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Ghost Marks

Going back long before drones came about, one of my favourite books was Maurice Beresford's Deserted Medieval Villages, though there are many similar books more county-specific. If going hunting, the appropriate large scale map is useful too.

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Which led me to this:-

https://moseleyforum.org.uk/2017/08...protect-this-cherished-open-space-in-moseley/

Janice! Any idea what this is all about? :)

Maurice
Click to expand...

Not sure why you are asking me (although I do live opposite the fields). I don't know about Morturn's "ghost image" - perhaps he can tell us more. I do know about the Friends group. As it says on the Moseley Forum the fields are an open area of grassland much used by dog walkers, walkers, footballers (in winter), cricketers (in summer) and sometimes school children. There was a silver jubilee party (my first venture onto the fields with my then boyfriend - now my husband). After the possibility of the fields being fenced off the Friends group was set up to look after the interests and ensure that they remain for public use. Morturn is a member and some events are planned.
 
Sorry Janice, it said that all adults living in Moseley were members and as I knew you lived close and seemed fairly knowledgeable, you might know more about it. I wasn't aware that Morturn was a member. "Ghost images made in WW2" seems a bit vague - I was wondering what exactly made them.

Maurice
 
No worries. I am not a member of the Moseley Forum but am a member of the Friends of Windermere Fields. Morturn belongs to the "Friends". I think the fields were used in WW2 for various military training exercises but would have to do more research to be sure. The marks could be older as the use of the Fields goes back a long way (ridge and furrow).
 
I happened to notice the lines when testing my drone earlier this year. We had a discussion about past uses of the field, and if these marks were the remnants of sports pitches or something else.

Recently the ex-city council archaeologist Mike Hodder suggested that they may be crop marks, perhaps to do with land being use in wartime for food production but seemed unsure of the age of the marks.
 
Janice,

Thanks for the link - not sure how I missed those postings in March. Seems most likely sports pitch markings rather than military, but always worth checking.

Maurice
 
During the extremely dry weather have you come across any evidence of former buildings, roads, walls etc now showing through grassed-over areas ? Record them here. You never know, it might flag up new/lost archaeological features of the Birmingham landscape.

And all you members with a drone, get out there before it rains !! Pleeeaase.

Thanks. Viv.
 
Viv, I must get out with my drone as there are a lot of marks on a local playing field
 
And nearer to home, we have windermere fields with years and years of sports piches shoing in the landscape. There are one or two other intersting marks that may be other things Windermere-Fields-Mavic-Aug-18_0000.jpg Windermere-Fields-Mavic-Aug-18_0001.jpg Windermere-Fields-Mavic-Aug-18_0002.jpg Windermere-Fields-Mavic-Aug-18_0003.jpg Windermere-Fields-Mavic-Aug-18_0004.jpg Windermere-Fields-Mavic-Aug-18_0005.jpg
 
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