News - HADAS

Jun 01

Newsletter 651 – June 2025

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 12 : 2025-2029 | No Comments

No. 651 June 2025 Edited by Melvyn Dresner

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Weekend of 7th to 8th June 2025: It’s back! Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream Farm, Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts EN5 4RA Note new venue – not Barnet Rugby club as before due to redevelopment. Barnet Medieval Festival – Reenactment of the Battle of Barnet 1471

Tuesday 10 June 2025 at 7.30 pm: Annual General Meeting to be followed by a lecture by our president, Jacqui Pearce, A web of influences – imported ceramics in London 1000-1700.

Throughout the medieval and early post-medieval period, pottery from countries outside Britain was entering the country alongside other imports. Many different wares had a deep impact on local potters, influencing their styles of decoration, and even their technology. We will be looking at a wide range of pottery, from many centres in Europe, particularly France, the Low Countries, Germany, Italy and Spain, as well as the significant and long-lasting impact of wares from the Far East. London was a particularly rich source of inspiration as a major hub for imported goods and this is reflected in the wide range of pottery recovered in archaeological excavations.

Lectures held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.

Buses 13, 125, 143, 326, 382, and 460 pass close by, and it is a five-ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line where the Super Loop SL10 express bus from North Finchley to Harrow also stops.

Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.

Dear HADAS members.

Newsletter contributions welcome.

In order to keep our monthly newsletter going, we welcome contributions. Please help us by sending us an article, or perhaps just a paragraph or two about something relevant you have found of interest. You can even just send us a comment about one of the previous articles – all contributions gratefully received!

Please send contributions to the next editor, details at the end of the distributed version of this newsletter. Thank you!

Fancy a coach break?

The HADAS committee has been researching ideas for a 4- or 5-day coach break in the UK most likely not too far from London for our first excursion after a few years break. As some of you will remember we did used to have coach trips in the past and we are hopeful of starting this practice again this will depend on there being enough interest from members. To see if there might be enough people to make this feasible an expression of interest sheet was available to sign after our May lecture and will be available after our other lectures. We have some signatures already which is good. If you are not able to attend lectures and wish to express an interest please email chairman@hadas.org.uk.

At a further date we will be emailing those who have said that they are interested and have provided their email details a suggested itinerary and price based on numbers attending. It is likely that the trip will not be before late this year but more likely next year.

Next HADAS dig: 31st of July – 4th August 2025: Vine Cottage, Greyhound Hill, Hendon NW4

Initial survey work undertaken and preparation work under way. If you like to get involved contact Roger Chapman treasurer@hadas.org.uk Photos courtesy of Andy Simpson.

Photo 1, above left, Bill Bass and Roger Chapman sorting out datum points for Bennet’s School (previous dig on nearby site on Church Road next to almshouses) and Vine Cottage, and baselines for the Vine Cottage site, based on the Ordinance Datum point sited low down on the church tower (St Mary’s Church, Hendon).

Photo 2, above right, Roger, Don, Kate and Bill looking at base of the church tower to identify location of the OD.

College Farm – an update Peter Pickering

HADAS has always been interested in College Farm – that refreshing piece of green land on the left as you come north on Regent’s Park Road from Henly’s Corner. Our Secretary, Brigid Grafton Green, wrote a booklet ‘Milk for the Millions’ about it in 1983; and for many years we stored some of our material there. In the last century it was a lively farm, with open days that were very popular with families. Since the foot and mouth disease outbreak, however ,it has been hard of access, and there has been real concern about the listed farm buildings as well as the open land. All is now changing. The Charity Commission intervened to completely replace the Trust that owned the farm, and the new Trust, one of whose members is the Chairman of the Finchley Society, Mick Crick, will be

working on plans to make the farm once more an active community asset. With backing from a wealthy philanthropist there is every likelihood of success.

Front cover and maps from Milk for the millions (Brigid Grafton Green, 1983)

Crosby Blitz Beach Jane Mortimer

Just outside Liverpool lies Crosby Beach where you can see Anthony Gormley’s famous art installation, Another Place, comprising 100 life size iron men. However less well known is another beach a short distance from here which is made up of the rubble of war time Liverpool.

Liverpool was one of the most heavily bombed cities in World War Two and much of the city lay in ruins afterwards. Some of the rubble was shipped out for use as ballast but a huge amount was unceremoniously dumped on this nearby beach. With the cash strapped city having to rebuild, there was no money to clear the rubble and it was left and largely forgotten. Over the last 80 years the Irish Sea has pounded and rounded the bricks, glass, stone blocks and marble and it is now an imposing and strangely magnificent sight. It is also a sobering monument to the 4,000 who were killed in the Liverpool blitz and the 70,000 who were made homeless.

Caral-Supe Civilization of Peru David Willoughby

Flourishing around 3000 BCE there was a civilization so advanced that it developed earthquake-resistant architecture millennia before modern engineering. The Caral-Supe civilization of Peru, achieved just that with an ingenious technique known as “Shicras.” These were woven baskets made from vegetable fibres, filled with stones, and strategically placed within building foundations. This method effectively absorbed seismic energy, allowing structures to withstand earthquakes—a testament to their sophisticated understanding of construction and environmental challenges.
The Shicra technique involved crafting baskets from local plant fibres, such as reeds, and filling them with stones. These were then integrated into the foundations of buildings, particularly in ceremonial temples and pyramids. The flexibility of the fibre and the mass of the stones worked together to dissipate seismic energy, reducing the risk of structural collapse during earthquakes.

Archaeological excavations at Caral and other sites like Pisquillo have revealed the extensive use of Shicras in ancient construction. Structures employing this technique have remained intact for over 5,000 years, enduring numerous seismic events. This durability underscores the effectiveness of the Shicra system and highlights the Caral-Supe civilization’s innovative approach to building in a seismically active region.

The legacy of Shicras extends beyond ancient Peru. Modern engineering employs similar principles in the form of gabions—wire mesh containers filled with stones used for erosion control and as foundations in construction. These contemporary applications echo the ancient wisdom of the Caral-Supe people, demonstrating the enduring relevance of their techniques.

The Caral-Supe civilization’s use of Shicras exemplifies a harmonious blend of innovation, sustainability, and resilience. Their methods offer valuable insights for modern engineering, particularly in developing earthquake-resistant structures that are both effective and environmentally conscious. As we face increasing seismic risks worldwide, revisiting and adapting such ancient technologies could inform and enhance our contemporary building practices.

Was the Late Bronze Age eruption at Santorini responsible for the demise of Minoan society? David Willoughby

The demise of Minoan society refers to the period after the end of the LM IB phase, ca. 1450 BCE when frequent interaction between Crete and the Aegean ended. This two-hundred year period is marked by the transition of Crete and other islands to a Mycenaean material culture (Shelmerdine, 2008).

In LM IA (ca 1700 – ca 1600 BCE) the Minoan culture was at the peak of its achievement with high art being much in evidence (Driessen & Macdonald, 1997). They had developed a writing system, Linear A that they used to manage an efficient bureaucracy. Also architectural accomplishment reached a high point with magnificent palaces being built at Knossos and elsewhere (Shelmerdine, 2008). Minoan influence could be seen all over the Aegean with evidence of their material culture being found in the Cyclades (e.g. Ayia Irini on Keos), the coast of Anatolia (e.g. Miletos) and on the Greek mainland (e.g. in the Grave circles at Mycenae). Islands like Thera and Kythera show such a degree

degree of Minoanization that they may have been colonized by the Minoans (Shelmerdine, 2008). Linear A was not confined to Crete with examples of this writing having been discovered in Samothrace, Thera and in Miletos (Callender). The occurrence of Minoan high prestige items in Egypt, the Cyclades and Mycenaean Greece, and the presence of Minoan style frescos on Thera, Melos and at Near Eastern sites such as Tell el-Dab’a in Egypt point to the possibility of Minoan craftsmen working abroad (Bietak, 2008). It appears that the Minoans had extensive trade routes and dominated the Aegean region during this period. At this time Mycenaean material culture traces outside of mainland Greece were slight (Callender).

At the end of LM IB Crete shows wide-spread destruction and abandonment throughout the island. Remains were burned indicating human involvement and evidence of brush wood to start at least some the fires has been found (Driessen J. , 2019). It would appear that many sites were prepared as in many cases valuables were removed or hoarded and efforts were made to protect livestock and water supplies. During destruction, prestigious artworks were deliberately destroyed. The destruction occurred in phases over a period of time and was selective. Most of the palaces were destroyed but Knossos and Aghia Triada were spared and reused. The port of Kommos was also reused. At Knossos however the town was destroyed and at certain sites such as Myrtos-Pyrgos, only the central buildings were burnt down, with the surrounding houses escaping destruction. (Driessen J. , 2019). Following these destructions the palace at Knossos was occupied by a culturally Mycenaean elite. It is unclear as to whether this elite was the cause of the destruction or whether this was an opportunistic takeover following a period of internal turmoil (Shelmerdine, 2008).

After the widespread destructions of the palaces at the end of LM IB significant cultural changes took place over the next two hundred years on Crete and by LM IIIB the traditional Minoan cemeteries had been abandoned and the elite were buried in Mycenaean style Tholos and chamber tombs. Warrior burials also occurred around Chania.

By the LM IIIB Minoan Linear A had been replaced by Linear B at Knossos. The administration was characteristically Mycenaean with Greek being used as the administrative language (Driessen & Macdonald, 1997). Linear B had been adapted from Linear A to record a language to which it was not really suited (Preziosi & Hitchcock, 1999) implying a switch from a Minoan language. There was also a significant change to the economy with sheep, textiles, oil and weapons being the main industries. Wealth overall increased and the elite became very affluent. This was mainly because of the gearing up of the economy for overseas trade (Shelmerdine, 2008) but the health of the general population had deteriorated (Callender).

By the LM IIIB Minoan commerce in the Aegean had become negligible whereas Mycenaean pottery was to be found throughout the Aegean and Mycenaean exports from Crete and elsewhere had increased significantly (Callender).

It has long been known that the Santorini volcano erupted in the Late Bronze Age completely burying the Minoanised settlements on the island of Thera in several metres of volcanic debris. As early as 1939 it was claimed that this eruption was responsible for the downfall of the Minoan civilisation on Crete, some 110 kilometres south of Thera.

The scale of the eruption has recently been reassessed as being one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history being on the same order of magnitude as the Tambora eruption of 1815 (Callender). The deposits produced by the volcano include 2km3 of Plinian ash from the main eruption column, 17km3 of ash associated with pyroclastic flows and 41km3 of underwater pyroclastic flows (Sigurdsson, et al., 2006). Archaeological excavations at Akrotiri on Thera indicate that the eruption was preceded by major seismic activity.

Fallout of ash from the eruption was extensive with a deep deposits have been found as far as Trianda in Rhodes, elsewhere in the Dodecanese and even in Miletos (Shelmerdine, 2008). In Eastern Crete some 5 cms of volcanic ash has been found and acidity from it might have affected agriculture for years (Callender). However, these ash deposits were not believed to have been responsible for the collapse of the Minoan civilization (Dunn).

The eruption of the Thera volcano would have pushed small particles and gases high up into the atmosphere and it has been suggested that this could have lowered annual average temperatures by one to two degrees across the world and resulting in cold, wet summers that caused crop failures over several years (Cecil, 2011). Such an effect was recorded in the aftermath of the 1815 Tambora eruption (Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica).

Recent discoveries in Palaikastro in Crete found evidence of sea microorganisms and species usually found on the seabed, well away from the coast. Also found were deposits of smashed or powdered pottery and stone and deposits of volcanic ash. Similar discoveries were also made at Amnissos near Knossos. Radio carbon dating indicated that these deposits were associated with the Thera eruption. Analysis of these discoveries concluded that Crete was hit by successive tsunamis with waves 50 feet high destroying crops, salting fields and devastating ports and other infrastructure near the coast. Any ship in harbour would have been destroyed. This destruction would have affected primarily the northern and eastern coast of Crete. Settlements in the central and on the south and west coasts would have remained relatively unscathed (Dunn).

The date of the Thera eruption has long been a matter of conjecture with radio carbon dating from a buried olive branch on Thera producing a date of 1650-1600 BCE with archaeological evidence suggesting dates of between mid 16th C to early 15th C BCE. Recent work to reconcile these dates using bristle cone pine dendrochronology dating has produced a likely date range of 1600 to 1525 BCE with a significant event in 1560 BCE (Pearson, et al., 2018).

Taking a the likely date of 1560 BCE, this would put the eruption in the at the start of the LM IB phase some 70 years before the demise of the Minoan civilization at the end of LM IB around 1490 BCE.

After the eruption the Minoan ports and infrastructure destroyed by the tsunamis were never rebuilt (Dunn). Also there appears to have been an exodus of population from the eastern regions of Crete and Galatas palace was abandoned. No new palaces were built and repairs to existing ones appear shoddy. Many houses and the palaces increased their food and water storage facilities implying possible food shortages and water contamination. There appears to have been a reduction in olive oil production (Callender). The Minoans may have sought food supplies from Egypt or from the Mycenaeans (Driessen & Macdonald, 1997).

In the LM IB phase contact between Crete and the Aegean continued, implying the loss of Thera as a hub was not an insurmountable impediment to trade (Shelmerdine, 2008). However, much of the LM IB pottery was exported to mainland Greece (Callender). There appears to have been substantial contact with Egypt with most Egyptian objects found in Crete dating to LM IB. Also there are references to Keftiu (Cretans) in Egyptian texts (Shelmerdine, 2008).

The eruption may have affected Minoan beliefs. Afterwards many peak sanctuaries were abandoned with the focus of worship shifting to caves (Callender). At a number of sites like Palaikastro stone horns of consecration were discarded and used as a building material. Also Theran pumice appears to have been carefully collected and stored (Shelmerdine, 2008) and has been found as an offering in a cup in a well at Kato Zakros (Preziosi & Hitchcock, 1999).

Dating suggests that the Theran volcanic eruption did not immediately result in the demise of Minoan civilization but it may have changed it in such a way to set it on that path. Perhaps the population started questioning their belief system and eventually overthrew the priestly establishment at the palaces (Cecil, 2011) or perhaps society broke down as a result of the apparent movement of wealth towards the elite at the expense of a population weakened by famine and other effects of the eruption (Brogan & Hallager, 2011). Minoan trading patterns may have changed due to the destruction of the ports in Northern and Western Crete allowing Mycenaeans to fill a vacuum in the Aegean.

Perhaps the use of the word ‘transition’ rather than ‘demise’ is more appropriate. Crete under the new administration was prosperous. Although culturally Mycenaean there is no clear evidence that it was not dominated by ethnic Minoans. After the collapse of this administration in LM IIIA2a and by LM IIIC, burial ritual in some parts of Crete showed a renewed link with Minoan tradition with burials in caves and older buildings and with more typically Minoan burial offerings (Perna, 2003), Minoan cult practices involving offering benches and representations of goddesses with uplifted arms continued at Gournia, Gazi and Kavousi (Preziosi & Hitchcock, 1999). The practice of dedicating bronze votive figurines and other items at sacred caves continued into the classical period (Preziosi & Hitchcock, 1999). Also presumed Minoan language (eteocretan) inscriptions in the Greek alphabet have been found dating as late as the 3rd C BCE (Eteocretan Language, 2019).

Bibliography

Bietak, M. (2008). Minoan Artists at the Court of Avaris. In J. Aruz, K. Benzel, & E. J.M, Beyond Babylon: art, trade, and diplomacy in the second millennium B.C. New York Metropolitan Museum of Ar: Yale University Press.

Brogan, T., & Hallager, E. (2011). LM IB Pottery Relative Chronology and Regional Differences. Monographs of the Danish Institute of Athens Volume 11, 1.

Callender, G. (n.d.). The Collapse of the Minoan Social System. Retrieved 2020, from Academia: https://www.academia.edu/34451175/Collapse_of_Minoan_Social_System.

Cecil, J. (2011, 02 17). The Fall of the Minoan Civilization. Retrieved from The Great Ancient Greek Temples: https://sites.google.com/site/thegreatancientgreektemples/the-minoan-civilization—the-fall-of.

Driessen, J. (2019). The Santorini eruption. An archaeological investigation of its distal impacts on Minoan Crete. Quaternary International 499 , 195-204.

Driessen, J., & Macdonald, C. (1997). The Troubled Island, Minoan Crete before and after the Santorini eruption. Aegium 17 (Vol. Aegeum 17). Liege: Liege University.

Dunn, S. (n.d.). The Destruction of the Minoan Civilization. Retrieved from www.explorecrete.com: http://www.explorecrete.com/archaeology/minoan-civilization-destruction.html.

Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.). Mount Tambora. Retrieved from www.britannica.com: https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-Tambora.

Eteocretan Language. (2019). Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eteocretan_language.

McGillivray, S. (n.d.). The Destruction of the Minoan Civilization. Retrieved from www.explorecrete.com: http://www.explorecrete.com/archaeology/minoan-civilization-destruction.html.

Pearson, C., Brewer, P., Brown, D., Heaton, T., Hodgins, G., Jull, A. T., et al. (2018, Aug 15). Annual radiocarbon record indicates 16th century BCE date for the Thera eruption. Science Advances Vol. 4, no. 8.

Perna, K. (2003). Between Mycenaean Culture and Minoan Tradition: Social Dynamic in Crete at the End of the Bronze Age. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, Vol 3, No 2 , pp. 7-34.

Preziosi, D., & Hitchcock, L. A. (1999). Aegean Art and Architecture. Oxford University Press.

Shelmerdine, C. W. (2008). The Aegean Bronze Age. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Sigurdsson, H., Carey, S., Alexandri, M., Vougioukalakis, G., Croff, K., Roman, C., et al. (2006). Marine investigations of Greece’s Santorini volcanic field. Transactions American Geophysical Union 87 (24), pp. 337-342.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

Other Organisations / Societies’ events Eric Morgan

As always please check with the societies’ websites before planning to attend since not all societies and organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions.

Saturday 7th June, 12-5 pm. Highgate Festival, Pond Square and South Grove, Highgate Village, London. N6 5BS. Lots of stalls including Highgate Society and Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute. Also craft, books and clothes, stalls and music stage. Free. Also Tower Tours of Church.

Monday 9th June, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Behind The Battle of Barnet Banners. Talk by Scott Harrison. For Further information please visit www.barnetmuseum.org.uk.

Friday 13th June, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall (Address as for Enfield Society – Tuesday 3rd June). Roman Egypt. Talk by Stefania Afarano (U.C.L). Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org.uk. for further details. Visitors charge £1.50. Refreshments, Sales and information to be available.

Friday 20th June, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall, (behind St. Andrew’s new church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. Frankenstein – Food, Fun, Family and more. Talk by Lester Hillman. Visitors charge £3. Refreshments to be available in the interval.

Sunday 22nd June 12 -6 pm. East Finchley Festival. Cherry Tree Wood, East Finchley, N2 9QH. (Entrance off High Road, opposite Tube Station). Lots of stalls including Finchley Society, Friends of Cherry Tree wood (Roger Chapman, HADAS), North London U3A. Also craft and food stalls and music stages.

Wednesday 25th June, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf club (address as for Wednesday 28th May). Transport for London. Talk by David Le Boff, Non-members charged £2.

Thursday 26th June, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens) House. (Address as for Thursday 29th May). Annual General Meeting. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Charge £2.

Friday 20th – Sunday 29th June. Hampstead Summer Festival including Friday 20th – Art Street canvases in Keats Grove, London, NW3 2RS for a month. Sunday 22nd Art Fair 12 – 5 pm. In Keats’ House Garden, 10 Keats Grove, London. NW3 2PR. Free entry. Please see www.hampsteadsummerfestival.org.uk.

Saturday 21st – Sunday 29th June. Proms at St. Jude’s Music and Literary Festival. Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. NW11 7AH. Including Talks and Heritage Walks. For full details please visit www.promsatstjudes.org.uk. Tickets for guided walks must be booked in advance.

Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th July, 12 – 9 pm. East Barnet Festival. Oak Hill Park, Church Hill Road, East Barnet, EN4 8JP. Lots of stalls including craft and food stalls, a Bar, music stage, Classic cars show on the Sunday. Please visit www.eastbarnetfestival.co.uk for details.

Sunday 6th July, 12 -5 pm. Hampstead Summer Festival, Big Fair in Heath Street, Hampstead NW3 – (up from Hampstead underground station towards Whitestone Pond). Over 100 stalls of craft, food and drink. Music. Free. Please visit www.hampsteadsummerfestival.org.uk.

Sunday 6th July – Sunday 20th July. Enfield Archaeological Society – Elsyng Palace Excavation in the grounds of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield. EN2 9HA. This 21st year will focus on revealing more of the Inner Gatehouse of the Palace, following the previous excavation of its turret-flanked pedestrian entrance. To join the dig please contact research@enfarchsoc.org or visit www.enfarchsoc.org or email martin.dearne@talktalk.net and if you are not already a member, please join (cost £12) by 20th June 2025. On Saturday 12th July 11 am. – 4 pm. there is a public Open Day.

Tuesday 8th July, 8 pm. Amateur Geological Society. Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6 East End Road/corner Stanhope Avenue, London. N3 3LX (almost opposite Stephens’ (Avenue) House) –The Evolution Garden –uncovering a history of plants. Talk by Dr Paul Kenrick (Natural History Museum) who re-opened its gardens in South Kensington and has created an accessible and free green space. A key feature of the re-design is the New Evolution Garden – an immersive journey through 2-7 billion years of Earth’s history told through plants, geological features and representations of animals. Full details on www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Monday 14th July, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet. EN5 4BW. London Colney Airfield and the Royal Flying Corps. Talk by Guy Thomas. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk. for further details. Refreshments to be available afterwards.

Friday 18th July, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London. EC3R 7NB. Talks also on Zoom. Members’ Night. Short Talks by C.O.L.A.S. members. Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out link details to its members.

Also on Friday 20th June, 7 pm. Across the pre-historic landscape of West London. Talk by Dr. Steve Ford (Thames Valley Archaeological Services). Also on zoom (details as above).

Friday 18th July, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. Kingsbury – how it all began – Farms, Bridges and Churches. Talk by Councillor Ketan Sheth on following the development of the community of Kingsbury. Visitors request to pay £3. Refreshments to be available in the interval.

Thanks to our contributors this month: Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Peter Pickering, Andy Simpson, and David Willoughby.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

May 01

Newsletter 650 – May 2025

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 12 : 2025-2029 | No Comments

No. 650 May 2025 Edited by Dudley Miles

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Tuesday 13 May 2025 Les Capon (AOC Archaeology), A community / HLF excavation at Cranford, Hillingdon with trenching over four seasons that discovered Romano-British roundhouses, Saxon Houses, medieval and Tudor and post-medieval remains and intact cellars. Encompassing the Bronze Age to the 19^th Century.

Weekend of 7^th-8th June 2025 It’s back! Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream Farm, Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts EN5 4RA Note new venue – not Barnet Rugby club as before due to redevelopment. https://barnetmedievalfestival.org/

Tuesday 10 June 2025 – 7.30 pm Annual General Meeting to be followed by a lecture by our president, Jacqui Pearce,

Lectures held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.

Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.

Mapping the kingdom

Our last talk was by Hugh Petrie, looking at the colourful maps of the first County Series, which were one of the greatest feats of the Victorian period. The lecture is the story of the first large scale survey of England made in the 1860s at “1:2500 OR 25.344 INCHES TO THE MILE.” The lecture looks at how and why the survey was carried out, the people who made it happen from the labourers, through to the sappers and officers of the Royal Engineers, and how the maps can be used to tell us about local history, using maps from the local studies collection of the London Borough of Barnet.

This is follow up material that people asked for

National Library of Scotland – 25″ Maps of England and Wales
https://maps.nls.uk/os/25inch-england-and-wales/

Barnet Open Data/History – Ordnance Survey from Barnet Local Studies collection
https://open.barnet.gov.uk/dataset/2rpm1/barnet-history

The Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, its history and object, Josiah Pierce. THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, Vol. II. 1890.No. 4.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62827/62827-h/62827-h.htm#chap2

History of the Ordnance Survey W. A. Seymour (editor)
William Dawson & Son Ltd. Crown Copyright 1980
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/documents/resources/os-history.pdf

Ordnance Survey – Map Makers to Britain since 1791
Tim Owen & Elain Pilbeam, Ordnance Survey HMSO 1992
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/documents/resources/map-makers-britain-history.pdf

Lincoln Janet Mortimer

I spent a weekend recently in Lincoln with fellow HADAS member, Barbara Thomas. For anyone interested in history or archaeology, Lincoln is the perfect place to visit. Our taxi from the station took us through the 11th century East Gate to the Lincoln Hotel where we were staying and greeting us in the front of the hotel was the remains of the Roman east gate. Some people may have been dismayed to find that the view from their hotel room was a wall but we were thrilled to find that our view was of a large section of Roman wall.

On the first day we had a guided tour of the Guildhall where we were given a talk on the history of Lincoln as well as that of the Guildhall. The building, dating from the 16th century, was interesting and we saw some of their treasures including the sword of Richard II and several royal charters.

On the second day we participated in a 3 hour guided walking tour. Amazingly this was a free tour although we had to book in advance. We did wonder whether we would be able to complete the full three hours but the guides were so interesting and informative about Lincoln’s history that this was no problem.

The following day we started off at the castle where we joined another guided tour. By this time I had absorbed so much knowledge of the history of Lincoln that I could be considering a new career as a tour guide. Lincoln dates back to the Iron Age but became important in Roman times when Lindum Colonia became the portmanteau word Lincoln. After the Norman Conquest, the important strategic position of Lincoln was recognised and a castle and cathedral were built. Over the years the fate and fortunes of Lincoln waxed and waned but the locals seem particularly fond of the tale of the Battle of Lincoln Fair where a possible further French takeover at the invitation of the Barons was halted in 1217. After our castle talk, we walked the castle walls where the views were spectacular. We also visited the Victorian prison in the grounds which was grim but very interesting. We saw the Magna Carta and two copies of the Charter of the Forest, which was probably more important than the Magna Carta to the common man.

Later we visited the wonderful cathedral. This impressive building was started in 1072 and has a magnificent stained glass window to rival the rose window in Notre Dame. The cathedral has even doubled as Notre Dame in films. For 200 years it was the tallest building in the world, even taller than the Great Pyramid, until one of the spires collapsed in 1548. It is also home to the heart of Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I as, odd as it may seem today, parts of her were distributed around the country following her death. When we were there we were lucky enough to witness them setting up a table made from an ancient Fenland Black Oak. These giant trees date from around 5,000 years ago before the pyramids, and are now extinct but the 44ft length of this one was found in farmland in Norfolk and preserved and made into this impressive table.

Who killed King Edward the Martyr? Dudley Miles

When Edgar, King of the English, died in 975, he left two sons by different wives. Edward was around thirteen years old. Almost nothing is known about his mother and even her name is not recorded in any surviving document until after the Norman Conquest. By contrast, his younger half-brother, the future King Æthelred the Unready, was the son of Ælfthryth, a powerful figure who was the only woman known to have been crowned Queen of England in the tenth century.

The succession to the throne was disputed by supporters of the two princes, and the events were described around 1100 by Byrhtferth of Ramsey. Ælfthryth naturally backed her son, and some magnates supported him because, according to Byrhtferth “he seemed more gentle to everyone in word and deed. But the elder son struck not only fear but even terror into everyone; he hounded them not only with tongue-lashings but even with cruel beatings – and most of all those who were members of his own household.” But Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, supported Edward, and his voice was decisive.

**Edward in an early fourteenth-century Genealogical Roll of the Kings of England**

Edward only reigned for three years. On 18 March 878 he arrived at the Gap of Corfe, now Corfe Castle village, to visit Ælfthryth and Æthelred, who were living on her estate there. According to Byrhtferth, the magnates and leading men had decided to murder Edward, which they did by stabbing him while he was still on his horse. His body was then taken by his thegns (noble retainers) to the house of a churl, where it spent the night covered in a cheap blanket, and was then buried without any honour.

Contemporaries were deeply distressed at the manner of his death. Kings were seen as sacred, and those who died by violence were commonly regarded as saints. No one was punished for the killing and no pre-Conquest source names the killers, but post-Conquest chroniclers and some modern historians accuse Ælfthryth of responsibility for the murder. Æthelred proved to be an ineffective king and England was conquered by Danish Vikings in the early eleventh century. His disastrous reign was seen by these writers as partly a result of the suspicious circumstances of his accession. This view has been challenged by historians who point out that there is no evidence that contemporaries blamed Ælfthryth or Æthelred for Edward’s death.

No modern historian blames Æthelred personally for the killing in view of his youth, but most think that Edward was murdered by supporters of Æthelred in the hope of personal advantage. An exception is Ann Williams, who suggests that in view of Edward’s violent temper, he may have been accidentally killed in an affray with Ælfthryth’s retainers.

This theory is supported by several points. Byrhtferth wrote that Ælfthryth and Æthelred stayed in the house when Edward arrived, but it is unlikely that they would have been so disrespectful as not to greet their king. It is more plausible that Byrhtferth concealed their presence so as not to implicate them. Byrhtferth claimed that Edward was visiting his beloved brother, but it is unlikely

that a youth of Edward’s character would have been a close friend of a rival for the throne. It is more probable that he called to pursue a quarrel with Ælfthryth. He may have lost his temper and tried to violently assault her, and been accidentally killed by her retainers who were trying to protect her.

The strongest support for the accident theory is provided by Byrhtferth’s description of the conduct of Edward’s thegns. The highest duty of a man in Anglo-Saxon culture was loyalty to his lord, and one of the greatest Old English poems was The Battle of Maldon, about the defeat of an English army by the Vikings in 991. The poem celebrates the heroism of warriors who chose to die fighting after the fall of their commander, Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, rather than desert their dead lord. Disloyalty to a king was even more shameful, and it is extraordinary that Edward’s thegns did not fight for him and treated his body with contempt. It seems that they did not blame the men who killed him, and that there was a general feeling of relief at the death of a violent youth, who may have been unbalanced to the point of being mentally ill.

The kingdom’s magnates were probably relieved at Edward’s death and at first they made no effort to retrieve his body for honourable burial, but popular horror at the violent death of a king forced them to change their minds. A year later, his body, or a body which could be passed off as his, was ceremoniously conveyed to Shaftesbury Abbey for royal burial. He soon came to be revered as a saint, and King Æthelred took the lead in promoting his half-brother’s cult, which became important in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Popular reverence for Edward forced Byrhtferth to portray his death as a foul murder, but the condemnation of his character, and description of the conduct of his thegns when he was killed, may have been intended to hint at the truth.

The cult of Edward the Martyr cult declined after the Norman Conquest, but revived in the later Middle Ages, and there are still churches dedicated to him in Corfe Castle, Goathurst in Somerset, Cambridge, Castle Donington and New York. The historian Tom Watson comments: “For an obnoxious teenager who showed no evidence of sanctity or kingly attributes and who should have been barely a footnote, his cult has endured mightily well.”

Sources
Lapidge, Michael, ed. (2009). Byrhtferth of Ramsey: The Lives of St Oswald and St Ecgwine, pp. 122-145
Williams, Ann (2003). Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King, pp. 1-17
Watson, Tom (2021). “The Enduring Cult of Edward the Martyr”. Southern History. 43, p. 19
For other sources, see the Wikipedia article Edward the Martyr – Wikipedia.

I thank Dr Ann Williams for helpful comments on the article.

Explorator Peter Pickering

Readers of this newsletter may like to know of a way of keeping up to date with archaeology throughout the world. I have long been a subscriber (free) to a weekly email called ‘Explorator’ from David Meadows, who is, I think, based in Canada. He looks at a very wide range of newspapers and periodicals, picks out items of archaeological interest, summarises them and includes a link. The link does not always work for me (there may be some sort of a pay wall operating) and sometimes opening the link produces more advertising than content. But just skimming the summaries (those on similar subjects are brought together) keeps me up to date with what is happening in archaeology throughout the globe. To subscribe to Explorator, send a blank email message to explorator+subscribe@groups.io.

Transport Corner – Trolleybus demise Andy Simpson

Many readers will be aware of my interest in historic road transport, which often leads me to the magazine racks in remaining branches of W H Smith – the Victoria Station branch in particular currently has probably the best selection of transport titles in London!

Last year, this led me to the October-November 2024 edition of Classic Bus magazine and an article by local resident Hugh Taylor ‘removing the trolleybus overhead’ partly illustrated by photos taken in Colindale and Edgware in March 1962.

Electrically powered Trolleybuses ran to Barnet via Golders Geen and Finchley, and Canons Park and Edgware via Cricklewood and Colindale, until the bitterly cold and snowy night of 2/3 January 1962, known to enthusiasts as ‘snowy thirteen’ in the aftermath of heavy and disruptive snowfall on New Year’s Eve – the thirteenth of fourteen stages of conversion of London trolleybus routes to motorbus operation at roughly three-month intervals, beginning in March 1959, when scrapping of redundant trolleybuses at Colindale began in earnest. Some readers will still recall the 609, 645, 660, 662, 664, 666 and other local trolleybus services running from Barnet and Edgware.

Colindale tram depot on the Edgware Road (known as Hendon depot until July 1950 and renamed to avoid confusion with the former Hendon motorbus garage on the Burroughs) had already seen trolleybus experiments back in 1909, and trolleybuses replaced trams on the Edgware Road from Edgware to Hammersmith in July 1936. It could accommodate 48 trolleybuses. Trams still ran via Finchley to Barnet until March 1938 when replaced by the 609 and 651 trolleybuses to Moorgate.

The conversion date for these routes had been brought forward from the originally intended date of 31 January 1962; as the most profitable trolleybus routes there was reason for leaving them till last – at one time it was intended to operate them until July 1962 until the addition of the Fulwell and Isleworth routes to the conversion programme when their modern Q1 vehicles were sold to nine Spanish operators in 1961, where the very last ones ran in Coruna until 14^th January 1979.

Last movements under power were Class N1 trolleybus No.1564 on route 645 from Barnet to Cannons Park, leaving Barnet in the closing minutes of 2 January and entering Colindale depot at 12.40am on Wednesday 3 January 1962, having been ceremonially towed in by crews five minutes earlier to mark the last run and the closure of the depot. It was preceded in the first few minutes of 3 January by No.1569, the last service trolleybus to run through Burnt Oak Broadway. No.1468 on route 660 was the last vehicle into Finchley depot early on 3 January 1962, escorted in by staff using fog flares to create a torchlight procession; at around 1am on 3rd January it was also the last trolleybus to leave Finchley Depot, running to Fulwell depot for further service.

No. 1658 was the last southbound via Colindale to Stonebridge depot. No.1666 was the last trolleybus to operate on the Edgware Road wires in the borough, running along with 1616 from Stonebridge depot to Colindale depot for storage on the night of 3/4 January 1962. It had been the last trolleybus of stage 13 when it entered Stonebridge depot at 12.45am on 3 January after its run in from Finchley.

After that the power was cut off, 108 trolleybuses were withdrawn from service and the traction poles and the 29.37 miles of overhead they supported awaited demolition by contractors George Cohen & Sons’ 600 Group, who also purchased the vehicles, Following running of the last London trolleybuses in the Wimbledon area on Tuesday 8 May 1962 (the last trolleybus of all, No.1521, entering Fulwell depot at 1.30am the following morning) they were towed one by one to the yard at the rear of Colindale depot, the last, No. 1658, on 18 July 1962, and all scrapped by early September 1962, having been sold to Cohens for around £106 each. Class N2 trolleybus No. 1653 being the very last to be scrapped following its sale to Cohens that July. The depot itself was demolished in 1965; the last vehicles actually in the depot itself were removed to the yard to await scrapping on 19 February 1962, after which the depot wiring was removed by London Transport staff.

The copper overhead running wires had a scrap price of £232/10s a ton. London Transport paid Cohens £94/15s per route mile to remove the overhead and fittings on double track routes such as the Edgware Road, half that on single track such as that at Hampstead Heath. LT then sold the same items to Cohens for £839 per route mile for what they had removed, who then sold it for an even higher price for profit. They were allowed six months to demolish each section, with the last overhead of all cut down in Shepherd’s Bush around 18th September 1962.

The traction poles were similarly handled with LT paying Cohen’s to remove them and then sold them back to them. It took three and a half years to scrap 1,567 trolleybuses, dismantle 254 miles of overhead and around 23,000 traction standards! 5000 were sold to local councils such as Hendon for use as lighting standards, traffic light supports etc, which explains their survival in places like Golders Green and Temple Fortune into the 1970s and Friern Barnet Road until around 1990; these were recorded in November 1978 and illustrated in the June 1980 HADAS newsletter. Others, which survived in Temple Fortune into the 1970s, are recorded photographically on HADAS index cards.
By 2024 only five remained in situ in the whole of London, our nearest being at Stonebridge Park depot.

Cohen’s worked at night to cut down the main line overhead. The wires at Edgware and Cannons Park were cut down on 9 March 1962, and in the early hours of Saturday 10 March 1962 Cohen’s men cleared the southbound section between Colindale and Cricklewood; this still left parts of the former Edgware terminus wiring intact the following day. The last stage 13 overhead was not removed until 8 May 1962, in the Acton Vale area – the same night the last London trolleybus of all ran into Fulwell depot.

Other sources referred to for this article include various issues of the London Omnibus Traction Society’s invaluable London Bus Magazine, the London Trolleybus Preservation Society’s Trolleybuses in North-West London – A Pictorial Survey (1987), Mick Webber’s The Final Chapter – The End of the London Trolleybus System (2016), Keith Farrow’s London Trolleybus Wiring South East & North West (1985), Finchley trolleybus driver Charlie Wyatt’s Beneath The Wires of London (Capital Transport, 2008) and the London Borough of Barnet, The London Trolleybus, published in conjunction with an exhibition at the former Church Farm Museum in 1979.

**Timetables for Trolleybus conversion, stages 12 and 13**

Vehicles arrive for scrapping and stored awaiting scrapping at Colindale Depot, 1961-62
Original photographers unknown; from A. Simpson collection.

The Cultural Significance of the Sutton Hoo Helmet David Willoughby

The Sutton Hoo helmet is considered by many to be the most iconic artefact excavated from the Sutton burial field in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk.

The helmet was discovered in a fragmentary state in mound 1 at the site. This mound contained an Anglo-Saxon ship burial, which from the coins within, has been dated to the early 7th century. Also found were other high status grave goods including a sword hilt, a sword, a shield, belt fittings, clasps, a gold buckle, a purse lid, drinking horns, a hanging bowl, a lyre and two Byzantine spoons inscribed with the name of the apostle Paul.

The burial site is close to the river Deben and four miles from the former East Anglian royal centre at Rendlesham. It is thought that the occupant of mound was a member of the East Anglian royal dynasty (the Wuffingas), most likely the king Rædwald (although his son Rægenhere is one amongst other possible candidates) (Marzinzik, 2007). King Rædwald was the first king of East Anglia to convert to Christianity but was influenced by his wife to maintain a pagan shrine alongside a Christian altar (Bede, 731). No matter who the occupant of the burial was he was clearly buried at a time when pagan beliefs were being increasingly replaced by those of Christianity.

