Event/Activity EPM268 - Excavation and Survey of Two of the Bomb Craters at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth

The small-scale excavation of two Second World War bomb craters at Fort Cumberland was carried out by English Heritage in 1999 in order to evaluate the extent of damage to two sections of wall in the north-east of the fort. Clearance of vegetation and overlying debris carried out as part of a phased programme of consolidation and repair work to the outer ditch wall had exposed the two bomb craters from a German raid on the 26th August 1940. The bombs had badly damaged the counterscarp wall north of the apex of the central bastion and the upper parapet wall of the covered way to the north-west of the central bastion. The results of the excavations were to inform decisions regarding the consolidation and possible reconstruction of the walls. The infill of the craters was excavated by hand and they were then recorded photographically and by annotated scaled drawings, and the locations accurately surveyed. A rectified survey of the ditch wall had been carried out prior to the excavation of the craters. The bomb crater in the counterscarp wall had been filled with vegetation and debris and a makeshift timber and metal fence had been erected at the upper edge, although this had partially fallen into the crater due to the movement of soil. Prior to excavation the crater was visible as a hollow c. 8m x 4m x 2m. After partial excavation of the crater it was decided to leave the bomb damage as it was felt that evidence of such damage should be left unless it was a health and safety risk or causing structural problems. It would also have been difficult to repair or rebuild the wall without removing most of the historical evidence. A controlled excavation of the western part of the bomb crater in the parapet wall was carried out to investigate damage to the wall below the covered way. An area c4.5m x 2.5m to a maximum of 0.60m below the covered way ground level was excavated along the section of damaged wall. The excavation was stopped as brickwork was too badly damaged for the wall to be rebuilt. The crater was then backfilled to the level of the covered way. The two traverses on the north-eastern covered way were also surveyed and recorded during this phase of works. The southern traverse was rebuilt following the survey. The northern traverse remained in the same condition as when surveyed and a proposal for its stabilisation was being developed at the time the report was produced (2001).