NFNPA Archaeology – Page 18 – New Forest Knowledge

New Forest Remembers – Untold Stories of World War II Final Report

The Heritage Lottery Funded ‘New Forest Remembers – Untold Stories of World War II’ archaeology project was established by the NFNPA in 2012 in order to address the current lack of knowledge and understanding of the New Forest’s Second World War structures and features. It was felt that a detailed investigation and an adequate assessment of this period were urgently required before individual memories of the war are lost, and a large resource becomes unavailable.

The project area included the land covered by the New Forest District Council and the New Forest National Park. The park alone covers an area of approximately 220 square miles and sits to the west of Southampton on the south coast of England. It comprises of open forest, heath land and coast line with much of area being Crown Lands. The New Forest is used by 1000s of tourists, the commoners and is a working landscape for much of the year. It is this landscape, ease of access and strategic location that made it so important during the Second World War.

The project was broadly divided into four phases. The first phase (data collection and assessment) was used to inform and enhance the following three phases (phase 2: field surveys and dissemination; phase 3: memories; and phase 4: understanding and learning about wartime New Forest) over the course of the project.
The first phase resulted in detailed reports, which drew together information about World War II installations all over the New Forest area from a wide range of sources. This information was collated into a database that listed approximately 40,000 individual records for structures and sites. The significance of these sites was assessed relative to national and local examples and based on their frequency and state of survival. Phase two involved visiting the sites identified in the Desk Based Assessment and via the National Mapping Programme to confirm, asses, identified and record visible features.

Final Report

This has been presented as an enhanced archaeological assessment as the New Forest Remembers project has set a challenge to address the need for enhanced understanding of the impact of World War II within the New Forest. Such information is urgently required at this time before individual memories and knowledge is lost. The New Forest Remembers project set about this challenge and has produced various tools and opportunities that continue to add to this knowledge well beyond the funded window of the project.

One hugely successful project that continues to deliver was the setting up of the New Forest Remembers Portal where visitors and residents could add their own stories and information to the knowledge pool. All the articles from New Forest Remembers Portal have been imported into New Forest Knowledge, which came about due to the success of the New Forest Remembers portal. Those specific articles can be found here: New Forest Remembers Contributions

The enhanced assessment is an update of the original Desk Based Assessment produced by Maritime Archaeology Ltd with all the results following a period of fieldwork, acquisition of oral histories and identifying additional archive material.

“CLICK HERE” to download the Final Report

Sections: 1 – 3.3 are mostly the original work produced by MA Ltd though additional new Sections: 2.5 – 2.11 have been added regarding the fieldwork and oral history phases as well as archiving and dissemination. The Assessment of Records: Detailed Review Based on Sub-Units (Section 3.4) has been updated with mini ‘Field Survey’, ‘Site Improvement’ and ‘Further Work Required’ reports. If this has resulted in an updated significance this is clearly identified in the tables. The final section of recommendations and conclusions has also been updated with reference to the newly acquired information and data.

Click on the links below to download.

Photos:

Site & Feature Photos

Event Photos

Final Report Appendices

Appendix 1: Original Maritime Archaeology Limited Project DBA – New Forest Remembers World War II MA1832 Final

Appendix 2 & 3: Original MA Limited Project DBA – MA1832 – Monument Classification System

Appendix 4: Original MA Limited Project DBA – MA1832 – Gazetteer

Appendix 5: New Forest Remembers National Mapping Final Report (Download from Historic England website)

Appendix 6: New Forest Remembers Volunteer Roles

Appendix 7: Bucklers Hard Arch Evaluation Report. Wessex Archaeology

Appendix 8: Park Farm Arch Evaluation Report. Bournemouth Archaeology

Appendix 9: Dibden Bay Survey Report. University of Southampton

Appendix 10: DA45 – BREAMORE MILL Report

Appendix 11: Geophysics Report – Battle HQ Bunkers

Appendix 12: Structural Condition Surveys

Appendix 13: DP Consent Form V3 amended Nov 2012 Final – OH Section

Appendix 14: Ashley Walk Ministry of Home Security Target, New Forest, Hampshire, Geophysical Survey Report. Wessex Archaeology