The helmet itself, once reconstructed, revealed that the dome had been constructed from a single sheet of iron surmounted by a crest consisting of a hollowed tube of iron inlaid with silver wire. This crest is in the form of a snake with a gilt bronze head at either end. The heads have open mouths equipped with jagged teeth and are set with garnets for eyes. The helmet also has a neck guard, two hinged cheek pieces and an ornate face mask. The face mask is adorned with silver inlaid gilt-bronze eyebrows, nose and moustache. At the base of each eyebrow are inlaid a row of garnets, and those on the proper right side only, are backed with gold foil to increase their brilliance. The brows also differ slightly in length and in the colour of their gilding. At the top of the nose is a head similar to the snake head on the crest which it faces. Together these adornments form the impression of a dragon-like creature, with the eyebrows forming the wings, the nose the body and the moustache the tail (Brunning, 2021). At the end of each eyebrow is the figure of a boar’s head with tusks.
The entire surface of the helmet (dome, cheek guards and facemask) is coated with tinned bronze and embossed with ornate repoussé work. The surviving reliefs consist of intertwined zoomorphic designs on the face mask and, on the cheek guards and dome four differing designs in square plaques, three of which have been reconstructed. The first is another intertwined zoomorphic pattern, the second consists of human figures with spears and swords wearing horned headdresses with the horns having terminals in the form of serpent’s or bird’s heads. These figures appear to be dancing. The third design shows the figure of a mounted warrior riding down an adversary who is plunging a sword into the horse’s flank whilst another small figure grips the shaft of the mounted warrior’s spear. Each design is repeated over more than one plaque.

The helmet is estimated to have weighed 2.5 kg and was larger than its wearer’s head. There is evidence it was padded out with leather (Bruce-Mitford, 1979). It is not clear if this helmet was intended for use in battle or whether it was only a parade helmet (Brunning, 2021).

The helmet’s only parallel in Anglo-Saxon England is the Staffordshire helmet which is awaiting full restoration. There are parallels however with Vendel and Valsgärde helmets of the same period discovered in the Uppland province of Sweden, north of Stockholm. The construction of these helmets differs from that of the Sutton Hoo helmet, but the adornments are strikingly similar (Brunning, 2021). Even though it is possible that Scandinavian smiths in East Anglia may have helped craft the helmet (Marzinzik, 2007) it is regarded as showing distinctive Anglo-Saxon features (Brunning, 2021). It is thought that all these helmets were influenced by late Roman helmets, perhaps brought back by Germanic mercenaries (Marzinzik, 2007), and the double headed snake crest on many may even have been derived from the classical amphisbaena (King, 2015). Although the Wuffinga dynasty traced their ancestry back to Sweden (Bruce-Mitford, 1979), it is not clear whether the Swedish helmets influenced the design of the Sutton Hoo helmet or whether all were influenced from elsewhere in Scandinavia (Wolf, 2015). Certainly it is more likely that Roman helmets would have been encountered by the peoples of Northern German and Denmark rather than those of Northern Sweden. What is apparent though, from the Sutton Hoo helmet and other grave goods, is that East Anglia traded with and was subject to cultural influences from Scandinavia and beyond.

In the first century AD the Roman historian Tacitus described the pagan heroic ideal in Germanic culture (Tacitus, 98 AD). This ideal was still extant in Anglo-Saxon society at the time of the helmet’s burial. This ideal manifested itself in warriors pledging their loyalty and lives to the service of their lord in return for his protection and his giving of sumptuous gifts.

Clearly the wearer of this helmet would have been a wealthy and powerful individual worthy of the loyalty of his war band. The helmet itself not only speaks to the man’s wealth and ability to give rich gifts, but in itself may have been a symbol of power and authority, equivalent to a royal crown. The dragon motif on the face guard may in have been a statement of the wearer’s wealth as in Beowulf a dragon is portrayed as a guardian of a rich treasure hoard. Certainly Rædwald is described by Bede as a very powerful king (Bede, 731) and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle he is described as ‘Bretwalda’ (overlord).

The wearer of the helmet, which would have been a very rare object at the time, would have seemed almost unworldly, perhaps god-like. This would be compounded by the size of the helmet and the fact that the wearer would be able to project his voice from within. The creatures adorning the helmet are all fearsome and represent characteristics to which any warrior would aspire. They would convey to any enemy that to mess with the wearer would be to ask for trouble. The wearer himself would have had his senses dulled by the helmet and this may have given him a sense of being transported to another world or becoming another being (Brunning, 2021).

Many of the features of the Sutton Hoo Helmet are described in the epic Beowulf: ‘war-masks’ (line 2257), ‘cheek-hinged helmets’ (line 335), ‘Boar shapes flashed above their cheek-guards’ (lines 303-304) and ‘the head-guard wound with wires’ (lines 1030-1031). All of the helmets described are worn by heroic figures in the poem and the possessor of the helmet would almost certainly have associated themselves with the heroic ideals expressed in epic poetry.

The deposition of the helmet in a ship burial in itself indicates pagan ritual with the intention that it be used in the afterlife or perhaps to conserve or secure status in the next world. Burials with such a rich grave goods are a feature of the early 7th century and reflect the development of society into one with established hierarchies and for families who may have been insecure in their succession the opportunity to demonstrate their wealth and power and their fitness to rule (Wolf, 2015).
The symbols and motifs on the helmet strongly suggest non-Christian belief (although it is possible that the animal forms on the helmet may together represent the tria genera animantium of the book of Genesis and that the helmet could have been a baptismal or conversion gift (King, 2015)). It has been suggested that the interlaced designs on the helmet, apart from decoration, were a way of

guarding against evil by literally tying it up in knots (Marzinzik, 2007) and were also adopted by powerful elites to display their wealth and identity (Taylor, 2020).

The subtle differences between the two eyebrows of the face mask would make the proper right eye area stand out under certain lighting conditions (for example in a fire-lit mead hall) giving the illusion that the wearer of the helmet was blind in one eye and therefore be seen as both a war leader and a personification of Woden (the god in mythology sacrificed an eye in exchange for wisdom) (Price & Mortimer, 2014). It might also signify that the wearer of the helmet was able to invoke Woden’s protection or take on his strength (Brunning, 2021).

The figure of a horseman riding down a foe is strongly reminiscent of Roman reliefs. However, the stabbing of the horse by the fallen figure and the small figure grasping the shaft of the horseman’s spear are Scandinavian ideas (Brunning, 2021). The meaning is of the scene uncertain but it has been suggested that this might be the depiction of a Germanic battle tactic described by the Roman historian Marcellinus where warriors would deliberately get under horses so they could kill the horse and bring down the rider (Marcellinus, 378 AD).

The relief of two figures with spears and swords and who are wearing horned headdresses are a motif that has close parallels in Scandinavia. The figures are believed to be performing a ritual dance prior to going into battle. This may be the dance described by Tacitus (Tacitus, 98 AD). A very similar figure which occurs alongside a man in wolf skin (assumed to be a berserker) on one of the bronze Torsunda die plates, found in Sweden, has been shown to be one eyed and is thought to represent Woden. The dance depicted on the Sutton Hoo helmet may therefore be associated with the cult of Woden (Marzinzik, 2007). The boar’s head motif not only features on helmets in Beowulf but has been found on other excavated Germanic helmets most notable the Bentey Grange Anglo-Saxon helmet found in Derbyshire. The boar motif was believed to convey protection to the wearer of the helmet and to make the helmet impenetrable (Brunning, 2021).

The crest with its two terminal heads, could have been thought to offer supernatural as well as physical protection. In classical times the twin headed Amphisbaena was reputed to offer power and protection (Allardice, 1990).

The likely associations on the helmet with Woden may have served to reinforce the Wuffingas dynasty’s right to rule and their claimed lineage back to Woden (Anonymous). The Sutton Hoo helmet tells us much about the culture of early 7th C Anglo-Saxon East Anglia, It tells of a royal dynasty exhibiting their wealth, power and right to rule. It tells of the heroic culture of the time and the relationship of a leader with his warriors. It also tells of the fine art produced and links with Scandinavia and with epic poetry. It also hints at the belief system and particularly the cult of Woden with his links to the Wuffingas dynasty.

References
Allardice, P. (1990). Myths, Gods, and Fantasy. New York: Avery Publishing Group, Inc.
Anonymous. (n.d.). Textus Roffensis, version R manuscript. The Anglian Collection.
Bede, T. V. (731). Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum.
Bruce-Mitford, R. L. (1979). The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial: A Handbook. London: British Museum Publications.
Brunning, S. (2021, January 14th). British Museum Curator’s Corner: Sue Takes on the Sutton Hoo Helmet. Retrieved March 18th, 2021, from YouTube: Sue Takes on the Sutton Hoo Helmet | Curator’s Corner S6 Ep5 #CuratorsCorner #SuttonSue #TheDig – YouTube.
King, M. (2015). Sutton Hoo: fantastic creatures as servants of Christ? In Il fantastico nel Medioevo di area germanica (pp. 17-34). Edipuglia.
Marcellinus, A. (378 AD). Res Gestae Book XVI, Chapter 12.22.
Marzinzik, S. (2007). The Sutton Hoo Helmet. The British Museum Press.
Price, N., & Mortimer, P. (2014). An Eye for Odin? Divine Role-Playing in the Age of Sutton Hoo. European Journal of Archaeology, Volume 17 , Issue 3 , 517 – 538.

Tacitus, P. C. (98 AD). De origine et situ Germanorum.
Taylor, A. (2020). The Art of the Staffordshire Hoard. Retrieved from Stoke-on-Trent Museums: The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery: https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/the-art-of-the-staffordshire-hoard/

Wolf, A. (2015). Sutton Hoo and Sweden revisited. In E. E. A. Gnasso, The long seventh century: continuity and discontinuity in an age of transition (pp. 5-17). Peter Lang.

Other Organisations / Societies’ events Eric Morgan

As always please check with the societies’ websites before planning to attend since not all societies and organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions.

Correction: The item shown in the April Newsletter as Wednesday 19th May for Enfield Society should be Monday, 19th May.

Wednesday 28th May, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London, N20 0NL. Camden Town. Talk by Paul Baker (Barnet Local History Society and City of London Guide). Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk for further details. Non-members £2. Bar to be available.

Thursday 29th May, 7 pm. Stephens’ House and Gardens. 17 East End Road, London. N3 3QE. Guided Tour. A summer evening guided tour of the Main House and its gardens (including the Bothy Garden. Tickets £15 including a glass of wine. Members £13. To book please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com.

Tuesday 3rd June, 11 am. Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane, Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. A Walk down Memory Lane and beyond. Talk by Colin Barratt (Friern Barnet L.H.S.) on an imaginary walk along a number of main roads in Southgate, Winchmore Hill and Oakwood, looking at historical buildings, places and people. Non-members charge £1 the door. Please visit www.enfield.org.uk.

Sunday 22nd June 12 -6 pm. East Finchley Festival. Cherry Tree Wood, East Finchley, N2 9QH. (Entrance off High Road, opposite Tube Station). Lots of stalls including Finchley Society, Friends of

Cherry Tree wood (Roger Chapman, HADAS), North London U3A. Also craft and food stalls and music stages.

Wednesday 25th June, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf club (address as for Wednesday 28th May). Transport for London. Talk by David Le Boff, Non-members charged £2.

Friday 20th – Sunday 29th June. Hampstead Summer Festival including Friday 20th – Art Street canvases in Keats Grove, London, NW3 2RS for a month. Sunday 22nd Art Fair 12 – 5 pm. In Keats’ House Garden, 10 Keats Grove, London. NW3 2PR. Free entry. Please see www.hampsteadsummerfestival.org.uk.

Saturday 21st – Sunday 29th June. Proms at St. Jude’s Music and Literary Festival. Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. NW11 7AH. Including Talks and Heritage Walks. For full details please visit www.promsatstjudes.org.uk. Tickets for guided walks must be booked in advance.

Thanks to our contributors this month: Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Hugh Petrie, Peter Pickering, Andy Simpson, David Willoughby

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

Apr 01

Newsletter 649 – April 2025

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 12 : 2025-2029 | No Comments

No. 649 April 2025 Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Tuesday 8 April 2025 Hugh Petrie (London Borough of Barnet Heritage Development Officer)

Mapping the Kingdom The colourful maps of the first County Series were one of the greatest feats of the Victorian period. This lecture is the story of the first large scale survey of England made in the 1860s at 1:2500 or 25,344 Inches to the mile. The lecture looks at how and why the survey was carried out, the people who made it happen, from the labourers through to the sappers and officers of the Royal Engineers, and how the maps tell us about local history, using maps from the local studies collection of the London Borough of Barnet.

Tuesday 13 May 2025 Les Capon (AOC Archaeology) A community/HLF excavation at Cranford, Hillingdon with trenching over four seasons that discovered Romano-British roundhouses,Saxon Houses, medieval and Tudor and post-medieval remains and intact cellars. Encompassing the Bronze Age to the 19th Century.

Weekend of 7th – 8th June 2025 It’s back! Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream Farm, Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts EN5 4RA Note new venue – not Barnet Rugby club as before due to redevelopment. Barnet Medieval Festival – Reenactment of the Battle of Barnet 1471

Tuesday 10 June 2025 – 7.30 pm Annual General Meeting to be followed by a lecture from our President Jacqui Pearce from MOLA.

A web of influences – imported ceramics in London 1000-1700

Throughout the medieval and early post-medieval period, pottery from countries outside Britain was entering the country alongside other imports. Many different wares had a deep impact on local potters,influencing their styles of decoration, and even their technology. We will be looking at a wide range of pottery, from many centres in Europe, particularly France, the Low Countries, Germany, Italy and Spain,as well as the significant and long-lasting impact of wares from the Far East. London was a particularly rich source of inspiration as a major hub for imported goods and this is reflected in the wide range of pottery recovered in archaeological excavations.

Lectures held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.

Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.

Membership Renewals

It’s that time of the year again! Subscriptions again this year, therefore the amounts are: Full member
£15, Additional member at the same address £5, Corporate member £15, under 18 or student under 25 in
full time education £6.

The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March, and so this is to remind all members
who pay by cheque that their renewal subscription will be due on or soon after 31st March 2025. With the
closure of many banks, it is helpful if payment is made by Bank Transfer using Account Number
00083254, Sort Code 40-52-40 (CAFBANK). Please include your surname and first initial in the
reference field. If you do need to pay by cheque, please post it to Jim Nelhams – address on p.8

Members who pay their subscription by standing order need take no action. We look forward to receiving
your continued membership and thank you for supporting HADAS in its objectives.

BENNETT’S SCHOOL – Additional details Andy Simpson

Whilst looking through the HADAS library shelves recently I came across a little book I had overlooked
when originally looking for background details on Bennet’s School as excavated in Hendon by HADAS
in the summer of 2024.

This is the snappily titled ‘The Story of the Hendon St Mary’s Church of England Schools Founded 1707
by the Reverend Meshach Smith, M.A Vicar of Hendon from 1679 to 1707’ Told by a Member of The
Parochial Church Council and published by the Board of Governors in commemoration of The School’s
250th Anniversary in 1957’ Brushing aside irreverent thoughts of the Monty Python sketch ‘The Bishop’
‘produced by Church of England Films in conjunction with the Sunday Schools Board’ I read on.

The story begins with a note from the Hendon Parish notes; ‘In the year 1766 another Charity School was
erected nearer the Church, which has ever since been liberally supported by voluntary contributions and
is now endowed. This was one built by Mr. John Bennett at his sole expense in 1766, on a piece of waste
ground granted by the Lord of the Manor (of Hendon), David Garrick the actor…it was variously called
‘Bennett’s Charity’ and ‘Bennett’s School’, and stood next to Daniels’ Almshouses and it was with this,
on this site, that Revd. Meshach Smith’s Charity School became united in 1788, though not actually
incorporated with it until 1801.Around 1770 Bennett’s School took in at least some of the Burrow’s
School Charity boys. John Bennett had left £100 in his will for the benefit of the school.

Around 1788 there were further developments on the site. A charity School in nearby Brent St moved –
contemporary minutes record ‘That for the accommodation of the children who are Day Scholars as also
of the Sunday Scholars, a Room be built adjoining the Old School House near the Church, agreeable to
the plan now produced by Mr. Cole the Surveyor and estimated to cost around £130, which he engages
shall be built in a workmanlike manner, & not to exceed such estimate’ We need more map work I
suspect to figure out which building was which, although I would guess the two story central building
was the original schoolhouse.

This new schoolroom was next to the old Bennett’s School building, built on the piece of waste ground
between Daniel’s Almshouses and what was later the entrance to Wroughton Terrace at Church End. The
buildings were demolished in 1937.

The Masters and their wives, together with a number of scholars, were examined annually – this led to the
dismissal of one couple (on a joint salary of £70-80 per year) since the governing committee judged ‘the
present Master and Mistress are too imbecile, and full of engagements, to do justice to the important
charge that the Subscribers have placed in their hands.’

Detectorist strikes gold with £10k medieval ring Stewart Wild

A metal detectorist is celebrating after discovering a stunning gold medieval ring worth more than
£10,000. Steel worker Paul McLoughlin, from Carmarthenshire, South Wales, had been searching for
two years without ever finding gold before he took part in a rally in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
After a day during which he unearthed only a rusty bolt, a horseshoe and bits of lead, he was stopped in
his tracks by a strong signal. The 32-year-old dug 8 inches into the soil and spotted the exquisite gold ring with an intricate engraving of martyr Saint Christopher on it.

Mr McLoughlin said that he would split the proceeds of the sale with the landowner.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 28 December 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

Honey-basted venison was on Bronze Age menus Stewart Wild

Bronze Age families dined on meat stews with dumplings and honey-basted venison, a Cambridge
University study has found. The Must Farm settlement near Peterborough – known as the Pompeii of the
British Isles – has produced the largest collection of everyday Bronze Age artifacts discovered in the UK.
Among the items that survived after a catastrophic fire destroyed the settlement nine months after it was
first occupied 3,000 years ago were the remains of dishes including porridge topped with meat juices.
Studies by Cambridge University’s Archaeological Unit (CAU) of the best-preserved Bronze Age
dwellings in Britain have given an unprecedented insight into the domestic life of our ancestors.
Researchers found that the fenland site’s destruction and collapse meant that objects that became buried
in the muddy water below mirrored their original positions inside the houses, enabling archaeologists to
see how spaces were used. The combination of charring and waterlogging caused thousands of domestic
items to survive, including 200 wooden artifacts, over 150 fibre and textile items, 128 pottery vessels and
more than 90 pieces of metalwork.

This time capsule also contained rare personal items including decorated textiles along with pots and jars
containing food remains. The foodstuffs were analysed using a combination of lipid analysis and
microscopy, including scanning electron microscopy, to help identify the components.
This showed that the villagers ate meat stews, dumplings and bread, lamb and pork chops, along with venison with honey and a wheat-grain porridge mixed with fat from goats or red deer.

They appeared to have favourite cuts of meat, often only bringing the forelegs of a boar back for roasting, as well as eating pike and bream caught in the waters around them.

Following fears about the location and future preservation of the site, the remains were removed for
recording and analysis by CAU as part of a £1.1 million excavation project funded by Historic England
and landowner Forterra.

Dr Chris Wakefield, the CAU project archaeologist, said: “The site is providing us with hints of recipes for Bronze Age breakfasts and roast dinners. Chemical analysis of the bowls and jars showed traces of honey along with ruminant meats such as deer, suggesting that these ingredients were combined
to create a form of prehistoric honey-glazed venison.”

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 20 March 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild. Note: Flag Fen and Must Farm
have been visited by HADAS on three occasions, the last being in August 2008.

Further information. The 2-volume publication on Must Farm is open access – free to read online.
Publications | Must Farm. Links to volumes below:

Vol 1. Landscape, architecture and occupation https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/400b29d5-2e22-4321-878c-cb122d291660

Vol 2. Specialist reports https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/7bc599e9-d8be-4a49-8dfe-4bb6c324fac4

Prehistoric axe head in an auction sale Sue Willetts

The Hellenic and Roman Library has recently acquired some auction catalogues including one from the
Classical Numismatic Group, Inc – offices in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and London, dated 16th September
1988. Amongst the antiquities section there was an item, marked as rare, found in November 1905. It is
not known if this was sold – I would doubt it at the suggested price of $750.00.

Does anyone know any more about Hales Works, Church End, Finchley?

Advance information:

Festival of Archaeology 2025.

