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Newsletter-576-March-2019

By | Barnet Archaeology, HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎ | No Comments

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2019

Tuesday 12th March 2019: Lost and Found: The Rediscovery of Roman London – by John Clark
John Clark was Curator of the Medieval Collections of the Museum of London for many years. He
retired in 2009, but retains his connection with the museum as Curator Emeritus. While studying
the history and archaeology of medieval London, he became interested in the way medieval
Londoners interpreted the past of their own city, for they had no knowledge of what we call ‘Roman
London’. They believed London was much older than Rome, and that its city walls and ancient
buildings had been erected by legendary British kings like Belinus and Lud.
In his talk John will consider how historians began to question this story in the 16th century. With
access to classical texts rediscovered during the Renaissance, and with the natives of the newly
discovered Americas as models for an understanding of the ‘Ancient Britons’ described by Julius
Caesar, they were better placed to recognise the nature of Roman Londinium. After the Great Fire
of 1666, building works revealed remains of Roman London, and they were recorded, collected and
discussed by antiquaries like John Conyers, John Woodward and William Stukeley, setting the
scene for the work by London archaeologists that continues today.

Tuesday 9th April 2019: The CITiZAN Project by Gustav Milne

Tuesday 14th May 2019 50 years of recording London’s Industrial Heritage by Professor David
Perrett

Tuesday 11th June 2019. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HADAS 2019 Long Trip. Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September 2019
We have booked the hotel for our long trip in 2019. Details will follow in due course.
The hotel is: Best Western Aberavon Beach Hotel, Aberavon Beach, Port Talbot, SA12 6QP

Tuesday 8th October 2019: From Crosse & Blackwell to Crossrail – MOLA excavations at
Tottenham Court Road 2009–10 by Lyn Blackmore

Tuesday 12th November 2019: Shene and Syon: a royal and monastic landscape revealed by
Bob Cowie

Lectures are held at Stephens House & Gardens (Avenue House), 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3
3QE, and start promptly at 8 pm, with coffee/tea afterwards. Non-members admission: £2; Buses
13, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a 5-10
minute walk away.

Change of dates for Lectures
Following the consultation to members in the January Newsletter regarding the dates of the lectures,
there will be no change, as the response was not sufficient to make any meaningful decision.
Jo Nelhams (Secretary)

September Trip Jim Nelhams
This will take place from Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September. We will be based at the Best
Western Aberavon Beach Hotel on the east side of Swansea Bay in an area not previously visited by
a long HADAS outing.

The cost will be £535 per person in a single room, and £485 per person sharing a double or twin
room. We have provisionally booked the same number of rooms that we used in Brome in 2018, but
that can be changed. To secure your booking, we need a deposit of £150 by Friday 15th March, with
the balance to be paid by 15th July. Payment can be made by cheque to HADAS (my address is on
the back page of this newsletter), or by direct transfer to our account at CAFBANK, sort code 40-
52-40 account number 00007253. If you have any problems with payment. Please talk to us to see if
we can help.

We do not restrict these trips to members, so if you want to bring a friend, that is fine.

Our previous trips have been written up in our newsletters so you can read about them.
If you are not sure what they involve, please give me or Jo a call and we can talk to you about them.
(020 8449 7076)

Membership Renewals Stephen Brunning
The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March, and so all members who pay
by cheque will now be required to renew (except those people who have joined since January
this year).

Members who pay their subscription by standing order need take no action.

Please therefore find enclosed a renewal form, and I would ask that you fill it in and return it
to me, along with the appropriate amount as soon as possible. The current rates and where to
send your payment are on the form. Many thanks.

If the renewal form is not enclosed and you require one, please contact me (details on back page).

February Lecture
Unfortunately, on 12th February Jon Cotton was ill and unable to give his talk on “Prehistory in
London” which would have been the Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture. Luckily HADAS
Committee member Roger Chapman stepped in at short notice, and spoke to us about the history of
Clitterhouse Farm and the digs carried out there, illustrating his talk with slides.

HADAS 2018 – Brome Trip (final day) Jim Nelhams
It’s Friday and time to go home. Farewell to those travelling under their own steam. Cases loaded
and off we go. First stop Lavenham, which I’m sure some people will have visited previously
before making our way to Sudbury. Day one included a visit to Constable’s church and Flatford
Mill. Another artist – Thomas Gainsborough – to check in Sudbury.

Lavenham Guildhall Audrey Hooson

The Guildhall of Corpus Christi, built in 1529-30, with two adjoining properties forms the south
side of Lavenham’s market place. There are still many impressive lime-washed houses in the
village although the medieval exteriors front more modern adapted homes.
The prosperity of the village was based on the production of woollen cloth, particularly blue
woollen broadcloth. The Merchant Guilds were originally formed for mutual assistance to the
members and to raise funds for a Catholic Priest’s duties and to ensure suitable burials, they also
organised social activities and the celebration of saints. During the boom years of c1460-1530 they
were active in controlling the manufacture and sale of textiles and contributed to the building of the
impressive church of St. Peter and St. Paul which was built in stages from c1486-1525. Religious
guilds were dissolved in 1547 during the Protestant Reformation and the Guildhall became parish
property.

The carving and decoration of the exterior were obviously intended to impress and show the wealth
of the guild, and it is one of the few buildings to remain in its original state. There have been
several changes of use since the building ceased to be the Guildhall, all requiring modification to
the interior. From pre-1655-1787 it became the bridewell or house of correction, from 1655-1836 a
workhouse and from 1833-1836 there was a lock-up and mortuary at the back of the garden. The
only furniture currently on display is an interesting mural cupboard dated 1647 with a curved top,
on loan from the V&A.

In 1946 following a period of neglect and unsuitable restoration, the Guildhall and adjoining
buildings were given to the Lavenham Preservation Committee by the owner, Sir William Quilter,
and later after a campaign to provide the necessary £4,000 endowment, accepted by the National
Trust. The Guildhall is again used as a community building.

During our visit there was an exhibition, ‘Lavenham Guildhall, the stories of the village through
time’. The organisers had selected previous residents and researched their stories. The person that I
found of appalling interest was Ann Baker. As a child Ann was a prisoner in the Cosford Union
Workhouse in nearby Somer, living in harsh conditions. She ran away and was sentenced to three
years hard labour for embezzling goods. In 1785 now aged only 12 she ran away again, was caught
and tried at Bury St Edmunds court.

Judged an incorrigible rogue, Ann was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. The
convict ship “Neptune” did not leave until 1797, and the interval was spent in the Lavenham
bridewell. Conditions in the ships were very harsh and around 26% of the convicts died during the
159 days of the journey. Our guide was very pleased to tell us that Ann had descendants, who on a
visit from Australia had seen the exhibition and provided more information.

The gardens behind the three buildings have been combined and planted with dye plants and teasels
that would have been used in Lavenham’s Tudor cloth industry. A wall hanging inspired by this
local textile industry and using natural dyes, has been designed and made by the Lavenham Guild of
Weavers, Spinners and Dyers whose members regularly demonstrate their craft at the Guildhall, is
on long term loan and showed how bright the better cloths may have been.

Little Hall, Lavenham Stewart Wild

Our next visit was to the fascinating Little Hall, one of Simon Jenkins’ England’s Thousand Best
Houses. This jettied timber-frame gem dates mostly from the 1450s.

Overlooking Lavenham’s Market Place, and close to the Guildhall, the building was in all
probability built for a family of clothiers, wealthy from the wool industry of the 14th and 15th
centuries, and later ‘modernised’ in Tudor times with a hearth, chimney, an upper floor over the
central hall, and glazed windows.

It has been owned and loved since 1974 by the Suffolk Building Preservation Trust, and open to the
public as a unique museum for over forty years, run entirely by a team of volunteers who kindly
facilitated our own private visit.

At its core is a typical hall house of the period, with a great hall rising to the roof and two jettied
wings for private and service purposes. The great crown post with its supporting beam which
dominates the dormitory upstairs is evidence of the original hall and was revealed during restoration
of the house after World War II.

The house has had a chequered history, for as the cloth trade declined in the 18th and 19th
centuries, so Little Hall also fell upon hard times. No longer a wealthy family home, it was divided
into six tenements housing labourers in a variety of trades.

In 1924 the property was rescued by a pair of identical twin brothers, Colonel Thomas and Major
Robert Gayer-Anderson (born 1881) whose plan was to provide accommodation for their widowed
mother and use as their home when they were not on active service with the Army. In fact, it took
them nearly thirty years to bring the house back to a single comfortable dwelling of the 1950s.
Robert Gayer-Anderson became an Egyptologist of distinction and was given the honorary title of
Pasha by King Farouk for his services to Egypt. Much of his collection of antiquities has been
donated to museums in London, Oxford and Cairo, but lesser pieces of art and sculpture remain in
the house. He died in 1945.

During WWII his brother the Colonel was local Home Guard Commander and Chief Billeting
Officer for Lavenham and himself took in six boys evacuated from war-torn London. Evidence of
their presence can still be seen in the upstairs dormitory. Some of the boys have remained in touch
with the Trust over the years and have returned to visit.

On the Colonel’s death in 1960 the brothers left the house to be used as a hostel for art students
from The Slade, where their sister had studied, and from Kingston Art School in Surrey where their
friend Reginald Brill (1902–74) was the Principal.

Before and after his retirement Brill lived in the house and was the Warden. He was a prolific artist
and some of his work, and that of his students, remains on display to this day. Under the terms of
the Gayer-Anderson Bequest the house passed eventually to The Suffolk Building Preservation
Trust.

To round off the visit, we admired the delightful gardens at the rear, planned along Tudor lines with
a traditional English walled garden
.
Lavenham Church Harriet Sogbodjor

The church of St Peter and St Paul Lavenham is Grade 1 listed and is considered the finest example
of late Perpendicular Gothic. There was probably a church on the site in the Anglo-Saxon period,
but nothing from that period remains. The oldest part of the current church is the chancel which was
built around 1340, around which the current spectacular gothic church has been extended.

Following the Black Death, Lavenham and the surrounding area grew rich due to the wool trade.
The 14th century church was altered several times, reflecting the increased wealth of its community.
One example of this was the eastern vestry, which was added in 1440. The church was
reconstructed again between 1485 -1525. It was one of the last churches completed before the
Reformation, the work being funded by wealthy local merchants who continued to pay for its
upkeep.

Donors included the 13th Earl of Cambridge, the Branchs and De Veres. Thomas Spring, a cloth
merchant whose mark appears over 30 times on the outside of the building, contributed vast
amounts for the development of the church in his lifetime and following his death in June 1523. He
is buried within a tomb in an elaborate parclose in the church. After his death his widow ensured the
completion of the steeple and the South chapel with funds left in his will for this purpose. The tower
was designed by a mason, John Clerk and built between 1486-1495, with further work funded by
money left in Thomas Spring’s will.

The nave, aisles and clerestories were designed by John Wastrell. Features include a painted rood
screen from 1330-40 and an octagonal font, also from the 16th century. There is a church clock
without an external dial. There are late medieval stalls in the chancel, and misericords with a range
of unusual carvings. Another carved parclose contains the tomb of John Pouder who died in 1520.
On the north wall of the chancel there is the Copinger Memorial, which depicts the family of
parents and children, including skulls representing their children who had already died.

There are few brasses in the church and nearly all pre-reformation ones are lost. There is an unusual
brass of a swaddled baby and an inscription in Latin commemorating a 10-day old baby Clopton,
who died in 1631 born to Sir Symond D’Ewes, Lord of the Manor. There are also beautiful stainedglass
windows, in the decorated style, depicting scenes from the bible and angels. One window
depicts several nativity stories from St Luke’s Gospel. The west window, below the tower, shows
scenes from the gospels of St Peter and St Paul. This was restored following destruction by a WW2
bomb.

This huge fascinating church, in a small picturesque town, reflects the increasing prosperity of this
area of Suffolk and was a delight to visit.

Gainsborough’s House Ken Sutherland-Thomas

The last day of our excursion around Historic East Anglia saw us visiting the town of Sudbury and
in particular Thomas Gainsborough’s house.

Thomas Gainsborough is one of the great figures of British and world art history. In the words of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, “the name of Gainsborough will be transmitted to posterity in the history of
art”. Gainsborough is renowned not only in his advancements of portraiture to a higher level, but
also for being one of the founders of the British school of landscape painting.

Gainsborough’s house and gardens are situated in Gainsborough Street, just off Market Hill,
where there is a statue of the great man. The house, of late medieval origin, was re-modelled by
John Gainsborough (father of Thomas) after he purchased it in 1722. John put in the addition of
an elegant brick façade.

Thomas Gainsborough was baptised in Sudbury at the Independent Meeting House in 1727 as the
ninth child of John and Mary, and lived in the house until around 1740, when he came to London to
engage in the career of an artist. He returned to Sudbury between 1949 and 1752.
The house today is split over three floors, and there is a small but beautiful garden, the centrepiece
of which is a mulberry tree reputed to be over 400 years old.

On the ground floor of the house there is an exhibition on Gainsborough focusing on his life,
while the upstairs rooms focus on his art. The upstairs rooms are not large, but together with the
halls and staircase are full of portraits of the Gainsborough family and works of the artist. Some
of his landscapes are displayed. When it comes to landscapes, it is said that ‘Nature was his
teacher’.

The house also has room for changing exhibitions by other artists and there is a well-stocked
shop.

After some free time to explore Sudbury, the group re-convened for afternoon tea and cake
at the local community cafe, where we were welcomed and refreshed for the remaining
journey home.

Wrap up Jim Nelhams
So that completes another trip. Our thanks are due to those members who have contributed to our
newsletter – Vicki Baldwin, Deirdre Barrie, Jean Bayne, Collette Carlton, Don Cooper, Dudley
Miles, Peter Pickering, Andy Simpson, Harriet Sogbodjor, Ken Sutherland-Thomas, Liz Tucker,
Micky Watkins. Stewart Wild and Simon Williams – with their own styles and with their own
viewpoints.

Thanks also to Galleon Coaches and Paul Holdstock, our driver, for a smooth drive (avoiding low
bridges) – yes there are some in East Anglia. Planning is well under way for 2019 as noted
elsewhere in this newsletter.

Battle of Barnet Exhibition Deirdre Barrie
Don’t miss Barnet Museum’s exhibition about the Battle of Barnet, which can be found on the
right-hand side, near the back of the Spires Shopping Centre in High Barnet. The banners of all the
leading participants, “the victors and vanquished” are displayed, with details of their families and
how they fared in the battle and afterwards.

On the back wall is a lively painting of the battle by Agnes Allen, who painted it in 1971 to mark
the 500th anniversary of the battle.

Bulletin boards give details of the many films, stage and TV dramas devoted to the period, as well
as the search for a true likeness of “Warwick the Kingmaker”. (There seems to be only one, on the
Richard Beauchamp funerary monument at the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick).
Website: http://www.barnetmuseum.co.uk

Layers of London (Information taken from their website) Sue Willetts
Layers of London is a new project which brings together, for the first time, a significant collection
of digitised historic maps, photos and other information provided by key partners across London.
The partners include: the British Library, The London Metropolitan Archives, Historic England,
The National Archives, MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) and a wide range of national and
local archives, institutions and community groups.

The website allows you to interact with, and contribute to, many different ‘layers’ of London’s
history from the Romans to the present day. These layers include historic maps, images of
buildings, films as well as information about people who have lived and worked in London over the
centuries.

A major element of this project is to work with the public at borough level and city-wide, through
crowd-sourcing, volunteer, schools and internship programmes. Everyone is invited to contribute
material to the project by uploading materials relating to the history of any place in London. This
may be an old photograph, a collection of transcribed letters, a recorded interview, a video, or the
results of local research project. You don’t need our permission to do this, just create an account and
start contributing! Browsing the map will give you a good idea of what sort of content works best.
All content contributed to Layers of London is under a Creative Commons Licence, encouraging
respectful collaboration and sharing.

If you need it, we can offer support, equipment, training and collaborative volunteer programmes to
support you enriching the map. Anybody interested in getting involved and finding out about
volunteer and collaborative opportunities on the project should subscribe to our monthly newsletter
for updates: We hope that Layers of London will launch new local heritage projects across the 32
boroughs of London and we would love to hear from you if you have ideas to share.

Advance notice of a conference:
Medieval port of London: The Docklands History Group are holding a conference at the
Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC27 5HN on 18th May from 10 am – 5.30 pm. Price
range is £10.00 – £35.00 – See the Dockland History Group Website or contact them directly for
more information Docklands.History.Group@r1.technology-trust-news.org

E v e n t d e s c r i p t i o n
Museum of London – forthcoming exhibition
Beasts of London opens on Friday 5 April 2019 and explores the fascinating role animals have
played in shaping the capital. Be guided through time, from the Roman era through Medieval London
and right up to present day, narrated by the beasts themselves. Discover how animals – from lions and
elephants, to horses, rats and pigeons – have shaped the city and its beastly history. Step into an
immersive tour through London’s history, narrated by the animals who once lived here.

Voicing some of the animals who once roamed the city are a host of household names and include:
Brian Blessed, Pam Ferris, Nish Kumar, Stephen Mangan, Angellica Bell and Joe Pasquale.
Inspired by objects in the collection and created in partnership with the Guildhall School of Music &
Drama, Beasts of London will be a fully interactive digital installation using video projection
mapping. Tickets are on sale now.

The National Archives: Cold War Season from 4 April – 9 November
April 2019 sees the launch of a Cold War season, including a new exhibition Protect and Survive:
Britain’s Cold War Revealed, offering a fascinating look into life in Britain during the turbulent
Cold War era. The season will include a series of late openings, talks and panel discussions, film
screenings, creative workshops and family activities exploring the reality of life in Britain under the
persistent threat of nuclear attack.

Sign up to the mailing list to receive news and updates about the season, along with advance
booking for events.

Advance notice: Festival of Archaeology 2019
It is pleasing to hear that following a year off in 2018, the 2019 Festival of Archaeology will take
place from 13 – 28 July and will form part of the 75th anniversary of the Council for British
Archaeology.

The new website includes online registration guides and publicity materials

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan
(6th April item added by Sue Willetts)

Friday 8th March, Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/ Junction Chase
Side, Enfield EN2 OAJ, Romans to Saxons, results of St Martin’s-in the-Fields, Trafalgar Square,
Talk by Alison Telfer (MoLA). Visitors £1.50, refreshments, sales and information from 7.30 pm.

Wednesday 3rd April, 6.00 pm Gresham College at the Museum of London, 150 London Wall,
EC2Y 5HN. Crown, Country and the Struggle for Supremacy. Talk by Simon Thurley. Free.
On how the changing balance of power and wealth between the aristocracy and the monarchy from
the 16th to the 19th centuries has influenced today’s national cultural landscape of art and
architecture.

Wednesday 3rd April, 6.00 pm, Docklands History Group. Museum of London Docklands, No 1
Warehouse, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, Canary Wharf E14 4AL. Riverine/Riverside
Archaeology. Talk by Jane Sidell (MOLA) £2.

Thursday 4th April, 2.00 pm. Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane car park,
Pinner HA5 1AB. Headstone Manor – the History of the House and the Recent Discoveries.
Talk by Pat Clarke (LAMAS). Visitors £3.

Friday 5th April 7.45 pm Enfield Archaeological Society, address as above. The Excavations and
Fieldwork of Enfield Archaeology Society 2018. Talk by Dr Martin Dearne (EAS), preceded by
AGM. Visitors £1.50, refreshments as above.

Saturday 6th April Bethlem Museum of the Mind 2.00 – 3.00 Talk entitled The Archaeology of
Melancholy by James Dixon at Bethlem Royal Hospital, Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham, BR3
3BX Free. Tickets available via https://museumofthemind.org.uk/whats-on/event-info/thearcheology-
of-melancholy The speaker (co-editor of the journal Post-Medieval Archaeology) will
consider an alternative approach to understanding the past, present, and future of people, things and
places. This event includes a walk of the grounds. James Dixon is a dedicated art-archaeology
researcher with interests including ‘visual archaeologies’ and aesthetics, public art, archaeology and
performance, and the incorporation of artistic practice in archaeology.

Monday 8th April, 3.00 pm. Barnet Museum’s Local History Society, St John the Baptist, Barnet
Church, The High St/Wood St, Barnet, EN5 4BW. The Second Battle of St Albans, 1461 –
Margaret of Anjou’s Triumph. Talk by Harvey Watson. Visitors £2. Please NOTE, speaker for 11th
March is Terence Atkins.

Wednesday 10th April, 7.45 pm. Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, corner of Ferme
Park Rd/Weston Park, N8 9PX. Brief History of Finsbury Park and Stroud Green. Talk by Mark
Aston. Visitors £2, refreshments, sales and information, 7.30 pm.

Wednesday 10th April, 6.00 pm. Gresham College at the Museum of London, 150 London Wall,
EC2Y 5HN. The Natural Environment of Tudor London. Talk by Professor Carolyn Roberts. Free.
Part of Gresham 500, offering a “virtual walk” around the City with Sir Thomas Gresham, with
contemporary maps, paintings and writings.

