A Mirror to Armageddon:
The Archaeology of
The Great War Training Grounds
Martin Brown FSA MIfA
Chair – 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 1914
Somerset 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
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•
•
•
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.
Infrastructure and Supply
• 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
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
[email protected]
http://plugstreet-archaeology.com