‘Dickie Bluer and his unfeasibly large ball’
Ian Blair
This photo is the most striking of a series of large framed images that hang in the main corridor of the MOLA offices - and I cannot help but smile whenever I pass it on the way to the photocopier.
It also represents a constant reminder of a friend but above all – a member of a very close-knit archaeological family who worked and lived together throughout the 1980’s & 1990’s. This particular photo was reproduced in the MoLAS annual review for 2000 – and I noticed that another photo a few pages prior to this show the same suspect with his ‘then’ trademark ponytail still in place (so a trip to the barbers, or more likely, some self-pruning had gone on in the interim). I cannot recall if the loss of that much hair affected his strength – but suffice it to say that there are no images of Dickie carrying his ball. DB you are loved and missed by all who were lucky enough to have shared in your life – but your memory (as this photo illustrates) live on with all of us..
For the more inquisitive, the said sphere is a ‘bombard shot made of Portland Stone found in marshy ground opposite the Tower of London, and possibly fired as a practice shot from it in Tudor times’.
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