We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum. The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project. Mike helped to coordinate ‘The Barnet battlefield project’ on behalf of Barnet Museum which mostly took place 2015-2018. The aim was to locate more precisely the battle area using a large-scale metal-detecting survey by Huddersfield University (a method used successfully at Bosworth), digs by community archaeologists and volunteers processing finds in the museum. One of the digs was on the possible site of the Chantry Chapel (built to commemorate the dead) in Wrotham Park. This was led by Cotswold Archaeology with HADAS taking part in supplying some diggers and tools. Mike will inform us of the results and of any future work.
SATURDAY 16th SEPTEMBER at Avenue House,10am –4pm. HADAS OPEN DAY. See August newsletter for details. Please come.
Tuesday 10th October 2023 Melvyn Dresner. Elsyng Palace: a digger’s view – see also article on page 3 of this issue
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear, (University College London). Mapping Verulamium
On 9th August, with the kind permission and co-operation of Barnet Borough Heritage Development Officer, Hugh Petrie, members of HADAS attended Hendon Town Hall to install our new temporary display in the ’Heritage Barnet’ area of the foyer there.
The Sunday morning team have spent the last month or two preparing this new display, its exhibits and captions, and most of them were able to attend to fill up ‘their’ cases. We have included, in the Roman corner, material from the Pipers Green Lane cremation burial from the foot of Brockley Hill and the Moxom Collection found at its summit; also items from more recent excavations at Hendon School and even Avenue House grounds. There are items from the 1960s excavations at Church End Farm Hendon, the former Church Farm Museum in the 1990s, and the Burroughs Gardens, Fuller Street /Chequers Pub areas of Hendon in the
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1970s. A selection of HADAS publications are included and also there are new format HADAS membership forms to collect.
With thanks to the set-up team mostly seen in the picture below – (left to right) Hugh Petrie, Bill Bass, Andy Simpson, Melvyn Dresner, Peter Nicholson and Janet Mortimer – plus Tim Curtis (not pictured).
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Do go along to Hendon Town Hall and view our new exhibition! It will hopefully be available to view until Christmas.
Elsyng Palace Dig 2023: a digger`s viewMelvyn Dresner
Enfield Archaeological Society (EAS) has been digging at Elysng Palace since the 1960s and especially since 2004. This summer’s dig’s research aim was to locate the inner gatehouse and to identify the relationship between the moat features dug in 2022 and other buildings found on site in previous years, in particular the northern range.
Elysng Palace was a 15th century royal palace that was owned by Tudor monarchs. Prior to that there is evidence of medieval occupation. For the Tudor palace, we have substantial structural features, as well as rubble across the site.
This year revealed walls in situ, both internal walls and structures such as turrets or towers. As the palace is a scheduled monument, the archaeological design brief has been agreed with Dr Jane Sidell, Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Historic England.
BBC Digging for Britain with Dr Alice Roberts will feature the dig early in 2024. Alice, as well as a being a TV presenter, is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.
To find out more about the 2023 dig, you can read the daily blog on the EAS website: https://www.enfarchsoc.org/
For the October’s HADAS lecture, he will provide a digger’s insight into this year’s dig.
Romans built more in South-West than was once thought Stewart Wild
The Romans built more towns and roads in the South-West than archaeologists have thought, research has found. Experts at the University of Exeter discovered a Roman road network spanning Devon and Cornwall as well as a grid system of streets in North Tawton, Devon, suggesting its importance as a settlement.
Dr Joao Fonte, who led the research alongside Dr Christopher Smart, both specialists in landscape archaeology and the heritage of the Roman Empire, said that the findings suggested that the South-West was more ‘Romanised’ than previously thought. “We understand that the roads were probably constructed by animal-drawn wheeled vehicles, avoiding flooded areas as much as possible,” he added.
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After the conquest of Britain, Dr Fonte said, the entire network of roads would have been in use and the discovery “confirms that the South-West – Devon and Cornwall – were no different from other, more Romanised regions. The Roman influence was profound.”
In North Tawton, the Romans may have been interested in the area’s mining resources, he said, while its location in the middle of the region could have been useful in linking the site to ships and other resources. There was evidence of a grid system of streets and signs of the region’s first known amphitheatre, enclosed by both a rampart and a ditch, meaning that while it might not have been a full Roman city such as Londinium or Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum), it was a town of some importance.
The researchers used laser scans collected as part of the Environment Agency’s national LiDAR programme to identify sections of road west of the previously understood boundary. Among the insights is that, far from Exeter being the main nerve centre, it was North Tawton that supported vital connections with tidal estuaries north and south of Bodmin and Dartmoor. “Despite more than seventy years of scholarship, published maps of the Roman road network in southern Britain have remained largely unchanged and all are consistent in showing that west of Exeter there was little solid evidence for a system of long-distance roads,” Dr Smart said.
SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 8 August 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild
The following information has been taken from Heritage Alliance Sue Willetts
Campaign to Boost Free Bus Travel This Summer
The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a campaign to encourage more older people to make use of their free bus passes to get a ‘culture fix’ and rediscover local attractions. The campaign aims to improve wellbeing amongst older and disabled people as well as promote more sustainable forms of travel and grow the economy.
Sunday 10th September. 2pm. COLAS, Old St. Pancras Churchyard. Dying to get in. Visit with Lester Hillman leading a guided walk with an archaeological perspective on this ancient burial ground. The visit offers a chance to see the Grade II* listed church which has Roman fabric and has just completed works of repair and redecoration. Meet 1.50 pm at Old St. Pancras Church, Pancras Road, NW1 1UL, in park. Churchyard is immediately behind St. Pancras International Station.
Friday 15th September. 7.30 pm. Wembley Historical Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall, (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. Dan Dare. Pilot of the future. Talk by Lester Hillman (see COLAS above). Looking back nearly 75 years, The Eagle comic of the 1950’s was remarkably prescient. Lester explains the history and London links along with its insightful writing, images, clear predictions and some surprises. Visitors £3. Refreshments in the interval.
Thursday 21st September 8pm. Enfield Society. A history of Enfield Chase at Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane / Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Talk by Martin Paine, preceded by AGM. The first of two talks that aim to bring to life the medieval and renaissance worlds of Enfield Chase, drawing on an array of sources including hunting treatises, literature, maps, and archival records. Martin aims to demonstrate why an understanding of Enfield Chase is essential to understanding the history of Enfield, including the grand houses, palaces and lodges that were once so prominent in the local landscape. Martin’s second talk will take place on Monday 16th October at 8pm.
Thursday 25th September 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. 50 years of Fitzrovia News by Nick Bailey, Sue Blundell and Linus Rees (Editors). On the origins of the paper and later development, illustrating some of the leading themes and stories and in the contribution of community newsletters to recording and disseminating local history. Visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Tuesday 3rd October. 1-2pm Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE, also on Zoom. Duke Alexander and his Sarcophagi. Talk by Prof. Aidan Dodson. Also Wednesday 4th October. 5 pm. British Archaeological Association at the Society of Antiquaries. Reconstructing Bury St. Edmund’s Abbey. Talk by Dr. Steven Brindle (E.H.) Tea. Also Thursday 5th October 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. Forging iron from the sky. Talk by Ian Thackray. Also Thursday 12th October. 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries, Also on Zoom. The wood that built London. Chris Schüler. Also Thursday 19th October, 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. Mills Whip Projects-London’s Civil War defences: Rewriting history. Talk by Mike Hutchinson and Peter Milne. Also on Zoom. Also Thursday 26th October, 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. The Athenaeum Club. Talk by Michael Wheeler.
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Lectures are free but donations are welcome. Details and bookings through the website www.sal.org.uk/events.
Monday 9th October, 3 pm. Barnet Museum & Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High Street, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Enfield Chase: the making of a man-made landscape. Talk by John Leatherdale. Free to members. Visitors – £2.
Wednesday 11th October. 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. Artists, refugees & spies in Belsize in the 1930s by Averil Nottage. Including the Mall Studios (off Parkhill Rd), home to Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and critic Herbert Read and the iconic modernist block of Lawn Road Flats which welcomed many exiles including communist political refugees from Germany & Austria, some who set up British spy networks. www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Friday 13th October. 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Roman road to a dual carriageway – archaeological consultancy on the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project. Talk by David Lakin. Visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.
Monday 16th October 8 pm Enfield Society. Enfield Chase continued. See 21st Sept entry. Martin Paine explores the rich history of the local area and the visible legacy of the Chase today.
Wednesday 18th October. 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (round corner from Magistrates’ Court). Willesden’s post-war prefab-homes. Talk by Philip Grant (Brent Archives) may also be on Zoom. www.willesden-local-history.co.uk. If not a member, buy a ticket £3, for details www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Thursday 19th October, 8 pm Historical Association: Hampstead and N.W. London branch. Fellowship House, 136a Willifield Way, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune) The Mayans and Aztecs. Talk by Ian Mursell, hopefully also on Zoom. Email Jeremy Berkoff (Chair) jeremyberkoff@mack.com or telephone 01793 229521 for details of Zoom link and how to pay. There may be a voluntary charge of £5. Refreshments afterwards.
Friday 20th October, 7pm COLAS. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, EC3R 7NB Human remains from the River Thames. Talk by Dr. Nichola Arthur (Natural History Museum) A Palaeopathologist examines the who, how and why of human bones from the Thames and its deposit. Also on Zoom. Book via Eventbrite. www.colas.org.uk HADAS may send out the link to its members.
Friday 20th October. 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society, St. Andrew’s Church Hall, (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. The archaeology of the Thames foreshore. Talk by Dr. Will Rathouse (Senior Community Archaeologist for the Thames Discovery Programme hosted by MOLA) Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.
Wednesday 25th October. 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Westminster at war: How the Luftwaffe destroyed the House of Commons. Talk by Barry Hall. Visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 020 8368 8814 for up-to-date details (David Berguer, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
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Thursday 26th October. 7.30 pm Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, N3 3QE. Spymaster: the man who saved MI6. Talk by Dr Helen Fry about Thomas Joseph Kendrick, one of the most senior spymasters of the British Secret Intelligence Service in the 20th Century. Further details www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Andy Simpson, Stewart Wild, Sue Willetts. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)
Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project
Tuesday 10th October 2023 Lecture to be arranged
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear Mapping Verulamium
Saturday 16th September, 10am – 4pm HADAS “Open Day” at Avenue House See poster below
Subscriptions by Cheque
The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:
HADAS C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address, please let us know.
Future Newsletters
HADAS nearly did not have a newsletter this month. At the deadline given in last month’s newsletter, only one article had been received which would have given us 4 pages after including the list of Other Societies’ Events. Postage and printing would still have cost the same amounts if we used four pages.
This is your newsletter and you can help to keep it going by submitting items of interest. Even half a page helps. We could also do with another couple of editors – which involves assembling submitted items – not writing them – unless you want to. Contact jim_nelhams@hotmail.com if you can help in any way, or for more information. Thank you.
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No Dinosaurs were hurt in the making of this poster, if you want to help let us know. Its archaeology not paleontology. We know you know. ****************************************************************
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The City Wall at Vine StreetJanet Mortimer
Underneath a coffee shop a short walk from Tower Hill Station is one of the newest chances to see more of the London Roman City Wall. This little publicised and hard to find site opened in May of this year and is a fascinating glimpse of the wall built 2,000 years ago. The large section of wall, complete with bastion reminds us how durable the structures built by the Romans were, especially contrasted with the nearby very modern “Shard” and “Cheesegrater” buildings.
Items that were found during the excavations are displayed in a very pleasing manner in cabinets ranging from the oldest finds to the newest. The captions are interesting and informative, with comments such as wondering what the Romans would say if they could see us getting excited over their rubbish – and wondering what archaeologists of the future will make of our own rubbish!
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Although not large, a visit to this attraction is well worth it, especially as it is free (although you need to pre-book). There are other outside sections of the Roman Wall that you can visit whilst you are in the area, and you can even hold hands with Trajan!
The Tower Hill SundialJim Nelhams
Just up the stairs from the statue of Trajan to the south of Tower Hill Station is a large sundial. Around its edge are pictures reflecting the history of London from AD43. Look especially at “The Peasants’ Revolt”. In one corner in the cload, there is a familiar lady waving her handbag!!!
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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 6 the finds – Animal Bones, by Geraldine Missig.) Site code OPS22
‘Hopscotch’, a shop located at 88 High Street, Barnet, hosted in its backyard an exploratory trench which produced 88 animal bone fragments of which 67 weighing 1394g were identified to species and anatomical part. Unfortunately, 20 fragments weighing 107g lacked the sufficient distinguishing features for identification. Of the 20 fragments, ten were sheep size, eight were cattle size and two were unidentified bird. In addition to the bone group, 18 oyster shell fragments, weighing 94g were retrieved.
Method The bone fragments were identified by reference to the bone collection at Birkbeck, University of London and recorded for HADAS on an Excel spreadsheet noting species, anatomical part, side, state of fusion (following Schmid 1972), proportion of bone present, weight, and any modification such as dog or rodent gnawing, charring or butchery.
Cohen & Sarjeantson’s manual for the identification of birds (1996), was used to verify the identity of the bones of domestic fowl and woodpigeon from (001).
Apart from a deciduous fourth premolar and distal metatarsal, both of which were identified as sheep, there were no other diagnostic fragments among the caprine elements to distinguish between sheep and goat, which below will be referred to as sheep. (Boessneck 1969).
Mandible wear stages followed Grant’s illustrations of tooth wear stages (1982) with Payne’s suggested age attribution for eruption/wear state (1973) for sheep/goat.
All measurements were made by vernier callipers according to the von den Driesch guidelines. Each identified specimen was counted (NISP) and where two fragments joined, they were counted as one. All oyster fragments were counted NISP but their minimum number (MNI) was established by the presence of more than 50% of its hinge on the left valve, the more numerous side present.
Assemblage This small bone group was assembled from three presently undated contexts to which the bone contents of the trench had been allocated. (001) comprised 31 bone fragments, (002) only had 16 and (003) slightly more at 20. Together they contained an assortment of species.
Sheep were the most numerous having 27 fragments, cattle next with 18 fragments, pig followed with nine, bird with eight, rabbit with three and horse and dog each with one. Oyster fragments numbered 18.
Apart from (002) where sheep and cattle were equally frequent, sheep was the more numerous group in the other two contexts. The cattle fragments slightly increased in number through the contexts from (001) to (003) while the pig fragments moved the other way, fragment numbers decreasing from (001) to (003).
Although the three most numerous species contained some domestic refuse; cattle with its meatier sections of rib (in all contexts but much more frequently in (003)), pig with a solitary limb shaft (003), and sheep with the largest number of meaty shafts (001) (003), a few of the meatier rib sections (001) (003), and a lumbar vertebrae (001) (commonly recognised as a loin lamb chop bone), it was butchery waste which was more dominant.
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Cattle contained large roughly chopped fragments of lumbar and thoracic vertebral fragments (002) while there was one of the latter from sheep in (003). All three species were represented by butchered fragments of the less meaty chopped ribs (all three contexts) as well as the awkward articular ends of shafts or blades (all three contexts), the latter inadvertently suggesting in their absence what people were actually eating.
The presence of the cranial elements, maxillary and mandibular parts of sheep (all three contexts) and cattle (001), as well as the skull fragments of pig (002) and sheep (003), and cattle extremities (002) (003), all normally slaughter waste, raise the possibility that the local butchers of that period undertook more intensive duties towards the preparation of an animal carcass for consumption.
OPS22 also contains an entire cattle metacarpal (003) and similarly that of a horse (002). The metacarpal is a lower leg bone covered in little meat but in a large animal its length, smooth line and strength made it a useful resource in bone working. However, both metacarpals display several small knife nicks normally associated with the skinning of an animal. The length of a complete fused metacarpal can be used in established equations to calculate an estimate of the withers heights of a bone’s owner.
The greater length of the (003) cattle metacarpal (von den Driesch) is 19.04cm which if multiplied by 6.03, a multiplier introduced by Matolcsi (1970), which is not reliant on gender distinction, produced an estimated withers height for the animal of 1.15m. Comparing this figure, as (003) is presently undated, with today’s average withers height of between 1.37-1.5 for Angus or Holstein Friesian cattle, suggests that the (003) animal was quite small.
The maximum lateral length, 22.14cm, of the horse metacarpal (von den Driesch) multiplied by 6.41 (the factor following Kiesewalter (1888) and described by Chroszcz et al. (2014)) gives an estimate of withers height as 142cm or 14hands. This short estimated withers height places the animal near the borderline territory between a large pony and a small horse, but just misses the 14.3 hands high needed to be classified as a small horse.
The eight bird bones recovered came only from (001). Apart from any of the myriad reasons why bird bones did not land up in the earth of a particular back yard, a bird needs to have light bones to be able to fly. They are thus more fragile and vulnerable to destruction than the bones of other animals. Following the butchery evidence below, (001) may be the latest in time of the three contexts, another possible reason why bird was not found in the other contexts.
The bird fragments consisted of the bones of seven domestic fowl and one wood pigeon. Domestic fowl is represented by the classic food bones, the upper thigh bone and the bones of the meatier part of the wing, suggesting domestic refuse. Judging from the numbers of the same bones of the same side they would represent two birds.
