Scars of WW2 in South Kensington

If you’ve ever visited London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (commonly known as the V&A) in South Kensington, you probably went in via the main entrance on Cromwell Road. The museum also has a side façade running along Exhibition Road, but if you walked that way you were probably heading for the Science Museum, in which case you were on the other side of the road. If so you missed an astonishing sight, because that whole side of the V&A is disfigured by bomb damage that dates from World War Two – almost 80 years ago.

The museum was fortunate in that it never received a direct hit, but it bears countless small scars caused by shrapnel and debris from explosions nearby. The inscription pictured above reads:

The damage to these walls is the result of enemy bombing during the Blitz of the Second World War 1939 – 1945 and is left as a memorial to the enduring values of this great museum in a time of conflict.

The “enemy” in question was, of course, Germany – which is ironic, because the Albert in “Victoria and Albert” was a German himself. Officially known as Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Queen Victoria’s husband was born in a castle about a hundred kilometres north of Nuremberg.

Here is a wider angle shot of the area around the inscription:

The next five photographs form a sequence walking back towards Cromwell Road:

Even this telephone box appears to have suffered shrapnel damage:

For many more unusual sights in London, don’t forget to check out Random Encounters on the London Tourist Trail.

Pictures by Andrew May, October 2018.

Gun End of Base?

If you live in the Salisbury area you will likely be familiar with the ancient site of Old Sarum. Old Sarum was originally an Iron Age hill fort, and following the Roman invasion of Great Britain it became the Roman settlement of Sorviodunum (43 AD – 410 AD). The site remained in use as a fortified settlement during the Saxon era and the Normans erected a motte and baily castle on the site (circa 1069).

A cathedral was built on the site between 1075 and 1092 and this was followed by the construction of a Royal Palace within the inner castle between 1130 – 1139. As the hill fort of Old Sarum was somewhat exposed to the elements, it was eventually decided to relocate the cathedral to a less exposed position, and in 1220 the construction of what would become New Sarum (Salisbury) Cathedral commenced. The general populous of Old Sarum followed the relocation of the cathedral, and Salisbury began to emerge as a settlement as the population moved themselves and their homes from Old Sarum. By 1240 the majority of the local population had abandoned Old Sarum in favour of Salisbury. Even though Old Sarum was now effectively population-less it still retained the right to send two members of parliament to the House of Commons. As such Old Sarum became known as one of the most famous “Rotten Boroughs” in the land, with wealthy people owning the land to ensure that they could become elected to parliament.

What most visitors to Old Sarum will miss however is a stone monument on the opposite side of the A345 to Old Sarum, which sits half way between Old Sarum and the Portway roundabout. The monument is marked on Ordnance Survey maps and on 1:25,000 scale maps and it is accompanied by the cryptic label “Gun End of Base”. The monument itself clearly explains its purpose and bears the following inscription  “In 1794 a line from this site to Beacon Hill was measured by Capt W Mudge of the Ordnance Survey as a base for the triangulation of Great Britain”.

It seems that in 1794 Captain William Mudge (1762 – 1820) of the Royal Artillery measured the distance between the site of the monument and nearby Beacon Hill, which is approximately 7 miles north east of Old Sarum and can be found between the A303 and the village of Bulford. This measurement apparently became the baseline from which the first definitive mapping survey of Great Britain began. The label “Gun End of Base” on today’s Ordnance Survey map apparently refers to the spot at which a cannon was buried vertically in the ground. It seems that the buried cannon would have been used as a point for Mudge to erect his theodolite on, prior to him making his measurements.

The question that springs to my mind is whether the label “Gun End of Base” appears on any other Ordnance Survey maps or if it is particular to Old Sarum. Time to get looking!

The monument to Captain William Mudge.

Old Sarum from a distance.

Information board showing an aerial view of Old Sarum.

Looking towards Old Sarum's motte.

The motte and its protective ditch.

