Summary
The earthwork remains of practice trenches constructed by the Lovat Scouts in the late-Spring and Summer of 1915. The site comprises a set of front-line trenches and communication trenches to the rear.
Reasons for Designation
The Lovat Scouts' First World War training trenches are scheduled for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* the site has a memorial association with the Lovat Scouts, the unorthodox unit of countrymen whose ingenuity and skill has had a lasting impact on the British army and on special forces warfare globally.
Period:
* for their evocation of trench warfare, the training of volunteers, and the upheaval of the home front during the First World War these trenches eloquently characterise the period of their creation.
Rarity:
* it is relatively uncommon for training trenches produced during the First World War to survive today, and it is particularly rare for them to have a well-understood relationship with a single military unit.
Documentation:
* detailed understanding of the trenches and their importance is aided by various contemporary written sources and historic aerial photographs, combined with later secondary literature and LIDAR imaging.
Potential:
* the trenches have significant archaeological potential, many having over a century of in-fill. Surviving archaeological features and artefacts will enhance our understanding of the context and development of First World War trench construction and training conditions.
History
The Lovat Scouts were initially recruited in 1900 as two companies of Scottish Yeomanry by Simon Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat. They served in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and were distinguished for their skills in marksmanship and fieldcraft, having been drawn from the ghillies, crofters, farmers and fishermen of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Amongst other distinctions, they formed the first sniper unit of the British Army and introduced 'ghillie suit' camouflage clothing.
The Scouts were disbanded and reformed in various iterations between the Second Boer War and the First World War. By 1914 they were part of the Territorial Force of the British Army. As war broke out in 1914 they were posted to assist with the defence of eastern coastal areas. In April 1915, following a zeppelin raid on King's Lynn, the 1st and 2nd regiments of the Lovat Scouts were despatched to Hunstanton and the surrounding area.
On 4 June 1915 a local newspaper reported the presence of the Lovat Scouts on Docking common, complete with red cross vans, ambulance wagons, baggage and munition carts, and a band of pipers. They had arrived to practice the silent construction of trenches. First, they produced a series of enemy trenches. Then, across an expanse of open land and barbed wire, they constructed a complex set of opposing trenches. These included a full set of front-line zig-zagging trenches designed to protect against shell blasts. Behind these were long arcing communication trenches. The work precisely replicated the textbook form of trench construction aspired to at the Western front and was carried out with immense speed. It was completed to a standard high enough that innovations in trench design may have been tested using the Docking trenches. The training undertaken at the site included live fire exercises.
The Lovat Scouts departed from Norfolk in September 1915. From there they joined the Gallipoli campaign and later served in Egypt, Greece and Italy.
After the First World War the Lovat Scouts were reorganised as a single regiment of Scottish Yeomanry within the Territorial Army and faced active service again in the Second World War. The unit ultimately demonstrated the effectiveness of using highly trained personnel in focused and often unsupported operations. David Stirling, whose father had commanded the 2nd Lovat Scouts and whose uncle was Lord Lovat, employed these principles in the creation of the Special Air Service in 1941.
In the inter-war period the Lovat Scout's trenches in Docking were partly returned to agriculture. The 'enemy' trenches have been lost under ploughed land in an open field. In the inter-war period, an Avro Anson aircraft reportedly crashed into the field with debris scattering south. The precise aircraft has not been identified.
The eastern end of the 'British' trenches was partly disturbed by the quarrying of materials used in the construction of a Cold War listening station immediately south of the site. The whole area was then sold to private hands in 1963 and left to nature. By the early C21 the site was subject to fly tipping and vehicle damage. Under new ownership since 2012 roughly one third of the 'British' trenches were partially excavated to reveal their form and a campsite created around the quarried area.
Training trenches of the First World War were intended to be ephemeral structures. Although trench warfare was a familiar practice by the early C20, the static battle conditions of the Western front saw developments in trench systems at an unprecedented scale. The massive recruitment of volunteer and (after 1916) conscripted servicemen required training exercises in every aspect of their construction, use and capture. Though training trenches were widespread throughout England, the survival of well-preserved sites that have a documented association with military units is rare.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: The earthwork remains of practice trenches constructed by the Lovat Scouts in the late-Spring and Summer of 1915. The site comprises a set of front-line trenches and communication trenches to the rear. The area lies in a patch of woodland at the south-east corner of a field between the B1155 and B1454.
DESCRIPTION: the site occupies a wooded area bordered to the east by the B1454. On the south side is a private track that connects to Monks Close. To the north and west is an open arable field. The eastern part of the woodland was quarried at some point between the 1915 and 1946. The widest quarry pit drops 4-5 metres in depth leaving a substantial bank on its western edge where it meets the area of the First World War trenches.
The most complex trench follows the northern edge of the woodland and approximately 180m from the north-western corner of the site to a (2018) memorial sculpture dedicated to the Lovat Scouts at the eastern end. This was the front line of the 'British' trenches and follows a crenellated plan of bays each roughly five yards long, designed to protect against shell blasts.
A roughly parallel line of straight supporting trenches runs approximately 20m south of the front line. The two lines are connected by a complex network of intermediary trenches that vary in form, possibly allowing for the creation of different training features (for example: latrines, grenade practice trenches, telephone points and dug-outs).
Further south, two sets of communication trenches with a wineglass plan complete the network of trenches. At the widest part of the wineglass shape they are roughly 30m across.
The trenches can be seen on LIDAR imagery and as surviving earthworks. The eastern third of the surviving network, beginning at the Lovat Scouts memorial and extending to the western terminus of the communication trench, has been partially excavated and is the most easily discernible on site. The partial excavation has avoided the complete removal of in-fill material in order to retain the site's archaeological potential. These trenches vary between 1m and 1.5m in depth and are up to 2m wide at the widest point of the communication trenches. South of the eastern communication trench is a trench used by the RAF as a dumping ground in the Second World War.
The western part of the site contains around 2.5 acres of un-excavated ground containing approximately two thirds of the remaining trench network.
Along the northern boundary of the site original barbed wire pickets have been recovered and repositioned.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: the scheduling boundary extends 2m beyond the north and west property boundaries and includes an adjacent strip of land to the south of the trenches. The eastern boundary excludes the quarried area of ground from which the archaeological potential has been removed.
EXCLUSIONS: any fences and fence posts are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.
