More Music and Dance Saturday, August 14th, 2010
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Martin was away in Brittany with Chippenham Town Morris last weekend. He discovered that after he had told the news of Alan Mather’s identification to the rest of the side in July they had gone to the pub and drunk a toast to Alan.
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Also while away Martin and Dave C were asked to sing “Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by the Squire (boss) in memory of Alan. It wasn’t up to June Tabor’s standard but was equally felt.
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http://www.chippenhammorris.com/
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Filed under: Music by
Kirsty's Team
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On Larks Ascending Saturday, August 14th, 2010
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One of the major elements that the project wished to pursue at its inception was a multi-disciplinary approach. To this end, in addition to the archaeological survey and fieldwork, there have been components such as photography, art and music.
Some may remember the visit of the renowned Wagnerian opera singer, Sir John Tomlinson (the Wotan of his generation!), to site in 2007. This summer another opera singer, Amanda, visited. She had performed a stirring rendition of ‘Advance Australia Fair’ at Alan’s funeral and it was our privilege to show her round the excavations.
James and Martin provided a musical evening at the Peace village with small pipes and mandola (and such hits as ‘Follow me ‘ome’) whilst another astonishing element was occurring back in the UK
At the hour of Alan’s burial, the famous folk singer June Tabor was singing three songs in his memory; ‘the Reaper’, ‘Long, Long, Trail’ and (for he is now at peace), ‘Waiting for the Lark’. June had been moved by Alan’s story and it was very special that she wanted to sing in his memory – the last song chosen as Alan was now ‘at peace’. Those not familiar with June’s beautiful voice and her association with the Great War can listen to some of her work on the link below.
http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-music.html
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Filed under: Music by
Richard
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Floral Tributes Saturday, August 14th, 2010
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The team must extend huge thanks to Sara Redstone and Carlos at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for providing the beautiful wreath laid down at Pte Mather’s funeral by the team. With their experience of creating wreaths for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to lay down at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday they were able to create a stunning tribute. Composed of Australian flowers and foliage such as kangaroo’s paw and eucalyptus the other crucial element was a leaf of Kurrajong – the nickname of Alan’s unit within the 33rd Btn.
To them our sincere thanks
 Detail of Australian plants |
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Filed under: Uncategorized by
Richard
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Wreaths and epitaphs for a soldier. Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
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“So far from home, never forgotten, may you rest in peace bearing an honoured name.”
It was with those words, the family of Alan James Mather, left his remains in a quiet cemetery in Belgium surrounded by wheat and cornfields and grazing cattle.
Listen to a radio interview with Kim Bloomfield, great grand niece of Alan Mather, speaks about their experiences in Belgium.
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Filed under: A Dig Diary by
PlugStreetTeam
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Team Nosferatu’s epic descent Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
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Nosferatu swung into action again this year after Jon’s unavoidable 2009 absence in the Occupied West Bank. Team this year was mostly old veterans and fully international. Returnees were Keith (Britain), Paola (Italy), James (USA), Swantje (Germany), Nicolas (Wallonie) and new arrival Christine (Britain).
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In order to raise the tone of what might otherwise be an unseemly display of grubbiness we dressed for lunch each day in No1 mess dress black high vis. We were promised a machine, and were very excited about it digging down to where we left off in 2008. Unfortunately the bosses seem to have found it in a Kinder Surprise and it barely managed to take out 500mm. And so the epic descent began.
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Finds were few, though they included the Australian shoulder title and several bullets which were badly distorted after ricocheting off Kirsty’s concrete blockhouse. When we finally hit the top of the feature there was heavy wood galore. This included a possible door with embedded .303 bullet, and heavy mortice and tennon joints. In situ was a pump for drinking water. Apart from being broken this was in perfect condition as we had reached a nice blue anaerobic layer. This also produced a roll of paper. The finds team will excavate it back at Bradford, but we believe it is either a mediaeval manuscript looted from Brugge, or a toilet roll.
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 Cleaning up after the machine  Back to 2008 part 1  Back to 2008 part 2: The Descent Continues  Back to 2008 part 3: Hitting Plastic 
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 Extending the staircase  Setting the tone  Getting stuck in to the anaerobic layer
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Filed under: A Dig Diary by
Nosferatu Actual
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A Director writes (2) Monday, August 2nd, 2010
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Monday evening, back in the UK, time for a swift resume of the year.
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The remarkable start to the season was, of course, Alan Mather’s funeral and the opportunity to meet and make friends with his lovely family – if you’re reading this here are some big hellos and hugs from the other side of the world. The privilege of seeing this part of our research come to such a striking and meaningful end was enormous.
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This year we were able to open two separate areas, with two trenches in each. At Ultimo crater we re-opened two trenches from previous years. Avril investigated further areas of her German communication trench and its associated alcove/shelter that seems to have been used as a housing for electrical or telephone equipment. It also included remains of a rudimentary hearth and a small cauldron, so it looks like the German sparks had a constant brew going.
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Meanwhile Jon’s team were able to go back into what we though was either a mortar pit or a shallow dugout. However, following a bit more research and a chat with Johan Vandewalle we now think we are looking at a destroyed tunnel, perhaps leading to an incline to a deep dugout.
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Over at our new site we looked at two German trenches, one on a piece of the third line of the German A stellung (front defence), and the other looking at a German communication trench running back to it from the second line. Steve and team on the fire trench found evidence of some serious shell damage, as well as some rather older pottery than 1914, showing that this was an old landscape by the time the armies arrived. Kirsty’s team looked at the Comm Trench. It had been created in an older ditch running from a medieval moated site. Both had unusual U shaped concrete ducts or gutters in them.
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Meanwhile, the Finds team up at Messines worked on the material we produced and found time to conserve a wonderful Lee-Enfield rifle found during building works at a nearby farm and donated to the local museum in Warneton.
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At the same time the two Peters walked miles in the landscape doing, respectively, their geophysics and map work, as well as further project-related art work.
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A few Thank You’s:
- Nelly and Claude at the Auberge Nelly et Claude, Ploegsteert, for friendship and amazing food.
- The Peace Village Messines for looking after us so well.
- Liz and Gen for their sponsorship.
- All our new Australian friends.
- Both our lovely welcoming farmers! Without whom none of this would happen. A la prochaine…
- Everyone in the team (including the dog) in whatever role – you made Richard and my lives so much easier and our holiday so relaxed.
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Filed under: A Dig Diary, Archaeology by
Martin
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