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From: 160 Autumn 2024
Author: Peter Smith
Freemen may be familiar with parchmarks and existing vegetation marks highlighting the pre-historic settlement at the northwest end of the Meadow, the outcome of the 2020 geophysical survey of the WW1 aerodrome site reported before, and the remnants of the historic racing course mentioned in the last Journals article on that topic.
However, there are other curious markings and physical features that continue to perplex. One such example are a line of several triangular groupings of 3 circular depressions/pits around 200mm deep. Each depression is roughly 1.5m diameter and a similar distance apart from the others. These are quite hard to spot at the northern end of the Meadow between the aerodrome site and Shiplake ditch. The photo might just about be clear enough to see the feature.
If anyone has any ideas please let the Editor know! One suggestion is WW2 “hedgehog” type anti-landing defences formed by welded metal girders, another is to anchor flimsy WW1 aeroplanes but they are not aligned to any aerodrome features or photos we know about.
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