Browndown: Training for Trench Warfare in the First World War
Recent survey has supported protection at one of the best preserved First World War training grounds.
Summary
Browndown offers a rare insight into how soldiers learned to live and fight in trenches before leaving for the Western Front.
Historic England’s Archaeological Investigation Team have recently completed a detailed survey of First World War practice trenches at Browndown Ranges, Gosport, Hampshire. The trenches at Browndown stand out as one of the best preserved and most complex practice grounds in England. They offer a rare insight into how soldiers learned to live and fight in trenches before leaving for the Western Front.
Context
Work at Browndown forms part of a wider programme of research undertaken by Historic England for the Gosport Heritage Action Zone. Browndown Ranges occupy an area of heathland on the western side of the Alver valley, just inland from the coast between Gosport and Lee-on-the-Solent. The ranges are part of the Ministry of Defence training estate and the area has been used for military training since at least the late 18th century. Today public access to Browdown Ranges (North) is permitted subject to military by-laws.
What are practice trenches?
Trenches mimicking the configuration of continental battlefields became a widespread feature at British training camps by 1915-16.
Driven by advances in military technology, trenches became increasingly prominent in late 19th and early 20th century warfare. However, their importance came to the fore early in the First World War when open, mobile warfare ground to a halt, and fixed frontlines were formed. Experiences from the Western Front soon began to influence the training being given to thousands of new recruits at home in Britain. Trenches mimicking the configuration of continental battlefields became a widespread feature at British training camps by 1915-16.
A standard British First World War trench system had a distinctive form. This comprised:
- A crenellated front line, or ‘fire trench’. The crenellations in plan were designed to prevent blast or gun fire travelling along the trench
- Behind, and parallel to the frontline were support or supervision trenches and reserve lines
- These were linked by perpendicular, often zig-zagging, communication trenches.
How we investigated Browndown trenches
The trenches at Browndown were first identified by archaeologists studying aerial photographs in 2011 and were subsequently traced on the ground by Rob Harper of Gosport Borough Council. The current project combined aerial and ground-based survey techniques to better understand the extent, development and survival of the trenches at Browndown.
Aerial photographs dating from the 1920s to the present day were used to map the trenches and other features on the Ranges. The most useful photographs were those taken by the RAF in the 1950s and 60s. Although taken decades after the trenches’ original construction, these detailed images capture the area with little of the vegetation that covers it today. A handful of photographs taken in 1923 provide independent confirmation of the trenches’ First World War date.
The Landscape Archaeology team used digital survey instruments to make a detailed terrestrial record of the trenches and other earthwork features. In places this was made very difficult by thick vegetation. In several locations the course of well-preserved trenches disappeared into an impenetrable wall of gorse. Between 2020 and 2022 several gorse fires, as well as deliberate vegetation management, made further areas of trenches accessible.
A pattern emerges
The most easily recognisable features at Browndown are a complex of opposing frontline trenches on the eastern side of the study area. This complex echoes trench layouts seen on the Western Front and in contemporary field manuals. It consists of two opposing sets of crenellated frontline or ‘fire’ trenches, with associated support, reserve trenches and communication trenches. The opposing sets of trenches are separated by an approximately 130 metre wide ‘no-man’s-land’.
The trenches survive to a depth of over 1 metre. Traces of parapet and parados banks can be seen on the forward and rear edges of the fire trenches respectively. Parapet banks would have enhanced the forward-facing cover provided by a trench, whilst parados banks gave protection from the rear and prevented trench occupants from being seen in silhouette. To the rear of the trenches several semi-circular platforms fronted by low banks are likely to be mortar or light artillery positions.
In addition to the opposing frontlines are several more irregular trench complexes. These include interconnected elements of crenellated, wavy, and straight trenches. In addition to the trench complexes numerous separate lengths of trench and other features occur in isolation.
Our interpretation is that the Browndown trenches reflect two distinct activities. The simpler isolated trenches probably reflect practice digging where troops learnt trench construction techniques and built individual fitness and group cohesion. The more structured complexes comprise ‘text book’ training environments, mimicking sections of the Western Front, in which troops learned how to live and fight in trenches.
The trenches at Browndown stand out as some of the best preserved, and most complex examples. They are unusual in that a wide variety of features and activities occur in a compact area.
Other examples of First World War practice trenches have been identified throughout England. However, those at Browndown stand out as some of the best preserved, and most complex examples. The Browndown trenches are unusual in that a wide variety of features and activities occur in a compact area.
The intensive nature of First World War activity at Browndown can make it difficult to interpret individual features, often several phases of activity occur in the same location. This is further complicated by the presence of much earlier and later features. This includes a probable early Bronze Age round barrow, a heavy anti-aircraft battery which formed part of Gosport’s defences during the Second World War, and a series of interwar and later grenade ranges.
Who used the trenches?
It has proved very difficult to establish exactly who trained in the Browndown trenches.
It has proved very difficult to establish exactly who dug and trained in the Browndown trenches. The only documentary evidence comes from very early in the War. In his diary entry for 10/08/1914 James Thompson (Plymouth Battalion of the Royal Marines Light Infantry) writes “At Portsmouth. Fell in at 8 o’clock and marched to Browndown for trench digging”. This digging probably resulted in some of the simpler isolated trenches. It is uncertain which regiments constructed and used the more complex trench systems created later in the War. This could have been troops from the local Hampshire Regiment, or perhaps other regiments that encamped at Gosport prior to embarkation for the Western Front from nearby Southampton.
Conclusion and impact of the research
In April 2024 a substantial area of Browndown Ranges including the round barrow, the practice trenches and the anti-aircraft battery were designated as a scheduled monument by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England. Scheduling will enable the MoD to better manage and protect these important archaeological features for future generations, whilst continuing to use the Ranges for training.
Working with the Historic England Heritage Schools team, Historic England archaeologists led several guided tours of the trenches for pupils from local secondary schools. The trenches offer a valuable opportunity to see how troops learned to live and fight in trenches before being deployed to the Western Front.
Dr Olaf Bayer MA, MCIfA
Fiona Small
Further information
Appleby, C., Schofield, J. and Cocroft, W. 2015: The Home Front in Britain 1914-1918. Council for British Archaeology: York
Bayer, O., Small, F. and Bowden, M. 2023: Browndown Ranges (North), Gosport, Hampshire: Analytical Earthwork Survey and Aerial Investigation and Mapping. Historic England Research Report Series 49/2023
Brown, M. 2017. First World War Fieldworks in England: Historic England Research Report Series 61/2017
Brown, M and Osgood, R. 2009: Digging up Plugstreet: The Archaeology of the Great War Battlefield. London: Haynes
Cocroft, W. and Bayer, O. 2021. Gosport: A Town Defined by its Military Heritage. Historic England Research issue 15.
Cocroft, W. and Stamper, P. 2018. Legacies of the First World War: Building for total war 1914-1918. Historic England: Swindon
Historic England. 2017. First World War Fieldworks Gazeteer.
Thompson, J. 1914. War Diary. Unpublished document available online at the Western Front Association.
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