Ruins inside the motte.

Looking out from the motte towards the ruins of the Old Sarum Cathedral.

New Sarum Cathedral can be seen in the distance.

A model showing what the motte may have once looked like.

Pictures, Wiltshire (August 2014).

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Uncovering an Unknown Building

Over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of August I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time helping a local archaeology team who are seeking to understand an unknown building that has been discovered in the hamlet of Bincknoll in Wiltshire.  

Bincknoll (pronounced Bynol) is a secluded rural hamlet that lies in the shadow of a former 11th Century (Norman) motte and bailey castle (Bincknoll Castle). The castle is believed to have been the seat of power for the local land owner of the period and today all that remains of this castle are some partial earthworks, which hint at what the site used to be. Bincknoll is also believed to have once been home to a medieval chapel and there is some documentary evidence that hints at its existence. However the location of this chapel has never been identified.

Finding the location of this medieval chapel recently became a possibility when a local home owner removed some trees from her lawn and uncovered what appeared to be a wall and some rubble from an previously unknown building. The wall that has been uncovered is made from chalk stone and has a west-east alignment, which interestingly does not align to any other local features (e.g. the road). Buildings with a west-east alignment are typical of Christian places of worship.  

With the possibility that the unknown building is medieval and may be the previously unlocated Bincknoll Chapel the excavations on site began.

The main aims of the excavation are to understand the extent of the building and its relation to the local landscape and to find features of the structure and contextual evidence that will enable it to be dated with some degree of confidence. Finding the original floor level of the building is a key objective, as the construction of the floor is likely to shed considerable light on the nature of the unknown building.

During my 2 days helping on the dig the wall and rubble field were uncovered to begin to understand the extent of the site and to enable the features to be charted and recorded. During these initial excavations a number of finds were made, which included:

• Fragments of roof tiles.
• Pig and sheep bones.
• Pieces of mortar, and also what seems to be some mortar in situ on the outside wall of the building (this possibly shows that the outside of the building was once rendered?).
• Oyster shells, which are apparently typical of Roman occupation in the area.
• Flint cores and flint shards, which typically date from the Mesolithic era (10,000 - 4,000 years BC).
• A possible piece of plaster with a thin surface of paint on it. If the building did have painted plaster it would hint towards it being a place a worship. 
• Pieces of early medieval pottery. 
• A return wall, enabling the team to be confident that they know what is the inside and what is the outside of the building.   

The dig will continue for a number of weeks, and once the team have planned and documented the exposed walls and rubble field they will slowly remove sections of the rubble field to explore the building. Painstakingly the team will remove layers from the site and eventually they may reach the original floor level. Hopefully during the dig the team will uncover suitable evidence to enable them to date the building and understand its former purpose, and maybe they might even be able to prove that it is actually the medieval Bincknoll Chapel.

The Bincknoll dig is being organized and managed by Broad Town Archaeology and the Wiltshire Archaeology Field Group, visit their Facebook pages to find out more!

Day 1 - The site ready for excavations to begin. The home owner had already uncovered some of the rubble field after removing some trees from the lawn. The wall of the building is on the right hand side of the picture.

Day 1 - The wall of the unknown building, which runs along a west to east alignment.

Day 1 - The other end of the site, marked out and ready for exploration. 

Day 1 - The wall and the rubble field are slowly uncovered. A trench is opened on what is believed to be the outside of the building to explore the depth of the wall.

Day 1 - At the end of the first day. The team continue to slowly uncover the rubble field and the trench outside the building is prepared for documentation.

Day 2 - Mrs J continues to expand the trench downwards. 

Day 2 - The wall and rubble field are cleaned ready for planning and documentation. 

Day 2 - Planning commences, objects of interest are marked using flags and a grid is used to enable the site to be sketched.

Day 2 - The hard job! The rubble field and wall have to be documented and planned before any rocks can be lifted to enable the team the excavate deeper. 

