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A Mirror to Armageddon:The Archaeology of
The Great War Training Grounds
Martin Brown FSA MIfAChair – No Man’s Land
Principal Archaeologist – WYG
Culture: Material & Materiel• The Great War has
left an enormous physical legacy in landscape and individual artefacts.
• Great War Training Landscapes are meaningful artefacts.
• Where is the Front?
Landscapes of Victory or Orphan Heritage?
If I should die, think only this of me;That there's some corner of a foreign field…
(Rupert Brooke, The Soldier)
Your Country Needs You: 1914-1915
• Massive expansion of the British Army,• Integration of Commonwealth troops,• Developing training to:
– Build the New Armies from Civilian recruits,– Reflect situation in Theatre,– Introduce new weapons and tactics.
• Winning the War.
The Response
• Massive expansion of training camps and attendant infrastructure,
• Development of new training features, including specialist facilities,
• Tactical experiments and Mission Rehearsal.
Simulacra of War • Training adapts to the reality of Modern War 1914-18• Found all over the UK• Practice works:
– Build fitness– Develop unit cohesion– Teach useful construction & maintenance skills– Can be used for combat training– Can be used to teach trench routine– Can afford opportunities for pre-deployment battle
hardening– Can include trenches, mines and other fieldworks
forming simulacra of the battlefield– Can have specialist functions.
Trenches 1914: The Learning Curve
• Zandvoorde: 2nd Scots Guards
Plugstreet Wood Autumn/Winter 1914Somerset Light Infantry
Preparing for War
Guns
Gas!
Tanks!
Simulacra of War
Anzacs - Realistic Training?
Exceedingly Good Training?
• Australian trench map of trenches at The Bustard, Salisbury Plain,
• Trenches used for intensive training,
• Backfilled post 1928.
CPAT: Kinmel Park Study
Time Team: Belton House
• Archival Research• Earthwork survey• Geophysics• Targeted trenches
Seaford Camps
Cannock: A Town for Four Winters• Two Camps:
– Brocton – up to 40,000 men– Rugeley – up to 20,000 men
• Occupied from Spring 1915, used by Training Battalions of numerous units,
• Brocton also accommodated German PoW cage from 1916,
• Brocton studied by Birmingham Archaeology & No Man’s Land for Staffordshire County Council.
Little Grey Home in the West
• Temporary Camp – Almost entirely constructed of wood,
• Leaves limited archaeological traces.• Geophysical and landscape surveys useful
tools in testing surviving plans and identifying unmapped features.
Preparations for War• Some features already
located:– Numerous Practice
Trenches– Main Rifle Range
• Others not yet located/tested:– Bombing Range– Dug-outs– Artillery– Gas
The Humble Cartridge...
National Library of New Zealand 1/2-013854-G
Across the Wire
The Things They Carried• As in any Archaeology the meanings of
artefacts are part of the narrative• Soldiers carry more than their issue kit• Materiel is endlessly transformable and
mutable in form and meaning• The martial may be domesticated• The domestic may be militarised• Total War involves entire populations.
Objects in Conflict
• Even the most mundane artefacts have meaning,
• Others have remarkable stories,• Some even reveal the clash of Empires that is
the Great War.• Others had multiple meanings ascribed to
them.• Some tell incredibly personal stories.
• The Cannock Camps consume massive resources from construction to food and drink,
• Excavation of a midden revealed:– Pottery from Stoke on Trent– OK Sauce– Beer– Oysters– But no Corned Beef!– All indicative of the impact of the War on the
economy
Infrastructure and Supply
Social, Cultural and Ritual Activity
• The men are involved in a variety of practices and activities that have a material expression.
• These activities can :– Reinforce military identity, or– Assert individuality within the military machine
• They may have a practical purpose:– Building kinship groups
Meaningful Landscapes
Community Archaeology
People, Place & Things• The Great War was the first industrial, global,
total war.• Industrialisation of produce and supply make
it a material rich period.• Militarisation occurs at all levels, from
landscape to condiments and grooming products.
• The domestic landscape is militarised as is Theatre.
• This is a rich field for study.
Thank You
http://plugstreet-archaeology.com