Registered Charity No: 272098 ISSN 0585-9980 SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CASTLE ARCH, GUILDFORD GU1 3SX Tel/ Fax: 01483 532454 E-mail:
[email protected] Website: www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk Bulletin 444 April/May 2014 TRAINING FOR WAR IN SURREY Above: WW2 graffiti at Claycart. Below: Military Efficiency Tests at Aldershot, from Illustrated War News, October 1917. MORE TRENCHES AND RANGES Richard Alexander This article covers additional ground addressed in previous Bulletin articles, providing an overview of more recent firing ranges mentioned, but not described, in Bull 440, and some more recent trenches not mentioned in Bull 438. The features were mainly identified through field walking, some in the course of the authors’ recently completed masters degree in 20th century conflict archaeology, and were surveyed by off-setting with 50m tapes with local datumsestablished using a hand held GPS. In common with other archaeological surveys of military practice trenches, their edges are shown with straight lines rather than hachures. Claycart Features adjacent to Claycart Road consist of a machine gun range of two brick- walled sections with surrounding earthworks. The feature at the western end of the range is constructed with bricks from a company that ceased trading in 1930, and map regression work also confirms this pre-1930 date. The brick feature towards the eastern end of the range is of slightly different design, as its supporting buttresses are narrower and it is reinforced with iron sheeting approximately 12.5mm thick (half an inch) on the areas receiving the shots. The layout indicates that the two are associated, but the differences in construction suggest one was a later addition.