwood Camp, we were ushered out to a rather beaten-up VW campervan which further enhanced the 'On the Road' feel of the whole situation for me, to be driven to Ullenwood. I was hooked.

From Julian Parker:

These days en-suite bathrooms are commonplace, not just in hotels but in private houses: at Ullenwood we shared 7 basins, 5 lavatories and 2 showers between more than 100 of us.

In 1979 the drains blocked for a couple of days. We could not use the ablutions block. This led to me and Flt. Lt. Southwood throwing buckets of cold water straight from the standpipe outside Lofty's house over each other and anyone else keen on this spartan form of washing.

A number of us, of both sexes, were engaged in this bracing activity when Richard arrived, knowing that some parents were about to deliver, with some hesitation, their 17-year-old daughter to Ullenwood. For reasons I can't begin to understand, Richard thought that a clutch of wholly- or half-naked, wet and muddy diggers might not give the right impression: so he bundled six of us into the back of Phil’s Land Rover and threw a tarpaulin over us. Without missing a beat, he greeted the 17-year-old and her parents and welcomed them to Ullenwood. He showed them round and assured them that no harm would come to her.

It took what seemed an eternity for Richard to take mother and daughter to inspect Dorm 4 (firmly ‘Women Only’) and slowly return to father, waiting in the car. I don't think they noticed the shaking of the Land Rover as a motley pile of wet diggers suppressed our giggles.

The parents’ car retreated down Greenway Lane; Richard slapped the side of the Land Rover, off flew the tarpaulin, and out we all leapt to the consternation of one 17-year-old.

The Crickley Hill Excavation Archive - now online!

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Thu, 29 Jul 2021 16:46:00 +0100

Serious congratulations and thanks are due to Steve Vaughan for all his hard work in creating the The Crickley Hill Excavation Archive.

"Welcome to the Crickley Hill online archive. The excavation of Crickley Hill, on the Cotswold scarp near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire was one of the largest and longest-running excavations in the UK. Running from 1969 to 1993, considerable parts of the site were excavated during the summer seasons. Work on the huge amount of resulting excavation material is still underway. The excavation, and subsequent research, are managed by the Crickley Hill Archaeological Trust.

For the first time, this website provides online access to as much as possible of the considerable excavation record. You can now see photos and browse scans of the physical excavation records, and see what lay beneath the surface at this important site. The archive is nearing complete with the addition of all the photographs and finds records."

CRICKLEY HILL - VILLAGE FORTRESS SHRINE - Part 4 - The Dark Ages

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 15:01:00 GMT

Part the Fourth:

CRICKLEY HILL - VILLAGE FORTRESS SHRINE - Part 3 - The Iron Age

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:59:00 GMT

Part the Third:

CRICKLEY HILL - VILLAGE FORTRESS SHRINE - Part 2 - The Long Mound

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:58:00 GMT

Part the Second:

CRICKLEY HILL- VILLAGE FORTRESS SHRINE Part 1 - The Neolithic

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:56:00 GMT

Thanks to Steve Vaughan who writes:

"I thought it might cheer up all of our Christmases to see something dredged from the Crickley Archive, and newly restored for a new generation. Thus, my humble offering - Richard Savage tapping into his inner Attenborough to deliver his epic stride across the Gloucestershire hill fort, now newly digitised and uploaded to Youtube. It’s in four parts, because as you no doubt know by now, Richard does like to go on a bit. You might remember that this used to play on a continuous loop in the site visitor centre, driving the wardens quietly crazy. The only reason I have a copy of this is because I won it in a raffle at the Friends Christmas dinner one year. Doubly festive then!"

Crickley Reunion 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 20:32:00 +0100

Given the state of the world and the antiquity of former diggers, the youngest of whom must be 42 (the minimum age qualification being 16, and the last season being 1994), the age of the oldest of whom being an uncertainty which is lost in the mists of time, it would appear prudent to postpone the 2020 Reunion from this year until next.

You are all to take very good care of yourselves and I hope to see you all in 2021.

CHM

Leckhampton, Crickley & Emma's Grove

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Tue, 9 Jul 2019 08:22:00 +0100

Dr Ferris & Robert Roberts hold a secessionist picnic. "The only true picnic," said Robert, before throwing a shape.

