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Mar 30

Newsletter 588 – March 2020

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

No. 588 MARCH 2020 Edited by Deirdre Barrie

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.

The March talk has been changed due to other commitments by our advertised speaker Lyn Blackmore.

Tuesday 10th March 2020: Adam Corsini – Layers of London. This is a free online map-based resource. By overlaying historic maps and data sets, users can fade them in and out to discover how their area has developed. The project also encourages anyone to contribute their own local histories, memories, images and stories, building records and collections that enrich this unique historical resource for the future. This talk will give a background to the project, focusing on the site’s archaeological information, and demonstrate how you can be part of the project.

Tuesday 14th April 2020: Signe Hoffos – Lost City Churches

Tuesday 12th May 2020: Tim Williams – Archaeology of the Silk Roads

Tuesday 9th June 2020: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

September 2020 trip, 20^th – 24^th September.

A reminder that the proposed 5-day trip for 2020 will take place from Sunday 20^th September to Thursday 24^th September and will be based at The Best Western Stoke City Centre Hotel, 66 Trinity Street, Stoke on Trent, ST1 5NB. This was previously a Quality Hotel. Do not confuse with the Best Western Plus Stoke on Trent Moat House which is currently rebranding and considerably raising their prices.

We have tried to keep costs unchanged for several years, normally making a small profit, but prices have gradually risen and in 2019 we made a loss, so this year we are having to adjust. The price will be £580 for a single room and £530 per person sharing a room (double or twin). Costs include dinner, bed and breakfast and we will provide a packed lunch each day except the Sunday.

HADAS COMMITTEE

At the Annual General Meeting in June, Don Cooper is standing down as Chairman after many years of service, and Jo Nelhams as Secretary is standing down as well, as is Sue Willetts. Please give some serious thought how you can help the Society to function as it has done successfully for many years. At present we have four Committee meetings each year.

PREHISTORIC LONDON, SOME PROBLEMS, PROGRESS AND POTENTIAL The second Dorothy Newbury Memorial lecture – Jon Cotton Peter Pickering

This, the second Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture, was given on 11th February (four days before what would have been her hundredth birthday) by Jon Cotton, now a freelance archaeological consultant after more than thirty years at the Museum of London. Jon’s subject was ‘Prehistoric London, some Problems, Progress and Potential’. To make his subject manageable, he passed over the Palaeolithic, and covered the long period from the Mesolithic to the pre-Roman Iron Age. Even though the evidence for prehistoric activity in the London region has been reduced by ploughing and by Roman and subsequent development, and by the concentration of antiquarians and, until fairly recently, archaeologists, on Roman remains, there is still a lot more than I, for one, had realised. Most of that comes from gravel terraces and from the Thames itself, but recently it has become clear that there was prehistoric activity on the large areas of clay that had been thought neglected.

Antiquarians had seen and recorded prehistoric constructions, but tended to believe they were Roman – for instance William Stukeley in the early eighteenth century had recorded earthworks on Hounslow Heath (now under Heathrow airport) but called them ‘Caesar’s Camp’.

The Thames in pre-history was a multi-channel meandering river, with gravel highs that became eyots; boreholes during the construction of Crossrail have elucidated a lot about ancient land surfaces. The river divided north from south London, and the limit of tidal activity divided west from east. Its flood plains were an enduring feature until modern embankment – some believe that the name ‘Londinium’ derives from something like ‘Plowonida’, meaning ‘the flooding one’; the view from Richmond Hill makes it evident how flat the Thames Valley bottom is. For much of the twentieth century the Thames was biologically dead, but it now teems with fish. The river was immensely important to prehistoric people, and a large number of artefacts have been found, many probably consigned to the water for religious reasons. The river was full of bronze spearheads – though some might be accidental losses or the consequence of battles, the prime motive might be showing off a person’s disposable wealth or the appeasement of an elemental force – perhaps gifts to the river would buy off floods.

The construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 enabled the archaeological investigation of a wide area of land, and greatly increased knowledge of how it was developed and occupied before the Roman invasion. There were field systems, neolithic houses, and great earthworks, one with a raised bank over two miles long – vivid evidence of the availability of manpower and good project management. Similarly, the remains of an aurochs with six arrowheads in it was vivid evidence of prehistoric hunting – wisely, the fearsome beast had been shot from behind. The Bronze Age apparently saw a reduction in population.

Tributary valleys of the Thames have produced much evidence of mesolithic activity. Besides HADAS’s important dig on West Heath, with which Dorothy Newbury was greatly involved and the second instalment of whose publication is well under way, significant mesolithic finds have been made recently in Carshalton, and Uxbridge in the Colne Valley. The crossing of the Colne valley by HS2 may very well produce further discoveries.

It was clear that there was no Iron Age precursor in the City of London. But there had been an important settlement in Woolwich, and Uphall camp in Ilford was a major site, whose excavation has still to be written up. Investigations relating to the Thames Tideway Tunnel were revealing an important Iron Age crossing between Fulham and Putney. A remarkable find had been a Bronze Age anchor. Evidence was emerging of an Iron Age oppidum at Barn Elms.

Even within the City there were some hotspots for prehistoric finds: Cornhill, Ludgate Hill, and most recently Principal Place. Particularly interesting were a neolithic axehead turned into a pendant and found in a Roman context, and neolithic pottery which had absorbed animal fats and milk products. One sherd was impressed with the hoof mark of a roe deer fawn.

Jon finished by looking forward to some new techniques. Baysian analysis could produce much more precise dating that had hitherto been possible. DNA analysis was very promising – enabling the colour of a person’s eyes and hair to be identified from their bones. He also emphasised the ways in which people could take part in ongoing research – including Citizan. He inspired us all to want to see the Havering hoard exhibition shortly to open in the Museum of docklands.

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Enfield at War – 1939 – 1945 Jim Nelhams

As an experiment, this year’s lecture was held in the afternoon rather than the evening.

Our speaker, Ian Jones, is Chairman of the Enfield Archaeological Society, our two groups both having Harvey Sheldon as President. Ian has extensively researched the history of Enfield in both world wars and is a published author on the subject, but also a keen photographer, as demonstrated by the numerous pictures shown.

Ian told us that Enfield was quite well prepared in 1939 and quite a few structures, or evidence of them, remained, though their wartime use may not be apparent. Others had gone but records of them existed.

A wartime pill box at Trent Park is being recorded and preserved, and the history of the main building is well documented. (HADAS had a lecture from Dr Helen Fry on this subject in March 2017.) The pill box may have been intended to keep prisoners in rather than defend the main building.

A large number of air raid shelters, both public and private, still exist partly because they are expensive to demolish, though some that are below ground have had the tops removed for safety and have been filled in, as that excavated by HADAS at the Martin School in East Finchley. Ian listed a number with illustrations.

Some buildings had been used as centres for the ARP (Air Raid Precautions) but these had mainly gone.

A gas decontamination centre similar to that excavated by HADAS near Cromer Road School, Barnet exists in Broomfield Park and is one of four that survive within the Borough of Enfield.

Signs of some air raid sirens could still be seen.

The only remaining anti-aircraft battery in the area is at Slades Hill, with associated buildings to store ammunition and to provide rest areas for those manning the guns.

Some efforts had been made to protect the railways, with pill boxes. Most of these were safe as it was expensive and pointless to remove them. Large moveable concrete blocks to provide obstructions against tanks and other vehicles had been positioned at various points on the railway.

In addition to the various buildings, smaller evidence, such as shrapnel, was still being found. A number of walls constructed from air raid rubble had been identified including repairs to the banks of the New River.

Ian noted that many people would not now recognise much of the evidence he had listed. It was increasingly important that these should be fully recorded. A fascinating, informative and enthusiastically delivered presentation which was met with a warm round of applause.

BURIED BONES AND HORNS Bill Bass

In the August 2019 Newsletter, mention was made of finds including bone, pot and clay pipe found in service trenches and pavement widening on the west side of Barnet High Street, in the vicinity of “The Spires” shopping centre. Since then, an article seen in a cutting from the “Barnet Press” in April 1939, retyped below, may give some background and context to this. Thanks to Alan Last of the Barnet – A Trip Down Memory Lane website, and to Barnet Museum for flagging the article.

BONES BENEATH THE HIGH STREET – Relics Rescued by Museum Curator

A number of oxen bones and horns were unearthed on Thursday afternoon by an employee of Barnet District Gas and Water Company when excavating a pit on the west side of Barnet High Street, outside the premises of Messrs. W.H. Smith & Sons.

The pit was in the roadway, about four feet from the kerb, and the bones were found about three feet below the road surface. Their condition indicates that they had been buried for well over a century. Mr. W. McB Marcham, Hon. Curator of Barnet Museum, was told of the discovery, and he straight away visited the scene and “claimed” the relics for the Museum.

Seventy Years Ago

This is not the first occasion on which such a discovery has been made in the vicinity. A similar find was recorded in the “Barnet Press” on June 19^th, 1869, and was referred to by the Editor in a talk on the history of the “Barnet Press” which he gave to the Barnet Record Society a year ago. The report recorded the discovery of the bones in front of Battenburg House, (now occupied by Smith’s bookshop and the offices of Messrs. Vyvyan Wells and Son), and stated: “They were principally the bones of oxen, and one explanation is that the shops adjoining were occupied by a butcher and a tallow chandler at a period when the Barnet side of the High Street was marked by a row of trees, where now is a row of shops, and that these bones, which were refuse from the butcher’s and tallow chandler’s shops, were buried in a hole at a time when the value of bones had not developed as it has now. But who can say these bones are not the remains of a great feast held by the victorious soldiers after the Battle of Barnet?”

Harts’ Horns?

A correspondent, in the same issue of the paper, mentioned several suggestions: (1) that the spot where the bones were discovered was, some hundreds of years old, a rinderpest* pit, and that the bones were all that was left of the animals slaughtered under an Order in Council of that period, and (2) that they were not bones of oxen but harts’ horns, for which Hertfordshire was noted, though the writer dismissed the second suggestion as one coming probably from somebody who had just come out of the “Harts’ Horns” public house, which stood on the northern corner at the junction of High Street and Union Street.

(hand-written) Barnet Press 15/4/39 * rinderpest: an infectious viral disease of cattle

Wales Trip – DAY 4 Jim Nelhams

The Royal Mint

The Royal Mint was for many years within the Tower of London. As the UK Government prepared to introduce a decimal currency in the 1960s, the decision was taken to move The Royal Mint out of London.

A larger site was needed to cope with the production of the new coins as well as the increased demand for coinage from international markets.

The Royal Mint in Llantrisant, South Wales was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in December 1968. After decimalisation in 1971, all UK coin production moved from London to Wales, with the last coin struck at Tower Hill in 1975.

When the mint moved, Llantrisant was given the soubriquet “the hole with a mint”.

There is limited space for tour groups, so, on arrival, we were divided into two groups, each with its own guide and escorted through security and across a road to the main building. We were guided through the production process with the different metals including the stamping and milling processes before viewing the main production area, with a splendid view of all the machinery involved. The Royal Mint can produce 90 million coins and blanks a week – almost five billion coins a year, many for overseas governments.

The site operates round-the-clock for 52 weeks a year.

In recent years, more coins have been produced for collectors, especially 50p coins which they sell for £10 though some do get into normal circulation. See newsletter 582 of September 2019. Recently a set of coins minted to celebrate leaving the EU in 2019 had to be melted down when it did not happen. New coins were minted for the end of January 2020.

At the end of the tour was a splendid museum covering the history of coin production, followed by the inevitable shop.

A brief stop for a coffee before making the short trip in the coach to St Fagans.

St Fagans National Museum of History

St Fagans opened in 1948 as part of the National Museum of Wales network. In 2019, it was voted the Art Fund Museum of the Year.

In the main building is a museum with some archaeology, though its main purpose seems aimed at interesting children in history. There is also some military history. Readers may be familiar with other museums where buildings have been collected from surrounding areas to give an idea how people lived worked and entertained themselves. St Fagans is similar, with over 40 buildings of different types from all parts of Wales, but unusual in that most of the building are built of stone, not wood which would have given some interesting problems in moving them. Further buildings are still being added. It is located in the grounds of St Fagans

Castle, only a small part of which is open to the public.

Staff in some of the buildings demonstrate the skills which they would have supported. Looking at everything would probably require a couple of days.

The medieval church of St Teilo at St Fagans Graham Javes

Little did I expect the scene which greeted me when I stepped through the door of the little church of St Teilo at the open-air museum at St Fagans National Museum of History, a part of the Welsh National Museum. Every wall is covered with brilliant devotional paintings. For me, the use of fine line and vivid colour was stunning. What a contrast to whitewashed walls!

St Teilo’s was formerly the parish church of Llandeilo Tal-y-bont, near Pontarddulais, only one of about 24 churches in west Wales with this dedication), which had become progressively redundant from the 1850s onwards until it was offered to the museum. The building had survived largely unscathed at the hands of the Victorians and later restorers, remaining principally in the original state when it was built – thought to be in

the 12th or 13th century. As such it meets the judicious collecting policy of the museum: being common and typical, representative of others of this area, and not too far gone to be capable of restoration to something like its former glory. As an artefact (heavily restored and repainted) it shows the sheer brilliance of Welsh Christian art, if not when it was built but at the eve of the Reformation.

So who was St Teilo?

St Teilo was a 6th-century Welsh monk and bishop whose importance in Wales was second only to St David. When he died at Llandeilo Fawr a dispute arose between three places – Penally, (his birthplace), Llandaff, (his bishopric) and Llandeilo (where he died), over which should have his body. This was resolved when it was miraculously multiplied into three over-night, so that each could have it! HADAS members may have spotted the ‘supposed’ tomb of St Teilo in the chapel of St Teilo in Llandaff Cathedral.

Reference was made to G. D. Nash, (ed.) Saving St Teilo’s: Bringing a medieval church to life (2009) National Museum of Wales; D. Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints, (5th edn, 2003) OUP.

Photographs by Graham Javes.

Membership Renewals Stephen Brunning

The HADAS membership year runs from 1^st April to 31^st 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).

INVESTIGATING THE PERIVALE WOOD EARTHWORK Bill Bass

Members of HADAS have been assisting Kim Wakeham of the Selbourne Society to investigate a large ditch and bank feature near Perivale Wood in Ealing. The society (which is involved in nature conservation) owns the wood and an adjacent strip of land.

Photo by Melvyn Dresner – shows Kim and HADAS members.

Kim who is an archaeologist, noticed an earthwork crossing the strip of land (and beyond) and started some research using maps, documents, aerial-photos, LiDAR and such like. The results have been inconclusive, so last year Kim put in a trench to test several theories e.g. is it pre-historic or maybe a boundary or encampment of some sort?

The fieldwork reveals the tops of a bank and at least two ditches with medieval roof-tile, other finds are post-medieval in date, there may also be some struck flint. As the trench has grown to 2 x 14m and the ditches have yet to be fully excavated Kim asked if HADAS could help in this task during February, unfortunately the weather was not kind to us that week but we managed to tidy up and clean the trench, record features including post-holes and do some finds processing, but with trench underwater a lot of the time we could not excavate the ditch fills, so that will be work for another day.

Thanks to Kim for her hospitality and HADAS members for making their way to Perivale.

TROY: MYTH OR HISTORY? David Willoughby

Notes from the lecture by Michael Wood at the British Museum on 6^th December 2019

The first person to excavate Troy was British consulate official Frank Calvert, who had previously offered the site at Hisarlik to the British Museum for £100. Seven years later he teamed up with Heinrich Schliemann, a German business man turned archaeologist. Schliemann was a showman with a penchant for telling dubious stories. Schliemann’s destructive excavation methods involved driving a deep ditch into the mound down to the lowest levels. This caused him to fall out with Calvert, who suspected he had excavated clear through the contemporary Mycenean levels. At the lower levels Schliemann discovered ‘Priam’s treasure’ which dates from about 2,200 BCE. He claimed to have discovered the treasure with his wife, despite her being out of Turkey at the time.

As Schliemann’s account has been discredited, this brings into some doubt that all the articles were found together in situ. Schliemann also excavated at Mycenae, and discovered the royal gold funerary masks, one of which became known as the ‘mask of Agamemnon’. These in fact pre-dated the likely date of the Trojan War, and doubters at the time questioned the similarity of the mask to the face of Bismarck. These masks are now believed to be genuine.

From 1932, the American archaeologist, Carl Blegen excavated at Hisarlik on the opposite side of the mound from Schliemann’s excavations, to reveal the sloping walls of Troy VIh (destroyed by earthquake

c. 1,300 BCE) and Troy VIIa (sacked c. 1,200 BCE), which are the most likely candidates for the Troy of the Iliad, as they are contemporary with the height of Mycenean power, and pre-date the collapse of Mycenean palace culture around 1,200 BCE. More recent excavations of Troy have revealed an extensive lower town surrounded by a large defensive ditch.

There was a large inlet in front of Troy, but this has since dried up. It is most likely that the Greek ships were beached at the smaller Besika Bay to the South. This would fit in with the Iliad that describes the location as out of sight of Troy and requiring the Greeks to cross rivers to reach Troy. Also here is one of the sites of the ‘Tomb of Achilles’ (Sivri Tepe) in which high status Mycenean burials have been discovered. Harbour installations have also been found here. Bore-holes drilled at the location reveal the beach was backed by a lagoon at the time of the Trojan War. This also ties in with the Iliad. The Iliad describes the Greeks as sleeping on ‘battle bridges’ under the stars. These are thought to be military dykes constructed to cross the marshy ground.

Michael Wood has constructed a possible timeline for the Trojan War around 1250 BCE based on the Hittite texts of King Muwatallis. This is the king who fought the Egyptians at Kadesh in 1300 BCE, which resulted in the first-ever recorded peace treaty. These texts deal with Hittite relations with a people called the Ahhiyawā (Achaeans). In the Hittite text can be found the names of Ilium (Wilusa), Troy, Alexander (Alakshandu), Paris and Priam. Also can be found the name for Apollo, and the archaic Greek God of war, Enyalius, who is also mentioned nine times in the Iliad.

Apollo appears to have been initially an Anatolian god later adopted by the Greeks. Early versions of the Iliad open with the ‘Wrath of Apollo’ rather than the ‘Wrath of Achilles’, creating the possibility that the Iliad may have been influenced by Anatolian myths. Also in the Iliad the mention of boar tusk helmets and tall shields clearly derives from an earlier period. Ajax also seems to be from an earlier story.

Troy, Asia and Enyalius also feature in Mycenaean Linear B tablets. Asian women appear as slaves picking flax in tablets from Pylos (flax was still being picked around Pylos until the 1950s). Only a single Luwian seal has been found at Troy, and it is likely that the Trojans spoke Luwian. The Hittite tablets were discovered at Hattusa, the Hittite capital. However, the capital was moved (probably for religious reasons) to Tarhuntašša in the early 2nd millennium BCE. Although well documented, the site and its presumed written archive are yet to be discovered.

OUTINGS

Barnet Museum: Dennis Bird is arranging two Barnet Museum Outings later this year. The first is on Saturday 27^th June to Bletchley Park; and the second on Saturday 5^th September to Winchester. HADAS members will be welcome to join if they are interested. Cost will be about £35, coaches leaving the Everyman Cinema at 8.30am and leaving for return trip at 5.30pm. Make a note of the dates.

Tour of 2 Temple Place: book by Friday 20^th March for a tour of this extraordinary late Victorian mansion built by William Waldorf Astor, which is located near the Temple Station and the Embankment.

It was originally designed for use as Astor’s estate office by the foremost Neo-Gothic architect of the late 19^th C, John Loughborough Pearson, with work taking place from 1892-5. It contained the largest strong room in Europe, as well as two enormous fortified safes. In addition to the 45-minute tour focusing on its history and architecture, there will be an opportunity to visit the exhibition “Unbound – Visionary Women Collecting Textiles.”

Members of the Mill Hill Historical Society £12, non-members £14. Meet outside the house at 1050 am for the 11am tour. Please send a cheque and SAE to Julia Haynes, 38 Marion Road, London NW7 4AN.

Cheques to be made payable to Mill Hill Historical Society. Tel: 020 8906 0562, email Haynes.julia@yahoo.co.uk. [Website: www.millhill –hs.org.uk ]

Heritage Alliance: Sue Willetts

HADAS members might like to know about the organisation Heritage Alliance which has membership fees and unites over 130 independent heritage organisations in England and isa powerful, effective and independent advocate for heritage.Organisations include theNational Trust, English Heritage, Canal & River Trust and Historic Houses Association, as well asmore specialist bodies representing visitors, owners, volunteers, professional practitioners, funders and educationalists. They have a free fortnightly electronic newsletter which you can sign up for using this link

OTHER SOCIETIES’ & INSTITUTIONS’ EVENTS compiled by Eric Morgan

Friday 6^th March, 7.45 pm, Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 OAJ, Layers of London – Get Involved With Mapping London, talk by Adam Corsini (UCL) Visitors £1.50, refreshments.

Wednesday 11^th March, 7.45 pm, Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, Ferme Church Road/ corner of Western Park, N8 9PX, Ernest Shackleton and the ‘Endurance’ Expedition, talk by Carol Harris, visitors £2, refreshments. Sales and information from 7.30 pm.

Wednesday 18^th March, 7.45 pm, Edmonton Hundred Historical Society, Jubilee Hall, address as above. London’s Lea Valley – Home of Britain’s Growing Food and Drink Industry – talk by Jim Lewis, preceded by AGM.

Thursday 19^th March, 7.30 pm, Avenue House (Stephens House and gardens) Quiz Night. Drawing Room, East End Road, N3 3QE. Cost £15 including supper and cash bar. HADAS do have a regular team. (Please see February HADAS Newsletter for further details.)

Saturday 21^st March. 11.00 – 17.00 Museum of London. Lamas conference. Monastic archaeology in London. Details and booking Cost includes registration / tea in the afternoon break

Monday 23^rd March, 6.30-8 pm, Finchley Church End Library, Regents Park Road, N3 2LN. Hidden London – a Journey into Some of London’s Most Secret Spaces. Talk by Siddy Holloway (L.T. Museum) on the London Underground, about the Hidden London Programme which takes visitors behind the scenes of the London Transport Network into disused stations and tunnels to discover a different side of the tube, questioning why they get abandoned, and what happens to them. Talk lasts 45 minutes, followed by Q&A, with a mystery prize for the best question. Tickets on email: libraryevents@barnet.gov.uk FREE.