Monday 15th April, 8.00 pm, Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane Junction Chase Side,
Enfield EN2 OAJ. The History of Broomfield House, talk by Ivor Evans, visitors £1. Together with
Exhibition, Hidden Treasures Revealed, Broomfield House and Park, at Dugdale Centre, Museum
of Enfield, 39 London Road, Enfield EN2 6DS, until Monday 22nd April. Contains Contains prints,
phots, maps, paintings and artefacts.

Wednesday 24th April, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, North Middlesex
Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL.The History of Shopping in London.

Talk by Diane Bursten. Visitors £2. Refreshments.

Thursday 25th April, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, (Stephens
House) 17 East End Road, N3 3QE. Finchley Origins – Part 1: From a Forest to a Common. Talk
by Hugh Petrie (Barnet Archivist). Visitors £2. Please NOTE time.

Friday 26th April, 7.00 pm. COLAS, St Olave’s Hall, Mark Lane, EC2 EC3R 7NB. The Trowel
Blazers: Women in Archaeology in London. Talk by Sadie Watson (MOLA). Visitors £3. Light
refreshments afterwards.

Also Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th April, 11 am – 5.00 pm, LT Museum Depot, W3 Open
Weekend. Admission £12, Concessions £10.

Tuesday 30th April, 11.30 am, Mill Hill Historical Society – Visit to the London Transport Depot,
Acton Town. 118-120 Gunnersbury Lane, W3 9BQ. Tour of London Transport Posters and Artwork
Cost = members£5.50, Non-members £7.50. Meet 11.20 am for the 11.30 am tour, at Depot. To
book by Friday 29th March. Please send cheque and S.A.E to Julia Haynes, 38 Marion Road, Mill
Hill London NW7 4AN. Cheques to be made payable to Mill Hill Historical Society.
Contact: Julia Haynes on 020 8906 0563.or email julia@yahoo.co.uk For electronic replies, please
supply your email address. Otherwise, give your name, telephone number and number of places
required, or book on line at www.mill-hs.org.uk, but send cheque.

With big thanks to this month’s contributors;

Stephen Brunning; Audrey Hooson; Eric Morgan; Jim Nelhams; Harriet Sogbodjor;
Ken Sutherland-Thomas, Stewart Wild and Sue Willetts.
Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman: Don Cooper, 59 Potters Road, Barnet, Herts. EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary: Jo Nelhams, 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer: Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec: Stephen Brunning, Flat 22 Goodwin Court, 52 Church Hill Road,
East Barnet EN4 8FH1 (020 8440 8421) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk

Join the HADAS email discussion group via the website at: www.hadas.org.uk

——————————————————————————————————-

Newsletter 583 October 2019

By | News, Past Newsletters, Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎ | No Comments

Number 583 October 2019 Edited by Robin Densem

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2019

Lectures start at 7.45 for 8.00pm (unless otherwise stated) in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Buses 82, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by, & it is five to ten minutes’ walk from Finchley Central Stn (Northern Line). Tea/coffee & biscuits follow the talk.

Tuesday 8th October 2019: Andersons and Ack: The 20th Century Conflict Archaeology of London. Andy Brockman.
Abstract: The archaeology of modern conflict is one of the newest and fastest moving disciplines in archaeology. A status which is only likely to be enhanced as the two World Wars of the twentieth century pass beyond living memory.

This talk will offer a number of case studies illustrating the conflict archaeology of Greater London, including sites on London’s World War Two anti invasion stop line B, shown in the 2007 Time Team programme “Blitzkrieg on Shooters Hill,” and one of London’s first anti aircraft gun sites
built in 1915 to engage German Zeppelin raids. While examining some of the special challenges of conflict archaeology, particularly those of safety and the ethics of dealing with sometimes difficult or traumatic subjects, it will also suggest how this is a field of archaeological research where local
archaeological groups and heritage projects have a significant role to play in discovering and understanding the conflict archaeology of their communities.

Biographical: Andy Brockman has a MA in archaeology from Birkbeck College and directed the excavation of the anti aircraft gun site at Eaglesfield Park, and a survey of the former POW Camp 1020, both on Shooters Hill. A regular contributor to Britain at War magazine and other
publications, he has also appeared on Channel 4’s Time Team and conducted research for, as well as appearing in the Channel 5 documentary What the Dambusters did Next

Tuesday 12th November 2019: Shene and Syon: a royal and monastic landscape revealed by Bob Cowie.

Sunday 1st December 2019 Christmas Party at Avenue House, 12/30pm – 4pm. The application form will be in November newsletter, with the menu which will be a Christmas lunch, with alternatives. £30 per head.

Tuesday 14th January 2020 at 2.30pm
Ian Jones
Shelters to Shrapnel, surviving traces of Enfield At War, 1939-1945

Tuesday 11th February 2020. The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture
Jon Cotton Prehistory in London – some Problems, Progress and Potential

Birdoswald: A photo from 1929 and a recent visit to the Roman fort on
Hadrian’s Wall – Robin Densem

Hadrian’s Wall is a long way from our HADAS homelands in Hendon and Barnet. But this article may encourage you to visit, I hope so. I visited the Wall in June 2019 to take the photos at figs 8-11, 13, and 15-22, to illustrate some of what can be seen. Limitations on space in this issue spared you
my writing many words: the article is mainly pictorial.

There is much information on the internet, including at https://www.englishheritage.org.uk/visit/places/hadrians-wall/hadrians-wall-history-and-stories/history/sources/ and at https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/hadrians-wall/hadrians-wall-history-andstories/
history/

Fig 1 is a beauty and is an example of some of the 19th century interest in the Wall.

In Autumn 2004 Harvey Sheldon and I took a group to visit the Wall, including the Roman fort at Birdoswald. I was overcome with the beauty of the nearby River Irthing as we crossed to reach a turret on the Wall on the far side of the river. And, giving talks on the development of archaeology
for Harvey’s MA Archaeology course I began to use the famous 1929 photograph of the early stages of an archaeological excavation at Birdoswald in 1929 (fig 5) as it seems to encapsulate the early days of modern archaeological investigation, along with some social history – the contrast between the archaeological ‘toffs’ and the workers. The photograph features in many archaeology books and re-ignited my interest in Birdoswald. There is a marvellous account in Wilmott 2001 of the taking of the photograph in 1929 and the sudden realisation the next day that some of the people had been standing on Roman inscriptions re-used as floor slabs in the Roman barracks!

The location of the 1929 excavation is shown at fig 308 of Wilmott (ed) 2009
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/hadrians-wall/hadrianswall chap6/

Acknowledgements
I am grateful for help from the English Heritage staff at Birdoswald; and for other help from Megan Evans, Dr Andrew Gardner, Dr Christopher Gilley, Professor Simon James, Rob Partridge, Harvey Sheldon, Dr Matthew Symonds, Colin Theakston, and Tony Wilmott. Errors are mine.

Bibliography
Breeze, David J and Dobson, Brian 2000 Hadrian’s Wall. London: Penguin Books Limited
English Heritage History of Hadrian’s Wall https://www.englishheritage.
org.uk/visit/places/hadrians-wall/hadrians-wall-history-and-stories/history/
accessed 25th July 2019
Frere, S S 1967 Britannia: a history of Roman Britain. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Richmond, I A 1930 “The University Excavations on Hadrian’s Wall”, The Durham University Journal, Vol. 26, No. 5, pp. 305-311
Symonds, Matthew 2017 Protecting the Roman Empire: Fortlets, Frontiers, and the Quest for Post-Conquest Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wilmott, Tony 1997 Birdoswald, Excavations of a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall and its successor settlements: 1987-92. English Heritage: London
https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDSarchiveDownload?t=arch-1416-
1/dissemination/pdf/9781848021365_ALL.pdf
accessed 1st June 2019
Wilmott, Tony 2001 Birdoswald Roman Fort: 1800 Years on Hadrian’s Wall. Tempus: Stroud
Wilmott, Tony (ed) 2009 Hadrian’s Wall Archaeological Research by English Heritage 1976–2000
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/hadrians-wall/ accessed 25th July 2019

Ted Sammes Clay Pipe Collection – Part 2 Andy Simpson

Many of these ‘back garden’ finds are well away from other known archaeological find spots, so I have attempted to put them in roughly geographical groups.
As mentioned on Part One in the August 2019 HADAS newsletter (newsletter number 581), these are all recorded as ‘unstratified’ and there is rarely any details of finder or date.
Those wanting full details of mouthpiece type and bowl rim milling and finish – ‘bottered or cut? ‘can refer to the fully completed MOLA clay pipe recording sheets held in the ‘Ted Sammes Pipe Collection’ folder now in the HADAS archive.

We start with finds spots roughly associated with the main Edgware Road, moving north – south;

BROCKLEY HILL
Two found during fieldwalking in the winter of 1977/78 at this well-known Roman occupation / seasonal pottery kiln site on the A5/Watling Street north of Edgware.
Three bowls were recorded, all with makers’ marks on the sides of the spurs, leading to that familiar Sunday morning cry of ‘Relief, moulded, side of spur’ (RMSS)
Complete bowl, AO25 1770-1770 Mark I-(illegible)
Bottom of bowl and stem fragment AO29, 1840-1880 spur mark JH with (illegible) London on stem,
Complete bowl, AO33, post 1840, wheatsheaf design either side of bowl, shield design on spur, with ‘SULL 53’ (Sulloniacae 1953) site code inked on stem, so presumably a VERY old find from the 1953-4 excavations by the Sulloniacae Excavation Committee in the area published in the
contemporary LAMAS transactions.

COLINDALE
Penn Court, Annesley Avenue NW9
This short, mainly residential road links the Edgware Road with Colindale Avenue, with Penn Court flats near the junction with the latter opposite the Chandos Arms pub on its street corner site. An interesting location to find an English Civil War period clay pipe bowl of type AO10, 1640-1660
and four stem fragments of possibly similar date. No trace of a maker’s mark. Not on Sammes master list. A note with the pipe fragments records that they were found approximately nine inches down in the subsoil within an area above three square feet, in the week ending 18 July 1976 – the
infamous ‘summer of ‘76’ – before heatwaves became the norm, with the added comment ‘I’m sure that the rest is down there.’

STAPLES CORNER
Further HADAS archives that have only just come to light after many years’ storage off site indicate that near that glorious jumble of concrete and bridges where the A5 Edgware Road meets the A406 North Circular south of West Hendon Broadway and the Welsh Harp, two HADAS members making a weekly inspection of road works in March 1972 found a whole layer of clay pipe fragments, nearly 1100 in all, of which just six Victorian pipe bowls, all of type AO29, 1840- 1880, and an oval stem/tip fragment now remain in the archive.
Two of the bowls had the familiar Ribbed Wheatsheaf seams, ‘RWSS’, one combined with a thorn design, one of just thorn design, and one plain bowl fragment. Another had a ‘flanged’ spur and another a noticeable forward spur. Not on Sammes master list.
An exhibition caption in the rediscovered archive records that the pipes were all of late 19th/early 20th century date and were probably fairings – for blowing bubbles, not smoking.
The find-spot was part of the fairground beside the Lower Welsh Harp public house, rebuilt in 1858 as the centre of his pleasure gardens and again in 1938, which was demolished in 1971 to make way for the southern extension of the M1 motorway at this point, to which end the Staples Corner
flyover had already been completed in 1965.
https://pubwiki.co.uk/Middlesex/Hendon/OldWelshHarpTavern.shtml
The collection includes a b/w photograph of the find spot – the embankment adjoining the former West Hendon Police Station, (now a Jewish School), below a large advertising hoarding.

FINCHLEY AREA
30 Arden Road, between A504 Hendon Lane and A598 Regents Park Road, N3 Single bowl and stem, type AO5, 1610-1640, incised mark on side of heel ?I No milling. – Sammes List 131
50 Basing Way (Off East End Road) N3 A selection of fragments;
Thee broken fragments of bowl too small to identify; 15 stem fragments of 5-6mm diameter, 13 of 7-9mm diameter and 6 of 8-10mm diameter – Offcentre bore may suggest an earlier date.
One bowl of type AO30, 1850 – 1910, with scallop and rope decoration around the bowl and rope decoration around the top. Two lugs at base of bowl for stand. Sammes Number 99
One bowl possibly AO33, post 1840, with wheatsheaves along the bowl seams, front and back. Also has ’Rope’ decoration around top of rim and 8-part scalloping around the bowl.
East End Road, Finchley Two bowls; One part bowl fragment type AO4? 1610-1640 One complete bowl and part stem type AO25, 1700 – 1770, one side noticeably burnt. Sammes No 82.

Avenue House, East End Road
One complete bowl, part burnt, type AO5, 1610-1640, Full milling to bowl edge. Sammes No 79.
One part bowl type AO27, 1780 – 1810 with part of stem. Side of spur mark MC. Sammes No 80.
One fragment of bowl with basket design. Sammes No 83.
One stem fragment Sammes No 81, orange-brown in colour.
One stem fragment relief marked Andrews Highgate along the stem.
William Andrews of Highgate, pipemaker, is recorded in 1823 and 1828 and probably working before and after these dates as well – several bowls and a stem of his were found at the HADAS Church Terrace, Hendon excavations in 1973-74.

HENDON
Over 50 years on, we are STILL finding items from the Church End Farm excavations recorded some years ago in the HADAS publication ‘The Last Hendon Farm’
Sammes List CFM 30 is another one of these – an unmarked bowl of type AO25, 1700 – 1770, finely burnished with a cut top and marked with trench/context details CEF64 K2 30, suggesting it is from the main farmhouse site, on the west side of the west wall area. The August 1969 work on the site of the former Mount Pleasant and The Retreat terraces in the Hendon Church End area soon reached natural glacial gravelly sand at a depth of around two feet where the ground had not previously been cultivated. Surviving material in the HADAS archive recorded in April 2016 includes a quantity of clay pipe from the Mount Pleasant trenches.
In one trench (in grid L5) in the garden behind Mount Pleasant, – once a row of seven small cottages built around 1870 – lying some 50ft north of the former Chequers pub, was found a small York stone paved back yard, each being some 2 inches square and 3 inches deep, possibly with a
step down through a thin brick cross-wall into a red-tiled area, and beneath this heavily pebbled brown earth dump containing broken pottery and the stems of 18th-19th century clay pipe – 33 of which remain in the HADAS archive .
A trench in the front garden (O2) produced Victorian pottery similar to that at the nearby Peacock’s Yard, drainage pipes and a well-smoked clay pipe bowl and part of stem of form AO30, 1850-1910, marked W. TINGEY HAMPSTEAD on the stem. Sammes List 78
Also from this front garden trench were; Fragment of bowl, ribbed decoration, nineteenth century, marked O2 (1) Sammes List 92
Fragment of decorated stem and spur marked WA with wheatsheaf decoration, AO27, 1780 – 1820,
Marked with trench/context O2 (2) Sammes List 93
Short length of stem with partial makers’ lettering Tingey Hampstead in relief on both sides of stem Marked with trench/context O2 (2) Sammes List 94
Victorian pottery and clay pipe was also found throughout Trenches one/J3 and two/J5 in this area west of L5, including Staffs. creamware and Brownware, and ‘modern blue and White, plus iron and bone. These trenches featured well-worked dark loamy garden/cultivated soil, the area in 1753 being fields owned by John Coles.
The partial HADAS archive retained eleven pipe stem fragments and two bowl fragments from Trench J3 and seven stems and two bowl fragments from J5, the latter also yielding a single intact clay pipe bowl type AO33 with Irish Harp decoration dated post-1840 Sammes List 96
Other pipes from the site were identified during analysis of the separate Ted Sammes curated Clay pipe archive in 2019 were;
Complete bowl, AO25, 1700-1770 Marked with rear garden trench/context L5 (2) Sammes List 77

Plus another bowl.and stem fragment of similar type with relief spur mark WH Sammes List 95
Decorated bowl and length of stem, AO30, 1850-1910 Wheatsheaf decoration around top of bowl. Marked with trench/context J5 (1) Sammes List 91
There is also a post-1840 bowl, type AO40,
A further trench was opened, then rapidly closed, when a wartime Anderson air raid shelter was the only item found.
Trench 02 yielded garden soil on natural, electric cable, four lengths of field drain in one corner running NW/SE some 22 inches below the modern garden surface, and a gas pipe. The circular field drain lengths of 4in diameter/3in bore/11.5-12in long included one of buff-coloured fabric as well as three of the usual red fabric and this and one of the others were retained as samples; they contained little evidence of silting. The straight and well-made pipes were each laid on one notably flattened edge. This trench yielded large quantities of clay pipe – 61 stem fragments remain in the HADAS archive, plus a well ‘chewed’ mouthpiece, 20 small fragments of pipe bowl and four more complete bowls, type AO30, dated 1850-1910, which links well with the construction of the houses in the area around 1870.
A similar trench in the front garden of the former The Retreat – once a row of four cottages also built around 1870 south of the Mount Pleasant row ‘produced nothing of interest’ There have been several investigations in the presumed area of the former medieval manor house of Hendon. It is believed to have been built around 1325/6 as the Abbot of Westminster’s country retreat, being rebuilt around 1550 and again in the 1720s, when named Hendon Place. Renamed Tenterden Hall, and after use as a boy’s preparatory school, it was demolished c.1934 to make way for the present Cedars Close.
The first archaeological investigations recorded on the site were those by HADAS in 1969, noted in the HADAS newsletter for October 1969.
Resistivity surveying and excavations at Westhorpe Tenterden Grove (a large nineteenth-century house with surrounding grounds off Finchley Lane) – TQ2354 8962, SMR 081979 revealed a bed of gravel approximately nine inches below the surface. Resting on this were found sherds of
17th century pottery and clay pipe stems, together with an 18th century pipe bowl. After the preliminary surveys in August and the weekend of 1-2 November 1969 noted above. seven 10 foot square trenches were opened at Easter weekend, 27-30 March 1970 on the basis of the survey results;
Numerous sherds of pottery (including Bellarmine/Bartmann stoneware jug sherds of 16th/17th century date) were found, also roofing tiles, nails and clay pipes, two of which , dated 1640-1660, bear the initials R.B – see list below. All the finds were again resting on a gravel surface, in which was discovered a post hole and small areas of burnt material.
There are also a number of clay pipe fragments; analysis in 2019 of those identified from the separately curated Ted Sammes clay pipe archive, all marked ‘TG’ include the following;
Sammes List
102 Part Bowl, Form AO10, 1640-1660, Relief Marked RB on heel
103 Damaged bowl, Form AO10 1640-60, also marked RB as above.
104 Unmarked bowl, Form AO10, 1640-60.
105 Unmarked bowl, Form AO11, 1640-1670
106 Unmarked bowl, damaged rim. Form AO15, 1660-1680
107 Unmarked bowl, damaged rim. Form AO15, 1660 – 1680
108 Unmarked bowl, damaged rim. Form possibly AO20, 1680-1710
Two other bowls assumed to be from this site are one damaged bowl, possibly Form AO9 or AO10, 1640-60, and one part bowl possibly of Form AO22, 1680-1710.

Ted Sammes photographed the substantial two-story Victorian villa named Westhorpe during the 1970 excavation when it was in an advanced state of dereliction and almost roofless.


To be continued…

AN EXHIBITION, A BOOK, AND AN EXHIBTION IN A MUSEUM
Hot Peascods exhibition! – Guildhall Library’s outdoor exhibition explores street food through the ages from 1-16th October
This free exhibition in Guildhall Yard, EC2 brings together rarely seen images of London’s street food and street hawkers from the 16th century to the 19th century. The exhibition explains how selling street food in the capital, probably, since Roman times, was often the only option for some
people who could not find alternative paid employment and used it as a stop gap until they found a better job. Sometimes requiring little more investment than a basket and the cost of the first batch of pies,
gingerbread or eels, it would keep some people out of the workhouse, while others fell into poverty and found that selling food on became their life’s occupation.

Medieval Londoners edited by Elizabeth A. New and Christian Steer will be published on 31st October and is to honour Caroline M. Barron, Emeritus Professor of the History of London at Royal Holloway, University of London, on her 80th birthday. Her remarkable career has revitalized the
way in which we consider London and its people. HADAS members may remember her excellent lecture in October 2016 on medieval women in London.
The rich evidence for the medieval city, including archaeological and documentary evidence, means that the study of London and its inhabitants remains a vibrant field. Medieval Londoners brings together archaeologists, historians, art-historians and literary scholars whose essays provide
glimpses of medieval Londoners in all their variety.
Published by University of London Press, 400 pp. Available from 31 October 2019 in print for £40.00, kindle and e-pub £32.00 and will be free Open Access pdf

Last supper in Pompeii – Ashmolean Museum, Oxford until 12th January 2020
This is an excellent exhibition which concentrates on the activities relating to food: eating and drinking but also the production and buying and selling of food and wine. There are over 400 objects which are well displayed. There are several sections which have projected backdrops which
give a good impression of the rooms in Pompeian houses. There is also a section on Roman Britain including some of the wooden writing tablets from the Bloomberg / Mithraeum site. It is advisable to buy a timed ticket as this is a popular exhibition – with an excellent catalogue for £20.00

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan
Weds 9 Oct 2pm – 3,30pm, Mill Hill Historical Society at Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, London NW7 3T. Fiona Smith: Work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Visitors £2.
https://millhill-hs.org.uk/events/work-of-the-war-graves-commission/

Thurs 17 Oct 7.30pm – 9pm Camden History Society at Burgh House, New End Square, London NW3 1L. Cynthia Floud: What can Phyllis Ford’s Childhood tell Social Historians? Visitors £2.
http://www.camdenhistorysociety.org/events/2019/10/17/what-can-phyllis-fords-childhood-tellsocial- historians-a-talk-by-cynthia-floud
Mon 21 Oct 8.15pm Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote Local History Society, at St Martin’s Church Hall, High Street, Ruislip at 8.15pmAGM followed by the Society’s Medieval Research Group: Medieval Ruislip. Visitors £2. https://rnelhs.btck.co.uk/Lectures
Sat 26 Oct Amateur Geological Society of North London, meeting at 2.30pm platform 1 of Canary Wharf station of the Docklands Light Railway for a walk led by Mike Howgate The Stones of Canary Wharf. Non-members £2. Do bring a hand lens. Book by contacting Mike Howgate 0208
882 2606, mobile number (for emergencies & on trips) 07913391063, email
mehowgate@hotmail.com . https://amgeosoc.wordpress.com/breaking-news-2/
Sat 2 Nov 10am to 4pm. Aldenham Transport Spectacular, held at Allum Manor House & Hall, 2 Allum Lane, Elstree WD6 3PJ. Admission £3.

