The Artists Rifles and Civilian Shelters: Wartime Evidence at Royal Liberty School, Havering, East London

10 Feb

During 2019, AOC undertook a series of archaeological investigations at the Royal Liberty School in the London Borough of Havering ahead of the construction of a New Teaching Block and Sports Hall at the school. The work was commissioned by RPS on behalf of Wilmot Dixon Construction Limited, uncovering new information that adds to the rich 20th century history of the school site.

The location of the site and investigated areas at Royal Liberty School, showing the two trenches opened during the excavation (Trenches 8 and 9) and the three buildings investigated during the Historic Buildings Survey (Buildings A, B and C).

A plan and sections showing the First World War practice trench in Trench 9

Since 1921, The Royal Liberty School has occupied a building formerly known as Hare Hall, a Palladian mansion first built on the site for John A. Wallinger in 1769-70. During the First World War between 1915 and 1918, Hare Hall was used as a training camp by the Artists Rifles, a regiment of the British Army Reserves, today known as 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve). The Artists Rifles included professional painters, musicians, sculptors, poets and actors, for example, and its members produced some of the most famous and evocative representations of warfare on the Western Front in visual media and in poetry. During the First World War, the regiment included the painters John Nash and Paul Nash, and the poet Wilfred Owen.

Archaeological evaluation and excavation at Royal Liberty School by AOC Archaeology Group uncovered a practice trench dating to the First World War, cutting the fill of a Roman ditch. The practice trench appeared archaeologically as a straight sided, flat bottomed trench in a zig-zag shape. This emulated the zig-zag shapes of trenches on the Western front, which prevented gunfire, shrapnel and explosions from travelling along the trench and injuring those inside. Many photographs of the training camp at the site of Royal Liberty School survive, some illustrating the digging and use of practice trenches (below).

‘The Menin Road’, a painting depicting a First World War battlefield by Paul Nash, who was a member of the Artists’ Rifles (1919, public domain)

Artists Rifles cadets digging a trench, c.1916. RC Sherriff (the writer) is standing second from left (SHC ref 2332/6/4/1/21). Reproduced by permission of Kingston Grammar School and Surrey History. From a collection of personal photographs relating… — Artists Rifles cadets digging a trench, c.1916. RC Sherriff (the writer) is standing second from left (SHC ref 2332/6/4/1/21). Reproduced by permission of Kingston Grammar School and Surrey History. From a collection of personal photographs relating to Sherriff's time as a cadet in the Artists Rifles.

A programme of Historic Building Recording carried out at Royal Liberty School targeted three structures, all of Second World War date. Buildings A (below) and B were identical brick structures with rooves comprising of poured concrete slabs and blast screen entranceways. These buildings are interpreted as rapidly constructed civilian shelters, perhaps for use by the staff and students of Royal Liberty School. They were modified in the post-war period with windows added to each. The third building, Building C, was a smaller, more robust structure with the walls and roof made from poured concrete slabs. It had also been modified in the post-war period and may originally have included a gun embrasure. It is interpreted as a minor defensive fortification or as a fortified observation post, being situated in an open area close to one of the main road and rail routes into London.