The wood pigeon’s ulna, one of the bones from the meatier part of the wing, could have been in the yard as a consequence of a natural event. However, as it occurs in association with the group of domestic fowl bones and a chopped rabbit bone, mentioned below, it may suggest the exploitation at that time of local fauna in the sourcing of food.
A few rabbit bones, two pelves and a chopped thigh bone, were present in (001) and (002). The thigh bone also displays a small knife nick at the distal end, often the result of skinning. The bones’ presence supports the suggestion that local animals were used for food and, depending on the dates to be established for these contexts, practices continuing over some time.
Oyster shells appear in (001) and (002), predominantly in (002). Although breakage has occurred in (002) there were six left hand, the rounder side, remnants with more than 50% of their hinges present in the group which indicate that there were at least 6 oysters in the group.
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Several of the valves exhibited marks suggestive of interference at the side or near the hinge area but the fragmentation is too extensive to be certain.
The hinge of the oyster shell in (001) appears to be that of a right valve, the shallower side. Interference near the hinge and a few knife marks visible on the interior surface of the shell suggest that it had been used for food.
Condition Eighty five percent of the bone group was in average condition displaying only moderate erosion after their spell in the ground. Damage to the bone by the gnawing of rats or dogs, surface splitting, flaking or thinning contributed in varying degrees to a poor or severe state in the condition of the remaining 15%.
Rat or dog gnawing was observed in 21% of the bone assemblage but rat gnawing unusually only occurred in (001) while dog gnawing appeared equally only in (002) and (003). It may be that (002) and (003) came from a different time and source and had been buried more quickly than (001).
The surface of the majority of the oysters, largely found in (002), was extremely friable. The right valve of the more robust less fragmented but only oyster fragment in (001) displayed a single hole on the exterior of its valve made by a sponge or predatory marine gastropod trying to attach to its shell.
Charring There was no evidence of charring on any of the fragments.
Butchery Fifty four percent of the bone fragments showed signs of butchery. This amount rises to 69% if the horse, dog and bird bones were removed from the equation as customarily they are not butchered, as they are not in this assemblage.
The rates of butchery increase in OPS22 as the contexts numbers move from (001) to (003) but the greatest difference between the contexts is that it is only in (001) that saw marks appear. Sawing as a method of butchery only became a common practice in the 19th century suggesting a possible more recent date for (001) than the other two contexts.
The crumbly and fragmented condition of the oyster fragments in (002) obscured any marks though there may have been some possible interference at the sides or near the hinges. Interference near the hinge area of the sturdier oyster fragment in (001) was more visible, as were the few knife marks on its interior.
Age Evidence There is some evidence of a number of young animals in this assemblage.
Birds will display their youth by having long bones with soft ends which have not yet hardened. In OPS22, many of the bones of domestic fowl which have complete endings are soft, indicating immature birds.
There are a group of young animals in OPS22, mainly sheep and pigs, whose full growth had not been completed before death so the ends of their limb bones had not yet attached to their shafts and hardened. The general age of an animal at which this fusion for each bone occurs is known, which helps to furnish an approximate age at death should the animal die before a bone’s fusion is achieved.
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In (001) there are four, two pigs and two sheep, whose unfused shaft ends of bones indicate that all these animals were less than 3.5 years old when they had been butchered. Additionally the unfused end of another young pig bone showed it was slaughtered at less than one year, while in (003) a young pig’s unfused shaft end marked its death at around two years old.
In (002) there is a mandible of a young sheep whose tooth eruption and wear point to its slaughter at around six months old.
There are no cattle teeth in OPS22 to assess age by means of the stage of tooth eruption or patterns of tooth wear. Additionally the cattle bones in the group which are fused are those which complete the fusion process early in life, around one or two years, leaving too great an age range to be useful. At the other end of the spectrum there is a chopped unfused thoracic vertebra which fuses between 7 and 9 years.
However, there is one cattle bone fragment from (002), in two pieces, whose proximal articular end is in the process of firmly attaching to its shaft but hasn’t fully completed it as the line between the shaft and the attaching epiphysis is still visible. The age for the fusion of the proximal end of this bone, the humerus, is thought to be around 3.5 to 4 years old, placing the age of this animal at death at around the 4 year mark, an age at which the animal would have achieved its full growth.
Barring illness or accident, dairy or draught cattle have a longer lifespan than 4 years, which points to this animal in (002) having been raised for meat production as were the above other young sheep and pigs from (001), (002) and (003).
There are also a few cases of disposal, for no apparent reason, of the very young who had not been involved in the preparation and supply of meat. Single limb bones of a neonatal dog and pig, and that of a slightly older sheep appeared in (001) and (002).
Conclusion The anatomical parts recovered suggest that the assemblage has been derived from a variety of activities. That the fragments have been disposed of in the same area suggests the proximal nature of these different sources.
(001) is notable as it is more numerous than the other contexts, containing not only the largest amount of pig fragments in the group but also the largest presence of young animals and birds in the assemblage. It is also the only context which displays sawn bone and rat gnawing. Domestic refuse appears to be represented by the partial remains of at least six oysters, the meatier parts of the rabbit, domestic fowl and cattle ribs, and the occasional limb bone of sheep and pig.
Butchery waste is more common, consisting of sheep, cattle and pig’s unwanted awkward articular ends of long bones, pelves, less meaty parts of ribs and the vertebral fragments of the two most numerous species. The youth of the animals slaughtered enhances the quality of the meat supplied which in turn suggests the prosperity of the nearby community or part thereof. Cranial elements from cattle, sheep and pig, including mandibular, maxillary and occipital skull fragments and extremities suggest slaughter waste or possibly the earlier involvement of the butcher at that time in the processing of animal carcasses for consumption.
A semi circular cut on a cattle humerus from (002) implies nearby casual bone working activity. Knife nicks on a rabbit’s femur (001) and on cattle (003) and horse (002) metacarpals suggest the local skinning of animals.
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An intact horse lower leg bone from (002) and one from cattle in (003), as well as unfused limb bones of a neonatal puppy (001) and piglet and a slightly older sheep (002) possibly reflect the yard’s proximity to a well used road and might suggest it was a recognised place for the disposal of unwanted animal bone.
When dating is available and assigned to contexts (001) to (003), the information uncovered by the animal bone assemblage will contribute to a greater understanding of High Barnet’s local patterns of meat supply and consumption in their time frame. As OPS22’s bone group is not large, its value will be amplified with the excavation of further nearby sites.
Boessneck. 1969, ‘Osteological differences between sheep (Ovis aries Linne) and goat (Capra hircusLinne)’, in Brothwell, D. and Higgs, E.S. (eds.), Science in Archaeology, 2nd edn, London: Thames & Hudson.
Chroszcz, A. & Janeczek, M. & Pasicka, E. & Kleckowska-Nawrot, J. 2014, ‘Height at the withers estimation in horses based on the internal dimension of cranial cavity’, Folia morphologica, 73, 143-148. 10.5603/FM.2014.0021.
Cohen, A. & Serjeantson, D. 1996, A Manual for the Identification of Bird Bones from Archaeological Sites, London: Archetype.
Driesch, A. von den 1976, A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Bull. 1.
Grant, A. 1982, ‘The use of tooth as a guide to the age of domestic animals’, in Wilson, B., Greigson, C. & Payne, S. (eds) 1982, Aging and Sexing Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Oxford: BAR Brit. Ser. 109.
Matolcsi, J. 1970, ‘Historische Erforschung der Kopergrosse des Rindes augrund von ungarischem Knochenmaterial; Zeitschrift fur Tierzuchtung und Zuchtungsbiologie, 87, 89-137
Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.
Sunday 6th August. Eclectic Tours. NW London Series. – Colindale and its role in early Aviation. Colindale or Hendon as it was known back then, was synonymous with flying. Learn about early aviation and other factories and important institutions of the area. For tour info. and to book please go to Eclectic Tours – Walking Tours – London, England (eclectic-tours.com).
Saturday 19th August. Barnet Physic Well. Cnr. Well Approach/Pepy’s Cres.,Barnet, EN5 3DY. Open Day.
Also Sunday 27th August. Exploring Kingsbury and Places we call Home. In the 1930’s Kingsbury developed as part of Metroland , while typical of many suburbs with mock-Tudor houses, Kingsbury holds some surprises. For tour info. and to book please go to Eclectic Tours – Walking Tours – London, England (eclectic-tours.com).
Sunday 3rd September, 11am-5pm. Angel Canal Festival. Regent’s Canal, City Road Basin ,Islington,N1 8GJ. Lots of stalls including London Canal Museum. Also boat trips, craft stalls, food and live music. For more info, please visit www.canalrivertrust/events.
Wednesday 6th-Sunday to 17th September. Open House London. Free entry to London’s best buildings not normally always open to the public. For full detail. please visit https://open-city.org.uk
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Sunday 10th September. Avenue House. The Private World of Spike Milligan. An opportunity to take a look at Spike’s unseen archive guided by his daughter Jane Miliigan. Small groups. Multiple slots. Booking essential. Tickets £10. Please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com.
Monday 11th September, 3pm.Barnet Museum and Local History Society.St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner of High St./Wood St., Barnet, EN5 4BW. A Walk in the Park-London’s Green Treasures. Talk by John Lynch. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Friday 15th September, 7.30pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. London’s Waterfront, 1666-1800 and London’s Involvement with Slavery. Talk by John Scofield .Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.
Saturday 16th September 10am – 4pm. HADAS OPEN DAY at Avenue House. See Page 2 of this newsletter.
Sunday 17th September, 12-5pm . Queens Park Festival. Off Chevening Road or Harvist Road.,NW6. Lots of stalls incl.Willesden Local History.
Wednesday 20th September, 7.30pm. Willesden Local History Society. St.Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS (round corner from Magistrates’ Court). Shopping in Kilburn High Road. Talk. May also be on zoom. If not a member, buy a ticket (£3). For details .please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
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Friday 22nd September,7pm. COLAS. St.Olave’s Church, Hart Street , EC3R 7NB. Lord Elgin and the Parthenon sculptures at the British Museum. Speaker TBA. Hopefully also on zoom.Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out the link details to its members to book.
Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th September. Clitterhouse Farm Project. 10th Anniversary Weekend. 102,Clitterhouse Crescent,NW2 1DN. For details, please e-mail paulette@clitterhouse.com or visit www.ouryard.org.
Wednesday 27ih September, 7.45pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL. Alexandra Palace Theatre. Talk by Nigel Wilmott. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme,or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details. (David Berguer, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 28th September, 7.30pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue, House, 17,East End Rd.,N3 3QE. Amy,wonderful Amy. Talk by David Keen (RAF Mus.) Will tell the life story of Amy Johnson and make use of the magic lantern slides and script which she used during fund-raising tours following her pioneering solo Australia flight. For further details, please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Geraldine Missig. Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Jim Nelhams ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)
Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project
Tuesday 10th October 2023 Lecture to be arranged
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear Mapping Verulamium
Welcome to new President of HADAS, thank you to Harvey Sheldon
At this year’s AGM, we said farewell to our President, Harvey Sheldon, and welcomed Jacqui Pearce as our new President.
Harvey has been our President for over twenty years, he has been involved in London archaeology since the early 1960s. He was Field Officer for the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Committee from 1972 until 1975, then Head of the Department of Greater London Archaeology in the Museum of London from its establishment in 1975 until 1991. He was part-time tutor in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies University of London, and later, in the Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck, University of London. From the late 1990s until 2010 he had responsibilities for the faculty’s archaeological field programme and for the direction of its MA in Field Archaeology, where many HADAS members participated.
Jacqui has led and tutored HADAS members on our finds course for more than 15 years, including work on sites dug by HADAS members in Southwark with Birkbeck and Harvey. Jacqui is a Senior Finds Specialist with MOLA and an internationally renowned expert in medieval and later ceramics, glass and clay tobacco pipes. She has wide ranging experience of medieval and later pottery and has been involved in the establishment and maintenance of the MOLA Fabric Reference Collection, the main pottery type-series for the London area. In addition, she has developed a detailed recording system for clay pipes in line with national guidelines and that was instrumental in the establishment of the Museum of London’s Clay Tobacco Pipe Makers’ Marks website. Jacqui is the author of numerous major papers and books, including four parts of an extensive Type-series of London Medieval Pottery, the latest of which covers shelly-sandy wares and greywares. She was Joint Editor of Post-Medieval Archaeology from 2009-2014 and is a committee member of the English Ceramic Circle, and Trustee of the National Clay Tobacco Pipe Archive. She is a frequent public speaker, leads workshops, and teaches evening classes in archaeological finds work and publication. In 2011 she was awarded the Ralph Merrifield Prize for Services to London Archaeology. She was President of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology from 2017 to 2021 and is currently Vice President. She is also Co-Editor of English Ceramic Circle Transactions.
Jacqui at the HADAS finds group.
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AGM Lecture
After tea, coffee and biscuits, our new President, Jacqui Pearce, took us through the top archaeological ceramics from 50 years of digs in London. Starting from the Department of Urban Archaeology in 1974 up to her work today with Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).
She explained how important were the pottery finds associated with revetments along the north bank of Thames providing a good basis for securely dating London ceramics found in other parts of London. This is related to direct dating such as dendrochronology and relative dating.
Early pots dated to the period of King Alfred were hand built and shell-tempered ceramic, which continued through Saxo-Norman period. Some wares from Stamford entered London in this period. These were high status pottery, lead glazed earthenware, made in Lincolnshire. Forms included spouted pitchers depicting birds. This type of pottery and the techniques are the earliest example of wheel thrown ware.
The beginning of London-type ware emerges late 11th century and early 12th century, wheel thrown, white slip and glaze, also tripod jugs with white and red. This was influenced by north French whitewares particularly from Rouen, with white slip on redware pot with green glaze. We also had London potters moving to Kingston in this period, and making decorated pots for the London markets, often decorated in flowers. These included zoomorphic forms such as griffins, including forms and decorations copying metal forms. As well as this higher status decorated wares, examples recovered from cesspits (Cannon Street), we also had emergence of south Hertfordshire greyware (SHER), typical forms include cooking pots, also course border ware. Border ware is from Surrey-Hampshire. We had a unique example of a horse head, probably a gaming piece. They also include crude human forms and animals, and face jugs, copying German stoneware. Also higher quality forms such as Edward II, probably made from a mould.
Jacqui took us through the story of ceramic finds in London, into the early modern period, including stone ware linked to trade via the Hanseatic League via money boxes found at the Rose Theatre, and like many things ending in chamber pots.
Reference: A dated type series of London medieval pottery: Part 5, Shelly-sandy ware and the greyware industries 2010, Lyn Blackmore, Jacqueline Pearce.
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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN(Part 5 the finds – Ceramic Building Material, (Tim Curtis and Andy Simpson) Site code OPS22
BRICKWORK Complete or partial bricks (BRIC) were recovered from three of the five contexts. With the sheer amount of CBM on site, especially red tile fragments, which made removing the top two contexts in particular mainly with mattock and shovel quite hard work, only a limited sample of each type of CBM was recovered. See also the ‘Tudor style’ bricks collected by the site owners in earlier articles.
CONTEXT 001 (The ‘topsoil’ layer) Included a ‘half brick’ of very dense fabric with no frog; also a single fragment of coarse creamy fabric brick with one smooth face and possibly burnt; and seven miscellaneous fragments of presumed modern red fabric bricks, well fired. There was also a single fragment of vitrified brick in a very dense fabric, with one recessed face.
Below this was context 002, with a single fragment of very rough fabric hand-made brick, with small possible flint inclusions and possible sooting on one face, with a matching broken off corner fragment. There was also an almost complete hand-made glazed brick mortared on the base, possibly reused.
There were no brick fragments recovered from context 003 which contained some medieval pottery. Context 004 was the footings of a relatively modern brick foundation wall, from which one red fabric brick, 8.5x4x2 inches, was retained as a sample. It had traces of mortar top and bottom from when it formed part of the wall foundation.
The bottom most recorded context, 005, containing some medieval pottery, contained no recognisable brick fragments, only unidentifiable small fragments of Nib or Peg (NIPE) tile.
TILE The vast majority of CBM recovered from the site was red tile of differing types. Possibly among the most modern material were the ten fragments, totalling 325 grammes, of grey roofing slate fragments from context 001.
Also relatively modern were the fragments of glazed ceramic wall tile (WALT) (pictured below) from context 001 – 16 fragments of white ribbed ‘Pilkington’ tile, a single fragment of a similar type of white smooth tile, one corner fragment of a brown tile with floral design, and four miscellaneous fragments of white and cream wall tile all typical of kitchen or bathroom use.
Also assumed to be relatively modern is a single fragment of chimney pot, wall thickness a half inch, slightly sooted on both faces, and slightly curved – possibly forming the base of a rim. A further relatively modern find in context 001 was the single fragment of drainpipe (DRAN), wall thickness a half inch, in surface glazed stoneware.
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A single fragment of DRAN was also found in context 003, possibly of a nine- inch diameter pipe, in a hard fired grey-black fabric.
Also exclusive to context 001 were the fragments of mortar, possibly from a wall surface, with traces of keying on the inner face and whitewash on the outer face, plus brick mortar and two flat slabs of mortar with traces of brick on the underside.
PEG TILE (PEG) All from Context 002 unless otherwise stated. One particularly fine piece recovered was the top half of a seemingly hand-made tile with three surviving straight edges and two peg holes. It had traces of mortar on the upper and lower faces and a slight curve. Measured 6 ¼ wide and a half inch thick. There was also the top one third of a tile in red fabric with one surviving peg hole and much mortar on both faces, measuring 5 ½ x 6 ½ x ½. inches.