Monday 30^th March, 6.30-8pm, Finchley Church End Library, address above. Jewish London, talk by Rachel Kolsky (Blue Badge Guide), Mile End to the West End and Beyond, including synagogues and soup, Radicals and Rothschilds, not forgetting bakeries, the big screen and the printed page.

Wednesday 1^st April, 8 pm, Stanmore & Harrow Historical Society, Wealdstone Baptist Church Hall, High Street, Wealdstone, HA3. The Manchester Ship Canal, talk by Richard Thomas, visitors £3.

Thursday 2nd April, 8 pm. Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane car park, Pinner HA5 1 AB, The Devil’s Acre. Talk by Charlie Forman on A Victorian slum near Westminster Abbey. Visitors £3

Friday 3^rd April, 7.45 pm, Jubilee Hall, address as 6^th March. The Excavations and Fieldwork of Enfield Archaeological Society, 2019. Talk by Dr. Martin Dearne (EAS), preceded by AGM. Visitors £1.50, refreshments.

Tuesday 7^th April, 8 pm. Historical Association: North London Branch. Jubilee Hall, address as 6^th March, The First World War’s Effect on the British Monarchy. Talk by Heather Jones, visitors £1.

Wednesday 8^th April, 7 pm, Hornsey Historical Society, address as 11^th March above, Entertainment in the Second World War, talk by Mike Brown. Visitors £2, refreshments. Sales and information from 7.30 pm.

Saturday 11^th April, 11am-2.30 pm, North London & Essex Transport Society, Barnet Transport Fair. Pennefather Hall, Christ Church, St Albans Road, Barnet, EN5 4LA. Railway, military and aviation transport with books, photographs, DVDs, timetables, maps, and memorabilia, etc. Admission £2, refreshments available.

Wednesday 15^th April, 7.30 pm, Willesden Local History Society, St Mary’s Church Hall, Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS (near Magistrates’ Court), St. Paul’s Square and Kilburn High Road, talk by Alan Hovell on the past High Road scene. Please note the venue shown for the 18^th March talk was shown as St Anne’s in error.

Friday 17^th April, 7 pm. COLAS, St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, EC3R 7BN. Londinium, Britannia and the Rhine Frontier, talk by Harvey Sheldon (HADAS President). Visitors £3.

Monday 20^th April, 8.15 pm, Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local Historical Society, St Martin’s Church Hall, High Street, Ruislip HA4 8DG. Roman Leicester, Life in the Roman World. Talk by Malcolm Morris (Leicester University). Visitors £2.

Wednesday 22^nd April, 7.45 pm, Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL, Alexandra Palace, speaker TBA. Visitors £2, refreshments and bar. Please note that the title for the 25^th March talk was shown as “Conference” in error instead of “Society.”

Friday 24^th April, 7 pm. E.M.A.S Archaeological Society, Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. A Viking Age Funeral – an Eyewitness Account. Talk by David Beard, visitors £3. LAMAS and E.M.A.S members free.

Amendments to February Newsletter: please note the time for the 12^th March Highgate Society should be 7 pm; and that for the 20^th March for the Wembley Historical Society should be 7.30 pm.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors:

Bill Bass, Stephen Brunning, Melvyn Dresner, Graham Javes, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Peter Pickering, Sue Willetts and David Willoughby.

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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet, Herts

(020 8440 4350) e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

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Hon. Secretary Jo Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS

(020 8449 7076) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

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Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP

(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

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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

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Web site: www.hadas.org.uk

Discussion group: http://groups.google.com/group/hadas-archaeology

Feb 22

Newsletter 587-February-2020

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

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2020

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.

Members are welcome to visit and view progress on post excavation and research work at Stephens House – we are working there in our basement room most Sunday mornings from 10.30 till 1.00pm

Tuesday 11th February 2020 The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture –

Jon Cotton Prehistory in London – some Problems, Progress and Potential

Tuesday 10th March 2020 Lyn Blackmore From Crosse and Blackwell to Crossrail – MOLA excavations at Tottenham Court Road 2009–10

Tuesday 14th April 2020 Signe Hoffos Lost City Churches

Tuesday 12th May 2020 Tim Williams Archaeology of the Silk Roads

Tuesday 9th June 2020 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

September 2020 trip. 20^th – 24^th September.

We are happy to announce our proposed 5-day trip for 2020.

This will take place from Sunday 20^th September to Thursday 24^th September and will be based at The Best Western Stoke City Centre Hotel, 66 Trinity Street, Stoke on Trent, ST1 5NB. This was previously a Quality Hotel. Do not confuse with the Best Western Plus Stoke on Trent Moat House which is currently rebranding and considerably raising their prices.

Please let Jim or Jo Nelhams (020 8449 7076 or by email) know as soon as possible if you are interested in joining the trip.

We need to confirm numbers with the hotel in March, so we would request a deposit of £195 by Friday 13^th March. Cheques payable to HADAS should be sent to 61 Potters Road, Barnet, EN5 5HS or payment can be made direct to the HADAS bank account at Cafbank, sort code 40–52-40, account number 00007253. Balances will be required by Wednesday 15^th July.

HADAS Christmas Party Jim and Jo Nelhams

A little belated account, but we had our annual Christmas Party at Avenue House on Sunday 1^st December 2019, a week earlier than previous years. The number of members attending was a little disappointing, but this may have been due to clashing with other events.

We had a two- course meal cooked by the staff at Avenue House, which seemed to be enjoyed by all, plus mince pies and coffee a little later in the afternoon as well as pieces of two splendid cakes baked by Liz, the Chairman’s wife.

To test their grey matter, the entertainment consisted of 2 quizzes with clues for identifying British towns and parts of the body. Also, a reading relating the story of the Inn Keeper in Bethlehem called ‘Round the Back’. A pleasant afternoon and thanks to all those who attended.

HADAS COMMITTEE Jo Nelhams (Secretary)

You will have read in last months’ Newsletter the Chairman Don Cooper notified you that he is standing down as Chairman at the Annual General Meeting in June. It is also my intention to retire as Secretary. I will have been Secretary for 12 years and it is time for a change.

Jim and I, as many of you will know, are organising another long trip this year in September, which will be the twelfth year with which we have been associated.

(It goes without saying that we all owe Jo, Jim and Don a huge debt of gratitude for all their extremely hard work, efforts and time spent on behalf of the society over many years now-

This also means that it is VITAL to recruit new members of the committee NOW to fulfil essential roles and ensure that your society is still able to function for the benefit of its members.

YOUR COMMITTEE NEEDS YOU!!)

AVENUE HOUSE (STEPHENS HOUSE AND GARDENS) EVENT;

Thursday 13 February. 7.30pm QUIZ NIGHT Cost £15 including supper and cash bar.

HADAS do have a regular team, but are looking for some new members, as they have lost some of their former members recently.

Starts at 19.30. Telephone 020 8346 7812 to reserve a ticket.

Welsh trip day 3 Jim Nelhams

Wednesday started with a short coach ride around the bay to Swansea, where we dismounted by the Swansea Museum. The quayside must have been very busy, because there are lots of railway tracks crossing the area and even running under some of the buildings.

We made our way along the quayside to find the narrowboat which was to take us for a short cruise. After this, a choice of places in the area to visit. (There really was something for everyone-Ed)

Boat Trip at Swansea Liz Tucker

The Welsh name for Swansea is Abertawe, the estuary of the river Tawe, and this position, as well as the availability of superior-quality coal nearby, made the city a centre of commerce for centuries. Some of the coal was exported, but much of it was used to smelt copper, which was brought in by ship; Swansea was therefore nicknamed “Copperopolis”.

The docks were created in the 1800s by canalising the river, but much later became redundant when copper production moved to Australia, where many Welshmen then emigrated. The area was then dedicated to heritage, and now contains a marina, a couple of museums (one a former potato warehouse), various restaurants, and a sculpture of Dylan Thomas.

As we boarded the “Copper Jack” for a 90-minute trip upriver, the sun came out. Dave, our very informative guide, took us through the history of the area. He handed round a heavy copper ingot.

Originally, copper was mined in Anglesey, but as demand rose, it was imported from Cornwall, and later from Cuba and Chile. In the 1800s, most of the world’s copper was smelted here. Over the next 100 years, the city’s population rose from under 10,000 to 100,000. The ships’ captains had a reputation for fairness, but it was still a perilous voyage for sailors. They might be wrecked while sailing round Cape Horn, or contract tropical diseases; mosquitos brought back from Cuba escaped from the ship and caused the only yellow-fever epidemic in a British city. If the ship carried coal, it might combust spontaneously!

Our voyage, however, was peaceful. We entered the marina, where the boats we saw ranged from an old rust-bucket, once a light-ship, to the state-of-the art “Mary Anning”, a university research ship. We passed through a lock, into the river, where wildlife can often be seen – kingfishers, cormorants, seals, herons and swans (although Swansea is actually called after a Viking called Swein). The river is aerated through a pipe, for the sake of the fish.

The wildlife must have been hiding in the undergrowth on the banks, which is rather stunted because of poisoning from copper spoil – all I noticed was a couple of ducks!

We passed an old ice-house, the towers of the old railway bridge, an anti-aircraft gun, and White Rock, an old copper-smelting site with dock, where the Time Team have done a dig. We turned back to Swansea at the bascule bridge.

The local Vivian family made a fortune from copper, and then became distillers. One of them visited the Chile mines, and discovered some huge copper bells, abandoned after a tragic church fire. He planned to melt them down, but was persuaded to donate them to a Swansea church, where they remained for many years; recently they were returned to Chile.

Copper was, and is, very much in demand for all kinds of purposes. Ships were “copper-bottomed” to avoid damage. Slave traders, some of whom owned White Rock, made tokens to pay for their purchases, and equipment for distilling molasses.

And, of course, copper is used for electrical wiring, and for kitchen ware. I remember a music-hall song which ends “If I can’t have a proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee-pot – I’ll have a cup of tea!”

A Transport of Delight Andy Simpson

It was Wednesday so it must be Swansea…

These HADAS trips have always managed to get me to locations I have wanted to visit but am unlikely to have got to otherwise, and this was no exception.

The Tram Shed in Dylan Thomas Square in the marina area being a case in point. This modern two-story building is run by Swansea Museums – https://www.swansea.gov.uk/swanseamuseum

Having recently written an article for the historical quarterly journal Tramway Review on the erstwhile Swansea and Mumbles railway, I was keen to see the one remaining section of one of its trams (usually operated as two-car ‘trains’) still on public display. This railway ran around the edge of Swansea Bay to Mumbles Pier, its route being distantly visible from the seafront by our hotel.

It originated as a horse-drawn mineral line opened to Oystermouth in 1804 (!) and in 1807 became the first passenger railway in the world, using a horse drawn coach. Steam passenger operation began in 1877 and was extended to Mumbles Pier by 1898.

The line was electrified in 1929 using thirteen huge red double deck cars, the end of one of them, car 7 being in the tram shed. When the line closed despite local opposition in January 1960, this end was cut off and initially displayed in the open at the rear of the nearby Swansea Royal Institution, now Swansea Museum, which a number of us also visited on the day.

Also displayed there is the delightful yellow-painted 1954 Swansea and Mumbles Railway built replica of the original 1807 Oystermouth Tramroad Company horse-drawn coach (‘Llewellyn’s coach’), built to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the line; it incorporates parts, including the wheels, of the former shunting loco, 1929 0-4-0 Hardy Railmotors petrol-electric loco Swansea and Mumbles Railway No 14, formerly used for limited freight traffic on the line.

On show also is the restored Brush-built Swansea Tramways Co double deck car 14 of 1923, built by Brush to a ‘lowbridge’ design originally used by Cardiff Corporation Tramways and operated until closure of the Swansea Tramways in January 1937. Like many recent restorations (this one by a 1980s Job Training Scheme following initial rescue of the lower saloon in 1977), it is actually a composite car using the top deck of classmate car 12, also rescued from a local farm after many years use as a store, resting on a truck from Belgium. It is missing many fittings but still looks impressive.

Due to severe Swansea Museums budget cuts of up to 50%, the Tram Shed is now only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, staffed by very friendly, though elderly, volunteers. My chat with them generated much interest when I showed my article.

A curator was summoned and the article copied, with much interest shown in my revelation that the bogies of another Swansea and Mumbles car survive in store in the Peak District, The complete car number 2 went to the pioneer heritage Line the Middleton Railway in Leeds for preservation in June 1960, but after severe vandalism and decay after a decade stored outside was burnt for scrap in June 1970, the tramway museum at Crich (visited on a previous HADAS trip) purchasing the rusting bogies from a muddy field in early 1973.

The Tram Shed also houses railway items including signs, rails, and the nameplate and classic ‘copper-capped’ chimney from GWR Castle Class express passenger locomotive 7008 ‘Swansea Castle’, withdrawn from Old Oak shed, London, in September 1964.

For more on the Swansea and Mumbles railway see http://www.welshwales.co.uk/mumbles_railway_swansea.htm

The budget cuts were obvious viewing the sadly decaying state of the council-owned historic tug, lightship and pilot boat moored outside the adjacent Museum of Wales operated National Waterfront Museum, the council having stopped paying the mooring fees for their access pier, meaning visitors can no longer board the three vessels, as explained by the understandably upset volunteers, One of them was a retired railway signalman, and he even gave me a copy of an article on local mechanical signal boxes and semaphore signals.

The National Waterfront Museum Andy Simpson

https://museum.wales/swansea/

Formerly the Swansea Maritime and Industrial Museum, this is part of the National Museum of Wales, and an excellent example of how a modern museum in a purpose-built modern building can appeal to diverse audiences as a ‘Community Hub’ in modern parlance.

It is autism friendly and has ‘ Chill Out room for those needing space to take time out’ and even monthly ‘Quiet Hours’ for those wanting to avoid noise and crowds and STILL have lots of interesting actual exhibits (around 2000 on display) rather than the stripped-out approach favoured by rather too many modern museum design teams.

It features chunky large sized exhibits such as the working replica of Richard Trevithick’s Penydarren Steam Locomotive of 1804 that ran in Merthyr Tydfil and the original Cardiff-built Watkins CHW ‘Red Robin’ monoplane of 1909, similar to the English-Channel crossing Bleriot of that same year which was flown extensively until 1916 – one of the earliest examples of an aircraft in the UK, two examples of the infamous 1980s battery – powered Sinclair C5 and a Benz motor car of 1904 donated to the Science Museum by its Chepstow owner in 1910 and with the National Museum of Wales since 1911!

See https://museum.wales/articles/2019-09-17/Wheels-in-Wales/

There is of course a pleasant café and shop selling local products, a community garden maintained by volunteers and schools, and in 15 galleries art and social history displays covering 300 years of more recent Welsh industrial history (leaving the archaeology to the nearby Swansea Museum), temporary exhibitions, a whole room full of wonderful transport models, and a pleasant outside verandah with views over the marina.

And, of course, that essential for modern life – free wi-fi!

Swansea Museum Jim Nelhams

Leaving the Tram Shed and passing alongside the Dylan Thomas Theatre took us back to the Swansea Museum. You are able to visit Swansea Museum at four locations – the Museum itself on Oystermouth Road, the Tram Shed in Dylan Thomas Square in the Marina, the Museum Stores in Landore and the floating exhibits in the dock by the Tramshed.

This museum building concentrates on the local area, with some archaeological finds and a splendid display of Welsh ceramics.

There are also temporary exhibitions and one had just opened when we visited, titled “50 years of Music”, a journey through Swansea’s musical heritage since 1969 including its venues, influential people, stand out gigs as well as local and visiting musicians. A few nostalgic moments listening to recordings from the past.

The Dylan Thomas Experience Claudette Carlton

Dylan Thomas was born in 1914 in Swansea and died in the USA in 1953, at the age of 39 years.

The Dylan Thomas Centre is close to the river in Swansea and is home to a permanent exhibition “Love the Words”, which opened on Dylan’s 100^th Birthday. The exhibition takes the form of a timeline of his life, with a wealth of archive material from the University of Swansea. There are photographs and documents from his childhood.

Edith Sitwell was an early champion of his poetry: T. S. Eliot refused to publish him at Faber: and as he became famous, he knew EVERYBODY. Mervyn Peake was a friend. Stravinsky wanted him to collaborate on an opera: he knew Salvador Dali: Augustus John painted his portrait – and so on.

And while he was smoking and drinking and marrying Caitlin, working as a journalist and in the theatre, and never having any money, he was writing the most extraordinary, beautiful poetry. There is audio-visual material in the exhibition (Richard Burton reading ‘Under Milk Wood’); and then the lecture tours in America which were too long and too demanding, and his death.

There is a short video at the end of the exhibition of his funeral, the male mourners walking at the front of the procession, then Dylan’s coffin, then the women: and finally a shot of his mother, alone. She had lost her husband, son and daughter in one year.

Among many obituaries in the archive, one announced “Adonis is dead”. And who did he write for? In his own words,

“I write on these spendthrift pages

For the lovers, their arms round the grief of ages

Who pay no praise or wages

Nor heed my craft or art.”

5 Cwmdonkin Drive Kevin McSharry

“Come Tell Me How You Live”

If HADAS should ever be in need of a motto or strap line perhaps “Come Tell Me How You Live” would more than suffice.

The words are those of Agatha Mallowan, better known as Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan DBE the writer of detective novels and the wife of Sir Max Mallowan , distinguished archaeologist .

Agatha took a full part in every one of Max’s excavations in Syria and Iraq; and wrote about her experiences in her archaeological memoir: Come Tell Me How You Live

(A young Agatha Christie) (Dylan Thomas)

Claudette Carlton, another of our group, and I, in visiting “The Dylan Thomas Exhibition”, sought through the wealth of archive material to answer how the poet, and tortured soul, Dylan Thomas had lived, loved and worked. The exhibition was opened by President Jimmy Carter. Dylan is President Carter’s favourite poet, a fact which reflects Dylan’s huge popularity in the United States.

President Carter regretted that it had not been possible for him, while in the city, to visit 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, The Uplands, Swansea, Dylan’s birthplace.

I sought to achieve what had not been possible for President Carter; and after a phone call seeking permission, took a taxi, with two other intrepid companions, Pauline and Malcolm, to the semi-detached house where Dylan had been born and brought up. What a wonderful visit. A pure delight!

5 Cwmdonkin Drive, now in private ownership, is furnished in the style of the period when the Thomas family lived there. It was Dylan’s home for 23 years; more than two thirds of Dylan’s published works came from material created during his time living at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive. With the help of a friendly and knowledgeable Korean guide, completing a Master’s in Tourism and Marketing at the city’s University, we visited each of the rooms in turn: here the sitting room (used only for visitors and festive occasions), here Dylan’s tiny bedroom and so on.

An impressive video, recorded in America by President Carter, welcomed us to the house.

The house is open daily for visitors except when used for functions or as a B&B. Yes, a B&B! Yes, one can actually stay there.

“Love of Words” Exhibition should be combined, if possible, with a visit to 5 Cwmdonkin Drive. The two complement each other and thoroughly immerse one in the life and times of Dylan Marlais Thomas and in the words of Agatha Christie Dylan told us how he lived.

Postscript Jim Nelhams

Finally, our group re-assembled by the museum for our ride back to the hotel after a day incorporating a variety of interesting places.

The Tower of London’s Ravens Stewart Wild

I was playing around with collective nouns, as one does (who isn’t intrigued by a murder of crows or a murmuration of starlings?), when I found that ravens collectively are known as a congress, conspiracy, an unkindness, or even a treachery.

My curiosity piqued, I decided to dig deeper, and alighted on the country’s most famous ravens, Corvus corax, those at the Tower of London.

These magnificent birds, members of the genus Corvus, the crow family, have been associated with the Tower for many centuries, perhaps even since its founding in the eleventh century.

A well-known superstition is that if the ravens were ever to leave, the White Tower would crumble and a great disaster would befall the monarchy. For this reason, the ravens have been protected, it is said, by royal decree since the reign of Charles II.

Some doubtful historians, however, think that the original birds may have just been Yeoman warders’ pets and that the superstition may only date from Victorian times, although Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed (1646–1719) does mention ravens in his diaries.

Numbers vary

There are usually at least six ravens kept at the Tower, the responsibility of the Ravenmaster, one of the senior ex-servicemen (and women) known as Beefeaters. As they are captive-bred at the Tower (the birds, not the Beefeaters), there are often more than six, and any birds surplus to requirements are given an exit visa and posted (not literally) to a zoo or bird sanctuary.

The birds have names, sometimes reflecting their character or origin. Recent names have included George, Odin, Thor, Merlin, Hugine and Munin. Each bird has a differently coloured band clipped around one leg to aid identification.

The ravens are well cared for. Like all Corvidae, they are eaters of carrion and are fed on roadkill, dead mice, chicken and the like. They get a medical check-up once a week, dietary supplements like cod liver oil if thought necessary, and can live up to forty years.

Occasionally a bird will escape, but is usually recaptured or flies back on its own. To prevent them flying too far, the feathers on one wing are slightly trimmed, and as a result the birds tend to hop around the Tower’s lawns rather than take to the air. The ravens are always popular with visitors, who are warned not to get too close to them since they have a tendency to attack if scared.

Sometimes an individual bird will fall out of favour because of “inappropriate behaviour”. A few years ago, for example, a raven named George lost his appointment to the Crown, and was retired to Wales for attacking and destroying TV aerials.

The Tower is always worth another visit; next time look out for the remarkable ravens.

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

AMENDMENTS TO HADAS JANUARY NEWSLETTER

The time for Monday, 17^th February Enfield Society shown as 10.30am should be 7.30PM.

The date for the Historical Association, shown as 25^th February, should be Thursday 20^th February, and the postal district shown as NW6 should be NW11.

The date for Finchley Society shown as 25^th February, should be Thursday 27^th February.