This year’s theme for the Festival of Archaeology – 19th July – 3rd August has as its theme – Archaeology
and Wellbeing. More information https://www.archaeologyuk.org/festival.html

Online lectures:

Beatrice de Cardi Lecture. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeTTkAy_BCo
Dr Claire Nolan, a postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork, delivered the 2025 Beatrice de
Cardi Lecture ‘Being Present with the Past: Finding meaning through mindful engagement with
archaeology’.

Genetic Histories of Kinship and Ancestry in Roman Britain by Dr Marina Soares da Silva. Lecture given at Society of Antiquaries 4th March 2025. 49 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeQZAojuzYI

Other Organisations’ / Societies’ events Eric Morgan / Sue Willetts

As always please check with the societies’ websites before planning to attend since not all societies and
organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions.

We realise this newsletter is intended to allow for forward planning, but a note about some April events
may be of interest to members.

Thursday 3rd April, 7.00 pm. Digging for Erlestoke is a community dig with a difference, the
community being a group of male prisoners from HMP Erlestoke, a category C prison in Wiltshire.
Designed and delivered by Wessex Archaeology and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund,
the project set out to improve wellbeing through access to archaeology and heritage. In the process, the
project took on its own unique energy; a small band of men found meaning and fulfillment and
experienced a profound change in their mindset and outlook on life.

Not only that, but they also made a genuine contribution to the archaeological record, uncovering a story
that spans 6000 years on a seemingly insignificant Greensand outlier within the confines of the prison.
Join Leigh Chalmers and Dr. Phil Harding as they discuss the project’s impact, exploring how
archaeology can be a tool for rehabilitation, the discoveries made during the dig, and the personal stories
that emerged from this unique initiative. Free to join this lecture – but need to register via the link below https://www.archaeologyuk.org/get-involved/events-and-activities/this-is-archaeology-lecture-series.html Text taken from CBA website.

Wednesday 9th April. 5.00 pm. Royal Archaeological Institute. Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE. Digging deeper: Initial results from the A428. Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Improvement Scheme revealed evidence for Iron Age Pioneer Settlements in the Claylands of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, as well as Roman development of infrastructure and food production.A portion of deserted Medieval Village was also excavated along with two 8th-9th century AD ovens and a post-medieval mill. Talk by Simon Markus. Non-members welcome but should make contact in advance www.sal.org.uk/event.

Friday 11th April 1pm or 2pm The London Archives, 40 Northampton Road, EC1R 0HB. Free. Tramways Posters. Trams were a common sight on London streets in the first half of the twentieth century, and the tramways service was managed by the London County Council from 1899-1933.The council’s archives include a rich collection of posters created to promote the service. In this informal session we will display a range of original artworks and posters for you to browse, with staff to answer your questions. Use this link to book. Archives on Show: Tramways Posters Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite. Doors open from 12.50pm.

Friday 11th April 7.00-8.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane,Junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ Recent Fieldwork by the EAS (preceded by AGM) Ian Jones and Martin Dearne £1.50 for non-members. Refreshments and sales from 7.00 pm. https://www.enfarchsoc.org/

Thursday 17th April 8.00 pm. Historical Association. Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London, NW11 6YD –off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune. Past and present of the British Welfare State. Talk by Prof Patricia Thorne, Birkbeck College, University of London. Please email Dudley Miles (HADAS) dudleyramiles@googlemail.com or phone 07469 754075 for details of the link and how to pay. There may be a voluntary charge of £5. Refreshments afterwards.

Friday 9th May, 7.30 pm Enfield Archaeological Society. Imperial Logistics in Early China, the First Emperor’s Mausoleum and the Making of the Terracotta Army, Andrew Bevan. Talk on Zoom, visit website for further details Enfield Archaeological Society.

Sunday 11th May, 1.00 – 4.00 pm Coppetts Wood Festival. Entrance from Colney Hatch Lane, N11 or off Summers Lane, N12 – where there is a car park. Lots of craft and food stalls. Finchley Society have a stall here, also music and entertainment.

Tuesday 13th May, 6.30 pm LAMAS Joint meeting with Prehistoric Society. Hunter Gatherers in Tottenham. Talk by Shane Maher, (Pre-Construct Archaeology). PCA undertook an excavation on land at the Welbourne Site, Tottenham Hale Centre, between 21st November 2019 and 13th March 2020.Three Early Mesolithic lithic scatters of high density were found stratified in the upper horizon of the Enfield Silt brickearth. To attend on Zoom, members are requested to book on Eventbrite with booking generally available 2 weeks before a lecture. Non-members are very welcome. There is a charge of £2.50 for non-members attending either in person (please note we are only able to accept cash) or attending on Zoom.

Friday 16th May, 7.00 pm. COLAS. St. Olave’s Church, 8 Hart Street, EC3R 7NB. Talk also on Zoom. A Late Medieval Tannery in Stratford, Excavations at Jubilee House by Harry Platts (PCA) Book via Eventbrite www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out link to its members.

Friday 16th May, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall, behind the new Church, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9 8RZ. Wembley 1924: The first concrete city. Talk by Kathryn Ferry on the art and architecture of the British Empire Exhibition site and its innovative artists. Dr Ferry specialises in architecture and design, particularly as they relate to the British seaside. Her next book on Twentieth Century Seaside Architecture will be published by Batsford in May 2025.

Visitors £3.00 Refreshments in the interval.

Saturday 17th May. 11am start. Herts Association for Local History, Spring meeting and A.G.M. Dagnall Street Baptist Church, 1 Cross Street, St. Albans, AL3 5EE. Admission £2 for visitors. Morning session: Short presentations from Local History Societies on their activities. Afternoon session A.G.M.followed by Lionel Munby lecture given by Dr John Morewood (President St. Albans & Herts Architectural and Archaeological Society) St. Albans and Western Hertfordshire in the 17th century British Civil Wars: Trials and Tribulations. https://www.stalbanshistory.org/ for details.

Wednesday 19th May 7.30 pm. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall. See 11th April for the address. The Battle of Barnet. Talk by Paul Baker. (Barnet Local History Society and City of London Guide). www.enfieldsociety.org.uk.

Wednesday 21st May, 7.30 pm Willesden History Society St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, round corner from Magistrates’ Court) NW10 2DZ. Grand Junction Waterworks. Talk by Rob Enges (Guide at the London Museum of Water and Steam) On the challenges faced by the waterworks in the 19th century, introducing some of his unpublished research. For details www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.

Thursday 22nd May 7.00 pm. London Archaeologist. UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY. Usual short A.G.M. will be followed by the annual lecture. Free. Hopefully also on Zoom. Lecture details not yet listed. Book on website www.london.archaeologist.org.uk.

Thanks to our contributors this month; Andy Simpson, Eric Morgan; Stewart Wild.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

Mar 05

Newsletter 648 – March 2025

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 12 : 2025-2029 | No Comments

No. 648 March 2025 Edited by Deirdre Barrie

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Tuesday 11 March 2025 Robert Stephenson (Vice Chair, CoLAS) London’s Most Curious Stones and Bones. London possesses many unusual and out-of-place stones as well as several curious bones and burial places, all of which have fascinating tales to tell.

Tuesday 8 April 2025 Hugh Petrie (London Borough of Barnet Heritage Development Officer) Mapping the Kingdom. The colourful maps of the first County Series were one of the greatest feats of the Victorian period. This lecture is the story of the first large scale survey of England made in the 1860s at 1:2500 or 25,344 Inches to the mile. The lecture looks at how and why the survey was carried out, the people who made it happen, from the labourers through to the sappers and officers of the Royal Engineers, and how the maps tell us about local history, using maps from the local studies collection of the London Borough of Barnet.

Tuesday 13 May Les Capon (AOC Archaeology) A community/HLF excavation at Cranford, Hillingdon with trenching over four seasons that discovered Romano-British roundhouses, Saxon Houses, medieval and Tudor and post-medieval remains and intact cellars. Encompassing the Bronze Age to the 19th Century.

Weekend of 7-8 June 2025 It’s back! Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream Farm, Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts EN5 4RA Note new venue – not Barnet Rugby Club as before due to redevelopment. Barnet Medieval Festival – Reenactment of the Battle of Barnet 1471.

Tuesday 10 June 2025 HADAS Annual General Meeting

Lectures held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.

Buses 82, 125, 143, 326, 382, and 460 pass close by, and it is a five-ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line, where the Super Loop SL10 express bus from North Finchley to Harrow also stops.

Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.

Page 1 of 8

HADAS Study Day Susan Trackman

On Saturday 18 January 2025 HADAS held its first study day of the year. Jacqui Pearce led a one-day workshop on clay tobacco pipes.

The day began with Jacqui giving us a superb presentation on the history of smoking in Britain and the evolution of the shape of pipes over the centuries, from the tiny pipes of the 16th and early 17th century to the large ‘cadgers’ of the 19th century. Clay tobacco pipes were smoked by large swathes of the population from the late 16th century until the early 20th century and are one of the most common finds on archaeological sites and as such are an invaluable tool to archaeologists. We were instructed and then set to work, using a large handling collection from pipes found on the Thames foreshore, on recording, the condition, marks, designs, shape and maker of a pipe. All of which might allow the pipe to be dated. Finally, we looked at some pipes in HADAS’s own collection.

A selection of the clay pipes we looked at.

Page 2 of 8

Some of the students. The photo directly above shows students and HADAS Chair Sandra Claggett with Jacqui Pearce from Mola who kindly led the workshop.

Page 3 of 8

The largest human-made explosion before the atomic bomb Don Cooper

Liz and I visited Halifax in Nova Scotia at the end of October 2024 and had a half-day tour of the city with an approved guide. The story he told, which I have summarised below, came as a surprise as we had never heard it before. It seems it was suppressed during the First World War so as not to give “Comfort to the enemy”.

Our guide told us that on the 6th December 1917 in Halifax harbour, two ships collided. The result was nearly 2000 people died and 9000 were injured. The explosion also destroyed more than a square mile of the city of Halifax. The first ship involved was the SS Imo. The SS Imo was a Norwegian merchant vessel carrying humanitarian aid for the population of German-occupied Belgium, who were having a hard time. The SS Imo started its journey in the Netherlands on route to New York and called at Halifax for “inspection for neutrality” and spent two days in the harbour waiting for refuelling coal to continue its journey.

The SS Imo was built in Belfast by Harland & Wolf in 1889 as a livestock and passenger carrier for the White Star line. She then became a whaling ship, and by 1917 she was carrying humanitarian aid under a Norwegian flag having been chartered by the Commissioners for Belgian Relief.

*Figure 1* **SS Imo in 1915 – unknown photographer**

The second ship involved was a French cargo ship, the SS Mont Blanc under orders from the French government to carry her cargo from New York via Halifax to Bordeaux. She was carrying nearly 3000 tons of explosives. She was travelling to Halifax to await there, before joining an escorted slow convey for the journey across the Atlantic.

Page 4 of 8

The SS Mont Blanc was built in Middlesbrough, UK in 1899. She was a tramp steamer and passed through a number of hands before she set off on her fateful journey.

*Figure 2* **SS Mont Blanc in 1899 – unknown photographer**

Halifax harbour is entered via a narrow channel appropriately named “The Narrows”. Because of the risk from Germany U-boats a system of nets was in place across the narrows. These were raised at specific times during the day to let ships in and out and so the stage was set.
The details of what led to the collision between the two ships are involved and were dealt with at the Board of Enquiry. They were so complicated that the argument ended with the final appeal to the Privy Council in London which decreed that each ship had acted in an imprudent manner and therefore shared responsibility for the collision.

The collision was relatively minor but it disturbed barrels of benzol on the deck of the SS Mont Blanc and some split and were set alight by sparks from the SS Imo disengaging from the SS Mont Blanc. A fire started and at 9.05 AM the SS Mont Blanc blew up. The blast killed just over 1963 people and left 9000 injured. More than 12000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged either by the blast or by subsequent fires. As an example of the force of the explosion, part of the anchor of the SS Mont Blanc weighing 1140 pounds was thrown through the air and landed nearly two miles away where it still is, as a reminder of that dreadful day. The sound of the explosion was heard and felt in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada 120 miles away. The explosion was followed by a tsunami which swamped the single storey dwellings on the opposite side of the harbour but apart from the damage there were no fatalities. The same tsunami caused the SS Imo to be beached on that side of the harbour. Amazingly, the SS Imo was refloated in 1918 and went on, under new owners and a new name as a whale tanker until abandoned to the sea in November 1921.

Our guide told many harrowing stories especially of people blinded by the blast, but also tales of heroism and bravery. Subsequently, I supplemented the guide’s information by purchasing a book written by Janet F Kitz called “Shattered City: the Halifax explosion & the road to recovery” published in 1989 by Nimbus Publishing Ltd in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Page 5 of 8

Decline and fall

What have the Romans ever done for us? Not as much as they could have, it seems.

It turns out that the Romans were greatly affected by lead poisoning to such an extent that their IQ levels were impaired. Researchers at Oxford University found cognitive decline in the period towards the end of the republic and the first 100 years of the imperial era.

The pollution stemmed largely from silver mining which involved melting the mineral galena to extract precious metal and releasing lead into the atmosphere as a result. Lead was also used extensively in plumbing and cosmetics and 80,000 tons were produced each year, seeping into the water supply.

It might have helped precipitate the decline and fall of Rome. If only Gibbon had known.

Comment column, Daily Telegraph, January 2025, spotted by Stewart Wild

============================================================================

Vikings originally came from Britain before returning to invade (Stewart Wild)

When the Vikings first attacked Lindisfarne in Northumberland in 793AD, it was to start a major upheaval that brought bloodshed, a new language and eventually the creation of England.
The Scandinavian migrants were feared warriors who had seemingly been toughened by generations of survival in the frozen north. Yet a new study shows that their ancestry may be nearer home.

Human remains from Scandinavia dating from before the eighth-century raids show genetic links to Britain and central Europe suggesting that there may have been a large migration northward in the centuries before the Vikings had apparently set out. It indicates that a number of raiders, some of whom were searching for better land to farm, could have been retracing the paths of their ancestors rather than conquering completely unfamiliar territories.

Biomolecular analysis of teeth of people buried on the island of Oland, Sweden – known for its impressive Viking remains – was found to contain ancestry from Central Europe and Britain. Likewise, researchers found a “clear shift” in genetic ancestry in eighth-century Denmark in which Viking communities had genetic links to Iron Age groups much further south. Experts estimate the shift happened around 500AD.

“We already have reliable statistical tools to compare the genetics between groups of people who are genetically very different, like hunter-gatherers or early farmers, but robust analyses of finer-scale population changes, like the migrations we reveal in this paper, have largely been obscured until now,” said Leo Speidel, the first author of the study.

The former post-doctoral researcher at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London, who is now the group leader at Riken in Japan, added: “It allows us to see what we couldn’t before, in this case migrations all across Europe originating in the north of Europe in the Iron Age, and then

Page 6 of 8

back into Scandinavia before the Viking age. Our new method can be applied to other populations across the world and hopefully reveal more missing pieces of the puzzle.”
The team was also able to tease out the migration routes using a new, more precise method of ancient DNA analysis, called Twigstats, which can pick out small differences between genetically similar groups.

They applied the new method to more than 1,500 European genomes – a person’s complete set of DNA – from people who lived primarily during the first millennium AD, encompassing the Iron Age, the fall of the Roman Empire, the early medieval period, and the Viking age.

As well as uncovering new migration routes, the technique was also able to back up accounts from the historical record. At the beginning of the first millennium, the Romans wrote about coming into conflict with Germanic groups at their empire’s frontiers, and the new analysis shows that northern groups and Scandinavians were indeed moving south during this period, towards the Roman borders.

The research was published in the journal Nature.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 4 January 2025, item edited by Stewart Wild

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

As always, please check with the Societies – for example via their websites – before planning to attend, since not all Societies and organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions.

Saturday 15th March. 11 am. – 5 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Archaeological Conference. London Museum Docklands, Wilberforce Room, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, London. E14 4AL. Morning Session = Recent work including presentation of the 2024 Ralph Merrifield Award by Harvey Sheldon (ex-HADAS President). 1.05 – 2 pm. – Lunch Break. Afternoon Session = Mud Larking on the Thames Foreshore. 3.25 – 4 pm. Tea Break. 5.10 pm. Close. Tickets (Priced £20) will be available via Eventbrite. Details on how to book can be found on the L.A.M.A.S. website www.lamas.org.uk.

Friday 21st March, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London. EC3R 7NB. Talk, also on Zoom – Excavations at Barn Elms for Tideway by Michael Curnow (MOLA) on a significant Thameside Iron Age Settlement revealed during work for London’s new super sewer. Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out a link to its members.

Friday 21st March, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (Behind St. Andrew’s new church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. ‘Ace times, then and now’. – A Café and a Culture. Talk by Mark Wilsmore M.D. of Ace Café) on the history of this local cultural Icon. Visitors pay £3. Refreshments will be available in the interval.

Tuesday 8th April, 6.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Also on Zoom. Book on Eventbrite via website www.lamas.org.uk/lectures/html. Non-members £2.50. Bartmann Goes Global? Talk by Jacqui Pearce (HADAS President and also MOLA). How German stoneware travelled round the known world in the 16th/17th centuries.

Monday 14th April, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet. EN5 4BW. Not Bloody Likely – the Marketing of Covent Garden 1600 – 2000. Talk by Daniel Snowman. For further information please visit www.barnetmuseum.org.uk.

Page 7 of 8

Wednesday 16th April, 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, Bottom of Neasden Lane (Round corner from Magistrates’ Court) London. NW10 2DZ. The History of the Willesden Jewish Community and Willesden Jewish Immigrants Trail. Talk by Irina Porter (Chair) based on archival research and memories of the members of the local community. This project incorporates an online trail, website, a film and an interactive map. For further details please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.

Wednesday 23rd April, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, the Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London, N20 0NL. History of London Mapping including Barnet. Talk by Simon Morris. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk for further details. Non-members charge £2. A bar will be available.

Thursday 24th April, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, London. N3 3QE. Society’s Archive Collection. Talk by Alison Sharpe (Archivist) and hands-on activities. Visitors charge £2. Refreshments to be available in the interval. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk.

Friday 25th April, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. Talk on Zoom only. The Archaeology of London’s Modern Mega Events = from the Great Exhibition to London 2012. Talk by Dr. Johnathan Gardner. A new way of looking at heritage, from the winner of London Archaeologist’s 2024 publication prize. Please book as for Friday 21st March.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Sandra Claggett; Don Cooper; Susan Trackman; Eric Morgan; Stewart Wild.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

Page 8 of 8

Feb 01

Newsletter 647 – February 2025

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 12 : 2025-2029 | No Comments

No. 647 February 2025 Edited by Andy Simpson

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Tuesday 11 February 2025 Nick PeaceyThe Highgate Wood Kiln’s Site. See article in November2024 issue of the HADAS newsletter (NL No.644)

Tuesday 11 March 2025 Robert Stephenson (Vice Chair, CoLAS) London’s Most Curious Stones and Bones London possesses many unusual and out-of-place stones as well as several curious bones and burial places, all of which have fascinating tales to tell.

Tuesday 8 April 2025 Hugh Petrie (London Borough of Barnet Heritage Development Officer) Mapping the Kingdom The colourful maps of the first County Series were one of the greatest feats of the Victorian period. This lecture is the story of the first large scale survey of England made in the 1860s at 1:2500 or 25,344 Inches to the mile. The lecture looks at how and why the survey was carried out, the people who made it happen, from the labourers through to the sappers and officers of the Royal Engineers, and how the maps tell us about local history, using maps from the local studies collection of the London Borough of Barnet.

Tuesday 13 May Les Capon (AOC Archaeology) A community/HLF excavation at Cranford, Hillingdon with trenching over four seasons that discovered Romano-British roundhouses,Saxon Houses, medieval and Tudor and post-medieval remains and intact cellars. Encompassing the Bronze Age to the 19th Century.