One possible fragment of PEG tile from context 003, being a small corner fragment with possible peg hole, plus one more definite PEG fragment with a single hole. Both were 15mm thick.
NIPE (Nib or Peg tile) This is the term used for small fragments of tile which due to missing distinctive features cannot be firmly identified as either Peg (PEG) or Nib (NIB) type tiles.
Context 001 included a sample of 17 fragments of NIPE tile with an average thickness of half an inch.
Two red fabric fragments were recovered from context 002, and none from contexts 003 and 004. Bottom-most excavated context 005, as well as medieval pottery, yielded seven small fragments of unidentified NIP/NIPE/ PEG red tile, all with one very rough face. (Pictured below).
These consisted of two conjoining fragments, with a dark red core and another with a reduced grey core; one notably hard fired fragment, one with an unidentified moulding mark and two large fragments with an edge, noticeable flint inclusions, in a paler fabric than all the others.
CURVED TILE (CURV) Two fragments from context 002, in a red fabric.
WORKED STONE Perhaps the most notable item was from context 003 – a small but weighty fragment of worked stone, presumed to be limestone, with one dressed face, weighing 1,011g – the heaviest single fragment recovered from the site (photo below). It could perhaps be part of a window mullion or door surround, and it is tempting to link it to the much-rebuilt Barnet Church just a few yards away to the west.
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Worked stone from context 003 (finds photos Bill Bass)
Basement Room
Working behind the scenes, HADAS members are getting ready for forthcoming exhibition at Hendon Town Hall, more details to follow. We also working to get ready for the open day on 16th September at Avenue House- see page 2 If you interested in getting involved on the day let us know.
Romans pots…. Can’t wait to find out more? (Photo: Andy Simpson)Eric, Janet, Peter and Bill (Photo: Andy Simpson)
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Barnet Medieval Festival
HADAS at Barnet Medieval Festival on the weekend of 10th-11th June 2023 at Byng Road playing fields.
HADAS stall Bill, Don, Andy and Ted – set up
Visitors (Photos: Melvyn Dresner)
Thanks to Bill Bass,, Don Cooper, Melvyn Dresner, Jim & Jo Nelhams, Peter Nicholson, Any Simpson and Ted for giving up so much time attending our stall. A number of other members also visited. The Festival Website – https://barnetmedievalfestival.org/ contains more information and some short videos.
Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre -Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.
Monday 4th -Friday- 16th July. Society of Antiquaries. Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J OBE. Archaeo-Sexism Display. Can be visited on Open Fridays, on selected Fridays when the building will be open to the public to view and learn about the history, also at UCL from 19th – 24th July.
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Also on Tuesday 4th July,1-2pm.The Archaeo-Sexism Exhibition; Challenging Sexism in Archaeology. Talk by Kayt Hawkins (FSA).
Monday 10th July, 8 pm. Please note change of time. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./Wood Street Barnet, EN5 4BW. Tree dating and what it tells us about the Old Barnet Shop. Talk by Martin Bridges. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Friday 14th July. William Camden and his World. Full day Conference, For full list of events and to book, please visit www.sal.org.uk/events.
16th July – Enfield Archaeological Society open day ay Elysng Palace dig (10th July to 23rd July) at Forty Hall, Please note that this year’s summer dig in Forty Hall is now fully booked, and they will not be processing further applications for Society membership until the 24th July. Members of the public are of course welcome to drop by and check on our progress, especially on our public open day on Sunday 16th July. https://www.enfarchsoc.org/#news.
The search for the inner gatehouse:
Monday, 17 July 13:00 – 14:00 Willesden Jewish cemetery will deliver a talk at Willesden Green Library, 95, High Road, London, Brent, NW10 2SF, Unveiling the History of Willesden Jewish Cemetery 1873-2023
Monday 17th July 7.15pm. Camden History Society. Hampstead Parish Church. Church Row, NW3 6UU. How our ancestors saw the past. Talk by Gillian Tindall (Vice-president) preceded by AGM. Refreshments 6.45-7.15pm (incl. wine) AGM 7.15pm, Talk 7.45pm.
Saturday 18th July. St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury Open Day. Church Lane, Kingsbury.NW9 7HE.Part of re-kindling St. Andrew’s Church project., funded by Heritage fund. Big fun day. Willesden Local History Society will have a stall here, alongside Wembley History Society. For more details, please visit www.standrewskingsbury.org.uk/rekindling.
Wednesday 19th July 6pm. Willesden Local History Society. Please note change of address address to Cambridge House,12-16, Cambridge Avenue (not Road) Maida Vale, NW6 5BA. It is a grade2
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listed building, constructed to descend into the Victorian Ice Wells 1863, in corrugated iron, as St. James’ Episcopalian Church. It was taken on by the Sea Cadets after WW2 and named Training Ship Bicester. It is owned by Notting Hill Genesis Housing Assocn., currently working on conservation. Will visit the History display and learn about its history and plans for its future.
Sunday 23rd July. London Canal Museum.12-13, New Wharf Road, Kings X, N1 9RT.Ice Sunday. Annual day of ice-related activities including an opportunity to descend into the Victorian ice wells beneath the building. Please visit www.canalmuseum.org.uk/.
Thursday 3rd August, 7pm. Avenue House. Take a peek inside. Guided Tour. A rare opportunity to view the house from top to bottom and learn more of its 139 year history and the life of Henry Stephens. Tickets £8. For more info. and booking please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com.
Saturday 5th August. Kensal Green Cemetery. Harrow Road, Ladbroke Grove, W10 4RA. Sing a Song of Kensal Green. Musical themed guided tour. For more info visit https://kensalgreen.co.uk.
Sunday 6th August 2.30pm. Heath and Hampstead Society. Sandy Heath and the Heath Extension. Meet at Spaniard’s End (by flower stall and cattle trough) near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, NW3 7JJ. Walk led by Lynda Cook. Lasts approx. 2hrs. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.
Tuesday 8th August 7.45pm. Amateur Geological Society. Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6, East End Road/ Stanhope Ave.N3 3LX. (Almost opp. Avenue House) AGS Members’ Evening. 3 mini presentations by AGS members and wine and nibbles. Visitors £5 in advance through Mike Howgate at mailto: mehowgate@hotmail.com. https://amgeosoc.wordpress.com/meeting-dates/.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Bill Bass, Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Tim Curtis, and Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE . 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)
Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 13th June 2023
HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by Jacqui Pearce –Top pots from 50 years excavation in London
Tuesday 12th September 2023
Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum – The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project
The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:
HADAS C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE
If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address, please let us know.
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Barnet Medieval Festival
(Poster from the Festival Website)
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Barnet Medieval Festival returns on the weekend of 10th-11th June 2023 and we look forward to welcoming you to the fifth Festival at Byng Road playing fields. The Festival will feature re-enactments of the Battles of Barnet 1471 and the Second Battle of St Albans 1461 as well as displays by the gunners, archers and mounted knights. NEW this year will be a medieval fashion show and craft demonstrations for you to enjoy.
HADAS will have a stall on both days. This gives us the chance to meet many members of the public and maybe enrol a few new members. It is great if members can spend a time helping with this. Contact Don Cooper (contact info on back page of newsletter) if you can spend a little time. If you just visit, there is plenty to see and do for all ages.
Henge – a prehistoric monument consisting of a circular structure made of wood or stones.
The coastline around The Wash and the Northern coast of Western Norfolk have been marshy and made up of shifting sands. Kings’ Lynn, at the southern end of The Wash, was a busy Hanseatic Port but the entrance to the Great Ouse became silted up and now only smaller ships can reach the port.
In 1998, the shifting sands of Holme beach, some 20 miles north of Kings’ Lynn revealed something extraordinary. Preserved in the sand were the remains of a unique timber circle dating back 4000 years to the Early Bronze age. Although discovered on a modern beach, the circle was originally built on a salt marsh, some distance inland.
The discovery captured the imagination of archaeologists and the general public, and the site soon became known as “Seahenge”. The timbers made a circle some 21 feet in diameter, made up of 55 closely fitting oak poles, some 10 feet in length. In the middle was a large upturned stump. Dendro-dating showed that the timbers were all cut in the spring or early summer of 2049BC.
A decision was made to excavate the timbers, though there was some local opposition. The site was only exposed at low tide so work could only take place for between two and four hours each day and was dependent on the times of the tides. With funds from English Heritage (now Heritage England), the work was undertaken by Norfolk Archaeological Unit.
Seahenge was built by people living and farming near the salt marshes. Up to fifty people may have helped to build the circle, possibly coming together to mark a special occasion, perhaps the death of an important member of the community. It is thought that a body may have been placed on the upturned stump and left open to the elements. Birds and animals would have been allowed to pick the body clean before the bones were removed for burial elsewhere.
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The large upturned oak stump
The timbers had been naturally preserved by a layer of thick peat, but began to deteriorate through exposure to the air and the wetting and drying of each tide. As they were extracted, they were sent for preservation to Flag Fen, near Peterborough. Then in 2003, they were transferred to the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth.
While at Flag Fen, the timbers were laser scanned to record the surface details. This showed that the 56 timber pieces came from between 15 and twenty trees. They had been cut and trimmed using up to 50 bronze axes – the circle dates from a time when such implements were thought to be rare and quite new.
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Some of the timbers are today on permanent display in the Lynn Museum in Kings’ Lynn, arranged in a circle of their original dimensions.
Golders Green Steam II Andy Simpson
Newsletter readers may remember that in the July 2021 issue (No.604) I wrote about the industrial tank locomotive ‘Hastings’ built by Hunslet of Leeds in 1888; my interest arose from its time as a contractor’s locomotive when it was used in the construction of Golder’s Green tube depot circa 1905-1907. Having passed to the Kent and East Sussex Heritage line at Tenterden for preservation in 1964, it steamed again in 2021 for the first time since 1965.
Although a game little engine, an attempted run up the 1 in 60/75 bank from Horsted Keynes to the East Grinstead terminus pulling four coaches weighing some 120 tons proved too much for Hastings and her even smaller helper, a pretty little Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 0-4-0 ‘Pug’ tank familiar to those who built Airfix kits back in the day; they expired just north of West Hoathly tunnel and after a lengthy ‘blow up’ retired winded – but still pulling coaches – back down the bank to Sheffield Park loco shed.
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7 HASTINGS at Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell Railway 21 April 2023.
The cab of ‘Hastings’ showing various fittings and controls including two whistles, pressure gauges, the regulator handle, the gauge glass showing boiler water level, and the all-important white enamelled cans for the driver and fireman’s tea!
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Lakeside Nature Reserve Dudley Miles
Lakeside Nature Reserve is a hidden gem in the heart of Finchley, between Squires Lane and Strathmore Gardens. Unfortunately, there is no public access, but it can be glimpsed from a track behind Strathmore Gardens.
The lake was constructed as a reservoir by Peter Edmund Kay in the late 1890s to supply water to Claigmar Vineyard. Kay started trading as a market gardener in 1872, and by the end of the century Claigmar Vineyard was a site of almost thirty acres in Church End, out of which some sixteen acres was occupied by 145 greenhouses, producing around 100 tons of table grapes, 100 tons of tomatoes and 20,000 dozens of cucumbers. This meant that the vineyard’s water requirements were enormous, and Kay met them by building a two-acre reservoir. Rain falling on the greenhouses was collected in the reservoir, which held about five million gallons. It was then pumped to the tops of water towers, from which it was distributed to the greenhouses.
The system was built at great cost, but it was able to supply all the water needed by the greenhouses, saving a water rate of more than £700 per annum, equivalent to around £70,000 today. The soft rain water was also better for the crops than the hard and cold water supplied by the water company. Kay was well known for his water management, and in 1900 he read a paper to the Royal Horticultural Society on “Saving and Using the Rain”.
The land of Claigmar Vineyard was gradually sold off in the 1920s, mostly for house building, but the reservoir and adjacent land was sold to Finchley Urban District Council in 1923 for the use of the electricity department, and by 1934 it was also providing premises for the highways and fire brigade departments. The site was presumably sold by one of the Council’s successor authorities, as it is now the gated estate of Pentland Brands Limited.
In the 1990s, the reservoir and a small area of woodland around it was designated a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation, called Lakeside Nature Reserve, by the London Borough of Barnet. It is described in the London Ecology Unit’s 1997 publication, Nature Conservation in Barnet, which may now be partly out of date.
The lake has fish, frogs, toads and terrapins, and there are waterfowl such as mallards, tufted ducks, coots, barnacle geese and moorhens. There are small areas of white water lily, and a few plants on the margin such as water mint, fool’s water cress, yellow iris, water-plantain and purple-loosestrife. There is an island which has sycamores and poplars, with dense undergrowth. The belt of trees on the lake margin has white poplar, white willow, alder and sycamore, with an understorey of hawthorn, elder, bramble and ivy, and some patches of comfrey and Michaelmas Daisy.
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Claigmar Vineyard in 1920, with the reservoir in the centre (Ordnance Survey 26 inches to a mile Mid-Finchley map, reduced to c. 8 inches to a mile)
Aerial photograph of Claigmar Vineyard in 1921, showing the reservoir. Squires Lane runs vertically up the right hand side.
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Claigmar Vineyard reservoir, now Lakeside Nature Reserve, photographed by Dudley Miles in 2010
Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.
Saturday 10th June, 12-5 pm. Highgate Festival. Pond Square and South Grove, Highgate Village, N6. Lots of stalls including Highgate Society, and Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute. Also, craft and food stalls and music stage.
Sunday 18th June, 12-5 pm. Hampstead Summer Festival. Keats House and Community Library, 10, Keats’ Grove, NW3 2RR. Art Fair. Open exhibition of paintings and sculptures, craft stalls, food and wine bar. Free admission. Held in the gardens. Please check www.hampsteadsummerfestival.com for latest information. Also involved is Hampstead School of Art.
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Tuesday 20th June, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk hopefully on Zoom. Untold London: stories from the time-trodden streets. By Dan Carrier. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details. Talk is about his book of walks in the deserted streets of Central London during lockdown to uncover the forgotten stories the heart of the UK capital holds.
Thursday 22nd June-Tuesday 4th July. Hampstead’s Art Street. Canvas murals along the walls of Keats’ Grove, painted by local artists.
Saturday 24th June-Sunday 2nd July. Proms at St. Jude’s Music and Literary Festival, Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, NW11 7AH. For full details www.promsatstjudes.org.uk. The Festival also includes Heritage Walks. Each walk must be booked in advance via website.
Sunday 2nd July 12-5 pm. Big Fair in Heath Street, Hampstead, NW3. Over 100 stalls including crafts, food and drink. Music stage. Free admission.
Sunday 2nd July, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. Constable and Hampstead. Meet at Spaniard’s End (by flower stall and cattle trough) near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, NW3. Walk led by Suzanne Grundy. Lasts approximately 2 hours. Ends at St. John’s Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, NW3. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.
Sunday 9th-Sunday 23rd July. Enfield Archaeological Society. Elsyng Excavation 2023. At Elsyng Royal Palace in the grounds of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield, EN2. To join the dig please contact Dr Martin Dearne. Email martindearne@talktalk.net or visit www.enfarchsoc.org. This year the society is focussing on the Inner Gatehouse, believed to have medieval origins. Also Sunday 16th July, 11 am-4 pm, Open Day. Includes finds identification, displays and craft activities.
Monday 10th July, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./Wood Street Barnet, EN5 4BW. Tree dating and what it tells us about the Old Barnet Shop. Talk by Martin Bridges. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Tuesday 11th July, 8 pm. Amateur Geological Society, Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6 East End Road/corner of Stanhope Avenue, N3 3LX (almost opposite Avenue House). Looking at the South Coast from the Isle of Wight westwards along to Devon. Talk by Stephen Krause (AGS). Examining the structures and pictures from the air to understand how the coastline of this attractive and geologically interesting part of the UK was formed. Visitors £2. Refreshments in interval.
Wednesday 19th July, 6 pm. Willesden Local History Society. Visit to Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Road, NW6 5BA (off Kilburn Park). Meet there for guided tour. For more information. please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Friday 21st July, 7 pm. COLAS. Talks hopefully on Zoom. Members’ Night. Talks by members of the society. For details. please visit www.colas.org.uk.
Friday 21st July 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. The 1948 Olympics at Wembley. Talk by Philip Grant (WHS). Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.
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Most groups shut down in mid-July until September.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are delighted that lectures are now face-to-face. Lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 9th May 2023Bill Bass – Hopscotch in High Barnet: a HADAS dig.
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023 HADAS Annual General Meeting
Followed by a lecture to be arranged.
Saturday 16th September Proposed HADAS “Open Day” at Avenue House More information to follow.
Subscriptions by Cheque
The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:
HADAS C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE
If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address please let us know.
HADAS Attendance at LecturesJo Nelhams
The members returned to face-to-face lectures on February 14th 2023: the previous one we had was on 10th March 2020. After nearly three years there were some very “happy to be back” faces especially those unable to link by Zoom.
We had 21 members plus one visitor. In the absence of the Chairman and other officers, our Vice Chairman, Peter Pickering, introduced the speaker, Signe Hoffos who presented a very interesting talk about Bombed Churches in the City.