NEW EVENTS

As ever, please check with the organisations before setting out in case of any changes or cancellations.

Thursday 20 February, 7.30pm Camden History Society Burgh House, New End Square, NW3 1LT Camden’s Parish Maps, 1720-1900. Talk by Simon Morris. Visitors £2.

Friday 21 February, 7.00pm COLAS St Olave’s Church, Hart St, London EC3R 7NB AGM and Lecture ‘Excavations at the Adrian Boult Music Centre, Westminster Abbey; Joe Brooks, Pre Construct Archaeology. Lecture followed by Wine and Nibbles. Visitors £3.

Sunday 1^st March, 10.30am Heath & Hampstead Society Meet at Burgh House, Hampstead – address as above. The History of Hampstead Heath Ponds. Walk led by Marc Hutchinson (chair) Donation £5. Lasts approximately two hours.

Wednesday 4 March, 8.00pm Stanmore & Harrow Historical Society Wealdstone Baptist Church Hall, High St, Wealdstone, HA3. Codebreaking Outstations Talk by Richard Koorm. Visitors £3.

Thursday 5 March, 8.00pm Pinner Local History Society. Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner HA5 1AB Building Pinner – Talk by Research Group. £3.

Wednesday 11 March, 2.30pm Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway NW7 3TB Trent Park; Its History & Involvement in WW2 Dr Helen Fry.

Preceded by A.G.M.

Thursday 12 March, 6.00pm Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, EC1N 2HH Corpse Roads; Digital Landscape Archaeology Talk by Stuart Dunn. Exploring how modelling can help unlock the secrets of Britain’s Ancient pathways, focussing on those taken by coffin bearers over the countryside before the enclosures. Free.

Thursday 12 March Highgate Society Time not stated. 10A, South Grove, N6 6BS Shopping Parades; Our Undervalued Heritage Talk by Delcia Keate Visitors £5.

Monday 16 March, 8.15pm Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote Local History Society

St Martin’s Church Hall, High St, Ruislip, HA4 8DG

Brentham Garden Suburb. Talk by Sue Elliott (Brentham Society) Visitors £2.

Wednesday 18 March, 7.30pm Willesden Local History Society St Anne’s Church Hall, Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS (Nr. Magistrate’s Court) Britain’s First Supergrass Talk by Dick Weindling (Camden History Society) Discovering a tale about a shady local character.

Thursday 19 March, 8.00pm Historical Association: Hampstead & N.W. London Branch Fellowship House 136A Willifield Way, NW11 6&D (off Finchley Rd in Temple Fortune) Cromwell – A Talk by Alan Marshall, Visitors £3. Refreshments available.

Friday 20 March, 8.00pm Wembley History Society English Martyr’s Hall, Chalk Hill Road Wembley (top of Blackbird Hill, Adj. to Church) The B to Z of Street Furniture in London Talk by Robert Kayne. Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.

Friday 20 March, 7.00pm COLAS – address as above, ‘CRaFT To DATE; – Recent fieldwork and research on the project to investigate the Causeways, Riverstairs and Ferry Terminals of the tidal Thames. Various speakers.

Saturday 21st March, 11am – 5.30pm LAMAS Annual Conference of London Archaeologists The Weston Theatre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Morning session Recent Work till 1pm, Lunch. Afternoon session Monastic Archaeology in London from 2pm. Tea 3.30-4.30pm, & Displays of work and publications upstairs in Clore Room. Cost (inc. tea) early bird (before 1 March) £15, full price £17.50. Tickets from Jon Cotton c/o Curatorial Dept, MoL, London Wall EC2Y 5HN joncotton1956@gmail.com

Saturday 21 March, 10am – 4.30pm West London Local History Conference University of West London The Paragon, Boston Manor Road, Brentford TW8 9GA. Celebrations in South and West London. Please see the Richmond Local History Society’s website for more info, www.richmondhistory.org.uk

Wednesday 25 March 7.45pm Friern Barnet & District Local History Conference

North Middx Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL The Palace of Westminster – 1834 to date. Talk by Barry Hall. Visitors £2. Bar/refreshments available.

Thursday 26 March 7.30pm Finchley Society Drawing Room, Avenue House (Stephens House) 17, East End Road, N3 3QE Finsbury Freehold Society & The Creation of Finchley Park. Talk by Stephen Yeo (Fin. Soc) Visitors £2. Refreshments available.

END PIECE Andy Simpson

Work continues at ‘Avenue House’ most Sunday mornings, usually 10.30-11 (ish)

We have recently concentrated on the post-excavation analyses of the finds from last summer’s dig (our third) at Clitterhouse Farm. Lots of Victorian and later pottery and glass, with a few pieces of 18^th pottery and glass seemingly concentrated in one corner of the site.

And most unusually, not a single coin of any date. But an awful lot of brick and tile!

We will shortly be starting to work on the HADAS response, in archaeological terms, to the latest Barnet Local Development Plan which has identified 67 individual sites throughout the borough for development work, mostly residential and often consisting of massive blocks of flats, over the next 15-20 years. Some of these sites HADAS has dug at or near to in the past.

Feel free to pop along and see what we are up to!

With thanks for newsletter contributions this month to; Claudette Carlton, Kevin McSharry. Eric Morgan, Jo Nelhams, Jim Nelhams, Liz Tucker, Stewart Wild

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 Roger Chapman 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488) 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

Web site: www.hadas.org.uk

Jan 22

Newsletter No 586 January 2020

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

No.586 January 2020 Edited by Peter Pickering

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE PROGRAMME 2020

Except for the January one, which is in the afternoon, lectures start at 7.45 for 8.00pm. They are 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.

Tuesday 14th January 2020 at 2.30pm
Ian Jones
Shelters to Shrapnel, surviving traces of Enfield At War, 1939-1945
A look at the World War II monuments in Enfield including those that survive, those that have been demolished since earlier recording in the 70s and 80s, sites excavated and some of the finds made.
Ian Jones began as a schoolteacher, and later joined Harlow Museum ending as curator. Since leaving, has become a part-time adult education lecturer, local historian and author and is currently Chairman of the Enfield Archaeological Society, which he originally joined in 1958.

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

Tuesday 10th March 2020
Lyn Blackmore From Crosse and Blackwell to Crossrail – MOLA excavations at Tottenham Court Road 2009–10

Tuesday 14th April 2020
Signe Hoffos
Lost City Churches

Tuesday 12th May 2020
Tim Williams
Archaeology of the Silk Roads

Tuesday 9th June 2020
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

From the Chairman

I will be retiring as chairman of HADAS, after 16 enjoyable years, at the next AGM in June 2020. Tempus fugit and at 83 years old it is time for someone perhaps younger to take the reins. I am making this announcement now, to give reasonable notice to plan my replacement.

The role of HADAS chairman includes chairing four committee meetings during the year, writing an annual report for the AGM on the year’s activities, assisting the secretary to produce agendas, head the committee in making decisions for the benefit of the society and its members.

ANDERSONS AND ACK ACK: the 20th Century Conflict Archaeology of London –

The October Lecture by Andy Brockman Deirdre Barrie

The First World War is now scarcely within living memory, and even witnesses of the Second World War are fast diminishing. For instance, there now remain only four Battle of Britain air crew out of an original total of 300. Thus (says Andy Brockman) the archaeology of this modern conflict is one of the newest and fastest-moving disciplines in archaeology.

Andy began with the first ever blitzkrieg by the Germans during the First World War in 1915-1916. A slide of a German propaganda poster showed matchstick people scattering in terror from an aerial attack on Trafalgar Square.

The earliest anti-aircraft battery was built in 1913, but by 1915 there was serious zeppelin damage. One infamous incident in 1917 was the bombing of Upper Norwood School in Poplar, where 18 children aged 4-6 and their teacher were killed.

Enemy airships were based in Southern Germany, and once over here they navigated by following railway lines. German airships would send back weather reports in Morse code to bases in Southern Germany, which by triangulation allowed us to locate the bases.

Another slide showed an idealised view of a German airship, with the commander on a speaking tube to the engine room. Because of the high altitude, airship crew needed to be dressed like sailors in winter. There were no parachutes; thus dark conversations took place at German crew bases as to whether it was better when your airship caught light to jump, or to go down in flames.

Zeppelins flew so high that crew often passed out, though later they used liquid oxygen to help them breathe. The zeppelins were driven by marine diesel engines, whose fumes caused the crew nausea and migraines. This was one of the most dangerous ways to go to war, especially for one unprotected wretch, the lonely machine-gunner high on the prow of the ship. When German airships crashed, the British copied their designs. By the beginning of 1916, Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Mathy of the Navy Airship Division in Germany confessed that things were in a bad way. He himself was killed at the site of the L3 crash at Potters Bar by jumping from the airship.

During the Second World War, there was a ring of defences all round London to deter the invaders. In his talk Andy commented mostly on Shooters Hill, which happens to be on the main road to London from Kent and the coast, and a height of tactical importance. Even if the enemy had got past some of the defences, the navy could have steamed up the channel, cut off their supply lines and left them stranded.

The area is still littered with the remains of defences. A former farm at Shooters Hill was a prisoner-of-war camp within living memory. The concrete and iron anchoring points for barrage balloons are still
discoverable in Eaglesfield Park. On the hill itself were “pill boxes”, anti-tank devices and at least one fiery booby trap, an anti-tank device called a flame fougasse.

A Shooters Hill local, Peter James, described how in the 1930s/1940s he was told that a big metal circle at the top of Shooters Hill was the site of an anti-aircraft gun.

Andy commented that it was advisable always to take two geophysics readings of an area and compare them. The first geophysics reading of this anti-aircraft gun site showed two First World War anti-aircraft guns – well built, with the bases immaculately level. But at some time in the Second World War a different weapon had been on the same site – not such a careful job. Metal detecting revealed conduits leading back to Whitehall or Woolwich. A cut-out French coin was also found – perhaps a keepsake from France?

RAF photos are invaluable for research. They show building losses, anti-aircraft gun sites and field boundaries, (as well as lots of much earlier archaeology!)

As early as 1938, Tom Wintringham, (soldier, military historian and politician) was campaigning for home defence units, which would eventually become the Home Guard. We are now used now to the “Dad’s Army” and Compton Mackenzie’s view of the Home Guard as bumbling and incompetent. But with Wintringham’s influence, “Picture Post” published an edition with a photo on the cover of a very heroic-looking member of the Home Guard.

The Home Guard were trained at the neo-classical Osterley Park, an Adam house now run by the National Trust. “Do what you want, but don’t damage the house!” the Home Guard were told. To join the Home Guard, volunteers over 41 would sign up at a local police station. However, for various reasons, some would soon resign.

Only now are we beginning to realise the importance of these wartime sites, which are disregarded all around us and need to be investigated and recorded before it is too late. Andy stressed that local archaeological groups and heritage projects now have a significant role to play in discovering and understanding the conflict archaeology of their communities.

[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.”]

Here are the links. The Time Team Shooters Hill episode: Time Team S15-EO8 Blitzkreig on Shooters Hill, London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4J-iIrtVoc .The Potters Bar Zeppelin: http://www.hellfirecorner.co.uk/pottersbar/pottersbar.htm

NEXT STOP SEATON! 66 years of Modern Electric Tramways Limited By David Voice Published by Adam Gordon 2019 ISBN 978-1-910654-23-1 Price £25.00, soft back. Reviewed by Andy Simpson

The publication this autumn of the new and expanded fourth edition of the book reviewed below is an opportunity to revisit and expand the review of the second revised and enlarged edition originally published in the HADAS newsletter of October 2003.

Why review a book about a three-mile long narrow-gauge tourist tramway running along a river estuary in Devon (and visited by HADAS on a long weekend in September 2006)? Well, read on. This book is full of Barnet, Hadley and Hendon connections. The 2003 edition celebrated the golden jubilee in 2003 of the Modern Electric Tramways Company, formed 19th May 1953 by Claude Lane to run his trams; and the Seaton Tramway founded by him happily thrives to this day.

Claude Lane was born in 1908 in Totteridge, the son of William Lane, joint manager of Manor Farm Dairies, Highgate; having introduced pasteurisation he became a director. In 1911 the family moved to Finchley, where the infant Claude, fascinated by trams, would persuade his nanny to take him to the tram depot off Rosemont Avenue to watch them entering and leaving the depot. As a young boy he would travel to Hendon to watch the trams at the depot/workshops on the Edgware Road, where the now rebuilt Merit House later stood – of which more later. At school he developed a flair for electricity and mechanics and served his electrical engineering apprenticeship at Stoke Newington power station. Aged 22, he formed the Barnet based ‘Mobile Welding and Workshop Company’, and opened a small workshop in Lancaster Road, New Barnet, renamed the Lancaster Electrical Company, after the road. Here he repaired batteries, radios and the like.

A growing interest in battery vehicles led to his building a workshop at 77-79 Brookhill Road, New Barnet, whilst spending his summer holidays driving trams in Llandudno and Blackpool. From the Second World War his company produced many battery-operated vehicles such as the ‘Lecar’ for local deliveries by traders. In early 1949, he produced his first own 15-inch gauge scale model tram, number 23, based on a modern double decker then running in Llandudno; he built a test track in the Barnet works and locals soon got used to this little tram peeping out of the Brookhill Road entrance and running around the yard, through the sawmill, and around the open area at the rear of the works, giving rides to local children. As news spread, invitations to local fetes, using portable overhead and track, grew; one such being the Hadley House Conservative Association Fete on 2nd July 1949, followed by South Mimms on 23rd July, when the tram was filmed by British Movietone News. Summer weekends saw the tram travel as far as Hitchin and Uxbridge, often with ‘19 Barnet’ on its destination blinds – the pre-1938 route via Finchley to High Barnet. In 1950 a second tram was completed in New Barnet, based on the ‘Blackpool Boat’ open top single deck design, and numbered 225. In 1951 the two trams moved to a new sea-front miniature tramway at St Leonards, Hastings, as a holiday attraction. They were supplemented in 1952 by a third Barnet-built tramcar, a traditional four-wheel open topper, number 3, but local complaints had seen an end to the Hastings operation after a few months. Also built at Barnet in 1952 was a four-wheeled battery-operated tram for the Air Ministry, which in rebuilt form remains at Seaton as a works car. In 1952 the whole set-up moved to a park at Rhyl. A planned move to Eastbourne in East Sussex saw trams 225 and 3 move back to Barnet for refurbishment. The Rhyl operation was leased out and the Barnet works produced a fourth tram, open ‘toastrack’ number 6, in 1954 to help maintain services there. The Rhyl operation closed in 1957.

Operations in Princes Park, Eastbourne began in 1954, with the track gauge increased to two feet. Barnet works produced a second ‘boat’ car, No.226 to help work the line that year. In 1960 the chassis was modified as a works car and later served as a mobile shop and even as a café and ticket office; it is currently stored out of use at Seaton. Car number 238, based on the double-deck Blackpool ‘Balloon’ design was built at Barnet in 1955. Toastrack number 6 was rebuilt at Barnet 1955/56 as a traditional bogie open top car using parts from original full-sized trams – controllers from Southampton and top deck seats, wire mesh, headlights, gongs, bells and circuit breakers rescued from the scrapman at Llandudno which lost its street tramway in March 1956, and remains in service at Seaton. The last tram partially built in East Barnet, in 1958, was similar tram number 7, again using full-sized components such as more electrical gear rescued from recently scrapped Llandudno trams, and seats from Leeds trams; it also remains in service at Seaton.

The Barnet works closed shortly afterwards, and were sold in 1959; now demolished, a field visit kindly undertaken by Bill Bass in November 2019 showed that the site is now covered by a large modern three-story block of flats, ‘Ludlow Court’- see photos by Bill below.

Tramway operations moved entirely to Eastbourne, where the tramway was partly lit by ex-Hendon UDC gas lamps! Also built at Barnet in 1957 was a miniature Edwardian L.G.O.C- ‘B’ type open top bus, based on the 1929 chassis of a Swift car, registration LA 9927, which is currently undergoing restoration. In 1963, three of the Barnet built trams – 3, 225, and 238 – were sold to a collector in America and shipped out in November; sadly, their current location is not known. Barnet built Cars 6 and 7 remain in operation at Seaton, where the tramway moved to in 1969. In October 1964 the former Metropolitan Electric Tramways tram/trolleybus depot and works in Hendon, where Merit House now stands opposite the oriental shopping complex, was being demolished, following closure in 1962, and Claude Lane rescued two sets of depot gates, for use at Eastbourne and, later, Seaton. Another local link at Seaton is tram 14, originally Metropolitan Electric Tramways 94 of 1904, later London Transport 2455, rescued in 1961 from an orchard near Waltham Cross, and now cut down to single deck, of the type once common around Hendon, Finchley and Barnet until the local tramways converted to trolleybus operation c.1935-1938.

This is a splendid book. Though not cheap, it is well written with plenty of ‘human interest’ and lots of pictures of the Barnet works and its advertising literature, Hadley Fete, and the Hendon depot gates! Well recommended for transport and local history enthusiasts.

HADAS TRIP Day 2 (continued) Jim Nelhams
Leaving Llandaff, our coach took us into the centre of Cardiff, dropping everybody by the walls of Cardiff Castle. The castle has lots of steps, particularly in the keep, so some opted to visit the museum and art gallery or local shops.

CARDIFF CASTLE Dudley Miles
The first building on the site was a Roman fort, built to subdue the warlike tribe of the Silures, which controlled south-east Wales. A stretch of Roman wall survives in the basement of the visitor centre. William the Conqueror invaded south-east Wales and in 1081 he built a motte-and-bailey castle with a wooden keep on the site. Around 1135, this was replaced by a stone keep, considered the finest in Wales, by Robert of Gloucester, probably in response to a Welsh rising.

In the fifteenth century the castle began its transformation into a comfortable residence with the construction of a mansion built into the western wall of the bailey. Three hundred years later, the mansion was refurbished and extended, while Capability Brown’s vision of a fashionable landscape led him to demolish many important ancient buildings and the wall which divided the inner and outer bailey. In the late nineteenth century, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, then the richest man in Britain, employed the architect William Burges to transform the mansion into an outstanding example of Gothic Revival architecture. Some rooms in the mansion are open to the public and others can be seen on a fascinating guided tour.

THE ANIMAL WALL AT BUTE PARK Audrey Hooson

On our visit to Cardiff Castle I was keen to see the highly decorated rooms in the Victorian Gothic castle apartments. These were designed by architect William Burges for the 3rd Marquis of Bute, with the project started in 1866 and continued by the 4th Marquis. The rooms are famous for the amount of decoration they contain with many animals, plants etc. and depict historical and mythical stories.

We did not have to wait very long for our first sight. As we stepped from the coach, we saw the Grade 1 listed Animal Wall at Bute Park. This was planned by Burges and built in 1890, after his death; it was originally located in front of the castle. Road widening as the Centre of Cardiff became busier necessitated re-positioning to the west around Bute Park. For people who are used to animals in heraldic representation or relief panels inserted into walls they are quite a surprise. They all look as if they are looking over the wall from Bute Park and possibly trying to escape. The first nine designed by Thomas Nicholls in 1890 have glass eyes and were originally painted. In 1931, six further animals were sculpted by Alexander Carrick.
During the 1930s the animals featured in a children’s cartoon in the South Wales Echo; they are still a very popular sight in the centre of Cardiff.
Cardiff Museum of Natural History & National Museum of Art
A short distance away from the castle stand a number of civic buildings dating from 1906 and including the City Hall. Next to this stands the museum building, at the time of our visit undergoing roof repairs. Like many city centre museums, it has run out of space, so historic and archaeological exhibits have been transferred in recent years to new buildings at St Fagans, which we would visit later in the trip.

On the ground floor is the natural history section – imaginatively displayed – covering the geological and historical development of Wales and including a woolly mammoth which moves and trumpets.
Much of the first floor is devoted to art, including the work of a number of Welsh painters, but also a display of Welsh ceramics.

Llandaff postscript Jim Nelhams

While returning from Llandaff Cathedral to our coach, we found a small excavation underway near the Bishop’s Castle at the top of the hill. The following is reprinted by kind permission of ‘Wales Online’. “A Medieval dwelling dating back to the 1400s has been discovered under a derelict toilet block in Cardiff . “An excavation of the site in Llandaff in September revealed the building, which expert archaeologists believe was home to someone important. “It is quite a high-status building, it includes a Bath Stone fire surround which was imported from the Bath area and it is not really known as a stone in Llandaff,” said Dr Tim Young, the archaeologist leading the dig. The ground floor of the house remains fully intact, and it is believed the first floor was demolished in the 17th century when the land was then used for an animal pound.

(This is the south corner of the medieval building and its fireplace is to the right)

Among the finds were animal bones, pots, and a counting token called a Jetton, which is believed to have been struck in Paris in the 1300s.

There are a number of theories behind who may have lived in the dwelling next to the 13th Century Old Bishop’s Castle; one includes a housekeeper for the nearby Manor of Llandaff or an official of the Llandaff Cathedral “The site is known as the pound as it was the animal pound for Llandaff and we have evidence of that dating back to about 1607. It had always been assumed that the area was also the pound before that so the discovery of a medieval dwelling on the site was quite unexpected,” said Dr Young, who is a teaching associate at Cardiff University. Finds from the dig will now be sent to experts at Cardiff University and other national museums in order to learn more about the site. “It won’t be for another six months or even a year until we could come to any sort of conclusion,” said Dr Young. Dr Young added they were very surprised by the find as there was no evidence from any of the surviving maps from that time to suggest there had been a building there. The dig was part of a community project set up by Llandaff 50+ as part of a transfer of community assets by the council to the club, who intend to turn the disused toilets into a new community venue. The club was granted funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Cardiff YMCA Trust to run the community project and refurbish the toilets. More than 250 children from nearby schools helped with the dig which ran from September 16 to 27. A local storyteller was able to bring history alive for the children, which helped make the community dig a real success, said Yvonne Apsitis, chairwoman of the Llandaff 50+ club. “We have never really done much with children in the community before so this seemed the perfect opportunity. We had people as old as 80 work at the dig. It was a really enjoyable experience,” said the 79-year-old. The site will now be filled back in as work continues on restoring the area.