Sat 2 Nov 10.30am – 4.30pm. Geologists’ Association Festival, including exhibitors from the world of geology, including fossil and mineral displays. University College London, Gower Street, London WC1 6BT. Free event https://geologistsassociation.org.uk/festival/
Sat 2 Nov 10.30am – 2.30pm Hornsey Historical Society Public Local History Surgery , held at Hornsey Historical Society, 136 Tottenham Ln, London N8 7EL. Telephone 07531866714 or email hornseyhistoricalsurgery@gmail.com in advance to book a half hour appointment and to let the Society know the advice and assistance you require.
Mon 4 Nov 2pm-3pm, British Film Posters – An Illustrated History: Sim Branaghan at Finchley Church End Library, Gateway House, 318-320 Regents Park Rd, Finchley, London N3 2LN. Free admission. https://www.barnet.gov.uk/sites/default/files/yol_barnet_libraries_a5_prog3_hg3_0.pdf
Weds 6 Nov 5.30 for 6pm – 8pm, Docklands History Group at Museum of London Docklands, West India Quay, (off Hertsmere Road) London E14 4AL. Robert Hampson: Conrad and the docks and the river. Visitors £2.. https://www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk/page3.html
Thurs 7 Nov 2pm – 3pm Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH. Robert Stephenson: The Gruesome History of Bodysnatching. Free event but tickets to be booked in advance via Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-gruesome-history-of-bodysnatchingtickets- 66661064037
Thurs 7 Nov 8pm Pinner Local History Society, Pinner Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner HA5 1AB. Pat Clarke: Mrs Marshall, Pinner’s Other Domestic Goddess. Visitors £3.
https://www.pinnerlhs.org.uk/programme16 –
Fri 8 Nov 7.30pm for 7,45pm Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, Parsonage Lane Enfield (close to Chase Side). Neil Pinchbeck: Flints and Mammoths: London N13. Visitors £1.50 https://www.enfarchsoc.org/lectures/
Weds 13 Nov 2pm -3.30pm. Mill Hill Historical Society at Trinity Church. 100 The Broadway, London NW7 3T. Dorell Dresseekie: An Act of Faith – The Story of The North London Hospice. Visitors £2. https://millhill-hs.org.uk/events/an-act-of-faith-the-story-of-the-north-london-hospice/
Weds 13 Nov 7.45pm 7.30pm for 8pm Hornsey Historical Society. Professor Ian Christie: The World’s First Film Studios? Putting R. W. Paul Back on the Map for his 150th Birthday: Visitors £2. https://hornseyhistorical.org.uk/talks/
Sat 16 Nov 10.30am – 4pm London and Middlesex Archaeological Society local history conference
In Sickness and in Health: The wellbeing of Londoners through history. Weston Theatre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London WC2Y 5HN. Various speakers, local society displays, refreshments. Tickets £12.50 if bought up to 31st October, thereafter £15.
http://www.lamas.org.uk/conferences/local-history.html
With thanks to this month’s contributors:, and Eric Morgan

Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chairman: Don Cooper, 59 Potters Road, Barnet, Herts. EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350) e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary: Jo Nelhams, 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer: Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec: Stephen Brunning, Flat 22 Goodwin Court, 52 Church Hill Road, East Barnet EN4 8FH (020 8440 8421) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk
HADAS website: www.hadas.org.uk

Newsletter-575-February-2019

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Number 575 FEBRUARY 2019 Edited by Andy Simpson

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2019

Tuesday 12th February 2019: Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture.
Prehistory in London – some Problems, Progress and Potential by Jon Cotton
Having taken early retirement from the Museum of London in 2011 after 33 years as an archaeologist and curator, Jon is now a freelance researcher with a long-standing interest in London’s early past and the archaeology of the river Thames. He will be drawing on these interests for his talk on ‘London’s Prehistory; Problems, progress and Potential’

Tuesday 12th March 2019: Lost and Found: The Rediscovery of Roman London by John Clark

Tuesday 9th April 2019: The CITiZAN Project by Gustav Milne

Tuesday 14th May 2019 50 years of recording London’s Industrial Heritage by
Professor David Perrett

Tuesday 11th June 2019. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HADAS 2019 Long Trip. Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September 2019
We have booked the hotel for our long trip in 2019. Details will follow in due course.
The hotel is: Best Western Aberavon Beach Hotel, Aberavon Beach, Port Talbot, SA12 6QP

Tuesday 8th October 2019: From Crosse and Blackwell to Crossrail – MOLA excavations at Tottenham Court Road 2009–10 by Lyn Blackmore

Tuesday 12th November 2019: Shene and Syon: a royal and monastic landscape revealed by Bob Cowie
Lectures are held at Stephens House & Gardens (Avenue House), 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8 pm, with coffee/tea afterwards. Non-members admission: £2; Buses 13, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a 5-10 minute walk away.

Avenue House Quiz Nights Steve Brunning
Good at quizzing? If so, HADAS needs you! We field a regular team at Avenue
House but require more members to make up a table of ten people.
The cost is £15 which includes supper, plus a cash bar. All the money raised goes
towards the upkeep of the house and gardens. The advertised dates so far this year
are Thursday 14th March and Thursday 23rd May at 7.30pm.

If you are interested please email membership@hadas.org.uk and I will add you to
the list for further information.

Andrew Selkirk writes:
Reluctantly and sadly, I am resigning from the Committee of HADAS. We have
moved from North London to West London, and I fear it is not really feasible to
attend committee meetings any more. We are downsizing, so we are giving up our
wonderful family home in North London, where we spent 47 happy years and are
moving to a cottage in Kew where we will be nearer our grandchildren – indeed we
hope to have them only 200 yards away.
It has been a bit of a struggle to get rid of all the junk that we have accumulated over
the years, especially with my books. I calculated that I had nearly 7,000 books and I
have got rid of nearly 2,000 of them, but it means that the remaining 5,000 are all
packed up in cardboard boxes in the garage – I am longing to get some shelves up so
that I can get my library back!
But I shall be sorry to leave HADAS behind. I will still of course remain a member
and I shall be proud to continue to be a Vice-President, but you will only see me
occasionally. But HADAS has been a great experience for me. I was Chairman for
17 years (1986 to 2003), indeed I was parachuted in from the top as Chairman. I
had a hard act to follow as my predecessor, Councillor Jarman, was an influential
member of the Barnet Council and did a brilliant job representing the interests of
HADAS on the Barnet Council, which alas I could not do.
At the time the Society was run by three formidable ladies who between them
organised the great excavation on Hampstead Heath. There was Bridget Grafton
Green, who was a journalist and publicised the Society. There was Daphne Lorimer
who studied animal bones and who eventually retired with her husband to Orkney
when she invited the Society for a memorable outing. And there was Dorothy
Newbury, the baby of the trio who was a printer who printed the Society’s Newsletter
– her son still does – and also ran the Minimarts which kept the Society afloat
financially – and were great fun.

And I was very fortunate in having a wonderful support from Brian Wrigley and
Victor Jones, from Denis Ross and Ted Sammes and Peter Pickering, from Bill Bass,
Andy Simpson, Eric Morgan and many others, thanks to whom the society ran
remarkably smoothly. I was sometimes at a disadvantage as I did not actually live in
the borough, but in Hampstead, but I got to know the London Borough of Barnet
fairly extensively by chasing round all the excavations the Society carried out.
I have been very fortunate to have been succeeded by Don Cooper who has now been
Chairman even longer than I was, and I know that I am leaving the Society in very
good hands. I have joined a new local society, the Richmond Archaeological Society
who also seem very lively, but I hope occasionally to make my way back to North
London and keep in touch with HADAS. My thanks to you all!
(I am sure the whole of HADAS will wish to note their appreciation to Andrew for all
his years of support to the society – ED)
Below – Andrew and Wendy Selkirk at the ancient Greek city of Paestum, southern
Italy

Barnet Medieval Festival 2019

The organisers of this year’s Barnet Medieval Festival are calling for the local
community to support the return of the Festival on 8th-9th June 2019. This two-day
family festival will feature living history camps, re-enactments of the Battle of Barnet
(1471), firepower displays, have-a-go archery, medieval traders’ market, community
stalls, children’s activities, food and drink.

Volunteers and donations are both needed to make this event happen again – we
welcome all offers of help, especially with fundraising, publicity and stewarding.
Please get in touch with Susan Skedd at barnetbattleproject@gmail.com.
(HADAS attended this event last year, and a great time was had by all- Ed)

Brome Trip day 4 Jim Nelhams
After the previous day’s panic over the cancelled boat trip replaced by a trip to
Orford Castle, Thursday was to follow our schedule. Another castle, this one at
Framlingham, interesting to contrast with Orford, the first having a keep with no
curtain walls, and Framlingham with curtain walls but no keep. Then onwards to visit
the East Anglia Transport Museum, as recommended by Andy Simpson, followed by
the Aviation Museum at Flixton.

Framlingham Castle Claudette Carlton

Framlingham Castle is built on a high point overlooking the town. It was built about
1190 of local flint and a soft limestone material often used in East Anglia. An entry in
the Domesday Book (1086) noted that Framlingham was held by Hugh Bigod, who
came to England in the army of William the Conqueror.

The Bigods and their successors had a part in many dramatic events in the country’s
history. In the war of succession between Stephen and Matilda, one Hugh Bigod was
made Earl of Norfolk. When the Barons forced King John to accept the Magna Carta,
two Bigods were among those listed as its enforcers. They married very well, and in
1397, Norfolk became a Duchy. The Howards inherited it in 1488.

Later Dukes were exiled for treason, executed for treason, one commanded Richard
III’s troops at the Battle of Bosworth and died in the front line, one led the English
forces to victory at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513, one was executed in 1547 on
Tower Hill for annoying Henry VIII.

In 1553, Mary Tudor rallied her army at Framlingham, and rode to London, being
crowned Queen on 1st October. Another Howard Duke was executed in 1572 for
harbouring ambitions to marry Mary Stuart and overthrow Elizabeth.

In 1635 the castle was sold by an indebted Howard to Sir Robert Hitcham, and when
Sir Robert died in 1636, the castle and its estates went to Pembroke, his old college at
Cambridge University. His will instructed that “all the castle saving the stone
building be pulled down and a poorhouse be set up. The castle passed to English
Heritage in 1984.

The castle has a defensive deep dry ditch around it. What’s left of the castle is the
curtain wall, some 10m high and 2.3m thick. The wooden door at the entrance of the
castle dates from c1513, and above it are the arms of the Howard Dukes of Norfolk.
The curtain wall has 13 towers, with arrow loops at two levels. There are two stone
chimneys dating from about 1150. Other decorative chimneys are from the Tudor
period. The castle well, near the gate, is 30m deep.

The only building remaining with the castle walls today is Framlingham’s poorhouse,
which provided work and lodgings for the town’s poor from the 17th to the 19th
century. There are five medieval stone heads set into its façade. The wall walk
provides wonderful views of the castle park, its mere which is fed by the River Ore,
and the countryside. The huge space within the walls is now used for concerts and
events.

East Anglia Transport Museum Andy Simpson
Readers will be unsurprised to hear that this was a much-anticipated visit for me. I
know the EATM very well, visiting it two or three times a year for tramways group
meetings, but its multitude of London connections and friendly atmosphere always
make it a pleasure to visit. This museum originated in 1961 when four local
enthusiasts acquired the body of a Lowestoft tram for restoration after 30 years as a
summerhouse.

The collection grew, and the museum was founded on its present site – then a disused
meadow- in 1965, the first tram running in November 1970, extending ‘into the
woods’ in 1982, and the trolleybus route, since extended, first ran in January 1971 –
the first museum trolleybus to run under trolleybus overhead anywhere in the
country. The narrow gauge ‘East Suffolk Light Railway’ was added in 1973, and land
has now been purchased at the rear of the site to virtually double the size of the
museum.

The site has been developed as a museum of street transport, designed to show the
development of mechanical transport over a century or more, with an emphasis on
local items, plus housing the extensive collection of the London Trolleybus
Preservation Society (LTPS) – the only place in the world where four London
trolleybuses can be seen on one site – that’s a third of the total survivors of an
original fleet of over 1800 vehicles! Currently all four are operational. Three more
can be seen in London – one at the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden and
two at the LT Museum Acton Depot large object store opposite Acton Town tube
station.

Our own steed for the standard three circuits around the site – one of just four in the
country where a trolleybus ride is still possible, the others being Sandtoft, Dudley,
and Beamish – was London Transport Number 260. This is one very lucky
trolleybus! It is officially a London Transport Class C2 with an AEC664T chassis and
Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Works body, delivered new on 2 July
1936 at a cost of £2,286.3s.8d.

It spent all its operational life at Stonebridge depot, until withdrawn on 27 August
1959 for inclusion in the former British Transport Commission Museum of Transport
at Clapham to represent the ‘standard’ London trolleybus.

However, two years later it was decided that the more original condition No 1253
should be preserved instead – this now being at the LT Museum at Covent Garden.
Poor old 260 was sold to George Cohen’s ‘600 Group’ for scrap on 18 July 1962, two
months after the last London trolleybus ran in the Wimbledon/Fulwell area. From
1959, Cohen’s scrapped all London trolleybuses in an area behind Colindale
trolleybus Depot (the last in September 1962) and 260 was virtually their last such
purchase. As she was being coupled up to Cohen’s vehicle at Clapham, she was
purchased by two founder members of the LTPS and stored in Reading, from where it
made enthusiast tours of the Reading and Bournemouth trolleybus systems. Its tour of
Bournemouth on 30 June 1968 made it the last London trolleybus to run under power
on public streets! We were lucky to get her for a run, as she had been specially
cleaned up for the annual EATM Trolleybus event the following weekend.
After a most enjoyable couple of hours, it was time to move on from road transport to
air transport…

Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum, Flixton Andy Simpson
As it says on the museum leaflet; ‘65 Historic aircraft, 25,000 exhibits, covering civil
and military aviation in East Anglia from the pioneer years, through World Wars I
and II to the present day. Special displays on Boulton & Paul, World War II decoy
sites, aviation archaeology, Link Trainers, Home Front, model aircraft, aero engines,
uniforms and equipment’

And what displays! A large, and much extended, main display building, smaller
buildings covering RAF Bomber Command, 446th Bomb Group USAAF, Royal
Observer Corps and RAF Air-Sea Rescue and Coastal Command.

Every nook and cranny of the eight-acre site is crammed from floor to ceiling, and
usually into the roof, with items, and with captions covering the people as well as the
equipment. Plus a handy cafe and well stocked bookshop AND second hand books.
Plus a number of aircraft on outside display, some admittedly showing the effects of
prolonged outdoor storage. And all free! It is tended by a committed band of
volunteer enthusiasts. And even a nature walk down to the River Waveney, as
explored by one or two of our group. A real aviation enthusiast could probably spend
all day there to properly take it all in!

The museum is handily placed behind the Buck Inn, which has limited opening hours
as another of our group found out…

I had long wanted to visit this museum. One thing top of my list to see was the
excavated crash site remains of Vickers Wellington Mk 1 bomber L4288 which came
to rest in a river bank near Bury St Edmunds following a mid-air collision with
another No. 9 Squadron Wellington in October 1939, sadly killing both crews, nine
men in all, and was recovered in 1982/3.

This is one of the largest chunks of airframe I know of from any such excavation –
virtually the entire centre section, with engines, nacelles and wing spar. An
impressive memorial.

The basic Wellington wings, engines and undercarriage went on to be used in the
post-war Vickers Viking airliner, as remembered by one or two of our group. The
military version of this was the Vickers Valetta, the C.2 VIP version of which is
displayed at Flixton.

A number of us were able to board the aircraft and be expertly shown round by
enthusiastic new volunteer ‘Naval Pete’ proudly wearing his Royal Navy aircraft
carrier Lanyard. VIP seats – and the cockpit seats – were duly sampled.
Also of interest to me were the Boulton and Paul exhibits – two of which, the
Overstrand bomber nose and P6 biplane replica, were worked on by my late father
and myself at their original home with the Boulton Paul Association at the former
Boulton Paul factory in Wolverhampton.

The museum originated with a meeting of local enthusiasts in 1973, with aircraft
arriving on site from 1974. I must return one day! I’ve already promised them a bit of
the former RAF Museum Blackburn Beverley transport that I ‘souvenired’ when she
was scrapped back in 1990.

This seems a logical place to sneak in my usual….

‘Transport Corner’ Andy Simpson
I have been spending much time lately as a reader at the British Library, St Pancras,
mainly researching Birmingham area electric tramways for publication in that
dentist’s Waiting Room favourite, the quarterly historical journal Tramway Review
(available on prescription, sorry subscription, only). The odd more local snippet of
gen does appear along the way however.

Under the heading ‘Middlesex Tram Lines To Go’ the November 8 1941 edition of
the ‘Transport World’ weekly journal records that as part of the wartime scrap drive
for high-quality steel, Middlesex County Council had approved schemes by Hendon,
Southgate, Twickenham, Ealing and Tottenham councils for taking up redundant
tram lines in their areas, which would realise a total scrap value of £10,000.

The tracks in question in Hendon would presumably be those along the Edgware
Road, which had been formally abandoned on 24 October 1936, following closure of
Hendon tramcar overhaul works in April 1936 and conversion of the route to
trolleybus operation on 23 August 1936 and use of the Hendon works yard for
scrapping of redundant tramcars for a few months afterwards, just as with the
trolleybus scrappings there 26 years later mentioned earlier.

I always keep an eye on Edgware Road roadworks just in case, and have seen short
lengths of tram rail re-laid crossways as road supports and the cut-off bases of
trolleybus poles in front of the former depot site, but no in-situ tracks – unlike those
on Barnet Hill which appear to be largely intact and buried today, at least around the
railway bridge at the foot of the hill.

Some years ago, pavement relaying outside the site of the former Hendon
tram/trolleybus depot uncovered the cut-of bases of the former overhead support
traction poles.

Progress at Stephens/Avenue House Andy Simpson
The Sunday morning gang continue to make good progress with the post-excavation
work on the dig held last summer on the outbuildings, with some unusual small finds,
including an interesting couple of fossils, and a few coins – 1986 and 1991 two pence
pieces and a Spanish 50 cent coin dated to 2000! It says a lot for the corrosive state of
the soil, or the poor quality of the coins, when you see how corroded these 30 yearold
coins have become.

Nearly all of the finds are now washed, marked, bagged and recorded on the
appropriate record sheets.

We seem to specialise in CBM – (ceramic building material) – brick, tile, concrete and
pitch, which once coated the outer walls. We use MOLA standard recording sheets to
record the pottery, clay pipe, glass and CBM.

Although most of the pottery and glass, and a few scraps of clay pipe stem, are
Victorian or modern, there is some older ‘background’ material, including yellow
borderware and Metropolitan slipware covering the period 1550-1700.
Members are welcome to visit and view progress- we are there most Sunday
mornings from 10.30 till 1.00pm

Institute of Archaeology Graduate Open Evening
Start: Feb 20, 2019 5:00 – 7.00 PM UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon
Square, London WC1E OPY

The UCL Institute of Archaeology will hold its next Graduate Open Evening for
those interested in masters courses or research degrees, as well as for those students
already accepted onto a programme. During the evening Institute staff and current
students will be on hand providing talks, tours and information about masters and
doctoral opportunities at the Institute as well as advising on course content and the
admissions process.

Programme 5.30pm: Introduction and welcome to the UCL Institute of
Archaeology: a world leader by Andrew Reynolds, Graduate Admissions Tutor 6pm:
Tour of the Institute building including the Archaeology Collections; Wolfson
Archaeological Science Laboratories; Conservation Laboratories and Archaeobotany
Laboratories. Refreshments will be available throughout the evening.
Registration This event is free, however registration is essential. Please register
using Eventbrite

The UCL Institute of Archaeology is the largest and one of the most highly regarded
centres for archaeology, cultural heritage and museum studies in Britain, as
evidenced by its top position in university league tables and National Student Survey
results. It is one of the very few places in the world actively pursuing research on a
truly global scale and has an outstanding record of training doctoral and postdoctoral
researchers. Its degree programmes offer an unrivalled variety of courses on a diverse
range of topics, fieldwork and placement opportunities.

