Newsletter 134: April, 1982 Birthday Number
HADAS DIARY
Tues Apr 6. A 4-star occasion for HADAS – a Presidential address, on Prehistoric Burial Rites in Britain, by Professor Grimes, to get our 21st birthday celebrations off to a flying-start. We’re celebrating throughout 1982, but April is actual anniversary month. The lecture is already a sell-out: we have issued tickets for the number of places available, and all tickets have gone.
Professor Grimes has been our President since 1965, but he has lectured to us only once before, and that as long ago as December, 1964. Until his retirement (strictly a working retirement, we understand) in the mid-1970s from the Directorship of the Institute of Archaeology in .Gordon Square and the Chair of Archaeology at London University, he was an active director of many excavations in London (particularly memorable were the Cripplegate Fort and the site of the Temple of Mithras) was Hon. Director of Excavations for the Roman and Medieval London Excavation Council from 1947 onwards, and has held a number of the top jobs in archaeology, including Director of the London Museum (for “over 10 years), Hon. Treasurer of the Council for British Archaeology and membership of the Ancient Monuments Boards and Royal Commissions of both England and Wales.
Sat Apr 25 Another red-letter date: when our birthday party takes place, at 6.30 for 6.45, at St Judes Church Hall, Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb (see end of this diary for further details).
Wed Apr 28. Roman Group meeting at 8 pm at 94 Hillside Gardens, Edgware. New members of the group will be welcome, but please ring Tessa Smith (958 5159) first to let her know you intend coming.
Tues May 11. HADAS Annual General Meeting at Central Library, The Burroughs, NW4. Coffee 8.pm; meeting 8.30; slide show afterwards. Our senior Vice-President, Mr Eric Wookey, has kindly agreed to take the Chair.
In the last Newsletter we suggested that you should get your tickets for the 21st birthday party by March 3. We didn’t mean to indicate that you would not be able to get a ticket after that date! There are still a few tickets left, and we notice that several people who are going to help “on the night” haven’t yet got round to providing themselves with the wherewithal to do so! If you are one of the forgetful ones, will you give Dorothy Newbury a ring when you read this (on 203 0950) and make sure that you can get in?
MORE ABOUT THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
We are delighted to say that our Vice-Presidents will he turning up in force for this event.
The Mayor of Barnet, Mrs Rosa Freedman, will of course take pride of place, as she is our chief guest of honour; but she’will be well supported by four of our other five’Vice-Presidents. Only one, Sir Maurice Laing, will be absent – he, alas, is away at a conference.
Eric Wookey is entering into the spirit of the thing, planning to come in historical garb; Daisy Hill, who was Hon. Secretary of HADAS from 1965-70, tells us she is “so very happy to accept your invitation to see all my old friends.” The Bishop of Edmonton, the- Rt Rev “Bill” Westwoodl is coming with his wife and says “the evening looks most exciting and we’re genuinely anxious to be with you;” while:Andrew Saunders, Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, who used to live in our Borough, is returning specially from his now home in Hertford. We shall be greatly honoured to have them all with us.
Other special guests will include the Borough Librarian and his wife4 Mr and Mrs David Ruddom; our West Heath Director, Desmond Collins, and his wife Ann, who are coming up from Devon; Mr and Mrs Gerry Isaaman (he’s the Editor of the Ham and High and she was Hon.-Treasurer of HADAS in the late ’60s/early 70s); and the Editor of the Hendon Times, Dennis Signy and Mrs Signy.
Regrettably, our Hon. Auditor, Mr R F Penney, is away that weekend; and so is the third Editor whom we would like to have entertained, Bill Field of the Barnet Press.