Day 2 - Some of the finds from Mrs J's trench, a flint core and some flint chippings - evidence of flint knapping on the site. 

Day 2 - Some of the finds from Mrs J's trench, mortar from the unknown building. 

Some of the remaining earth works at Bincknoll Castle.

The view from Bincknoll Castle, looking towards the M4.

Pictures, Wiltshire (August 2014).

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The Wonders of Uffington

In this blog I have previously mentioned the Oxfordshire village of Uffington as the home of the Uffington White Horse, which is thought to be the oldest white horse in Britain. It was not until I recently visited Uffington however that I became aware of some of the other wonders that the local landscape has to offer.

The white horse lives next to Uffington Castle. Uffington Castle is an Iron Age bank and ditch style hill fort which encloses around 8 acres of land and commands extensive views over the local countryside, as can be seen in the below photos.

Uffington Castle's earthworks. 

Uffington Castle's earthworks and extensive views. 

Information board.

Directly below the white horse is a small chalk hillock that has a seemingly artificial flat top. This hillock is known as Dragon Hill. This hill is linked to the legend of King George and the dragon. The legend claims that the summit of the hill is where Saint George slew the dragon, and that the bare patch of chalk that can be seen is where the dragon’s blood spilled (and hence no grass will now grow there).

It has also been suggested that Dragon Hill may have been used for Iron Age rituals that were associated with the white horse.

Looking from above the horses' head down towards Dragon Hill.

Dragon Hill. 

Looking back up towards the white horse from Dragon Hill.

The other local feature, that is about a mile walk along the Ridgeway from Uffington Castle, is the Neolithic long barrow which is known as Wayland’s Smithy.

This tomb dates from around 3700 BC and is about 56m long by 13m wide. When the tomb was excavated in the 1960’s it was found to contain the remains of 14 people, who seem to have been de-fleshed before burial.

The name of the tomb derives from its association by the Saxons with the Germanic god Wayland (also known as Wolund) who was a smith. The Saxons began to live in the area around 4000 years after the tomb was built and the Saxon association of the tomb with Wayland the Smith gave rise to an interesting legend. Apparently if a traveller had a horse that had lost a shoe, leaving the horse and a silver coin (as payment) at the tomb overnight would result in the horse being re-shod by morning.

Information board.

Side view of the long barrow.

Front view of the long barrow.

The entrance.

Looking from the back to the front of the long barrow.

Even though the long barrow of Wayland’s Smithy is around 5700 years old it seems that practice of using long barrows as tombs has not died out entirely. The village of All Cannings, near Devizes in Wiltshire, will soon be home to a new long barrow which is currently under construction. Once completed, paying customers will be able to book their place in eternity in the long barrow - a method of burial that was once reserved only for the social elite of ancient Britain (December 2013 news article, January 2014 news article).

Pictures, Oxfordshire (December 2013).

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London's Texan Embassy

The below picture was taken on St James's Street in London, where St James's Street joins Pall Mall (opposite St James's Palace). On the corner of these two streets you will find a shop with a black frontage, which is the wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd Ltd (No. 3 St James's Street). To the left of the shop there is an alleyway which leads to Pickering Place.  It is on the entrance to this alleyway where the below plaque can be found.

The plaque reads:

Texas Legation

In this building was the Legation for the ministers from the Republic of Texas to the Court of St James 1842 - 1845.

Erected by The Anglo - Texan Society

In 1836 Texas declared its independence from Mexico (an independence that the Mexican government did not recognise) and from 1842 the new Republic of Texas maintained an embassy (a Legation) in London at this location (No. 4 St James's Street). This embassy was short lived however, because in 1845 Texas joined the United States and its brief spell as an independent state came to an end. Not being well versed on my American history I was somewhat surprised to find out about Texas's short stint as an independent state and its former embassy in London.

The plaque at the entrance to Pickering Place. 

Pictures, London (May 2012).

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