Any enquiries about the event may be directed to Lisa Daniel. –
ioa-gradadmissions@ucl.ac.uk

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Monday 11th February, 3pm. Barnet Museum & Local History Society St John
the Baptist, Barnet Church, Jcn High St/Wood St, Barnet EN5 4BW Festival Gardens
Battersea Park, 1951 – The Leftovers. Speaker T.B.A. Visitors £2. Please Note new
venue.

Wednesday 13th February, 2.30pm Mill Hill Historical Society Trinity Church,
100, The Broadway, NW7 3TB Votes For women; Challenging the Mythology Talk
by Dr Mary Sawnsky

Monday 11th March 3pm Barnet Museum & Local History Society Address as
Above. Hop on a Bus Speaker T.B.A. Visitors £2, but please note new venue.
Also Barnet Physic Well, Corner of Well Approach & Pepys Cres, Barnet EN5 3DY
is reopening, monthly, on Saturdays from February. For opening times and dates
please visit http://www.barnetmuseum.co.uk/ – also for names of speakers.

Wednesday 13 March, 2.30pm Mill Hill Historical Society Address as above.
From Philadelphia to Mill Hill – Talk by Letta Jones on the story of botanists Peter
Collinson and John Bartram. Preceded by A.G.M.

Friday 15 March COLAS, 7pm St Olave’s Hall, Mark Lane, EC3R 7BB London’s
Waterfront from the C12th to the Great Fire of 1666. Talk by Dr John Schofield, FSA
on how four excavations of Medieval & later waterfront in the City led to
understanding the people of Medieval & Tudor London. Visitors £3.

Friday 15 March, 7.30pm Wembley History Society English Martyr’s Hall, Chalk
Hill Road Wembley (top of Blackbird Hill, Adj. to Church) The Museum of All
Brent Life – London Borough of Culture, 2020 – Camilla Churchill & Stephanie
Wilson. £3.

Saturday 16 March, 11am – 5.30pm LAMAS Conference of London
Archaeologists Weston Theatre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN.
Morning session Recent Work till 1pm, Lunch. Afternoon session The Thames & its
Tributaries from 2pm. Tea 3.30-4pm, & Displays of work and publications upstairs in
Clore Room. Cost (inc. tea) early bird price (before 1 March) £15, full price £17.50.
Tickets from Jon Cotton c/o Curatorial Dept, MoL, London Wall EC2Y 5HN
joncotton1956@gmail.com

Wednesday 20 March, 6pm Gresham College at Museum of London. Addr. As
above. Art & Power in the English Aristocratic House. Talk by Prof. Simon Thurley
FREE. Shows how from the c.16th Aristocratic families deployed their collections &
their buildings.

Thursday 21st March, 8.15pm, Hampstead Scientific Society Crypt Room, St.
John’s Church, Church Road NW3 6UU The Roman Water Pump Talk by Dr
Richard Stein. This talk is part of Science Week. Refreshments in Interval.

Wednesday 27th March, 7.45pm, Friern Barnet & District Local History Society
North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL The
Palace of Westminster – The First 1000 Years. Talk by Barry Hall. Visitors £2.

Tuesday 28 March, 7.30pm, Finchley Society Drawing Room, Avenue House
(Stephens House) 17, East End Road, N3 3QE Village Life in Finchley Talk by
Helen Allen on The Story of Finchley Garden Village. Visitors £2. Note early time.

Saturday 30 March, 10am – 4.30pm West London Local History Conference
University of West London The Paragon, Boston Manor Road, Brentford TW8
9GA. Entertainment. Please see the Richmond Local History Society’s website for
more info, www.richmondhistory.org.uk

With thanks for newsletter contributions this month to; Stephen Brunning;
Claudette Carlton; Don Cooper; Eric Morgan; Jim Nelhams; Andrew Selkirk;
Sue Willetts

Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet, Herts. EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary Jo Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Jim Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec. Stephen Brunning, 1, Reddings Close, Mill Hill, London
NW7 4JL (020 8959 6419) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk
Web site: www.hadas.org.uk
Discussion Group; http://groups.google.com/group/hadas-archaeology

Newsletter-574- January-2019

By | Latest Newsletter, News, Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎ | No Comments

No. 574 January 2019 Edited by Peter Pickering
____________________________________________________________________________________
HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and events

Tuesday 8th January 2019: NO LECTURE

Tuesday 12th February 2019: Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture.
Prehistory in London – some Problems, Progress and Potential by Jon Cotton

Tuesday 12th March 2019: Lost and Found: The Rediscovery of Roman London by John Clark

Tuesday 9th April 2019: The CITiZAN Project by Gustav Milne

Tuesday 14th May 2019 50 years of recording London’s Industrial Heritage Professor David Perrett

Tuesday 11th June 2019. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HADAS 2019 Long Trip. Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September 2019
We have booked the hotel for our long trip in 2019. Details will follow in due course.
The hotel is: Best Western Aberavon Beach Hotel, Aberavon Beach, Port Talbot, SA12 6QP
Tuesday 8th October 2019: From Crosse and Blackwell to Crossrail – MOLA excavations at Tottenham
Court Road 2009–10 by Lyn Blackmore

Tuesday 12th November 2019: Shene and Syon: a royal and monastic landscape revealed by Bob
Cowie

Lectures start at 7.45 for 8.00pm in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3
3QE. Buses 13, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by, and it is five to ten minutes’ walk from Finchley Central
Station (Northern Line). Tea/coffee and biscuits follow the talk. .

Members please read and respond. Jo Nelhams
The HADAS lectures clash with the LAMAS lectures on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, which some
members like to attend. A proposal was discussed with the Committee that in 2020 the HADAS Lectures
be moved to the 3rd Tuesday of each month. The 2019 lectures will continue on the 2nd Tuesday, as
these are all booked.

PLEASE RESPOND TO THE SECRETARY BY EMAIL, LETTER OR PHONE BY JANUARY
31ST 2019 CONTACT DETAILS ON THE BACK PAGE OF THIS NEWSLETTER.

Farewell to a long standing member

It is with great regret that we have received the very sad news that Henry Burgess (better known as
Harry) passed away on November 6th, in the Arkley Care Home. Harry was a long standing member
having joined HADAS in April 1994. He was involved with a variety of interests. He was a keen metal
detectorist with the Herts & District Metal Detectoring Society, venturing out into the Hertfordshire and
Cambridgeshire countryside, on their approved sites. He also loaned equipment and provided guidance
for some exploration of the Battle of Barnet site. Harry was also a member of the East Barnet Shooting
Club, enjoying pistol shooting, and was also on their rota for duties, both opening and closing the club on
Thursday evenings, and recording the members’ scorecards in their club competitions. Harry also
dedicated over 25 years service to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution as a volunteer fundraiser and
souvenir secretary of the local RNLI branch, Barnet, Finchley & Friern Barnet District.

His main career was spent working at the BBC TV Centre where he was a supervisor in the
Mechanical Engineering workshop. It was their responsibility to maintain the studio equipment monitors,
camera and lenses etc, until the corporation decided to shut the workshop and outsource the service. His
later work was locally at the Homebase Store in New Southgate, until retirement age.

Harry also enjoyed the HADAS holidays, organised by Jim & Jo, and went on many, both
individually, and later on with his wife Marilyn, when she too retired. Unfortunately, ill health prevented
Harry from being an active member since 2016, and also Marilyn, who became his full time carer. He did
however keep up to date with the Society’s activities as he was an avid reader of the newsletters.

HADAS Christmas party 2018 by Don Cooper

The HADAS Christmas party this year took place on Sunday, 9th December 2018. This year the weather
was kind to us, unlike last year when only a small number made it to the party because of snow.

Thirty-two members and their guests assembled at 12.30 at Avenue House on the Stephens House and
Gardens estate for nibbles and drinks before sitting down to a festive meal of turkey or salmon with all
the trimmings followed by Christmas pudding with cream and brandy butter, or fresh fruit salad and
cream.

To make sure we kept mentally alert, Vicki Baldwin
produced a table quiz full of intriguing questions.
After eating our fill and doing our best in the quiz, it was
time to draw the raffle with its many prizes and announce the
answers to the quiz. This was followed by coffee or tea,
mince pies and/or a slice of the cakes that Liz made.
The most important part of the Christmas party is to meet up
with friends and catch up with all their news.
All-in-all the party was a great success and thanks are due to
Peter Pickering for his part in the organisation, Vicki
Baldwin for the Quiz, Liz Gapp for the cakes, Jo Nelhams,
Melvyn Dresner and Andy Simpson who helped decorate the
room and all who contributed to the raffle prizes.

The Rose Theatre: Shakespeare’s Secret Playhouse presented by Suzanne Marie Taylor on
13th November Liz Gapp

The November 2018 meeting took the innovative form of a short introduction by Suzanne Marie Taylor
to a 30 minute film called Shakespeare’s Secret Playhouse, which was funded and produced by herself
and Anthony Lewis. Both of them had main narrative roles in the film, which tells the story of the
discovery and excavation of the remains of the Rose theatre.

As Sir Ian McKellen, the renowned actor, had been heavily involved in the movement to preserve
the Rose theatre, he was contacted to see if he would contribute his views. To their great delight, they
were invited to meet him at his house. They took some pipe replicas of pipes found in the Rose
excavation. This was fortuitous as they found he collects pipes.

Suzanne outlined the structure of the film, designed to appeal to schoolchildren as well as adults.
For example, there was a portrait of Shakespeare whose mouth and eyes moved at appropriate times and
also included a spoof film called The Lost Valley of London throughout conducted by Anthony Lewis in
intrepid English Safari Hunter role.

After an initial glitch with the sound equipment, the film started with Anthony walking to where
the Rose was found. Simon Hughes, the local MP at the time, sets the scene, explaining why all the
entertainment, including the theatres, was situated outside the City of London in the sixteenth century.
The Rose theatre constructed in 1587 was the first of the Elizabethan theatres to be built. It survived until
1605 when it was abandoned due to proposed lease increases which Philip Henslowe refused.

Julian Boucher, Senior Finds Specialist at MOLA, who excavated the Rose in 1988-9, gave a tour
round the present day site. This showed the water preserving the site, and the red lines highlighting the
foundations of the Rose. From these red lines a series of drawings, starting from ground level and going
to the final theatre drawing, showed the presumed structure of the theatre.

Ian McKellen describes the theatre project going public and the reason for the campaign to
preserve it. Later, he describes his surprise at how small the Rose theatre was, and that the actors were in
easy reach of the audience which was in the open air. An interesting innovation was the auditorium raked
for easier viewing. The entire Rose would fit into the auditorium at the modern Globe theatre.
Harvey Sheldon, chairman of the Rose Board of Trustees, described discovering the Rose theatre
remains 30 years ago, and the reason for the foundation of the Trust to preserve it.

Many valuable papers relating to the Rose theatre are kept at Dulwich College, deposited by
Edward Alleyn, the eminent contemporary actor who founded the College of God’s Gift, now Dulwich
College. Shown in the film was the Diary and Accounts book for the Rose kept by Philip Henslowe, his
father-in-law,- a copy of this book is available from Foakes 2nd Edition by Philip Henslowe. Starting in
1592, with renovation details of the theatre, it lists performance and income details of a Hamlet and a
King Lear predating Shakespeare’s first known performance of his plays of those names. Also included is
Henry VI part I, premiered at the Rose on 3 March 1592.

The discovery of the Rose theatre was due to the demolishing of Southbridge House which had
been built over two thirds of the Rose and was to be replaced by a new office block due to be built by
Ivory Merchant, which in its original design would have destroyed the Rose remains.

Scholars, the theatrical world, and the general public worldwide felt that the Rose was so
important historically that its remains should not be destroyed. This sentiment resulted in a concert to
create publicity to put pressure on the government to get the Rose preserved. A huge gathering in 1989
including the theatrical world’s pre-eminent people (Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, Judy Dench,
Irene Worth, Dame Peggy Ashcroft etc.) It culminated in a recorded amended speech from Henry V by
Sir Laurence Olivier, who was too ill to attend. The recording was organised by his son, Richard, and
ended ‘Thank God for Harry, England and the Rose’. The government backed down and provided a £1
million grant. One consequence was Planning Policy Guidance 16, which made archaeological
investigation a condition of planning permission, rather than discoveries being made haphazardly, thus
upsetting building schedules.

Jane Siddell, PhD, MCIfA, describes how she looks at the water quality once a month to check the
site is neither too dry, acidic or alkaline. There is apparatus to monitor the oxygen levels – the lower the
better for anaerobic preservation of the remains.

Many more people appeared in the film. It described the demands on the Elizabethan actors, by
Lizzie Conrad Hughes, Rose Volunteer and actress. Play runs were for 1, 2, or, if popular, 3 days. If there
was a new play, there would be 5 or 6 weeks to learn it, while maintaining the play run schedules. A play
could be put on at a day’s notice, so the actors had to have an active knowledge of 30-40 parts at one
time.

There was a new design by Sir Nicholas Helm RIBA, who describes the redesign. The new
building is called Rose Court. The theatre’s remains are covered in sand and water to preserve them for
the future. This had to be done to replicate the original anaerobic marshy conditions that had preserved it
since its original burial. Red lighting outlines the theatre, and a viewing platform has been built, which
also allows actors to play to an audience of about 50 people.

The website for the Rose theatre is roseplayhouse.org.uk which is available for all who wish to
know about the project and possibly offer their help.

The film is on YouTube, entitled Shakespeare’s Secret Playhouse: The Lost Valley of London.

Brome Trip day 3 Jim Nelhams
Wednesday dawned bright and breezy. We had planned a leisurely start leaving at 9:00 for a two-hour
boat trip on the River Deben. This would give us a view of our second stop at Woodbridge Tidal Mill and
the country adjoining Sutton Hoo. As the mill only operates following high tide, we had a fixed
appointment to visit it. At 8:15, we received a call to say that because of expected high winds, the boat
operators had cancelled the trip as being potentially unsafe. Luckily, in our planning, we had identified
another possible visit in the same area – so off we went to Orford Castle.

Orford Castle Jim Nelhams
We had not visited the castle beforehand, so our information came from the English Heritage handbook.
We emailed ahead to announce our visit, but our message was not read until after we arrived. Access and
parking proved to be difficult for our coach, as was pedestrian access, with wheelchairs impossible, and
no toilets. Thanks to Simon Williams for accepting this and setting off in his buggy to explore the village.

The castle was built by Henry II in the twelfth century to protect against foreign invasion. Its position on
high ground provides a good view of the coast, and the access from the coast to Framlingham Castle,
owned by Henry’s rival, Hugh Bigod. In World War 2, this function continued as it served as a radar
station.

Only the keep of the castle remains, surrounded by extensive earthworks. Archaeologists have
excavated parts of the original curtain wall, but the task is incomplete. We are used to keeps that are
square or rectangular – not so Orford. The main section is circular, a basement containing the well, and
two high halls, one above the other. Surrounding the core are three towers, one, slightly larger than the
others, containing the staircase. The halls have two floors of side rooms in each tower. The innovative
layout of the halls provided a grand and impressive residence.

Clearly the Chaplain must have remained in his chapel for long hours, since he was provided with
his own latrine.

In the upper hall is an exhibition curated by the Orford Museum Trust, with documents and artefacts
of local interest. From the roof, there is a good and strategic view of the surrounding countryside and
coast.

Time to visit the village centre for a coffee.

WOODBRIDGE TIDE MILL – molendinium aquaticum marinum. Vicki Baldwin

In common with so many other examples of our working industrial and pre-industrial heritage,
Woodbridge Tide Mill owes its continued existence to a small band of dedicated volunteers.
A mill at this location is first referred to in a 12th century document granting Baldwin of Ufford
easier access to his mill. In the Middle Ages the mill was a source of income for the local Augustinian
Priory. It was listed as a valuable asset in 1340, but when the Bishop of Norwich visited 200 years later,
the parlous state of the mill was blamed for the poverty of the Priory. However, if the Priors did
redevelop the mill, as Woodbridge Priory was one of Henry VIII’s early casualties during the Dissolution
of the Monasteries, the church would not have reaped the benefit. The person to whom the Priory’s land
and mill were granted, Sir John Wingfield, had no family and the property reverted to the Crown upon his
death. Elizabeth I granted the estate to Thomas Seckford for £764 8s 4d. The Mill subsequently passed
into the ownership of a succession of families until in 1808, following substantial redevelopment, it was
sold by the Cutting family. The current building probably dates to this time and has only survived the
subsequent changes to the milling methods and machinery due to the fact that in the late nineteenth
century the then owners, A. Hayward and Sons, had it enclosed in corrugated iron sheeting. Unattractive
to the artists and photographers maybe, but an armour that enabled the structure to withstand the
introduction of a diesel engine and hammer mill in the 1950s.

The tide mill featured in the Craftsman series made by the Shell Company film unit. But it was
already in disrepair, having staggered on for the previous 30 years in need of replacements for vital worn
parts of the mechanism. An appeal for funds enabled the roof to be repaired, but in 1957 the 22 inch
square oak shaft broke. This would have been the end of tidal powered milling on the Deben if it had not
been for the efforts of local enthusiasts. Following a talk by local historian Norman Scarfe in 1968, Mrs
Jean Gardner discussed with him the possibility of purchasing the mill at auction with the intention of
restoring it. She was successful in her bid and subsequently the Woodbridge Tide Mill Trust was formed.
They have managed to restore the mill to a working condition and indeed it is possible to purchase flour
ground by the mill in the gift shop. Very good it is too! Keeping the mill in good enough repair for
visitors to appreciate this historic building means a constant fight for grants and funding. If you have the
chance, this is a fascinating place to visit if you are in the area. https://woodbridgetidemill.org.uk/

Sutton Hoo Dudley Miles

Sutton Hoo is the most important archaeological site in Britain, and it revolutionised historians’ views of
the so-called Dark Ages, showing that they were capable of producing treasures of the highest quality and
sophistication. In 1939 Edith Pretty commissioned Basil Brown to excavate mysterious mounds on her
land, and he found the tomb of a seventh-century king, perhaps Rædwald of East Anglia.
Almost all HADAS members will have seen the treasures from the site in the British Museum, but
the displays in the site museum include replicas of the most important artefacts such as the wonderful
helmet, purse lid and belt buckle. There are also original finds such as from the burial of a young warrior
with his horse.

Edith Pretty’s house has been restored to give a picture of how it would have looked in the 1930s,
and several people said that it was more interesting than the site museum. It was an interesting experience
standing on the mound of the famous ship burial, but the view of it from the nearby viewing platform is
blocked by a tree.

The site is now closed for refurbishment.

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 8th January 7.45 pm Amateur Geological Society Finchley Baptist Church Hall East
End Road opposite Avenue House What gives minerals and gemstones their colour? Talk by Robin
Hansen

Thursday 31st January 2.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House The Highgate
Society, Past Present and Future Talk by Elspeth Clements (Chair) and Jan Morgan on the highs
and lows of planning applications. NOTE AFTERNOON MEETING

Sunday 3rd February 10.30 am Heath and Hampstead Society. Guided walk on the history of the
Hampstead Heath ponds. Led by Marc Hutchinson. Meet at Burgh House, New End Square NW3 1LT.
Lasts about two hours. Donation £5.

Thursday 7th February 7.30 pm Camden History Society Burgh House, New End Square NW3
1LT The campaigns to save Kenwood. Talk by Helen Lawrence.

Thursday 7th February 8.00 pm Pinner Local History Society Village Hall, Chapel Lane car
park, Pinner HA5 1AB. Gog and Magog – Giants in the Guildhall (London’s legendary guardians).
Talk by John Clark

Tuesday 12th February 1.00 pm Society of Antiquaries Burlington House, Piccadilly W1 Anne
Mowbray Duchess of York, a 15th century child burial from London. Talk by Bruce Watson. Free –
limited places, book on www.sal.org.uk or 020-7479 7080.

Wednesday 13th February 7.45 pm Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, corner
Ferme Park Road/Weston Park N8 9PX. The history of the Regent’s canal Talk by Roger Squires

Friday 15th February 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society English Martyrs’ Hall, Chalkhill
Road, Wembley, HA9 9EW (top of Blackbird Hill, adjacent to church) The General strike in
Wembley and Willesden Talk by Christine Coates.

Friday 15th February 7.00 pm. City of London Archaeological Society. St Olave’s Church Hall,
Mark Lane EC3R 7BB Thames Landing Craft. Presidential address given by Gustav Milne about
the causeways, river stairs and ferry terminals on the tidal Thames. Preceded by AGM.

Monday 18th February 8.15 pm Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society
St Martin’s church hall High Street Ruislip Saxons at the Adelphi, Strand. Talk by Douglas Killock.

Wednesday 20th February 8.00 pm. Edmonton Hundred Historical Society. Jubilee Hall,
2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ Evacuees in World War II. Mike Brown.

Wednesday 20th February 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St Mary’s church hall,
Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS (nr Magistrates Court) Living in Meyrick Road Church End. Talk by
Sophia MacGibbon on the origins of the people who moved to this working class street.

Tuesday 26th February 10.30 am. Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase
Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ. The History of Quilling. Talk by Judith and Christine Hughes.