Two new books of interest 1. How Hampstead Heath was saved. Review by Andrew Bosi, (first published in News Forum, the newsletter of the London Forum)

Helen Lawrence’s new book has been published (by the Camden History Society, £14.95, order online through the Camden History Society website) to coincide with the latest twist in the history of the Heath – the return of sheep grazing. She charts in great detail the long struggle over ownership of the Heath and the rights and easements granted or withheld. There is a critique of earlier publications and this book brings together the full story to date, acknowledging that it will continue to evolve and urging vigilance on readers who might be faced with challenges in the future.

Hampstead has always been inhabited by more than its share of the great and the good and it is interesting to speculate, as you read the book, how Epping Forest might have fared if it had fallen into the same ownership. The book is sub-titled a Story of People Power and although legislation has changed out of all recognition there are echoes of the petitioning of Parliament over the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in the account of how successive Bills in Parliament designed to permit unwanted development were rebuffed.

Surprisingly, the coming of the Railways did not pose a threat to the heath and the Hampstead Junction railway skirting the southern edge of the heath strengthened the argument that this is a London wide resource. None of the radial routes to the north come anywhere near.

Changes to local government on the other hand posed more difficulties. Within the living memory of most readers, the abolition of the Greater London Council and the long drawn out debate about how its functions were to be administered involved twists and turns that are faithfully recorded here.

In places the left justification of the text results in some confusing spacing: one or two errors have escaped the proof readers. The book is copiously illustrated and very reasonably priced. A rather limited print run may mean first editions become a much sought after investment in years to come. Anyone with an interest in the history of the Heath, or needing to fight for open space elsewhere, will want to make that investment now.

Londinium: a Biography – Roman London from its origins to the Fifth Century

By Richard Hingley, Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Durham Bloomsbury Academic 2018 Price £17.50 paperback

‘Archaeological work’, writes Professor Hingley, has since the mid-1990s, entirely transformed the comprehension of London’s Roman past . . . particularly with regard to the characters and lives of its occupants and the later history of Londinium’. He attempts in this book a current synthesis, dividing the life of Roman London into some six periods, and looking one by one at aspects of London’s life in each period. For instance, under ‘Peak of Development from AD125 to AD200’ there are sections ‘People and status’ ‘Monumental buildings and infrastructure’ ‘Occupation’, and ‘Marking the boundaries’. Professor Hingley indicates scrupulously when the evidence for any conclusion is uncertain or ambiguous. He does not think the decline of Londinium during the third and fourth centuries was anything like as marked as we are often told.

The book will be invaluable as the basis for research or study of anything relating to Roman London – though of course everything in it must be provisional as new discoveries continue to be made. The illustrations are full, but can be murky – in a reasonably priced paperback they are in the text, not on separate plates.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS compiled by Eric Morgan Please check with the organisations before setting out in case of any changes / cancellations. Many organisations expect a small contribution from visitors. Tuesday 14th January 6.30 pm London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN Which Bottles are ‘Witch’ Bottles? Talk by Nigel Jeffries, exploring Ralph Merrifield’s legacy in the field of early modern bottle magic in England. Refreshments from 6 o’clock
Tuesday 14th January 7.45 pm Amateur Geological Society Finchley Baptist Church Hall 6 East End Road opposite Avenue House Milankovitch Cycles and other cosmic influences on our climate Talk by Professor Alan Aylward.
Wednesday 22nd January, 7.45 pm Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane N20 0NL. All Over by Christmas: the Home Front in the First World War Talk by David Berguer
Thursday 30th January 2.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House Talk by Helen Fry on Trent Park in the Second World War and other buildings used for interrogation. NOTE AFTERNOON MEETING
Sunday 2nd February. 10.30 am Heath and Hampstead Society. Laughter in the Landscape; a walk to celebrate Grimaldi Sunday. Explore ‘Appy ‘Ampstead with Lester Hillmany Marc Hutchinson. Meet at the Old Bull and Bush North End Way NW3 Lasts about two hours. MUST BOOK – www.heathandhampstead.org.uk or 07941528034. Donation £5.
Thursday 6th February 8pm Pinner Local History Society Village Hall, Chapel Lane car park, Pinner HA5 1AB. Behind the scenes at the Battle of Britain. Talk by David Keen, including Bentley Priory’s place in history.
Wednesday 12th February. 2.30 pm Mill Hill Historical Society Trinity Church 100, The Broadway NW7 3TB French Horticultural Gardens and current influences. Talk by Chelle Price
Wednesday 12th February 7.45 pm Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, corner Ferme Park Road/Weston Park N8 9PX. Beating the Bounds Talk by Mark Lewis
Monday 17th February. 8.00 pm. Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ. Lost buildings of Enfield Talk by Joe Studman. (including Enfield Palace, Enfield Assembly Rooms, Zion and Chase side Chapels, Gentleman’s Row Bothy, Cecil Road Farm as well as inns and cinemas) (Wrongly entered as 10.30 am in print version)
Monday 17th February 8.15 pm Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society St Martin’s Church Hall High Street Ruislip HA4 8DG Excavations at Eastcote House Gardens. Talk by Les Capon (AOC Archaeology).
Wednesday 19th February. 8pm. Edmonton Hundred Historical Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ The Bayeux Tapestry. Mike Brown.
Wednesday 19th February 7.30pm. Willesden Local History Society. St Mary’s Church Hall, Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS (nr Magistrates Court) The Willesden Green Library Story Talk by Philip Grant, celebrating the 125th anniversary – the Library opened in 1894 and has been at the heart of the local community.
Thursday 20th February 8pm Historical Association – Hampstead and NW London branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way NW6 6YD Jews in the Roman Empire Talk by Dr David Nay on their flourishing in many parts of the empire until changes under fourth century Christian emperors. (Wrongly entered as 27th February in print version)
12
Friday 21st February. 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society English Martyrs’ Hall, Chalkhill Road, Wembley, HA9 9EW (top of Blackbird Hill, adjacent to church) The Home Front during the Second World War Talk by Christine Coates.
Wednesday 26th February. 2.30 pm. Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ.Lavender Hill cemetery Talk by Joe Studman, looking at some of the graves to reveal a potted history of late Victorian and Edwardian Enfield.
Wednesday 26th February, 7.45 pm Friern Barnet and District Local History Society North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane N20 0NL. London Film Locations Talk by Diane Burstein
Thursday 27th February 2.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, West Finchley Neighbourhood Plan Talk by Kieran Kettleton. NOTE AFTERNOON MEETING
Friday 28th and Saturday 29th February. Current Archaeology Live 2020. 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:
Bill Bass, Deidre Barrie, Don Cooper, Audrey Hooson,
Jo and Jim Nelhams, Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan and Andy Simpson.

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 Roger Chapman 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488) 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

Nov 04

Newsletter 584 November 2019

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

Number 584 November 2019 Edited by Micky Watkins

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 12th November 2019: Shene and Syon: a royal and monastic landscape revealed by Bob Cowie.
Bob spent most of his career working as a field archaeologist with MOLA (1983–2017), notably on sites in Lundenwic, spending evenings teaching extramural students at Birkbeck about the archaeology of Saxon and medieval England. He began digging and finds processing with the
Wandsworth Historical Society in 1974, and later became longstanding member of the Richmond Archaeological Society, who helped investigate some of the sites that will be reviewed in his talk. His lecture concerns three riverside sites, which together form a nationally important historic
landscape. The earliest of these was Shene Palace, which Henry V began to rebuild with the intention of making it his dynastic seat. He also intended to found three religious houses nearby. One was to be a French Celestine monastery, but this scheme was abandoned following the outbreak of war with France. The other two monasteries comprised a Carthusian priory (Shene Charterhouse) and a Bridgettine abbey (Syon), which in their day represented a late, albeit isolated, flowering of medieval monasticism. Forty years after their final closure, when little survived of these two great religious houses, they were immortalised by Shakespeare as ‘two chantries where sad and solemn priests still sing’ (Henry V, Act 4, Scene 1). Most of the royal palace was swept away during the Commonwealth.

Sunday 1st December 2019 Christmas Party at Avenue House, 12.30pm – 4pm. The application form with the menu which will be a Christmas lunch, with alternatives is with this newsletter. £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

EAST BARNET PARISH CHURCH – ST MARY THE VIRGIN Deirdre Barrie
If you are walking across Oakhill Park, East Barnet, your eye may catch sight of a mysterious large expanse of white at the top of the hill. As you draw nearer, the white becomes an ancient wall with three little windows in it. This is the north wall of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, which dates
back to 1080. It was then that the Benedictine monks of St Albans Abbey founded a small chapel.

Those Norman windows in the wall would not have been glazed, and the pieces of glass there now are remnants of the church’s medieval glass.
At the entry, you’ll notice a stile beside the lych-gate. This was once to allow access when the graveyard gates used to be closed to prevent animals straying in. The tiny, peaceful churchyard itself is kept as a conservation area for flora and fauna, and a little tour of it is well worthwhile. A thought-provoking blue leaflet available inside, “A Prayer Walk around the Churchyard” is full of interesting details of the graves. The very tall monument near the road is to Simon Houghton Clarke (9th Baronet), and is placed there so that his widow could see it from Oak Hill, a large white house still visible a few miles away and which is now a religious college.

The first chapel on the site had thick walls built of compressed rubble, lime and plaster, with stone round just the windows, while the frame of the door on the south side is probably from the Norman or Saxon period. There have been many alterations and enlargements to the church since. The chancel was built about 1400, while the first gallery was probably built in the reign of King James I, and used as a school room. In 1805 the church walls were raised by four feet, and a little later, in 1828, the tower was built, in neo-Norman style. Its three bells were recast in 1961 from the two original bells cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1861. (Alas, the Foundry closed in 2017). The tower is only 50 feet high, but tower and flag are visible from a good distance.

An amusing story is told in “The Little Church on the Hill”, a leaflet produced to celebrate the 925th Anniversary of the consecration of the church:
“In 1423 the Archbishop of Canterbury passed through Barnet, and the rector and priest were reprimanded for not ringing the church bells in his honour. When the offence was repeated the following year, the Archbishop ordered the church doors to be sealed as a punishment.”

The dissolution of the monasteries meant that King Henry VIII took over the ownership of the Manor of Chipping and East Barnet, and his son Edward VI sold on the Manor of East Barnet in 1553, but kept the patronage for himself. This means that even today the Sovereign is the patron of this church.

The church organ is apparently a very fine instrument for so small a church, and was installed in 1920 in memory of the Vernon Family’s only son, who was killed in WWI.

The nave of the church stands on the site of the original chapel, well over 925 years later, and St Mary’s is still very much alive as a centre for the community. The church is open to visitors from 10am-2pm on Saturdays. For more information see their website: http://www.stmarys-eastbarnet.org.uk/?page_id=50

THE LONG TRIP OF 2019 Jim Nelhams

After a tour of pick-up points, 36 members and friends headed westward for our four-night stay in Aberavon on the east side of Swansea Bay. A comfort break at Beaconsfield and on to Newport for our first two visits, but not in the coach shown above – an updated version.

Our first stop was to be the Newport Medieval Ship, recommended by Peter Pickering, though the Friends of the Ship had a marquee next to Hadas at this year’s Barnet Medieval Festival. At Newport, we were joined by a further five people. How nice it is that members who have moved out of the Barnet area still want to come and join us for our trips.

The Newport Medieval Ship
Newport sits on the River Usk, which is tidal and drains into the Severn Estuary. The Romans came to the area, with their camp at Caerleon, on the north side of Newport. Later, the Normans built Newport Castle. The main trading port in the area was Bristol, but Newport was a good site for ship repairs. In the summer of 2002, a new Arts Centre was being built on the riverbank in the centre of Newport. While excavating the orchestral pit, the remains of a fifteenth century boat were discovered, though concrete piles had already been drilled through the hull. Disassembling the remaining timbers tool over 3 months. Toby Jones, the curator of the Newport Medieval Ship project told us what had happened since, and what history of the boat had been established.

The ship was clinker built mainly of oak with a keel of beech. The length of the boat is about 100 feet, just small enough to fit in the warehouse where reconstruction is under way. Most of the timbers had been dated to just after 1450 and from the Basque country of Northern Spain. It is likely that the ship had been involved in the Iberian wine trade. She had been much repaired, and it would appear that during repairs around 1468, she fell on her side. Much of the upper structure, masts etc, had been salvaged for re-use, leaving a large section of the hull, which became subsumed into the mud.

Reproduced by permission of the Friends of Newport Ship

About 1,000 artefacts were recovered, including coins, 500+ pieces of ceramic, shoes, textiles, combs, stone shot, but no guns and three pumps. The silt around the hull was bagged and awaits future inspection and is bound to add to the information. The timber pieces have been scanned in three dimensions with the results used to produce one tenth scale copies on a three-dimension printer. These have been assembled to provide a model and template for further reconstruction.

The Newport Transporter Bridge
In 1896, John Lysaght of Wolverhampton wanted to build a steel works on the East Bank of the Usk, but most of the potential workforce lived on the opposite bank, and the Town bridge was becoming congested. A ferry was out of the question because of the tides and the muddy banks. The solution had to allow the passage of shipping at high tide. Tunnels and a high-level bridge were considered but were too costly. Robert Haynes, the Borough Engineer became aware of the work of

French engineer Ferdinand Arnodin, whose idea of an “aerial ferry” seemed to solve the problem within the available budget. This type of construction, now generally called a transporter bridge, consists of braced towers on each bank supporting a cross girder. From this is suspended a cradle or gondola on wires, which can be moved back and forward across the river.

(Plan of the Newport Transporter Bridge)
Eighteen transporter bridges have been built worldwide, with 6 still operating. Of the four erected in UK, Newport and Middlesbrough, across the Tees, are still operating.
Sadly, the inclement weather discouraged some from leaving the coach, and everybody declined the option of climbing the stairs at the side to walk across the top and down again.

(Photos – Andy Simpson)
As well as foot passengers, the gondola has space for 6 cars to cross at ten feet per second. Our passengers crossed over and were able to visit the motor control room which incorporates the winding machinery. This was operated by one of the knowledgeable volunteers.

Welsh Road Signs

Having crossed the New Severn Bridge (tolls were discontinued last year), we started to notice the road signs. In Wales, it is a legal requirement that road signs be in both English and Welsh but not all the people involved with road maintenance are Welsh speakers.

In this case, an official of the Highways Department emailed the English wording for a sign to a translator and, after receiving a reply in Welsh, proceeded to have the sign made up and installed. A few weeks later, Welsh-speaking drivers began to call up to point out that the Welsh read … “I am currently out of the office. Please submit any work to the translation team.”

TED SAMMES CLAY PIPE COLLECTION – PART 3 Andy Simpson
This concludes the serialised article – see Parts 1 and 2 in the August and September 2019 HADAS Newsletters (newsletters 581 and 582)

MILL HILL AREA
Hammers Lane NW7
Many readers will be familiar with the steep climb up Hammers Lane (B1461) from Daws Lane up to The Ridgeway, if only to get to The Three Hammers Pub at the top! There has been an inn on this site since around 1680, the current building dating to 1938. Hammers Lane was for a while known as Ratcliffe Lane. Somewhere along here were found several pipes, recorded in 2019 as a combination of Sammes master list nos. 151 and 152.

There is a curiously ‘bent’ length of stem, with ‘Diamond Nipple’ end, – possibly part of a novelty coiled pipe of around 1780-1820 plus three bowls; two part bowls with spurs and length of stem of type AO27, dated 1780 – 1820, both with ‘RMSS’ makers marks, one ‘CD’ and the other ‘GC’
Also found at Church Terrace, Hendon, CD may represent pipe maker Charles Dickens, Hornsey 1788 or Charles Dickens, Spitalfields 1817-28.

The other bowl is post 1840 from ‘The Laurels’, Hammers Lane, with a neatly cut bowl top. It was presumably recovered along with the Victorian small glass R Whites Syrups bottle also in the HADAS archive and marked ‘Laurels Hammers Lane 1974’

Local resident Neil Weston kindly confirms that The Laurels is a property right at the top of Hammers Lane, almost opposite the Three Hammers. It is still residential and has the appearance of an old-style cottage, a slight throwback to an earlier era.

The HADAS archive also includes 18 short, unmarked clay pipe stem fragments recovered when Bill Bass and the late Brian Wrigley of HADAS were site watching the holes dug for tree planting in Mill Hill Park, south of Daws Lane (NGR TQ2190 9210), on 5-6 December 1994. Brian Wrigley noted that the field boundaries reflected those shown on maps back to 1754 (Crow), with the former Daws farm north of the site – like most farms in the area it would have concentrated on hay production to feed the horses of eighteenth and nineteenth century London, Mill Hill being noted for its good quality hay.

Not too far away, at Galen House, Burton Hole Lane, NW7, leading off the ancient Ridgeway and adjacent to the recently sadly demolished 1939-built landmark, the former National Institute for Medical Research, were found two complete bowls of type AO25, dated 1700 – 1770. Both with neatly cut bowl tops, both maker’s marks are the familiar ‘RMSS’ one , Sammes no. 148 with a partly illegible maker’s mark(?) T ? found/owned by a H W Spooner and the other, Sammes 149, with a good length of stem and maker’s mark ‘TH’ – possibly Thomas Hodges, recorded at Smithfield, 1800, as also found at Burroughs Gardens in 1972.

CHILD’S HILL NW2
With a small hamlet already established by the time of John Roque’s map in 1756, the area was then well known for brick and tile making until the kilns were demolished for the building of the Finchley Road in 1828.
Two fairly early pipe bowls were found in Granville Road, which runs off The Vale adjacent to Childs Hill Park, south of the centre of Golders Green. Both unmarked bowls, Sammes List CFM 11 and CFM 12, are of type AO12, dated 1640-1670. Both have full milling decoration around the tops of the bowl
TEMPLE FORTUNE AREA
This general area is VERY well represented in the Sammes Collection, possibly because of the number of HADAS members who lived in the area at the time. Previously a hamlet amongst farmland, the area gradually developed following the opening of the Finchley Road turnpike and associated coaching inns from 1830, but was still semi-rural as late as 1906 but rapidly developed after the arrival of the ‘tube’ at Golders Green in June 1907.

2, Willifield Way, off Finchley Road – one part bowl and part stem, type AO25, 1700- 1770, unusually with an ‘X’ visible at the bottom of the bowl, and with a cut bowl top.

66, Hampstead Way NW11 – one bowl of form AO31, 1850 – 1910, Sammes No 97. Stem fragment with heel and part of bowl. Stamped shield mark on side of heel.

Hill Close, NW11 (off Hampstead Way) Two bowls, one part bowl of type AO26, 1740-1780, with coat of arms, maker’s mark on spur possibly IP, Sammes No 147.(I was commonly used for J in this period)
The other full bowl of type AO29, 1840-1880, makers mark on spur WB, Sammes No 146.

9, Asmuns Place, also off Hampstead Way – one complete bowl, type

61 Erskine Hill, off Addison Way, NW11. Two bowls – one type AO9, 1610-1640, with full bowl milling. Sammes List 113.The other type AO10, 1640-1660, Sammes List 114, again with full bowl milling.
56 Temple Fortune Lane (off Finchley Road) NW11
Part of bowl only, type AO27, 1780-1820. Mark on side of spur ‘CD’ Again may represent pipe makers Charles Dawkins, Hornsey 1788 or Charles Dickens, Spitalfields 1817-28.

? Giten Close NW11
The original record/label was hard to read and the A to Z shows no road/close with this name, other than one in Bromley!
What is clear is that it is a bowl, with damaged top, of type AO10, 1640-1660, with very partial milling and a cut top. No Sammes Number.

6 Temple Fortune Hill NW11 (Leading to ‘Big Wood’)
A particularly large collection of pipe fragments and other related material.
Complete bowl type AO4, 1610-1640. Full milling. Sammes No 64.
Complete bowl type AO9, 1640-1660. Full milling. Sammes no 66.
Damaged bowl type AO10, 1640-1660. No milling. Sammes No 65.
Complete bowl type AO11, 1640-1670, with incised line at rear. No milling. Sammes No 70.
Complete bowl and part stem, type AO12, 1640-1670. Full milling. Sammes No 71.
Complete bowl type AO15, 1660-1680. Half milling. Sammes No 67.
Complete bowl, Type AO15, 1660 – 1680. No milling. Incised line on part of rim. Sammes No 68.
Complete bowl and part of stem type AO15, 1660-1680. Half milling. Sammes No 69.
Bowl only, type AO15 1660-1680.Half Milling.
Bowl and half stem, type AO15, 1660-1680. Three-quarter milling.
Half bowl, missing spur, type AO22? 1680-1710
One bowl with moulded rabbit design either side. Ribbed wheatsheaf seams on bowl. Sammes No 85.
Bowl type A033, post 1840, with basket design. Sammes No 86
Bowl type AO33, post 1840, Thorn design, with most of stem. Sammes No 87.
Plus 15 stem fragments approx. 5-7mm diameter, and 30 8-10mm diameter.
Plus corroded and totally illegible coin, possibly a farthing.
Well- worn 1917 penny.
Rolled copper strip with central channel.
Circular Bakelite fitting
Tinned iron 3d token – T. Salmon & Son Ltd (from Grocery/Household store in Holloway N1 and other branches)

WHETSTONE
The Sammes Collection includes one rather lonely pipe from Whetstone, a bowl of type AO15, dated 1660-1680 from 9, Elmstead Close, Whetstone N20, close to Totteridge Village cricket ground. Sammes No 76, it has full milling and a neatly cut bowl top.

Exhibitions:
British Museum. Troy: myth and reality. Opens 21 November 2019 – 8 March 2020. Adults from £20.00. BM Society Members and children Free

Imperial War Museum. What Remains In partnership with Historic England this exhibition explores why cultural heritage is attacked during war and the ways we save, protect and restore what is targeted. Over 50 photographs, oral histories, objects and artworks will be on display Information from IWM website.