Appendix 15: NFNPA WWII PROJECT – ORAL HISTORY RECORDING AGREEMENT

Appendix 16: Notes for – Oral History Transcription Checkers

Appendix 17: Oral History Team Training – Podcasting & editing

Appendix 18: Oral History Index EXCEL SHEET

Appendix 19: Oral History Training – Interviewer

Appendix 20: TEMPLATE – Name Code – Name – OH Transcription

Appendix 21: Volunteer Agreement Letter – Template

Appendix 22: List of War Diaries relevant pages and records held by NFNPA

Appendix 23: New Forest Remembers Interpretation Panels

Appendix 24: New Forest Remembers Online media articles

Appendix 25: Solent 70 Final Report

Appendix 26: Junkers JU 88 Handling Collection by MAT

Acknowledgements

The project team would like to express their gratitude to all those individuals, groups and societies who made the New Forest Remembers Project such a success. The list of individual names involved is immense, but is testament to the interest and demand for knowledge and information on this defining period of New Forest history. In no particular order thank you are owed to the funders who made the project possible; the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), New Forest National Park Authority (NFNPA), Higher Level Stewardship Scheme (HLS) distributed through the New Forest Verderers, ExxonMobil at Fawley and the New Forest Centre. Thank you to the wide range of project partners and stakeholders for their advice, support and continued engagement with the project. Thank you to the large number of landowners who allowed our volunteer teams to walk their property recording and assessing the extant archaeology.

The project is hugely in debt to its dedicated team of volunteers; without who the following project report would look very different. Our volunteer teams have been involved with all aspects of the project; field survey, research, educational work, recording and transcribing memories and sharing their knowledge with both the project and the wider community. Directly linked to the volunteer work on the oral histories is a big thank you to the community of contributors who happily shared their memories and personal archives and allowed the project to add levels of detail and illumination to the surviving WWII archaeology on the New Forest and reveal information about sites that have long since disappeared. These memories allow the entire New Forest community to find something to relate to and engage with and ensure we don’t forget this important period in our shared history.

We would also like to express our gratitude to the all the NFNPA staff who have helped with various elements of the project since its conception and the team at Maritime Archaeology Ltd for their well informed and wide-ranging input into the project. Finally, the New Forest Remembers intends to continue to support and champion the work of the individuals and groups who have contributed to the project in their ongoing work, research and engagement with the New Forest community as their work is essential in preserving our history for future generations.

James Brown MSc PCifA and Gareth Owen BSc (Hons) ACIfA – New Forest Remembers Project Officers

New Forest Roman Pottery – John Durden Collection

John Durden Collection
by newforestarch
on Sketchfab

New Forest Roman Pottery: the centenary of Heywood Sumner’s excavation at Ashley Rails – Abstract & Video

The following paper was presented at the New Forest Knowledge Conference 2017 entitled: New Forest Historical Research and Archaeology: who’s doing it? Below you will find the abstract of the paper and a video of the paper given if permission to film it was given by the speaker.

Speaker:

Professor Michael Fulford, University of Reading, Dept. of Archaeology

Abstract

Although its products have strong links with main stream repertoires, the New Forest Roman pottery industry nevertheless has a very distinctive character. The paper will summarise what we have learnt about the New Forest Roman pottery industry since Heywood Sumner’s pioneering excavations began at Ashley Rails in 1917. It will touch on the kilns and the organisation of production, the range of vessel types produced, their distinctive schemes of decoration, and their distributions.

The Talk

New Forest Round Up 1951

Film footage from British Pathe of New Forest Pony round up in 1951.

FILM ID:1295.13

Description:

C/U Little girl getting on pony. Group, with horses waiting. Party moving off on horseback through Stoney Cross where you can still see buildings surviving from the old airfield site. M/S Wild ponies grazing. (2 shots). Horseman signalling with whip. Ponies galloping across moor. L/S Ponies being rounded up. C/U Type looking through field-glasses. Group of ponies rushing past camera. L/S Ponies being rounded up. C/U Horseman coming through gorse. Another horseman galloping after ponies.

L/S Wild ponies running over moor, camera follows – Dissolve to- L/S and M/S Ponies being shepherded into paddock. C/U Girls watching. C/U and M/S Ponies in pen. M/S and C/U Man shearing tails of ponies. M/S Releasing pony which dashes off. M/S Small boy watching. L/S Mother and foal running across moor. Human mother and child watching. Mother and foal trotting down lane.

For further reading and articles on Stoney Cross Airfield please visit: Stoney Cross Overview

New Forest Salterns – An Overview

From at least the late Bronze Age onwards, the flat coastal areas of the New Forest have been important for the sea-salt industry that flourished until the middle of the 19th century, resulting in large saltern complexes and large areas of the coastal marsh landscape surviving today.