We are also sad that Vivienne Constantinides, daughter of our founder, will be sailing up the Nile to Aswan at the moment that we are sampling historic cookery in NW11. Otherwise, we gather, wild horses wouldn’t have stopped her being with us:
FLOWERS FOR A FEAST
Are you coming to the birthday party? Do you live in or near the Hampstead Garden Suburb? Have you flowers and/or greenery to offer? Then please ring Helena Nash (455 5913) and make your offers. Flowers and greenery should be delivered at St Jude’s Hall at 2 pm on the day of the party or to Nell Penny (458 1689) before 1 pm on that day.
THE HIGHGATE WOOD KILN by Tessa Smith
.On Saturday morning, Feb 13, a dozen HADAS Roman enthusiasts met at Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham. It was the museum’s latest acquisition which drew us – a Roman kiln, lifted from Highgate Woods during excavations led by Harvey Sheldon and Anthony Brown (starting with a trial trench in 1966 and continuing through various digs up to 1974). The kiln has been on temporary display at the museum since January, and will be withdrawn from general public viewing when the next exhibition is arranged.
The kiln, dated between 60-120 AD, has solid looking furnace walls made of local baked clay and was built directly onto the topsoil at Highgate Woods. It is about 125 cm (4′) diameter and 30 cm (1′) deep, In the centre of the kiln chamber is a clay pedestal which supported the pots to be fired, and allowed hot gases to circulate in an updraught. Although radial fire-bars are absent from this particular kiln, there is in the exhibition one fire-bar which clearly shows the potters fingerprints.
The tiled flue entrance is arched and the tiles must have been brought from elsewhere. During firing the stoke-hole would have been fed continually with lighted wood, and the draught of hot gases sucked through the narrow flue, to circulate round the stacked pots in the kiln chamber. Aemperature of 9000-10800c is needed to fire pots to earthenware; the whole process would have taken 1236 hours, or even longer, to complete. The flue entrance had been intentionally blocked. This may have been done at the end of firing in order to slow down cooling and thus reduce problems of cracking.
In the lecture theatre we were shown slides by the Museum curator, Claire Tarjan, of an interesting experiment made at the Highgate site by a group of teachers. The aim was to construct kilns, throw pots of locally dug clay and fire the pots. These were based on Roman originals from this area: bowls, beakers and jars. A most interesting problem arose. At first the resulting pots were of a rather pleasing pale fawn colour, but quite unlike the grey Highgate wares at which the teachers were aiming. This was solved by adding organic material both inside and outside the pots at the stacking stage.
Examples both of the modern pots and actual original Highgate Woods Roman pots are on display, as well as examples of wooden tools used by the teachers in pot-making and, decorating.
Bruce Castle Museum which, by the way, owes part of its name to Robert the Bruce, who held the Manor of-Tottenham at one time, contains a rare collection of postal material from the 16th c to the present day, a tribute to Sir Rowland Hill, whose family once owned the house. The museum also houses the local history collection of Haringey, and the Regimental Museum of the Middlesex Regiment.We all agreed it was a most worthwhile visit.
For further reading: the teachers experiments in making and firing pottery were fully described in The Horniman Museum Kiln Experiment at Highgate Wood: Pt 1 London Archaeologist, vol 2 No 1 p 12-17 Pt 2 vol 2 No 3 p 53-59
CULTURE ON ICE: Report by REVA BROWN
THE FROZEN TOMBS OF SIBERIA on the HADAS March lecture
Kenneth Whitehorn held us spellbound with his talk on March 2 on the Frozen Tombs of Siberia. He explained that these tombs exist in one of the few places in the world where weather conditions have made it possible to find literally complete remains of an ancient culture. Normally, organic materials like wood, leather, fur, felt or basketwork tend to decay in a relatively short time. The Altai, 5000 ft above sea level, where these tombs were discovered, has a short, hot summer in June and July; by August there are already frosts.
The Altai appears to have been an area where trade routes crossed, linking Greece, China and Persia. The tombs are of nomad chieftains of the 5th c BC. Their wealth lay in flocks and herds and among the artefacts buried with them were superb horse ornaments (in one case, a complete ornamented harness and bit). These nomads led lives common over much of Europe and Asia before the emergence of the nation states with which we are familiar today.