Saatchi Gallery, London. Tuankhamun : Treasures of the Golden Pharoah 150 original artefacts. 2 Nov. 2019 – 3 May 2020

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan
BARNET LIBRARIES 90 years collecting: Barnet Local Studies Exhibition
04 NOV. – 24 NOV: EDGWARE LIBRARY, Hale Lane HA8 8NN
04 NOV. – 30 JAN: HENDON LIBRARY, The Burroughs NW4 4BQ
05 NOV. – 19 NOV: CHIPPING BARNET LIBRARY, Stapylton Rd EN5 4QT
19 NOV. – 03 DEC: NORTH FINCHLEY LIBRARY, Ravensdale Ave N12 9HP
25 NOV. – 18 DEC: BURNT OAK LIBRARY, Watling Ave HA8 0UB
04 DEC. – 18 DEC: EAST FINCHLEY LIBRARY, 226 High Rd. N2 9BB
18 DEC. – 08 JAN: FINCHLEY CHURCH END, 318 Regents Park Rd N3 2LN
20 DEC. – 02 JAN: COLINDALE LIBRARY, Bristol Ave NW9 4BR
02 JAN. – 23 JAN: GOLDERS GREEN LIBRARY, Golders Gr. Rd NW11 8HE
08 JAN – 23 JAN: OSIDGE LIBRARY, Brunswick Park Rd N11 1EY

Wednesday 13 Nov. 7.45pm 7.30pm for 8pm Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, Ferme Park Rd. N8 9PX. Professor Ian Christie: The World’s First Film Studios? Putting R. W. Paul Back on the Map for his 150th Birthday: Visitors £2. Venue omitted from previous newsletter

Thursday 14 Nov. 6pm. Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn EC1N 2HH Sir Thomas Gresham and the Tudor Court. Talk by Prof. Alexandra Gajda. Free

Tuesday 19 Nov. 7.30 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, AGM Barnet Church EN5 4BW

Thursday 20 Nov. 7.30pm Finchley Society, Avenue House, East End Rd N3 3QE Finchley Origins – from a Common to a Conurbation Talk by Hugh Petrie, Barnet Archivist (Jean Scott Memorial Lecture).

Saturday 23 Nov. 10.30 am. Willesden Local History Society, Kilburn Lane W10 4AA. Guided tour round the church with Fr. David Ackerman

Tuesday 26 Nov – 19 April. Enfield at War 1939-45. Exhibition at Museum of Enfield, Dugdale Centre, 39 London Road, EN2 6DS –

Tuesday 26 Nov. 1-1.45 pm. The archaeology of War Talk by Ian Jones
Wednesday 4 Dec. 7.00- 9.00 pm Secret Wartime Britain. Talk by Colin Philpott

Tuesday 10 Dec. 1-1.45pm Heroes and Victims. Talk by Ian Jones on air raids on Enfield
The talks at Dugdale Centre are free but reservations is advised on www.dugdalecentre.co.uk or phone 020 8807 668010 –

Wednesday 27 Nov. 7.45pm Friern Barnet and District Local History Society, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL The London Cage – Britain’s secret interrogation centre in WW2. Talk by Helen Fry.

Saturday 7 Dec. 10.30 am-2.30pm Hornsey Historical Society, Old School House, 136 Tottenham Lane N8 7EL. Local History Surgery with John Hinshel Wood. NB. The 13 Nov talk will be at Union Church Hall, Ferme Park Rd. N8 9PX

Tuesday 10 Dec. 6.30 pm LAMAS, Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, London Wall EC2Y 5HN. Denmark Street revealed. Talk by Robert Hradsky on how a remarkable group of 17th century houses were adapted to support a specialist enclave of metal workers in the 19th century and a thriving group of music publishers in the 20th century. Refreshments 6pm

With thanks to this month’s contributors:
Deirdre Barrie, Jim Nelhams, Andy Simpson 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: Roger Chapman 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488) 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

Aug 01

Newsletter-581-August-2019

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

Number 581 August 2019 Edited by Jim Nelhams

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2019

Tuesday 8th October 2019: From Crosse & Blackwell to Crossrail – MOLA excavations at Tottenham Court Road 2009 to 2010. Lecture by Lyn Blackmore.

Tuesday 12th November 2019: Shene and Syon: A Royal and Monastic Landscape Revealed. Lecture by Bob Cowie.

Sunday 1st December 2019: HADAS Christmas Lunch at Avenue House. 12:30 – 4 p.m. including full Christmas dinner. Price and booking form will follow.

Lectures start at 7.45 for 8.00pm in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Buses 13, 125, 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.

Membership Renewals – a reminder. Stephen Brunning.
Many thanks to those who have already paid their subscription. If you intend to renew this year and have not yet done so, I would be grateful to receive payment by 15th September 2019 at the following rates: £15 (Full), £5 (each additional member at the same address), and £6 (student). My address is on the last page of this newsletter.
It is not necessary to return the renewal form enclosed with the March newsletter. A piece of paper with your name, postal address, telephone number and email address (if applicable) will suffice. I will then be able check the details we hold are still correct. If not already done so, it would also be helpful if you could indicate your willingness to receive the newsletter by email. This helps to keep our costs to a minimum. Thank you.
—————————————————————————————————————————
Day trip by Barnet Museum & Local History Society:
Saturday, 21st September 2019 Visit to the “Mary Rose” in Portsmouth by coach. Cost £38 for adults and £15 for children (5-18) and students.
Depart Barnet Everyman at 08.15. Leave Portsmouth: c.5pm, arrive back in Barnet c.7.15pm
These trips get booked up quickly, so if you want to go don’t delay.
Friends of members are also welcome. To book, phone Dennis Bird 020 8449 0705

Trip to Leicester
Mill Hill Historical Society have a trip to Leicester on Wednesday 4th September. This will include
visits to the King Richard III Visitor Centre and the Cathedral. Meet the coach at Hartley Hall,
Hartley Avenue, Mill Hill, NW7 2HX, at 8:50 am. Coach will leave Leicester at 5:00 pm.
To book, please phone Julia Haynes on 020 8906 0563 or email haynes.julia@yahoo.co.uk.
Cost for non-members £40. Please check as may be fully booked. Last booking date – 5th August.

Silchester Peter Pickering

I went recently to Silchester with the Herculaneum Society to visit this summer’s dig, directed by
Professor Michael Fulford, who took us round and told us what is happening. It was lovely weather,
and the tents of the student diggers were scattered over the fields; just as things used to be before
almost all archaeology was hurriedly undertaken in advance of development.

Over many years Reading University have been re-excavating the Roman city, which was the subject
of a monumental campaign by the Society of Antiquaries at the end of the nineteenth century. This
year they are continuing the work on the baths which they started last year. They are uncovering the
walls the Antiquaries found and studying the stratigraphy in a way that was not possible over a
century ago. It is clear that though the Antiquaries’ plans were very accurate, and they tried to
understand the sequence of events, they did not appreciate how complicated the site was, and how
very frequently the people of Calleva Atrebatum changed or ‘improved’ their bath building.

Examining carefully the Antiquaries’ spoil (all was actually backfilled – which is what Reading
University are doing in their turn) contributes to the discovery of many small finds – including last
year for instance a gold ring – presumably lost by a user of the baths (the area currently being worked
on contains particularly objects likely to have belonged to women and children). Besides the dig
itself we saw people working on finds – one woman was extracting with tweezers tiny pieces of
charcoal from a heap of what looked like grains of sand.

Before we went to the site we had spent time in Reading Museum, where there is a large collection
of the finds from the Antiquaries’ and other early work at Silchester, rather spoilt for us by a problem
the Museum are having with the lighting in the room. And we finished the day with tea and cakes in
the mediaeval church at the entrance to the site.

High Barnet Archaeological Round-up Bill Bass

A summary of recent archaeological activity in the High Barnet area.

70 High Street
Archaeological Solutions Ltd conducted an evaluation here finding walls, floors, pits and ditches
dating to the 18th and 19th centuries. It appears that building of an 18th structure has mostly removed
any medieval evidence. Further ‘site-watching’ will be carried out when foundations are cut for the
new development.

46-48 High Street
This site is somewhat south of 70 High Street and also within an Archaeological Priority Area, is the
subject of a ‘site-watching’ condition by Headland Archaeology to check any ground interventions
here.

Former Marie Foster Home, Wood Street

This extensive site is being completely redeveloped for a replacement Marie Foster Home, MOLA
(Museum of London Archaeology) has conducted an Archaeological Evaluation with a number of
trenches across the site, with a report to follow.

In 1993 HADAS conducted a dig at the adjacent former Victoria Maternity Hospital finding a ditch
with medieval pottery which aligned with Wood Street, this ditch would have continued into the
Marie Foster Home grounds.

Service trenches
For the past few months a number of service trenches – water, gas, digital cabling etc have been dug
around High Barnet. Recently a number of trenches have appeared in the High Street. In the spoil
some finds were noted and recovered they consisted of some large animal bone with butchery marks,
tobacco-pipe1700-1770 in date and post-medieval pottery (see photo). These finds were from a
trench near 93 High Street, Barnet.

Hadley Green gates
The Gates on Hadley Green Road which are Grade II Listed have been temporarily removed under
archaeological supervision due to extensive works here to repair a collapsed sewer. The works
involve digging a 12m vertical hole then ‘tunnelling’ in 14m to enable the repairs.

The Ted Sammes Clay Pipe Collection Andy Simpson

Like all good archaeological units and societies, HADAS has material in long-term store that invites
further study beyond that originally done possibly 30-40 years ago as our collective knowledge of the
subject and area gradually increases, a case in point being the current evening class re-evaluation of
the Mitre High Barnet dig of 1989/90 archive that is making society greybeards such as myself who
were on the original dig feel their age!

Another group of finds currently undergoing re-evaluation is the large collection of mainly local clay
pipes seemingly inherited from HADAS stalwart and benefactor, the late Ted Sammes. For many
years these were boxed up in the HADAS ‘back room’ at Avenue House and were checked and some
re-bagged some ten years ago. However, there was a problem – there was little indication of their
actual source or context, just a mysterious sequential number marked on the individual envelopes.
Happily however, a recent search of general clay pipe paperwork in our main cellar workroom and
store revealed the original ?1970s master list of over 150 individual clay pipes or small groups
thereof. They are listed with the individual sequential number, usually found on the original brown
envelopes/grease proof paper bags within which they were first put, a note of any visible decoration
or maker’s marks, and a very general indication of the finds spot – sometimes a street or general
area, very occasionally an actual numbered address, sometimes a finder’s or householder’s name,
and sadly many with no identifiable location at all, and almost never any actual date of finding or
archaeological context, which makes the interpretation even more of a challenge. I have been
through site files, past newsletters and research committee minutes but as yet have found no other
sources of information other than what is written on the envelopes or in the master list.

However, the Sunday morning usual suspects, in particular Bill Bass, Tim Curtiss, Dudley Miles,
Janet Mortimer and Peter Nicholson (and your scribe) have cracked on and pored over the A to Z as
well as the old faithful Atkinson and Oswald clay pipe identification templates (Type AO27 dated
1780-1820 being particularly prevalent in this collection) and more recent guides to clay pipe
recording to produce a detailed record more in keeping with current MOLA standards, as well as rebagging
all the pipes with new labels.

There is a good range of dates covered from the 1640s to around 1900, with some noticeable
geographical concentrations, probably reflecting the residential areas of HADAS members and
friends at the time, including 17th century fragments from Annesley Avenue in Colindale, plus 18th –
19th century examples from Finchley, including East End Road and Avenue House, two or three
sites around Temple Fortune, and Hammers Lane, Mill Hill, along with a few late examples from
Staples Corner near Brent Cross.

One particularly nice group from the Temple Fortune area also includes seventeenth century
examples and some nice trade tokens and coins of a later date. There is also a stray clay pipe from
Portsmouth!

Recording is a week or two away from completion, and I hope to produce a more detailed overview
in due course.

The Royal Albert Hall Jim Nelhams

Friday 19th July 2019 saw the First Night of the 2019 Promenade concerts, the first of 75 concerts
ending with the Last Night on Saturday 14th September. This is the 125th season.
Most of the concerts are now held in the Royal Albert Hall (a Grade I listed building), on Kensington
Gore on the south side of Hyde Park. All are broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and this year, 24 are
shown on BBC Television.

Although individual promenade concerts had taken place before, the first full series was set up by
impresario Robert Newman and called “Mr Robert Newman’s Promenade Concerts”. Mr Newman
received financial backing from surgeon George Cathcart on condition that Henry Wood be selected
as the series conductor.

Concerts were based at The Queen’s Hall in Langham Place, next to where now stands the BBC
Broadcasting House. When Newman died in 1927, the BBC took over running the concerts, though
they relinquished this duty during WW2. In 1941, the Queen’s Hall was destroyed in an air raid, and
concerts were moved to The Royal Albert Hall where they have continued every summer since.
The year 1851 saw the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, running for some five and a half months.
Among the organisers and promoters was Price Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort. The Exhibition was
a great success in promoting Britain as a world leader in technology and made a profit of £186,000.
It was visited by over 6 million people, equivalent to one-third of the UK population at the time.
An area south of the exhibition site was purchased (and nicknamed Albertopolis) and on this was
built the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. At the
north of the area, a concert hall was built, originally to be named the Central Hall of Arts and
Sciences (appropriate since one theme of the Proms this year, the 50th Anniversary of the first moon
landing, is about space,) but the name was changed when Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone to
the Royal Albert Hall. Across the road in the park, a statue of Prince Albert surveys the front of the
hall.

The Hall opened on 29th March 1871 with a concert which included some music written by Prince
Albert himself. When the concert to celebrate the centenary of the opening took place in 1971, it
started with the same music. Jo and I, as members of the BBC Choral Society, (since renamed the
BBC Symphony Chorus) were on stage for this concert.

Apart from musical performances, the Hall has seen many uses including boxing, tennis, ice skating,
opera (in the round!), award ceremonies, and the annual British Legion ceremony preceding
Armistice Sunday.

The Hall offers tours lasting about 1 hour for £13.75, though if HADAS was to raise a group of 15+,
this would reduce to £11.00. Tours must be pre-booked. (Contact me if you are interested in a tour).

Barnet Physic Well

Barnet Physic Well is a mineral water spring which was thought to have therapeutic qualities. It was
popular from the later seventeenth century through the eighteenth century, and its visitors included
Samuel Pepys, who wrote about the visit in his diary.

In 2018, it underwent extensive refurbishment work to the mock-Tudor wellhouse. It was officially
reopened on 20 November 2018. The work was paid for by Barnet Council, Historic England and the
Heritage of London Trust.

Volunteers from Barnet Museum run public openings of Barnet Physic Well monthly, giving
everyone free access to this little-known part of Barnet’s heritage.

Please be aware that the Physic Well is in a relatively small room underground and is reached by
steep stone steps. The physic well is on the corner of Well Approach and Pepys Crescent For satnav,
use EN5 3DY. It is not far from Barnet General Hospital.

The next Physic Well opening is on Saturday 17th August. Come any time between 2pm and 4pm.
Free entry. Further 2019 dates (all Saturdays) are 21st September, 19th October and 16th November.

Memorial to Major John Cartright

Hadas newsletter 573 (December 2018) featured an article about the memorial to Major Cartright in
the churchyard at St Mary-at-Finchley. The memorial fell into disrepair and was on the Historic
England “at risk” register.

Restoration work was undertaken with £79,000 funding from Historic England, and some
crowdfunding launched by the church.

Restoration has recently been completed and the memorial was dedicated by the Rector of St Maryat-
Finchley, the Rev. Philip Davison. It looks very fine and pristine. Major Cartwright is portrayed
wearing his wig.

Afternoon Course for over-75s.

Tuesday 20th August 2;30 pm – 5:30 pm, at Museum of London Archive and Research Centre,
46 Eagle Wharf Road, N1 7ED.

Join Jacqui Pearce, for a skills workshop on pottery identification exclusively for older Londoners
aged over 75. Jacqui is a Hadas member and runs our Wednesday evening course at Avenue House
and masterminds the publication of the course research.

Jacqui is a Senior Finds Specialist at MOLA and an expert in medieval and later ceramics, glass and
clay tobacco pipes. Learn about the different types of pottery discovered in the UK, how to identify
and record them and find out how they were made. Explore sherds from Roman Londinium to pieces
of contemporary ceramics and get hands-on experience with archaeological material. Support from
Photographs from David Coates of the Finchley Society.

City Bridge Trust allows places on this workshop to be free of charge but places must be booked in
advance.

For further enquiries, please contact wrathouse@mola.org.uk or call 020 7410 2207. Tea, coffee
and biscuits will be provided.

Other Societies Eric Morgan

MEETINGS / TALKS

Tuesday 13th August, 7:45pm. Amateur Geological Society at Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6 East
End Road, N3 3QL (corner of Stanhope Avenue). Members’ evening with various talks.

Wednesday 4th September, 6:00 pm. Docklands History Group at Docklands Museum, Canary
Wharf, E14 4AL. Talk by David Gibson – Thames Sailing Barges – A history and a future

Wednesday 4th September, 7:30 pm. London, Westminster and Middlesex Family History Society,

St Paul’s Centre 102A Church Street, Enfield, EN2 6AR. Talk by Joe Studman – The History of
Enfield’s Markets, Fairs and Festivals.

Monday 9th September, 3:00 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society in St John the Baptist
Church, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Talk by David Berguer – Holidays by rail. Visitors £2.

Tuesday 10th September, 7:45pm. Amateur Geological Society as above. Talk by Richard Puchner,
FRS – Sinkholes.

Friday 13th September, 7:45 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society at 2 Parsonage Lane, (junction
with Chase Side), Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Talk by Caroline Raynor – St James’ Gardens excavations and
the HS2 Project. Visitors £1.50.

Wednesday 18th September, 7:30 pm. Willesden Local History Society, St Mary’s Church Hall,
Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS. Talk by Camilla Churchill from Brent Archive – Brent 2020, Borough of
Culture.

Wednesday 25th September, 7:45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society, North
Middlesex Golf Club, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Talk by Carol Harris – Ernest Shackleton and
the Endurance Expedition. Visitors £2.

Thursday 26th September, 7:30 pm. Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue House. Talk by
Peter Cox (U3A) – The State of the High Street, covering the development of retail outlets in East
Finchley, Muswell Hill, North Finchley and Church End. Visitors £2.

WALKS
Wednesday 28th August, 6:00 pm. LAMAS – walk led by Eliott Wragg in either Wapping or
Rotherhithe, exact details to be confirmed. £10 for members, £12.50 for non-members. This walk
will explore the history and features of the foreshore. Visitors without a PLA licence should not pick
things up to take away, they can point out things of interest and ask Eliott about them.

Wednesday 28th August 6.30pm – Highgate Wood – Meet at the café by the information hut.
Entrances from Archway Road or Muswell Hill Road. A Historical Walk – there were 3 Roman
pottery kilns in the wood.

OPEN DAYS
Monday 26th August. Markfield Beam Engine & Museum, Markfield Park, Markfield Road N15 4AB.
Steam Day. www.mbeam.org . Tel: 07923 459020 for more info. Engine Steaming times 12:30pm to
1:15pm, 2:00 pm to 2:45pm, 3:30 pm to 4.15pm

Sunday 1st September 11:00 am – 3:00 pm. COLAS “Totally Thames” at Fulham Palace. Day of
family archaeology. Guided foreshore visits. Display stalls.

Saturday 7th September 10:30 – 2:30 pm. Hornsey Historical Society, Old School House,136
Tottenham Lane, (corner Rokesly Avenue), N8 7EL. Local History Surgery, giving advice/help
with local history research. Helpful if you first email hornseyhistoricalsurgery@gmail.com.

Saturday 7th September 11:00 am – 2:30 pm. Enfield Transport Circle – St Paul’s Centre 102A
Church Street, Enfield, EN2 6AR. A good variety of stalls, selling all kinds of transport books,
photo’s, DVD’s, maps, timetables, tickets and other memorabilia. Light refreshments available.

Sunday 15th September 12:00 am – 5:30 pm. Queens Park Open day, Chevening Road, NW6. Lots
of stalls including Willesden Local History Society.

Saturday/ Sunday 21st/22nd September. London Open House weekend. Put it in your diary.
Programme will be published on 20th August. Includes Markfield Beam Engine on both days – see
26th August.

Saturday/Sunday 28th/29th September, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. London Transport Museum, Acton
Depot. 118-120, Gunnersbury Lane, Acton, W3 9BQ. Focus on railway termini. £12 (con. 10).


With many thanks to this month’s contributors:
Bill Bass, Stephen Brunning, Eric Morgan, Peter Pickering and Andy Simpson

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 Roger Chapman 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488)
e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Stephen Brunning 22 Goodwin Ct, 52 Church Hill Rd,
East Barnet EN4 8FH mob: 07534 646852 e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk

Jun 06

Newsletter-579-June-2019

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

Number 579 June 2019 Edited by Melvyn Dresner

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2019

Tuesday 11th June 2019 7.30 pm Annual General Meeting, Jo Nelhams
This year’s meeting will be followed by a lecture from our President, Harvey Sheldon, entitled
“Imperial Rome’s north-west frontier: can it explain Britannia and Londinium’s role within the
province?” We hope that many members will attend showing their support for those who
voluntarily give their time by standing for the committee and organising HADAS. Without them
there would be no society. Tea and coffee at the meeting will be free of charge. If you are unable to
attend, please send your apologies to Jo Nelhams by email (jo.nelhams@live.co.uk) or phone (020
8449 7076) Please note early start time.

Saturday July 27th 2019 SECRET RIVERS – at the Docklands Museum
HADAS is planning a visit to this exhibition revealing the history of London’s forgotten rivers. As
announced at our last lecture, Deirdre Barrie and Audrey Hooson have proposed an outing to the
Docklands Museum on Saturday 27th July. The Museum is staging a free exhibition starting from
24th May called “Secret Rivers”. If you have a bus pass, your transport is also free. Quoting from
the Museum’s publicity:

“Secret Rivers uses archaeological artefacts, art, photography and film to reveal stories of life by
London’s rivers, streams and brooks, exploring why many of them were lost over time.
“The intriguing histories of the River Effra, Fleet, Neckinger, Lea, Wandle, Tyburn, Walbrook and
Westbourne will all feature in the exhibition. Each river will highlight a broader theme such as
poverty, industry, development, effluence, manipulation, activism, sacred association and
restoration.”