Weekend of 7-8 June 2025 It’s back! Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream Farm,Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts EN5 4RA Note new venue – not Barnet Rugby club as before due to redevelopment. Barnet Medieval Festival – Reenactment of the Battle of Barnet 1471

Tuesday 10 June 2025 HADAS Annual General Meeting

Lectures held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.

Buses 82, 125, 143, 326, 382, and 460 pass close by, and it is a five-ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line where the Super Loop SL10 express bus from North Finchley to Harrow also stops.

Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.

BENNET’S SCHOOL UPDATE ANDY SIMPSON

Sue Loveday has found another contemporary image of the buildings, viewed from another angle; this was originally reproduced in an education pack produced for the former and much missed Church Farm Museum.

It is possible that the substantial E-W brick wall foundation found in trench 2, shown in the previous edition of the newsletter, is for the rear wall of the elaborately fronted block visible on the left, with the wall footings in Trench One being part of the lower gabled building situated between there and the still extant almshouses.

Good progress continues to be made with the post excavation work; all finds have now been washed, marked, sorted and bagged, and the finds record sheets completed, and detailed analysis of the clay pipe, small finds, pottery, glass and building materials underway so reports can be written on these categories; the clay pipe, glass and building materials reports have now been written and will be published along with the full excavation report in due course. The Sunday team undertaking this work meet most Sundays, 10.30 am – 1pm (ish) and visitors are welcome.

‘His Name Liveth for Ever in Hendon’ Revisited Andy Simpson

In the February 2023 newsletter, No.623, I discussed the four men from Hendon buried in Greece having been casualties in the lesser-known Salonika Campaign of 1915-1918. Full biographical and service details for each man are given in that article.

In September 2024 I was able to once again join a battlefield tour of the area run by the Salonika Campaign Society (SCS), led by Chairman and former RAFM colleague Alan Wakefield, now Head of the First World War Dept at the Imperial War Museum, and pay my respects and place a poppy at the graves of all four men and give a short ‘stand’ (presentation) on each of them to members of the group.

35729 Gunner Ralph Henry Byatt Plot 767, Lembett Road CWGC cemetery, Thessaloniki, Greece

**The author giving a stand to members of the Salonika Campaign society at Gunner Byatt’s Grave, which was illustrated in Newsletter 623.**

**58207 Gunner Robert Franklin; Plot IX B.4, Struma Military Cemetery, Greece**
**(Tricky lighting conditions; Date of death given as 4th May 1917; Dedication reads ‘Gone But Not Forgotten Mother’)**

Note the different form of grave marker used in these other two cemeteries; as explained on the CWGC website;

FLAT HEADSTONE MARKERS

A flat, or recumbent, marker can be used to display multiple casualties in one spot, either in the event of a lack of space in the cemetery or where multiple casualties have been buried together, where there were many burials in a limited space, meaning flat markers were required to prevent an overcrowded feel that would’ve come from individual headstones.

They can also be used on sites where the soil or weather conditions are unable to support the usual standing headstones. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission | CWGC.

**163587 Gunner Stafford Lawrence Lindsell Plot A. 69, Karasouli Military Cemetery,Greece**

On a previous visit to this cemetery in September 2013, Society members saw extensive work underway to renovate the cemetery including all new grave markers and inscriptions, which were the ones seen in 2024.

Also buried at Karasouli, on the opposite side of the Cemetery;

**49331 Acting Bombardier Percival (Percy) Frederick John Lemon, Plot B.265**

Roots of writing traced to 6,000 years ago

The history of human writing has been ‘rewritten’ after archaeologists studied engravings on 6,000-year-old cylinders used by accountants.

The earliest known writing system is thought to be Sumerian cuneiform, which developed around the region of present-day Iraq, dating to around 3350-3000BC. Experts have linked early cuneiform symbols to designs that appear on cylinder seals between 4400-3400BC, a millennium earlier.

Similar images representing words such as wine vessels, buildings, nets and reeds were seen on cylinders from Uruk, one of the earliest cities in Mesopotamia, and in early cuneiform.

The University of Bologna study was published in the journal Antiquity.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 9 November 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

Medieval chiefs melted assets into money

Medieval chieftains melted prize possessions into silver coins in an early example of quantitative easing, Cambridge University research has found.

Between AD660 and AD750 thousands of silver coins were minted in Anglo-Saxon England. A chemical and isotopic analysis of the metal shows that it originated in the Byzantine eastern Mediterranean and was originally brought to England as ornate silver objects such as the intricate bowls found in the Sutton Hoo burial. Experts believe that elite families literally liquidated their assets, melting silver goods and making coins to boost the economy and encourage trade among the burgeoning rich farming classes.

Sutton Hoo’s Byzantine silver objects alone weigh just over 22lb (10kg) and could have produced 10,000 early pennies when melted down, the experts said.

Dr Jane Kershaw, from the University of Oxford, said: “This was quantitative easing – elites were liquidating resources and pouring more and more money into circulation.”

Rory Naismith, professor of early medieval English history at Cambridge, said: “The money supply in early medieval Britain and the rest of western Europe was relatively low, so putting more into circulation stimulated the economy. Something that couldn’t happen without more coins at this time was the rapid growth of towns and trade across eastern England and the North Sea.”

The coins are held by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The findings were published in the journal Antiquity.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

As always, please check with the societies – for example via their websites – before planning to attend in case of any late changes, since not all societies and organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions.

Monday February 10th, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet. EN5 4BW. The Art of Class War – Looking at the Miners’ Strike through the eyes of Cartoonists from the Right and the Left. Talk by Nick Jones. For further information please visit www.barnetmuseum.org.uk.

Friday 14th February, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield. EN2 0AJ. Landscape of Defence. Talk by Stuart Brookes (U.C.L. I.O.A). Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.

Saturday 22nd February, 11 am. – 4 pm. Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill. London. N6 5HG. Heritage Weekend – Free. Discover the history of Highgate and North London, with special talks. Lots of stalls including Camden History Society, Hornsey Historical Society, Highgate Society, Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute, Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln, Friends of Kenwood, Friends of Bruce Castle Museum, u3a North London Branch and many more. For further details please visit www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk or telephone 0208 348 8716.

MUSIC NIGHT ANDY SIMPSON

On Monday 9 December 2024, The Editor, Sue Loveday and Eric Morgan from HADAS attended an unusual and informative free event in the Grove Atrium on the Middlesex University campus on the Burroughs in Hendon. This was a Music Archaeology Day ‘to celebrate and explore the fascinating world of reconstructed ancient brass instruments’ Led by local resident Dr. Peter Holmes it featured live demonstrations in the evening and, earlier in the day, a musical handling session and tour of the well-equipped Grove Building workshop facilities including 3-D printing equipment used by the MADET – Music Archaeology Design Engineering Team – to produce some of the instruments.

Dr Holmes is one of the world’s leading experts on ancient lip-blown instruments and has pioneered this field for over 50 years, travelling the world analysing instruments and instrument fragments. He looks at how they were made and played, and what they meant to people at the time. Several full-sized instruments and replicas were shown and played, including a Roman military Cornu used in the recent blockbuster Gladiator II film. He was joined for the evening event by Simon O’Dwyer and a fellow practitioner from Ireland, who played a haunting duet on two horns representing the Bronze Age sun god joining with the earth goddess as might have been heard at annual fertility celebrations. The Iron Age Karnyx which Boudicca would have heard as she battled the Romans during her revolt was also demonstrated, along with an ancient classical Greek horn.

**HADAS members were part of a small but appreciative audience in the modern Grove Atrium**

**Reproduction Roman Cornu in foreground and Iron age Karnyx behind it on the left.**

Other items on display included a silver mounted trumpet from Nepal crafted from a human thighbone, a Minoan shell trumpet, and more recent instruments including a hunting horn, bugle, and an electronic trumpet made in 2024.

ALL BOXED UP ANDY SIMPSON

Readers will recall that over the past year the West Heath 2 finds, mostly flints, have been re boxed and bagged to standards more in tune with those currently maintained by the Museum of London Archaeological Archive, (still popularly known as the LAARC to many) whose base at Mortimer Wheeler House, Eagle Wharf Road in Hackney has been visited or even volunteered at by many HADAS members, one of whom is even currently employed there.

With the initial large delivery all used up by this, Don Cooper and Bill Bass kindly facilitated a new equally large delivery of boxes, mainly of the standard ‘shoebox’ size of archival standard boxes so that we can re-box more of the collection.

As the photograph below taken early last month in the HADAS basement room at Stephens (Avenue) House in Finchley shows, this is now well underway; in addition to working on the Bennet’s School materiel further discussed elsewhere in this newsletter, some members of the Sunday morning team have been able to sort, re-box and re-bag two significant sites; on the top shelf the mainly post-medieval materiel from the Forge Golders Green Road site dug in 1991, site code FG91.

On the second shelf we have done the same with the also mainly post-medieval materiel from the Whetstone High Road (Studio Cole) dig in 1989-90, site code WHR89. This was the first site dug on by both your editor and Bill Bass when we joined the society back in 1989.

Below this we have made a start on the large quantity of Roman, medieval and post-medieval materiel from several season’s gigging in the grounds of the former, and much – missed, Church Farm Museum, starting in 1993.

The lower two shelves retain some of the remaining old grey archive boxes which have performed sterling service over the past 30 years or so, but do not meet current Museum of London requirements.

These will be replaced in due course. Some displaced by the re-boxing have been donated for further use by a fellow charity, the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution. We have still marked the boxes individually in ink, although apparently the Museum of London now uses QR codes on the box ends rather than paper labels which can peel and fade.

MORE EVENTS

Thursday 20th March, 8 pm. Historical Association. Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London. NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). The Army That Never Was – D-Day and The Great Deception. Talk by Taylor Downing (F.R.H.S.) about the extraordinary ploy to fool the enemy into thinking that Normandy was just a sideshow and the real invasion was at the Pas De Calais and the invention of a completely hoax army led by General Patton and the creation of hundreds of dummy landing craft, tanks and aircraft to convince the Germans it was real. Also a hidden link with the cinema Industry. Also on Zoom. Please email Dudley Miles (HADAS) on dudleyramiles@googlemail.com or telephone 07469 754075 for details of link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments to be available afterwards.

Saturday 1st March, 9.30 am. – 5 pm. Current Archaeology Live. U.C.L Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way (off Russell Square) London, WC1H 0A. Wide range of expert speakers sharing latest Archaeological finds and research. Also Archaeology Fair and photography competition from Current World Archaeology . Also the Current Archaeology awards will be announced. Tickets on sale at a standard price of £65. To book please visit www.archaeology.co.uk/live or call 0208 819 5580. The fair has lots of stalls with travel companies, booksellers and other archaeological organisations.

Monday 10th March, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church (address as for 10th February). A School Girl’s War. Talk by Mary Smith.

Wednesday 12th March, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100 the Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. History of Barnet Town. Talk by Michael Noronha (Chair, Barnet Local History Society). Preceded by the A.G.M. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.
.
Wednesday 19th February, 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane (Round corner from Magistrates’ Court). London. NW10 2DZ. Never Had It So Good! Talk by Nick Dobson describing London life in the 1950s. For further details please visit
www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.

Thursday 27th March, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephen’s) House, 17 East End Road, London. N3 3QE. The Silvery Goon. Talk by Jane and Sile Milligan (Spike’s daughters). Spike was the former Patron of the Society and a prolific writer, broadcaster and Comic. Visitors £3. Refreshments in the interval. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk.

Thanks to our other contributors this month; Eric Morgan; Stewart Wild.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

Jan 01

Newsletter 646 – January 2025

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 12 : 2025-2029 | No Comments

No.646 January 2025 Edited by Peter Pickering

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

Lectures take place in the Avenue House Drawing Room.17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, 7.45 for 8pm. Buses 13, 125, 143, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station. We are also on the SuperLoop Bus, SL10. Tea/Coffee/biscuits will be available for purchase after the talks..

Saturday 18 January, 10.30am to 4.00pm. A Study Day at Avenue House by our President, Jacqui Pearce of the Museum of London Archaeology entitled “Clay Pipes: how to identify them and what they mean” This study day has not yet filled up, and we are anxious to make it a success; so if you have been thinking about it or meaning to enrol but have not yet got round to it, do so now. Send your £5 (£10 for non-members) to HADAS (Bank code 40-52-40) account No. 00007253, with your surname and SD125 as a reference with the payment.

Tuesday 11 February by Nick Peacey on the Highgate Wood kiln’s site. See article in November issue of the HADAS newsletter (No. 644).

Tuesday 11 March by Robert Stephenson from COLAS on London’s most curious stones and bones. London possesses many unusual and out-of-place stones as well as several curious bones and burial places, all of which have fascinating tales to tell.

Tuesday 8 April Hugh Petrie (London Borough of Barnet archivist) Mapping the Kingdom. The colourful maps of the first County Series, were one of the greatest feats of the Victorian period. This lecture is the story of the first large scale survey of England made in the 1860s at “1:2500 OR 25.344 INCHES TO THE MILE.” The lecture looks at how and why the survey was carried out, the people who made it happen, from the labourers through to the sappers and officers of the Royal Engineers, and how the maps tell us about local history, using maps from the local studies collection of the London Borough of Barnet.

Tuesday May 13. Les Capon (AOC Archaeology) A community /HLF excavation at Cranford, Hillingdon with trenching over 4 seasons that discovered Romano British roundhouses, Saxon houses, medieval and Tudor and post-medieval remains and intact cellars.Encompassing the Bronze Age to the 19th century.

Weekend June 7 & 8 2025 Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream Farm, Fold Farm, Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts. EN5 4RA

Tuesday 10 June 2025 Annual General Meeting.

HADAS Christmas Tea Sandra Claggett

We had our festive get together on the 1st of December in the nicely decorated Salon room which was well attended with nearly 30 members and guests. Avenue House looked after us well with sandwiches hot food fruit juice and tea and coffee. There was also a bar for those who wanted an alcoholic beverage.

Liz provided HADAS with some beautiful cakes as on other years and they were very tasty.

We thank Jim and Jo Nelhams for the quiz. Jim was the Quiz master with some interesting questions on music general knowledge and London railways. The latter with questions such as which underground station has a London underground river flowing through it? and which radio programme did Mornington Crescent appear in?

Among the difficult questions on the music quiz for on our table were ‘what is the source of ‘And I couldn’t turn it on’ and another question was what is the source of ‘measuring the marigolds’. It was great fun and got everyone at the table talking and comparing notes.

Thank you for everyone that provided raffle prizes, the raffle raised £120.

We had a great time and thank everyone for coming along and adding to the celebrations.

HADAS site visit to The Birches, 18 Totteridge Village Bill Bass

A short notice site-visit was organised by Greer Dewdney (London Archaeological Advisor) for 16th November at The Birches, 18 Totteridge Village which has produced evidence of the 17th century Poynters Hall with later extensions. The original part of the building includes some very impressive, vaulted cellars.

Poynters Hall was a house originally in the ownership of Sir Richard Gurney, a royalist in the English Civil War and Lord Mayor of London, who died in the Tower of London in 1647. It had a succession of largely aristocratic owners before being demolished around 1925. The tower clocks from the stables were donated to the nearby St Andrews church; another reminder of Poynters Hall is a line of trees along the former approach road crossing Totteridge Green” (Wikipedia – Poynters Grove)
On arrival to the site, we were shown around by the site-director Les Capon of AOC archaeology who kindly gave up a Saturday for the visit to happen. A 1950s house had been demolished leaving the foundations and the cellars of previous structures. From the entrance we were looking north, the ‘main ’section of the house would have been to the front, an apsidal extension behind this and to the right the remains of the vaulted cellar dating back to the 1640s. Beyond to the north would have been landscaped grounds but since built over.

The vaulted cellar was thought to have been the earliest structural remains; the type and size of the bricks and the type of mortar pointed to a mid-17th century date; a drain/soakaway was to be recorded with evidence of ‘putlok ’holes in the walls for wooden scaffolding which if correct may be an early use of this system. A possible windowsill may show evidence of a south facing high-up light-giving opening. To the south of this cellar was a smaller one of similar date, there was evidence of coal stains and staircase so may have been a coal cellar or a source of heating. Here you could see earlier brickwork with later types on top.

A large later apsidal foundation facing north may have been a room to look over the gardens, but there was also speculation of a chapel, a nearby tin-glazed wall-tile showing a religious figure which could lend credence to the chapel theory.

A house next door may also be demolished and could contain further cellars from Poynters Hall which will need archaeological recording.

Les showed a collection of mid-17th century finds, not from this site but to give an impression of the sort of pottery, clay-pipe and glassware you would expect to find. Many thanks to Les and Greer for the opportunity to inspect impressive archaeological remains from a Barnet site.

Possible coal cellar with earlier and later brickwork

Tin-glazed wall-tile showing a religious figure

Enfield Archaeological Society Excavations at Monken Hadley Common. Martin J. Dearne

Monken Hadley Common, almost the last untouched remnant of Enfield Chase, is of archaeological interest mainly because of the presence of a later prehistoric enclosure. It was discovered in 1913 (Taylor 1913) and is an ovate bank and ditch defined enclosure of c. 4 ha on patches of gravel geology with a possible entrance at a southern angle. Though damaged by the construction of a railway line through it in 1847, a section cut in 1951 showed an inner bank rising 1.52 m from the base of a 3.00 m wide V-shaped ditch (Renn 1952/4), but limited EAS excavations in 1972 produced no significant results (Green 1973). HADAS excavations in 1983 obtained a second section through the defences, but added nothing further (Wrigley 1983). Indeed, often regarded as a small Iron Age ‘hillfort ’(though how appropriate that term is might be questioned) the site is, however, undated and associated worked flint has been suggested as having been deposited as ballast during railway construction. Its interpretation is further complicated by the presence of areas of quartzite potboilers within it which appear likely to be burnt mounds which are generally more associated with Bronze Age activity and so may hint at continuity of use of the site over a long period. It sits on a low hill 30 m south of the line of the Green Brook, a small stream that runs through the still quite heavily wooded common, and here a flood alleviation scheme involving a little widening of part of the stream and a small ‘wetland cell ’(essentially a large pond) was proposed by the London Borough of Enfield.

As the EAS’s fieldwork team includes current and retired professional archaeologists it has for some years fulfilled the role commercial providers normally would on such Enfield council projects and in September 2024 it undertook the evaluation excavation required by conditions placed on the grant of planning permission (by Barnet Council – by a quirk of the 1963 London Government reorganisation the site is in the borough of Barnet). Such evaluations are not typically what you might think – we don’t excavate entirely by hand but supervise machine excavation in shallow spits, turning to hand excavation only if and when features appear. In this case too everything was metal detected as there was a vague possibility of finds deriving from the 1471 Battle of Barnet being present (though this was probably fought some kilometres away).

As is not uncommon in such evaluations there was no archaeology present – the four trenches excavated showed a fairly thin woodland soil lay over an entirely undisturbed subsoil developing on the top of a natural deposit of brickearth which here coats the underlying Lea Valley gravels. Never the less it is important to undertake such evaluations because it is only by doing them that we can be sure that new infrastructure projects are not going to remove important information about, in this case, the fairly poorly understood pattern of settlement and other activities in the area in the later prehistoric period.

Green, J. (1973) Hadley Wood Earthwork, Enfield Archaeological Society Newsletter (Bulletin of the EAS) 73 (March 1973).
Renn, D. (1952/4) Hadley Wood Earthwork, Trans. East Herts. Arch. Soc. 13ii, 204 – 6.
Taylor, H. D. (1913) Prehistoric Earthwork in Hadley Wood, TLAMAS NS 4i, 97 – 9.
Wrigley, B. (1983) The Dig at Hadley Wood, Hendon and Dist. Arch. Soc. Newsletter, August 1983, 7 – 9 and October 1983, 2.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS compiled by Eric Morgan

Please check with the organisations before setting out in case of any changes / cancellations. Many organisations expect a small contribution from visitors.