The tombs were dug 12 to 20 feet down into the soil which freezes in winter, though this is not an area of permafrost: The chieftains were buried in “log cabins” at the bottom of the pits, in ‘massive coffins made from larch trees. They were accompanied by containers of food and drink, clothing; weapons, carpets, rugs, furniture, carts and carriages, as well as horses with ornate harness trappings. The tombs were topped by 15-ft high stone cairns, sometimes 150 ft across. The stones produced cold atmosphere in the-tombs and moisture, which penetrated, froze and increased and the subsequent build-up of ice preserved intact what had not been looted.
Mr Whitehorn showed slides of the treasures excavated from the tombs, as well as a selection of the gold objects found in Scythian tombs further south, which are now in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.
The memorable thing about the artefacts were the horse ornaments, made of carved wood and bone – intricately created designs of eagles, tigers, rams, boars, snakes and mythological animals. (The later art of the Celts, Franks and Anglo-Saxons bears a resemblance to the art of these nomads who lived a thousand years before them).
There were slides of human remains – one, a head covered in a plaster mask,: painted near the eyes with a design which might have been meant to represent warpaint; a section of heavily tattooed skin, again with intricate animal designs; and .the head of a chieftain, crushed in three places and scalped.
But it was the intact “Ordinary” things that were most amazing – a saddlebag of felt and silk, (this is the only examrle of this particular kind of ‘silk in existence – nothing exists in China itself); a leather belt decorated with appliqued cockerels; a man’s shirt made of’linen (hemp); and a -air of lady’s boots, decorated with seed pearls, with diamond shapes of silver in the soles – which would be seen when the owner sat cross legged upon a carpet in a nomad tent.
The lecture was over too soon, but memories of the treasures, ranging from the precious to the everyday, will stay in the mind for a long time.
VIKINGS and OTHERS
The Vikings in England – an Anglo-Danish exhibition on at the Yorkshire Museum, York, from the first Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793 to the defeat of the Vikings at Stamford Bridge in. 1066. It covers the history of the Danelaw from Northumbria to the Thames. Included are finds from the Coppergate site in York. Open Mons-Sats 10 am-5pm; Suns 1-5 pm. “One hour is the recommended minimum for a visit,” says the leaflet. Adults £1.50 children and pensioners 75p.
Apr 22-25. York Archeological Weekend and more Vikings: this time, recent Viking discoveries in England. Conference fee £21 – but you arrange your own accommodation. Subjects include Viking trade and industry, textiles, pottery, “coins, sculpture, domestic crafts, metalwork. Sites include York Lincoln and Northampton. Applications by April 16 to the Director of Special Courses, Extramural Dept,’ University of Leeds.
May 1-3. Hampstead Garden Suburb Festival Week, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Suburb on May 2, 1907. A Blue Plaque to Canon and Dame Henrietta Barnett will be unveiled on Heath End House, Hampstead, on May 2 – and HADAS has a particular interest, since back in. 1975 the Society opened the negotiations with the GLC of which the plaque will be the final result. There will be an exhibition of archives at the Free Church from May 2-8; HADAS will exhibit in the rebuilt Institute hall on hay 5 and will have a bookstall at the Teahouse from May 3-5.
May 3 1982. A demonstration of Roman army tactics and drill by the Ermine Street Guard at Crown Woods School, Riefield Road, SE9 at 12 noon, 2.15 pm and 3.30 pm. Ticket applications (students 20p, adults 50p) to Sally Kemp at Crown Woods School by May 1. The Ermine Street Guard is a society which studies the armour, arms and accoutrements of the Roman Army, reconstructs them authentically, and displays them in Roman-style exercises. Their headquarters are in Gloucestershire, so a chance to see one of their displays in the London area is comparatively rare.