Salt has always been an important commodity, and not just for culinary purposes – it was also used as part of the tanning process, and before the invention of fridges and freezers, as a preservative. Since at least the Iron Age, salt was extracted from sea-water by evaporation at places along the New Forest coast. Salt would then be carried inland across the New Forest to settlements using donkeys or packhorses along well-worn routes.

During the 1700’s Lymington and the New Forest coast became the centre of salt production on the south coast following an industrial approach to producing salt, making use of the flat coastline and double tides. A continuous line of salt works occupied the 5 miles of coastline from Lymington to Hurst Spit as well as large areas of the Beaulieu River bank and Southampton Water shore. By the late 18th century, there were 149 salt pans functioning along the Solent. These mainly consisted of large areas of evaporation ponds, wind pumps to move the concentrated saline solution to coal fired boiling houses containing metal pans to complete the process of making the salt crystals.

The sea salt manufacture in the New Forest was seasonal, depending on good weather, but on average the season was sixteen weeks. Each salt pan in a boiling house would produce about 3 tons a week and Lymington supplied most of Southern England with salt and also exported large quantities to the Newfoundland fisheries and other areas.

Salt became an easy target for heavy taxation; in 1755, £57,891 worth of tax was collected, showing how large and important the industry was to the area. However by the end of the 18th century the rising taxes, coupled with a few bad seasons and the arrival of better transport making the cheaper mined salt from Cheshire easier to supply saw the rapid decline of the Solent salt pans. The last salt house closed in 1865 and within a few years the boiling houses were removed and the salt-ponds filled up and levelled off for grazing. Two buildings survive from this industry in Lymington and the landscape designed to flood has become famous as a wading bird nature reserve.

You can find out more about specific Salterns and the New Forest salt industry in the following articles:

Salterns

New Forest Salt Industry and Heritage

New Forest Knowledge Saltern search

Newtown Ice House

Following the work recording the Ice House at Beaulieu the New Forest National Park Authority were approached about other Ice Houses across the New Forest some of which were known and others which weren’t. One of the listed Ice Houses at Newtown Estate has been the subject of further recording and research due to the potential similarity with Beaulieu.

The Newtown Ice House is a Listed Grade II structure with the following basic information:

Early C19. Brick structure under earth. 1½m long low passage leads into top of 3m diameter domed chamber which is at least 2m deep, the bottom being well covered by debris.

The Newtown Ice House is covered by a insulating mound, which is much larger than required suggesting that the earth mound was likely added to and landscaped to be used as a Victorian garden and observation point; the mound does offer some great views towards the Isle of Wight.

To try and understand more about the Ice House; it’s construction, use, adaptation if any and current state we commissioned Archaeovision to undertake a detailed laser scan of the structure. The results were a 3D model, images and some detailed CAD drawings. The results have shown that the Newtown Icehouse is in very good condition with little damage from the established tree roots (the trees have now been removed) or the animal burrows.

Newtown Park Ice House Laser Scan Animation

Newtown Park Ice House from Archaeovision on Vimeo.

Comparison with Beaulieu

Though the ice houses at Beaulieu and Newtown look very similar to the eye leading to discussion on whether they might have been built at the same time by the same builder, the detailed recording has shown that there are a lot of differences.

So what is an ice house?

Brick underground ice houses can be found in the grounds of many large and not so large estates. In England, the first were constructed in the early 17th century by King James I who is credited with having one built at Greenwich in 1616. One of the earliest ice houses once existed in the grounds of the Queen’s House at Lyndhurst probably constructed before the end of the 17^th century. They remained popular with wealthy landowners on their estates until the end of the 19th century when refrigeration was being introduced and ice was being produced commercially rather than being imported. Domestic refrigeration becoming more common from the 1920s onwards.

The underground chambers provided a temperature controlled environment allowing ice cut from local fresh water supplies in winter or imported ice to be stored for long periods of time. The ice house typically contains a drain at its base that would have originally allowed waste water to drain away as ice melted. In many cases ice could remain in the ice house for anything between 12 and 18 months. The ice houses could also be used to store food at the same time as the ice thus prolonging it’s shelf life. As well as preserving food, ice could also be used to create a freezing compound in the ice house by combining it with salt. Placing a container within the freezing compound allows any liquid to be frozen and was the traditional method for producing ice cream.