Tuesday 14th January, 8 pm. Amateur Geological Society. Talk on Zoom. Death and Destruction in the Red Beds of Russia. The Greatest Mass Extinction of all Time. Talk by Professor Michael Benton. At the end of the Permian period, 90% of species were wiped out. The cause has been a mystery. Numerous hypotheses have been presented including impact by an Asteroid, but the consensus now focusses on massive volcanic eruption in Siberia. For details of link visit https://amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Tuesday 14th January, 8 pm. Historical Association: North London Branch. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Queens as Co-Rulers: Examining Power Sharing and Ruling Partnerships in the Pre-Modern World. Talk by Dr. Ellie Woodacre. Non-members contribution £2. Payable at the door.

Wednesday 15th January,7.30p.m. Willesden Local History Society, St.Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane (round corner from Magistrates Court)London,NW10 2DZ. Becoming Brent. Talk by the Brent Archive team, who will update on their projects in this year of Becoming Brent, and the commemoration of the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley in 1924/5.For further details please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.

Friday 10th January, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Talk on Zoom. Who Built London and Why? Talk given by Professor Dominic Perring (UCL.)
Visit www.enfarch.soc.org for further details and link.

Thursday 16th January, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. Oliver Heaviside = an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age. Talk by Hugh Griffiths. Visit www.camdenhistory.org for further details and link.

Wednesday 22nd January, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, the Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London, N20 0NL. The 1950s. Talk by Terence Atkinson. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk for further details. Non-members contribution £2. Bar available.

Sunday 2nd February, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. Kenwood Estate versus Hampstead Heath – History and Relationship. Meet at entrance to old Kitchen Garden, east of Kenwood House stable block, off Hampstead Lane, London, N6. Guided walk led by Thomas Radice (Trustee). Lasts approximately 2 hours. Donations – £5. Please contact Tereza Pultarova. 07776 649163. Email hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.heathandhampstead.org.uk.

Tuesday 4th February, 11 am. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall (Address as for H.A. North London Branch Tues 14th January.) Dolly Shepherd. Talk by Kirsten Forrest. Dolly Shepherd was a pioneering fairground parachutist, who made her first and last jumps at Alexandra Park. She also went to serve in both World wars. There will also be an update on recent developments at Alexandra Palace. Visit www.enfield.society.org.uk. for further details.

Tuesday 11th February, 6.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Also on Zoom. Book on Eventbrite via website www.lamas.org.uk/lectures/html. Non-members contribution £2.50. A.G.M. and Presidential Address by Professor Vanessa Harding (Birkbeck U.L.) Mapping Early Tudor London. with special reference to The Historic Towns Trust’s Map of London 1520.

Wednesday 12th February, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100, the Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. The History of Pentonville Prison. Talk by Sarah Bourn. www.millhill-hs.org.uk.

Thursday 20th February, 8 pm. Historical Association: Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way, London, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Agincourt Myth and Reality. Talk by Professor Anne Curry (Past President of H.A. and in 2015 was chair of Agincourt 600). It was fought on the 25th October 1415 with victory for Henry V. Also on Zoom. Please email Dudley Miles (HADAS) on dudleyramiles@googlemail.com or telephone 07469 754075 for details of link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments afterwards.

Friday 21st February, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. The Mercenary River. Talk by Nick Higham. He introduces his book on the river that gave us the company that gave us all the other companies. Visitors charge £3. Refreshments to be available in the interval.

Wednesday 26th February, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club (Address as for Wednesday 22nd January). Aircraft through the Ages. Talk by a speaker from De Havilland. For further details please see January talk.

Thursday 27th February, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, London. N3 3QE. The Royal Air Force Museum. Talk by David Keen on the story of the historic site at Hendon from the days of aviation pioneer Claude Grahame-White through the Hendon air shows of the twenties and thirties to RAF Hendon’s role in both world wars and the development of the museum. www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members contribution £2 at the door. Refreshments in the interval.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

Dec 01

Newsletter 645 – December 2024

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 11 : 2020 , 2021 - 2024 | No Comments

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No. 645 DECEMBER 2024 Edited by Don Cooper

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year.

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

Lectures take place in the Avenue House Drawing Room.17 East End Road, Finchley N3
3QE, 7.45 for 8pm. Buses 13, 125, 143, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus
382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station. We are also on the new SuperLoop Bus,
SL10. Tea/Coffee/biscuits will be available for purchase after the talk.

Saturday 18 January 2025, 10.30am to 4.00pm. A Study Day at Avenue House by Jacqui
Pearce of the Museum of London Archaeology entitled “Clay Pipes: how to identify them
and what they mean” See Poster/invitation below.

Tuesday 11th February 2025 by Nick Peacey on The Highgate Wood kiln’s site. See article
in November issue of the HADAS newsletter (No. 644).

Weekend June7th & 8th 2025 Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream
Farm, Fold Farm, Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts. EN5 4RA

Tuesday 11th of March 2025 by Robert Stephenson from COLAS on London’s most curious stones and bones. London possesses many unusual and out-of-place stones as well as several curious bones and burial places, all of which have fascinating tales to tell.

Roman road found under school sports field offers a 2,000-year-old history lesson by Stewart Wild

A Roman road has been unearthed beneath a primary school playing field. The paved
pathway was discovered in the Oxfordshire village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, near Didcot,
along with a range of Roman coins.

The road, uncovered by the Wallingford Historical and Archaeological Society, is believed to date back to the early days of Rome’s occupation of Britain, which began in 43AD. It is
hoped that the find will bring history to life for pupils at the primary school.

“It’s not every day that you find a Roman road beneath your school field,” head teacher Sue Potts told the BBC. “To have the children come out here every day and watch the dig progress has been fabulous for them.

“I’ve often found them gathered round the fence having a watch, seeing what’s going on, looking at the artifacts and what’s been dug up or just asking questions. We absolutely wanted to help [with the dig]. Historians thought the road was there and we wanted to be able to help them prove it, one way or the other,” she said. “It was an absolute ‘yes’ from us.”

Roman roads continue to be found in Britain. Work for the HS2 rail project in 2022 uncovered a “dual carriageway” twice the size of an ordinary Roman road, running through a site near Chipping Warden, west Northants. It was probably constructed to ease congestion from merchants’ carts.

Other Roman roads include Watling Street linking Dover, London and Wroxeter and the Fosse Way from Exeter to Lincoln.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 25 July 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

A Study Day at Avenue House by Jacqui Pearce of Museum of London Archaeology (MoLA)

Clay tobacco pipes: how to identify them and what they mean

Saturday 18 January 2025, 10.30am to 4.00pm at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE

Clay pipes are a well-known and common class of finds on excavated sites in London from the end of the 16th century onwards. They can be closely dated and, when marked, are often traceable to pipe makers known from documentary records. They also provide valuable insights into everyday life, the ways in which people enjoyed their leisure time

and the development of an industry that flourished at the local level across the London area for over 300 years.

This one-day workshop is aimed at unravelling the mysteries of the clay tobacco pipe. Using a large handling collection, we will be looking at the history of smoking in Britain and offering instruction in classifying, dating and recording examples made throughout the period of manufacture. We will also be looking at makers’ marks, decoration, evidence for use, manufacture and the wider evidence for smoking pipes in other countries. Attendees are also invited to bring along clay pipes for identification.

Tea and coffee will be provided. Please bring your own lunch.

Places are limited with priority for members and not confirmed until payment is received of £5 for members and £10 for non-members.

HADAS Bank code: 40-52-40 and Bank account: 00007253

Please ensure that you put your surname and SD125 as a reference with the payment.

Bennet’s School, Hendon dig 2024 by Andy Simpson

As many readers will know, and saw for themselves when participating or visting, on the long weekend of 6-8 September 2024 Hadas undertook a highly successful dig in Church Road, Hendon, on a small plot of land adjacent to the surviving Daniel’s Alms houses of 1729 and opposite the Claddagh Ring pub. There was plenty of interest from local residents and the weather thankfully stayed kind.

Largely co-ordinated by Roger Chapman, and supervised overall by Bill Bass, the main purpose of the dig- site code CVA24- was to establish the level of archaeological survival of the former Bennet’s Schoolhouse, founded by John Bennet as a charity school in 1766 and constructed sometime between 1766 and 1772 on waste ground given by actor David Garrick in Church End. It merged with a previously established charity school in 1788, and another schoolroom was then added.

The teachers were examined annually by the supporting subscribers, and in 1789 the schoolmaster and his wife ‘too imbecile and full of engagements’ were dismissed. It further united with the National School Society in 1828 and renamed St Mary’s National School. With the available accommodation too small for its 175 pupils by 1851, it moved to new premises in nearby Church Walk in 1857.

The old premises were then used by Hendon Baptist Church, and as a working men’s club, but by 1888 were King’s Furniture Warehouse – post excavation work has already identified a couple of probable finds from this later period of use. They were demolished in 1937, and the site had some sort of unidentified use during WW2 and has been a public open space for many years.

This area of land is being improved as an urban garden with an emphasis on food plants and trees, with landscaping work well underway by late October 2024, and we wanted to establish the depth and condition of any underlying remains. This was successfully achieved with substantial wall footings and floors located in each of the three metre square trial pits, two of which were considerably extended as more remains became

evident. A large number of finds were recovered, including a number of 18th century pottery sherds including earthenware, stoneware, and slipwares (seemingly the earliest dated pottery from the site) , much building materiel including hand-made unfrogged bricks and limestone fragments, some moulded, possibly from a later remodelling of the front of the building when the buildings acquired a neo-Tudor façade in the early nineteenth century.

Post excavation work by the Sunday morning team is proceeding apace; at the time of writing all finds have been washed, marking is underway, and the bulk finds sheets, building materials, clay pipes (just one bowl fragment and a few stem fragments found…), glassware- especially window glass- and pottery recording sheets completed or underway. A particular gem is the ceramic toast rack from Trench One pieced back together by Tim Curtiss.

No doubt more detailed reports will appear in the newsletter in due course, but in the meantime I offer this ‘photo essay’ of the site. Our thanks to everyone who took part especially the new people we hope you enjoyed it and will dig with us again. – that overlying demolition rubble took some shifting! And for the remarkably quick backfilling on the Sunday afternoon, no doubt spurred on by the prospect of an excellent meal at the Claddagh afterwards…

One of the few known images of Bennet’s School, other than a pre-demolition photo taken in 1937

**General view of site during excavation-trench two in centre of picture to Tim’s right and our Chair and Roger working on Trench Three at the rear.**

**Substantial footings in Trench One – main E-W wall and dump of roof slates on adjoining part excavated N-S wall. 50cm scale. Overlying rubble shifted by Tim, Janet and your esteemed author**.

**Even more substantial E-W footings in Trench Two…an early source of slipware pottery fragments. New member Catie and friends revealed this one.**

**And walls and floors out the back in Trench Three. Again, 50 cm scale. It was here that Roger excavated a ‘foundation deposit ‘of an intact stoneware ink bottle!**

Washed finds amassed at Avenue House for recording. Plenty of roofing slate…

World’s oldest wine discovered in Spain Daily Telegraph, 19.6.2024 , edited by Stewart Wild

The world’s oldest wine has been found in Spain after spending 2,000 years in a burial urn. Researchers from the University of Córdoba made the discovery in a mausoleum in Carmona, near Seville, where a rich and powerful family lived in the first century A.D. The wine is now the oldest discovered, beating the previous record holder – the Speyer wine – by some 350 years. The Speyer was found in 1867 in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany.

The find was made during an exploration of the tomb when the researchers stumbled upon an urn made of glass but encased in lead. Opening it, they found the liquid bubbling inside. Juan Manuel Román, Carmona council’s chief archaeologist, who discovered the tomb and led the excavation, said: “The liquid had a reddish colour and was bubbling, perhaps due to the movement of the transfer.” Inside the urn were the cremated bones of a man about 45 years old, along with several other elements such as a gold ring and several pieces of carved bone. After testing the liquid, the researchers found it was indeed wine, with details published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Chemists identified wine by searching for polyphenols, chemical compounds that are present in all wines. The team found seven specific polyphenols that also crop up in wines from Montilla-Moriles, Jerez and Sanlúcar, all wine-making regions of Andalucia.

Archaeologists found six funerary urns in the tomb, containing the remains of three men and three women. In one of the urns with a woman’s remains inside, the researchers found three amber jewels, a perfume bottle containing a patchouli fragrance and fabrics believed to be made from silk. The researchers said that it was understandable that a man’s remains were submerged in wine. Wine was generally prohibited to Roman women because men feared it could lead them to be debauched and unfaithful.

Report on HADAS Lecture November 2024 by Bill Bass

‘Battle of Barnet 1471 – Where is the battlefield? New thoughts, research and surveys’ by Peter Masters, Research Fellow. Cranfield University

Peter started by outlining how the two sides, the Yorkist under Edward IV and Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick came to Barnet. In March 1471 Edward returned from France via the Humber estuary, the Earl being based in Leicester and then Coventry. The two armies avoided each other on the route south, Edward visited London picking up Henry VI as a prisoner and then headed north to the battlefield, in the meantime Warwick had established his army to the north of Barnet. The armies engaged on the misty morning of 14th April 1471 – Easter Sunday.

The lack of eyewitness accounts and archaeological evidence means there are many theories, versions and ideas on where and how the battle was fought, this not a new problem as other battlefields (particularly medieval) have been difficult to locate. The last large scale survey was carried out by Huddersfield University under Glenn Foard and Sam Wilson which included metal-detecting, fieldwalking and trial-trenches, whilst it did not unfortunately give a secure battlefield, the resulting publication – ‘The Barnet battlefield project 2015-2018’ gives great insight into the landscape, boundaries, enclosures, settlements and so on to the north of Barnet and the part they may have played in the conflict.

In some ways Peter with his late colleague Mike Ingrams have been using the ideas in the above publication to follow on the landscape aspect of this work to develop a new idea of where the conflict took place. This area involves mostly land in and to the north of Old Fold Manor Golf Course, possibly Kicks End enclosure (Kitts End) and farmland to the west of this. Peter has access to the archive (assisted by Liz Bown) of local historian Brian Warren who has done extensive fieldwalking here.

Because of the lie of the land here – a wider open space and flatter ‘plain’ like area and other factors, Peter postulates that Warwick’s army approached from the north and lined-up in an east-west array on the plain. If this was the case the Yorkist’s would have approached from Barnet heading north, a major obstacle then encountered would have been the moat of Old Ford Manor (the present golf course club house) in this scenario Edward’s army may have lined-up ‘line astern’ – the three or so arrays following each other – an unusual tactic to enable the formation to get around the moat and then reform, line abreast once past it.

So, did the battle take place here? To this end Peter is organising a community-based project to survey and map the location taking note of landscape features such as boundaries, trees, ponds, roads and enclosures. Initial fieldwalking on the golf course has noted some of the above features and what may be the remains of ‘ridge and furrow’ a medieval farming practice which created a distinctive series of ridges across the field systems (1). These ridges if pronounced enough could have had a bearing on how the battle was fought.

Another aspect of the project is looking through various records such as the National Archives at Kew, Hertford Archives and so on. Here ‘map-regression’ can be carried-out looking at landscape features and enclosures to see how far they date back, and could they be identified by the present day fieldwalking? In Kew there is a collection of documentation issued by Edward IV including ‘Warrants’ for the arrest of people who he thought were involved in opposition to his cause, many of these documents have his seal impressed on them. A problem here is that many of the papers are in ‘old-English’ or Latin and will need somebody who can read them.

In a further proposal Peter wondered if Monken Hadley Church could have been the site of the ‘Chantry Chapel’ built to offer prayers to the dead of the battle. The present church has a date of 1494, 23 years after the battle but the site is known to have an earlier history could this have included the battle chapel?

Peter revealed that a further £21,000 had been secured from the ‘Hadley Trust’ to fund more surveying work including metal-detecting surveys in the Hadley Green, Hadley Common and other areas. The Battlefield Trust who have proposed several versions of the battle are also involved in this. The funding could include more community involvement and inclusion of local societies including HADAS.

(1). If this is ‘ridge and furrow’ then it appears not to have been recorded on any of the heritage records such HERS (Historic Environmental Records) but more work needs to be done on this – Bill.

Sources:
‘The Barnet battlefield project 2015-2018’ Glenn Foard, Tracy Partida and Sam Wilson.
‘The Battle of Barnet, In fact and fiction’ by Hilary Harrison, Scott Harrison and Mike Noronha.

Photos by Peter Masters

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

Not all societies’ or organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Wednesday 8th January, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100, the Broadway, London, NW7 3TB. London Zoo – It’s History and stories. Talk by Simon Brown. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.

Monday 13th January, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. The HADAS’ Barnet Hopscotch Excavation. Talk by Bill Bass (HADAS). Visit www.barnetmuseum.com.

Tuesday 14th January, 6.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Also on Zoom. Book on Eventbrite via website www.lamas.org.uk/lectures/html. Non-members £2.50. The Fishful Thames: Fish and Fishing on the River Thames. Talk by Natalie Cohen (N.T.). who will discuss the archaeological evidence for fishing practice along the Thames through time and briefly examine the Iconography and presentation of fish and fishing focussing on the medieval period.

Thursday 16th January, 8 pm. Historical Association: Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way, London NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). The Decline and Fall of Britain’s Indian Empire. Talk by Dr. Sean Lang. Also on Zoom. Please email Dudley Miles (HADAS) on dudleyramiles@googlemail.com or telephone 07469 754075 for details of link and how to pay (There may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments available afterwards.

Friday 17th January, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. Talk on Zoom. Charles Roach Smith (1806-90) and the First Museum of London by Dr. Michael Rhodes on the museum C Smith created

behind his pharmacy in the City of London in 1834. Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out link to its members.

Friday 17th January, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (Behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London, NW9 8RZ. Corps, Congresses and Carols. The History of the Salvation Army in Wembley. Talk by Ruth Mac-Donald (Archivist) who will reveal the story through the years. Visitors £3. Refreshments to be available in the interval.

Monday 20th January, 7.30 pm. Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane. Junction Chase side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Enfield Fire Brigade. Talk by Chris Whippe on its history and some of the memorabilia collected over many years. Please visit www.enfieldsociety.org.uk

Thursday 30th January, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, London. N3 3QE. Driving Aid to Ukraine. Talk by Michael Byrne who will explain how this charity helps to deliver assistance within the conflict zones. It has an established collection system across North London and South Herts for medical supplies, electrical and educational equipment and general humanitarian aid. Please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments available in the interval.

Acknowledgements

With thanks to this month’s contributors: Bill Bass, Stewart Wild, Andy Simpson, Jacqui Pearce and Eric Morgan.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

Nov 01

Newsletter 644 – November 2024

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 11 : 2020 , 2021 - 2024 | No Comments

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No. 644 NOVEMBER 2024 Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

The November 2024 lecture see below, will be in person, face-to-face, only, in the Avenue House Drawing Room.17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, 7.45 for 8pm. Buses 13, 125, 143, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station. We also on the new SuperLoop Bus, SL10. Tea/Coffee/biscuits will be available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 12th November 2024 by Peter Masters. Research Fellow Cranfield University ‘Battle of Barnet 1471 – Where is the battlefield? New thoughts, research and surveys’

This talk will look at the history, archaeology and present thoughts on the Battle of Barnet. The recent research has revisited the documentary evidence suggesting a different interpretation of how the battle was fought. It has led to looking at the landscape in a new way supported by a research fund that involved the participation of volunteers within the community.

Tuesday 11th February 2025 by Nick Peacey on The Highgate Wood kiln’s site. See article starting p.2

Important notice about lecture slides: We have been advised that due to copyright reasons it will not be possible to take photographs during HADAS lectures taking place in Avenue House. Copyright regulations permit the use of visual material during lectures but does not extend to allowing copies to be made of lecturers’ slides. This also ensures there is no distraction for the speaker and audience members.

Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings
The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue are generally held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30 am. HADAS members are welcome to attend – if this is of interest, please contact the Secretary to ensure the session will be taking place as occasionally these are cancelled.

