Digging Dad's Army

Digging Dad’s Army, a group of conflict archaeologists affiliated with birkbeck and negus are digging up various parts of eaglesfield park this week as part of their ongoing investigations into wartime archaeology in this part of london. they have chosen their digging spots based on some aerial photos and some geophysics, which indicated where wartime trenches might have been dug, and thus where they might find evidence of what was happening in the last two world wars. they also used geophysics to look for anomalous features relating to magnetic fields and other physical properties of the ground, and apart from using this to look for concrete and metal associated with military installations, they did on the dig for time team stumble on some late bronze age early iron age remnants of iron smelting activities, which was a bit odd considering that there’s no iron in the area, plus why would whoever was working with it wish to carry all the ore to the top of a hill? anyway, this was written up in a wessex archaeology report as the time team dig it was found on didn’t really have scope to include this in the program. significantly however, this discovery also gives shooters hill the interest of being one of the few if only parts of london with evidence of human activities stretching back to this epoch 2-3 thousand years ago.

they can be approached all week, but they will probably have the most to talk about when then get to the end of their dig on saturday during the treasures of eaglesfield park day. this event is also being staged to support the refilling, fencing and educational use of the lilypond as a natural habitat for various local species and is not unrelated to the wild london scheme with its fondness for ponds, which are being promoted as being good for london and its inhabitants.

The Treasures of Eaglesfield Park

Title: The Treasures of Eaglesfield Park
Location: Eaglesfield Park Lily Pond
Link out: www.foep.org.uk
Description: Find out more about the history of this fantastic park from the
Bronze Age to the present day and be part of shaping its future:

* A new wildlife pond for Eaglesfield Park – what do you think?
* Displays, pond restoration plans and information
* Guided walks of the park will begin at 2pm and 3pm: look at the history of the park, it’s wildlife and proposals for restoring the pond
* Children’s Nature Activities – seed planting, bark rubbing, colouring and more
* Dress up in 1940’s costume and join in the fun!

Free entrance / disabled access: Via ramp at the corner of Foxcroft Road and Cleanthus Road, SE18

Organised by: The Friends of Eaglesfield Park, Froglife, Groundwork London, and Digging Dads Army Project

Working in partnership with Greenwich Council Parks and Open Spaces
Start Time: 12:30
Date: 2009-06-20
End Time: 16:00