AH 1944

AH was in Wilverley Enclosure in 1944, quite possibly, like others, a serviceman passing through in preparation for invasion. Although this enclosure has several graffiti hot spots, this is the first war period piece I've found. Below the initials and year are what appear to be 3 vertical lines; I have no idea what they represent and like many other woodland graffiti marks, will remain an enigma. The mighty Beech tree has graffiti from other periods too, the earliest being from the 1883 (the Beech was probably about 100 years old at the time, give or take a decade or two), when sections of the enclosure was relatively newly planted.  Though stretched through time, the figures '1883' are still clearly legible, although the letters which accompanied it are stretched beyond recognition. Wilverley was first enclosed 1775, then again 34 years later in 1809, but then thrown open in 1846 and re-enclosed in 1896.