The lecture in March by Robin Densem was attended by 23 members, an increase of 2 on the previous month, and 4 visitors, a total of 27, a very amusing presentation entitled “A Career in Ruins”.
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Although the April lecture was immediately after Easter Monday, the number of members attending rose to 25 plus 1 visitor, a total of 26. It has been encouraging to see the number of attendees increasing each month. Not all are able to come each month, but so far 30 different members have returned.
Thanks to Bill Bass who led the way with organising the speakers for lectures since the return of meetings.
April lectureJim Nelhams
The topic for the April lecture delivered by Robert Stephenson was “The Thames, its Myths and Mysteries. The lecture embodied lots of information about the river.
The river was a source of prosperity to London and helped communications. Its original course was further to the north, but it had been pushed south by the ice sheet in the last ice age. The location of the city was the first place where the river could be crossed with a bridge. The route was quite marshy with lots of islands. The suffix “sea” means an island as in Chelsea and Battersea. Thorney Island, where Westminster Abbey and the Parliament were built, was formed by the dividing of the Tyburn River. Robert guided us through various historical happenings and archaeological finds.
Although most swans on the river belong to the Crown, the Vintners and the Dyers Livery Companies have some rites, and marked their ownership with nicks to the beaks, one nick for the Dyers and two for the Vintners. These days, the birds are ringed.
Ownership of the river also rested with the Crown until 1350 when the stretch from Southend to Staines was sold to the City of London to raise funds for the crusades. The current owner is the Thames Water Authority.
The river is 215 miles long, the longest in England, draining over 5,000 square miles and dropping 360 feet. It flows through 9 counties at a maximum speed of 9 knots. The maximum tide is 25 feet with an average of 19 feet.
In 1952, Lord Noel-Buxton, a 6’ 3” tall peer, attempted to wade across the Thames close to Westminster Bridge to retrace the path used by Roman Legions. He managed to cross half-way but had forgotten that a deep channel had been dredged in the middle, so he had to swim the rest of the way.
The Hendon BeverleyRobert Michel
As a tail-piece to Andy’s excellent article on the Beverley (Newsletter 625), the following came to mind:
Another Hendon connection for the much-lamented XH124 was that it bore a small high-vis orange-coloured plastic ‘zap’ on its nose. This zap was sort of in the shape of a bird, meant to be a falcon at rest, being the centrepiece of the badge of the RAF’s 120 Squadron. The equally lamented RAF Station Hendon was for some time the home of 120 (Hendon) Squadron Air Training Corps, of which I had the (probably) dubious honour of being its longest serving cadet corporal. Anyway it was cadets from this squadron, which last I heard resided in Burnt Oak, who were responsible for affixing the zap to said Beverley – no mean feat given the height of the nose section from the ground. This act took place under cover of darkness sometime in the early-mid 1970s and is not one I have any memory of taking part in……….
NB – ‘Zap’ was (is?) the name given to bits of sticky-back plastic crafted into the shape of emblems of armed service units. Affixing these to all manner of prominent surfaces was all the rage during the 1970s-80s and may still be for all I know.
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Alan Godfrey’s reprint Old Ordnance Survey maps Pamela Taylor
Many HADAS readers will be devotees of Alan’s maps, but for those who haven’t yet discovered them, each one comes as a nifty sheet, folded in the traditional way, with the map on one side and the other shared between a history (brief when the series started, now up to four panels, some 3,200 words) and either some matching directory pages or, less frequently, part of another map.
Alan started the series in 1981, concentrating on the OS’s 25″ maps in the first three editions, which in most of SE England means one each in the 1860s, 1890s and early 1900s. Since then, he’s also embarked on the fourth edition, surveyed in the 1930s and the last before the OS changed the sheet lines, and has also made forays into the 1″ and 5′ scales and, thanks to some War Office sources, the Ruhrgebiet and D-Day landing beaches.
In the early decades Alan was busy scouring record offices and libraries for clean originals that could be transported to Gateshead where they were photographed on a camera the size of a fully-extended MRI scanner. Barnet Local Studies was one of his early discoveries and the borough librarian, David Ruddom, was very happy for his two borough archivists, Joanna Corden and me, to lend the maps and write accompanying notes, and for the libraries to sell the results. Today high-grade scans and the internet mean that Alan usually relies on scans from a single copyright library, much simpler but some of the fun’s been lost.
I left Barnet in 1999 but the link with Alan continued and I’ve now written some 200 sets of notes, mostly for places in and around London but with outliers ranging from Castle Douglas through Louth and Cambridge down to Winchester and Romsey. Both in new places and in those I thought I knew, the maps often provide real historical excitement. I’m by preference a medievalist and some boundaries on a Mortlake map kick-started an article in Anglo-Norman Studies. Better still, boundaries in Kensington Gardens delivered an Alice down a rabbit hole moment and, eventually, a book, Knightsbridge and Hyde (VCH Publication, 2017) which overturned all previous understandings of Knightsbridge.
Closer to home, Alan’s recently sent me to Enfield, Edmonton, Wembley, Kingsbury and also back to Hendon and Golders Green, but this time in the 1936 survey and therefore in massive contrast with the earlier editions. At this rate, though, he won’t be doing any more NW Middlesex maps because the sales are poor. As a matter of pride as well as self-interest would HADAS readers care to help reverse the trend? Roger Chapman explained in this Newsletter how the National Library of Scotland has put its OS maps freely online, and it’s a wonderful resource, but with Alan’s you can look at several side by side (boundaries are good, map edges less so) and the map notes, which also usually list the main sources, are a major bonus.
There’s a very easy website: www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk. The maps are cheap and there are often additional offers. Happy hunting.
Mail Rail Jim Nelhams
As a member of the Letter Box Study Group, I visited the Postal Museum at Mount Pleasant before it moved to expanded premises on the other side of the road although it still has the original space at the back of the Mail Centre, consisting of a shop and the current access to Mail Rail. The main building specialises in postage history.
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Before World War 1, the Post Office planned to build its own underground railway to transport mail between eight postal sorting offices on the north side of the Thames. Approval was given by the Post Office (London) Railway Act, 1913 and work started in 1914. One of the project’s chief engineers was Harley Hugh Dalrymple-Hay who had been involved in the design of the Bakerloo and Northern Lines. The tunnels were all dug by hand. Following the outbreak of the war, resources became limited and work was suspended in 1917. At one time, water from the River Fleet broke into the tunnel at Mount Pleasant but this was rapidly staunched. As Mount Pleasant is the least deep of the stations, flood doors were installed to isolate any flooding and protect the whole system.
During WW1, the completed tunnels were used to store valuable items from The British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy.
Work resumed in 1924 and after fitting out and testing, the service commenced in 1927. From that date, trains ran every day, except one when a bomb hit Mount Pleasant during WW2, until 2003 when rising costs caused the service to stop.
The line runs for six and a half miles from Paddington in the west to Whitechapel in the east joining together eight major sorting offices. The total track length was 22 miles. When the service commenced, this journey took two hours by road: by rail, it could be completed in 35 minutes with a maximum speed around 30 mph.
Trains were unmanned, running on a 24” gauge with electric power from a third rail system. They could travel at up to 35 miles per hour and ran to a strict timetable every four minutes for 22 hours per day, carrying 4 million items of post each day.
When the Postal Museum expanded, work was done to open a section of the railway for passenger rides and were granted right of access by Royal Mail.
Jo and I were fortunate enough through the auspices of Subterranea Britannica to join a special group visit to Mail Rail. This included a trip on the railway – some 15 minutes long around the Mount Pleasant Loop.
Trains are now battery driven. There were some audio-visual displays during the trip. The group also took a conducted walk of about a mile through parts of the system – a service not generally available. Most of the system is still owned by Royal Mail and not generally accessible.
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During the tour, we saw the railway graveyard where old rolling stock is now stored. There is no easy way to remove old trains to the surface.
A section of the tunnels which are about 6 foot six inches high. These tunnels seem to be in extremely good condition.A station platform at Mount Pleasant. Far right is a conveyor belt which would have carried sacks to the main sorting office above. The workers had less than four minutes to unload each train to preserve the timetable.
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One of the battery powered electric trains used for rides through the tunnels at Mont Pleasant. These operate from what was originally the maintenance depot under the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre.
The Postal Museum is open each week from Wednesday to Sunday between 10am and 5 pm. Tickets include free entry for a year and one ride on Mail Rail on the day of your first visit. Current cost is £16 if booked online.
We are happy to organise a bus-pass outing for members if there is sufficient interest. Please email jim_nelhams@hotmail.com or call 020 8449 7076 to let us know.
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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all societies or organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Update
Thursday 18th May, 7p.m. London Archaeologist. Please note the venue has now changed to L.S.E., Room 1.09, Marshall Building, Portugal Street, WC2A 2HD. But spaces are limited. Or you can attend on zoom. Please book your free place for either via www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk. as shown in April newsletter.
New Events
Sunday 4th June, 2.30p.m. Heath and Hampstead Society. From Parliament Hill to Highgate; History and Landmarks. Meet at Bandstand, Parliament Fields (off Gordon House Rd. Gospel Oak, NW5). Walk led by Jeska Harrington-Gould. Lasts approx. 2hrs. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.
Wednesday 7th June, 6p.m. Gresham College. How Pagan was Medieval Britain? Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view online. Please see How Pagan Was Medieval Britain? | Gresham College – free. Will consider figures in seasonal folk rites, carvings in churches, the records of trials for witchcraft and a continuing veneration of natural such as wells. Will also compare Ancient paganism and Medieval Christianity as successive religious systems.
Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th June, 10.30a.m. – 5p.m. Barnet Medieval Festival. Barnet R.F.C. Ground, end of Byng Road, Barnet, EN5. Lots of stalls including HADAS, Barnet Museum, Barnet Society, and Battlefields Trust. Battle of Barnet re-enactments. Also Battle of St. Albans 1461, re-enactments at midday on both days. Food and drink stalls. For more info. Please visit www.barnetmedievalfestival.org.
Monday 12th June 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./ Wood St., Barnet, EN5 4BW. A window into 1930’s Barnet;Cole collection photographs from glass plates.Talk by Terence Atkins. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Wednesday 14th June 6p.m. Gresham College. Sir Christopher Wren; Architect and Courtier. Talk by Simon Thurley. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view online. Please see Sir Christopher Wren: Architect & Courtier | Gresham College – free. Taking Wren the courtier as it’s starting point, this lecture uses new research to paint his talents and career in a new light.
Sunday 18th June, 12-6p.m. East Finchley Festival. Cherry Tree Wood, East Finchley, N2. (Entrance off High Road opposite Tube Station). Lots of stalls including Finchley Society, Friends of Cherry Tree Wood (with Roger Chapman of HADAS and North London U3A). Also craft, food and beer stalls. Music stage.
Wednesday 28th June, 7.45p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. R.A.F. Museum. Talk by David Keen. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme, or phone 0208 368 8314 for up-to-date details (David Berguer,Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
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Thursday 29th June, 7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’ House, 17, East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE. Annual General Meeting. For further details. please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Robert Michel, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Jo Nelhams, Pamela Taylor ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 11th April 2023 Robert Stephenson (Also with CoLAS) The Thames: its myths and mysteries
Tuesday 9th May 2023Bill Bass – Hopscotch in High Barnet: a HADAS dig.
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by a lecture to be arranged.
At the AGM our long serving President Dr Harvey Sheldon will be formally retiring, and we are delighted that Jacqui Pearce has accepted the invitation to take up this position.
Due to the untimely death of Steve Brunning we are seeking a new membership secretary. Informal enquiries to Don Cooper are very welcome.
Membership Renewals
It’s that time of the year again! However, HADAS have not increased their subscriptions again this year, therefore the amounts are: Full member £15, Additional member at the same address £5, Corporate member £15, under 18 or student under 25 in full time education £6. The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March, and so this is to remind all members who pay by cheque that their renewal subscription will be due on or soon after 31st March 2023.
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With the closure of many banks, it is helpful if payment is made by Bank Transfer using Account Number 00083254, Sort Code 40-52-40 (CAFBANK). Please include your surname and first initial in the reference field.
If you do need to pay by cheque, please post it to Don Cooper, Hadas, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE.
Members who pay their subscription by standing order need take no action. Following Steve Brunning’s untimely death in January 2023, there may be queries about membership issues, please address them to Don Cooper:
We look forward to receiving your continued membership and thank you for supporting HADAS in its objectives.
Highgate Roman Kiln ProjectInformation from Eric Morgan
The most complete Roman pottery kiln found in Greater London will be put on public display for the first time, thanks to a £243,550 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to the charity Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln. In the 1960’s and 70’s archaeologists excavated the kiln from Highgate Wood in Haringey, which is managed by the City of London Corporation as a registered charity.
The pieces of this unique find have been in store beneath Bruce Castle Museum, inaccessible to the public. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, a joint project between Friends of Highgate Kiln, the City Corporation and Bruce Castle Museum will return the kiln to Highgate Wood to be displayed in a visitor centre from September 2024. The project is called Firing London’s Imagination: An Inclusive Approach to Highgate’s Roman Pottery Heritage.
The kiln is one of the best-preserved Roman pottery kilns found in the UK and thought to be the last one built by Roman potters who worked in Highgate Wood between 50 CE –160 CE to supply Londinium, the capital of Roman Britain, and southeast England with distinctive Highgate Ware pottery. The Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln was formed in 2018 to work with Bruce Castle Museum and the City Corporation to conserve the kiln, restore it to public view, and allow everyone to learn about an important aspect of London’s Roman Heritage.
My life in Ruins by Robin DensemSue Willetts
On Tuesday 14th March HADAS members and a few visitors were treated to a well-illustrated talk by Robin on his career in Archaeology from his early days as a volunteer, as a digger and later a manager on archaeological projects taking a degree in Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in Gordon Square (1973-76) along the way. He gave us an overview of how archaeology had changed from the 1950/1960’s to the present day with the change to mostly developer funded projects. We were entertained and educated with this talk which was not recorded.
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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 4 the finds – Clay Pipe, Tim Curtis and Andy Simpson.) Site code OPS22
Only a limited number of stratified clay pipe bowl and stem fragments were recovered from the top two of the five contexts recorded during the excavation, though the area excavated was quite limited. It is perhaps of note that none of the fragments featured decoration or makers’ marks of any sort, other than rim milling. The date range of the identifiable fragments, using the standard Atkinson and Oswald typology, is quite tightly dated to the Early Stuart/English Civil War/Restoration periods of the Seventeenth Century, with a total date range of some 70 years, 1610-1680.
The pipe fragments are discussed below, in context order.
UNSTRATIFIED
A single 50mm stem fragment plus bowl are recorded as unstratified.
In true archaeological tradition they were spotted on the spoil heap by a team member on the last day of the dig just as backfilling was about to begin. Dated 1610-1640, bowl type AO5, just a quarter of the bowl rim survives, but it does seem to have been fully milled, and is well burnished.
This is of course the earliest datable clay pipe bowl from the site.
CONTEXT 001 This is the modern/’Victorian’ topsoil/dumping context within which the vast majority of finds from the site were recovered – considerable quantities of roofing tile, pottery and both vessel and window glass in particular.
There are no clay pipe bowls and just twelve (12) well broken up and quite short stem fragments with a length of 20-40mm. Three bear signs of burning/heat through original use, and several have a very visible horizontal seam. Two lengths actually conjoin.
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CONTEXT 002 Lying immediately below context 001, this context also featured quantities of CBM and pottery but just two small fragments of vessel glass.
There are 21 lengths of stem, six of them with traces of contemporary burning indicating actual use. Length 15-70mm, with no evidence of decoration or maker’s marks. Of the three bowl types represented, one is just a fragment of bowl side and appears to be type AO12, 1640-1670. Also present is an almost complete bowl, missing its top rim, with heel plus 80mm of surviving stem attached, type AO13, dated 1660-1680.
Also of the ‘Restoration’ period are two fully milled and well burnished bowls of type AO15, also dated 1660-1680 as is the A013 bowl described above.
The clay pipes from context 002 (photos Bill Bass)
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Return of the Beverley…sort ofAndy Simpson
HADAS members of, shall we say, longer standing may well remember the Blackburn Beverley four-engine RAF transport aircraft that formerly stood at RAF Hendon East Camp from 1968, and latterly at the RAF Museum itself until 1990.
The Beverley on the former RAF Hendon East Camp, with the RAF Museum main building in the background; note the ‘Middle East’ camouflage scheme… (Commercial postcard)
Blackburn Beverley C.Mk.1 XH124 was one of 47 production aircraft of its type, and was built at Brough, East Yorkshire by Blackburn and General Aircraft Ltd, making its first flight on 1st April 1957, entering RAF service the following month. Robust and reliable, and with its distinctive rear loading doors, and carrying up to 94 troops or 70 paratroops, and a crew of four, the ‘Bev’ served with five RAF Squadrons; the Beverley saw widespread service in the Middle East, including Aden, Bahrein and Muharraq, and also in the UK, Singapore and Kenya. https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/blackburn-beverley
RAF popular belief had it that Beverleys did not need navigators, simply following the line of the four 2,850hp Bristol Centaurus 273 engine oil leaks left by fellow Beverleys as they cruised at around 170 mph across the desert! XH124 left Squadron service in April 1967 as the type was replaced by the turboprop Lockheed Hercules during 1967-68, of which a handful of later models remain in RAF service today, and after a period of storage made a final appearance at the RAF 50th Anniversary Royal Review at RAF Abingdon on 14 June 1968.