Wednesday 27th February 10.30 am. Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction
Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ. Charles Lamb in Enfield and Edmonton. Talk by Joe Studman.

Wednesday 27th February 7.45 pm Friern Barnet and District Local History Society North
Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane N20 0NL. Dabs and DNA detects
criminals Talk by Chris Truran

Thursday 28th February 2.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House
Improvements to Victoria Park – latest developments Talk by Matthew Gunyon, Barnet Council
Green Spaces team. NOTE AFTERNOON MEETING

Friday 8th and Saturday 9th March. Current Archaeology Live 2019. Conference in the
University of London Senate House, Malet Street WC1E 7HU. Wide range of expert speakers
sharing the latest archaeological finds and research. For details and tickets visit
www.archaeologylive.co.uk or ring 020 8819 5580

With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Jo and Jim Nelhams, Don Cooper, Liz Gapp,
Vicki Baldwin, Dudley Miles and Eric Morgan

Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary Jo Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Jim Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec. Stephen Brunning 22 Goodwin Court, 52 Church Hill Road, East Barnet
EN4 8FH (0208 440 8421) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk

Newsletter-573-December-2018

By | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎ | No Comments

No. 573 DECEMBER 2018 Edited by Don Cooper
May we take the opportunity to wish all our readers and their
families, a happy holiday and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2019

HADAS Diary
Tuesday 8th January 2019: NO LECTURE
Tuesday 12th February 2019: Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture. Prehistory in London – some Problems, Progress and Potential by Jon Cotton
Tuesday 12th March 2019: Lost and Found: The Rediscovery of Roman London by John Clark
Tuesday 9th April 2019: The CITiZAN Project by Gustav Milne
Tuesday 14th May 2019: 50 years of recording London’s Industrial Heritage Professor David Perrett
Tuesday 11th June 2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HADAS 2019 Long Trip
We have booked the hotel for our long trip in 2019. Details will follow in due course.
The hotel is: Best Western Aberavon Beach Hotel, Aberavon Beach, Port Talbot, SA12 6QP
Dates Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September 2019
Tuesday 8th October 2019: From Crosse and Blackwell to Crossrail – MOLA excavations at Tottenham Court
Road 2009–10 by Lyn Blackmore
Tuesday 12th November 2019: Shene and Syon: a royal and monastic landscape revealed by Bob Cowie

Lectures start at 7.45 for 8.00pm in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3
3QE. Buses 82, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by, and it is five to ten minutes walk from Finchley Central
Station (Northern Line). Tea/coffee and biscuits follow the talk. Visitors £2.

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS – AN IMPORTANT UPDATE
At the time of writing there are 25 members who have not paid their subscription. If this applies (or think it
may apply) to you, please contact me using the details on the last page of this newsletter.
I will assume that you have decided not to renew if no reply is received by 31st December 2018. After this
date your details will be taken off our membership database and you will not receive any further newsletters.
Stephen Brunning, Membership Secretary (see contact details on the last page below).

Lant Street, Southwark – an update by Melvyn Dresner
Jacqui Pearce’s talk at this year Annual General meeting brought together a year of work with the HADAS
finds group on finds from Lant Street dig, Southwark in 1999. This work continues this term in the dining
room at Avenue House with an enthusiastic group of volunteers recording finds under Jacqui expert
guidance.

The site is south of the river Thames in Southwark, not far from Borough tube station on the Northern Line.
We are lucky enough to be able to handle material from Roman and medieval period, though most material
from site is post medieval from the 16th century onwards. In Jacqui’s talk we are able to understand the
social history of the area. She recounted Robin Densem’s work to relate the site to historic maps such as
John Roque’s 1746. Even maps from late 18th century showed large areas of open ground. In the early 19th
century a row of terraced houses was built. These were pulled down in 1960s as slums. In their early years
they would have been single homes with kitchens in the basement. Later in their life the houses were sub
divided multi-family occupation used by poorer people.

We have pottery that pre-dates the houses built on site from 16th and late 17th century. This includes pottery
made on the Hampshire/ Surrey border, which is known as borderware. This includes tripod pipkins with
hollow handles. These cooking vessels were in later periods replaced by metal cooking pots. Metal rarely
survives in archaeological context in London as either metal rusts or it is recycled into new vessels. As we
move into the 18th century cooking vessels with clear lead glaze and no feet appear and from the kitchen we
have mixing bowls for settling milk or fish.

Also associated with eating we have plates and platters in borderware from the 16th century. This can be
based on a red or white fired body with clear (lead), red (iron) or brown (magnesium) glaze. We see more
decorative features with geometric slip patterns. By 1660s, we have Staffordshire slipware in London,
including at Lant Street – patterns that reminds us of Bakewell tarts, which were made using a feather to
ripple the slip. At Lant Street, we are not far from the Rotherhithe pothouse. We have tin glazed ware are
from 1630s – 1670s. In this pottery, tin glaze ware was made by Dutch potters, who were influenced by
Chinese porcelain. Designs included “Chinaman in the grasses.” We have Portuguese tin glaze that copies
Dolphin-design from late Ming dynasty designs. The Ming dynasty ruled China from 1368–1644. Other
vessels from the 18th century include Nottingham stoneware and white salt glaze ware from 1720 to 1780s,
including porringers with small handles for spoon foods such as porridge. For utensils we have knife handles
from 18th century with pistol grip. We can see indirect evidence of metal from staining and location of the
tang in the middle of the handle.

We have evidence of drinking vessels and jugs from the 17th century. Brown glaze is associated with
drinking. We have drinking jugs with green slip that were characteristic of vessels used at the Inns of Court.
We have Staffordshire type slipware with red blob slip and trailed slip with light blobs given a jewelled
effect such as an example saying “TURNER”, maybe the owner’s name? We also have indirect evidence of
metal, with a hole in the handle to attach a pewter lid. Frechen stoneware imported from Germany may have
been used to serve wine or spirits. On this ware we have a pub sign for George and the Dragon. We have
punch bowls from the early to mid-18th century. Most evocatively represented in William Hogarth’s A
Midnight Modern Conversation (1732), the bowl sits at the centre of a group of drunken men in disarray,
wigs askew and sprawling on the floor, smoking and drinking. We have faceted wine glass that would have
captured candlelight beautifully. We have a complete quarter bottle with “JUSC” upon it. This post-dates
1827 as it relates to Junior United Service Club, which was located near Regents Street. According to
Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens’s Dictionary of London, 1879, first child of Charles Dickens, the author and
former resident of Lant Street:
“Junior United Services Club, Pall Mall, consists of the princes of the blood royal, commissioned officers of
the Navy, Army, Marines, Royal Indian Forces, and Regular Militia, Lieutenants of Counties, sublieutenants
in the Army and midshipmen in the Navy.”

Source: http://www.victorianlondon.org/entertainment/juniorunitedservicesclub.htm accessed 12th
November 2018
Evidence to changing ideas about drinking in the late Victorian period include “R White” bottle that would
have contained ginger beer or lemonade.

There are decorative teapots in white salt glaze stoneware and cream ware including a spout with an arm
wrestling a serpent and another from a pineapple form, as well as handles and lids. Tin-glaze ware though in
design following Chinese porcelain examples are not good for hot liquids – tea bowls. We have examples of
clobbered decoration applied in London or Amsterdam to blue and white Chinese porcelain and fired in
enamelling kilns. We also have late 18th century pearl ware – saucers and fluted tea bowls.
We have also pharmaceutical stoneware and tin glaze ware. Dark blue glass was used for poison such as
laudanum and arsenic. In another Charles Dickens’ association, we have a blacking bottle in English
stoneware. As a twelve-year-old boy, Dickens worked in Warren’s blacking factory.
Evidence for hygiene are chamber pots from various ceramic types, in yellow ware, white tin glaze and
mocha slipware. Also we have a toilet dish for soap, dress accessories, buckles, a needle case in bone and
part of a bone fan. Bone combs dating from the 17th century and bone buttons from the early 19th century.
For clay tobacco pipes these are mainly 18th or 19th century. We recorded 259 pipes, which were marked.
These include pipes related to the Hudson Bay Company, Watermen’s Company and Royal Inniskilling
Fusiliers’ as well as giraffe pipe. We have gardening represented in the form of a glass cloche and red-ware
flower pots. For architecture we have lead from windows and decorative tin glaze tiles, as well as Victorian
fireplace tiles. We have glass waste possibly associated with the Falcon Glass works, Bankside or the wider
glass industry in Southwark. The work on the Lant Street material will continue into 2019.

Monument to Major John Cartwright, St Mary at Finchley Churchyard, Hendon Lane N3
Hidden behind hoardings for nearly two decades because of its dangerous condition, in the churchyard of St
Mary at Finchley, is the monument to Major John Cartwright. This Grade II Listed building is currently on
the Historic England Register of Buildings at Risk but is now in the process of being restored. Not all the
funds required for the restoration have been raised and it is now your chance to contribute and make the
difference.

Major John Cartwright was born on 28 September 1740 and died on 23 September 1824. He was a political
reformer and radical spokesman of national importance who is known as the Father of Reform having
championed universal suffrage and the introduction of secret ballots. He also founded the Society for
Constitutional Information.

Although he is not so well known today his ideas contributed to a century of social and political change. It
was not only his thinking that was important, the way he conducted himself made him a model of good
political debate. He was noted for his generosity to all people and his lack of self-interest. Contemporary
accounts refer to his “unceasing benevolence and affectionate disposition”, his “public integrity and
uprightness”. His qualities of character were praised by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United
States of America. Indeed, it is a measure of the high regard in which he was held by his contemporaries that
his memorial was funded through public contributions rather than an act of private glorification.
The monument was erected in 1835. It is built of yellow oolitic limestone, with a square tapering obelisk and
armorial and portrait roundels. The monument was dismantled in 2008 (under the watchful eyes of our own
Vicki Baldwin and Don Cooper – see report in HADAS newsletter 460 July 2009) due to its dangerous
condition.

A condition survey was carried out in 2017 with funding from Historic England. Faculty Consent was
granted in 2018 for the conservation and repair of the vault and obelisk. Works to repair the Monument are
in progress with funding from Historic England. The Rector of St Mary at Finchley, Phillip Davies, has set
up a Crowdfunding page to help raise the final £1000 required to complete the project. They are halfway
there but HADAS members could be the ones to push it over the top. Please contribute if you can at:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/heritage-of-finchley-at-risk

Report on the October Lecture
At a well-attended lecture, Suzanne Marie Taylor gave us an interesting talk on the fate of Motor Launch
M.L. 286-The Not So Silent WWI Movy. Hulked at Isleworth Ait she described Motor launch M.L. 286-
also known as a Movy, a veteran of World War I and World War II. Built for speed in 1916, she began her
adventurous life as a spirited submarine chaser as a part of The Grey Patrol in World War I. In World War
II, M.L. 286 was one of the Dunkirk Little Ships, which took part in Operation Dynamo in 1940-by which
time, she was named Eothen.

In the 1980s Eothen was a houseboat until she was abandoned on the Thames foreshore at the back of BJ
Wood & Son Boatyard at Isleworth Ait. Suzanne’s talk highlighted how M.L. 286 continues to evolve
through the dedicated volunteer work of The Thames Discovery Programme, and what the future might hold
for her.

After fielding a number of questions, Suzanne was thanked for a very interesting talk.

Brome Trip Day 2
The first and last stops on Tuesday were at churches. The reports on these are recorded together so that
contrasts can be drawn.
St Peter’s Church, Forncett St Peter Micky Watkins
To Londoners, the high round tower seems very remarkable, but there are 185 round towers surviving, 124
of them in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk. A thousand years ago when these towers were built in East Anglia there
was a fear of Viking raids and the high towers provide a good look-out and possibly some defence. The
reason why they are round is that there was a lack of building stone in East Anglia so knapped flint was used
and corners are difficult to construct in flint. Even the youngest children were set to work picking stones
from the fields to ease the ploughman’s work so there was plenty of flint.

The round tower of St Peter’s is complete with a crenelated top and is probably the highest in the country.
Just below the top are four gargoyles and below that eight small circular openings, there are several other
openings and a small Norman doorway.

The original Anglo-Saxon church was a small church covered with thatch. In the 14th century it was rebuilt
and enlarged with three aisles. In the 17th century it was severely damaged by puritans who were very strong
in East Anglia. In the mid-19th century there was restoration work and some stained-glass memorial
windows were added.

We were all fascinated by the oak pew ends. These originated in the 15th century but severely mutilated by
Puritans who decapitated all the heads. They were very well restored in 1857. They illustrate the calendar,
symbols of morality and the saints. (Pictures by David Bromley.)

There are large stone memorials set into the floor of the aisle and an unusual alabaster tomb in memory of
Elizabeth and Thomas Drake who died in 1485. Incised on the top are portraits of them both.

ST. MARY THE VIRGIN CHURCH, WORTHAM Jean Bayne

Hidden by trees, Wortham Church is one mile away from the village it serves rather than at its centre.
Doomsday suggests there were 2 churches/parishes originally in the area but in 1769 they were combined
into one. The most striking feature of this church is its round tower, with the largest diameter in England at
about 10 metres and a height of nearly 19 metres.


This has led to speculation about the site of the church. A
partly buried black stone, The Sacred Stone, near the
tower may have been an object of pagan veneration so the
church may have been built there to counteract and
dominate the old beliefs of local people. Moreover, the
tower, all seeing but unseen, may have also been used as a
defensive structure. This view is reinforced by the fact
that a navigable river existed nearby at the time of the
Vikings—-now it is just a brook.

It is now generally accepted that this tower was built
c1160 at the same time as an earlier church, although
some claim Saxon origins. The tower is probably Norman
as are some of the existing footings in the This suggests
that a church was built at the same time as the tower: not
just added onto it but integral to it. The building we see
today is mainly in the 14th century, perpendicular style
with the addition of a splendid clerestory in the 15th
century. This has geometrical designs between the
windows and various holy signs and symbols including
the first three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek. (IHS)

The tower is an impressive example of early flint work. You cannot go inside it but parts of its interior are
clearly visible from outside through a large arched opening. It is open to the sky as the roof and bell tower
containing 4 bells collapsed in 1789 and were never replaced. A bell turret was added, though, in the 18th
century, and, more recently, in 2005, a weather vane with a horse and hounds was placed on top. There is
some evidence of internal floors and what may have been a fireplace.

The interior of the church is light- filled and welcoming. The entrance porch, with its lists of incumbents and
patrons starts at 1259 but the new porch gates were installed in 2001 to commemorate the millennium. You
experience this church as a well-loved vibrant, living institution, changing and adapting over centuries and
linking the church closely to the parishioners’ lives and experiences. Most recently, the North aisle windows
were installed in 2012 to commemorate 100 years of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich and they
reflect different areas of Wortham and celebrate faith through time from daybreak to sunset. Lilies of the
valley symbolize the Virgin Mary. Other windows are in memory of various significant figures in the past
life of the parish including a local farmer in 1986 with delightful roundels of the seasons. Black stone floor
slabs also commemorate past rectors and prominent families and individuals. A little medieval glass has
been preserved in the east window alongside the Victorian additions.

The greatest amount of restoration took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The porch, pulpit, choir
stalls, organ and timbers and roof, for example were all restored. There was some defacement of the stone
corbel heads on the wall posts in the nave in Cromwell’s time but in 1882 they were re-carved: they were of
14 monarchs from Edmund to Victoria. The loveliest carvings, however, are to be found on the bench ends
of the pews. Texts taken from Psalm 104 are charmingly illustrated by a range of different animals,
including an owl, a turtle, a deer and a walrus. This was done in 1890 when the seating was restored.

However, older features remain, among them, the highly decorated 14th century font, and a Royal Coat of
Arms from William and Mary’s time besides two 18th century hatchments. A piscina with detailed stone
carving is to be found near the altar and an old wooden vestry door stands opposite.
Outside, the tranquil graveyard is maintained as a wild life sanctuary, planted with yews, conifers, limes,
hawthorn, cherry and crab apple trees and it sits close to open fields. The lychgate, rebuilt in 1911 and
restored in 2010 is testament to the continuing investment and involvement of its parishioners and rectors.
Norfolk Tank Museum Simon Williams

The approach was flanked by 3 bad boys: namely a Scorpion (of the light variety & recent), Chieftain Mk5
(main battle tank of yesteryear), & a Walker Bulldog. No doubt the greatest draw was the replica World
War One tank: star of the recent Channel 4 documentary, ‘Guy Martin’s WWI Tank’
Altogether there was a magnificent collection – ranging from 50/60’s main battle tanks & heavy armoured
cars, such as a mighty Saladin APC & big wheeler Ferret (Scout vehicle — 6 reverse gears??) to two
Wermacht field guns and large anti-aircraft gun and (rather amazingly) a 1970 Russian missile launcher (in
decent war livery!) to a double- tracked articulated troop carrier. In the hangar there were 2 loaded standard
backpacks, which one could handle & lift (if one could) impossibly heavy to lift, let alone march/fight
with!!)

The display was of exhibits, all in battle-ready excellent condition. One was encouraged to make a hand’s-on
experience & climb aboard them. As a spin-off there was a Nissen-hut communications display.

Bressingham Jim Nelhams

Bressingham is situated on the A1066. It provides a number of attractions mainly aimed at nostalgia. It has
three separate railways of different gauges though only one, the Fen Railway, was active during our visit.
Most members chose to take a ride on this, a two-foot gauge, today diesel-hauled for the 15-minute trip out
into the countryside.
“The Gallopers” is a traditional roundabout with horses and an organ. This also attracted most of us, even
those nonagenarians in the group.

There are also a number of sheds housing railway engines and carriages and a Dads’ Army museum with
parts of Wilmington High Street. My favourite was the Royal Mail railway coach still with its sorting racks.
Bressingham Gardens Liz Tucker

While browsing in the steam engines and Dad’s Army museum, I noticed that they had been founded by
Alan Bloom (1906-2005), the plantsman and designer whom I’d frequently come across in garden
magazines. His work has been continued by his son Adrian. We therefore allowed an hour to explore the
famous gardens.

There are two main garden areas. The “Foggy Bottom” garden, designed by Adrian, has a winding path
through it. There were some flowering plants, but the characteristic island beds mainly contained conifers
and grasses of every possible size, shape, colour and texture, which would look beautiful at any season. Next
to that garden, Adrian planted a wood of exotic trees, such as giant redwoods.

The Summer garden opposite was designed by Alan Bloom himself. Luckily it was a lovely sunny day, as
we kept being drenched by sprinklers, and could dry off easily!

We did not have time for the plant sales area; probably a good thing, as we had enough plants to carry from
Cressing Temple!

Eleanor Crosses – Journey’s end Jim Nelhams

We have been following the route of the funeral procession of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, after her death in
1290.

Leaving Dunstable, the procession continued southwards along Ermine Street to St Albans. Here they were met by
monks and the coffin was sheltered overnight in the Cathedral. The stopping place was at the south end of The Market and is marked by a plaque on the clock tower.

Thence they headed east to Waltham Abbey, where another of the original crosses remains (at Waltham Cross). The
statues on the upper section of this cross have been replaced, but a notice advises that the originals are in Cheshunt
central library. A number of buildings and roads in the area pay recognition to the journey, including Geddington
Court and Hardingstone Court (both named after other crosses) and Castile Court all in Eleanor Way.

The next stopping point was in Westcheap (now Cheapside in the City of London) A few fragments of this cross
survive in the Museum of London. The cross was damaged in religious upheavals. It does appear in old pictures
showing the coronation procession of King Edward VI.

Thence to Charing Cross, where the Victorian stone cross on the forecourt of the station was erected to publicise the
Charing Cross Hotel. Further recognition can be found in murals on the platforms of the Northern Line stations.
After this final rest, the journey was completed to Westminster Abbey.

When Edward I died in 1307, his embalmed body also reached Westminster after a stop at Waltham Abbey. Both he
and his much-loved Queen have tombs in St Edward the Confessor’s Chapel behind the High Altar of Westminster
Abbey.

Exploring the Oceans (part 3) Jo Nelhams

Cook had been at sea throughout six of the preceding seven years and had completed two tremendous
voyages such as had never been made before. There remained one more great unknown, the North Pacific.
The possibility of a North West Passage had only been investigated without success from the North Atlantic.
If there was any such passage, then it was likely there was a link to the North Pacific.

Cook accepted command of the third voyage. He was now 47 years and had been at sea more or less
continuously for 30 years. On July 6th, 1776, barely a year after completing the second voyage, he set sail
again on the Resolution from Plymouth accompanied by the Discovery. Some of the crew had had
experience with Cook on his previous two voyages.

The Resolution had had a refit while in the dockyard, but Cook was not able to observe the work being done
very often. Some of the work was of poor quality. They sailed south towards the south of Africa. At the
Cape, there were repairs to the ship, where work was more thoroughly done.

They continued on towards Tasmania with some very rough weather with the ship rolling violently.
Tasmania had good harbours and some of the best shipbuilding timber. Here they found fine trees for new
masts. Sailing on to New Zealand he was in seas which were familiar to him and continued on to the South
Pacific islands and Tahiti. Here they were able to replenish supplies for the journey.

(The red line shows Cook’s passage. The blue line shows the boat’s return after his death)
It was time to leave familiar places and sail north. Cook was pioneering this route, which was to become
greatly used later. On route to the North Pacific having been at sea for nearly 2 years he came across the
Hawaiian Islands. They were the first European vessels known to have been there.

