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

Martin.brown@wyg.com

http://plugstreet-archaeology.com