On 19 June 1968, with the new RAF Museum Hendon in the early planning stages (prior to opening in November 1972), XH124 became the last RAF fixed-wing aircraft – and at 63 tons one of the largest- to land at RAF Hendon before the runways were torn up to make way for the new 1700-home Grahame Park Council estate.
The aircraft flew in from RAF Abingdon; by the time it came to a halt after using only half the length of the main runway, its brakes were red hot and its unexpected appearance generated calls to the
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emergency services from concerned members of the public ; it had clocked up 4,478 flying hours, and was struck off RAF charge the following day, being given the static maintenance serial 8025M. Six months later, on 22 December 1968, a final fixed wing landing occurred using the extant perimeter tracks – a small Piper Cherokee aircraft flying from Blackbushe airfield which became lost in bad weather, taking off the following day.
The airfield had officially closed to powered flying on 14 November 1957 as it became ever more surrounded by suburbia, although occasional accidental landings by individual American and German air force transport aircraft did still occur in 1964 ,1965, and 1967 and the local Air Training Corps 617 Volunteer Gliding School still used it for gliding until 31 March 1968, as still remembered by some HADAS members.
After some 21 years standing outside in all weathers, the MoD, as owners of the airframe, decided that the Beverley was too corroded for safe further display, and the financially constrained RAF Museum had no money for its restoration, so it was put up for tender for disposal in December 1989. The successful bidders were scrap merchants Turnidges, who surveyed the aircraft in early January 1990 and were due to complete the actual scrapping within 30 days of starting the task. On Friday 26 January 1990, a group of RAF Museum staff (including your author, as a newly minted and very junior curator) paid a final visit inside the aircraft. During this visit the smaller of the two panels shown in the photo below, ahem, ‘fell off’. It covered the escape rope which drooped down from the rear of the tail boom for crew to shin down in event of an emergency.
Scrapping of the aircraft commenced on Tuesday 30 January 1990, and on Valentines’ Day 1990 of all days I purchased the larger of the two panels, originating from the starboard outer engine, from the scrap merchants for £5. Scrapping proceeded using axes, cutting gear and a JCB to wrench off major sections, starting with the outer wings and tail section on 30 January; the engines were simply cut free and allowed to drop to the ground. The last of the Beverley, its cockpit section, left Hendon by road on Thursday 1st March 1990. One of the four-bladed propeller units was retained by the RAFM, but has yet to go on public display, currently being stored at the RAF Museum facility at MoD Stafford.
After some 30 years in my airing cupboard (!) it was time to hand over my two panels from XH124 to long term care, and I contacted the South Yorkshire Air Museum at Doncaster – South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum | Doncaster – they are located not far from where she was built and include other Blackburn built aircraft in their collection, including a small section of cockpit from fellow Beverley XL149. They were delighted to accept and despatched their volunteer Chris to meet me at Hendon for the handover in the wind and sleet at a point close to where XH124 latterly stood.
One other Beverley cockpit/flight deck (from XB261) is preserved, and the last fairly complete Beverley airframe, XB259, currently hangs on by a rather decayed thread on Humberside.
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South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum volunteer Chris takes delivery of the two Beverley panels at the RAF Museum Hendon (now known as RAFM London), Friday 10 March 2023.
References Oliver, D Hendon Aerodrome – A History Airlife 1994 Renwick, A RAF Hendon The Birthplace of Aerial Power Crecy 2012 Thetford. O Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918 Putnam 1995
What the Romans did for my grandson Janet Mortimer
As memories of the Pandemic lockdowns fade, and in the certainty that Sue Gray will not be reading this, I can admit to making the not quite essential trip to visit my son and daughter-in law at their home in Lancashire in June 2020 as I hadn’t seen them in many months and the grandchildren were growing up fast.
Whilst there we decided to have a day out to Chester. In the car on the way there I explained to my then 3 year-old grandson, Frankie, who the Romans were, how they had come over to conquer us, and how they had built things that we would still be able to see.
He seemed very excited about this and, when we got to the car park, there was a large map with a picture of a Roman soldier on it. I pointed it out to him and said “Look there is a Roman” only to see the disappointment etched on his little face. He didn’t want to look at pictures of Romans. He had expected to see legions of them marching around the streets. I tried to explain that they were there two thousand years ago, but trying to explain the concept of time to a 3 year-old for whom the week before their birthday seems like a thousand years was not an easy one!
Sadly the Museum was shut, but we visited some of the Roman sites like the gardens and the amphitheatre and Frankie did seem fascinated by them. We stood in the centre of the amphitheatre and he liked my tales of how the gladiators would bravely fight lions. I am not really sure whether there
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were any lions in Chester (except perhaps at the Zoo) but grandmothers are allowed a bit of poetic license.
Despite the lockdown there were lots of people in the town that day. Although nearly everything was closed, we managed to find a sandwich shop that was open and headed for the park, also needing a toilet break. There were public toilets there, but they had a notice saying they were closed due to Covid restrictions. It was amusing to see other people heading for them, watch the anguish on their faces when they realised they were closed, then watch them furtively head for the nearest clump of bushes. I am not sure which was more dangerous – the risk of catching Covid or getting cholera. It was a good day out and I am sure we will go back again when more things are open to the public, especially the toilets!
Ancient stone arrowhead comes to light in Coldfall Wood in Muswell HillAnn Bronkhorst.
(Reproduced with permission from The Archer (www.the-archer.co.uk) January 2023)
“One day last year I was watching a bird. I looked up, then down, and there it was at my feet.” Philip Hogg, a Haringey resident and a regular dogwalker, had almost trodden on an early Neolithic arrowhead in Coldfall Wood. Luckily he was not barefoot.
The photo shows a leaf-shaped, nicely napped object, still capable of giving a cut or two. It is thought to date from 4,500 to 1,500 BC and is one of many small archaeological finds such as weapon parts, pottery shards and coins discovered in London over the years. This, however, is much earlier than most such finds. In the 1940s a Neolithic axe head was found in Windermere Road, Muswell Hill, but little else has emerged in Haringey. As Adam Single of Historic England says, “Our understanding of the early human occupation of the area is not great.” Adam is one of several experts consulted about this arrowhead. He clarified its ownership: like most similar finds it belongs to the landowner, in this case Haringey, and not the finder. Digital information about it will become available to anyone, however, on the Portable Antiquities Scheme site at finds.org.uk. Another helpful source of expertise in this case was the Finds Liaison Officer at the Museum of London, Stuart Wyatt.
Where should the actual arrowhead find a home? Philip should hear more this month from the experts who are examining it. The consensus is Bruce Castle Museum in Haringey, where the curator, Deborah Hedgecock, hopes to welcome it to the museum’s fascinating and varied collection. The Archer
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(appropriately) will tell readers when and where to view it. Meanwhile, back in the wood, the arrowhead’s exact resting place for the last 4,000 or so years must remain unidentified.
Local news: Hendon Hub – The Burroughs – Middlesex University plans – update.
Campaigners are calling for a major development planned for Hendon to be scaled down, warning it poses “great risks” to a “historic neighbourhood”. Residents’ group Save Hendon has urged Middlesex University to reduce the size of the Hendon Hub – a Barnet Council-led scheme that is set to see hundreds of student flats built on sites in The Burroughs and Church End. More details in this link from the Barnet Post.
Professor Brad Blitz, an administrator of the Hendon Residents Planning Forum, which represents 2,500 residents, has written to the university to urge it to scale down the scheme. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service residents who saw the latest plans were “shocked” to find their scale was apparently unchanged, with the only proposed alterations to be made to internal space. Professor Blitz said if the council could make changes to the library, he believed it could make further amendments. Cllr Houston has indicated that the project will be going ahead, and that further substantive changes to the scheme are unlikely. He pledged to meet with Save Hendon campaigners “in a couple of weeks’ time” to speak to them again about their concerns.
New exhibitions
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean. 24th Feb – 4th June 2023. Many of the more than 200 objects from three of the largest Mediterranean islands, Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia will be seen in the UK for the first time. This exhibition helps us understand the ways these island cultures reflected, and even shaped the larger Mediterranean world with its migrations and movement of peoples.
Oxford. Ashmolean Museum. Knossos: Myth and reality. From 10 Feb – 30 Jul 2023. According to legend, an elaborate labyrinth was built at Knossos on the island of Crete to hold a ferocious Minotaur. The palace of Knossos, discovered and excavated over 100 years ago, was the centre of a Bronze Age civilisation of people we now call the Minoans, named after the legendary King Minos. This is the first UK exhibition to focus on Knossos. It will include over 100 objects which have never left Crete and Greece before, alongside discoveries from the Ashmolean’s Sir Arthur Evans Archive and an exclusive experience of Knossos Palace from the acclaimed video game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. His archive at the Ashmolean has been central to our understanding of the site of Knossos, and many of his excavation plans, artworks and records will be on display alongside objects from the site.
Mea Culpa CornerAndy Simpson
In my review of the newly published book on the Life and Times of Dr Henry Hicks of Hendon in the previous newsletter, I managed to miss out the most important detail of all – the authors’ name! The very understanding author who responded to my apology sent with a copy of said newsletter is Dyfed Elis Gruffydd, who kindly says of HADAS ‘It’s good to see such an active organisation’.
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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Friday 21st April, 7.30 pm. Failed to Return; Amy Johnson and Leslie Howard. Talk by Tony Eaton. On their disappearance on board aircraft. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. Visitors £3. Refreshments available.
Tuesday 25th April, 7.45 pm. Saving for old buildings. Talk on zoom. An introduction to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings by Douglas Kent (Technical and Research Director, SPAB) St. Alban’s Architectural and Archaeological Society. Talk will explain the society’s approach to caring for old buildings and present an outline the activities it undertakes today plus an account of the award-winning SPAB work the speaker has carried out on his own Grade 1 listed Medieval house in Saffron Walden in Essex. www.stalbanshistory.org for details. Non-members may be charged £5.00
Thursday 4th May, 6pm. Lecture, Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, The History of Bart’s Hospital; Bart’s at 900. Talk by Charles Knight. Ticket required. Register www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/barts-900 and view on-line. St. Bartholomew’s is the oldest hospital in London still operating on its original site. Telling its history from 1123 to today, via its people, buildings and the events that defined this iconic medical institution.
Tuesday 9th May, 6.30 pm. LAMAS. Joint event with Prehistoric Society. Talk on zoom. by Andy Dakin (MOLA). Excavations of a Roman Cemetery, Hoard and Prehistoric and Post-Medieval remains of Principal Place, London. Incl. inhumations, cremations and a large hoard of Roman Coins, and discussion of extensive remains of the C17-18th buildings and yards and the remains of the early C19th Curtain Road Gasworks. Please book via www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.
Wednesday 10th May, 8pm. The Brunel family-father, son and grandson Talk on zoom by Bill McNaught. Hornsey Historical Society. Please email hornseyhistoricalchairman@gmail.com for link. Visit www.hornseyhistorical.org,uk. NB The speaker for the Wed. 12th April talk mentioned in the March newsletter is Suzanne Bardgett.
Monday 15th May, 8pm. Monarchs, Courtiers, Technocrats and Kitchen Boys of Elsyng Palace. Talk by Dr. Martin Dearne E.A.S.) Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane / jnc. Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 OAJ. Non-members £1.
Wednesday 17th May, 7.30 pm. Grunwick Strike, 1976-78. Talk by Christine Coates. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (Round corner from Magistrates’ Court). May also be on zoom. If not a member buy a ticket (£3) For details. please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
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Thursday 18th May, 7pm. The Archaeology of Wren given by John Schofield. London Archaeologist. UCL, Institute of Archaeology. 31-34, Gordon Square, WC1H OPY. AGM followed by Annual Lecture. May also be on zoom. On the 300th anniversary of the death of Sir Christopher Wren and reviewing the archaeology of St. Paul’s and the parish churches in the City. Please book on www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk.
Thursday 18th May, 7.30 pm. Pickford’s Stables. Talk by Peter Darley (Camden Railway Heritage Trust Camden History Society) Primrose Hill Community Library, 14, Sharpleshall Street, NW1 8YN. Non-members £2 at the door. Please visit www.camdenhistory.org for details.
Wednesday 24th May, 7.45 pm. Westminster at War: How the Luftwaffe destroyed The House of Commons. Talk by Barry Hall. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society, North Middx. Golf Club. The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Preceded by AGM. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk click on programme or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details. (David Berguer, Chair) Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 25th May, 6.30pm. A Tour of Avenue House and Gardens. Finchley Society. Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. Please note earlier time, For further details. please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non members £2.
Saturday 27th May. Alexandra Palace. Alexandra Palace Way, N22. The Big Birthday Party at Ally Pally, Alexandra Palace celebrates its 150th Anniversary this year. This Special Event’s theme is “Living Archives” with focus on connections between Heritage and Current Activities. Hornsey Historical Society should be represented here.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Bill Bass, Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.
Buses 82, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 14th March 2023 Robin Densem (HADAS) A Career in Ruins – Robin’s career in Archaeology.
Tuesday 11th April 2023 Robert Stephenson (Also with CoLAS) – The Thames: Its Myths and Mysteries
Tuesday 9th May 2023 Bill Bass – Hopscotch in High Barnet: a HADAS dig
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023 HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by a lecture
Membership Renewals
It’s that time of the year again! However, HADAS have not increased their subscriptions again this year, therefore the amounts are: Full member £15, Additional member at the same address £5, Corporate member £15, under 18 or student under 25 in full time education £6.
The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March, and so this is to remind all members who pay by cheque that their renewal subscription will be due on or soon after 31st March 2023.
With the closure of many banks, it is helpful if payment is made by Bank Transfer using Account Number 00083254, Sort Code 40-52-40 (CAFBANK). Please include your surname and first initial in the reference field.
If you do need to pay by cheque, please post it to Don Cooper, Hadas, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE.
Members who pay their subscription by standing order need take no action.
Following Steve Brunning’s untimely death in January 2023, there may be queries about membership issues, please address them to Don Cooper:
We look forward to receiving your continued membership and thank you for supporting HADAS in its objectives.
Obituary – Edward Harris
We have received a letter from Mrs Valerie Harris informing us that her husband Edward Harris has died. Mr & Mrs Harris have been members since 2009.
Mrs Harris says in her letter “we have had a lot of pleasure from attending meetings and thank everyone for their welcoming kindness”
On behalf of the committee and members of HADAS we express our condolences to Valerie and members of their family.
The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture Jim Nelhams
Although a relatively recent introduction to the Hadas calendar, this is intended as a special event in our year. Most appropriate therefore that it should be the first face-to-face lecture since lockdown. Those attending clearly appreciated being able to meet up not just for the lecture but also the tea and coffee that followed. What a splendid lecture it was!!!
The speaker was Signe Hoffos, a member of the Colas committee (as is our April speaker) who spoke on “Bombed Churches of the City”.
Bombing first happened in the 1914-1918 war, starting with airship raids on Great Yarmouth in January 1915, followed by Stoke Newington in May. The first London air raid by bombers was in June 1917. The development of airships largely stopped following the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 but aircraft development continued into WW2 (during which unmanned machines, the V1 and V2, appeared) and beyond.
In parallel ran the development of bombs. The first ones were small and dropped by hand. These could be incendiary or explosive. As bombers improved, they could carry heavier loads, dropped mechanically. In the City, much of the damage came from incendiaries, which also caused fires identifying target areas for following bombers.
The first WW2 raid on London was on 24th August 1940, with the Blitz running from 7th September to 21st May 1941 during which time, there were 71 raids on London. Signe gave a detailed timeline of the raids which occurred on 29th December 1940 which caused much damage with comparatively little loss of life. As with the 1666 Great Fire of London, this was in the holiday season, but also the Thames was at low tide and the Fire Services were unable to draw much water from the River.
There are now 40 functional churches within the City, many of which were damaged by fire and needed restoration. Signe listed the details. In 1666, there had been around 110, and the remains of some of these were demolished after WW2, being surplice to requirements and in some cases beyond repair.
HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 3 the finds – glass, Tim Curtis, Janet Mortimer and Andy Simpson.) Site code OPS22
Glass Report A variety of utilitarian glass food and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink containers were found, mostly in fragmentary form, with some drinking vessel pieces and some window glass and a number of
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unidentifiable fragments, but seemingly not much in the way of ‘decorative’ domestic glassware. Most appears to be of twentieth century date, with a small number of earlier fragments.
Context 001 There were five complete vessels from this context – four bottles and one jar. One Pint milk bottle, probable 1930s date, of clear glass with relief moulded ‘A1’ Dairies, base moulded ‘A1’ and UGB (United Glass Bottle) machine mark of 1913-1968. Has a distinctive wide neck for a card stopper. This former company had local links, being based at 1411 High Road, Whetstone by 1920 until at least the late 1960s. (There is also the broken base of a half-pint A1 Dairies bottle).
A1 Dairies milk bottle (all finds photos Bill Bass)
Half Pint brown glass beer bottle, post-1892 crown cork bottle cap rim, with no identification marks. Machine-moulded seams running across the rim (pictured below).
Small brown glass cylindrical bottle with external screw threaded rim. No identification marks, UGB makers’ mark (post 1913) and machine-made mould mark running across the rim.