At Leckhampton Hill 6 July 2019 Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Mon, 8 Jul 2019 08:26:00 +0100

At Leckhampton Hill 6 July 2019 Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Mon, 8 Jul 2019 08:24:00 +0100

Crickley Hill July 2019 lecture by Philip Dixon

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Mon, 8 Jul 2019 08:04:00 +0100

Arrangements at RAU for Friday for the 50th Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Wed, 3 Jul 2019 20:41:00 +0100

On arrival:

"Dear Julian

Can you advise all those arriving on Friday to report to the Tithe Barn (where tea will be available from 4.30) so that they can check in.

Saturday’s arrivals are requested to present themselves to the porters lodge if staying over night. Otherwise
Go to the Tithe Barn for tea/drinks."

View from Crickley a couple of days ago

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 04:10:00 +0100

Videos by Spencer Hann of the Crickley Excavations may be found on the links below

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 12:21:00 +0100

Crickley Hill Excavations 1980s (A) from Spencer Hann

Crickley Hill Excavations 1980s (B) from Spencer Hann

Crickley Hill Excavations 1980s (C) from Spencer Hann

Crickley in the 1590s

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:31:00 +0100

To my delight, I have discovered an embroidered map of the area dating from the 1590s now on show at the Bodleian.

"A huge Elizabethan tapestry map of Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties has gone on public display for the first time in more than a century. Visitors can see the map for free at the Bodleian’s Weston Library in Oxford where admission is free.

Woven in wool and silk, the map shows Oxfordshire as well as a vast area stretching from Cheltenham to central London and measures 3.5 by 5.5 metres. The map is only partially complete but what remains features beautiful and incredibly detailed illustrations of sixteenth-century towns and villages, rivers and streams, forests, castles and cathedrals."

50th Anniversary Crickley Hill Archaeological Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 16:19:00 +0100

50th Anniversary Crickley Hill Archaeological Conference

A residential conference has been arranged to mark this momentous anniversary at the Royal Agricultural University Stroud Rd, Cirencester GL7 6JS between Friday 5 July and Sunday 7 July 2019. Those not wishing to stay overnight are welcome to join us for all or part of the proceedings.

Adjustments have been made to programme and timetable & reducing cost. Payment details are available from me if you send me a message on Facebook or to the email address on this blog.
Programme
Friday 5 July

15.00 onwards - Arrival & check-in for those staying
16.30 Welcome & tea
18.15 Drinks
19.15 Dinner followed by welcoming speech & reminiscence

Richard has arranged for the Warden at Leckhampton to open the gates so we can get up to that site on Saturday morning and suggests that we then have picnic lunch at Crickley.
He also suggests a visit in the afternoon to the barrows at Emma’s Grove.
In the event of seriously wet weather, it is proposed that we visit Corinium Museum and Amphitheatre, but still plan to rendez-vous at Crickley for the picnic lunch (there is now a very good café up there run by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust).

Saturday 6th July

08.00 – 09.00 Breakfast for overnight residents
10.00 Field trips/churches/museums dependent on weather (packed lunches provided for residents)
16.30 Tea (if you’re back)
18.15 Drinks
19.15 Dinner followed by PWD lecture

Sunday 7th July
08.00 – 09.00 Breakfast for overnight residents
Residents check out

10.00 Field trips etc

Costs

Bed and breakfast per night:
Single en suite £49.00 Double en suite £86.00 Twin en suite £81.00

Packed lunch on Saturday per head £5.60

Afternoon tea & dinner per day per head £24.25 (drinks to be paid for separately)

The Trustees have kindly agreed to collect the money and pay RAU.

Please pay the money in advance by credit transfer to the Trust’s bank account having obtained the bank details from me by Facebook message or email address on this blog .
Please confirm to me no later than 22nd June, which dates/parts you plan to attend, and that you have paid.
Please also let me have a note of any allergies or special dietary requirements so that they can be passed on to the RAU.

Other options for excursions on Saturday afternoon and Sunday include:
Painswick Beacon
Chedworth Roman Villa
Witcombe Roman Villa
Painswick Church
The Rococo Garden in Painswick is genuinely that, restored by excavation – it was simply abandoned – and from a very detailed contemporary picture which I think was done using a camera obscura. The result is stunning, and although I am no garden historian I believe it is unique. It might be particularly appropriate for Sunday afternoon.")
We appreciate, not least because we are dependent on the weather that the sites visited may need to be adjusted, though I suggest that Crickley at lunchtime on Saturday be a fixed point, no matter what the weather.