The museum requests that groups book in advance, so although we require no deposit, rough
numbers are need. There is a coffee bar at the museum and other places for lunch close by, or you
can bring your own sandwiches. Will meet either at Bank Station DLR platform at 10.30, for West
India Quay or at 11.00 in the museum coffee shop. Please contacts Deirdre Barrie (020 8367
0922) dlbarrie@tiscali.co.uk or Audrey Hooson AudreyHooson@icloud.com

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.

History of Clitterhouse Farm, Hendon Roger Chapman

The inaugural memorial lecture for Dorothy Newbury MBE (15th February 1920 – 13th February 2018) was given by Roger Chapman on 12th February 2019.
Clitterhouse has been known by many names – Clater’s House, Clutterhouse, Clitherow and Clytterhouse being some of them. The Clitter part of Clitterhouse is thought to originate from the word ‘clite’ or clay and has been roughly translated to mean ‘clay house’. The early history of Clitterhouse Farm is vague, clouded in mystery, tied up in disputed Charters and ripe for historical myth making. Earthen banks identified by aerial photography, were suggested to form a moated enclosure and defence line against Viking invasion across to Oxgate lying on the western side of the Edgware Road. In the past it was speculated that the Farm may have been a Viking raided homestead, blackened by fire, and then restored as: ‘A house of clay … of such thickness of wall that even a modern bullet would scarcely penetrate.’

From these ashes, Clitterhouse, the clay house ‘probably arose.’ It is a great story but evidence to support it is thin. The land is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 though Hendon is mentioned. In the Domesday Book (1086) it is estimated that Hendon had a population of 250 with enough woodland to support 1,000 pigs. By 1321, the time of the Black Book, there was still a great deal of woodland in existence, but less than at the time of Domesday. Clitterhouse Manor starts with Robert Warner, lawyer and one time under Sheriff of Middlesex. In 1439 he granted the land to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on condition that a Chaplain and four youths would pray for him. Green, a son-in-law of Robert Warner secured a payoff from the will, on payment of a sparrow hawk, of sixty acres of land, six acres of pasture and 36 acres of woodland in Clitterhouse. Not a bad transaction for a sparrow hawk. The manor was eventually released to the hospital in 1446. The Farm remained in the ownership of St Bartholomew’s until 1921. The hospital’s property in Hendon was augmented in 1446 by two nearby estates granted by Henry Frowyk and William Cleeve, Master of the King’s Works. The first, called Vynces, lay north of the Clitterhouse estate and the second, Rockholts, lay south of the road to Childs Hill.

A survey in 1584 of Clitterhouse Farm “now in the tenure of Edward Kempe” was undertaken by Ralfe Treswell. At this time the farm was over 200 acres comprising 18 fields, each with a perimeter woodland strip, 2 woodlands, an orchard, farmhouse, outbuildings and a moat. Emphasising the importance of woodland, at the time, the survey identifies 1295 ‘timber trees’ on the farm. Timber was the building material of choice and would also be used for fencing, wattle work and in large quantities for fuel. The farm land extended to the ‘West High Waie’ (Edgware Road) and was bordered to the south by land belonging to the Abbey of Westminster. To the north the landowner was Sir Roger Cholmeley, founder of Highgate School. Primary access to the farm was via a trackway from a feature called ‘Clitterhouse Cross’, presumably a wayside cross or Calvary, on the ‘West High Waie’ and this ran past fields called Great Rockholts, Noke Field and Great Camp to the House and then a track ran (roughly on the alignment of Claremont Road today) past Bente Field, Hill Field and Great Vince, out past Whitefield Gove which was on Cholmeley’s land. Edward Kemp occupied the farm in 1610 when his house was broken into and a woman’s violet coloured gown worth 40 shillings and other personal goods were stolen. Three men and a woman were charged. Two of the men were ‘at large’, the other man pleaded not guilty and was acquitted. The woman, Joan Eliott, stood mute and for that reason was condemned to a punishment called “peine forte et dure”. She was laid on her back under a great weight and on alternate days was fed small quantities of bread or water until she died. One reason she may have stood mute is by
not pleading she would avoid forfeiture of property. This type of harsh punishment was abolished in 1772, though its last use was in 1741. Thomas Kempe was resident during the time of Cromwell and in his 1667 will left the lease of the farm to his son, Edward, with all the ‘corn, hay, cows, sheep etc.’ Edward continued at Clitterhouse until 1674 when he responded to a ‘hue and cry’ raised against highway robbers who had held up the mail coach on the Windsor Road and then fled across country from Hanwell to Harrow. All available able men in Hendon mounted their horses and tried to cut off the miscreants. Edward Kempe was to the fore and as he approached them, on the narrow lane leading to Hampstead Heath, they fired and he fell from his horse with a bullet in his side. He survived for 24 hours. The villains were caught, taken to Newgate gaol, and eventually executed. The body of their leader, Francis Jackson, was hung in chains on a gallows tree between the Heath and Golders Green. The Kempe’s kept a connection with the Farm until 1794.

By 1715 a new plan of the Farm, prepared by Robert Trevitt, shows a much reduced woodland area, only 19 acres out of 203 total. Most of the woodland strips surrounding the fields had been grubbed out and a further 7 acres were lost by 1753. This plan also contains a superb drawing of the farmyard in 1715 showing timber framed and weather boarded buildings making a tight group around the farmyard. John Roques 1746 plan ‘10 miles around London’ shows a range of five farm buildings called ‘Claters House’.

The decline of woodland continued and in a survey of agriculture un 1794 hay was a key crop and in the neighbourhood of ‘Harrow, Hendon and Finchley there are many hay barns capable of holding 30 to 50 and some even 100 loads of hay’. Hendon by the time of the Tithe apportionment map of 1843 was 91% (7330 acres) in meadow and pasture use with just 0.04% of land (283 acres) in arable production and a miniscule 40 acres (0.005%) woodland. Clitterhouse Farm, now tenanted by Jonathan Caley, reflects this with the majority of fields shown as meadow and only some as arable. In the 1860s the coming of the Midland Railway Company cut Clitterhouse Farm in two (north to south) and led to the building of Claremont Road. The land west of the railway line became Brent Sidings in the 1880s. From 1876 until 1915 the Brent Gas Works supplied stations from Mill Hill to St Pancras, including the Midland Hotel and the railway workers cottages called Brent Midland Terrace (1897). Between 1884 and 1913, the influential suffragette Gladice Georgina Keevil (1884 – 1959) lived at Clitterhouse Farm. At age 6, she won a prize for her clay modelling at the local kindergarten. In February 1908 she was one of those arrested with Emmeline Pankhurst in taking part in a demonstration outside the House of Commons.

Keevil’s picture was taken in 1910 by Colonel Linley Blathwayt (died 1919) at Eagle House near Batheaston, Somerset. Where she (and other suffragettes) went to recover and celebrate a prison sentence for the cause. Here with shovel in hand after planting a tree.

By the First World War, Clitterhouse farmland was much reduced in size, becoming a dairy farm, which was 100 acres in extent and had “40 cows in full milk” producing 10 quarts per day on average. Land had been for Hendon sewage works in the 1880s, and to Hendon fever hospital (1890-1929). The estate remained the property of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital until 1921, when it was sold to the War Department; it was later split up among private developers. Hendon Urban District Council acquired some of the land for playing fields and to provide a new home for Hampstead Football Club in 1926 (which became Hendon FC in 1946).

In 1913, the southern part of Clitterhouse farm became the Beatty School of Flying (a joint venture with early American aviator, George Warren Beatty 1887-1955, and Handley Page). This became the Handley Page’s Cricklewood Aerodrome and factory during 1917. Handley Page developed and tested Britain’s first bombers. After the First World War, passenger flights to the continent became popular. In 1929 the Aerodrome was closed, and the land became Laing’s ‘Golders Green Estate’. Jean Simmons, the actress, was brought up on the estate. Shortly after 1926 Hampstead FC (Hendon FC from 1946) rented some of the land from Hendon Urban District, finishing Clitterhouse as a farm. The rest of the land became a public open space. From 1920 to 1938, Cricklewood Studios occupied part of the aerodrome; these were the largest film studios in the UK. To get an idea of the film studios in action: https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/how-make-your-first-silent-movie-count

The Clitterhouse Farm Project
The Clitterhouse Farm Project was founded in early 2013 by local residents – who all live within a five-minute walk of Clitterhouse Farm. They are working to protect the historic Victorian farm outbuildings from demolition and to secure their future, so the entire site can be transformed into a vibrant, creative and sustainable hub that supports the community and small businesses. They wish to provide a compatible and flexible space relevant to the needs of the local population and to create a tangible improvement to the area before, during and after the Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration. They have secured over £100,000 crowdfunding in December 2018 for community café and workshops including money from the Mayor of London’s Good Growth fund. They are slowly working through the planning stages, as they hope to start on site later this year.

Working closely with the Clitterhouse Farm Project, HADAS members excavated trenches in the garden area to the south of the building in 2015 and in 2016 trenches were dug to the north and along the front of the current buildings. From these we found the foundations of what we believe to be the Wheat barn (see below) and traces of the moat. Our finds include small amounts of pottery from the 12th century along with more extensive amounts from later centuries. The excavations suggest that the older range of buildings should be found under the car park.
The line A–A runs is roughly along the front of the current building as shown in the photo below.

Environmental Samples
Mike Hacker collected environmental samples during 2015 dig, the assemblage of pollen and spores (Scaife 2016) were found to be typical of other moats fills. This shows the vegetation diversity of the local human habitats sealed into the ditch or moat. The sources include grassland/pasture; thatching; animal faeces and offal waste (animals fed on hay); and river/stream courses which may have flowed into the ditch. The arboreal pollen is largely oak and hazel, from the wider region and most likely managed woodland, though with birch and elm. Pollen of sedges, grass and willow from damper conditions of the moat associated with a phase of silting/drying out of the moat; perhaps after abandonment. There is a strong representation of cereal pollen: more likely from secondary than local cultivation such as domestic waste – human and animal faeces, offal and from dumped waste food and floor coverings.

HADAS aim to carry out more work over the coming years to expand our knowledge of the development of this important moated farm. With the new café we hope to contribute to a small permanent diplay of material and archaeological finds. Clitterhouse Farm covers more than a thousand years of history from Viking raids, dairy farming, highway robbery, the coming of the railway age, suffragettes, pioneers in aviation for war and commercial travel, early Cinema, the rise of out of town shopping centres and much more. There is still much more to discover.

Bibliography
“Cricklewood High School and Kindergarten”. The Middlesex Courier. 31 July 1891. p. 3. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
Andrea McKenzie, “This Death Some Strong and Stout Hearted Man Doth Choose”: The Practice of Peine Forte et Dure in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England”, Law and History Review, Vol 23, No 2, Summer 2005
Dr Rob Scaife, Pollen Analysis of Samples from Clitterhouse Farm (CLM15) (007), Visiting Professor of Palaeoecology, School of Geography and Environment, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton 2016
David Sullivan, “The Westminster Corridor: Anglo-Saxon Story of Westminster Abbey and Its Lands in Middlesex”, 1st January 1994, Historical Publications Ltd
Patricia Warren British Film Studios: An Illustrated History, London: B.T. Batsford, 2001, p.22

Arkley Greyware medieval pottery production, South Hertfordshire Melvyn Dresner
The material found at the Arkley kiln site (Dyke Cottage), Barnet was discovered in 1959/1960 (including a complete pot). The HADAS finds group (led by Jacqui Pearce) help re-package and process the finds in 2014/15. We also undertook some further chemical and petrographic analysis including linking the kiln site with consumer sites. We are in process of writing up this research, as well as continuing to working on other Barnet sites, where this type of pottery was used (e.g. Ye Olde Mitre Inne, Barnet dug by HADAS in 1989). This report is part of this ongoing work.
The Arkley Brick – One piece of kiln furniture returned to the HADAS archive from Barnet Museum by Derek Renn earlier this year, which is part of the evidence of pottery production in Barnet since the 11th century. The material found at the site was medieval greyware – South Hertfordshire. This was mainly waste pottery sherds; material that failed as usable pottery due to production faults, as well as kiln furniture – fire bars and parts of the dome of the kiln. The finds were found in pits cut into the clay. The kiln itself was not found.

Medieval Barnet and wider landscape

The Romano-British tradition (Renn 1964) of pottery manufacture was known along the route of Watling Street between Brockley Hill and St Albans, which is to the north and west of Arkley, though continuity with pottery of 11th century is unlikely. We know St Alban’s Abbey owned the land around the site (Taylor 1995). St Alban’s Abbey, with the shrine of England’s first martyr, became prestigious and important. Throughout most of the medieval period it was England’s premier Benedictine abbey with numerous daughter houses stretching from Tynemouth in the north to Binham near the Norfolk coast. The Abbey was one day’s ride from London. The first Norman abbot was Paul of Caen from 1077 to 1093. By 1100 the Great North Road had been built, with two early settlements at East Barnet and Barnet Gate (or Grendelsgate). The Market charter was granted by King John in 1199. Manor court were sometimes held at Grendelsgate. According to Renn (1964), the Barnet Court Book shows a flourishing community by 1245. He suggests the Potters Lane may date from 1247. Woodland would be split between lord of the manor (St Alban’s Abbey) and peasants who worked the land, would have had rights such as firewood. The potter would need access to fuel (wood, charcoal), water for processing, clay (geology, clearings, glades), the market, organisation, and subsistence. Pottery at Arkley marks the transition from domestic production for use within the household to larger scale production for the market. The rule of Benedict had a particular attitude to craft and the market, which help us understand the potter’s world.

“If there are craftsmen in the monastery, let them practice their crafts with all humility, provided the Abbot has given permission….
If any of the work of the craftsmen is to be sold, let those through whose hands the transactions pass see to it that they do not presume to practice any fraud…
…and in the prices let not the sin of avarice creep in, but let the goods always be sold a little cheaper than they can be sold by people in the world, “that in all things God may be glorified.”
Renn (1964) suggests that the 13th century Arkley kiln would be a vertical kiln, where pots were stood on a platform of firebars radiating from a central support, with hot fumes escaping through a hole in the dome. Domestic refuse includes sheep and ox bones; metal slag; micaschist whetstone, oak, beech and birch charcoal. Wasters that were under fired; dunted; or spalled. Also included building material – such as chimney pots or roof finials. He parallels finds here with South Mymms castle.

Pottery Fabric
The pottery found at Arkley can be classified into four types (SHER 1, 2, 3 and 4). Over seventy per cent of the pottery is course medium oxidised (SHER 3). Around 25% is reduced course ware (SHER 1). Fine ware makes up around 3% of the estimated number of vessels, with 2% reduced (SHER 2) and 1% oxidised (SHER 4). Work continues….

HADAS Finds Group, sorting South Hertfordshire from Ye Old Mitre Inne, Barnet, March 2019

Bibliography
Renn, Derek (1964). Potters and Kilns in Medieval Hertfordshire.
Taylor, Pamela. The Early St. Albans Endowment and its Chroniclers, Historic Research, Volume 68, Issue 166, June 1995
St. Benedict’s Rule for Monasteries http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50040/50040-h/50040-h.html#chapter-57-nl-on-the-craftsmen-of-the-monastery

West Heath mystery, Orkney and HADAS Melvyn Dresner
HADAS has a long link with Orkney and its archaeology, we are trying to locate a missing video.
Daphne Lorimer’s worked with HADAS on the West Heath Mesolithic site, Hampstead during the 1970s and 1980s, which was pioneering – helping to bringing together scientific techniques with community archaeology, lithic analysis and environmental sampling. Daphne was awarded an MBE for her equally impressive role in Scottish archaeology in Orkney and as founder of the Orkney Archaeology Trust. Janet Mortimer has just returned from an archaeological tour with tales of Daphne, and a mystery to be solved. There was a film made at West Heath in 1970s, and where is it now? What we know, is on the HADAS trip in 2000 to the Orkneys, members were shown around by Jane Downes and Julie Gibson. One afternoon included a visit to Daphne’s place ‘Scorradale House’ she had laid on a ‘high-tea’ and some displays including a video of a TV programme made at the West Heath dig of which Daphne was heavily involved and co-author of the dig report. Janet found out that Daphne’s archaeology-related books and reference material went to Archaeology Institute at Orkney College, University of the Highlands and Islands. So far no video. Dudley Miles is visiting Orkney next month on his trip to the Northern Isles. I return for a third season to work at Ness of Brodgar, any clues much appreciated.
More info about Daphne Lorimer here: http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/dhl/dl/index.html and also HADAS newsletter (409 April 2005). Some photos from HADAS dig at West Heath in 1970s.

Surprisingly Rewarding on the Thames Foreshore Catriona Stuart
Catriona Stuart gives her take on Thames foreshore archaeology.

Only 7 miles away from the Quadrant Stone, the biggest available archaeological site in England – the Thames Foreshore, revealed twice a day at low tide. This isn’t news to you. But maybe its availability for archaeological research and its’ urgency because of the rapidly changing foreshore – is! At low tide 5th century fish traps, ancient causeways, river crossings have all been observed. Boats, both building and breaking, smaller craft put to other uses, rituals both old and current (Hindu ceremonies) evidence of all are to be found on the foreshore.
Apart from the Roman Bridge across the river, originally the main traffic along or across the river was by boat. Car boot sales a totally modern invention? Not exactly. Imagine a Briton pulling their boats up onto the Thames foreshore when Romans occupied London and selling their goods in exactly the same way. This happened just upstream of the Londinium – the Roman port was downstream of the Roman wall. Who when stepping over water into an unstable boat who hasn’t worried about dropping something into the water, to be lost beyond retrieval? Nothing has changed.

The collection of fast flowing tributary rivers and canals fusing to become the Thames, finally turns into a wide meandering river flowing over flat lands of thick mud. These dangerous wet mudbanks were made usable by folk who lived on the riversides sinking all their rubbish onto the riverbanks. From offcuts of leather shoes tied in a bundle thrown in at Tudor Greenwich, to the debris from the Great Fire of London. (I am still looking for signs of burn marks on the broken 17th century roof tiles that litter the foreshore under Cannon Street railway arch). Clearly to be seen at Bermondsey and Rotherhithe are the remains of World War Two bomb damaged buildings pushed onto the foreshore!

Once there were slow vessels going through a crowded river, powered by sail or physical rowing docking, mooring tight to one another. There was steam and mechanically powered boats. This, in the life of river traffic was only for a short length of time. Since the change in 1960 to container shipping, and the opening of the London Gateway container dock at Tilbury 30 miles from London, the Thames’ old docklands is now an open river with comparatively little river traffic. The Thames is travelled by large river buses going at speed. The wake from these river buses rapidly runs up the foreshore eroding both it and everything on it. Downstream of Teddington Lock the foreshore is also subject to tidal movement. There is also deposition of mud from the many tributary rivers. So the foreshore is subject to both deposition and erosion at the same time! Hence the constant change of the foreshore from week to week! The Thames, both the river and the foreshore reflects its continued use by humans for well over 2,000 years. Everyone is allowed onto the Thames foreshore.

Digging into the foreshore is NOT allowed without a Port of London permit. Everything taken from the foreshore is subject to the scrutiny of the Museum of London and officially belongs to them. You are likely to find things of amazing interest, however finding something of monetary value is very unlikely. Nevertheless, with all of everyday London life going on unnoticed only a few meters unseen above, standing on the foreshore of the Thames cocooned in silence, while being surrounded by 2,000 years of tangible often visible history is a very, very, special experience, and yours to enjoy. If you would like to learn more contact www.thamesdiscovery.org Port of London www.pla.co.uk shows Tide Tables under the strap line of safety/hydrography.

Cerne Abbey Site Re-Assessed Charles Leigh Smith
Inspired by Mick Aston referring to a village about to be demolished he mentions that its remnant features might become part of a palimpsest. Aston, like W. G. Hoskins, liked maps – if only they could speak! They do speak to archaeologists of the landscape. Historic sites with dispersed structures often remain a puzzle; but, sometimes illuminated by early maps. Charlie Leigh Smith re-assesses Cerne Abbey, in Dorset, part of his Masters course at Birkbeck College, University of London.

The abbey established in 987, situated just north of Cerne Abbas village, was built towards the end of the 10th century religious reform, when secular religious establishments were being replaced by Anglo-Saxon monasteries. By the 12th century, it was taken over by the Benedictines who replaced the early church by a conventional abbey with church, chapter house, etc. The abbey could also be expected to have its own workshops, brew-house, barn(s) etc, thus allowing it to become largely self-sufficient, and private, as required by the Benedictine rule. For Cerne Abbey the problem had always been that with so few buildings remaining after the Dissolution in 1539, it became impossible to know exactly where the abbey once stood. The earliest OS map marked a cross (+) in Beavoir Field, but these locations have often been incorrect. Beavoir Field is bare grass but lies adjacent to the village cemetery.

A few abbey buildings have survived: the main gatehouse (Abbey House), Porch (a fine monumental structure), lodge (possibly a guest-house), and small barn, which lie nearby. Villagers knew that spot finds came from the back of the village cemetery, such as glazed tiles and parts of tomb effigies. The two horizontal cemetery walls suggested these were the remains of an abbey church, and the 3m (12ft) walls at the St Augustine well, might indicate these could be the remains of a South Transept. But these imaginings were based on interpretations without scientific foundation. Firstly, one of the cemetery walls (on the north side) was too narrow and was shown on an estate map dated 1768, to have been a hedgerow. Observation by John Leyland travelling to the abbey in the early 1500’s, when it was standing, noted a chapel over the St Augustine well; what is currently displayed are the partial wall remains of the chapel’s undercroft (possible pump-house). A resistance geophysical survey in Beavoir Field by Bournemouth University (2014/0071), provided evidence for a linear anomalous area under the grassy field but follow up test pitting disallowed by the landlord (Lord Digby); it was a Scheduled Monument. The subject seemed appropriate for further in-depth research.

