Projects

The Defence of East Sussex Project involves several sub-projects that focus on particular subjects as and when they crop up in the course of research.

Subject matter may cut across geographic boundaries and study aspects such as roadblocks or minefields, or examine a set area such as that occupied by Downsforce.

Documentary Research

As documentary research is at the heart of the entire Defence of East Sussex Project, it is not surprising that it is documents that identify suitable subjects upon which to conduct a project.

The documents in question may comprise a single report (such as the Roadblock Report), or require documents from several files to be brought together for study, such as the various defence schemes that helped me to piece together Downsforce's battle plans.

Desktop Research

Documentary work is followed by desktop research as and when appropriate. This may involve collating documents with maps, Defence of Britain data, Google Earth or with data already contained within my databases in order to help me target my fieldwork efficiently.

My desktop study is never a means to an end in itself, although I have seen other studies heavily based on desktop research of secondary sources. These studies invariably lead to little of any significance being added to the historical record and it seems to put the historian/archaeologist into a frame of mind whereby they expect the information to come to their desk, rather than their being active in researching primary sources. Such unimaginative methods always result in sloppy, unimaginative studies.

Fieldwork

The results of documentary and desktop activity then provide the basis of fieldwork that is targeted at specific locations and often with a good idea of what to look for at any particular site. The preparatory work is vital in ensuring the best use is made of time out in the field, although I may visit some locations several times and find something new on each occasion.

Results

The results may include the recording of defence works combined with reconstructions such as that of the breastwork and trench on Mount Caburn seen at right.

The outcome of a project may simply be the creation of an extra tool that will assist me in further research. For example, the minefield database I'm currently working on is intended to enable me to store data on minefields (identification number, type and number of mines etc.) for future reference to assist in my research.

The other pages in this section outline the various projects I've been working on.