NEIGHBOURLY NEWS
HADAS has received one handsome birthday present already. Our colleagues in the Mill Hill & Hendon Historical Society have given us (and their Hon. Secretary, John Collier, specified it being in honour of our birthday) a nurber of interesting rapers collected by one of their members, the late A G Clarke.
These are concerned with local history topics in Hendon and Golders Green. Mr Collier explained that when their Society, which is centred on Hill Hill, started 50 years ago it was the only one in the area; it therefore took Hendon – an historic place – under its wing as well as Mill Hill. Nowadays, however, Mill Hill & Hendon Historical tends to. do moat of its research in Mill Hill itself. It -was felt that HADAS might be able to use Mr Clarke’s Hendon papers in some of our work.
The papers arm of considerable variety: letters, photographs, news cuttings and notes, copied. by Mr: Clarke from documents of all kinds.
Many of these last are in shorthand: fortunately it is Pitman’s, and very clear and legible to anyone who knows the craft.
Apparently Mr Clarke’s study was a sight to see: its walls were completely lined with pigeon holes; and if he were asked a question on any local history topic he could go unerringly to the right hole and get you sone facts about it.
HADAS would like to thank the Mill Hill & Hendon Historical Society very much for the papers, which will undoubtedly be of help and interest in many hADAS projects. And how pleasant it is that in our area societies with kindred interests are prepared to help each other and work together.
We have heard recently from another neighbour – the Enfield Archaeological Society.
Their publicity officer, John Stevens (also, incidentally, a NADAS member) has asked if we will remind our members of the existence of the Enfield Archaeological Society. It is slightly our senior, having been formed in 1955, and the western boundary .of its territory marches with the north east perimeter of HADAS’s patch; Mr Stevens thinks that perhaps keen archaeologists (especially in that area) might find membership of both societies of value.
And asks us to say that EAS would welcome new members; that it has a programme of monthly lectures on a variety of subjects and a subscription of £2 per annum. You can obtain further details from him at 3 Scarborough Road, London N9.
ALL ABOUT PEOPLE
A notable HADAS invalid during part of March has been DOROTHY NEWBURY, our Programme Secretary – now, we are happy to report, well on the road to recovery. She retired to hospital for an operation the day after the March lecture, All went according to plan and as this is written she is home again -with instructions to take it easy for a bit. However, being Dorothy, she just says “tell everyone I’m back in circulation.” She also asks the Newsletter to thank, on her behalf, all the members who sent her cards, letters and flowers.
Good news, too, from another March invalid, PETER FAUVEL-CLINCH, one
of our ace photographers. He has also had an operation, but reports that he is now fully recovered.
DAPHNE LORIMER, who has been globe-trotting again (this time to Hong Kong)-is back in London. She will be one of the .speakers at the 19th Annual Conference of London’ Archaeologists at the Museum of London on March 27 – a few days after this Newsletter goes to press. She intends to sum up the findings of the West Heath dig – just five years after Desmond Collins gave the first verbal report on it at an earlier Conference-of London Archaeologists in March 1977. Because of the timing, we won’t be able to tell you about the Conference in this issue: but we hope to have something about it in May.
The HADAS grape-vine says that this is a red-letter year for one of our keenest diggers, DAVE KING. He got married in the middle of March, and a few weeks’ time will be taking the finals of his three-year course at the Institute of Archaeology. All his HADAS friends wish him happiness in both undertakings.
,At the Prehistoric Society’s spring conference, held at the Museum of London on: March 20/21, we counted 22 HADAS heads among the audience. That’s a fair turn-out for one local society: but then the theme of the conference was one which, since West Heath, has been close to HADAS’s heart: the Archaeology of Hunter Gatherers.
THE MAKING OF THE GARDEN SUBURB by LIZ SAGUES
Tucked away at the bottom of one of the many display screens which combine ‘to form’ The Making of the Garden Suburb exhibition at Burgh House, New End Square, Hampstead, is a colour photograph of a flower display entered for one of the horticultural society shows.
