The Defence of East Sussex Project - FAQs

Below are some answers to Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. Are you an archaeologist, and is this really archaeology?

A. I'm an historian by qualification, but have no archaeological training. I'm not flying any particular flag to have myself recognised as an archaeologist or get what I'm doing accepted as "archaeology", as whatever you want to call it, it makes no difference to me or what I'm doing - it's my hobby and I enjoy doing it!

Q. Why are you working alone on such a huge project?

A. For several reasons; not least being the horror stories I've heard from others who have undertaken similar projects. It seems that the greater number of people involved, the more scope there is for disagreement as strong personalities emerge, and the likelihood of a project failing are greatly increased.

As I work alone, it remains my project under my control; the heavy reliance on ICT also makes it hard for others to get to grips with it. To a certain extent, ICT actually removes the need for other humans as my databases do all the processing.

Having said all this, I do have a strong network of interested experts who are always kindly plying me with help and advice and their input is always greatly appreciated.

Q. Why don't you include full details of locations (placenames and grid references etc) of what you're finding?

A. I understand the frustration, but there is a reason for this - plagiarism. I've seen instances of my text and photographs being used without acknowledgement and I object to others taking credit for my hard work. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of this about and my methodology greatly appeals to those who can't find archaeology unless somebody else has already recorded it! I have seen cases of people jumping on the bandwagon by giving the impression they've done the research using documents when I know damn well they've done no such thing!

I deliberately avoid giving precise locations, unit identities and sources to prevent this sort of thing happening. The lack of these details effectively prevents anyone from writing anything of consequence based on my research. For example, even if they managed to locate all of the trenches I've found as part of my Downsforce project they'd be unable to tell the full story without genuinely doing the research and anyone scratching around for an easy article/book to write would never do this! Because I'm the only person (to my knowledge) who has actually researched Downsforce, anyone else writing about it would either write the full story (because they've done the research) or only include information from this website.

Q. I'd like to know precisely what sources you get all this information from. Can you give me a list of references or give me copies of the documents?

A. Sadly no, not at this time. A full database of document references has been compiled, but is not publicly available. Once I've published my book, my full databases will be made available online. I want others to build on what I've done, but I'm not having others benefitting from my hard work before I do!

As my copies of documents were made for personal use only, I am not permitted to redistribute them.