Will it be "Time, Ladies & Gentlemen, please" for the very last time at the Air Balloon?

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 17:20:00 GMT

Plans may finally be afoot to put a road through the Air Balloon.

CHM spots this in Gloucestershire Live. This too. And this on ITV.

And here's the Highways England consultation.

CH Reunion 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 09:34:00 +0100

The Crickley Hill 2017 reunion picnic will be held on top of the hill on Saturday, 8 July 2017 from 1 p.m. onwards. All former diggers and their friends and relatives are, as ever, most welcome!

Hillfort Atlas

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 09:33:00 +0100

Dr Ferris draws my attention to Oxford's very fine map of all the hillforts you could ever want.

Here's what it says about Crickley:

HER: Gloucestershire 170

NMR: SO91NW 44

SM: 1003586

NGR: SO927161

Status: Confirmed

Summary: Important, excavated promontory fort located on a W-facing Cotswold spur overlooking vale and Gloucester to E. Very steep surrounding slopes on N, W and S, moderate along ridge to E. Single bank and ditch cuts off the promontory in curving line N-S, encloses 3.85ha. Excavations by P. Dixon 1969-93 found evidence of earlier causewayed enclosure and Neolithic settlement and phased construction of hillfort with three phases of timber-laced ramparts and dry-stone wall facing, E ramparts dating from early Iron Age. Earliest phase (Phase 2) of timber-laced ramparts enclosing rows of rectangular buildings, with clusters of small square buildings, possibly 7th century BC. On flat approach and W tip of hill, ramparts with regular pattern of timber internal uprights, horizontal timber lacing. Elsewhere diminished in width and height to become dry-stone wall. Whether this continuous around promontory unknown because of landslips and quarrying. More substantial defences on W interpreted by Dixon as unfinished site. Later hillfort burnt and deliberately slighted. In Phase 3a some refortification of ramparts for 75m N-S of entrance, possibly first stage of reoccupation. Phase 3b intermittent reconstruction of entrance with large out-turned hornwork and solid stone bastions at gate, expansion of ditch to E, and digging of second ring of ditches outside main rampart. Neither completed. This ramparts enclosed settlement of roundhouses on different alignment to the previous settlement of 5th century BC. One larger round house (diameter of 15m) sited just inside entrance. As Phase 2 hillfort, all destroyed by fire and site abandoned. In Phase 3c, later Iron Age unenclosed occupation within old ramparts. Hornwork at NE entrance in third re-modelling phase. Pottery and metal working evidence. On 1st Ed. OS map (1884).

References: Clifford, E.M. 1964. An enclosure on Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire, Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc, 83, 40-8. Dixon, P. 1976. Crickley Hill, 1969-1972, in ed D.W. Harding , Hillforts. Later prehistoric earthworks in Britain and Ireland, London: Academic Press, 162-176. Dixon, P. 1994. Crickley Hill, volume 1 : the hillfort defences. Dixon, P. 1988. The Neolithic settlements on Crickley Hill, In eds Burgess, C., Topping, P., Mordant, C. and Maddison, M., Enclosures and defences in the Neolithic of western Europe, Bar British Series. Dixon, P. and Borne, P. 1977. Crickley Hill and Gloucestershire prehistory, Gloucester: Gloucestershire County Council. Guilbert, G. C. 1975. Planned hillfort interiors, Proc Prehist Soc, 41, 209, 211, 219. RCHME 1976. Ancient and historical monuments in the County of Gloucestershire, Vol. I: Iron Age and Romano- British monuments in Gloucestershire Cotswolds, London: HMSO, 5. Savage, R. 1988. Village, Fortress, Shrine: Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire, 3500BC - AD500, Gloucester: Crickley Hill Archaeol Trust.

CH Reunion 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 17:30:00 +0100

The Crickley Hill 2016 reunion picnic will be held on top of the hill on Saturday, 2 July 2016 from 1 p.m. onwards. All former diggers and their friends and relatives are, as ever, most welcome!

Happy New Year to all Crickley diggers

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 16:53:00 GMT

Dr Ferris writes: "I am sure Crickley Hill Man is all too aware that summer 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of his precocious debut on the Hill. I wonder if he has any special commemorative event planned for the 2016 reunion? Perhaps a crack team of historical reenactors could recreate CHM's finest moments of that year, although given the nervous state of many of the regular reunion attendees that might not be advisable without a medical team present on site. Maybe he will let us all know what he might have planned." It's not about me Dr Ferris and your suggestion made me blush.

