This is a photogaphic blog with a particular focus on walking the Spanish Caminos. Also included are walks in The New Forest, Wales and Southern England.




26th March - WW11 archaeology.

On a recent walk in the New forest I found this. It's a WWll direction marker for the aircraft that tested bombs in the thousands of acres around Ashley Walk. Here's a link with more information:



Next to it is a compass with 2 metre high letters made of chalk. They have lasted so long because the local plants are acid loving and can't grow on chalk.

















This picture of cattle I took a few weeks ago. Behind them is a hill which looks like a huge burial mound and confusingly is close to Iron Age burial mounds. The next photo shows the hill from a different angle and the third photo shows the pond again.















































The picture above shows the same area in 1945. The concrete structure is about 100 metres x 50 metres and is an exact copy of a German U boat pen. It cost £250,000 to build during wartime and was so immense it couldn't be blown up using explosives so it was buried instead and created the hill. I don't think either of the craters are the current pond. It was made by another Tallboy bomb which made the smaller of the 2 craters in the photo. The large crater in the photo was made by a  10 ton Grand Slam bomb and both have been filled in.

On the same day I walked through areas of gorse that have been burned to restrict their growth. This pony was happily crunching its way through the carbonized wood.


















This is some of the unburnt gorse, smelling strongly of coconut!!

4 comments:

ksam said...

What on earth is it... a landing strip?

andrew said...

Hi karin, I could say that this arrow is pointing to S de C but it's actually a marker that WW11 bomber pilots (US and British) used on the (then)practice range which is now one of the most beautiful areas of our countryside. It's 26 metres (75?feet)long and there are many other incredible hidden structures, some of which I'll put up on this site soon. Most of the pretty little ponds that I pass by are actually bomb craters though you would never guess it now.

Andrew.

ksam said...

Wow! ...but then..have you checked the actual orientation...it may well point towards the camino!! :-) Thanks

Andrew said...

It points due South and following the line of longitude on Google earth it intersects the Camino at Puente la Reina.