Field Visit

Date 19 September 2020 - 30 June 2021

Event ID 1140184

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1140184

NT 45261 81614 to NT 45181 81444 Wessex Archaeology, alongside military veteran volunteers, completed a training event focusing on photogrammetric survey and inter-tidal wreck assessment on the Second World War X-Craft wrecks within the inter-tidal zone at Aberlady Bay. The project formed part of a wider project to connect military veterans left isolated by the temporary closure of support services due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of the survey were used to create an updated condition report that discussed the current physical condition of the wrecks, as well as identifying potential routes for future research, some of which were investigated by the veteran volunteers in their own research projects.

The survey succeeded in correcting the minor errors in

component identification from the earlier RCAHMS surveys of both wrecks, as well as updating the information of the condition of both wrecks, which has degraded during the last 15 years since the surveys, and certainly in the last 10 years since the last full survey of the western wreck. The exposed areas of both wrecks have clearly become more broken down and lighter- weight material lost during this period. The proportions of the wrecks that are exposed above the sand has changed over this period as well, although at no time have the wrecks either been fully exposed or fully covered. Given the current condition and rate of decay, it is likely that the majority of the exposed areas of the eastern wreck will break down first, potentially in the next 10–20 years, while the more extensive exposed remains of the western wreck may take longer to be removed. Further loss of material will make the formal identification of these wrecks with one of the six XT Craft built effectively impossible, and it is likely that this would only now be completed with the discovery of additional archive records relating to the wrecks. The extensive photography of the wrecks at this stage however means that their layout and structure has been recorded and this material will pass into the archive at HES.

Archive: NRHE

Funder: National Lottery Community Fund

Ben Saunders – Wessex Archaeology

(Source: DES Vol 22)