A License for a geophysical survey was obtained from the Inspector of Ancient Monuments for West England which came with a recommendation to see the abbey in a wider contextual setting. Research used the tools available to the landscape archaeologist i.e. aerial photographs, LiDAR, OS and historic estate maps; relevant documents held at Kew, Victoria County History, and observations from local writers were reviewed and noted, each providing relevant information. But the most valuable evidence was the find-spot locations (Davey et al., 2011), detailed descriptions and layout plans from other known Benedictine monasteries (Greene, 1992), out-houses (Cook, 1961), fishponds (Aston, 1988), the Cerne abbey seal (Kew archive), and observation on the ground in Beavoir field at the western end some distance from a field gate. This last observation identified a faint linear feature on the grass surface, about 15 feet long with something hard beneath the surface. There was also a large square faced ragstone beside it. It was also evident this section of Beavoir Field had once been levelled off from prevailing downhill lie-of-the-land. It turned out this line probably marked the abbey’s west front and suggested the abbey was aligned not exactly East-West, but EbS/WbN, which would have allowed the abbey to fit with earthworks to the east. The abbey seal showed a turret on either side, and by overlaying the topographical map with Muchelney Abbey (of similar date) the location of the spot finds fell exactly where one would expect a Lady Chapel to have been. What the wider survey indicated was a private (inner religious) area, and a working (secular industrial) area for brew-house and outhouses, one likely late Anglo-Saxon.
Interestingly, a chance conversation with Lord Digby told of a time when as a boy he saw a small wheel about 6 feet in diameter set mostly below ground in the Victorian milking parlour – since demolished. This provided the clue to the site for the abbey’s water mill. This location fitted the water channels seen on the 1768 Estate Map, emanating from this spot. It confirmed the abbey’s work area. The 18th century estate map was drawn up for Mr Pitt-Rivers, who had recently purchased the abbey lands, and although he himself never lived in the village, it was he who we must thank for saving the abbey buildings that survive to this day. A meeting with his grandson (Anthony) at his hall in another Dorset town revealed the abbey’s altar, now re-used as a fireplace but whose provenance was carefully labelled. It was looked down from the other side of the room by a large painting of this once eminent Antiquarian. The outcome of this piece of landscape archaeology research was to provide an holistic layout for Cerne Abbey, but which also led to the probable site for the earlier Anglo-Saxon church, and a reasoned argument why it had come to be built in this remote location of Dorset. Hopefully, the puzzle is solved.

Bibliography
Aston, M., 1988. Medieval fish, fisheries, and fishponds in England (Vol. 1). BAR.
Cook, G.H., 1961. English monasteries in the middle ages. London, Phoenix House.
Davey, J., Belamy, P., Le Pard, G., Pinder, C., 2011. Dorset Historic Towns Project, Cerne Abbas Historic Urban Characterisation, Dorset County Council.
Greene, J.P., 1992. Medieval monasteries. Leicester University Publishing.

Architecture of London Guildhall Art Gallery (off Gresham Street) EC2V 5AE
31 May – 1 December 2019 The Guildhall Art Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition brings together works from the 17th century to the present day to illustrate how London’s ever-changing cityscape has inspired visiting and resident artists over four centuries. As part of the six-month exhibition, John Schofield, cathedral archaeologist at St Paul’s Cathedral; Dr Jane Sidell, inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic England; and Dr David Allen and Dr Simon Elliott, historian and archaeologist respectively, will lead a series of talks on the use of stone, the tradition of bricklaying within London’s architecture, and historical insights from the Great Fire of London.

The Architecture of London will feature 80 works by over 60 artists, drawing from the City of London Corporation’s extensive art collection to examine the rich diversity of London’s buildings and its varied portrayal by artists, including masterpieces by renowned and emerging artists, such as Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Catherine Yass.
More details here: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visit-the-city/attractions/guildhall-galleries/guildhall-art-gallery/Pages/default.aspx

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan
Friday 7th June. Doors open 7.30 pm for lecture at 8.00 pm Landscape Archaeology of Northwest London, Sandy Kidd, GLAAS. Jubilee Hall, Parsonage Lane Enfield (close to Chase Side). Visitors are very welcome (£1.50 per person).

Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th June Barnet Medieval Festival 2019, Barnet Elizabethans RFC, Byng Rd, EN5 4NP

Monday 10th June 3.00 pm Beanos, Boozing & Hopping! Memories of the Old East End, John Lynch
Barnet Parish church (St John the Baptist Church, top of Barnet Hill) Cost: £2 (free for Members of Barnet Museum & Local History Society)

Thursday, 20th June. 7.30 pm – 9:00 pm, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley in Somers Town – Charlie Forman, Camden History Society, Burgh House

Sunday 23rd June. 12-6pm East Finchley Community Festival has been taking place in Cherry Tree Wood every summer for nearly 40 years.

Friday 28th June, A Treaty of Peace, Today marks 100 years since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the most important of the peace treaties which brought World War I to an end. The Stephens Ink Company always maintained the treaty was signed in their ink and you can learn more and view our 1919 Stationery Office copy, Stephens House and Gardens, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE. Telephone 020 8346 7812

Wednesday 3rd July. 5.30pm Brompton Cemetery Catacombs and Chapel Meet just inside the north gate off Old Brompton Road by the Information Centre at SW5 9JE for a tour of the catacombs and chapel at Brompton Cemetery. £10 for members, £12.50 for non-members, including a cup of tea and biscuit in the chapel following the tour www.brompton-cemetery.org.uk

Friday 12th July. Doors open 7.30pm.Geoffrey Gillam Memorial Lecture: Survivors: Surviving World War II Structures in Enfield Ian Jones EAS. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Visitors £1.50.
Enfield Archaeological Society will be returning to Forty Hall this summer from the 16th to 28th of July 2019 to continue our investigation of Henry VIII’s Elsyng Palace. You need to join the society if you would like to dig. Open day 27th July. Check their website: https://www.enfarchsoc.org/

With thanks to this month’s contributors: Roger Chapman, Catriona Stuart, Charles Leigh Smith, 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
Join the HADAS email discussion group via the website at: https://www.hadas.org.uk

May 01

Number-578-May-2019

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

Number 578 MAY 2019 Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2019

Tuesday 14th May 2019 50 years of recording London’s Industrial Heritage
by Professor David Perrett. Professor Emeritus of Bioanalytical Science, Barts & the London
School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London
The last 50 years has seen major changes in London’s industrial heritage. Both traditional
manufacturing and craft industries have almost disappeared from the Capital. Transport
infrastructure has been totally modernised and railway sites have been redeveloped. Similar changes
have made Docklands unrecognisable. Some Industrial Archaeology sites, especially those
associated with public utilities have been preserved. The Greater London Industrial Archaeology
Society (GLIAS) was founded in 1969 to study and record London’s industrial archaeology. This
talk will describe some of these changes and the look at the problems associated with IA in London.
David is an active medical researcher with over 250 scientific publications and sits on Dept. of
Health Committee relating to CJD and surgical instruments. He can trace his IA interests to a
Yorkshire coal mining community upbringing. He lectures nationally and international on both
science and the history of technology & industrial archaeology. He is a Past-President of the
Newcomen Society (The International Society for the History of Engineering & Technology) based
in the Science Museum. He is a Council Member of the Association for Industrial Archaeology
(AIA). He has been a member of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society (GLIAS) for
over 40 years and is the Society’s present Chair. His IA interests include stationary steam engines
especially the Newcomen Engine and London’s Industrial Archaeology.

Tuesday 11th June 2019 Annual General Meeting, Jo Nelhams
The Society would not exist without the volunteers who work on your behalf to run the
activities of the Society. The Constitution states that as well as the officers of Chairman, Vice
Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Membership Secretary, there can be 12 more Committee
members. For some years there has not been the full quantity, but at the moment there are
only 6. The number of Committee meetings is small, generally only 4 each year. Most of the
present members have served for many years and can’t go on forever. We hope that there will
be some new volunteers prepared to be nominated to become members of the Committee.
Nomination forms are with the AGM papers.

We hope that all members will think to attend this meeting. If you are unable to attend please
remember to send your apologies to the Secretary either by phone or email. Contact details
are on the back of the Newsletter. Thank you.

Following the meeting, our President Harvey Sheldon will give a lecture entitled, Imperial Rome’s north-west frontier: can it explain Britannia and Londinium’s role within the Province?

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.

April Lecture: The CITiZAN Project by Gustav Milne. Deirdre Barrie
Gustav Milne has worked on a wide range of sites, from Roman and Saxon to Medieval ones, including the site of the Roman London Bridge. He has been a lecturer at UCL since 1991, he founded the Thames Archaeological Survey in 1993 and the Thames Discovery Programme in 2008. He has worked on several recording projects, including a medieval ship in Sandwich, Kent, a wrecked Elizabethan merchantman in the Thames estuary, and the launch site for Brunel’s SS Great Eastern in Millwall. He is now Project Leader of the CITiZAN Project.
Unlike archaeological sites on dry land, coastal sites on the foreshore and low tide sites have no statutory protection. CITiZAN is a national project, formed to record and monitor long-term programmes led by active volunteers from linked organisations, and backed by the Lottery Heritage Fund.
CITiZAN’s aim is to preserve our coastal heritage by recording the foreshore and sites below low- tide, which can be lost by storm damage, tidal scourage and erosion, or even by rising sea levels. Some sites could be washed away before they are even seen! There are at present 300 trained CITiZANS for the whole of the country, plus 600 additional members who identify, survey and monitor long-term 20 key sites.

Over the last twenty years or so there has been a move to bring together organisations, local universities and volunteers. The Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Surveys commissioned by Historic England is a national attempt to try to quantify English coastal archaeological resources. Website link to Rapid Coastal Zone Assessments https://citizan.org.uk/resources/rczas
Since 2014, CITiZAN has been co-operating with other national organisations, such as the National Trust, the Crown Estate, Historic England, the Council for British Archaeology and the Nautical Archaeological Society. Training filters down from CITiZAN and local universities to community volunteers who are then trained. The objective is complete national coverage.

There is an astonishing variety of sites, which come under the following headings:
Abandoned Vessels consists of boats, barges and ships – anything from Bronze Age and Roman vessels to the Newport ship of 1486, (left in an inlet and submerged). The ship has been dismantled for preservation. Some ships need little excavation, the erosion of the sea carries this out. Drones are now especially useful in providing aerial views, e.g. where treacherous Thames mud is concerned.

Coastal Industries include shipbuilding, sea salt production, fixed net fishing and mining. The sites of these industries can reveal the high tides of the day – for instance in Essex, mid-Saxon fish traps operated at a lower tide level than now.

Coastal Defences such as those of WWI and WWII, and the Saxon Shore Forts are now being attacked by the sea, rather than the enemy, commented Gustav Milne.
As for Lost Landscapes and Settlements, there are 36 lost medieval towns in Yorkshire alone.

Prehistoric features are often revealed at low tides – human, animal and bird footprints, not to mention submerged forests dating back 8000 years to the Mesolithic period. In one incident, an observant Essex oysterman, Dan French, called the CITiZAN team’s attention to remains of a wooden trackway dating back to 952 BC.
http://www.merseamuseum.org.uk/mmresdetails.php?tot=64&cat=&col=MM&typ=c&rt=XT&hit=26&pid=COR2_027

It is hoped that the England Coast Path (ECP) should be ready by 2020. It should include foreshore trails where walkers (with mobile phone cameras) can monitor archaeological sites.

CITiZAN were joint winners of the 2018 British Archaeological awards for Best Community Engagement Archaeology Project with SCAPE (http://scapetrust.org, Scottish Coastal Archaeology and the Problem of Erosion. Community Archaeology is the future for foreshore archaeology, ended Gustav Milne.
———————————————————
Recommended reading: England’s Coastal Heritage: a Review Since 1997 by Peter Murphy (English Heritage, 2014). Websites:
CITiZAN: https://www.mola.org.uk/citizan-coastal-and-intertidal-zone-archaeological-network
Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/citizan and Twitter: http://eepurl.com9vRNH
Thames Discovery Programme: [http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/]

News from the Barnet Museum and Historical Society Don Cooper

The Barnet Physic Well had a grand reopening after refurbishment on 20th April 2019 and it is hoped to have regular monthly openings soon. If you do get a chance do go and see it. Please check with Barnet Museum for detailed opening dates and times.

Barnet Museum and Historical Society are running two “day “coach outings this summer.
One is on Saturday, 6th July 2019, to visit Richborough Castle and the Town of Deal. The cost for Adults £25, English Heritage members £20 (don’t forget your membership cards) Children £10. Pick-up is at the Barnet Odeon (now called the Everyman) at 08.15am.

The other is on Saturday, 21st September 2019, to visit the Mary Rose at Portsmouth. The cost is £38 for adults and £15 children. Pick-up is at the Barnet Odeon (now called the Everyman) at 08.15am

To book ring Dennis Bird on 020 8449 0705 and get a booking form.

Local Government Boundary Commission for England
Invitation to comment on draft recommendations consultation for London Borough of Barnet
Link to consultation document

Local people and organisations are asked to comment on draft recommendations for new ward boundaries across Barnet and to make suggestions to change and improve these recommendations. They will consider all the submissions they receive whoever they are from and whether your evidence applies to the whole of Barnet or just a part of the area.
There are proposals for new ward boundaries and it is possible to compare the proposals (in red) to the existing boundaries (in blue) and search across the whole of Barnet, even down to street level.

Click on any ward to find out how many voters are included in it and how many councillors they propose should represent it. You can submit comments or upload a document by clicking on the ‘Have your say’ link at the top of the page. You can also draw your own boundaries and annotate the map by clicking on the button.
There is plenty of information to help you make a submission in the ‘Useful links’ section at the bottom right of the page. This stage of the consultation closes on 24 June 2019.

Tours organised by London Transport Hidden London is London Transport Museum’s programme of tours and events at disused stations and secret sites across London. Led by experienced guides, ready to share unusual and little-known stories surrounding the stations’ varied histories, these visits offer an opportunity to explore locations rarely seen by the public. London Transport Museum is offering 8 different tours between April and September 2019 at the locations below: Charing Cross – Access All Areas Clapham South – Subterranean Shelter Down Street – Churchill’s Secret Station Clapham South – Tour & Screening 55 Broadway – London’s First Skyscraper Highgate – Wilderness Walkabout Euston – The Lost Tunnels Aldwych – The End of the Line They suggest setting up a London Transport Museum account before purchasing tickets. If you already have an account, have your login details and password to hand when buying tickets.

New free exhibition at the British Library: Imaginary Cities

5th April -Sunday 14th July. Entrance Hall, The British Library 96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB Opening times and visitor information. This newly-commissioned body of work showcases fantastical cityscapes created by artist in residence Michael Takeo Magruder.

Traditional materials combine with cutting–edge digital technologies to remix images and live data from the Library’s digital collection of historic urban maps into fictional cityscapes for the Information Age.

Advance notice of a conference: Saving ancient treasures for the world Wednesday 3 July 2019, Beveridge Hall, Senate House. Check for booking details nearer the time. Speakers will include:
Dr Roger Bland (Keeper of the Department of Portable Antiquities and Treasure, British Museum, 2005-2013)
Professor Eleanor Robson (Professor of Ancient Middle Eastern History, UCL)
Dr Maamoun Abdulkarim (Director General for Antiquities and Museums of Syria, 2012-2017),
Dr John Curtis (CEO Iran Heritage Foundation)
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos (Chief, Antiquities Trafficking Unit, NY District Attorney’s Office).
A day conference, generously supported by Mr Christian Levett.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan
Thursday 16th May, 6.30pm Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, Wine reception 6.30pm for 7.00pm AGM & lecture Keeping the lights on at Hampton Court: discoveries from the first phases of the ring main replacement project at the palace. Guy Hunt & Daniel Jackson. Free.

Friday 31st May, 10am-5pm. British Museum, Gt. Russell St WC1B 3DG. Objects and Death: on the trail of grave goods. Day conference, exploring how people have confronted, explained & come to terms with death through objects. Speakers include Paul Pettitt, Richard Osgood & Gaye Sculthorpe. www.britishmuseum.org.uk/whats_on/events. £10 (£7.50 concessions).

1st June, 2.30 – 5.30 pm. Roman Society – Annual Meeting for members, followed by lectures open to the public. Woburn Suite (G22/26), Senate House

2.30 Prof. Tim Cornell: Roman dictators and modern politics

3.00 Prof. Catherine Steel: Sulla’s dictatorship: revival or recreation?

3.45 Tea

4.15 Prof. Federico Santangelo: From Paris to Turi: constructions of Caesarisms

4.45 Prof. Maria Wyke: Roman Dictatorship in Britain: Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra on
stage and screen

Tuesday 4th June, 2.50 for 3pm. Mill Hill Historical Society, Visit to the Stationers Company, St Martin’s-within-Ludgate, 40 Ludgate Hill, EC4M 7DE. Private tour of the historic hall, gardens, archive & Church of St Martin’s-within-Ludgate. Tour lasts about 75mins. Refreshments at end. Book by Thursday 16th May. Send cheque payable to Mill Hill Historical Soc. & SAE to Julia Haynes, 3b Marion Rd, Mill Hill NW7 4AN. For further information phone Julia: 0208 906 0563 or e-mail haynes.julia@yahoo.co.uk. Members £10, non-members £12.50.

Tuesday 4th June, 6pm. Gresham College, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. The Treaty of Versailles a 100 Years Later. Talk by Prof Margaret MacMillan. To consider if the treaty led to the outbreak of WW2 & whether the attempt to create a new world order was a failure. Free.

Wednesday 5th June, 8pm. Docklands History Group, Museum of London Docklands, No.1 Warehouse, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, Canary Wharf E14 4AL. Rotherhithe & Bermondsey. Talk by Pete Smith. Visitors £2.

Thursday 6th June, 6pm. Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner HA5 1AB. The History of Hatch End Station. Talk by David Reidy on the story of Pinner’s first station. Visitors £3.

Friday 7th June, 7.45pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 OAJ. Landscape Archaeology of North-West London. Talk by Sandy Kidd (GLAAS). Visitors £1.50. Refreshments, sales & info. from 7.30pm.

Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th June, 10am-4.30pm. Barnet Medieval Festival, Barnet Elizabethans Rugby Club, Byng Rd, Barnet EN5 4NP. Including a living history camp, combat & weaponry displays, battle demonstrations, medieval traders & activities, local organizations, including HADAS. Food & drink stalls. Free entry.

Monday 10th June, 3pm. Barnet Museum & Local History Society, St John the Baptist Church, junction High St/Wood St, Barnet EN5 4BW. Beanos, Boozing & Hopping: memories of the old East End. Talk by John Lynch. Visitors £2.

Wednesday 12th June 7.45pm. Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, corner Ferme Park Rd /Weston Park, N8 9PX. The Bayeux Tapestry. Talk by Mike Brown. Visitors £2. Refreshments, sales & info. from 7.30pm.

Thursday 13th June, 6pm. Gresham College at the Guildhall Old Library, Gresham Street / Aldermanbury EC2V 7HH. Sir Thomas Gresham 1519-2019. The Sir Thomas Gresham Annual Lecture by Dr John Guy. Free, but reservations required: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/gresham-college-9868216333 or enquiries@gresham.ac.uk or tel: 0207 831 0575.

Friday 14th June, 7.30pm. British Library, Knowledge Centre, 96 Euston Rd, NW1 2DB. The Languages of History in the Middle Ages. Talk by Robert Bartlett on the languages of medieval Europe. Cost £12/£10/£8.

Saturday 15th June, 12.30-5.30pm. Highgate Summer Fair, Pond Sq, Highgate N6. Lots of stalls, incl. Highgate Society, Highgate Scientific & Literary Institute. Also crafts, gifts, clothes, etc. Free.
Tuesday 18th June, 6pm. Gresham College, Museum of London. Address as June 4th. The Weimar Republic: Germany’s first democracy. Lecture by the Gresham Provost, Sir Richard Evans FBA. Free.

Friday 21st June, 7pm. COLAS, St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, EC3R 7NB. Medieval Mass Burial at St Mary Spital. Talk by Don Walker (MoL).Visitors £3.

Friday 21st June, 7.30pm. Wembley History Society, English Martyr’s Hall, Chalk Hill Road, Wembley, HA9 9EW (top of Blackbird Hill, adjacent to Church). England’s Kennedy Moment: Prime

Minister Spencer Perceval shot dead in Westminster, May 1812. Talk by Lester Hillman (Islington Archaeology & History Society). Visitors £3.

Tuesday 25th June, 11am-12noon. Kingsbury Library, 522-524 Kingsbury Rd, NW9 9HE. Kingsbury’s Post-War Prefab Homes. Talk by Philip Grant (Brent Archives). Free, incl. coffee.

Wednesday 26th June, 6.30pm. Highgate Society History of Highgate Wood, guided walk. Meet at the cafe, nearest entrance Archway Rd N6 opp. Church Rd.

Wednesday 26th June, 7.45pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane N20 0NL. From Potage to Peacocks: Food in the 16th Century. Talk by Maureen Poole. Visitors £2.

Thursday 27th June, 7.30pm. Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephen’s) House, 17 East End Rd, N3 3QE. Annual General Meeting. Visitors £2.