More seriously I have been neglecting this blog for far too long. Now that I am safely and happily ensconced in Louth in Lincolnshire I think it might be time quietly to post thing or two.

I found this postcard apparently from 1935 which shows the 'Devil's Stable Rocks'. I never knew they had a name but it would appear that the photographer mislabelled this picture as there are a number of references on the web to the Devil's Table, which makes a bit more sense.

CH Reunion 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:33:00 +0100

The Crickley Hill 2014 reunion picnic will be held on top of the hill on Saturday, 5 July 2014 from 1 p.m. onwards. All former diggers and their friends and relatives are, as ever, most welcome!

Dr Christopher Phillpotts, MA (London), PhD (Liverpool), BA (York) AIFA, FSA

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Sat, 2 Feb 2013 15:03:00 GMT

It is with the greatest regret that Crickley Hill Man records the death, peacefully on 27 January 2013, of his dear friend known on this blog as Dr Phillpotts or The Chronicler. Our sympathies go to his family.

Dr Iain Ferris has kindly drawn my attention to the following item in the newsletter of the Society of Antiquaries of London: "Finally, the Society has been informed of the sad news of the death of our Fellow Christopher Phillpotts, who was elected as recently as 1 November 2012 and who was one of the authors of the paper on ‘The King’s High Table at the Palace of Westminster’ published in last year’s Antiquaries Journal. Christopher was widely known as a specialist in medieval towns, to whose history and archaeology he brought extensive field experience combined with palaeographical skills in medieval French and Latin. He contributed many specialist reports and papers to monographs and journals on the London suburbs of Spitalfields, Shoreditch and Southwark, on medieval Winchester, Kingston, Uxbridge, Northampton, Bristol, Bath and Newport (Gwent)."

Chris dug at Crickley for many seasons and it was a rare summer when he did not put in an appearance. His first season was 1972 , an account of which appears here. As he wrote then this was his first publication. I've found at least the first page of his next publication in the 1984 EHR:

He worked for the Museum of London Archaeological Service for many years and then practised as a consultant in history and archaeology. I have compiled an online bibliography of some of his work set out below

Books to which he contributed as author or joint author:

Royal Navy Victualling Yard, East Smithfield, London

Winchester Palace: Excavations at the Southwark Residence of the Bishops of Winchester

The Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Graces,East Smithfield, London

Holywell Priory and the Development of Shoreditch to C 1600: Archaeology from the London Overground East London Line

Excavations at the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital, London

Kentish Sites and Sites of Kent: A Miscellany of Four Archaeological Excavations (Wessex archaeology report)

A Quietly Active Community: The Historyof the Kennet Centre, Newbury

Charter Quay: The Spirit of Change - TheArchaeology of Kingston's Riverside

Other articles by Dr Phillpotts include

The Charter Quay Site, Kingston, Documentary Research Report

Park Farm, Thornbury, South Gloucestershire DocumentaryResearch Report

Excavations of the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital

Bishop Percy's House, 52-53 Cartway,Bridgnorth

Deptford Creek

The Priory of StLeonard Stratford-at- Bow and Parish Church of St Mary Bromley-by-Bow

His entry in British and Irish Archaeological bibliography shows further the breadth of the assessments and studies he wrote over the years.

He will be much missed.

Chris at Conwy Castle, September 2012

Alan Ford writes:

noreply@blogger.com (Julian Parker) — Sat, 2 Jun 2012 08:49:00 +0100

"Having lately returned to the dwell in the Five Valleys of my youth I am now within a jar of limestone polishes throw from the hill. As such it has come to my notice through a work colleague and fervent member of the Ermin St Guard that he and his father will be responsible for the setting of a beacon on that hallowed ground in celebration of the Jubilee. I'm not sure exactly where on the hill the beacon will be lit, but my money is on the end of the Long Mound.

Weather and young lordling permitting I shall attend to watch the good loyal burghers of the district throw a few of the more radicalised local whigs on the fire in honour of our good Queen Bess

In so doing I will also indulge myself in a bit of experimental archaeology as pretty much every beacon and hillfort on the scarp will have its own conflagration; and i'll warrant a goodly many more locations within that broad vista too. I shall see if I can make out how many and where.

About the hour of ten and fifteen in the evening on Monday is, I am told, likely to be the time of the incendiary event for those of you who may also want to enjoy the view."

Splendid.