They reached the coast of Alaska, but then had to find a channel through the Aleutian Islands. There were
some puffs of smoke, which indicated volcanic activity among the mountains. The ice was becoming more
impassable and great floes ground together in the swell. Cook reached nearly 71 degrees north, but it was
no use, there was no way through, nor hope of any and so he turned back to head southwards. He sailed
down from the Arctic towards the Hawaiian Islands. He eventually found a shallow bay on the western side
of the Big Island, which is the biggest island and is called Hawaii. This was January 1779.

The inhabitants appeared to be friendly and welcoming. After some months the ships were ready to sail
again, with their sails and rigging repaired as well as they could be and stores on the ships replenished. It
was now early February and the Resolution set sail again.

They had not sailed very far when the ship suffered some more damage from some submerged coral. Cook
was reluctant to return to the islands but there was no other option.

The islanders were not so welcoming. Cook had been mistaken on the first landing as being ‘Lono’, a god,
but on returning so quickly the attitude was different. Thieving from their ships had happened before but
now it was excessive. Fighting between the islanders and the crew began and Cook tried to return to the
water’s edge, but he was attacked, and he then fired a shot with pellets. He was violently clubbed by a
warrior and then stabbed many times and there he died.

Captain Clerke from the Discovery took Cook’s command and Lieutenant Gore from the Resolution took
command of the Discovery.

It was tragic that James Cook, who elsewhere on his travels had established good relationships with the
Polynesians, should end his extraordinary life of exploration and caring for his crews, never having a case of
scurvy on any of the ships that he had captained on his years of sailing the oceans.

Captain Clerke after leaving Hawaii pressed on to the Arctic again for one more effort, but the ice fields
were larger and further south so no hope of getting anywhere.

It was October 1799, when the ships finally started the journey homeward, down the western side of the
Pacific and across the Indian Ocean, but it would be October 1780 before the Resolution and Discovery
arrived back in England, very quietly, after a voyage of 4 years and 3 months.
The search for the North West passage would continue well into the Victorian age.


The above statue of Captain James Cook stands at the eastern end of The Mall close to Admiralty Arch.

OTHER SOCIETIES & INSTITUTIONS EVENTS, compiled by Eric Morgan
Please check with the organisations before setting out in case of any changes / cancellations
Tuesday, 8th January, 6.30pm, LAMAS. Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London
Wall, EC2Y 5HN. “From the Romans to the Saxons – Results from the archaeological fieldwork at the site
of St Martin-in-the-fields Church, Trafalgar Square” Talk by Al Telfer (MoLA). Refreshments 6pm Nonmembers
£2.
Tuesday, 8th January, 1pm. Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE “The Pope as
Pontifex Maximus. Tracing a Title from Numa Pompilius to James1” Free public lecture by Dr Oren
Margolis and Dr Graham Barrett. Spaces are limited, and reservations recommended at www.sol.org.uk
Wednesday, 9th January, 2.30pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, Mill
Hill, NW7 3TB. Talk “The Blue Plaque Scheme for London.” By Cathy Powers (English Heritage Manager)
Friday, 18th January, 7pm. CoLAS, St. Olave’s Hall, Mark Lane, EC3R 7BB. “A conversation about
conservation: 20 years of caring for museum collections” by Andy Holbrook (Collection care manager at the
Museum of London). Visitors £3.
Friday, 18th January, 7.30pm. Wembley History Society, English Martyrs’ Hall, Chalkhill Road,
Wembley, HA9 9EW (Top of Blackbird Hill, adj. to the Church). “Brent, London and the Anti-Apartheid
Struggle”. By Suresh Kamath. Visitors £3

Acknowledgements & Thanks: Jean Bayne Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Jo Nelhams,
Liz Tucker, Micky Watkins, Simon Williams,

HADAS
Chairman: Don Cooper, 59 Potters Road, Barnet, EN5 5HS Tel. 020 8440 4350
chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary: Jo Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet, EN5 5HS Tel. 020 8449 7076
secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer: Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet, EN5 5HS Tel. 020 8449 7076
treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec: Stephen Brunning, Flat 22, Goodwin Court,
52 Church Hill Road, East Barnet, EN4 8FH Tel: 02084408421
membership@hadas.org.uk
Web site: www.hadas.org.uk/
Discussion group: http://groups.google.com/group/hadas-archaeology

The January Newsletter Editor will be:
Peter Pickering: send contributions to him by 14th December please.

Newsletter-191-January-1987

By | Past Newsletters, Volume 4 : 1985 - 1989 | No Comments

 

 Newsletter 191 January 1987                                               Edited by Liz Holliday

DIARY,

Wednesday 7 January LECTURE CANCELLED

We have just heard from the library that the lecture hall is to be redecorated and will not be available for:our January meeting. An alternative venue was suggested, but we felt this would not be satisfactory at such short notice.

Wednesday 4 February “London in the Mid-Saxon and Viking Period” by Dr. Alan Vince, Museum of London. At Hendon Library. The Burroughs, Hendon. Coffee available from 8pm. Lecture begins at 8.30pm.

AFTER IRON a note from Dr.E.H.T. Hoblyn

 “I was very interested in Percy Reboul’s page in your December issue but was puzzled by his reference to Parkesine. My organic chemistry is now more than rusty but I wonder if chloroform and castor oil would produce a sub-

stance ‘hard as horn’, I have therefore, done some digging and have found from Sylvia Katz who wrote ‘Plastic Plastics’ that Alexander Parkes in his early work in the 1840s mixed cotton fibre and wood flour with nitric and sulphuric acids (which would give him nitro-cellulose) and he then mixed the ‘resulting product with castor oil and wood naphthna to produce his original ‘Parkesine’. It was, however, when he moved to mixing camphor with nitrocellulose and alcohol that,’ in 1865, he produced the better known form of ‘Parkesine’, the forerunner of celluloid orxvlonite as it was better known in thiscountry.(‘Plastics in the Service of Man’ by Couzens and Yarsley).The British firm manufacturing celluloid was the British Xylonite Company founded in 1877 which, in 1887, built a factory at Brantham on the banks of the River Stour opposite Manningtree, Essex. They made artificial ivory and tortoiseshell for combs (functional and decorative) and hairbrushes; tubing for bicycle pumps and bodies for fountain pens; handles for toothbrushes and shaving brushes; and a large tonnage of piano keys and knife handles in the form well known before the modern dishwasher led to metal handles.

They were made in the plain-and excellent grained ivory forms. Another popular product was the celluloid collar and shirt front (or ‘dicky’) which comprised a sheet of linen sealed between two sheets of white celluloid. I do hope that Percy Reboul will keep us posted with his findings.”

SOME ANSWERS TO THE GREEN PUZZLE

The borough archivists are grateful for two helpful replies to the enquiry concerning ,green lanes, one recommending W.G.Hoskins’ comments in The Making of the English Landscape and the other pointing out that in 1764 Hendon Lane/Finchley Lane was not a particularly major road.

This month’s accessions to the Local History Collection include archives from the Mill Hill Highwood Townswomen’s Guild; copies of deeds and photographs concerning the Alexandra public house, East Finchley and the surro­unding area; albums of photographs of Chas. Wright & Co.’s factory, Hendon and a booklet of photographs of Barnet and Hadley produced in about 1900 by J.Cowing.

Herbert Norman’s donation of his drawings of local buildings was mentioned in the Newsletter last month members may like advance notice that these will be on display in an exhibition of his work to be held at Church Farm House Museum from March 28 to April 26 this year.


A STORM IN A VESTRY TEA CUP

Nell Penny uncovers a rebellion by the Hendon Vestry

Local rates, be they parish, borough or county, have ever been matters of controversy. In 1820 the vestry of Hendon parish, conscious of having to set ever increasing poor rates (in 1821 they were to set three rates at 6d in the £ – 7.25p in the in all) began to look at rating valuations. They found that these had not been changed since 1722, and promptly appoint­ed a committee which revalued the parish at a total of £24,470.

At the same time the Vicar, the irascible Reverend Theodore Williams, was also doing his sums. Since 1722 Hendon vicars had been accepting a 3d rate in commutation of their “Great and Little Tythes”:- “always excepting Surplice. Fees and other Perquisites”. Mr. Williams gave notice that he was putting an end to this system. The vestry therefore had the vicar’s property and his tithes assessed. The vicar protested – the parish persisted. In 1822 the Reverend Williams and Thomas Street appealed to a General Quarter Sessions against the assessments. Mr. Street was presumably a newcomer to the district – his name does not appear in .the 1821 census. The vicar chaired the vestry meeting in September, a function he very rarely performed; the officers of the parish did not feel bold enough to contradict him to his face. They appointed a sub-committee of William Geeves, Thomas Shettle and Mr.Goodchild, all farmers and office holders, to reconsider the valuations. By ‘December the vestry had decided to let the valuations stand and to pay their solicitor to defend them against the vicar at the Quarter Sessions.

Meanwhile, the vestry had taken steps to turn itself into a Select Vestry according to legislation of 1818. In theory a vestry had been a town meeting of ratepayers  in practice it had been a monthly gathering of half a dozen office holders, churchwardens, overseers of the poor and surveyors of the highways who accepted the accounts of the overseers of the poor. There might be a few more ratepayers at a meeting where the poor rate-was to be- set. The crowded meeting in the parish church in November 1822 decided by 200 votes to 165 that a Select Vestry should be elected. Hence­forward a vestry meeting could not be larger than twenty members, but a minimum of five was necessary for a quorum.

But back to our storm in the vestry tea cup. Eventually Quarter Sessions reduced the assessment on Mr. Williams’ property from £672 to £640 and on his tithes by a similar percentage. But Williams did not wait for the outcome of his appeal. It seems that he regarded the Vestry Clerk, James Goodyer as his arch enemy and the leader of the vestry rebellion. I think James disliked the vicar as much as the latter disliked him. Preserved among the parish archives are meticulous copies of most of the letters to and from the vestry at this period – all in Mr.Goodyer’s beautiful copper­plate handwriting. There is also a list of Goodyer’s own property: five houses in the Burroughs and one in Brent Street. On the new valuation he had secured rating reductions which averaged 11 per cent.

On January 29th 1823, the vestry met and read a letter from the vicar to Mr. Greeves, one of the churchwardens The letter attacked James Goodyer on three counts: a) that Goodyer’s personal property was wrongly rated; b) that the vestry clerk had been appointed to his job in 1796 by “private appointment” and that his salary of £40 a year out of the poor rate was “extravagant and unwarranted” and c) “I will submit to your own good feeling whether a man who is capable of making a false entry in a Parish minute book be not morally incapable of fulfilling any public trust”. The vestry held a Special meeting next day and replied to the vicar a). all rating appeals were up for arbitration so the parish would not comment in the meantime; b) Mr. Gooyer’s appointment as Clerk had not been a private appointment but by a “valid public vote” and the parish  was obliged to “those gentlemen.— for the discrimination used in the selection of a gentleman to fill that office whose conduct in and great attention to the Duties thereof, have given general satisfaction… the salary paid to Mr.Goodyer’ is neither extravagant nor unwarrantable”. c) the charges of falsifying the accounts against Mr Goodyer were so serious that the vestry asked the Reverend Williams to produce his evidence for their consideration.

Unfortunately this letter was in Goodyer’s beautiful handwriting. The Vicar would not open it and returned it to the vestry. This provoked the vestry to write to the Bishop of London regretting that “Communication between the Vicar and themselves had been cut off” and asking for the Bishop’s guidance. At the next vestry meeting in February 1823 the Vicar took the chair, but stormed out when the Vestry would not endorse his accusations against Goodyer. A churchwarden had to preside so that he could sign the minutes and announce the date of the next meeting.  Another letter to the Bishop of London told him the vestry would like “Counsel’s opinion” about the Act of 1818 which they thought laid down that if the Vicar took the chair at a vestry meeting he must sign the minutes.

In April of the same year the Vicar and the vestry were at it again. A parishioner had paid what she thought were agreed fees for a tombstone of brick and stone to be erected in the churchyard. Disputing the fees, the Vicar had it dismantled – immediately – and “thrown into the Public Road”. Again to the Bishop the vestry regretted “the varience unhappily existing between the Vicar and his Parishioners which promotes secession from the Church”     .

At the same April meeting James Goodyer resigned as Parish Clerk. Perhaps he felt that over twenty-five years of copying accounts and taking minutes was enough – perhaps he felt he must leave the fight against the Reverend to a younger man. He pleaded ill health. The vestry paid they were very sorry to lose him. There is no record of what the Reverend Theodore said.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SERVICE

Gerrard Roots outlines the current exhibition at Church Farm House Museum

The St. John Ambulance Brigade – the uniformed branch of the Order of St. John, which has itself existed in Britain since c.1148 – celebrates its centenary in 1987. Founded •to promote knowledge of first aid amongst the general public, its first division in this area was set up in 1903 and was based upon. Queen Eizabeth’s Boys School in Barnet. Since that time numerous divisions have been created in the Barnet area.

The activities of the Brigade have greatly expanded since its inception. The Brigade numbers increased significantly during World Wars I and II when members of the St. John volunteered for active service with the Royal Army Medical Corps or provided emergency first aid at home with the air raid patrols.

The Brigade, as well as continuing its first aid training, provides first aid assistance at public gatherings, gives an aeromedical service to bring the sick home from abroad, and through the St. John Air Wing, transports vital organs and medical supplies for transplants.

This exhibition presents through photographs, documents, costume and other memorabilia, the wide range of St. John activities in the Barnet area over the past 80 or so years. It also shows something of the history of the origins of the Order of St. John from its first hospice in Jerusalem in AD 600.

The exhibition will be on show from 3 January until 8 February.Please remember that there will be no lecture in January. The next lecture “London in the Mid-Saxon and Viking Period” will be on Wednesday 4 February

LETTERS FROM HADRIAN’S WALL

Anne Cheng summarizes a recent article in Omnibus by Alan K. Bowman and J. David Thomas.

At the Roman fort of Vindolanda, a mile to the south of Hadrian’s Wall, a unique collection of writing tablets is being unearthed. The texts, which date to around AD 100 include both official documents and, the private correspondence of military personnel. They are written in ink on thin slivers of wood, which was used instead of papyrus as this would have, been expensive and difficult to obtain in Britain. The deposit of writing tablets appears to extend to at least twenty metres and over 500 new finds have already been catalogued.

Many of the new texts belong to the archive of one FIavius Cerialis, a commander of a unit at the fort. However, the outstanding discovery of 19.85 must be the archive of Cerialis’ wife, Sulpicia Lepidina. Two texts in this archive contain closing lines written by Claudia Severa, Lepidina’s correspondent. This is certainly the earliest known example of writing by a woman in Latin.

Claudia’s letter is written in two columns side by side as is normal in these tablets. She invites Lepidina to a birthday party:

“Iii Idus Septembr[e]s, soror,ad diem

sollemnem natalem meum vogo

 libenter facies ut venial

ad nos incundiorem mihi

diem?] interventu tuo factures si

venia]s”

After transmitting various family greetings she adds the following lines in rather an awkward hand:

“sperato te, soror
vale, soror,anima
mea, ita valeam
karissima et have”

 “I shall expect you sister. Hail and farewell, sister, my dearest soul, as I live in health”.

The processing of these finds is extremely time-consuming and demands painstaking attention to detail, but with the amount of material already found, there is hope of yet more exciting discoveries to come.

Newsletter-572-November 2018

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No. 572 NOVEMBER 2018 Edited by Sue Willetts
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and events Lectures, the finds group course, and the film are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Buses 13, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by, and it is five to ten minutes’ walk from Finchley Central Station (Northern Line). Tea/coffee and biscuits follow the lecture.

Sunday 9th December – HADAS Christmas Lunch at Avenue House. 12:30 – 4 p.m. £30 including full Christmas dinner. See p.2.
Tuesday 8th January 2019 NO LECTURE
Tuesday 12th February 2019. Jon Cotton Prehistory in London – some Problems, Progress and Potential
Tuesday 12th March 2019. John Clark Lost and Found: the Rediscovery of Roman London
Tuesday 9th April 2019. Gustav Milne The CITiZAN Project
Tuesday 14th May 2019 Lyn Blackmore (but waiting for final confirmation) Crosse and Blackwell factory excavations
Tuesday 11th June 2019 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Tuesday 8th October 2019 To be arranged. Tuesday 12th November 2019 Bob Cowie Shene and Syon: a royal and monastic landscape revealed

For your diary – 2019 Long Trip
We have booked the hotel for our long trip in 2019. Details will follow in due course.
The hotel is: Best Western Aberavon Beach Hotel, Aberavon Beach, Port Talbot, SA12 6QP
Dates Monday 23rd to Friday 27th September 2019

Cost will be slightly higher than 2018 because of the increasing cost of fuel for the coach.
If you are interested, please let Jim Nelhams know (treasurer@hadas.org.uk)

Battle of Barnet Project
We were pleased to receive from the above a card saying: “Thank you for being part of the Battle of Barnet Project”. This is in recognition of our help with the test-pitting and other associated actions.
Although no site for the Battle of Barnet…….

Remember, Remember, Remember to sign up for the HADAS Christmas party.
The party is on December 9th, 2018, between 12.30pm and 4.00pm at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, N3 3QE. The party is for HADAS members and their guests. The price is £30 per person.
Send remittances to Peter Pickering, 3 Westbury Road, Woodside Park, London N12 7NY
Or pay directly to: Account title: HADAS, Bank code: 40-52-40 Bank account: 00007253
Please title the payment “HADAS Party 2018”

HADAS vacancy
As Jim Nelhams, who has been HADAS treasurer for the last ten years plus, has decided to stand down at next year’s AGM, HADAS is in dire need of a replacement.
Could you manage HADAS’ treasury function? If you could we would love to hear from you.
To discuss this vacancy and what the role entails please contact me (Don Cooper) by any of the various methods below. (See last page of the newsletter)
PS An assistant editor to help Sue Willetts in preparing the newsletter for printing would be very welcome. Please contact Don Cooper to discuss this role.

Exciting archaeology news from the Black Sea and Pompeii Sue Willetts
A merchant ship, thought to be Greek, dating back more than 2,400 years has been found lying on its side off the Bulgarian coast. The 23m (75ft) wreck, found in the Black Sea by an Anglo-Bulgarian team, is being hailed as officially the world’s oldest known intact shipwreck. See the BBC website for more information: It was discovered with its mast, rudders and rowing benches all present and correct just over a mile below the surface. A lack of oxygen at that depth preserved it, the researchers said. The principal investigator of the Black Sea Maritime Project (MAP) is Professor Jon Adams – his view is that this will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world.
In Pompeii a new coloured fresco has been discovered in the House of the Enchanted Garden, so called due to the variety of animals and plants that decorate its walls, which was partially excavated in the 19th century but the frescoed room has only now been found. The director of the site is Massimo Osanna. The frescoes include the figure of a horse, birds in flight and a strange human figure with a dog’s head. The main room is believed to be a lararium, a room designed to hold the images of the lares, divine protectors.
For more information and images from the Daily Telegraph – click here – or look out for more coverage to come in the archaeology press.

New Publication Information from Don Cooper The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78 by A. E. Brown and H. L. Sheldon.

This book co-authored by our president Harvey Sheldon has, after a long germination, finally been produced. It is being sold by Archaeopress and is priced at £60. I know it is expensive, but you can also download it as a pdf from the link to the Archaeopress site below.
Perhaps one of our Romanists would like to write a review in due course.
See http://www.archaeopress.com/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id=%7B7915E40D-7B87-49DD-B1CC-08D5FDABB505%7D The following text is taken from the publicity for this volume.
Excavations over a period of eight years uncovered at least ten pottery kilns, waster heaps, ditches and pits, but only a few definite structures. The pottery from the site indicates a period of operation extending from the first half of the 1st century AD to the later 2nd century. The pottery made at the site included initially a vegetable tempered handmade ware, but subsequently the bulk of it consisted of a grog tempered ware and then pottery in a sandy fabric which is well known from assemblages in London. The type of kiln varied with the pottery fabric; there was possible evidence for a pre-Roman pit firing, and later kilns set in ditches were of the twin flued type, eventually replaced by the more familiar above ground kilns with raised floors. Changes in pottery fabric were reflected in different methods of clay preparation, which led to changes in the function of the various ditches, the stratigraphy of which, along with the variation in the fabrics, was significant in enabling the four broad phases into which the site has been divided, to be proposed.
The report includes a very detailed analysis of the forms and fabrics of the pottery made at Highgate. Finds of prehistoric flintwork and pottery during the excavation, and of material of later date, together with the observation of earthworks and historical research, have been used to show the place of the pottery kilns as an element in the exploitation of the woodland of northern London over the last eight thousand years.

London Archaeologist 50 (1968-2018): an archaeological conference held in London
Robin Densem

I went to an archaeological conference on 6th October 2018. The conference, at King’s College London, was attended by some 200 amateur and professional archaeologists, and others, and was held to celebrate fifty years of the London Archaeologist magazine that had been founded in 1968. I saw at least two other members of HADAS there, including Harvey Sheldon who was co-chairing the proceedings.