Small clear glass cylindrical bottle with external screw threaded rim. No identification marks. Machine mould running across the rim.
Squat clear glass ramekin canning style food jar, machine made, with no identification marks. Other Bottles
A variety of bottle shapes were recovered, mostly in clear glass but with some green and brown bottle glass also.
They include one post-1872 Codd-neck bottle rim lip, familiar to older readers as ‘marble bottles’ comparable to a complete example owned by co-author Tim Curtis, plus a fragment of base and side,
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possibly also from a Codd bottle, marked ‘’’ATE & CO… ARM moulded into bottle side and ‘12’ on base bottom (pictured below).
Green bottle glass frags include a well broken up but part reconstructed ‘rich green’ soft drink bottle, probably lemonade, marked ‘BANKS OF DEPTFORD’ with ‘1/4D DEPOSIT CHARGE ON THIS BOTTLE’ in relief moulded lettering (pictured below x2).
George Banks of Church Street, Deptford in South-East London also produced ginger beer sold in stoneware bottles by the 1890s.
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There are further fragments of body and base of a similar bottle of ‘R. WHITE’ also with ‘1/4D DEPOSIT CHARGED referring to the one farthing charge on each bottle. This Camberwell, South London-based company, R.White & Sons Ltd, started to charge the farthing deposit from the 1890s to encourage the return and reuse of its bottles.
There are other green glass fragments which may be parts of those above, but we cannot be certain. They include three quite substantial and weighty internal screw thread top/neck fragments, bagged separately by slight differences in the shade of green of the glass, plus a further fragment of 1/4D deposit from a likely further bottle. There is also a miscellaneous green base fragment with part sides and an interesting internal dome, being notably thick walled with an unstable base. Additionally, there are five fragments, four cojoining, of a thin-walled cylindrical bottle with external screw thread rim.
Brown bottle glass fragment: there is one fragment of bottle neck with external screw thread and two seemingly associated fragments of ferrous threaded bottle cap.
Clear bottle glass: there is a selection of bases from six other anonymous cylindrical bottles, one with an interesting ‘TVT’ base mark and another with the familiar ‘UGB’, and one-part base with registered number on base ‘792625’ . One particularly nice item is a glass stopper, possibly for a sauce bottle, such as Lee & Perrins Worcester Sauce or HP Sauce.
There is a single fragment of the ribbed side with ‘S’ of the maker’s name of a distinctive Chichester-based Shippam’s Paste jar, introduced by that company from 1906 with airtight metal caps. An interesting (and appropriate, given the shop at the front of the site) group is the ‘BOTT SQ 1’ square glass bottle or jar fragments, including eight body and rim fragments from one large square vessel with rounded corners, possibly an old-style sweet display jar, and two large co-joining body fragments also with rounded corners, possibly part of the vessel first described.
Nearby leisure drinking is indicated by the bases of two substantial vessels with notably deep and heavy weighted bases, identified as tumblers.
A variety of fragments of further GLASS JARS were found, consisting of one base and eight rims, including two heavy externally threaded rim fragments and two collared rims.
A number of fragments were too small too definitively identify as to vessel type;
There are three fragments of green bottle glass with surface patina, two of them base fragments with a notably pronounced kick up, possibly of nineteenth century date. Also two heavy dark green fragments, one a shoulder fragment of a large bottle embossed with the word ‘PROPERTY’ the other ‘-KO-‘ plus seven miscellaneous fragments of green and brown glass, probably bottle glass.
There are also 34 miscellaneous clear glass body sherds from bottles and a wine glass.
Several varieties of window glass were found, 37 fragments in all, of four different thicknesses between 1-7mm, including clear glass, 15 frosted/obscured glass fragments, some with a distinctive ‘star’ design and others with a triangular raised facet design, and four pieces which joined, identified as possibly being from a table-top.
Context 002 Yielded just two small body sherds of green glass, probably 19th century in date. One was from a cylindrical bottle, possibly wine, probably mould blown with bubbles and an irregular surface. The other
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had an irregularly shaped profile and was possibly part of a mineral water bottle, of patent shape, possibly Codd patent of 1872.
6 had an irregularly shaped profile and was possibly part of a mineral water bottle, of patent shape, possibly Codd patent of 1872.
Hopscotch in one of its previous incarnations as ‘Loraine’ in the 1950s or 60s – this shows the nearby ‘King’s Head’ McMullens pub and other establishments which could have generated the dumping of glass and other materials in the back yards. The tree (now gone) at the back of ‘Loraine’ was the site of our dig and caused a few problems with soil disturbance.
Flooding in the basementDon Cooper
Following torrential rain and falling leaves on the weekend of 5th November, the HADAS Sunday Morning group arrived to find water flowing down the wall nearest the window in the basement creating a small lake on the floor. The storage unit in that corner contained some of our new books store. Note the amount of water in the storage box in the photo below.
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Fortunately, although the cardboard boxes in which the books were stored, were destroyed, only about 38 books were damaged.
Once we had mopped up and removed the racking it was clear that there was black mould on the wall. It must have happened before!
The cause appears to be heavy rain on the flat roof, a blocked hopper (probably incorrectly sited anyway) and autumn leaves. When informed Avenue House said a builder was coming.
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As a result, we are replacing the cardboard boxes with secure plastic ones, relocating the books and in the meantime, we are clearing the drains and downpipe hoppers. We are writing to Avenue House for them to take action on the mould and redecorating the space.
Thanks to all who helped to clear up and supplied the photos.
BOOK AND MAGAZINE REVIEWS Andy Simpson
Dr Henry Hicks (1837-99) The Life and Times of Dr Henry Hicks of St David’s, and the Bubble that refused to Burst.
Published by Y Lolfa Cyf 2023 Softback, portrait format. 105x212mm, 24 colour and monochrome images. ISBN 978-1-80099-331-0.
HADAS occasionally get sent newly-published books; some are of direct relevance to local history; some, like this slim but readable 42-page volume received in January 2023, contain unexpected gems relevant to our local history.
Welsh born and speaking, the energetic Dr Henry Hicks MD, MRCS, FRS was a GP, chemist, amateur archaeologist and renowned and widely respected amateur geologist, who was at one time President of the Geological Society of London. Though dying in Hendon relatively young aged 62 years on 18 November 1899, he left a legacy in UK geological research and many publications. He lived and practised in Hendon for nearly three decades from early 1871, and is buried in Hendon St Mary’s church-yard, although his gravestone is now lost. However, he is remembered on a plaque inside the church. He was a long-time resident of the long-lost Grove House – which stood in extensive grounds to the north of the Burroughs. Grove House (otherwise known as Hendon Grove or The Grove) was a large stuccoed two-story building built by 1753 and shown, un-named, on Crow’s 1754 map, and was originally owned by John Cross and Mrs. Marsh jointly, being sited to give commanding views westwards towards Harrow and north to Mill Hill. By 1796 Cooke recorded it having ‘coach-house, stabling, out office, yards, garden etc. with road leading to the same.’
‘The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution’ accommodated 40 young girls at Burroughs House c. 1874. It was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century by a Mrs. Campbell, who in turn leased it to Dr Hicks who ran it as ‘Hendon Grove Asylum’ – a private nursing home, from February 1879 to 1898. By 1881 it was caring for 12 mentally-ill female patients and was home to Dr Hicks, his wife, three daughters and staff. He was greatly active in local affairs and by 1888 Chairman of the Hendon Drainage Committee.
Grove House later continued as a mental home run by Dr Edridge-Green.
It was demolished in 1934, following purchase by Hendon Council. The now-levelled site of the house and part of its grounds survive as a small public park called The Grove at the rear of the Fire Station and University, with the original entrance avenue off the Burroughs which led directly to the house. The entrance is still extant between University buildings and now leads to the park and site of the house.
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As originally reported in the ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries’ for 5th December 1889, page 16, and the ‘Hendon and District Times’ of 13 December 1889, the earliest recorded find of Roman material in the Hendon area is that from the former Grove House.
At a point 730ft W.S.W of the church and 300ft north of Grove House, during the digging of a gravel pit its then occupant, the St. David’s, Pembrokeshire-born Dr. Hicks found bone fragments, flanged roofing tile, brick, millstones, a complete 19 cm high ring-necked single-handled flagon of second century date (see below) and other fragments of mortaria food mixing bowls, water jugs and other pottery, including ‘broken cinerary urns’ all scattered about in the soil a foot below the surface, mostly in a ‘well defined longitudinal excavation’ some ten feet long, and extending down for about 18 inches into the undisturbed sand below.
Dr Hicks had previously excavated prehistoric sites in the St. David’s area.
The approximate OS ref is TQ 2270 8940, SMR/HER 081913-01, 02. Whether in a Roman pit or even a burial is not now clear. (See Robertson, B 1973, ‘Roman Material Found at Grove House, Hendon, in 1889.’ Transactions of The London And Middlesex Archaeological Society 24, 146-150)
Four pieces of this material reportedly survived in the Barnet local history collection, including two pieces of brick, one of them, most interestingly, a section of circular brick of the ‘bessalis’ type used in hypocausts, sculpture bases or to build small diameter columns which would be faced with moulded cement and painted plaster; the surviving material is considered to be of late first or second century date, and includes the single-handled Roman flagon of c.175-250 A.D, presented by Dr F.H.K Green, a relative of Dr Hicks, in March 1949, as were the two brick fragments, and a small, cased fragment of 133 plain buff tesserae tessellated pavement believed to have also been found at the Grove, though this is disputed, as there is no evidence to link it to the Grove House finds, since it was not listed with them at the time. Supposedly found in Hendon prior to 1890, it was donated in December 1948 by Miss N.F.Waters and looks more like a collectors’ item from elsewhere.
In 2011, the pavement fragment at least remained in store at the now-closed and much-lamented Church Farm Museum, and passed to the care of HADAS in May 2012, with whom it remains, with original paper label on the rear recording accession no A61 ‘Fragment of Roman pavement believed to be part of a collection excavated at Hendon Grove in 1889 Don 3124 Mrs. N F Waters’;
The other Grove House fragments and three other fragments of Roman pottery, possibly from the same site, have not been seen since at least 2011, since Church Farm Museum records were incomplete and the items could not be positively identified when it closed.
And the Bubble that Refused to Burst? That was Dr Hicks and his contentious identification and dating of rocks of the Llyn Peninsula and Western Isles of Scotland.
The High Barnet Branch by Peter Kay, published in London Railway Record Number 114, January 2023. Portrait format, 113x210mm. Numerous colour and monochrome images. ISSN 1355-8013. £4.50.
HADAS of course has a number of railway enthusiast members, and several of us already regularly purchase this particular quarterly magazine, which has proved an invaluable source since first published in 1994. Although it covers the whole of London, past and present, concentrating in particular on stations and infrastructure rather than the usual locomotives and rolling stock, the Barnet Borough area regularly appears in coverage of the Midland Main Line via Hendon and the East Coast Main Line via East Barnet, along with the interconnecting tube lines and secondary lines.
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Editor and Publisher Peter Kay has just started what would appear to be the first of several articles covering the former Great Northern/London and North Eastern Railway suburban branch lines from High Barnet, Edgware and Alexandra Palace via Finchley and Highgate to Finsbury Park, parts of which now form the Barnet and Mill Hill East Branches of the Northern Line, or leafy walks to Edgware and Alexandra Palace. The Barnet Branch opened in 1872 and hosted regular steam-, and later diesel-hauled ‘main line’ freight trains to High Barnet until 1962 (which also ran to Edgware until the spring of 1964). This first article features Victorian/Edwardian and later photographs and detailed plans of the stations at High Barnet, Totteridge, Woodside Park, and West Finchley.
The extended photo captions and detailed text cover historical and operational matters, including an 1870s developer trying unsuccessfully to have Woodside Park, then named ‘Torrington Park, Woodside’ renamed ‘Belgravia Park’ as propaganda for his development.
This excellent magazine is always worth a look, even for those without a particular railway interest, given the breadth of its local history coverage, and is normally available from the London Transport Museum shop at Covent Garden, and local transport collectors’ fairs at Borehamwood, Enfield and Chiswick, as well as by subscription. Further details from www.londonrailwayrecord.co.uk
Other Societies’ EventsEric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Thursday, 16th March, 7.30 p.m. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. Ship of Lost Ambitions: The ‘Titanic’ Connections with Camden, by Kevin Brown. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Friday 17th March, 7.30 p.m. Wembley History Society, St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. (Please note new venue). Time and Tide, Treasure and Trash: A Mudlark’s Searches for London’s History. Talk by Monika Bettling-Smith. Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.
Monday 20th March, 8p.m. Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ. The World of Art Nouveau. Talk by Mark Lewis on its origins, the key exponents of the movement and its eventual demise.
Tuesday 4th April, 8p.m. Historical Association, North London Branch. Jubilee Hall (address as above). Beyond The Seas and Return: The English Catholic Cross-Channel Community in the 17th C. Talk by Dr. Liesbeth Corens (Queen Mary, University of London).
Tuesday 11th April, 6.30 p.m. LAMAS. Talk on Zoom. Syon Abbey Revisited: Reconstructing Late Medieval England’s Wealthiest Nunnery. Talk by Bob Cowie (MOLA). Please book via www.lamas.org/lectures.html.
Saturday 15th April, 11a.m.-2.30p.m. North London and Essex Transport. Enfield Transport Bazaar. St. Stephen’s Church Hall, Village Road, Enfield EN1 2EY. Lots of stalls selling books, photos, DVDs, maps, models, timetables, tickets and other memorabilia. Refreshments available. Admission £3.
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Monday 17th April, 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner of High St./Wood St, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Enfield: The Other Royal Palace. Talk by Ian Jones (Chair, Enfield Archaeological Society) Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk
Tuesday 18th April, 7.30p.m. Camden History Society. Talk, hopefully on Zoom: The Bombing of London,1940-41: The Blitz and its Impact on the Capital talk by John Conen. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Tuesday 18th April, 8p.m. Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society. Talk should be on Zoom. Northolt Park Racecourse (1929-40) by Colin Richards. Please see www.RNELHS.org.uk.
Wednesday 19th April, 7.30 p.m. Enfield Society, joint with Edmonton Hundred Historical Society. All Saints Church Hall, Church Street, Edmonton N9 9AT. (Please note different venue). Thirty Years at the Edmonton Charity Girls’ School. Talk by Irene Money. Free.
Thursday 20th April, 8p.m. Historical Association: Hampstead and NW London Branch. Ancient Sumeria and its Modern Legacy. Talk by Karin Doll. Will present hypotheses on where key developments in civilisation began including writing, the wheel, plough, bricks and irrigation, and mathematical and writing systems 5,000 years ago. Meet at Fellowship House, 136a, Willifield Way, London NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Hopefully also on Zoom. Please email Jeremy Berkoff (Chair) on jeremyberkoff@mac.com or tel. 07793 229521 for details of Zoom link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments after.
Friday 21st April, 8p.m. Richmond Archaeological Society. Talk on Zoom. Surviving in Lower Palaeolithic Europe by Prof Rob Hosfield. For information on how to join, please visit www.richmondarchaeology.org.uk or email richmond.archaeology@gmail.com.
Saturday 22nd April, 11a.m. Willesden Local History Society. Meet at Dissenters’ Chapel, Kensal Green Cemetery (Entrance off the Flower Maiden, Ladbroke Grove, W10) John Passmore Edwards Festival. To mark the bi-centenary of the birth of the philanthropist on the 24th March, 1823 and the anniversary of his death on 22nd April, 1911, including a laying of a wreath on his grave, a tour of the philanthropists buried at the cemetery, presentations about him and his work, an exhibition in the chapel, and refreshments. To join please contact Irina Porter (Chair and Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery Trustee) on irinaporter@outlook.com or tel. 07510 933282 It is free, but donations are welcome. Please book in advance on www.willesden-local-history.co.uk or by email.
Wednesday 26th April, 6 p.m, Gresham College. Finding Lost Gods in Wales. Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view on line. Please see Finding Lost Gods in Wales | Gresham College. Free. From the poetry and stories of medieval Wales in such as the ‘Red Book of Hergest’ and the book of Taliesin about pagan gods and goddesses with characters such as Rhiannon, Arianrhod,, the flower maiden Blodeuwedd and Lieu Deunedd
Wednesday 26th April, 7.45p.m, Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL. The Great Northern Railway. Talk by Dave Cockle (Enfield Society Chair) Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on ‘Programme’, or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details. (David Berger, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday, 27th April, 7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. H.G. Pelissier: A Famous Son of Finchley. Talk by Anthony Binns and Jaudy Pelissier. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Bill Bass, Don Cooper, Tim Curtis, Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Jim Nelhams and Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP (07449 978121) 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 Vacancy
While we have no Membership Secretary – for the present, please address any correspondence such as change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:
HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE
Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face to face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom.
Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.
Buses 82, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five-ten minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after the talk.
Tuesday 14 February 2023 The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture: Signe Hoffos: ‘Bombed Churches of the City (WWI and WWII air raids and the City of London churches)’
Signe has spoken to HADAS before on other aspects of City churches, and several of us know her through the City of London Archaeological Society – CoLAS.
