Geophysics Survey and training - update and some preliminary results

For 3 days in April volunteers took part in further survey training on the Chase,led by the Historic England geophysicist Andy Payne. 

The two sites we surveyed were at:

i) Sheepwash Farm or Smart’s Buildings in the Slitting Mill Lane area of Cannock Chase District where the aim was to investigate the sites of one or more probable burnt mounds.

ii) A trial geophysical investigation of the accessible parts of the interior (where surface vegetation permitted) of the hillfort at Castle Ring, Cannock Wood .

 

(Photo credit : CTT Volunteer Zoe Mead)

Earth resistance and magnetometer surveys were undertaken at both sites.

To summarise the results really briefly, Andy think's we’ve confirmed that the southern of the three mounds visible in the Lidar in the southern field at Sheepwash Farm is almost certainly a burnt mound but the others are more doubtful. There’s also an interesting area of anomalous magnetic response (intense but not ferrous) in the field to the north where other burnt mound activity was suspected.

 

At Castle Ring as well as the previously known site of the Medieval ‘hunting lodge’ that is visible in the form of stone wall footings exposed on the surface following a previous excavation, the resistance survey appears to have detected remains of a further probable buried masonry structure to the south but on a different orientation as well as potentially associated linear boundaries perhaps defining paddocks (as previously suggested from the RCHME earthwork survey undertaken in the late 1980s.

By comparison the magnetometer coverage at Castle Ring was disappointing with very few clear features identified and a very marginal magnetic response in general that probably reflects the less than ideal underlying geology in the form of superficial deposits of Devensian glacial Till overlying Carboniferous Pennine Middle Coal Measures formation.

 As a result, the interpretation of the magnetometer data can at best be very tentative. In addition to a very sparse scatter of possible pit or other occupation features, there may be one ring gully just about detected towards the eastern side but this is all very much “eye of faith”. Areas of localised strong ferrous disturbance may relate to some of the possible WW2 structures referred to in the earthwork survey report.

Andy and his team will start working on the formal Historic England Research Report Series reports on the results in due course and will keep us informed on progress with these.

CANNOCK COLLIERIES 1

Hidden within the woods to the north of the Cannock Chase visitor centre are the remains of Fair Oak Colliery number 2. This coalmine is almost impossible to see on the aerial photographs but the airborne laser scanning data (lidar) provides a good view of the spoil heap and some other remains of this mine. 

 

Chase Through Time 2016 lidar. Source Staffordshire CC/ Fugro Geospatial BV 2016 © Historic England

 

Old Ordnance Survey maps can provide us with some useful information about sites such as this. The first edition map tells us that the mine was in operation by 1882. It also gives the name of the mine, shows the shafts, buildings and the tramway that linked this mine to the nearby Fair Oak Colliery number 1. We also know that the mine had closed by 1902, the date of the second edition of the map. We will need to do further research to find out the exact dates that the mine was in use and to understand what different activities took place in the mine buildings. If anyone has an interest in mining on Cannock Chase and can help in answering any of these questions, please leave a comment below.

RAF HEDNESFORD IN THE 1940s

The Chase Through Time aerial survey work has been underway since the beginning of the year. This is the first of a number of blog entries looking at some of the sites Historic England are mapping.

We are currently looking at RAF Hednesford and the first stage of our mapping is using the 1946 aerial photographs that show the camp in its role as a training school. The camp was built in 1938 and for over ten years served as a school of Technical Training for flight mechanics, riggers and fitters.  If anyone can help us by providing accurate dates for the camp or any other information concerning its use please do contact us. There is a comments section at the bottom of the page.

RAF/106G/UK/1483 RS 4263 09-May-1946 Historic England RAF Photography

This 1940s aerial photograph provides a detailed view of the different buildings that made up RAF Hednesford. But we are also fortunate to have a copy of an historic plan of the camp which tells us what all the buildings were used for. Most of the buildings that can be seen on the photo above were huts for accommodation.

RAF/106G/UK/1483 RS 4263 09-May-1946 Historic England RAF Photography

These huts were arranged around smaller buildings, which were the ablution blocks that had toilets and washing facilities. There was an ablution block for every four huts. This photo shows 48 huts in two groups of 24. Most of the buildings between these two groups are bathhouses.

RAF/106G/UK/1483 RS 4395 09-May-1946 Historic England RAF Photography

Special treatment appears to have been provided for those to be billeted in the 16 huts near the north-western end of the camp. Here the sleeping quarters were linked to the ablution blocks via covered or perhaps completely enclosed walkways. These walkways are white in this photograph and must have made trips at night or in bad weather more bearable.

