Australian Training on Salisbury Plain

[Richard Osgood]

Dear All,

apologies for cross posting this (from introduction section)

I would like to mention a new project I am working on. I am the archaeologist for the army's Salisbury Plain Training Area (SPTA) and - as you might imagine - am greatly interested in the later archaeology of the Plain. As the area covers some 38,000 hectares you won't be surprised to hear that there are many elements pertaining to the Great War still traceable in some form (Sure you know this anyway).

Along with my Defence Estates colleague, Martin Brown - whom many will know for his work at Serre, Auchonvillers, Thiepval etc - we are examining training trenches and army camps on the Plain - with particular reference to the Australian 3rd Division which arrived in 1916.

We are hoping to use various survey techniques on this project - magnetometry, resistivity, laser topographic survey - to see how the practice trenches compared to the manuals of the age, and then how they differed from trenches dug under enemy fire. This work is being carried out in association with the Australian War Memorial who have provided valuable help.

Any assistance from forum members who have plans of SPTA training trenches, images of Australians on the Plain or other information pertaining to this would be very helpful. Ultimately - this results will be published in a journal, placed on-line, and archived at the Sites and Monuments record for Wiltshire in Trowbridge/the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

cheers

Richard

[robbie]

Hi Richard,

Are there any towns/villages located near this area?

Robbie

[Jonathan Saunders]

Hi Richard,

Are there any towns/villages located near this area?

Robbie

Robbie - Australian trianing units were established and billeted all over the Salisbury/Wilton area, ... one of their recruits kidnapped my G/Aunt for about 50 years ...

Richard - I have seen published in local hostory books for Wilton, Ditchampton etc photos of AIF men around the "town" - try teh archives at Salsibury? but other than that I am afraid I cant help you. I look forward to the on-line publication all the same.

[robbie]

... one of their recruits kidnapped my G/Aunt for about 50 years ...

Jon

what happened in the 51st year?

Robbie

[Andrew P]

Very interesting project Richard.

Quite a few of the Fremantle soldiers I'm researching trained on Salisbury with the 3rd Division.

I'll see if there's any pertinent information in the diaries I have.

Regards

Andrew

[Jonathan Saunders]

... one of their recruits kidnapped my G/Aunt for about 50 years ...

Jon

what happened in the 51st year?

Robbie

She left Wilton with her AIF husband in early 1919 - I think he died in the mid-50s - and she returned to teh UK for the first time in about 1973, very anxious to get back to Wilton and then having duly arrived, she passed away ... so it was around 54 years!

apologies to Ricahrd for sidetracking his thread.

[Moonraker]

Hi

This reply isn't exactly about Australians (you probably know which camps they occupied) but is about trenches on Salisbury Plain.

I have a plan dated November 2, 1915 (ie before the Australians arrived on the Plain) of the practice trenches at Yarnbury, near Codford, This appeared in "The Outpost", the magazine of the Highland Light Infantry. As I've explained elsewhere in the Forum, I don't have a scanner yet and I'm preoccupied with frail elderly parents, but I could probably manage a snailmail photocopy.

I've come across several WW1 references to the Bedlam practice trenches near Tidworth (where Australians were), which I pinpointed after good old Google led me to the memoirs of a villager who lived nearby. Before the WO bought up the land there used to be a Bedlam Farm south east of South Tidworth.

Being a sad sort of person, I was quite proud to identify a field in a postcard showing soldiers in a long trench and published by a Marlborough photographer. I recognised the road in the distance, and a line of trees I had defended when in the CCF in 1961. A visit last Spring proved my theory - poignantly the field was covered in poppies. The road is that from Rockley to Broad Hinton. I guess the soldiers were from Chisledon Camp, which had its own practice trenches nearer to hand, as well some on the hill east of the A345. (One can still see a large pit where a mine exploded.)