Project Excavation 2008

In July, a team from CCA spent a week excavating part of the practice trenches on the moors above Rothbury. Believed to date from the First World War and to have been dug by the Northumberland Fusiliers, they form just part of a wide set of military remains in the district.

We excavated in two main areas; we cut one trench across one of the WW1 trenches, while the other area of activity focused on a dug-out to the side of one of the communications trenches.

In the trench, we exposed internal structures, such as the fire-step and possible drainage channels.  It was also clear that that the trench’s working depth had been enhanced by using the excavated earth on its downhill side, and that stones had been used to hold this earth bank in place and stop it eroding down the slope.

Trench

In the dugout we believe we found evidence of a number of stages of activity, indicating that the areas may have been used several times, possibly as late as World War 2.

Dug out

But in neither area did we find any relics or military remains, although in the dug-out there were traces of corrugated iron that may have been used as a revetment. This absence of artefacts is similar to the excavation on the Otterburn Silloans trenches in 2005, where the main finds were of fuses and shell fragments located in soil that filled the trenches, indicating they had probably been delivered onto the site by artillery. It seems likely that in both cases the trenches were dug as an exercise in excavation and construction - and not lived in for any length of time or used for practice combat. Had they been so used, we might have expected to find the remains of items such as food tins and ammunition.

Our thanks go to Chris Burgess and the other professionals for volunteering their time to help us. And thanks also to Paul Turnbull, the farmer, for allowing access.