The publication is an A4 sized quarterly magazine that presents archaeological research and excavation reports; interviews; finds, artefact, and bioarchaeology studies; book reviews and an events diary, and it is probably well known to our members.

The magazine contains articles from writers across the archaeological spectrum in London, on topics ranging from human skulls in the Walbrook, to community archaeology in Fulham, to Tudor bee boles in Greenwich.

London Archaeologist is run by a completely voluntary team elected annually each May at the AGM. The production of the magazine, marketing, membership and financial matters are handled by the officers. The officers are joined on the Publication Committee by up to six further ‘ordinary’ members, drawn from the professional and voluntary side of archaeology. The organisation is a registered charity, no 262851.

The presentations by various speakers at the conference included considerations of the development of archaeological practice in London over the last fifty years, and specialist contributions on finds, public engagement, health and safety, and commercial archaeology carried out to satisfy town planning requirements.

It may be that developers, planners, and construction professionals would find it interesting and worthwhile to subscribe to the magazine, as well as local society members and other archaeologists, if they are not already doing so: https://www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk/ . One of the themes at the conference was the importance of archaeology in enhancing development schemes and this is one of the threads in commercial archaeology, in amongst the fact that archaeology is a material consideration in the planning process. The reality that a developer may be faced with ten, twenty or more planning conditions, of which the historic environment is just one of these.

The left-hand image  shows the front cover of a recent issue of the magazine, featuring the reverse of a gold coin minted in London of the Saxon king Coenwulf who ruled Mercia (the Midlands down to London), from AD 796 until his death in 821. The legend reads DE VICO LUNDONIAE (‘from the wic of London’). A wic was, of course, a Saxon trading settlement or emporium, usually on a navigable river or on the coast, and the place-name element can be present in some in modern place names, such as in Sandwich on the Kent coast, or it may be preserved in the archaic names for places such as Hamwic for Southampton, Jorvic for York, and Lundenwic for London. These places were all important Saxon trading settlements, and in London and York’s cases they overlay former Roman towns there.

The right-hand image  was taken during the conference. Clive Orton who edited the magazine for 40 years from 1976 can be glimpsed at the lectern on the extreme right facing the audience as he reads a paper written by Peter Marsden on the latter’s important work on Roman London. Peter Marsden is on the left on the slide on the screen, taking notes from Mortimer Wheeler who, with his arm raised, is declaiming the history of an archaeological site in London in the 1960s. Wheeler (1890-1976) was a big figure in archaeology in England, publicising many discoveries, latterly on television, and founding the Institute of Archaeology in London, now part of University College London, in 1937.

A speaker at the conference explained how some archaeological sites in London are now being displayed for public access, notably the Temple of Mithras in the City of London. Another speaker told how a Roman sarcophagus has formed a central element of an exhibition on Roman Dead at the Museum of London (25 May – 28 October 2018) at its Docklands site. A room of displays at the conference featured books for sale, and t-shirts, though with the weather as it was on the day umbrellas would have been more appropriate!

HADAS Long trip to East Anglia Jim Nelhams
Monday 17th September and a quick tour around the borough to pick up 34 travellers for our trip, with five more to join us later at the Hotel in Brome, just south of Diss.

Cressing Temple Peter Pickering
A comfort break at a service station apart, our first stop out of London was at Cressing Temple, which I remembered having visited on a HADAS day trip in 1990, when there were ‘crowds milling around Women’s Institute competition entries’, and before the walled garden had been restored. The temple is not, as its name would imply, a place of worship, but rather a group of enormous barns with ancillary buildings and a beautiful walled garden. It is called ‘temple’ because the two largest barns were built in the thirteenth century by the Knights Templar, the famous, indeed unfairly notorious, military order who fought in the Crusades and got some of the finance for these operations out of agriculture. The ‘Barley Barn’ is the first, built early in the thirteenth century, and the ‘Wheat Barn’ came some fifty years later. Magnificent barns like these are often compared to cathedrals, and because they do not have stone or much-decorated vaults it is easier to comprehend from barns how the carpenters covered great buildings. Add to these two barns from the thirteenth century one rather similar from the seventeenth and another, smaller, from the eighteenth – and a seventeenth century farmhouse – and the true value of this complex emerges. But that is not all; Essex County Council, to whose stewardship we owe it, have, since the 1990 HADAS visit, restored the walled garden, with lots of (clearly identified) interesting and attractive plants, which looked glorious in the balmy autumnal sunlight. Oh, and there was a cafe run by Tiptree, which leads on to . . .

Tiptree Jam Shop, Tea Room and Museum Deirdre Barrie
The second stop on Day One allowed HADAS to shop early for presents (albeit weighty ones!) at the Tiptree jam shop and museum. There was also an outdoor exhibit of farm machinery. Tiptree not only manufacture jams, but also chutneys and delicacies such as an addictive lemon curd – and there are FIVE varieties of raspberry jam alone. (One preserve is actually called “Traffic Jam!”). Most of us will be familiar with the handy little 28 gram mini jars of jams and honey available in restaurants and supermarkets (and later at our hotel).
Those who could bear to postpone their trip to the tea shop could visit a small museum about the history of the firm. The Tiptree business was founded in 1885 by the Wilkin family. Peter John Wilkin (who lives nearby in a house unsurprisingly called Tiptree Hall) is the fourth generation of the Wilkin family to join the board. One of their early, witty company mottoes was “By their fruits shall ye know them.”

The management appear to have been caring employers. Houses were built for their workers, and whole families have and still do work for the company. “Wilkin & Sons Limited”, says the sign outside the factory. Present management are watchful that modern slavery does not play any part in their suppliers. Production methods continue to improve. Before the Killie Jam Filler machine was introduced in 1950, an employee could manage to fill only 20 jars of jam in an hour by hand. Now 200 jars whizz along the production line in the same time.
Jam was sent to the troops in World War I, and Tiptree was awarded a Royal Warrant for jam in 2008.
Part of the Tiptree secret is that they grow all their own fruit. Twelve mulberry trees not far from the factory were planted 120 years ago. Tiptree even have their own variety of strawberry, named “Little Scarlet”. Apparently Little Scarlet Conserve is a favourite of James Bond – it is mentioned in the Ian Fleming novel, “From Russia with Love”.

East Bergholt Church Peter Pickering
We arrived in East Bergholt fortified by Tiptree and walked from the coach past many reminders of the artist John Constable (whose parents’ house had stood there) to the imposing church of St Mary. The church signalled at the same time the wealth produced by the wool industry that had paid for it and the ferocity of the reformers who had despoiled it. Was the strange half-built but clearly ambitious tower outside the west doors evidence of a recession in the wool industry or an early sign of the reformers’ zeal?
Inside, the austere appearance left by the Puritans, who were strong in the area, is only partly softened by the Victorian reintroduction of stained glass. Careful exploration, however, reveals many features of interest – the parish chest, a fifteenth century wall-painting of the Resurrection, a seventeenth century brass (the only survivor of many once on the church floor), and a monument to Edward Lambe listing his merits in two columns – one of those beginning with E and the other of those beginning with L. But perhaps most striking was the monument to John Mattinson, schoolmaster, who was ‘unfortunately shot’ in 1723; he is described in a Latin verse as ‘a terror and a delight to his pupils’.
We were also amused by a repeated notice in the choir stalls reminding those inhabiting them to be careful what they say because the microphones mean that it will be heard throughout the church; one wonders what libellous or ribald remarks made such a reminder necessary. On our way out of the church we noted various tombs, including those of Constable’s parents, and a free-standing bell-cage, needed because there was no tower.

 

Flatford Mill Don Cooper
And so to Flatford Mill, the last visit of the day before we went to the hotel. Flatford Mill is rightly famous for being the site of many of John Constable’s paintings. John Constable (1776-1837), one of the greatest British artists, was the son of the owner of Flatford Mill. The mill itself is sited by the river Stour in a beautiful landscape now often referred to as “John Constable country”. Constable created many of his more famous paintings in the area of the mill and its surroundings. Below are a couple of my photographs, I hope they convey some sense of the beauty of the area.

Figure 1 Stour river at Flatford

It was fascinating to see the actual landscape which has hardly changed from the time it was painted by Constable. The sun was shining, and the late afternoon light highlighted the colours of the trees, vegetation and reflections on the water.

Figure 2 Willy Lot’s cottage
There is a small museum with poster illustrations of some of his paintings as well as a tea and gift shop on the site. For those, like me, that love Constable’s paintings this was an exciting and rewarding visit.
Further reports on the trip will follow….

Queen Eleanor’s Journey – Part 3 Jim Nelhams
After leaving Geddingstone, the procession made its way to Hardingstone, where another of the surviving crosses remains.

The route continued across to Watling Street (A5) and southwards along it to Stony Stratford, now part of Milton Keynes.
No trace remains of this cross – it was destroyed during the civil war by troops on their way to the Battle of Naseby. The town has many Royal connections including King John, Edward IV and Richard III.
A house at the north end of the High Street displays a plaque with the following wording.
“Near this spot stood the Cross erected by King Edward the I to mark the place in Stony Stratford where the body of Queen Eleanor rested on its way from Harby in Nottinghamshire to Westminster Abbey in 1290”
Further south along Watling Street, the cortege made a slight diversion to the Cistercian Abbey at Woburn. The original Abbey is thought to have been somewhere near the west side of the current Woburn Abbey. In 1547, Henry VIII granted the land to the first Earl of Bedford, John Russell. The building was rebuilt in 1744, and remains the residence of the Dukes of Bedford.
No trace of the Woburn Cross remains.
This is situated on the A508 London Road on the south side of Northampton. It is at the edge of Delapré Abbey, or more properly, the Abbey of St Mary de la Pré, which was a monastery, originally founded as a nunnery about the year 1145 devoted to the congregation of the great Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy, France.
Its expansive sloping grounds are a nationally-protected Wars of the Roses battlefield, as a one-time site of the advance of the Yorkists during the Battle of Northampton (1460).
This cross is octagonal and stands on some steps. The steps have clearly been replaced. When erected, there was a cross at the top, but this was lost before 1460.
Continuing along Watling Street, the next stop was at Dunstable, where overnight custody of the coffin was taken by the canons of Dunstable Priory and placed on the High Altar. The carriage was kept near the crossroads. There is a plaque on the wall of the NatWest Bank by the traffic lights.

In High Street North, there is now a modern statue of the Queen.
Nearly there. Only three more stops before Charing Cross.

OTHER SOCIETIES & INSTITUTIONS EVENTS, compiled by Eric Morgan Please check with the organisations before setting out in case of any changes / cancellations

Friday 16th November 7.30 pm Wembley History Society, English Martyrs’ Hall, Chalk Hill Road, Wembley, HA9 9EW. Talk by Camilla Churchill. Brent archives revealed, Visitors £3. Refreshments
Monday 19th November. 6.00 pm Council for British Archaeology. London Archaeological Forum, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. An opportunity to hear about London archaeology in recent months – the sites currently under investigation, recent discoveries and to discuss the issues that matter for the protection and promotion of archaeology in the capital.
Thursday 22nd November. Mill Hill Preservation Society. An evening meeting held at The Hub, Hartley Avenue, Mill Hill Library Building, Hartley Avenue, NW7 2HX – doors open 7.15 pm for coffee / subscription payments. Individual membership is £13.00 per year. The meeting will start at 7.45 pm when Chris Beney, chair of the Open Spaces Society (OSS founded 1865) will be giving a talk on the important work it does – including the protection of footpaths, common land, green spaces and parks. OSS is the oldest National conservation body in the country.
Sunday 25th November 11:30 – 16:30 Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Frost Fair with the Finchley Women’s Institute who are hosting their 7th Annual Frost Fair, with art and craft stalls.
Wednesday 28th November. 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, North Middlesex Golf Club, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Film about Britain’s past. Coast and Sea. Non-members £2.
Thursday 29th November. 8.00 pm Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Lane, N3 3QE Lecture VAD Nurses in WWI. Jean Scott Memorial Lecture given by John Drewry + actors. Non-members £2. Refreshments
Thursday 6th December. 8.00 pm Pinner Local History Society. Village Hall, Chapel Lane car park, Pinner, HA5 1AB. Talk by Brian Thompson. West Hertfordshire in the Footsteps of Herbert Tompkins on exploring with a Victorian Guide. Visitors £3.00
Friday 7th December 7.30 pm Wembley History Society (address as above). Talk. Turning the pages of History – on a historical oddity (Or Odyssey?) by Philip Grant (Brent Archives) Refreshments & mince pies. Visitors £3.00
Tuesday 11th December 6.30 pm LAMAS. Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London. (address as above) The Everyday Heroes of Postman’s Park. Talk by Dr John Price (Goldsmith’s College, University of London) Refreshments 6.00 pm Non-members £2.00
Tuesday 11th December, 7.45 pm Amateur Geological Society, Finchley Baptist Church Hall, East End Rd, N3 3QL (opp. Avenue House): Talk on enigmatic minerals of the UK by Mike Rumsey (Natural History Museum)
Wednesday 12th December, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, Mill Hill, NW7 3TB. Talk. Richard III: the body in the carpark. Dr Barry Walsh.
Thursday 13th December, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Burgh House, New End Square, Hampstead, NW3 1LT. Käthe Strenitz’s Camden Town and the Railways Lands. Talk by Peter Darley on how KS’s drawings are a unique record of Camden’s past and deserve far greater recognition. Visitors £1.00 Wine and nibbles from 7.00 pm.
Saturday 15th December. 1.30 – 3.30 pm Barnet 1471. Battlefields Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Barnet Church, junction High St. / Wood St. EN5 4BW. Mad Monk of Mitcham. Talk by Andrzej Lubienski on Medieval jewels and gemstones. Non members £5 + donation for refreshments. Pay at door.
Wednesday 19th December. 7.45 pm for 8.00 pm Edmonton Hundred Historical Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane at the junction with Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Christmas traditions. Talk by Howard Whisker. Wine and nibbles. Visitors £1.


With many thanks to this month’s contributors:
Deidre Barrie, Don Cooper, Robin Densom, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Peter Pickering, Sue Willetts

Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary Jo Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Jim Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec. Stephen Brunning Flat 22 Goodwin Court, 52 Church Hill Road,
East Barnet EN4 8FH (0208 440 8421) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk
Join the HADAS email discussion group via the website at: www.hadas.org.uk

October Lecture

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Tuesday 9th October 2018 7.45pm for 8pm: Motor Launch M.L. 286-The Not So Silent WWI Movy
Hulked at Isleworth Ait by Suzanne Marie Taylor. The talk/lecture will describe Motor launch M.L. 286-also known as a Movy, a veteran of World War I
and World War II. Built for speed in 1916, she began her adventurous life as a spirited submarine chaser as a part of The Grey Patrol in World War I. In World War II, M.L. 286 was one of the Dunkirk Little Ships, which took part in Operation Dynamo in 1940-by which time, she was named Eothen. In the 1980s Eothen was a houseboat until she was abandoned on the Thames foreshore at the back of BJ Wood & Son Boatyard at Isleworth Ait. In the present, it would seem that M.L. 286 lies stationary in the boatyard of Isleworth Ait. Yet, is she stationary? This talk will examine M.L. 286 as vibrant material culture which is continuously moving and evolving, and becoming a dynamic part of the boatyard landscape. This talk will highlight how M.L. 286 continues to evolve through the dedicated volunteer work of The Thames Discovery Programme, and what the future could possibly hold for her. This talk will aim to highlight how M.L. 286, is still very much a Movy.

Newsletter-571-October-2018

By | HADAS, Latest Newsletter, News, Past Newsletters, Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎ | No Comments

No. 571 OCTOBER 2018 Edited by Robin Densem
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and events

Lectures, the finds group course, and the film are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3
3QE. Buses 13, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by, and it is five to ten minutes’ walk from Finchley Central
Station (Northern Line). Tea/coffee and biscuits follow the lecture.
Wednesday 3rd October – Finds Group Course recommences. The weekly meetings are on Wednesdays,
from 6.30 to 8.30pm. There may be one or perhaps two places available. Please contact Don Cooper if
you would like to discuss and learn availability– if there is space it is possible to enrol after the course has
started.
Tuesday 9th October 2018 7.45pm for 8pm: Motor Launch M.L. 286-The Not So Silent WWI Movy
Hulked at Isleworth Ait by Suzanne Marie Taylor
The talk/lecture will describe Motor launch M.L. 286-also known as a Movy, a veteran of World War I
and World War II. Built for speed in 1916, she began her adventurous life as a spirited submarine chaser
as a part of The Grey Patrol in World War I. In World War II, M.L. 286 was one of the Dunkirk Little
Ships, which took part in Operation Dynamo in 1940-by which time, she was named Eothen. In the 1980s
Eothen was a houseboat until she was abandoned on the Thames foreshore at the back of BJ Wood & Son
Boatyard at Isleworth Ait. In the present, it would seem that M.L. 286 lies stationary in the boatyard of
Isleworth Ait. Yet, is she stationary? This talk will examine M.L. 286 as vibrant material culture which is
continuously moving and evolving, and becoming a dynamic part of the boatyard landscape. This talk
will highlight how M.L. 286 continues to evolve through the dedicated volunteer work of The Thames
Discovery Programme, and what the future could possibly hold for her. This talk will aim to highlight
how M.L. 286, is still very much a Movy.
Thursday October 11th – Quiz at Avenue House – 7:30 – £15 including a cooked supper.
HADAS regularly fields a team. Contact Stephen Brunning if you would like to be involved.
Tuesday 13th November 2018: The Rose – Shakespeare’s Secret Playhouse – a film made by Suzanne
Marie Taylor, Anthony Lewis and Siegffried Loew-Walker. The documentary film will be introduced by
one of the filmmakers, Anthony Lewis. The film’s highlight is HADAS member Suzanne Marie Taylor’s
interview with one of the world’s greatest and most respected actors, Ian McKellen, who speaks about his
own personal experience during the 1989 Save the Rose Campaign when the Rose was partially excavated
by the Museum of London. The film was premiered at Canada House on February 2nd 2017.
Sunday 9th December – HADAS Christmas Lunch at Avenue House. 12:30 – 4 p.m. £30 including full
Christmas dinner.

CHARING CROSS Stewart Wild
Jim Nelhams pondered in the last newsletter, with reference to Charing Cross station and the nearby
Eleanor Cross, on the origin of the name Charing. I must say, I think an etymology of “chère Reine” (dear
Queen) is rather ludicrous.

The Oxford Dictionary of London Place Names (2001) may be more helpful: Charing Cross
Westminster. The first part of the name is recorded early, as Cyrringe c.1100, Cherring 1198, La
Cherryng 1258 and’ La Charryng 1263. Derivation Old English c(i)erring (turning or bend), which may
refer either to the bend in the River Thames here, or to the well-marked bend in the old main road from
London to the West (Akeman Street, the Great West Road).

Personally I prefer the river derivation, as the Thames at this point makes a spectacular 90-degree turn
from a northerly to an easterly course which would have been unmissable, and significant, to eleventhcentury
Londoners settled nearby.

CHARING CROSS, AND THE EQUESTRIAN STATUE Robin Densem
Jim Nelhams wrote in the last issue (no. 570) that the folk etymology is that the place-name was perhaps
derived from “Chère Reine”. I took his mention of folk to be a warning that the derivation may or may
not be reliable – as it was folk etymology. It post-dated earlier variations of the place-name for the place.
The site (Site) of the original wooden Eleanor Cross is where the equestrian statue of Charles I stands, at
the south end of Trafalgar Square. The stone replacement cross on the Site was destroyed in 1647.

There is a story about the statue, cast by Le Sauer in 1633, and said to be the earliest equestrian statue in
England. The bronze statue had been ordered by Charles I’s Lord High Treasurer, Richard Weston, for
his garden at Roehampton. In 1649, John Rivett, a brazier or bronze-smith, was ordered to destroy the
statue, but instead he buried it in his garden. Rivett made a fortune by selling fragments of bronze,
purportedly from the statue. These were purchased by Roundheads and Cavaliers, respectively to either
rejoice in the destruction of the image of the king, or to have and treasure a memento of him.

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, eight of the regicides who had signed the death
warrant of Charles I were executed at the Site. The Site was chosen so these regicides would look south at
the Banqueting House on Whitehall where their order to execute Charles I had been carried out in 1649.
Meanwhile also in 1660 the equestrian statue was unearthed by Rivett from his garden. He refused to give
the statue up to Lord Weston’s son, and by gift or purchase it came into the hands of Charles II, and was
erected on the Site in 1675, where it still stands, the earliest equestrian statue in England.

The execution by beheading of Charles I on a makeshift scaffold in front of Banqueting House in January1649. The king called for two shirts so he wouldn’t shiver in the cold. He
is reported to had said “the season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation.”

