THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

First published in the West Sussex Gazette in August 1997.

Copyright Valerie Martin 1997

I have discovered that during the First World War, practically nothing was done to adapt Cissbury Ring above Findon in West Sussex for military purposes, beyond making use of the rifle range in the deep coombe below the eastside of Vineyard Hill. Timber on the seaward side of Cissbury Ring was extensively cut during the 1914-18 conflict.

During the Second World War, Cissbury Ring was brought within the Sussex Defence Scheme. Excavators dug trenches and the residue chalk was piled up on the inside of the area.  Gun emplacements were regrettably sliced into the Iron Age ramparts and also placed on the higher ground on the Ring's summit.  A breach was made to make way for a 100lb gun, which fired at ships at sea and an anti-aircraft gun was sited in the hollow beside the breach. There were great masses of tangled barbed wire everywhere, a constant reminder of the enemy's nearness.

Here is an explanation of the Tank Road at Cissbury Ring.   There was at the beginning of the Second World War, two pathways ascending Cissbury Ring on the northern scarp. The lower was an ancient track and the upper was converted during the war into a road for vehicles, such as tanks and is now known locally as The Tank Road. This road cut through the old dew-pond to meet the lane leading down to Findon. 

Therefore, the lower track is the prehistoric one..... and the higher is the official Tank Road.

How Hitler came to the Cissbury hillside.   Here is the full story of how Der Führer was found on Cissbury Ring.   In 1942, when the Ring was under military occupation, a jocular wag, adept at carving, deftly chiselled the shape of a head from a block of chalk. The artefact was buried on Cissbury. It was duly recovered and the object d'art was promptly forwarded to the museum in Worthing with a note that it had been dug up on Cissbury.

News quickly spread of its discovery. Could it be the bust of some long forgotten Roman general who had been stationed on the summit centuries ago? To the cynical, the sculpture was rather suspect from the outset. No one was really surprised when it was officially revealed to have no Roman ancestry at all and more likely twentieth century..

The facetious craftsman had executed the artistry to roughly half life-size proportions. It appeared rather as a sculptured gargoyle seen projecting from the guttering of some Gothic church architecture. The somewhat gruesome face had been embellished with a Hitler-like growth above the upper lip. It could have been his double. It was a good prank while it lasted.

It must be remembered that soldiers only spent a small part of their time on Cissbury Ring in tank or rifle practice and preparing for battle.    There were times when nothing particular was going on and they would perchance pick up a piece of wood or chalk from the hillside and whittle away at it ..... art in the trenches evolved!

Before the end of hostilities, the offender owned up to his outrageous deed and it was revealed as a light-hearted practical joke. The furore subsided and the subject of this folly was ruefully and quickly condemned to a store cupboard in the museum. The hoax became part of the unwritten history of Cissbury — and the grotesque block of chalk did not see the light of day again.

At the conclusion of the war, efforts were made to remove all vestiges of its destruction to the countryside. Bulldozers were used to fill in the trenches on Church Hill and Cissbury Ring. Attempts were also made to restore the damage carried out to the earthworks where the gun emplacements had stood on Cissbury Ring.

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THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — was launched by Valerie Martin in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.