Tuesday 14th March 2023 Robin Densem(HADAS): ‘A Career in Ruins’ – Robin will talk about his career in Archaeology
Tuesday 11th April 2023 Robert Stephenson(Also with CoLAS): ‘The Thames; It’s Myths and Mysteries’
Tuesday 9th May 2023 Bill Bass: ‘Hopscotch in High Barnet: A HADAS dig’
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by a lecture
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FUNERAL OF STEPHEN BRUNNING
Steve’s funeral took place at Hendon Crematorium on Friday 6 January. The weather was kind with sunshine interrupting the rain and some 16 HADAS members attended. The humanist service included some of Steve’s favourite music, by Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, and Enya. Celebrant Debbie Coe read memories of Steve by long-time evening class leader Jacqui Pearce and Chairman Don Cooper (see below), and the nicely illustrated order of service included a photo of a clay pipe alongside pictures of Steve to mark a particular interest of his. Thanks to Jacqui Pearce for this order of service picture of Steve who was a proud member of the CIfA.
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At Steve’s funeral, the celebrant read out these tributes to Steve from Evening class tutor Jacqui Pearce and HADAS chairman Don Cooper …
Jacqui Pearce
I first came to know Steve about 20 years ago, when he joined the Birkbeck evening classes in archaeological post-excavation work, which were being held at Avenue House in Finchley. He signed up for the very first course and for every single course since then, including all those run under the auspices of HADAS from 2009 onwards until 2020, when they finally came to an end. There were times when his health made it difficult for him to attend, but he was always fully involved with everything we were doing and was hugely helpful and supportive whenever he was with us. He loved looking at archaeological finds and had a particular interest in the study of clay tobacco pipes, which he made something of a specialism, writing up the pipes from Church End Farm and Church Terrace for the two publications that the Finds Class produced. This is why we’ve included a photo of a clay pipe in the Order of Service, in case you were wondering!
Steve had a genuine passion for archaeology and did all he could to promote, study and further the cause. I remember how delighted he was when he was accepted into the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists as an Associate, something which came about because he was proposed and supported by an existing Member who could vouch for his credentials. In fact, he became Editor of the Institute’s Newsletter, no mean achievement! He had a probing mind and was very thorough in everything he did for archaeology, always wanting to find out more and always asking questions. And he did this in a very unassuming way, never self-regarding, never promoting himself above others.
Steve was a very gentle and courteous man, and it was a real pleasure to spend time in his company. Over the years I knew him his health deteriorated noticeably, and he always bore this with courage and maintained a positive attitude as much as he possibly could, even through the incredibly difficult time when he lost his father. I never heard him get angry or impatient with anyone, even when he was finding life tough. As much as he could, he wanted to help other people and it was always a pleasure to spend time with him. And one more bond we had was a shared love of Star Trek! Although we never spoke about it, he did talk to my daughter about the music he loved and the choices we are listening to today are based on her recollections of conversations she had with him.
My recollections of Steve started with his love of archaeology, and he played a very important part in the Hendon and District Archaeological Society, which I haven’t covered in any depth. For this, I’d like to hand over to Don Cooper …
Don Cooper
Steve had a great interest in all things archaeological especially ceramic clay pipes and joined HADAS as a member in November 1998.
He was elected onto the Committee in June 2004 and served as a committee member continuously up to the present.
He took on the office of membership secretary in 2008. This involved maintaining the database of members, keeping their subscriptions up to date, producing address labels files for the newsletter and preparing Gift Aid returns for the Treasurer.
He also organised the annual lecture series – booking the speakers and venue. He was an invaluable member of the committee.
Over and above all that he was a kind, helpful participant in HADAS’ activities and I well remember his successful contributions to many a Quiz night.
He will be greatly missed. Rest in Peace, Steve.
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Afterwards a number of HADAS members and fellow evening class students (Hello Jeremy!) who had attended the funeral raised a glass or two to Steve’s memory at the Three Hammers pub on Mill Hill Ridgeway… (photo; Andy Simpson)
January Lecture Report – History Underfoot: Britain’s Industrial Heritage in Barnet Streets by David Willoughby.
Drawing on knowledge acquired through his membership of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society (GLIAS), David very kindly stepped in when the previously advertised speaker was unavailable and gave twenty or so HADAS members this most informative lecture via zoom. He reminded us when walking around Barnet to look down as well as up for heritage artefacts hiding in plain view. He began by discussing coal plates (known as Opercula) – holes in the pavement or in front of houses for coalmen to deliver coal to cellars below. The covers were square and made of stone in Georgian times, later usually circular and of cast iron. Many were made in Birmingham and Wolverhampton as well as bearing the markings of London foundries and ironmongers, such as the St Pancras Ironworks. He also discussed Sir Henry Bessemer and his steel production process and Mariott Brothers of Barnet, who were builders and contractors 1881-2; some of their coal plates were produced at a foundry in Shoreditch.
Next discussed were utility covers for water mains, sewers, gas mains, fire hydrant point covers, Post Office Cables and stopcock coves for instance. Another example was those of ‘Northmet’ – the North Metropolitan Electricity Power Supply Co, with their power station at Brimsdown, Enfield and offices in Wood Green.
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Drain covers were discussed in some detail, especially those produced for local councils – including Potters Bar Urban District Council and Barnet London Borough Council, formed only in 1965. This also included detailed discussion of individual manufacturers and their history. Other ironwork discussed included gates and railings, post(pillar) boxes, and of course Stink Pipes as recently discussed in some detail by Dudley Miles in the HADAS newsletter. Miscellaneous items covered included stone and cast iron boundary markers including those for the War Department, and cattle troughs, boot scrapers and Ordnance Survey bench marks. A varied discussion at the end permitted certain members to bring in Barnet station cast iron platform canopies and trolleybus overhead junction boxes…Our thanks to David for this enjoyable and informative talk.
BOOK REVIEWAndy Simpson
Flying Up the Edgware Road The birth of North-West London’s Aviation Industry Mark Amies Published by Amberley Publishing 2022. Softback, portrait format. 168x232mm, 100 colour and monochrome images and maps. ISBN 978 1 3981 0946 9.
This handily sized 96-page book covers exactly what it says on the tin/title, and in considerable detail. It records how this area of North-West London became a hub of the British aircraft industry in the early years of the twentieth century, from the Edwardian suburb of Cricklewood north towards the then semi-rural hamlets of Colindale and Kingsbury.
They played a vital role in aircraft production during the First World War, but companies such as The Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd (Airco) and the Grahame White Aviation Company led by the charismatic Claude Grahame-White declined rapidly by the early 1920s as government orders for new aircraft were slashed overnight. Others such as Handley Page and de Havilland maintained a presence into the 1960s on reduced sites minus their former airfields at Clitterhouse and Stag Lane. Hendon aerodrome of course vanished beneath the Grahame Park Estate in the late 1960s but retains the Royal Air Force Museum which recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary on that site. The industrial buildings themselves often remained in other uses, and some survive today as shown in specially taken modern day colour photographs which record a few precious survivors amongst the ever-growing forest of huge residential tower blocks that nowadays line the Edgware Road.
Historical footnotes such as the very short lived Hendon Factory railway running around the edge of Hendon aerodrome are covered, and we are reminded that a hot air balloon landed in Mill Hill as early as 1862, and the Welsh Harp was an early aviation centre with unsuccessful aircraft trials nearby in 1908, barely five year after the Wright brothers first successful powered flight in 1903. By 1912 Hendon Aerodrome, then known as London Aerodrome, was a flourishing social centre and hub of flying training and demonstrations. Smaller component manufacturers are given due record too.
At Cricklewood Aerodrome, Handley Page Transport Ltd flew international flights to Paris from 1919 using converted bombers and versions developed from them until the airfield was mostly sold for housing in 1929-30. Even the much-reduced Metropolitan Police training facility on Aerodrome Road, Colindale and its successor tower blocks stands on the site of the short-lived London Flying Club, another Grahame-White venture.
Other photographs concerning the local aviation industry incidentally survive in the recently sorted and listed HADAS photographic archive at Avenue House, including a rare shot of the main Titanine Paints building in Sheaveshill Avenue, Colindale.
I would heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the industrial history of our area.
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‘His Name Liveth For Ever in Hendon’Andy Simpson
Whilst in Greece on the latest Salonika Campaign Society battlefield tour in September 2022, one of our regular Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery visits brought to my attention a native of Hendon who was laid to rest in Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, Thessaloniki in Northern Greece, known as Salonika during WW1. He was a member of the British Salonika Force (BSF), engaged in fighting alongside Greek, French, Russian, Italian and Serbian troops against Bulgarian and German troops in Greece and what is now the Republic of North Macedonia in the Balkans.
At the invitation of the Greek Prime Minister, M. Eleftherios Venizelos, Salonika was occupied by three French Divisions and the 10th (Irish) Division fresh from the debacle at Gallipoli in October 1915. Other French and Commonwealth forces landed during the year and in the summer of 1916, they were joined by Russian and Italian troops. In August 1916, a Greek revolution broke out at Salonika, with the result that the Greek national army came into the war on the Allied side. The campaign continued until an armistice was signed in October 1918, some weeks before that on the Western Front.
The Hendon soldier was Gunner Ralph Henry Byatt, service number 35729.
Luckily a partial service record for him does survive, athough incomplete and fire damaged in places as are so many other WW1 personnel records since only some 40% of the First World War Army Service Records survived the Second World War bomb damage in September 1940, when during the London Blitz the War Office repository in Arnside Street was hit.
Whilst employed as a Plumber’s Mate, he had enlisted in peacetime London, having attested (swearing allegiance to King George V) on 27 July 1911 with the Royal Regiment of Artillery (Royal Garrison Artillery) Territorial Force, Special Reserve, height recorded as 5ft 6 inches, with fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair.
The Special Reserve was established on 1 April 1908 as a semi-professional force to maintain a reservoir of manpower as reinforcement drafts for the regular British Army serving overseas in wartime and training these replacement drafts in times of war. Reservists enlisted for a six-year term of service and had to undergo six months of basic training on recruitment and three to four weeks training annually. This presumably explains why for the 1911 census Ralph is recorded as being resident in barracks on the night of the census, Sunday April 2nd 1911, his age recorded as 17. At this point he was part of the 6th Battalion Royal Fusiliers according to the census entry. The 6th (Reserve) Battalion Royal Fusiliers was part of the Special Reserve, based in Hounslow. By 1917 Ralph was serving with the heavy howitzer-equipped 130 Siege Battery part of the 9th Brigade of the Royal Garrison Artillery, which had been in Salonika since August 1916, having four of the recently introduced 26cwt, six-inch calibre howitzers on strength.
Their role was mainly to provide plunging high explosive fire to soften up enemy defences prior to an infantry attack, and also to target opposing heavy artillery batteries in counter battery fire. However, with supply of men and material always an issue, there were never more than a few dozen of these weapons available to the BSF.
He died on Wednesday, 10 January 1917, aged 25. Confusingly however, his pension record card gives a date of 10 April 1918, killed in action.
The son of Sandon-born 44-year old Hendon Urban District Council carman (horse drawn cart driver) Arthur and his 42-year old wife, Henlow-born ‘charwoman’ Emma Byatt of 15, Heading Street (Off Church Road), Hendon, he was actually a native of the village of Sandon, Hertfordshire, where he was baptised on the 14 April 1895. Father Arthur Edward Cornelius Byatt. Ralph was one of three children, his parents having by then been married for 20 years.
His mother Emma was awarded a pension of 5/6d a week payable from 29 October 1918, along with £8 10s 1d unclaimed pay and a war gratuity of £14. A soldier’s pay that had been credited to his account but not issued to him, along with any gratuities, were eventually distributed in accordance with his will.
The war gratuity would be paid to every warrant officer, non-commissioned officer and man who served with the army or air force, either voluntarily or compulsorily, since 4 August 1914, and to the legatees or next of kin of those who had lost their lives with some exceptions. There was a minimum payment of £5, with various increments for length of service, and was issued in the form of a Post Office Savings Bank Book deposit.
For his gravestone, his grieving parents chose (and had to pay for, as was standard practice) a personal epitaph for his standard CWGC headstone ‘ His Name Liveth For Ever In Hendon. Mum and Dad’ This is a variation on the phrase “Their name liveth for evermore” is a phrase from the King James Version of the Bible, forming the second half of a line in Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, chapter 44, verse 14, widely inscribed on war memorials since the First World War. See Their name liveth for evermore – Wikipedia. The message had to be composed from a maximum of 66 characters including spaces. Each character used cost the family 3½d. The 37 letters in this inscription cost his parents 10s 9d, equivalent to some £22 at 2022 prices.
The Cemetery is located at 192 Langada Street, on the Serres highway approximately 2 km north of Thessaloniki city centre on the west side of the street. The cemetery is inside a very large, mainly First World War Allied cemetery containing Serbian, French and Italian casualties and is known locally as ‘’Zeitenlik’’ and is to the rear of the Serbian, French and Italian sections. The city of Salonika was the base of the British Salonika Force and it contained, from time to time, eighteen general and stationary hospitals.
The earliest Commonwealth burials took place in the local Protestant and Roman Catholic cemeteries. Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery (formerly known as the Anglo-French Military Cemetery) was begun in November 1915 and Commonwealth, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian sections were formed. The Commonwealth section remained in use until October 1918, although from the beginning of 1917, burials were also made in Mikra British Cemetery.
After the Armistice, some graves were brought in from other cemeteries in Macedonia, Albania and from Scala Cemetery, near Cassivita, on the island of Thasos.
There are now 1,648 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. The Commonwealth plot also contains 45 Bulgarian and one Serbian war graves.
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The Church End area of central Hendon once featured a densely-packed area of Victorian terraced houses and workshops running down to Sunny Gardens and up to Church Walk, centred around the now lost or re-routed Prince of Wales Road, Heading Street, and Fuller Street. They were cleared in the years around 1970 and replaced mostly by low-rise council flats.
Ralph is one of 362 First World War casualties from Hendon commemorated on the still extant Grade-2 listed Hendon War Memorial now sitting rather isolated on an island on the A41 Watford Way by the junction with The Burroughs and Station Road. Costing £185, paid for by private contributions and Hendon Urban District Council, and with a military presence and large crowd attending, this was dedicated by the Bishop of Willesden on 23 April 1922 – appropriately enough, St Georges’ Day, and was resited in 1962 as part of a Watford Way improvement scheme.
On the front and left faces of the memorial, on bronze plaques, are listed the 224 names of those of the Central Ward of Hendon who died in WW1, and on the right face, a similar bronze plaque lists the 138 names of the West Ward of Hendon. All the names are listed alphabetically by surname, followed by first names and any further initials, without any ranks of units.
(All recent photos by Andy Simpson)
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From the names listed on the memorial it would seem that at least three other former residents of Hendon lie at rest in Greece having served in the Salonika Campaign, two of them in the same cemetery; See Roll of Honour – Middlesex – Hendon (roll-of-honour.com)
All four men came from solid working-class backgrounds (two of them with fathers employed by Hendon Council) and only one of them attained even junior NCO rank during their service; they were truly the lost rank and file generation. They are further discussed individually below.
Gunner Robert Franklin, service number 58207 Royal Horse Artillery/Royal Field Artillery 11th Battery, 1st Brigade;
Son of Robert and Emma Franklin, of 3, Salisbury Plain, off Brent St, Hendon.
Headstone inscription; GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN MOTHER
Only his Medal record card, soldier’s effects record, Grave Record, and Dependent’s Pension card seem to survive.
Christened at St Mary’s Church Hendon on 11 December 1895, in the 1911 census his father Robert was a 52-year-old general labourer at the Hendon District Council sewage farm, which had opened at Clitterhouse as a sewage outfall works in 1886, extended in 1913 and closed in 1935; (interesting that he was another Hendon UDC employee, like Ralph Byatt’s father) his mother Emma being the same age; they had been married 33 years and were both born in the village of Yelling, Huntingdonshire, which in 1911 had just 246 inhabitants. They had nine children, the first three born in Gelling, of whom seven survived.
In 1911, 15-year-old Hendon-born Robert was living at home as a printer’s apprentice.
He had served initially in France from 6 September 1915, and therefore qualified for the 1915 Star and War and Victory Medals. His soldier’s effects record indicates that he died in the field and that pay of £19 4s and war gratuity of 10 guineas was credited to his mother.
From 6 November 1918, his mother Emma was granted a pension of 5s a week.
1 Brigade was a unit of Britain’s pre-war regular Army; it went to France in December 1914 and on to Salonika in late 1915, presumably taking Robert Franklin with it as part of 27th Division. A word here perhaps about the structure of the British Army during the Great War; The smallest unit in an army is the squad, which contains 7 to 14 soldiers and is led by a sergeant (A slightly larger unit is a section, which consists of 10 to 40 soldiers) Three or four squads make up a platoon, which has 20 to 50 soldiers and is commanded by a lieutenant. Two or more platoons make up a company, which has 100 to 250 soldiers and is commanded by a captain or a major.
Two or more companies make up a battalion, which has 400 to 1,200 troops and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel. The battalion is the smallest unit to have a staff of officers (in charge of personnel, operations, intelligence, and logistics) to assist the commander. Several battalions form a brigade, which has 2,000 to 8,000 troops and is commanded by a brigadier general or a colonel.