HADAS Christmas Party Sunday the 1st of December 2024
We will be holding the HADAS Christmas party in the Salon at Avenue House from 2.30 pm on Sunday 1st December 2024. There will be a selection of seasonal food available as a finger buffet, and a quiz, raffle and cash bar. The price will be kept at the same as for last year at £20 per person. Booking forms have been sent out to members who are welcome to bring guests.
Hurry -there are only a few places left!

1 of 12

HIGHGATE WOOD – ROMAN POTTERY KILN Michael Hacker

This year’s Heritage Day in Highgate Wood saw the official opening of a new display devoted to the Roman pottery site found in the wood in the 1960’s. The display includes the newly restored remains of one of the best-preserved Roman pottery kilns found in London, now believed to be the only Roman pottery kiln on display in England. The Heritage Day events featured the successful firing of a replica Roman pottery kiln packed with pots made from clay dug in the wood.

Back in 1962 Tony Brown had observed a surface scatter of Roman pottery sherds in Highgate Wood. A series of summer excavations between 1966 and 1978, led by Tony Brown and Harvey Sheldon, revealed evidence of a significant Roman pottery production site. It was active for over 100 years between AD 50 and AD 160. It produced a range of cooking and fine tableware for the London market. The range includes a distinctive poppy-head beaker form with geometric, dotted barbotine decoration. Highgate ware has been found widely distributed at numerous sites in the London area. A full report of the excavations was published by Archaeopress in 2018. (1)

Reconstructed kiln waste poppy beakers found in Highgate Wood.. https://www.highgateromankiln.org.uk/kiln.php

Tony Brown recording kiln 2 https://www.highgateromankiln.org.uk/kiln.php

________________________________________

(1) Brown A. E. and Sheldon H. E. (2018) The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78, Archaeopress (https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781784919788)

2 of 12

The excavations identified the remains of ten kilns. One of them, kiln 2, was particularly well preserved. After it had been recorded it was lifted and exhibited first in the Horniman Museum, then in Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham. Unfortunately, around 1997, Bruce Castle found itself short of space and put the 21 pieces of the kiln in store. It lay there for nearly 30 years. Under the leadership of Nick Peacey and Harvey Sheldon, a voluntary community group, the Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln, (FOHRK), has now succeeded in having the remains of the kiln conserved and reassembled. FOHRK, with the aid of Lottery funding, worked in partnership with the City of London Corporation, owners of the Wood and Bruce Castle Museum, owner of the kiln. The kiln forms the central feature of the display in what will be, once the space is extended to accommodate buggies and wheelchairs, a substantial Visitor Centre. (https://www.highgateromankiln.org.uk/).

To coincide with the opening of the kiln display, FOHRK and the partnership (named Firing London’s Imagination) organised, the construction and firing of a replica Roman kiln, under the direction of Graham Taylor of Potted History (https://potted-history.co.uk/).

The construction of the kiln involved excavating a trench for the stoke hole and heating chamber. The excavated material, together with clay from the wood was used to build a wattle and daub superstructure for the kiln. The wattle reinforcement used hazel stakes and wands from the wood.

One identifying feature of the Roman pottery made in Highgate Wood is that it contains tiny glittering flecks of mica. The solid geology of the Northern Heights of London is an upper member of the London Clay Formation, known as the Claygate Member. This is a silty, micaceous clay. Whilst is had been assumed that the potters used locally sourced clay, the Claygate Formation is highly variable, some parts contain a large proportion of silt and sand and are not suitable for pottery production. The exact location of the clay used by the Roman potters had not been identified. However, geological input from HADAS member Peter Collins enabled a seam of clay to be identified that was considered suitable for pottery production.

A pit was machine excavated in the wood to obtain clay from this seam. This aim was to use this clay to make pots to be fired in the replica kiln. As the pit was close to the Roman pottery manufacturing site HADAS mounted an archaeological watching brief (Site Code: HI 024). In the event, nothing of any archaeological significance was observed.

3 of 12

Shem Morgan using a stick wheel to throw a replica Roman beaker using Highgate Wood clay. © Michael Hacker

A local craft pottery (Turning Earth), under the guidance of Shem Morgan, used the clay from the pit to make a range of different forms of pot. (https://www.turningearth.org/n6). These were fired in the replica kiln as part of the Heritage Day activities. As hornbeam charcoal was one of the types of charcoal found in the excavated Roman kilns, hornbeam logs, harvested from the wood were used to fire the kiln. A maximum temperature of 915 degrees Celsius was reached after nearly ten hours of stoking. Virtually all of the nearly 300 pots in the kiln were fully fired, with very few breakages.

4 of 12

Opening the replica Roman kiln after the first firing. Graham Taylor (left) holding a thermocouple. Shem Morgan (right) holding replica Roman pots. © Michael Hacker

Unfortunately, Peter Collins died in August. He was not able to witness the events that confirmed that the seam of clay he had helped to locate was suitable for pottery manufacture and that it was probably the source of the clay used by the Roman potters. Peter had been an enthusiastic member of Jacqui Pearce’s finds class over many years. The course focussed on pottery finds from archaeological sites in London. Peter developed a particular interest in the Roman pottery manufacturing site in Highgate Wood and the geological and topographical factors influencing pottery production in North London in general. He was the lead author of a research paper on this topic, published by the London Geodiversity Partnership in 2018. (2)

Kiln 2 can be seen in the Visitor Centre in the centre of Highgate Wood. The replica kiln is located on the edge of the playing field adjacent to the Centre.

Highgate Wood is 12 minutes’ walk from Highgate tube station (Northern Line – High Barnet branch). Buses 43 and 134 stop on Muswell Hill Road on the edge of the wood. The wood is open every day from 07.30 to dusk.

_____________________________________

(1) Brown A. E. and Sheldon H. E. (2018) The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78, Archaeopress (https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781784919788)
(2] Collins C. and Hacker M (2018) Highgate Wood Roman Pottery Kilns: Geological and Topographical factors influencing the location, London Geodiversity Partnership. (https://londongeopartnership.org.uk/reportsandresearch/#highgate)

________________________

5 of 12

An Archaeologist’s View of Orkney and Shetland Jean Bayne and Jennifer Taylor

SHETLAND
After an overnight ferry journey of twelve and a half hours from Aberdeen, we docked at Lerwick in Shetland. Our first visit with our knowledgeable guide, Peter Yeomans, was to the island of Mousa. It has a broch, an Iron Age stone tower which stand 13m high with a base diameter of 15m: the finest surviving example in Scotland. Brochs are peculiar to Scotland and 500 have been counted of which 141 are on Shetland. They are a distinctive shape and have inner and outer walls which allow for the construction of a staircase and upper chambers. They were built for defensive purposes as well as prestige.

Jarlshof was our next stop. Near the sea on the southern headland, it covers about 3 acres with settlements spanning 6,000 years of uninterrupted occupation from the Neolithic to the 1600s. It had ideal conditions: a good harbour, fresh water, fertile land for grazing animals and an abundance of stone for building. Moreover, the sea provided opportunities for fishing and trade. However, coastal erosion has destroyed some of the archaeology, including half of a broch. The remaining evidence was hidden by a sealed mound of sand until the 1890s when it was uncovered by storms. Since then, there have been excavations in the 1890s, 1930s and the 1950s.

Evidence for Neolithic habitation, Bronze Age settlements, Iron Age buildings, Norse and Medieval occupation have all been found, making Jarlshof an iconic and significant site. Only vestiges remain of a very early residential settlement in 2500 BC plus some pottery fragments extracted from a series of middens. The Bronze Age from 2000 BC is marked by an enclosure with stone walls around it. The houses within have a central hearth with small cells radiating from it. A smithy was added to one of the houses in 800 BC. Various artefacts such as a quern, stone tools and bone fragments have been found. A complicating factor is that later houses are often built on top of, or inside, earlier ones.

Iron Age people built similar but more spacious housing with stone entrance passages ad souterrains (underground stores). In the second and third centuries a new structure was introduced at Jarlshof: the Wheelhouse. These were houses where the roof was supported by radial piers of stone arranged like the spokes of a wheel. It is an internal structure and there were parts of 4 such houses found on the site. About this time textile production was occurring as spindles and weaving tools were discovered.

6 of 12

Also, evidence of an increasing range of animal husbandry including pigs, ponies, and dogs. Fishing and hunting were evident too and decorative articles like beads and pendants made from soapstone. Slate was also in use.

Viking raids began in Scotland around 800 AD. By the end of the 9th century a Norse dwelling appeared on Jarlshof: the long house. It was a long, low structure with a small kitchen with a hearth and oven and a separate main living area. It therefore had inner as well as outer walls. The settlement did not develop substantially but remained basically a farmhouse with a few buildings around it. Over the following centuries more houses were built and byres and outbuildings added. Fishing and pottery became increasingly important. It seems to have been a peaceful, sophisticated community blessed with a variety of resources and wide-ranging technologies and trade routes with opportunities for imports.

In the 13th century, a new type of farmhouse appeared, consistent with architectural developments in Norway itself. Shetland was part of Norway till 1469 when the King of Norway’s daughter married the King of Scotland and Shetland was her dowry. Thus, until then the inhabitants of the island had close links with Norway. The houses were modified as the climate became less hospitable and food more scarce. Large kilns which also acted as storehouses were added. Around 1500, the buildings were abandoned.

By the end of the 16th century, there was a new hall and a two-storey laird’s house on the Scottish model. A barn, kiln and outhouse were eventually added. They are the most recent structures, some of which are visible today as ruins. The notorious tyrant, Earl Patrick, lived on Shetland for a while but his main residence was in Scalloway, the old capital of Shetland, in an imposing castle which is now in need of restoration. The earl was executed in 1615.

The last visit on Shetland was to St Ninian’s island. A beautiful place accessed by a sandy causeway with sea on both sides; seals were seen basking in the sunlight nearby. We went up a steep hill to the remains of an ancient chapel perched on the hillside overlooking the bay. Christianity came to Shetland in the 6th century. The chapel had been built onto a Neolithic structure as evidence was found under the floor. Also under the floor was treasure. A box of silverware, including brooches and bowls was discovered by a schoolboy in 1958. No doubt it had been hidden from potential Viking raiders and never reclaimed.

7 of 12

That evening we sailed for Orkney. I was captivated by Shetland: for me, it was a magical island of gentle, undulating hills dotted with white houses and framed by lovely beaches. We only had one cool rainy day. Seemingly Shetland has the sunniest summers in the UK and relatively low rainfall then too !

ORKNEY
Our first day in Orkney took us a few centuries ahead to the 20th century, driving round Scapa Flow where wrecks from the German High Seas Fleet we scuttled at the end of World War I. Seven of the 52 ships remain in the Flow and they were joined in 1939 by HMS Royal Oak, sunk by German torpedoes. A German submarine had crept into Scapa Flow, between the blockships which were meant to have made the Sound impassible to enemy vessels. Churchill ordered barriers to be built across all but one opening to the natural harbour.

Italian prisoners of war were camped nearby and created a chapel out of two Nissan huts which was decorated by one who was also a talented artist, Domenico Chiocchette.

We then moved onto Kirkwall where the centuries got confused again, visiting the magnificent 12th century St Magnus Cathedral and contemporary Bishop’s Palace. Rumour had it that the bones of local saint St. Magnus were thought to be lost but were found again behind a modest stone in the south aisle.

8 of 12

And then it was back again to Neolithic times as many of the artefacts from local excavations are held in the Orkney Museum just across the cathedral square.

Shetland may have given us balmy weather, but a real storm of rain and wind blew up on the last day when we went to visit some of the most remarkable Neolithic sites on Orkney. Starting with Skara Brae, first discovered in 1850, and a UNESCO heritage site which was first occupied in 2900 BC and abandoned around 2600 B.C. and may well have been larger, but the houses were built to a similar pattern and celebrated for having stone furniture still in place.

Typical Skara Brae house with bed spaces and ‘dresser’

The real highlight of our visit was to the Neolithic sites in Stenness and Brodgar. Surveys have shown a monumental complex existed, centred around the Ness of Brodgar where building may have begun as early as 3500 BC.

9 of 12

Map of Neolithic sites around the Ness of Brodgar

Two sets of standing stones, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness bookend the area we visited and are assumed to have been areas of ritual worship. The chambered cairn at Maeshowe was built before 2700 BC. but was raided by Vikings in the 12th century, leaving behind a large collection of runic inscriptions (said to be the largest in one place in the world).

Two areas of likely occupation have been excavated in the area – Barnhouse, barely 0.5km to the south-east of the Ness of Brodgar, and the Ness itself. Barnhouse, discovered in 1984, had been badly damaged by centuries of ploughing. As a result, only the reconstructed lower courses of the structures are visible today – a ring of separate houses around a central space with construction and contents similar to those at Skara Brae. However, it was an important discovery because it demonstrated that the isthmus of Brodgar was not solely a ritual area. The village was abandoned around 2875 BC, maybe because of rising water levels in the Loch of Harray.

Our final visit was to the Ness of Brodgar and was to have been a real highlight with Nick Hall, the Director of the dig showing us around personally after the digging was finished for the day and other visitors had gone home. Unfortunately, although the rain had abated, the strength of the wind was such that we found it almost impossible to hear him as he enthusiastically took us around an extensive area of open excavations.

What we did find out from him in a more sheltered spot was that the Ness was first identified as a major archaeological site in 2002 when the farmer ploughed up a large unusually notched and rebated stone and the first trench was opened in April 2003. This was later than the UNESCO award or World Heritage Site for the other sites in Orkney and has meant that one of his most onerous tasks as Site Director is to raise the money to keep the work going. He is also very aware that the dig is revealing many layers of occupation, and the more they are unearthing, the more they are aware of the danger of damaging earlier remains. So, a difficult decision has been made to close the site for the future in the hope that better technology will be available in 20 years’ time to identify lower layers. We were therefore some of

10 of 12

the last visitors to the open dig (we were there in July) and it has now been covered and closed (at the time of writing in August).

However, Nick has plenty of work to do in the next twenty years. Living in the farmhouse on site, he will be writing up his finds for a long time yet.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Eric Morgan

Note: Not all Societies or Organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Saturday 2nd November, 10.30 am. – 4.30 pm. Geologists Association. Festival of Geology. Please note that the venue has now been changed to The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. W1J 0BG. NOT at UCL. this time as shown in October Newsletter. See www.geologistsassociation.org.uk.

Friday 8th November, 7 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, corner of Ferme Park Road/Weston Park, London, N8 7EL. Charles Roach Smith. Talk by Dr. Michael Rhodes. For further details please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.

Saturday 16th November, 11 am. – 5.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Local History Society Conference. Wilberforce Room, London Museum Docklands, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, London E14 4AL. Fashion, Clothing and Textiles in London’s History. Including presentations of publications awards for 2023. Afternoon refreshments to be provided. Tickets standard price £17.50 or £20 on the day if available (cash only). For further details please visit www.lamas.org.uk.

Friday 15th November, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London, EC3R 7NB. Talk also on zoom, on 81 Newgate Street, The Former GPO site, revisited. Talk by Kathy Davidson (P.C.A). Book via Eventbrite, visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out link details to its members. Visitors – £3 payable at the church.

Thursday 21st November, 8 pm. Historical Association – Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). The Revolting French – France since 1789. Talk by Professor Pam Pilbeam who investigates the impact of the revolution on the French from 1789 to its centenary in 1889. Hopefully, also on Zoom. Please e-mail Mandy Caller on mandycaller@gmail.com or telephone 07818 063594 for details of link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £3). Refreshments available afterwards.

Wednesday 27th November, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, the Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London, N20 0NL. The Fire of London. Talk by Peter Mansi. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk. Non-members pay £2. Bar available.

Saturday 30th November, 10 am. – 4pm. Amateur Geological Society North London Mineral, Gem and Fossil Show. Trinity Church, 15 Nether Street, London, N12 7NN (opposite Finchley Arts Depot, Near Tally Ho Pub). Refreshments available. Admission £2. For details www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Tuesday 10th December, 6.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Also on Zoom. Book on Eventbrite via website www.lamas.org.uk/lectures/html non-members £2.50. The Southwark Deep Shelter from Tube Line to Nuclear Armageddon. Possibly the largest civilian air-raid shelter constructed during WW2 using disused tube tunnels under Borough High Street – examines the development, planning and use of the shelter during the war and proposals for its post-war use as a nuclear shelter and its fate. Talk by Dr. Chris Constable, Borough Archaeologist, London Borough of Southwark.

11 of 12

Tuesday 10th December, 8 pm. Historical Association. North London Branch. Jubilee Hall, Address as for E.A.S. Friday 8th November. Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth. Talk by Professor Anne Curry. Non-members £2 payable at the door.

Tuesday 10th December, 8 pm. Amateur Geological Society. Talk on Zoom. The Thames Through time. The history of an ice-age river. Talk given by Ian Mercer (Essex Rock and Mineral Society). By digging into the landscape around the County of Essex shows evidence in the land and even in church walls. For details of link please visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Friday 13th December, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. On zoom. Medieval Pottery. Talk by Jacqui Pearce (HADAS President). Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details and link.

****************************************************************************************************************
With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Michael Hacker, Eric Morgan, Jean Bayne and Jennifer Taylor.

****************************************************************************************************************

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

12 of 12

Oct 06

Newsletter 643 – October 2024

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 11 : 2020 , 2021 - 2024 | No Comments

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

No. 643 OCTOBER 2024 Edited by Robin Densem

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

Forthcoming HADAS Lectures:

The October and November 2024 lectures, see below, are to be held in person, face-to-face, only, in the Avenue House Drawing Room.17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits will be available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 8th October 2024. Wendy Morrison (Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership) ‘Beacons of the Past Hillforts Project’.
Beacons of the Past was an exciting 4.5 year National Lottery funded project designed to conserve and discover more about the hillforts of the Chilterns landscape. It accomplished a great deal more than this and laid the foundation for a new archaeological focus for the National Landscape. Dr Wendy Morrison will report on the final years of the project, and what comes next for archaeology in the Chilterns environs.

Tuesday 12th November 2024. Peter Masters, Research Fellow Cranfield University –
‘The Battle of Barnet – new thoughts, research and surveys’

Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings
The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue are held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30am. The sessions are open to all HADAS members and are both important and convivial. I think it would be wise to check with the committee – committee-discuss@hadas.org.uk that the session will be held before you travel as just occasionally a session is cancelled.

HADAS Christmas Party Sunday the 1st of December 2024
We will be holding the HADAS members-only Christmas party in the Salon at Avenue House from 2.30 pm on Sunday 1st December 2024. There will be a selection of seasonal food available as a finger buffet, and a quiz, raffle and cash bar. The price will be kept at the same as for last year at £20 pp. Further information and booking forms (for use by members only) will be sent out soon so please keep the date for now.

Other societies’ events Eric Morgan with Sue Loveday.

Not all societies or organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Wednesday 9th October, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. The Early Years of Newspaper Printing. Talk by Martin Bourn. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.

Friday 18th October, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. The Man Behind the Poster. Lord Kitchener – Life and career of a great, but controversial soldier and politician. Talk by Mick Dobson. Visitors £3. Refreshments.

Wednesday 23rd October, 7 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, Corner of Weston Park/Ferme Park Road, London. N8 7EL. T.P. Bennett and the Hillcrest Estate, Highgate. An important post-war housing development by Hornsey Borough Council. Talk by Ray Rogers – for further details please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.

Thursday 24th October, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society meeting at Avenue House, lecture on The Soane Museum by Jonty Stern. Please note that the date of 31st October shown in the September Newsletter has been brought forward.

Saturday 2nd November, 10.30 am. – 4.30 pm. Geologists’ Association Festival of Geology. U.C.L. North and South Cloisters, Gower Street, London. WC1E 6BT. Free. Lots of stalls from Geological Societies from all over the country including The Amateur Geological Society selling Jewellery, Gems, Fossils, Rocks, Minerals, Books, Maps etc. For further details please visit Festival of Geology | Geologists’ Association (geologistsassociation.org.uk).