SOME EARLY DAYS IN ROMAN SOUTHWARK Robin Densem
I arrived again at Montague Close, SE1 one Sunday in late May 1972 to volunteer on what would have
been a third season for me on the local Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society excavation on a
17th century delftware pottery site. Their site was full, but they thought there might be space down the
road at Harvey Sheldon’s site at 207 Borough High Street (207BHS). There I was set to work shovelling
what I later realised was natural sand and gravel! I asked about coming back another day, and there was
some discussion in the background, out of my earshot – the site supervisor said they would be open again
on Wednesday, so I returned. The site supervisor was the late Eric Ferretti who was to be my mentor for
the next fifteen months. Apparently there had been some concern I was too noisy but he had felt I might
just be useful. This site was being excavated on behalf of the Southwark Archaeological Excavation
Committee, SAEC, founded in 1962, for which Harvey was their Field Officer. Later I discovered that
Harvey led a band of archaeologists who had excavated several Roman sites, including Highgate Wood
(with A. E. Brown), and various rescue sites, in advance of redevelopment, in the East End of London, a
site in Clapham, another in Cambridge, and a major site, Toppings Wharf, in Southwark, by London
Bridge. I eventually realised much of this work was funded by grants from the Directorate of Ancient
Monuments and Historic Buildings (DAMHB) of the Department of the Environment, working in liaison
with the Inspector and Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments for London, and by grants from the
county archaeological society, the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.

At 207BHS we had other volunteers on site on the weekends, working alongside a few full-timers who
were funded, and on Wednesdays to Fridays there were far fewer, if any volunteers, apart from me! So,
after a few days Eric said he would like me to open a trench, and it was suggested I should purchase a
double-sided notebook, with graph paper alternating with lined paper.

We worked in imperial scale and drew plans at one inch to two feet, so at 1:24. I remember being worried
that it was difficult to record relationships, as we generally only drew the extents of features, not layers –
all this was to change in the early 1980s with our adoption of the ‘single context recording system’ that
involved the planning of all layers and features, so plans could be overlain to discern relationships.
My trench, and I was so proud to have a role, was trench 4 and it contained the eastern edge of the gravel
metalling of the Roman bridge approach road, Stane Street, and its underlying ‘agger’ or bank of dumped
sand and silt, laid of a raft of timbers. The seriousness and commitment to recording was all-present, and I
began to learn about the complexities of archaeological stratigraphy, and a little about finds.

207BHS on a week-end day in summer 1972. I am sitting on the end of the far trench
wearing a white helmet, and writing in one of my notebooks.

BARNET IN CONTEXT: DATA FROM THE GLHER Robin Densem
Archaeology Advisors and Greater London Historic Environment Record (GLSMR) staff at
Historic England Greater London Archaeology Advisory Service (GLAAS). Photo: Robin Densem.
I had great plans to study the historic environment record (HER) data for the extent of the London
Borough of Barnet, but have only just started! My idea was to quantify the HER entries by period, and
see what this told me about the archaeology and history of Barnet. This idea goes back to 1976 when
Harvey asked me to look after the archaeology of Lambeth for his archaeological unit, the Southwark &
Lambeth Archaeological Excavation Committee, and I began researching local archaeology then.
Meanwhile in the City, John Schofield and Brian Hobley of the Museum of London’s Department of
Urban Archaeology began from 1978 “suggesting to every developer that they should pay for the
necessary archaeological work on their redevelopment site.” (John Schofield 1998 Archaeology in the
City of London 1907-91 (Museum of London). Harvey established the Museum’s Department of Greater
London Archaeology in 1983, having been instrumental in establishing the Greater London Sites and
Monuments (GLSMR) record that saw the employment of its first staff member, Pete James, in 1982.
We had achieved some developer funding for prominent sites from 1983, and then, largely George
Dennis, developed the use of archaeological planning conditions in Southwark from 1985, including for
the Rose Theatre in 1989. That year saw several sites in the news, as archaeological excavation work
found sites that needed preservation. In the reorganisations that followed, the GLSMR was taken into
English Heritage and is now the GLHER that is a marvellous and essential source of archaeological
information.

There is some information about GLAAS and its constituent GLHER on the internet at:
https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/our-planning-services/greater-london-archaeology-advisoryservice/
. The website explains “The GLHER is a comprehensive and dynamic resource for the historic
environment of Greater London. From the earliest human occupation to the present day, its data supports
the work of the Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service. Our computerised record contains over
87,000 entries providing data on archaeological sites, historic buildings, historic parks and landscapes,
finds and heritage features, and supporting sources of information.” (accessed 22nd September 2018).
My hope is to use the GLHER data for Barnet to identify historic houses and mansions, and maybe to
give some lectures about them. Some of the buildings still stand today.

As part of my background reading I counted the number of archaeological projects in each London
borough from 1972, the first year for which the London Archaeologist magazine took to publishing an
annual round up of archaeological fieldwork. The full table is a bit too big to publish here but if you email
me, robindensem@btinternet.com, then I should be able to email the table to you. Some extracts:

My conclusion is that I have more work to do. I have been a great believer in a theory that there is more
archaeology on sands, silts and gravel then on London Clay, but is this true? And how much of Barnet is
on London Clay? A problem is that such theories can become self-reinforcing, as if sites on London Clay
are rarely investigated, then the truism that there isn’t much there appears proved! And I haven’t started
looking at Rocque’s map of London and Ten Miles Round of 1746 that I expect covers at least part of
Barnet. And there are many more maps that I hope to look at. Meanwhile I am very grateful to Laura
Hampden of the GLSMR for providing Table 1, and to her colleague Rebecca Seakins for my visit.

HADAS AT THE HENDON PAGEANT Don Cooper
HADAS had a stall at the Hendon Pageant which was held at the Royal Airforce Museum on Saturday
15th September 2018. It was a well-attended event. Andy Simpson, Bill Bass and I were there to represent
HADAS. The highlight of the event was a fly-past by the last surviving airworthy Lancaster Bomber in
Britain – a splendid sight.

QUEEN ELEANOR’S JOURNEY – PART 2 Jim Nelhams
When Queen Eleanor died in Harby in Northamptonshire on 28th November 1290, King Edward decreed
that her body be carried back to London for burial. The procession could only move in daylight, so it took
12 days to reach London. The King also ordered that a cross be erected at the places where they stopped
for the night, the first now being in Lincoln. There being not that many suitable stopping points on the
journey south, most were at religious establishments. In Lincoln her body was embalmed, probably at
the Gilbertine Priory. Parts of her body were sent to the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral for burial,
where they still rest, and part of the cross which was erected is now in the grounds of Lincoln Castle.
Next stop was Grantham, though no part of this cross remains. Following this, stop three was in
Stamford.

Stamford’s cross stood for approximately 350 years, and to confirm this we have two eye-witnesses. The
first was Captain Richard Symonds of the Royalist army, who visited Stamford briefly on his way from
Newark to Huntingdon on Saturday August 22nd 1645. He wrote the following in his diary,
‘In the hill before ye into the towne stands a lofty large cross, built by Edward I in memory
of Eleanor whose corps rested there coming from the north.’

The cross was probably destroyed by Cromwell’s forces during the commonwealth.
On January 16th 1745 William Stukeley wrote to a fellow antiquarian:
‘Our surveyor of the turnpike road opened up a tumulus half a mile north of Stamford on the brow of a
hill by the roadside and there discovered the foundations of the Queen’s Cross, the lower most tier of the
steps intact and part of the second, tis of Barnack stone, hexagonal, the measure of each side thirteen feet
so the diameter was thirty feet. It stood on a grassy heath called by the towns people Queens Cross’.
Stukeley also noted that the Grantham Cross decoration almost certainly contained Eleanor’s coat of
arms.

In the 1960s, a stone spire was erected at Castle Dyke, Stamford. Is this connected?
Stop 4 was at the village of Geddington, in Northamptonshire, where there was a Royal hunting lodge.
The cross is the best preserved of the remaining crosses and is unusual having 3 sides.

(Hadas visit to this
cross is recorded in
Newsletter 257 –
August 1992.)

EXPLORING THE OCEANS (PART 2) Jo Nelhams
James Cook’s Second Voyage
Having returned safely from his first voyage, much of the praise was directed to Joseph Banks, a useful
passenger and wealthy landowner from Lincoln and an amateur botanist. He had provided most of the
scientific personnel for the first voyage.
A second voyage was planned and the Admiralty’s instructions were to sail south from the tip of Africa to
search for the Great Southern Continent. Cook needed the summers in the Antarctic and suggested
circumnavigation in the higher latitudes in the winter months.


Joseph Banks was very keen to go on a second voyage and this time two ships would sail. The ships
selected were the Resolution, 462 tons and a smaller one the Adventure, 336 tons. Since the Resolution
had been selected, Joseph Banks wanted modifications to be made for his large party of naturalists,
scientists and the artist Joseph Zoffany to be accommodated. After some work had been done on the ship,
it proved to be unstable. Joseph Banks also thought that he should be in charge on the ship. After these
disagreements, Joseph Banks and his party withdrew and the Resolution and the Adventure, with
replacement naturalist, artist and draughtsman left Plymouth on July 13th 1772.

An artist and astronomer were included with those aboard. The artist was William Hodges and the
astronomer a Yorkshire man named William Wales. He took care of the chronometer, a copy of the
invention of John Harrison, which gave accurate time for the calculation longitude. Harrison’s
chronometer had been used on other ship’s voyages and had proved to be very successful. In later life
William Wales became a tutor at the Royal Mathematical School, located within Christ’s Hospital School
in the city. He was the first master there to have had considerable practical experience of navigation at
sea, which needed real mathematical knowledge.

Wales had kept a detailed logbook on board. One of his students at Christ’s Hospital was Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, and his poem, “The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”, has significant parallels with Wales’
descriptions of the voyage.

The Antarctic waters were very different from the Arctic waters. In 1773 Cook sailed across the Antarctic
Circle, the first man ever to do this. Penguins, seals and whales were not good for eating. Visibility was
often poor and there was much ice and the area of sea free to sail gradually decreasing. He had come as
far as a sailing man could go. In the poor weather the Resolution and Adventure lost contact. They knew
that a possible parting was long foreseen and the Adventure, if adrift, had her orders to make for Queen
Charlotte Sound, New Zealand.

When the Resolution reached Queen Charlotte Sound the Resolution and Adventure were reunited. The
Adventure had scurvy aboard the ship. Cook made sure that they consumed fresh food and the Adventure
was restored to being scurvy free.

The circular plan was an ideal method of investigating the South Pacific. They sailed to the east of the
longitude of Tahiti. From first crossing the Antarctic Circle in January 1773, Cook spent the next 2 years
exploring the southern oceans. On March 21st 1775 the Resolution anchored at the Cape of Good Hope.
During that time he had discovered new groups of islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific. The Resolution
had not lost a single man to scurvy or anything else avoidable. Three were lost by drowning and one from
a disease brought aboard. After 5 weeks at the Cape of Good Hope Cook sailed for England and in July
1775 dropped anchor off Spithead, but “Terra Australis” was still a mystery so there was great
disappointment at the results from this second voyage.
To be continued: Third Voyage next newsletter.

OTHER SOCIETIES & INSTITUTIONS EVENTS, compiled by Eric Morgan
Until 4th November 2018, Museum of London Bluecoats in the City: 350 Years of Christ’s Hospital, a
small, free display open daily at the Museum of London, London Wall, London EC2 5HN, 10am to 6pm.
October 2018 is Huguenots Month in Spitalfields, London. For programme visit:
http://www.huguenotsofspitalfields.org/walks-events.html or contact: Charlie de Wet at
info@huguenotsofspitalfields.org or telephone 020 7247 0367. Huguenots of Spitalfields is a registered
charity promoting public understanding of the Huguenot heritage and culture in Spitalfields, the City of
London and beyond.
Wednesday 10th October 2018, 2.30pm. Mill Hill Historical Society, Supporting Churches for 200
Years, The National Churches Trust, by Eddie Tulasiewicz, Head of Communications and Public Affairs.
The talk will be held at Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, London NW7 3TB.
Saturday 13th October 2018. Local London Guiding Day. There are free walks, lasting up to 60
minutes by guides from Camden, Clerkenwell and Islington and Westminster.
Friday 19th October 2018, 7.30pm. Wembley History Society, 7.30pm, Power Play, a tale of Victorian
values (the life and times of Mary, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland), by Bruno Bubna-Kasteliz. The talk
will be at English Martyrs Hall, Chalkhill Road, Wembley,HA9 9EW. Visitors £3.
Thursday October 25th 2018, 8pm. Finchley Society, Major Cartwright’s obelisk … and other fine
tombs in Finchley Churchyard by Dr Roger Bowdler. Major Cartwright was an early advocate of
American independence, universal (male) suffrage, the abolition of slavery and many other causes. The
talk is at 8pm in St. Mary-at-Finchley Church, Hendon Lane, London N3. Visitors £2.
Thursday 1st November 2018, 8pm. Pinner Local History Society, Watford’s Bronze Age Hoard, by
Laurie Elvin, a local archaeologist. The talk will be in the Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner
HA5 1AB. A £3 donation from visitors would be appreciated.
Saturday 3rd November 2018, 10am to 6pm. Aldenham Transport Spectacular, an indoor transport fair,
held at Allum Manor House & Hall, 2 Allum Lane, Elstree and Borehamwood, WD6 3PJ. Admission £3.
Saturday 3rd November 2018, 10.30am – 4.30pm. Geologists’ Association Festival, including exhibitors
from the world of geology, including fossil and mineral displays. University College London, Gower
Street, London WC1 6BT. Free event.
Saturday 3rd November 2018, 1.30-3.30pm. Barnet 1471 Battlefields Society, The Knights Templar, by
Robert Stephenson. The talk will be held at St John the Baptist, Barnet Church, Junction of High Street
and Wood Street, Chipping Barnet, Hertfordshire, EN5 4BW. Visitors £5, and the Society asks for
donations/money in the hat towards tea/coffee and cake.
Wednesday 7th November 2018, 8pm, Stanmore and Harrow Historical Society, The Ellen Burgin
Lecture: Historic Greenwich, by Diana Burnstein. The talk will be held at the Wealdstone Baptist
Church, High Street, Wealdstone, Harrow, HA3 5DL. Visitors £3.
Friday 9th November 2018, 8pm (doors open 7.30pm), Enfield Archaeological Society, Walbrook
Mithras Temple Reconstruction, by Sophie Jackson, MoLA. The talk will be held at the Jubilee Hall at
the junction of Chase Side and Parsonage Leane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Visitors £1.50.
Wednesday 14th November 2018, 2.30pm. Mill Hill Historical Society, The Oldest House in London, by
Fiona Rule. The talk will be held at Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, London NW7 3TB.
Wednesday 14th November 2018, 7.30pm for 8pm, Hornsey Historical Society, The Folklore and
Traditions of the Tidal Thames, by Mark Lewis. The talk will be held at Union Church Hall, (corner of
Ferme Park Road/Weston Park) N8 9PX. Doors open at 7.30pm for the sale of refreshments and
publications and talks start promptly at 8pm.
Thursday 15th November 2018, 7.30pm, Barnet Museum and Local History Society, How to Capture a
Castle by Julian Humphrys, from the Battlefields Trust. The talk will be at Pennefather Hall, St Albans
Road, EN5 4LA. Tickets on the door: member £3, visitors £5; 18 & under free. Refreshments included.
Thursday 15th November 2018, 8pm, Historical Association (Hampstead and Northwest London
Branch), Harold Godwinson: his family and career, by Dr Ann Williams, FSA, FRHistS. The talk will be
held at Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, NW11 6YD and are followed by free refreshments.
Visitors £3.00. “There is no difficulty with parking.”
Friday 16th November 2018, 6.30pm for a 7pm start, City of London Archaeological Society, A
Sarcophagus and a Roman Road in Southwark, by Ireneo Grosso. The talk will be held at St. Olave’s
Church Hall, Mark Lane, London EC3R 7BB. The lecture is followed around 8.30pm with an opportunity
to chat with the lecturer and fellow members over tea and biscuits, with an optional extension to an
adjacent pub. Visitors are asked to sign the visitors’ book and to donate £3 toward expenses.

Saturday 17th November 2018, London & Middlesex Archaeological Society, 10.30am to 6pm,
53rd Local History Conference: “An Emporium for many Nations”: London shaped by trade. Various
speakers. The conference will be held in the Weston Theatre, Museum of London, London Wall, London
EC2Y 5HN. Tickets £12.50 until 31st October 2018, and £15 from 1st November 2018. Tickets can be
purchased using PayPal via the LAMAS website http://www.lamas.org.uk/conferences/localhistory/
local-history-conference-2018.html or by post from Patricia Clarke, 22 Malpas Drive, Pinner,
Middx. HA5 1DQ, and do provide your name and address, a cheque for the requisite amount, and a
stamped addressed envelope so your ticket(s) can be posted to you.
Saturday 17th November 2018, North London & Essex Transport Society, 11am to 2.30pm, Enfield
Transport Bazaar. The bazaar will be held at St. Paul’s Centre, 102, Church Street, Enfield EN2 6AR.
There will be no bus display at this event, but up to forty selling stalls. Light refreshments available.
Admission £3, accompanied under 16 years of age free.
Wednesday 21sat November 2018, Willesden Local History Society, 7.30pm, First World War in
Willesden, by Margaret Pratt. The talk will be held in St Mary’s Parish Centre, St Mary’s Parish
Centre. Neasden Lane NW10 2TS. There is limited parking in Church Path.
Saturday 24th November 2018, Amateur Geological Society-North London, 10am to 4pm, Mineral,
Gem & Fossil Show. The show will be held at Trinity Church, Nether Street, Finchley, London N12 7NN.
Admission £2, accompanied children under 12 years of age free.


With many thanks to this month’s contributors:
Don Cooper, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Jo Nelhams, and Stewart Wild


Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary Jo Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Jim Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec. Stephen Brunning Flat 22 Goodwin Court, 52 Church Hill Road,
East Barnet EN4 8FH (0208 440 8421) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk
Join the HADAS email discussion group via the website at: www.hadas.org.uk

Roman Kiln site Highgate Wood publication

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NEW: The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78
Author: A E Brown and H L Sheldon. Paperback; 205x290mm; xii+392 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white (70 plates in colour). (Print RRP £60.00). 456 2018 Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 43. Available both in print and Open Access. Printed ISBN 9781784919788. Epublication ISBN 9781784919795.
Book contents page
Excavations over a period of eight years uncovered at least ten pottery kilns, waster heaps, ditches and pits, but only a few definite structures. The pottery from the site indicates a period of operation extending from the first half of the 1st century AD to the later 2nd century. The pottery made at the site included initially a vegetable tempered handmade ware, but subsequently the bulk of it consisted of a grog tempered ware and then pottery in a sandy fabric which is well known from assemblages in London. The type of kiln varied with the pottery fabric; there was possible evidence for a pre-Roman pit firing, and later kilns set in ditches were of the twin flued type, eventually replaced by the more familiar above ground kilns with raised floors. Changes in pottery fabric were reflected in different methods of clay preparation, which led to changes in the function of the various ditches, the stratigraphy of which, along with the variation in the fabrics, was significant in enabling the four broad phases into which the site has been divided, to be proposed.

The report includes a very detailed analysis of the forms and fabrics of the pottery made at Highgate. Finds of prehistoric flintwork and pottery during the excavation, and of material of later date, together with the observation of earthworks and historical research, have been used to show the place of the pottery kilns as an element in the exploitation of the woodland of northern London over the last eight thousand years.

About the Authors
TONY BROWN was a member of the academic staff of the University of Leicester for over thirty years, moving there in 1964 as an Assistant Staff Tutor (Organising Tutor for Leicestershire). In 1966 he became Organising Tutor for Northamptonshire and in 1968 Staff Tutor in Archaeology. From 1990 he held a joint appointment with the School of Archaeological Studies, retiring in 2001 as an Emeritus Reader. During the earlier part of this period he engaged in rescue excavations for the Department of the Environment (Roman pottery kilns at Harrold in Bedfordshire and the Roman small town of Towcester in Northamptonshire), thereafter concentrating rather more on fieldwork and documentary studies of the medieval and post-medieval landscapes of the English Midlands. He has latterly interested himself in the relationship between European and native styles of artillery fortifications in South-east Asia. He has written or collaborated in the production of some sixty papers and either singly or with others written or edited books on the topography of Leicester, medieval moated sites, garden archaeology, Roman small towns, archaeological fieldwork, and antiquarian writing in the 18th century. He edited the journal Northamptonshire Archaeology and its predecessors from 1966 to 1984.

HARVEY SHELDON has been involved in London archaeology since the early 1960’s. He was Field Officer for the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Committee from 1972 until 1975, then Head of the Department of Greater London Archaeology in the Museum of London from its establishment in 1975 until 1991. During this period he was also a part-time tutor in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies University of London, and later, in the Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck, University of London. From the late 1990’s until 2010 he had responsibilities for the faculties archaeological field programme and for the direction of its MA in Field Archaeology. Since 2011 he has been an Hon. Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy at Birkbeck. He part-edited and contributed to Interpreting Roman London: Papers in Memory of Hugh Chapman, (Oxbow 1996), and London Under Ground: The Archaeology of a City (Oxbow 2000). More recent articles include: Enclosing Londinium: the Roman landward and riverside walls in Trans London Middx Archaeol Soc 61 (2010); Roman London: early myths and modern realities? in Hidden Histories and Records of Antiquity: LAMAS Special Paper 17 (2014); ‘Rescue’: Historical Background and founding principles in Rescue Archaeology Foundations for the future (2015) and Tony Legge and continuing education at the University of London 1974-2000 in Economic Zooarchaeology (2017). Harvey is also directly involved in many aspects of London archaeology and he currently chairs both the Rose Theatre Trust and the Council of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.