RAF/106G/UK/1483 RS 4395 09-May-1946 Historic England RAF Photography

The only other buildings connected by covered or enclosed walkways are the educational and technical huts. These were near the centre of the camp close to the large hangar-like training sheds with camouflaged roofs. It was in these buildings that the men were trained in their various technical roles.

RAF/106G/UK/1483 RS 4395 09-May-1946 Historic England RAF Photography

The information on the plan and the standardization of the building design means that we can recognise a repeated pattern in the layout of the plan. The building on the left is a NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force institute) and on the right a Dining Hall.

© Historic England

This is the aerial survey mapping of part of RAF Hednesford.  The NAAFI and the Dining Hall shown in the previous photograph are near the centre of the image. The distinctive outline of these buildings can be seen repeated at the top right of the image and at the bottom. In total, the camp had four NAAFIs and four Dining Halls. Other buildings included barrack huts, ablution blocks, bathhouses, Squadron and Wing HQ offices. The features outlined in red are air raid shelters.

Plan Staffordshire County Council

Although there is an RAF plan of the camp, the aerial photographs are still an important source of information. The buildings on the plan are not accurately drawn and this is particularly noticeable when you compare this drawing of the NAAFI and the Dining Hall with the outline mapped from the air photos. The buildings are similar enough to be recognised as the same, but the dimensions are different.

RAF/106G/UK/1483 RS 4395 09-May-1946 Historic England RAF Photography

The aerial photographs also show us different aspects of the camp that were not depicted on official plans. For example in 1946 there were a number of aircraft fuselages or apparently complete aircraft at the southern end of the camp.

RAF/CPE/UK/2555 RP 4440 27-Mar-1948 Historic England RAF Photography

The camp plan emphasises the regimented nature of a military camp with regular rows of huts within a rigid system of roads. In contrast, the aerial photographs show the many paths of worn grass cutting diagonally across the site, formed by the men taking the shortest route from building to building.

The camp continued as a technical training school throughout the Second World War and the immediate post-war years but the 1950s saw a change in use. Our next post on RAF Hednesford will look at RAF aerial photographs taken in the 1950s and see if this change in use affected how the camp looked from the air.

Should you be interested in visiting the site of RAF Hednesford, part of the area of the camp is in open access land, but part of it is on private land and you would need to seek permission from the landowner to access those areas.

Visit to the Chorley Pals Museum and Archive 22 February 2017

The following notes have been kindly supplied by Mary Cartwright, who like many of our volunteers is also involved in other centenary projects on the Chase.

 

The visit was organised by Anne Walker from Cannock Chase AONB who drove us by minibus to Astley Park in Chorley, a beautiful 17^th century house now owned and administered by Chorley Council.  There we were greeted by John Garwood and Steve Williams, Chorley Pals historians and trustees of the Chorley Pals Memorial Trust.

 Steve and John presented a very interesting talk starting with a brief history of the Chorley Pals, the main points as follows:

- In August 1914, Captain James Milton set about raising a Pals Battalion in Chorley.  Eventually 212 men and 3 officers from Chorley, Blackburn, Burnley and surrounding villages became Y Company of the 11^th Battalion East Lancashire regiment known as The Accrington Pals.  Steve stressed that the Chorley Pals had a distinct identity within the Accrington Pals regiment.

- In May 2015 the Pals travelled from training at Caernarvon to Rugeley Camp where they trained until July before moving on to Ripon.

- John told us that the Pals were not issued with rifles at Caernarvon or in training at Rugeley Camp; they had to wait until they arrived at Salisbury Plain in September 1915.

- Chorley boys sent postcards and letters home during their training on the Chase.  L/Cprl Richard Ormerod writes to his sister Polly 'It is a terrible place; no one has a good name for it'. There is more information on the Pals time on the Chase together with some of the letters and images included in the presentation at this link: http://www.pals.org.uk/training.htm

- Steve also gave an entertaining account of the process of funding, commissioning and erecting the Chorley Pals Memorial, a fitting tribute, a beautiful piece of sculpture and an amazing achievement, more information at this link: http://www.chorleypalsmemorial.org.uk/

 

After lunch we had a guided tour of 'Chorley Remembers', the Chorley Pals museum and archive. The exhibition was themed in three zones – remembrance, conflicts and activity.  Many of the exhibits were donated by local people.  During the visit John, an authority on the Chorley Pals, who started his research in the 1970s when he met and interviewed some of the Chorley Pals, shared some of his wealth of knowledge with us. Before leaving we packed into the ‘Trench Experience', a simulation of a Somme trench a watched a short dramatization of a conversation between a private and an officer, both from Chorley. It is very moving, and although there is no mud, gore or smells, the battlefield noise is convincing, especially as Steve and John turned up the volume and the vibration especially for us.  More information on the museum, well worth a visit, at this link:  http://www.chorleyremembers.org.uk/experience/

 

Huge thanks to Steve Williams and John Garfield for their hospitality and sharing their knowledge with us, and to Anne for organising the visit and for driving us there and back.  A return visit is being planned for the Pals to visit Cannock Chase.