The display – made entirely of dried material -‘is titled The Archives. Beside it, a caption adds: “not, we hope, as dry as dust.”
Certainly it is archive material – collected together by Brigid Grafton Green in her other guise as Suburb Archivist – which forms the exhibition. But in no way can the result be described as dry as Aust. It’s all too human too close both to residents of the Suburb and to anyone who knows it for that’.
From the beginning, when sheep and cattle grazed on the land Dame Henrietta was soon to use for her ambitious amalgam of social classes in homes that had a wide and pleasant outlook, ‘surrounded by green space for children to play on and community facilties shared by all, people predominate.
The Dame herself, of course, her husband whose involvement in the Whitechapel slums led to her pioneering, practical social work and-those who joined them in establishing the Suburb are there. Its architects renowned and lesser names – who are seen in domestic settings as well as professionally are there too. So are the royals, who have commended Suburb ideals. on many visits; and celebrities among the residents who have even taken major parts in local activities, as on the occasion when Michael Flanders played the lead in a Play and Pageant Union production of The Man Who Came to Dinner.
But most of: all there are the residents themselves, struggling over muddy, unlit, unmade roads to their new homes, miles from lCanyuseful shops; building up a community feeling with horticultural shows, church activities, Institute classes; surviving two wars, whose major architectural and community victim was the Club House; supporting the continuance of the Dame’s intentions, as in the 1970s rebuilding of The Orchard old people’s flats.
Photographs, pictures, plans, extracts from letters, ephemera like menus and programmes, the occasional more solid souvenir like the Dame’s family Bible or the-shovel that cut the first sod, all help to build the story of the Garden Suburb in a way that instantly seduces Visitors and holds them fast. Just one warning – allow at least an hour, ideally much more, to take it all in. Burgh House is open from noon to 5 pm, Wednesdays to Sundays, adnission is free.
FENGATE by Francis Pryor
Shire Publications £1.95
The latest in the Shire Archaeology series is this 56-page booklet, illustrated with photos, plans, maps and pictures of models and reconstructions, on the Fengate sites east of Peterborough.
The author is Director of the Welland Valley Project, and was Assistant Curator at the Royal Ontario Museum, which has contributed greatly to the cost of digs and post-excavation research.
The sites explored lie – as the name suggests – along the approaches to the fens. There are prehistoric sites from Neolithic times on through the phases of the Bronze and Iron Ages. The author first discusses the original discovery of some of the sites early in this century; the use made more recently of aerial photography to map the wealth of sites in the ancient landscape; and the historic formation of fenland and the environmental changes of the last eight or nine millennia
The archaeological record begins with the Neolithic-Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, the author says, “do not concern us – evidence for their existence is very sparse.” Most important is the discovery, through trackways and enclosure systems, of a “fully-developed landscape and
a population large enough to maintain it of late Neolithic date. This evidence-the author describes as “decidedly unexpected,” and he adds that it was difficult to accept when first found in the early 1970s.
The Bronze Age settlement pattern of before 1000 BC was found to be a dispersed one; but by 400-300 BC a phase for which there was good evidence – “settlement was nucleated and continued to be so.”
The booklet suffers a little from the necessity of keeping it short – for instance, dating is admitted to be “in very round terms,” and ‘the prehistoric archaeological periods are also very generalised.” However – as with most Shire Archaeology booklets – the author knows his stuff and it is a good generalised account of some fascinating sites and a period of some four thousand years about which archaeological opinion has changed dramatically in the last decade – partly because of what was found at Fengate.
Copies of the booklet are available from our Hon Treasurer, 66 Hampstead Way, NW11 7XX. Please add 25p for postage.
In honour of our 21 years, the Newsletter charts
below the record of HADAS’s progress – with the odd set-back, too – culled from Annual Reports, Minutes and, in later years, Newsletters
1961 The Society sets itself up with President, Vice-Presidents, officers and Committee.
A membership of 73 is achieved and a credit balance of £31.10.5d.