Sunday 3rd November, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. The Hidden Heath: Signs of the Heath’s Past. Meet at Kenwood Walled Garden (off Hampstead Lane) London, N6. Guided walk led by Michael Hammerson (Highgate Society and Archaeologist). It lasts approximately 2 hours. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or email hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.heathandhampstead.org.uk.

Wednesday 13th November, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Address as for 9th October 2024. Putting on a show, Mill Hill Musical Theatre Company. Talk by Grant Graves and Clare Shar.

Friday 15th November, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. Address as for 18th October 2024. Cricklewood Tales. Mayor of Brent, Tariq Dorgues, on a history of his time in the borough. Visitors £3.

Monday 18th November, 8 pm. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Bruce Castle, Old and New. Talk by Deborah Hedgecock sharing old stories & new discoveries found during the current building conservation project at Tottenham’s magnificent Grade I Listed and former 16th century Manor House. Please visit https://enfieldsociety.org.uk/about-our-talks/.

Wednesday 20th November, 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall. Bottom of Neasden Lane (Around the corner from the Magistrates’ Court) London. NW10 2DZ. Archaeology, Myths and Legends. Talk by Signe Hoffos (C.O.L.A.S). For further details please visit www.willesdenlocal-history.co.uk.

The Serpent Column: Images from Delphi and Constantinople/Istanbul. Robin Densem.

The bronze column (Figure 1) of three snakes twisting around each other survives to a height of 5.35m in Constantinople, having been originally erected at and dedicated to the religious sanctuary at Delphi (Figure 7) where it stood outside and close to the east end of the Temple of Apollo there (Figure 6) from BC 478 to AD 324.

The column was hollow cast in bronze taken from weapons and armour lost by the Persians who were defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, stopping the Persian invasion. The column may originally have had 31 coils reflecting the 31 Greek city states named in an inscription incised onto the monument (Figure 3) that records the sources of Greek soldiers who fought at the battle. The Serpent Column had three bronze serpent heads (Figure 2) and is described in classical written sources, and it is clear that the heads had been surmounted by a gold tripod supporting a gold bowl or cauldron. The gold elements were taken and melted down by the Phocians in 355 BC and were used to pay their mercenaries. The Phocians left the column standing with its three bronze heads.

The Serpent Column with its three heads was taken from Delphi and brought to the Hippodrome in c. AD 324 by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to decorate the existing Hippodrome that he renovated. He had selected the ancient city of Byzantium to serve as the new capital of the Roman Empire, and the city was renamed Nova Roma, or ‘New Rome’. On 11 May 330, it was renamed Constantinople and dedicated to him.

Earlier, in 203. the Emperor Septimius Severus had rebuilt Byzantium and expanded its walls, endowing it with a hippodrome, an arena for chariot races and other entertainment.
It is estimated that the Hippodrome of Constantine was about 450 m (1,476 ft) long and 130 m (427 ft) wide. The carceres (starting gates) stood at the north-east end; and the sphendone (curved tribune of the U-shaped structure, the lower part of which still survives) stood at the south-west end. The spina (the middle barrier of the racecourse) was adorned with various monuments, including the Serpent Column which still stands in its position on the site of the spina. The stands were capable of holding 100,000 spectators.

An archaeological excavation in 1855-1856 exposed an inscription that was scratched into the surface of the bronze. Written in the Phocian alphabet, it names thirty-one Greek cities that defeated the Persians at the battle of Plataea in 479 BC. This allowed for the column to be identified with the tripod Herodotus recorded in the 5th century BC. Later the historian Pausanias recorded that golden tripod in Delphi was missing, but the Serpent Column still existed. The golden cauldron and tripod had been removed by the Phocians (the locals of Delphi) during a war in the 4th century BC. Eusebius reported that several tripods from Delphi were moved to the Hippodrome of Constantinople during the reign of Constantine (sole Roman emperor AD 324-337) (https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/serpent-column accessed 25.07.2024).

Excavations have uncovered numerous water channels, and traces of lead piping were also found underneath the Serpent Column and the nearby Masonry Obelisk in the Hippodrome, indicating both monuments once served as fountains. It was probably its use as a fountain that saved it from being melted down or looted by the crusaders in 1204 – as was done to other bronzes in the Hippodrome.1

____________________

1 https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/serpent-column accessed 25.07.2024

Schoolboy finds Roman relic in country park.

A teenage boy has found a Roman relic from 2,000 years before he was born.

Amateur schoolboy archaeologist Edward Whitby, 17, found the Roman horse bridle while out on an excavation in a park at Greenfield Valley, north Wales. He was digging on the remains of a newly-discovered settlement at the 70-acre country park when he made the discovery.
Edward said: “It was amazing. I was cleaning back and from under the mud a glint of green caught my eye. That was when we realised it was an Iron Age horse mount.”

The 2,000 years old artifact was found within the remains of a newly discovered settlement that likely belonged to the Iron Age Deceangli tribe but continued into the Roman period.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 25 August 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖
With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Stewart Wild, Eric Morgan and Sue Loveday
❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

Sep 02

Newsletter 642 – September 2024

By Don Cooper | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 11 : 2020 , 2021 - 2024 | No Comments

No. 642 September 2024 Edited by Sandra Claggett

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Lectures are normally face-to-face, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, 7.45 for 8pm. Buses 13, 125, 143, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station. We also on the new SuperLoop Bus, SL10. Tea/Coffee/biscuits are available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 10th September (please note change of talk)
West Heath II Lectures and book launch

As members will be aware the latest book published by HADAS in April 2024 was the phase II 1984 – 1986 part of the dig, an important Mesolithic site found on Hampstead Heath and excavated by this society. This talk will explain how the new book evolved, how it was assembled, designed and published. Unfortunately, Myfanwy Stewart the author cannot attend so members of the ‘Fieldwork Team’ will speak on various elements including how the flints were treated to museum standards with some these on display. The book is offered free to members who will be able to collect it from the talk.

It is planned that the lecture will consist of the following aspects.

An introduction and the origin of the book production, what HADAS do with the finds, the Mesolithic landscape in London and what the London Archaeology Archive Research Centre (LAARC) do when they receive the finds.

There will also be wine and nibbles provided for this event.

Tuesday 8th October 2024
Beacon of the Past, Hillforts Project
Dr Wendy Morrison, Manager, Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP)

Tuesday the 12th of November 2024 tbc

HADAS Christmas Party Sunday the 1st of December 2024

We will be holding the HADAS Christmas party in the Salon at Avenue House from 2.30 pm. There will be a selection of seasonal food available as a finger buffet and a quiz. The price will be kept at the same as for last year at £20 pp. Further information and booking forms will be sent out soon so please keep the date for now.

HADAS Involvement

If you would like to be more involved with the society please consider the following:

Would you like to help with activities, events or excavations. If so please contact the email address for the Chair chairman@hadas.org.uk stating what you are interested in and/or have previous experience in:

HADAS Newsletter Editors
Any members who would like to be added to the monthly HADAS Editor rota can you please contact Sue Willetts on sue.willetts@london.ac.uk or susanwilletts64@gmail.com

HADAS Auditor
Our previous auditor, unfortunately, has had to retire so if you are an auditor or feel that you can recommend someone for HADAS which is a registered charity please let us know.

Festival of Archaeology July 2024 – some talks now on YouTube by Sue Willetts

This is Archaeology: Roots in Time – Shaping Woodland for the Future with Nina O’Hare

Discover how the award-winning Roots in Time project combines heritage, community, and sustainability. Dive into the fascinating Iron Age and Roman archaeology uncovered during geophysical surveys in Worcestershire and the community project that followed. Watch here: This is Archaeology: Roots in Time – shaping woodland for the future (youtube.com)

The Baths Conceal So Many Secret Joys – The Uncovering Roman Carlisle Project
This talk explores the impact of the Uncovering Roman Carlisle community project particularly the experiences of the volunteers who enabled it to happen, the artefacts they discovered and object biographies they helped create. Watch here: This is Archaeology: The Baths Conceal So Many Secret Joys – The Uncovering Roman Carlisle Project (youtube.com)

The Neolithic Studies Group (NSG) weekend trip an overview by Sandra Claggett

This year’s NSG weekend was to the region of North and East Yorkshire. It started with an evening of lectures discussing the Swale-Ure archaeological landscape. Although it might not be thought of first as an area rich in archaeology within a 24 mile area among other sites are 12 henges, three curses and a timber circle. Below is a brief overview of some of the highlights. Further reading information is provided following this article for those who would like more detail.

Two of the Devil’s Arrows Standing Stones (author’s own photo)

The first site visited was the Devil’s Arrows these 3 standing stones are 6.9m, 6.7m and 5.5m high. There are striations from weathering on the stone surface. Excavations date the site using Grooved ware pottery and worked flint to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age (Manby, King and Vyner 2003, 94-5).

The third surviving Devils Arrow Standing Stone (author’s own photo)

Another highlight included being given permission to enter all three Thornborough Henges which for the first time are united in ownership now belonging to Historic England. These Henges are in varying states of preservation.

Historic England plan showing the alignment of the three Thornborough Henges (Author’s photo)

Author’s photo showing Rudston Monolith and All Saints Church

Thornborough North is the best preserved it is a Type 11 henge with an external diameter of approximately 244m. It has ditches 2m or more in depth and banks of 3m high it also incorporates 2 entrance ways.

The centre Thornborough ditch has an external area of 238m with banks up to 4.6m which are between 2 ditches.

South has been deliberately bulldozed and has an external diameter of approximately 244m. (Information provided by Dr Watson and the NSG weekend guide).

Very striking was the Rudston Monolith which is the largest standing stone in Britain at over 8m high and 5m in circumference. The depth below ground is unknown but is could be 3/4 of the height above ground. It is comprised of moor grit mix and something that I had wanted to see for some time. The previous pagan site where Rudston monolith stands was chosen to be the site of the current All Saints Church in East Yorkshire. The Venerable Bede recorded how Christianity is said to have come to Rudston in 615 A.D. Edwin chief of the Parisii wanted to marry Ethelburga the daughter of a chieftain in Kent however Edwin and his whole tribe would have to convert to Christianity this later happened. Information provided by W.W.Gatenby in the All Saints Church booklet.

Rudston is special in having perhaps 5 cursuses in a small area. The most extant is cursus A which is 2.7km long with an external width of between 60-80m. It is possible that these were all built in the fourth century BC as other cursus monuments in Britain. Also that they would have had internal ditches and external banks. The purpose of these cursuses is considered to be ritual and as processional routes. (Loveday and Brophy 2015).

Further information
Brophy, K (2015) Reading between the lines: the Neolithic cursus monuments of Scotland. Routledge
Loveday, R (2006) Inscribed across the landscape: the cursus enigma. Tempus
Manby, TG, King, A & Vyner, BE (2003), ‘The Neolithic and Bronze Ages: a Time of Early Agriculture’, in Manby, TG, Moorhouse, S & Ottaway, P, The Archaeology of Yorkshire. An assessment at the beginning of the 21st century. Yorkshire Archaeological Society Occasional Paper No. 3. Leeds, 35-116.

Websites
Devil’s Arrows – Boroughbridge Town Council

Thornborough Henges Gifted to the Nation | Historic England

OPS22 Hopscotch Pottery Report 25.2.2024 by Melvyn Dresner
Continuation of this Report mentioned in the August HADAS Newsletter

Repeat of the Overview and new information on Context 001

This site produced pottery from the 14th century into 20th century. We can define four context by pottery finds. Context 001 dating to 18th and 19th century, with material into the late 20th century. Context 002 is late 16th century into 18th century, based on clay pipes could be 1660 to 1670. Context 003 dates to 14th or 16th century. The earliest date is 1340 to 1350 and could extend into later into the 16th century. Context 005 has a very small assemblage of three sherds, may not call it an assemblage, however, the overlap date of the three pottery types is 1340 to 1350, similar to context 003.

The date range of all the pottery in this context is 1560 to 1900. The sample size of recovered material maybe too small to determine the statistical significance. There were 115 sherds recovered from this context, representing 77 vessels, pottery weighs 1360 grams, plus 1433 grams of sanitary ware.

We could identify two possible terminus post quem dates, of 1780 (TPW and TGW H) and 1820 (YELL SLIP), with latest date of 1900 being more open than suggested by the date ranges below. This context though below top soil includes plastics that can dated to the 1980s, Baby Gonzo, Muppet character from 1984 onwards.

Pottery Types identified in this context
PMR 1560 – 1900
TGW H 1680 – 1800
ENGS 1700 – 1900
BBAS 1770 – 1900
TPW 1780 – 1900
REFW 1805 – 1900
TPW2 1807 – 1900
YELL 1820 – 1900
YELL SLIP 1820 – 1900

English Stoneware, ENGS, bottle

Transfer printed refined whiteware

Note: Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul often depicted with butterfly wings.

Refined whiteware, REFW, egg cup

Ceramic building material, including sanitary ware, bathroom related markings “Made in England” and “Standard” indicate post 1900

All pottery identified in Context 001 is British made, mainly in London. The other bulk material from this context includes plastics; light bulb and electrical components; as well as children’s bicycle parts (bicycle bell and pedals); Baby Gonzo – a plastic toy; and wall tiles made by Pilkington, who begun making tiles from 1893
(source: Pilkington’s – Salford Museum & Art Gallery )

Baby Gonzo, muppet character, first TV appearance in 1984, in the The Muppets Take Manhattan, probably a toy give away from fast food store, McDonalds. (source: Baby Gonzo | Muppet Wiki | Fandom)

Contributors
Thanks to this month’s contributors Eric Morgan, Sue Loveday, Sue Willetts and Melvyn Dresner

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

Not All Societies or Organisations have returned to Pre-Covid Conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Friday 20th September, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London, EC3R 7NB. Talk also on Zoom. The Secret Micro-Archaeological World of Pollen and Other Pesky Palynomorphs: Recent work in London. By Dr. Jane Wheeler (P.C.A). Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk Hadas may send out link details to its members. Visitors £3 at the Church.

Saturday 21st September. Society for Medieval Archaeology. British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG. Artefacts, Landscapes and Collaborative Research Conference. Hosted jointly with The Portable Antiquities Scheme. Keynote lectures on Medieval Ritual Objects in the Landscape. Given by Roberta Gilchrist on Mapping Meaningful Deposition. Also on Daily Life, Disaster and Discovery: small metal finds from the drowned land in the Netherlands given by Anne Marieke Willemsen with other speakers covering a wide range of subjects, site and regions. Tickets cost £20 for members of The Society for Medieval Archaeology and £45 for non-members. For details and booking please visit www.medievalarchaeology.co.uk/events/conferences.

Friday 11th October, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Newgate Street Excavations. Talk by Kathy Davidson. Please visit www.enfarch.soc.org For further details. Non Members £1.50. Refreshments 7 pm.

Monday 14th October, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet. EN5 4BW. The Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade – What’s Barnet Got to Do with It? Talk by Dennis Bird (Barnet L.H.S.) Please visit www.barnetmuseum.com.

Thursday 17th October. 8pm. Historical Association-Hampstead and NW London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London, NW11 6YD. (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Spies and British Prime Ministers. Talk by Professor Richard Aldrich. Hopefully also on zoom. Please email Mandy Caller on mandycaller@gmail.com or telephone 07818 063594 for details of link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments available afterwards.

Friday 18th October, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. Address as for 20th September 2024. Also on Zoom. Merchants, Fishermen, Ferrymen, Bargees and a Seagull on Life and Work in Roman Pisa. Talk by Ian Jones (E.A.S.Chair). Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk, HADAS my send out link details to its members. Visitors £3 at the Church.

Thursday 31st October, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, London. N3 3QE. The Soane Museum. Jean Scott Memorial Lecture given by Jonty Stern (Finchley Society and Guide on its Antiquities Furniture, Sculptures, Architectural Models and Paintings. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in the interval.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP

(07449 978121) email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61, Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website at: www.hadas.org.uk –
join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

https://salfordmuseum.com/exhibition/pilkingtons/

Volume 11: 2020 - 2024

Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎

Volume 9: 2010 - 2014

Volume 8 : 2005 - 2009

Volume 7 : 2000 - 2004

Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999

Volume 5 : 1990 - 1994

Volume 4 : 1985 - 1989

Volume 3 : 1980 - 1984

Volume 2 : 1975 - 1979

Volume 1 : 1969 - 1974

Recent Posts

Meta

New title

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Next HADAS dig: 31st of July – 4th August 2025: Vine Cottage, Greyhound Hill, Hendon NW4

College Farm – an update Peter Pickering

Crosby Blitz Beach Jane Mortimer

Caral-Supe Civilization of Peru David Willoughby

Was the Late Bronze Age eruption at Santorini responsible for the demise of Minoan society? David Willoughby

Other Organisations / Societies’ events Eric Morgan

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Mapping the kingdom

Lincoln Janet Mortimer

Who killed King Edward the Martyr? Dudley Miles

Explorator Peter Pickering

Transport Corner – Trolleybus demise Andy Simpson

The Cultural Significance of the Sutton Hoo Helmet David Willoughby

Other Organisations / Societies’ events Eric Morgan

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Membership Renewals

BENNETT’S SCHOOL – Additional details Andy Simpson

Detectorist strikes gold with £10k medieval ring Stewart Wild

Honey-basted venison was on Bronze Age menus Stewart Wild

Prehistoric axe head in an auction sale Sue Willetts

Advance information:

Online lectures:

Other Organisations’ / Societies’ events Eric Morgan / Sue Willetts

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

HADAS Study Day Susan Trackman

The largest human-made explosion before the atomic bomb Don Cooper

Decline and fall

Vikings originally came from Britain before returning to invade (Stewart Wild)

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

BENNET’S SCHOOL UPDATE ANDY SIMPSON

‘His Name Liveth for Ever in Hendon’ Revisited Andy Simpson

Roots of writing traced to 6,000 years ago

Medieval chiefs melted assets into money

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

MUSIC NIGHT ANDY SIMPSON

ALL BOXED UP ANDY SIMPSON

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

HADAS Christmas Tea Sandra Claggett

Enfield Archaeological Society Excavations at Monken Hadley Common. Martin J. Dearne

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS compiled by Eric Morgan

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

Roman road found under school sports field offers a 2,000-year-old history lesson by Stewart Wild

A Study Day at Avenue House by Jacqui Pearce of Museum of London Archaeology (MoLA)

Clay tobacco pipes: how to identify them and what they mean

Bennet’s School, Hendon dig 2024 by Andy Simpson

World’s oldest wine discovered in Spain Daily Telegraph, 19.6.2024 , edited by Stewart Wild

Report on HADAS Lecture November 2024 by Bill Bass

‘Battle of Barnet 1471 – Where is the battlefield? New thoughts, research and surveys’ by Peter Masters, Research Fellow. Cranfield University

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

HIGHGATE WOOD – ROMAN POTTERY KILN Michael Hacker

An Archaeologist’s View of Orkney and Shetland Jean Bayne and Jennifer Taylor

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Eric Morgan

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

Other societies’ events Eric Morgan with Sue Loveday.

The Serpent Column: Images from Delphi and Constantinople/Istanbul. Robin Densem.

Schoolboy finds Roman relic in country park.

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Festival of Archaeology July 2024 – some talks now on YouTube by Sue Willetts

The Neolithic Studies Group (NSG) weekend trip an overview by Sandra Claggett

OPS22 Hopscotch Pottery Report 25.2.2024 by Melvyn DresnerContinuation of this Report mentioned in the August HADAS Newsletter

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

Volume 11: 2020 - 2024

Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎

Volume 9: 2010 - 2014

Volume 8 : 2005 - 2009

Volume 7 : 2000 - 2004

Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999

Volume 5 : 1990 - 1994

Volume 4 : 1985 - 1989

Volume 3 : 1980 - 1984

Volume 2 : 1975 - 1979

Volume 1 : 1969 - 1974

Recent Posts

OPS22 Hopscotch Pottery Report 25.2.2024 by Melvyn Dresner
Continuation of this Report mentioned in the August HADAS Newsletter