UNDER A SPREADING CHESTNUT TREE – RECORDING ANZAC FIRST WORLD WAR GRAFFITI ON SALISBURY PLAIN
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-21

The presentation will look at how a small local First World War centenary project recording graffiti has extended out from the battlefield to transcend county and national geographical boundaries as well as the temporal framework of the Great War. It has linked a small village in Wiltshire, England to thousands of overseas Anzac troops and an American poet. Hundreds of First World War graffiti have been recorded written and carved into the fabric of the village of Figheldean. These are testament to hundreds, probably thousands, of Anzac troops, who visited the village whilst training for the Front on Salisbury Plain. These troops were attracted by the desire to visit the Old World villages of their parents’ homeland, and by their understanding that the smithy with its chestnut tree in Figheldean was the one described in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, “The Village Blacksmith”. This poem was part of these troops schooling and cultural identity and drew them closer to the idyll that Figheldean represented. However, digging a bit deeper, it became clear that this cultural association was fabricated - Longfellow’s poem was based in America, not Wiltshire. However, a local tourist industry developed, attracting and at the same time exploiting the visiting troops. Discovering the graffiti has led to discovering the wider story and cultural significance of these 100 year old testaments. Although nearly completely forgotten about locally, the stories of Anzac visitors to the village have been recorded in a large number of diaries, letters and archives across the waters in Australia and New Zealand. The research has moved from the local to the international and from the training ground and battlefield to the social and economic impact of the war, and the creation of myths, tourist attractions and economic exploitation.

Author(s): Miles, Daniel (HE - Historic England)