Saturday 29th June, 10am-4.30pm. Verulamium: The Life and Death of a Roman City, Marlborough Rd Methodist Church, 69 Marlborough Rd, St Albans AL1 3XG, All day conference to mark the

Cathedral’s Roman Festival and Verulamium Museum’s 80th anniversary, covering recent research about Verulamium, including extensive geophysical survey & excavations on the Roman Forum. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/verulamium-the-life-and-death-of-a-roman-city-tickets-59814584031

With thanks to this month’s contributors: Deirdre Barrie, Don Cooper, Eric Morgan, 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 8FH (020 8440 8421) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk
Join the HADAS email discussion group via the website at: www.hadas.org.uk
——————————————————————————————————————–.-

Apr 28

Newsletter-577-April-2019

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

Number 577 APRIL 2019 Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY – LECTURE AND EVENTS PROGRAMME 2019

Tuesday 9th April 2019. The CITiZAN Project by Project Leader Gustav Milne
CITiZAN stands for the Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network, a national project to
highlight the threat to a wealth of coastal and estuarine sites, most of which have no statutory
protection. The range of archaeological features encompass a long time span – from prehistoric
forests and settlements to Roman forts and villas to 19th-century ship-breaking yards full of
abandoned boats, barges and ships, many of which are of considerable local and national
significance. This information has been taken from their website

Gustav began working in archaeology in the City of London in the 1970s, gaining expertise in the
excavation of waterfront sites along the Thames. He has worked on a wide range of sites, from
Roman and Saxon to Medieval, including the site of the Roman London Bridge. He has been a
lecturer at UCL since 1991, he founded the Thames Archaeological Survey in 1993 and the Thames
Discovery Programme in 2008. He has wide experience in nautical archaeology, having worked on
several recording projects including a medieval ship in Sandwich, Kent, a wrecked Elizabethan
merchantman in the Thames estuary, and the launch site for Brunel’s SS Great Eastern in Millwall.
Tuesday 14th May 2019. 50 years of recording London’s Industrial Heritage by Professor David
Perrett

Tuesday 11th June 2019. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. It is hoped that there will be a talk –
details in the next newsletter which will include, or have attached, the papers for the AGM.

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.

Lost and Found: The Rediscovery of Roman London. Lecture by John Clark
Report on March Lecture by Andy Simpson

A well-attended lecture with some 36 HADAS members and friends present.

John reminded us that the Saxon port of Lundenwic around Covent Garden was only rediscovered in the twentieth century, and even Roman London was forgotten for 400 years. In the ninth century the Bishop of Winchester mentioned Roman ‘Lundonia’, but little was actually known about the Romans. Neither Gildas nor Bede knew of the accounts by the Roman historian Tacitus, although they did know of Orosius who lived in what is now Spain around AD 400 – he wrote a world history which made little mention of Britain. He does mention the revolt by Boudicca, but he did not mention her name nor the names of the two cities she destroyed.

Gildas misdated the construction of Hadrian’s Wall by some 200 years, and Bede did his best with limited sources. He mentions the Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, declared Emperor in York, and the legend that his mother, Helena, was daughter of Old King Cole – Cunobolinus- who reigned at Colchester.

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s well known ‘The History of the Kings of the Britons’ was claimed to be a translation of a book of the Britons with London – New Troy – founded by the refugee Trojan Prince Brutus in the land of Albion – an island settled by giants, the history continuing down to the seventh century with King Cadwallader. This became the standard history of Briton with New Troy founded even before Rome with the name Trinovantum taken from the Trinovantes of Essex. A list of kings includes Brenus, a real Gaul, who did actually capture Rome and is claimed as a Briton by Geoffrey. Very few dates are given, but the four great roads of Britain – Watling St, Icknield Way, Fosse Way and Ermine St – were built in 390 BC by Brennius according to Geoffrey. King Lud is listed as the 80th King of the Britons, around 60 BC, and contemporary with Julius Caesar’s invasions, with his base at the fictitious ‘Caer Lud’ – London.

In 1480, pioneer printer William Caxton produced his own history, based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, with London founded by Brutus. Caxton’s history in turn influenced William Shakespeare.
At this point, the speaker’s presentation was unfortunately interrupted by computer problems, with which he coped admirably, and continued his talk without illustrations.

The Renaissance brought the rediscovery of Roman historians Tacitus and Dio Cassius, who mentioned Boudicca. People then realised that Geoffrey’s history did not fit the newly rediscovered facts. Henry VIII’s Court Historian, Virgil, did not believe in King Arthur, despite Henry’s elder brother (and originally intended husband of Katherine of Aragon) being named after him, but was able to promote a new heroine, Boudicea/Boudicca; there was an attempt to visualise the ancient Britons – the noble savage – by comparing them to Native Americans then being encountered.
In 1570, cremation urns were found and identified as Roman burials. William Camden dismisses various previously suggested names for ancient London, and claimed that the London Stone, still partly extant today, originated as a Roman milestone, and erroneously claimed that St Paul’s Cathedral was the site of a temple of the goddess Diana.

Redevelopment of London after the Great Fire of 1666 led to more Roman discoveries by Sir Christopher Wren and others – Wren using a Roman road found 18ft down and 4ft thick and described as a ‘Roman causeway’ as the foundation for the tower of one of his rebuilt churches, this being the east-west road through Roman London.

When rebuilding St Paul’s Wren looked for the supposed temple but did not find it, but he did record the tombstone of a Roman soldier, now in the Museum of London, and at St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, ‘walls exposed of Roman workmanship’ which were actually a Norman crypt.

An early amateur archaeologist was apothecary John Lenyers, who visited building sites and collected many finds. Happily, his original notebook survives. He visited London area gravel pits and collected Roman pots and noted a Roman kiln NE of St Paul’s. An elephant tusk was found in the River Fleet, Sir Hans Sloane suggesting it was an elephant swept away by the waters of the Biblical Great Flood. In 1679, Lenyers found a second tusk and it was suggested this was from an elephant brought over by Claudius in his invasion of Britain in 43AD.

John Bamford, leather worker and owner of an academic and scientific bookshop, was a founder member of the Society of Antiquaries, whose wealthy other members rather patronisingly called him ‘Honest John’. Finds and discoveries at the time still had to be compressed into the Church of England approved date of the Creation of the world by God in 4004 BC.

Further Roman cemeteries were exposed in 1678-9. Polymath and antiquarian Dr John Woodward collected a variety of ancient items from London, and recorded the distinctive Roman tile courses in bastions on the city wall.

William Stukeley, renowned for his interest in Druids, lived in London 1717-1726. Although not too interested in ancient London, in 1722 he did produce a map of Roman London – ‘Londinium Augusta’ – showing the line of the medieval city wall, our old friend the ‘Temple of Diana’, the London Stone, medieval roads and an area of occupation ‘earlier than the rest’ – a pre-Roman city. The actual word London seems to be Indo-European pre-Celtic and can be translated as ‘area where the river flows’

This excellent and thought-provoking talk was followed by some detailed questions and discussion.

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 who have joined since January this year).

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

Please return the renewal form (sent as an attachment last month or use the paper form also sent last month) along with the appropriate amount as soon as possible. The current rates and where to send your payment are on the form. If you need a form, please contact me (see back page). Many thanks.

News about College Farm. The farm in Regents Park Road, close to Henly’s Corner, has been successfully listed as an Asset of Community Value. On 8th March 2019 the committee at Barnet Council unanimously agreed that the Farm should be listed. This is an important step in ensuring the farm stays as an open space for all. The campaign was run by the Finchley Society.

New exhibition opening April: Writing: Making Your Mark – British Library
This runs from Fri 26 Apr – Tue 27 Aug 2019 and it is possible to make bookings now. Full Price: £14.00 Concessions available. Discover the extraordinary story behind one of humankind’s greatest achievements through more than 100 objects spanning 5,000 years and seven continents. Follow the remarkable evolution of writing from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved in stone and early printed text such as William Caxton’s edition of The Canterbury Tales, to the art of note-taking by some of history’s greatest minds, and onwards to the digital communication tools we use today.

Visit the new Virtual Museum celebrating Hampstead Garden Suburb

Marjorie Harris
Nikolaus Pevsner described Hampstead Garden Suburb as “the most nearly perfect example of that English invention and speciality, the garden suburb”. Founded by Dame Henrietta Barnett and her husband Canon Samuel Barnett in 1908, it soon became home to families seeking refuge from deprivation in the East End of London, as well as artisans and the middle classes.
The history of these residents from the beginning to the present day is recorded and available for all to see in the new HGS Virtual Museum at www.hgsheritage.org.uk/
Currently it includes within it separate areas – ‘rooms’ – devoted to each of 26 organisations based in the Suburb, as well as the HGS Residents Association, the HGS Trust and the Archive Trust.
The beauty of a Virtual Museum is that it has no walls and can accommodate endless material. New collections can be introduced all the time. Our recent WW1 Armistice Collection shows that, even in the early days, the community came together to work for the war effort. It includes deeply-moving memorials to the many local men who lost their lives on the battlefront. Our latest entry is the Raymond Lowe Collection of fascinating picture postcards showing the development of Suburb architecture and residents’ activities. Raymond was a member of HADAS.
The HGS Virtual Museum seeks to ensure that any unique memorabilia or artefacts that Suburb families may still have at home are not lost or forgotten, by photo-recording and digitising them without families losing ownership. There are extensive archive records and much more information which could go into the Museum and we are always looking for computer-literate volunteers to help with this. Please contact me if you are willing to be involved or have anything you think should be included in the museum collections.

Marjorie Harris, Press Officer – HGS Heritage, marjorieharris@btinternet.com

Remembering Ann Saunders, Past HADAS President.

Don Cooper (Part 1), Mike Pitts FSA (Part 2) & Adrian James FSA (Part 3)
Part 1: Ann died 13th February, aged 88. She was a member of HADAS from 1969 and quickly became an active member. Over the years she gave us many lectures. Her subjects were generally London centred and she was very knowledgeable on many aspects of it such as livery companies,
St Paul’s Cathedral, Marylebone village, Regents Park, the London Bomb map for the Second World War and other London themes. She was an entertaining speaker and it was a joy to listen to her. She became President of HADAS in June 1998 and in that role represented HADAS at many events. Ann ceased to be President in June 2001. She was married to an engineer and had two sons.

Ann was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in May 1975 and the following two tributes have been compiled using material from issue 421 of the Salon Newsletter – Fellows Remembered section. With grateful thanks to Mike Pitts and Adrian James for their permission.
Part 2: Ann Saunders was a distinguished and prolific editor and historian of costume and London topography. She was, from 1975, Honorary Editor for the London Topographical Society, producing its occasional London Topographical Record, her most recent being in 2015, and overseeing the publication of nearly 60 books, maps and other items. As Ann Cox-Johnson she began work at the City of York Art Gallery, returning to London as Deputy Librarian at Lambeth Palace. She moved to St Marylebone Library, and received her PhD from Leicester University, which she incorporated in her Regent’s Park: A Study of the Development of the Area from 1086 to the Present Day (1969). Her many publications on the capital city include The Art and Architecture of London: An Illustrated Guide (1984/1988/1992), Tudor London: A Map and a View (edited with John Schofield FSA, 2001), the first edition of London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939–45 (2005) and Historic Views of London: From the Collection of B E C Howarth-Loomes (2008). She spoke with captivating authority and a regal presence at Gresham College (illustrating with what she called lantern slides) on the subjects of London early in James I’s reign (2004) and Napoleonic war monuments in St Paul’s Cathedral (2005), both of which can still be seen in Gresham College video recordings. She was also an Honorary Fellow of University College London, was elected a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Horners, and was awarded an MBE in the 2002 New Year honours, as historian and as Honorary Editor for the Costume Society and the London Topographical Society

Part 3: Ann Saunders, known to the scholarly world as a tireless historian of London and an editor of exceptional assiduity, was equally a keen supporter of the Society of Antiquaries, a regular user of its library and above all a faithful friend to the Society’s staff. The distinguishing mark of her character was outstanding personal kindness, which never once wobbled even when illness had reduced her appearances to painfully slow but determined progressions to the heart of the Society’s library and collections. One always knew that Ann had been within doors when a lavish box of chocolates or packet of gourmet biscuits was discovered on a staff member’s desk! Ann’s astonishingly productive career encompassed the writing of more than a dozen books on London, whilst her longevity as an editor of learned journals must have very few equals, and hardly any peers. Her stints as honorary editor of the journals of the Costume Society and London Topographical Society cover the years 1967 to 2015, a length of editorial service to rival the late L F Salzman FSA’s record for the Sussex Archaeological Society.

As recently as 2015, she published in the London Topographical Record the series of Stephen Harrison’s designs for triumphal arches to frame the ceremonial entry of James I into the City of London, thus making this important document in the Society’s Harley Collection widely available for the first time. Vast amounts of archive material must have been photographed for publication over the decades at Ann’s behest. After one such session under Ann’s ever-vigilant eye, the photographer sighed to me, “Dear Ann is not entirely of this world!” Not everyone may have appreciated her devotion to exacting academic standards, which remained with her to the end of her life. Latterly she had taken to corresponding with me at my home address, and it became quite a familiar sight to see Ann’s handwriting on re-used envelopes, a thrifty habit that she attributed to growing up during war-time scarcity. Despite her profound feeling for the history and topography of London she moved to a semi-rural residence in Hertfordshire towards the end of her life, remaining in touch with the Society until the end. She was truly a lady of whom we shall not see the like again.

Book news for the younger reader (and the young at heart) Sue Willetts
The Time Travel Diaries (£6.99, Piccadilly Press) is a new book by Caroline Lawrence, author of the very successful Roman Mystery novels. A Time Machine enables Alex, a twelve year old boy who knows a smattering of Greek and Latin, to travel back to Roman London through a portal in London’s Mithraeum. The story was inspired by the burial of the teenage girl with the ivory knife found in Lant Street, Southwark.

Help requested for a new project – The War Generation

WarGen is a project founded by broadcaster/historian Dan Snow and author/broadcaster James Holland. They are creating an online repository of oral history from the people who lived through World War II and looking for individuals willing to join the volunteer team as interviewers to go out into their local communities and record these important stories of a fast disappearing generation, or to let them know if they have a family member or friend, or even know of someone, who they believe would like to have their stories recorded.
Please visit the website for the interviews that have already been carried out. If anyone is interested, contact Shane Greer by email.
The Baron Thyssen Centre for the Study of Ancient Material Religion was launched at Senate House, University of London, on 25th March and is based in the Classics Department of the Open University. It has been set up to support research into the material, visual and other sensory aspects of ancient religions, focusing primarily on the Greek, Etruscan and Roman worlds. The aim is to explore the sacred objects, bodies and rituals of classical antiquity, addressing such topics as votives, magic, oracles, cult statues, pilgrimage, places and sacred healing. The Centre plans to work with art and archaeology, but also to look beyond these conventional ‘homes’ of ancient material religion, drawing on the methods, tools and perspectives of literature, philology, philosophy, classical reception studies and digital humanities. See website for events, projects etc.

Sounds of Roman Egypt Exhibition Free entry at the Petrie Museum – part of University College London – from 2nd Jan – 8th June 2019, 13:00 – 17:00
Open Tuesday – Saturday but closed 17 Apr – 22 Apr 2019

This exhibition explores the objects people used to make music, what they sounded like, and how instruments were used in Romano-Egyptian rituals, homes, and childhood. The Petrie Museum has one of the largest and best-documented collections of Roman artefacts in the UK, including musical instruments that are too fragile to be played today.

For this exhibition, researchers used laser scanning and computer modelling to create 3D printed replicas of the original objects in the Petrie collection, and made recordings of the instruments to reveal sounds not heard for hundreds of years. See original artefacts, listen to recordings and have a go at playing these models yourself at one of the special events throughout the exhibition.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan

Thursday 2nd May, 8.00pm. Pinner Local History Group, Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner HA5 1AB. Talk by Philip Crouch, Jewel of Metroland: St. Alban’s Church, North Harrow. Visitors £3. Preceded by AGM. Please note: The time shown for 4th April talk should also have been 8.00 pm

Wednesday 8th May, 7.45 pm. Horney Historical Society. Union Church Hall, Corner Ferme Park Rd / Weston Park, N8 9PX. A North London Railway: Pictures of The Edgware, Highgate & London Railway. From the Alan Lawrence Collection. Talk by Hugh Petrie (Barnet Archivist) Visitors £2.00 Refreshments / Sales from 7.30 pm

Friday 10th May, 1.50 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Visit to Supreme Court, Parliament Square, Westminster (directly opposite Houses of Parliament, close to statue of Abraham Lincoln). Cost: Members £7.00 Concessions £5.00. Non-members £9.00, Concessions £7.00 Meet 1.50 pm for a 2.00 pm tour. Book by Thursday 25th April.

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 haynes_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 online at www.millhill-hs.org.uk, but send cheque. Please note that ‘haynes’ was omitted from the email address, as was ‘hill’, from the web address in the Tuesday 30th April visit details.

Friday 10th May, 7.45 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 OAJ. Vice Presidential Address by Jon Cotton. Title to be confirmed. Visitors £1.50 Refreshments, sales from 7.30 pm

Monday 13th May, 3.00 pm. Barnet Museum’s Local History Society, St John the Baptist, Barnet Church, The High St/Wood St, Barnet EN5 4BW. The History of QE Girls’ School and its Place in the Community. Talk by Violet Walker Visitors £2.

Monday 13th May, 6.30-8.00 pm. Finchley Church End Library, 318 Regents Park Rd, N3 2LN. London’s East End: An Evening with Kate Thompson & Melanie McGrath talking about all things East End of London, Stepney, Silvertown, Roman Road, Pie & Mash & Hop Picking. The talk will cover Kate & Melanie’s books followed by a ten-minute Q&A session, with a mystery prize for the best question. Register for free Tickets

Wednesday 15th May, 10.00 am. Finchley Society. Outing. Brunel’s London by Boat and on Land. Meet outside Embankment Station (Riverside entrance) at 10.00 am to meet Robert Hulse, Director of Brunel Museum (has lectured to HADAS). He will guide us on a river trip under 3 Brunel Bridges and over 2 of Brunel’s tunnels, past broken slipways on the Isle of Dogs to the world’s most important tunnel. Cost per person £16.50 incl. boat trip, guide and entrance to Brunel Museum. Boat leaves at 10.30 prompt and lasts about 3 hours. Return home from Rotherhithe (Overground) nearby or Bermondsey or Canada Water (Jubilee line) about 10 mins walk.
Stay for lunch at the Mayflower Pub or other places nearby. To book email Harriet Copperman: harrietcopperman@gmail.com or phone 020 8883 3381. Cheques should be made out to The Finchley Society and sent to Harriet at 21 Stokes Court, Diploma Ave, N2 8NX by 30th April. Places allocated on first come, first served basis.

Thursday 16th May, 7.00 pm. The London Archaeologist. UCL Institute of Archaeology. 31-34 Gordon Square. WC1E OPY. AGM and Annual Lecture on Hampton Court.

Friday 17th May, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. English Martyr’s Hall, Chalk Hill Road, Wembley, HA9 9EW (top of Blackbird Hill, adj. Church). Serving with the Colours. How Peabody Tenants went to War, 1914. Talk by Christine Wragg. Visitors £3.00

Friday 17th May, 7.00 pm COLAS. St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, EC3R 7NB. Archaeology at Knowle House by Natalie Cohen (National Trust) NB Temporary venue which also applies to Friday 26th April’s talk

Monday 20th May, 8.00 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, address see 10th May. The London Underground. Talk by Tony Earle with pictures from its steam-powered inception to modern times, with recollections from the 1950’s to the present day. Including a quiz. Visitors £1.00. Also Wednesday 22nd May, 2.30 pm. Enfield in the 14th Century. Talk by Joe Studman £3.00

Wednesday 22nd May, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Evacuation in World War II. Talk by Mike Brown. Visitors £2. Bar open before and after the talk.

Thursday 30th May, 1.00 pm. Gresham College at Barnard’s Inn, Holborn, EC1N 2HH. Aristotle’s Lyceum. Talk by Edith Hall. Free. Looking at the archaeological site of the Lyceum discovered accidentally in 1996 and how the remains can illuminate Aristotle’s life and work. NB Arrive early to be sure of a place.

Saturday 1st June, 10.30 am – 4.30 pm. British Association for Local History. Local History Day. Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, WC1R 4RL. Programme includes: Sites of Suffrage: local histories and the suffrage centenary, Professor Krista Cowman; 2019 Local History Awards: for research & publication, for a society newsletter and for personal achievement; British Association for Local History AGM; BALH Annual Lecture: Rulers of the County: the magistracy and the challenge of local government, c. 1790-1834 by Dr Rose Wallis.

Tickets (including morning tea/coffee & sandwich lunch. Meat & vegetarian options will be available. If you have special dietary requirements email development@balh.org.uk when you order tickets). £25 BALH members, £35 non-members. Please book early. Bookings after 18 May are subject to availability. Book and pay online at www.balh.org/events/ or send your payment details to BALH (LHD), Chester House, 68 Chestergate, Macclesfield SK11 6DY. Include your name, address, postcode, phone number & SAE or an email address. Indicate number of tickets required/membership number (if applicable) and pay by bank transfer: Ref L.H.D. to CAF Bank, sort code 40-52-40, Account number 000093883, include membership number or surname.
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With thanks to this month’s contributors: Stephen Brunning, Don Cooper, Marjorie Harris, Adrian James, Eric Morgan, Mike Pitts, Andy Simpson
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
Join the HADAS email discussion group via the website at: www.hadas.org.uk
——————————————————————————————————————–.-

Mar 05

Newsletter-576-March-2019

By Roger | 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

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.

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

——————————————————————————————————-

HADAS

Newsletter 588 – March 2020

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and events

HADAS COMMITTEE

PREHISTORIC LONDON, SOME PROBLEMS, PROGRESS AND POTENTIAL The second Dorothy Newbury Memorial lecture – Jon Cotton Peter Pickering

Enfield at War – 1939 – 1945 Jim Nelhams

BURIED BONES AND HORNS Bill Bass

Wales Trip – DAY 4 Jim Nelhams

The Royal Mint

St Fagans National Museum of History

The medieval church of St Teilo at St Fagans Graham Javes

INVESTIGATING THE PERIVALE WOOD EARTHWORK Bill Bass

TROY: MYTH OR HISTORY? David Willoughby

OUTINGS

Heritage Alliance: Sue Willetts

OTHER SOCIETIES’ & INSTITUTIONS’ EVENTS compiled by Eric Morgan

Volume 11: 2020 - 2024

Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎

Volume 9: 2010 - 2014

Volume 8 : 2005 - 2009

Volume 7 : 2000 - 2004

Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999

Volume 5 : 1990 - 1994

Volume 4 : 1985 - 1989

Volume 3 : 1980 - 1984

Volume 2 : 1975 - 1979

Volume 1 : 1969 - 1974

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