The first dig begins at “the ruined farmhouse on Church End Farm.”
1962 Membership 62; balance £29.138d.
A Constitution is drawn up and approved.
Digging continues at Church End Farm.
1963 Membership 56; balance £31.
Exhibition of finds from Church End Farm at Church Farm House Museum, and production of a duplicated interim report on the dig.
A social sub-committee arranges a party for “old Hendonians” to exchange memories of the district
1964 Membership 103; balance £25.14.5d.
Further 6-week dig at Church End Farm.
1965 Membership 124; balance rises to £75.4.6d, owing to the start of fund-raising (by whist drive).
Further exhibition at Church Farm House Museum of Church End Farm finds from 1961, 1962, 1964.
1966 Membership 120; balance £83.11.4d.
The annual programme settles down at 7 lectures and 4 outings; hereafter it keeps, with the occasional hiccup, to this pattern.
Excavations at Church End Farm, including The Paddock, completed.
1967 Membership 104; balance £122.15.2d.
HADAS begins chasing The Viatores Roman Road No 167, with a dig in Copthall Fields. Resistivity meter first used to aid excavation.
1968 Membership 98; balance £17.13.5d. research for road 167 continues with various investigations.
1969 Membership rises to 113; bank balance sinks to “about £50”.
Reconstituted Research sub-committee (an earlier one had foundered in 1963) starts several new projects.
Dig on open area near The Chequers, Church End, Hendon; trial dig at Westhorpe, Tenterden Grove.
First. Issue of HADAS Newsletter, at first published at somewhat erratic intervals.
1970 Membership 111; balance £37.10.
Dig at Brent Lodge, Nether Street; field work at Manor House, Finchley.
Borough Conncil Libraries Dept. agrees HADAS should mark, catalogue and conserve the Brockley Hill finds.
Recording tombstones begins in Hendon St Mary’s churchyard (and continues- until 1979).
1971 Membership 149; balance £34.81.
Excavations at Thirleby Rd, Edgware, and Simonds Nursery, Finchley. resistivity survey at Manor house, Finchley; street survey (prior to demolition) at Church End Hendon. HADAS plays leading part in Quincentenary celebrations of the Battle of Barnet; providing 3 members; including Chairman and Hon. Secretary, of 7-strong organising Committee. 10,000 visitors see exhibition in old Council Chamber, Wood Street, Barnet.
First Occasional Paper – Chroniclers of the Battle of Barnet -published, and first edition sells out.
Society celebrates its 10th anniversary with party attended by Deputy Mayoress, Mrs Freedman, who cuts the birthday cake.
By invitation HADAS represents LBB on newly-constituted Borough Secretaries Committee of LAMAS (as it still does); site-watching starts and continues as a permanent feature of HADAS work.
Roman Hendon exhibition at Church Farm House Museum; HADAS arranges for Roman burial urn to remain on permanent loan at Museum. Society exhibits at LAMAS Conference of London Archaeologists; and hereafter does so annually, later adding a further regular display at LAMAS Local History Conference.
HADAS first registers its interest in fate of College Farm, Finchley, by recommending LBB to refuse plan for 101 houses on the site; a detailed history of site and buildings is prepared; from now
on HADAS makes constant representations to local and central government about the deteriorating condition of the farm.
1972 Membership 174; Balance £267.64
Excavations at 31-34 the Burroughs
Bookbox established and newsletter becomes regular monthly
Reception and lecture at Prince Albert, Golders Green Road, in honour of Mayor of Barnet, Councilor Joseph Freedman.
Travelling exhibition of photos in connection with the Festival of London prepared for showing at LBB libraries.
Portrait survey starts.