 

 More information

Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty http://www.cannock-chase.co.uk/

http://chorley.gov.uk/Pages/AtoZ/Astley-Hall.aspx

http://www.stevewilliamstalks.co.uk/books-articles/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/nord-pas-de-calais/articles/in-the-footsteps-of-the-chorley-pals-100-years-after-the-battle-of-the-somme/

'Chorley Pals' (1989) John Garfield (ISBN: 9781852160371)

'Chorley Pals'  (2009) Steve Williams and John Garfield

 

 

Landscape survey , LiDAR, field work training and workshops. (rerun of previous training)

                            Happy new year to you all for 2017, which we hope will be an active and productive one out on the Chase.

A number of volunteers requested a weekend opportunity to attend the training workshops and for those who missed it the first time around, you are invited to attend the second introductory training session on the Landscape survey, the use of LiDAR , aerial mapping and how we plan to record newly discovered features across the Chase.

 

These workshops, led by the team from Historic England will introduce you to the technology and methods used to map from above and how we plan to map on the ground for fieldwork.

 

The workshop is in two parts, and we can only accept participants for part two (field survey) if you have attended the part one previously.

(however if you can only attend part one that’s fine as there will be plenty of other field work days!)

 

Please BOOK A PLACE by a confirmation email to receive further details of these workshops – it helps us plan the refreshments !

 

We look forward to meeting soon,

Regards,

Gary

 

Introductory Training Workshop (part one)

On : Saturday 21^st January 2017

From: 10am to 1 pm

At: The Museum of Cannock Chase

Details : HERE

 

Field Work and ground survey (part two)

From 1 pm to 4 pm

At : Cannock Chase Country Park, Marquis Drive, Hednesford, Nr. Cannock, Staffordshire WS12 4PW

Details :  HERE

The View From Above

 Landscape research 1600 to 1970

End of year review .

The volunteers have begun to tackle several different strands of archival research, all currently focused on the century 1750-1850 and the parishes of Cannock, Rugeley and Colwich. Much of what we are looking at comes from the archive of the Paget family, who owned the Chase. A group looking at miscellaneous estate memoranda have found a number of interesting documents that illustrate the management of the Chase, such as lists of sheep herds and the marks used to identify them, and notes about colltages built on the edges of the Chase. The correspondence of estate agents forms a similar kind of resource, shedding light on a number of different management issues, in particular poaching. A more formulaic source is provided by estate rentals: here, a group are transcribing selected rentals in order to build up a picture of landholding around and on the Chase; we hope to compare these with the earliest maps of the Chase (notably the tithe) in order to locate holdings and the place-names that go with them, with the ultimate aim of building a picture of the social geography of the area.

 

Another group is looking at parish records, creating spreadsheets of baptisms, burials and marriages that will enable us to run a number of statistical calculations on the local population. This will tell us how the area compared to the national average, and should shed light on issues such as migration. A group looking at census returns is tackling similar issues, particularly migration (from records of place of birth) and the kinds of occupations practiced by the local inhabitants. We hope to use trade directories for similar purposes.

 

Finally, we have a student looking at quarter sessions and magistrates records, pulling out records of crimes committed on the Chase; again, this is often poaching, but also includes activities such as illegal heath burning and fern cutting.

We have enough material to keep us busy for the next few months, but are planning to hold a special session to take stock of our current progress in mid-January.

Best wishes,

Andrew Sargent

Volunteers Training and Workshops

Landscape survey , LiDAR, field work training and workshops.

 

                       Registered volunteers are invited to attend the first introductory training session on the Landscape survey, the use of LiDAR , aerial mapping and how we plan to record newly discovered features across the Chase.

The workshops, led by the team from Historic England will introduce you to the technology and methods used to map from above and how we plan to map on the ground for fieldwork.

 This workshop is in two parts, and we can only accept participants for part two (field survey) if you have attended the part one the day before.

(however if you can only attend part one that’s fine as there will be plenty of other field work days!)

 

Introductory Training Workshop (part one)

Field Work and ground survey (part two)

Sorry these workshops are now fully booked for this months training.


Please check back for dates of a repeat of the workshop.

Registered Volunteers please BOOK A PLACE by a confirmation email to receive further details of these workshops – it helps us plan the refreshments !

 

We look forward to meeting soon,

Regards,

Gary

Gary Ball

Project Coordinator

The Chase Through Time

Snapshot of the LiDAR revealing the Brocton Great War training camps (Historic England, TCTTP)