Time Team presenter Professor Carenza Lewis from the University of Lincoln will co-direct a dig to uncover traces of Lincolnshire’s part in Operation Market Garden, one of the largest Allied airborne landings in history.
Taking place between 15 and 17 August, “Digging Market Garden” will celebrate South Kesteven District Council’s 80th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Arnhem, as a project collaboration between the Universities of Lincoln and Oxford, Wings to the Past, and the Ministry of Defences’ Operation Nightingale.
The dig will explore the daily routines of the 1st Airborne Division servicemen stationed at Fulbeck Manor near Grantham during the conflict, with veterans and service personnel from the Royal Air Force and British Army, and local communities all taking part in the field work.
Professor Lewis said: “Digging Market Garden is a brilliant opportunity to explore some of the ghost archaeology of World War Two, while also helping people from today’s armed forces. 80 years ago, Britain was carpeted with wartime infrastructure, including at Fulbeck where maps show a massive airbase from which ill-fated ‘Operation Market Garden’ was launched in 1944.
“Fulbeck’s wartime structures are mostly now long-gone, but childhood memories still preserve mysteries. One of these is a Nissen hut adjacent to Fulbeck Manor House, which resident Julian Fines remembers clearly, but the 1940s maps don’t extend this far so its function is unknown.
“In 2024, excavations with armed service personnel and families will hunt for clues in the beautiful Manor gardens that can tell us more about this chapter of history that is rapidly slipping beyond living memory, while simultaneously offering a positive community experience that will benefit participants’ wellbeing.
“I’m delighted to be working on this with Wings to the Past, as a follow-up to the University’s 2019 excavations at Riseholme, regaining momentum lost during the pandemic in our efforts to support military families through archaeology.”
Despite the many news reports, war diaries, and historical accounts of Market Garden, little is known about the preparations and build-up to the deployment, and the dig in August will offer a vital opportunity to investigate, record, and commemorate the airborne heritage of South Lincolnshire.
All events are free to attend and open to the public:
- 15 – 17 August, “Digging Market Garden” archaeological excavation: Fulbeck Manor, between 10am – 4pm.
- 16 August, “By Air to Battle: South Kesteven’s Airborne Heritage”; illustrated talk, Fulbeck Village Hall at 7pm.
- 17 August, Military memorabilia exhibition and finds from the excavations, Fulbeck Village Hall between 10am – 4pm.