NFNPA Archaeology Volunteers

New Forest National Park Authority archaeology volunteers take part in regular field survey across the New Forest along with opportunities to take part in excavations, geophysical survey, graveyard survey, training and much much more. Please get in touch if you are interested in volunteering with the New Forest National Park Authority.

No.2 Wall Target at Ashley Walk

No.2 Wall Target (removed prior to 1975) was 40ft square and formed of two 9″ thick re-inforced concrete walls joined together with re-inforced concrete beams. (Pasmore and Parker, 2006. Ashley Walk Its bombing range landscape and history)

On this site the Ashley Range Overview page has links to pages about the other targets on the range.

No.3 Wall Target and the testing of Highball at Ashley Walk Bombing Range

No 3 Wall Target at Ashley Walk Bombing range was very different to the other wall targets, it was constructed to test “bouncing bombs” as designed by Dr. Barnes Wallis. Before 1943 the wall was 8’ 10’’ (2.7m) high, 6’ (1.8m) thick, and 20’ (6.1m) long. The wall was faced with 2’’ (5cm) of armour plate.

The wall was initially used for testing the Highball bouncing bomb. Two of these could be carried and deployed by a single De Havilland Mosquito aircraft. These bombs (technically mines, as it is the increase in water pressure as the mine sinks that sets off the fuse) were designed to be used against large ships. The Mosquito would approach at high speed and low altitude, aiming for the side of the ship, before dropping the mine. It would bounce on the water’s surface before hitting the hull of the ship and then sinking.

It was not meant to penetrate the hull but, like with the Dam Busters Upkeep bomb ‘hugging’ the dams wall as it sinks due to its rotation, the Highball was designed to hug the hull as it sinks then fall directly under the keel and sinking, detonating directly under the ship.

Ashley Walk was not the first choice for the tests but due to bad weather over the water of the other test sites Ashley became a good stand-in. The trials were filmed and this Top Secret footage still survives today. The full film footage of these trials is held at the Imperial War Museum but a short film has been edited by the project team can be found below.

In August 1943 the No 3 wall was extended in length by 90’ (27.4m) to allow testing of the “Upkeep” bouncing bomb. This is the bomb that was used during the famous Dam-Busters Raid which took place in May 1943. Specially modified Avro Lancasters were used to carry the Upkeep bomb. It is interesting to note that though it is generally considered that the Upkeep bomb was not used after the Dam Raid. It would appear that tests were carried out at Ashley Walk after the dam raids to see if the Upkeep bomb could be adapted to breach beach sea wall defences in France with D-Day approaching.

The target now survives as a long low mound of earth and debris. It is also possible to find areas of concrete in the vicinity of the target that are the remains of the concrete ballast used instead of explosive material in the Highball bouncing bombs during testing.

WWII Bouncing Bomb Tests at Ashley Walk, New Forest 1943

No1 New Milton

New Milton Town Council and the Milton Heritage Society are working together with the aim to provide a community based project for residents and visitors of New Milton to learn about and interact with local history. The No1 New Milton project focuses on converting the derelict Station Master’s House (1886) into a new heritage centre, providing a unique opportunity to build awareness and interest in the town’s heritage and its links to the New Forest.

The London and South Western railway line that created New Milton was driven through the New Forest and the story of how the railway line was created will be told as it is central to the creation and naming of New Milton town.

The centre will contain several rooms displaying archived materials from local sources including New Milton Library, St Barbe Museum and Red House Museum as well as donations from residents and local businesses. ‘Voices from the Past’ will be recorded, capturing first hand memories from local residents for visitors to listen to and learn from.

New Milton grew up as a post-railway settlement superimposed upon a sparsely populated forest and coastal landscape. Milton village was in the New Forest at the time of the Domesday book and small clusters of farm settlements and a single recognisable village (Old Milton) have been subsumed into an almost entirely new town over little more than a century. The centre will tell the story of the early history of the parish from fossils at Barton and the flint tools found throughout the area as well as talking about the villagers and their use of the local common land; Barton, Ashley and Chewton Commons were all used. The town’s unique location provides a great opportunity to reconnect people to the long and rich history of the parish and the Station Master’s House, in particular provides the perfect central, recognisable space for people to explore and interact with display materials.

This project is being supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund through the Our Past, Our Future Landscape Partnership Scheme and the New Forest National Park Authority’s Sustainable Communities Fund.

You can read more about the project in this information article circulated by the Milton Heritage Society: Number One New Milton

If you are interested in finding out more, donating or helping please contact the Milton Heritage Society through their website linked above.

Contributor: NFNPA Archaeology