The Larkhill Excavation
Update
November 2012
As part of the Layers of Larkhill project it was planned that the community would be able to
carry out some archaeological excavation either within, or close to the Garrison camp. As a
first stage of identifying possible sites for excavation, geophysical survey was carried out in
four main areas. Two of these main areas were within Larkhill’s Garrison area; the first in the
grounds of what is now the primary school just south of the Packway and the second in front
of and near to the Packway Officers’ Mess (currently 32nd Regiment Royal Artillery's Officers'
Mess). These areas showed massive disturbance and interference from buried metal,
something that had perhaps been hinted at by the one small test pit that the team had dug in
the grounds of the project headquarters, the ‘Layers Den’. This had been full of the sort of
debris that would be left behind after the demolition of the old ‘tin hut’ camps.
The third area of Fargo Farm, just west of the camp on land now farmed by Mr Ian Baxter,
was much more promising. We chose this area to survey as there were records of possible
Roman buildings as well as some strange roughly circular structures that showed up on aerial
photographs and which we assumed must be military in origin. So we had two possible
‘layers’ of history here; Roman and 20th century military.
The geophysical survey showed up the possible military structures very clearly, seven of
them, arranged in a row and not circular but eight sided. There were also hints of hut bases
and a pair of fainter parallel lines running across the survey area which we thought looked a
lot older.
We needed to explore these structures to find out how old they were and to get some idea of
why they had been constructed and how they might have been used. We started by hand
digging some trenches across the ‘old’ ditches and found that they had been dug about 3000
years ago, in the late Bronze Age, a time when Stonehenge had gone out of use. The soils
that filled the ditches contained pottery, animal bones and flint tools, showing that people were
living in this spot, just a few hundred metres away from where today’s soldiers and their
families live in Larkhill Garrison. We now know, from digging more trenches across these
ditches, that they stretch for over 100 metres and disappear into fields to the south of Fargo
Road. Why they were dug is still a mystery.
Our first trench across one of the eight sided structures that had showed up so clearly on the
geophysical survey revealed a deep ditch cut into the chalk and filled in with chalk. There
were no finds to give as a clue about its date and purpose but the bottom of the ditch was
smooth and looked as if it had been trampled by many boots. We clearly need to look at a
bigger area and so, thanks to Mr Baxter the farmer, we were able to strip the soil of a large
area to expose just over half of one of these trench structures. We then dug over two
weekends, with a team consisting of young Royal Artillery soldier recruits and local
volunteers, both military and civilian, all under archaeological guidance. We found nothing
inside the area enclosed by the ditch but did find the way in. This was a ramp leading in from
the south side which had been filled in, not with chalk, but with an astonishing collection of
military debris. NAAFI china, Brylcreem bottles, tubes of toothpaste and tins of boot polish
were mixed in with a stove chimney, flattened ammunition boxes and a range of cartridge
cases that dated the filling in to the end of WW2. This was clearly what had produced a
strong geophysical signal on the southern side of the trench, and the same sort of signal next
to each of the eight sided trenches presumably means that they each have an entrance ramp
and that they are all filled with the same sort of debris.
A final dig across one of the most westerly structures showed that the trench here was lined
with corrugated iron supported on metal posts. We now know why the geophysical survey
indicated massive metallic interference!
We have just started work studying the finds from the excavation and a full report will be
available shortly.
This was a great excavation, a fascinating combination of prehistory and military history
(those ‘Layers’ of history) that gave those who volunteered to help the experience of digging
into their own past. This was particularly the case for the young soldiers, following in the boot
steps of their military forbears who had lived and trained at Larkhill nearly 70 years ago.
If you wish to get involved with this project, please visit the Layers of Larkhill website at
http://www.layersoflarkhill.co.uk/ for details of the programme.
Julian Richards
Layers of Larkhill
Project Archaeologist
Julian@layersoflarkhill.co.uk Mobile 07974 913878