Survey of Old Ford Moat, Hadley
Regular winter weekends studying Roman pottery from Brockley Hill start at the Teahouse,Northway and continues annually
Occasional Paper No. 2, “The Blue Plaques of Barnet published
1973 Membership 234; balance £891.10
Transcription of Hendon St Mary’s parish registers starts
Index made of Listed Buildings in LBB
Church Terrace dig starts
A start is made on Industrial Archaeology projects (but proves to be a false start)
Exhibition of HADAS work at shop in Church Road, Hendon
First mention in Annual Report of desperate need for accommodation: This becomes a continuing theme.
First mention in Newsletter of field walking (at Scratch Wood), which now becomes a fairly regular activity.
1974 Membership 270; balance £588.
Archaeology in the Borough exhibition at Church Farm House Museum. First minimart held; raises £115. Almost annual event from now on. Church Terrace dig continues; dig also at Fuller Street, Hendon. Regular exhibitions at school fetes, Finchley Carnival, Friern Barnet Summer Show.
20 members survey possible buildings for Listing in LBB and HADAS makes recommendations for up-dating the Statutory List.
First “weekend away” at Ironbridge Gorge; autumn weekends become hereafter a normal feature of the programme.
1975 Membership 294; balance £573
Honey, Milk and Milestones (Occasional Paper No 3) published. Digs at St James the Great, Friern Barnet; and Woodland, Golders. Green.
Dissenters Burial Ground, Totteridge, recorded.
Industrial Archaeology section, hitherto moribund, re-starts in a quiet way.
Survey of parish boundaries starts.
Exhibition of Brockley Hill finds at Burnt Oak Library.
1976 Membership 389; balance £953.
West Heath dig starts (and continues annually each summer until
and including 1981); processing of finds goes on alongside digging, and continues, at different venues, through the winter.
Dig at site next the White Swan, Golders Green.
Exhibition in empty shop at newly-opened Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
HADAS gets its own coat of arms, designed by an artist member.
1977 Membership 444; balance £1134.62.
Second site in West Heath “bog” area, opened for short dig.
London University accepts West Heath as suitable training site for Extramural Diploma and Certificate in Field Archaeology.
For next three years a fortnight’s training dig is organised. HADAS among 6 finalists for BBC Independent Archaeologists award appears on BBC2 Chronicle programme.
First HADAS symposium, on the West Heath dig.
Archaeology in Action exhibition at Church Farm House Museum exhibition in foyer of Barnet College.
Occasional. Paper No 4, Victorian Jubilees, published.
HADAS organises and provides lecturers for 2-term course in basic archaeology at Hendon College of Further Education, Flower Lane (similar courses arranged until Easter, 1981).
Storage space for tools, etc. provided by new owners of College Farm; later this develops into offer of small room in which processing as well as storage can take place.
1978 Membership 446; balance £1899.51
Helped by a grant, HADAS invests in surveying equipment.
First full week away: a memorable trip to Orkney.
Society acquires first “home of its own” – tiny rented room at
Avenue House, Finchley, to house its growing library.
Dig at Old Rectory site, Finchley; dig in carpark of Town Hall,
Hendon.
Recording starts in churchyard of. St James, Friern Barnet.
Exhibition of Industrial Archaeology at Barnet Museum.
1979 Membership 440 balance £1411.60
Dig at 97 Southwood Lane, Highgate.
Part of New Southgate cemetery “rescue” recorded.
Five new research groups set up: Prehistoric, Roman, Medieval,Industrial Archaeology and Documentary.
Hay tedder, 1880 type, rescued with Territorial Army help, from Mill Hill and lodged at College Farm.
Unusual Christmas party researched and organised: a Roman banquet.
1980- Membership 443; balance £1847.30 (both at March ’81)*
81 Occasional Paper No 5 published: Those Were the Days.
Pinning Down the Past exhibition at Church Farm House Museum, exhibition at Centre Point, Grahame.Park.
Dig at Cedars Close, Hendon
1982 Dig in basement of Manor House, Finchley; dig behind Old Bulls, Barnet.
*membership/balance figures throughout are those for the end-of each financial year at March 31,
