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

THE SCAR ON THE CISSBURY LANDSCAPE

Copyright Valerie Martin 2008

In March 2008, John J. Fisher of Worthing sent me this old wartime photograph of Findon Valley....

This photograph set the wheels in motion to unravel a complete new mystery.

Mike Cooksey in Bristol emailed "Dear Valerie .....Anti Tank Ditch....Sorry to be so late forwarding a query about the white slash around Cissbury during the war.

I have never associated the big concrete blocks with it, as suggested by someone .... but until now I've had nothing beyond a faulty memory to contest the point! I've now turned up an aerial recce photograph taken early 1945 (enc.).

This shows the slash surrounding Cissbury completely and not following footpaths on the south and west ramparts (which is where I most walked it). Any concrete blocks would have shown up by their shadows."

 —To Findon Village

                                                                                                                          
                                                                 l
                                                                          To Chanctonbury
                                                                           Ring

To help surfers find their bearings.... I have indicated the lane down to Findon and the track over to Chanctonbury Ring.

 Mike continued ...."It appeared virtually overnight and as I remember, created a wall of chalk on the inside of the circular route and a flat roadway on the outside. No tank would have been able to climb up the hill over it, but would be able to run round the hill as on a roadway. After the war it was returned to its previous contours but took time to become green again.

Silly how one feels the need to achieve accuracy, but one day the archeologists may do a dig across the line of the slash and declare it to be Roman earthworks or something...... you and I will know better!  All good wishes ...... Mike"

Great work, Mike.    Terrific.   Marvellous.   I've followed the route around Cissbury Ring with my finger and much of it is still there and used by me today.    

I can almost imagine the old tanks rumbling over the turf.

Comment from John J. Fisher again....

Hi Valerie...Cissbury Scar.....What an interesting photo. Clearing of concrete blocks was begun before the end of the war.

I don't remember any ditch deep enough for an anti tank ditch.

I distinctly remember concrete blocks sweeping across the southwest approach to Cissbury Ring. They continued over the brow of the hill on the southern approach and into the valley and over the top of Vineyard Hill. (?)

In the film the boys are seen running down the hill towards the rifle range. I also remember concrete blocks were placed in the copse on the right leading down to Bost Hill. I discovered these with my friends sometime at the end of the 1950s.

It would appear that Cissbury Ring was intentionally fortified.

I know some gun emplacements were dug into the ramparts because we used to play in one on the southwest side over looking Findon Valley. The idea would have been to place a machine gun in the window and try to kill as many Germans before they got you. Then one day we climbed up to the Ring to find the powers that be had removed it and left a great hole in the rampart with no attempt at landscaping.

The rifle range is clearly visible but a few more kilobytes is desirable to make the detail clearer. Was this aerial photo on the internet? Perhaps a visit to the library might produce a photo taken from the valley. All very interesting."

More enlightenment from John J. Fisher..... "Hi Valerie.... Anti Tank Ditch?   Concrete Blocks? ....This subject has produced some head scratching.

As a six year old boy looking towards Cissbury from the valley it looked as though there were concrete blocks across the hillside. We were forbidden to go to Cissbury because of the dangers of unexploded ordnance.  So until the end of the war and given the all clear we had to play on West Hill and Roger's Clump.

A visit to the Reference Library this morning produced a pile of fascinating books and newspaper cuttings.

One bound book was a wartime diary of a Worthing boy so detailed that it would surely become a best seller if
published. This book contained the information concerning the panic that set in when invasion might actually happen.

Anti tank ditches were dug across the downs and concrete blocks and bent railway lines were put in place as obstacles in case of troop gliders landing. There is no mention of Cissbury as a location.

That scar on the aerial photo is huge. The width on the south western corner is very wide. The detail on this photo is spoilt by digital artifacts. In iPhoto it comes out at 58kb. Would it be possible to produce one of 500kb or better still 1mb?

Shadows are very important to the photo interpreters. It allowed them to see the V2 rockets at Peenemunde.

This photo appears to be taken in summer, June or July because the shadows are very short. This suggests middle of the day.

Was it a German reconnaisance photo? Probably not if it was taken in 1945.

Maybe it was taken by a Spitfire or Mosquito using an F24 camera. The variation on exposure left to right suggests a focal plane shutter which was used in arial cameras.

The library are busy working on Walter Gardiner negatives and maybe he took some pictures of Cissbury at the end of the war. I believe he was allowed to document the changes in Worthing once the danger of invasion had passed."

Mike replied..... "Hi there again Val ..... John Fisher seems keen to chase up the scar and asks the source of the photograph.

It's an RAF recce photo taken on 17th May 1945. The entire photo covers a much wider area. It is to be found in the Archeological and Historic Landscape Survey of Cissbury Ring, produced by "Archeology South East" Its reference is Plate B: RAF/106G/LA/313, 17 May 1945. The survey was commissioned in 2006 by the National Trust.

I have blown it up as far as reasonable and failed to get much more detail. It really means getting hold of the originals. This one is only as good as the scanner that reproduced it. I have an idea that Worthing Museum may have the originals.

Good hunting John ....... Mike."

Mark Hampshire of Angmering walks the Cissbury site and commented...."HI,V. ON THE TRAIL OF THE TANK PATH AGAIN, SOME PARTS ARE SO OBVIOUS, OTHERS LESS SO.

THAT AERIAL PHOTO OF YOURS IS A REAL EYE OPENER, AND PUT NEXT TO A MODERN VIEW MAKES A LOT OF THINGS MAKE PERFECT SENSE.

FOR EXAMPLE THE SCAR ON THE WESTERN SIDE I THOUGHT WAS MUCH OLDER FOR SOME REASON.

THE SLIGHT DOG LEG AT THE SOUTH END OF SOUTH WOOD WAS MADE TO AVOID THE ROADBLOCK THING THAT IS IN YOUR PHOTO (AND INDEED THERE ARE STILL CONCRETE THINGS THERE NOW, ALBEIT AT GROUND LEVEL).

OVER TO THE EAST OF THE R.R. THERE IS NO TRACE UNTIL YOU GET OVER THE BROW OF THE HILL, WHERE IT IS QUITE CLEAR AGAIN DOWN TO THE TREES. THIS IS WHERE I LOSE IT

I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT THE FIRST PATH WAS THE TANK ROAD, AND WITH ALL THE GREAT BIG VALLEYS AND THINGS UP IT, I HAVE ALWAYS IMAGINED SOME 22 YEAR OLD COCKNEY, NEVER BEEN OUT OF LONDON BEFORE, BEING GIVEN THE KEYS TO AN ENORMOUS BULLDOZER, AND BEING TOLD BY HIS SUPERIOR "HERE YOU ARE BOY, MAKE THIS TRACK A BIT BETTER.........."

Continue if you would like to read about The Little Cissbury Miner

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.