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A brigade is the smallest unit to integrate different types of combat and support units into a functional organization. A modern combat brigade, for example, usually has infantry, armoured vehicles such as tanks, artillery, and reconnaissance units. Two or more brigades, along with various specialized battalions, make up a division, which has 7,000 to 22,000 troops and is commanded by a major general A division contains all the arms and services needed for the independent conduct of military operations. Two to seven divisions and various support units make up an army corps, or a corps, which has 50,000 to 300,000 troops and is commanded by a lieutenant general. The army corps is the largest regular army formation, though in wartime two or more corps may be combined to form a field army (commanded by a general), and field armies in turn may be combined to form an army group.
The original Struma cemetery plot, Plot I, was set too close to a ravine and the graves in it were moved after the Armistice to the present plots VIII and IX.
The remainder of the cemetery consists almost entirely of graves brought in from the battlefields, from the churchyards at Homondos, Haznatar and Kalendra, and from little front-line cemeteries (established by Field Ambulances or Battalions), of which the chief were those at Ormanli (24 burials), Dolab Wood (17 burials) and Big Tree Well (on the right bank of the Struma, opposite Ormanli; 17 Burials)
The Struma River flows through Bulgaria southward to the Greek frontier, then south-east into the Aegean Sea. From the Allied base at Salonika, a road ran north-east across the river to Seres, and it was this road that the right (eastern) wing of the British sector used for the movements of troops and supplies to the Struma front during the Salonika Campaign. For two years or more until the final allied advance in September 1918, fighting in the Struma featured outposts, raids and patrols, with the main British and Bulgarian positions either side of the malaria-ridden valley.
In the autumn of 1916, the 40th Casualty Clearing Station was established not far from the road near the 71 Kilometer stone and the cemetery made for it was originally called Kilo 71 Military Cemetery. Struma Military Cemetery contains 933 British casualties of the First World War, 51 of them unidentified. There are also Indian, West Indian, Maltese, Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish war graves located there.
Australian gun crew with standard British 18-pdr field gun as used by some of the Hendon soldiers discussed, Ypres sector, 1917.
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6-Inch calibre 26 Pdr. Howitzer – a type the Hendon men were also familiar with.
Struma Military Cemetery
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Gunner Stafford Lawrence Lindsell, service number 163587; Royal Field Artillery, ‘B’ Battery, 116th (CXVI) Brigade;
Died of wounds Saturday 17 November 1917, aged 20; buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery.
Personal Inscription LOVING SON, BROTHER KIND Baptised in Hendon 18 April 1897, enlisted in Hendon; Eldest son of Stafford and Harriet Lindsell, of 18 Stratford Road, Hendon, London. The Stratford Road houses dated to around 1879. In the1911 census his Essex-born 41-year-old father Stafford was a house decorator. He and 38-year-old Finchley born wife Harriet had been married for 15 years and had nine children, all born in Hendon and all then still living. 14-year-old Stafford Lawrence was then a ‘Dairy Boy’.
CXVI Brigade RFA, sometimes recorded as here as 116 Brigade was formed as part of the raising of Lord Kitchener’s new Third Army in 1914, with each battery equipped with four of the standard 18-pdr field guns (six from December 1916), under the command of the 26th Division. In service since 1904, the quick-firing and reliable18-pounder was the British Commonwealth’s most widely used field gun during the First World War, using high explosive and shrapnel shells to cut barbed wire and impact front line defences and troop concentrations. Its 84mm calibre and shell weight were greater than its French and German equivalents.
The Brigade had moved to Salonika in November 1915, and in April/May1917 fought in the first Battle of Doiran.
Only his soldier’s effects and pension claimant details survive.
His mother Harriet was granted a pension of seven shillings a week from 4 June 1918.She also received £8 10s 1d in unclaimed pay and a war gratuity of £3 10s.
Acting Bombardier Percival (Percy) Frederick John Lemon, service number 49331; Royal Field Artillery ‘D’ (Howitzer) Battery XCIX (99th) Brigade;
Died of wounds (killed in Action) Friday 26 April 1918 aged 23; also buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery.
Personal Inscription FATHER IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING LEAVE WE NOW THY SERVANT SLEEPING
Son of Frederick James and Minnie Lemon of 8 Ramsey Road, West Hendon, London. Houses built around 1900.
99th Brigade RFA was under the command of 22nd Division, which had been formed in 1914 as part of Lord Kitchener’s New Third Army, moving to Salonika in October 1915. At the time of death, Percy’s rank of Acting Bombardier was equivalent to Acting Corporal, in charge of a section of 7 – 12 men. 99 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in the Great War – The Wartime Memories Project –
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Only his dependent’s pension and personal effects records survive.
At the time of the 1911 census, 16-year-old Percy was a domestic gardener living with his 40 year old father Frederick James a labourer, who had been married to 41 year old Minnie (employment recorded as ‘Charing – cleaning) for 18 years, having two children, of whom both then survived. His mother Minnie received £18 13s 11d in owed pay, a war gratuity of £16 10s and a pension of 5s a week from 6 November 1918.
Percy is the highest ranking of the four men from Hendon.
Karasouli cemetery was begun in September 1916 for the use of casualty clearing stations on the Doiran front. At the Armistice, it contained about 500 burials but was greatly increased when graves were brought in from a number of cemeteries.
All photos by the author.
With thanks to my sister Alison for compiling the available online personnel records. In time I may also look to trace Salonika casualties from Finchley and Barnet also, so I would be interested to hear of any details readers may know of. I hope to be able to visit and pay my respects at local graves on my future visits to the battlefields, hopefully during the 2024 visit which will study the Salonika Air Campaign in particular.
Karasouli Military Cemetery
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HADAS members will remember the hugely enjoyable September 2019 trip to South Wales, so ably organized by Jim and Jo Nelhams. One place we visited was the ‘out of town’ conservation and restoration facility for the remaining hull portions of the medieval Newport ship. It has recently been in the news again…see link below for an excellent summary and CGI of the ship at sea.
These continue, with much good work being done in sorting and repacking HADAS archive material including many historic local photographs and much ‘History of HADAS’ material featuring past HADAS personalities and trips. There is even a poster for the renowned HADAS Minimart in Hendon, as organized for so many years by the late Dorothy Newbury. Most recently we have just started sorting archives and finds (mostly flint flakes, especially ‘debitage’ waste flakes) from the 1976-85 HADAS excavations on West Heath, Hampstead.
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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Saturday 4th February, 10 a.m.-4pm. Elstree and Borehamwood Transport Collectors Fair. Allum Manor House and Hall, 2, Allum Lane, Elstree and Borehamwood, WD6 3RJ. Bus and Railway Memorabilia incl. Models, Books, Photographs, Tickets, Timetables, Ephemera. Admission £3. Refreshments available.
Monday 13th February, 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./ Wood St., Barnet EN5 4BW. Reporting Barnet; Why it is so difficult to find out about Local News. Talk by Nick Jones. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Wednesday 8th March, 2.30 p.m. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, NW7 3TB. Sir John Laing and his Mill Hill legacy. Talk by Alex Finkenrath. Preceded by AGM. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.
Wednesday 8th March, 6p.m. Gresham College. Viking Pagan Gods in Britain. Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at What’s On | Gresham College and view on-line. please see Viking Pagan Gods in Britain | Gresham College. Free. In the c9th and c10th the Vikings brought with them their own gods; Odin, Thor, Tyr, Lok and Freya, and left their trace on the British landscape in the form of scenes carved on stone slabs and material evidence in richly furnished graves, esp. on the Isle of Man.
Monday 13th March, 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local Historical Society. For address. please see 13th Feb. The Woodvilles; Witchcraft and Politics during the Wars of the Roses. Talk by Gemma Holden.
Wednesday 15th March, 6p.m. Gresham College Landscapes of Roman Britain. Talk by Martin Millett. Ticket required. Register at What’s On | Gresham College. and view on-line. Please see Stonehenge: A History | Gresham College . Free. Will explore our current knowledge of the nature of Roman hardware shop Imperialism and the History of Britain.
Wednesday 15th March, 7.30p.m. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (round corner from Magistrates’ court). Harlesden Green.in the1870’s. Talk by Margaret Pratt (Gen. Sec.) on the life and times of the Beeson family and their famous hardware shop in Harlesden High St. and recollecting on a childhood in Harlesden Green when it was a small village. The family ran a shoeing forge, ironmongers and wheelwrights in the High St. during the early years of the 20th century. May also be on zoom. If not a member, buy a ticket (£3). For details, please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Thursday 16th March, 8p.m. Historical Association; Hampstead and N.W, London Branch. The Historical Arthur. Talk by Prof. Andrew Breeze on the controversial thesis that this classic of Middle Welsh Literature was written by a woman. and argues that he was a historical figure who fought other Celts in battles in Scotland and Northern England in the 6th century. Meet at Fellowship House, 136a, Willifield Way, NW11 6YD. (off Finchley Rd., Temple Fortune). Hopefully also on zoom. Please e-mail Jeremy Berkoff (chair) at jeremyberkoff@mac.com or tel. 07793 229521 for details of zoom link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments afterwards.
Tuesday 14th March, 6.30p.m. LAMAS Talk on zoom. A Work in Progress; A new display for The Cheapside Hoard. By Hazel Forsyth (MOL). To be housed in a permanent gallery at the new London Museum in West Smithfield alongside the Worshipful Co. of Goldsmiths’ collection. Please book via www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.
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Saturday 18th March, 10.30a.m.-6p.m. LAMAS Archaeological Conference. Morning session; Recent work in and around the Capital. Afternoon session; Recent work on Roman Towns incl. London. To book please visit www.lamas.org.uk/conferences. This will be on zoom again. Tickets will be available to purchase via the lamas eventbrite website. Early bird before 28th Feb. (£15). Standard tickets (after 1st Mar.) £17.50.
Tuesday 21st March, 8p,m. Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society. Talk should be on zoom. When Horses ran London. By Charlie Forman. For details, please see www.RNELHS.org.uk.
Wednesday 22nd March, 7.45p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Picture Shows before Cinema. Talk by Ian Christie, Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 020 83688314 for up-to-date details. (David Berguer, Chair) Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 23rd March, 6p.m. Gresham College. The Medieval Agricultural Revolution.; New Evidence. Talk by Helena Hamerow. Tickets required. Register at What’s On | Gresham College and view on-line. Please see The Medieval Agricultural Revolution: New evidence | Gresham College. Free. Using new evidence from plant and animal remains from archaeological excavations in England linking new forms of cereal farming and the use of the mouldboard plough and systematic crop rotation leading to open-field farming.
Thursday 30th March ,7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. A presentation from the Finchley Society Planning Committee. For further details, please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Don Cooper: Eric Morgan; Jacqui Pearce. Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP (07449 978121) 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 SITUATION VACANT For the present, please address any correspondence such as subscriptions, change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to ; HADAS, c/o Avenue House 17 East End Road Finchley London N3 3QE
Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.
We regret the delay in producing and despatching this newsletter, which is not helped by the disruption to the postal service. Apologies particularly to those who receive their copy through the post.
HADAS Diary -Forthcoming Lectures and Events
Tuesday 10th January 2023. Unfortunately, Tim Williams has needed to withdraw at short notice from our January lecture for medical reasons. Details of the replacement lecture are not yet known but will be circulated as soon as available and will appear on our website.
Tuesday 14th February 2023. The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture: Signe Hoffos Subject to be confirmed
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Stephen Brunning
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We regret to report the sudden death on 7th December of Stephen Brunning on a visit to a garden centre. In addition to filling the role of Membership Secretary for a number of years, Steve also arranged lectures and lecturers for our meetings at Avenue House (and on Zoom) and looked after our mailing lists. A fuller appreciation will follow in a later edition. Steve was also a member of our Finds Group, The picture above shows him studying some finds.
Jackie Brooks
We also note the death of Jackie Brookes, Beverley Perkins has sent the following note: –
Many of you will remember Jackie, who sadly died on 1st December after a short illness. She and I were good friends and close neighbours for over 40 years and it was Jackie who introduced me to HADAS after she joined in 1990. We rarely failed to attend the talks, coach trips and annual visits together. After Dorothy decided that it was time she retired, Jackie took on the organisation of the annual outings for several years which, as Jim and Jo will attest, is no easy task. We kept in touch after Dave and I moved to Devon and looked forward to her visits, when we would enjoy taking her out to explore local National Trust, English Heritage and other places of interest. Sadly, Covid put an end to that. We will miss her very much.
Beverley Perkins and David Bromley
HADAS festive afternoon tea.Don Cooper
HADAS festive afternoon tea took place on Sunday, 4th December 2022 at Avenue House in the Saloon, the first HADAS social event since lockdown. Present were 26 members and their guests. Avenue House catering laid four festively decorated tables with crackers etc. There were soft drinks to start followed by tea and coffee (for those that do!). There were four types of finger sandwiches, followed by scones, cream and jam, after which we had Christmassy pastries. A cash bar was open for those who wanted something more alcoholic.
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The entertainment was provided by three challenging table quizzes, two provided by Sue Willetts and one from Jim Nelhams. Our thanks to them both. There was also a successful raffle which raised £126 for the HADAS funds. Thanks to all who provided prizes.
As has become a custom Liz provided two lovely Christmas cakes, of which people took away slices as they were already replete. Everybody had a great time, and our thanks go to the organisers and the staff at Avenue House and Andy Simpson for the photos.
The Rhondda TunnelJim Nelhams
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From the mid 1930s and through the war, my maternal Grandmother lived with her family in a small mining village named Blaengwynfi at the head of the Avon (Afan) valley in West Glamorgan. Two of my uncles were born there and Grandfather worked on the railways as a signalman. Grandfather signed up for WW2 and was posted to one of the Railway Regiments in the Royal Engineers. He was in France before Dunkirk involved in keeping the railways running in Northern France.
Blaengwynfi station, closed in 1968, was originally on the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway, which later became part of the Great Western Railway. The line was built to move coal and minerals to the Swansea Docks. To maximise the traffic, a tunnel was built from the Rhondda Valley to Blaengwynfi. This tunnel was 3,443 yards long, just short of two miles. With no rail traffic, the tunnel was also closed in 1968 and the western entrance was filled in.
In 2014, 17 people founded the Rhondda Tunnel Society with the aim of siting a stone portal as near as possible to the end of the tunnel which had been buried. With social media, enthusiasm grew rapidly and the Society developed a plan to re-open the tunnel in its entirety as a walkway and cycle way, a project costed at over 7 million pounds. Work has been going on for some time.
A report on a safety inspection noted that 95% of the tunnel was still in its original condition of 1890. Further that the built-in drainage system was still working and protecting the tunnel. Work is ongoing, including building a new extension where the tunnel entrance had been filled, making the new tunnel over two miles long. There is one pedestrian tunnel in the World (in North America) which is longer than the planned tunnel but it is only open for six months each year. While that one is closed, the Rhondda Tunnel will be the longest in the World.
Although major contributions of funds have been received, and more are still sought, members of the public can join the Society for an annual payment of £10 giving them access to information before it is made public. The Society’s website also has merchandise available for sale. See www.rhonddatunnelsociety.co.uk for more information about the group and their work.
Changes for our new KingJim Nelhams
Currency
Bank notes will be replaced as the old ones wear out. This will take longer than before because the plastic notes last longer than their paper predecessors. Bank governor Andrew Bailey said: “I am very proud that the Bank is releasing the design of our new banknotes which will carry a portrait of King Charles III.
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“This is a significant moment, as the King is only the second monarch to feature on our banknotes.
“People will be able to use these new notes as they start to enter circulation in 2024.”
Fifty pence coins featuring the image of King Charles III have come into circulation from December, with 4.9 million coins being distributed across 9,452 Post Office branches nationwide. Following tradition, King Charles will face from Right to Left, the opposite way to his mother.
Stamps
No date is available for the issue of new stamps. Existing stamps and currency remain valid.
Postboxes
In line with past practice, following the death of a monarch all existing post boxes will remain unchanged. Post boxes already in production or being prepared for installation, will also retain the insignia of Queen Elizabeth II. Once these have been installed, new post-boxes will feature the cypher of King Charles III.
Other Societies’ EventsEric Morgan
Not all societies have yet returned to pre-Covid status. Please do check with them before planning to attend any of the events listed.
Wednesday 11th January, 8p.m. Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on zoom. How to read the English Country Church: Normans to Tudors. by Nicholas Henderson. Please e-mail hornseyhistoricalchairman@gmail.com. For link also visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.
Friday 13th January, 7p.m. Enfield Archaeological Society.Talk on zoom, Romano-British Torcs in Southern Britain by Michael Marshall (MOLA). For link please visit www.enfarchsoc.org.uk.
Tuesday 17th January, 8p.m. Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society.Talk should be on zoom by Fabian Hiscock . Industrial Transport before the Railway-the effects of the Turnpike Road. For details please see www.RNELHS.org.uk.
Friday 20th January, 7.30p.m. Wembley History Society.English Martyrs’ Hall, Chalkhill Road (top of Blackbird Hill) HA9 9EW (adjacent to Church) Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17.Talk by Geoff Shelley (FRGS) With words and pictures of the expedition’s photographer, Dr. Frank Hurley, re-creating the original lantern slide lecture that he gave following the safe return of the crew of the Endurance from the South Atlantic. Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.
Wednesday 1st February, 6p.m. Gresham College. Anglo-Saxon Pagan Gods. Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk view on-line Please see Anglo-Saxon Pagan Gods | Gresham College. Free.With a pantheon of deities that include Woden, Thunor, Tiw and Frig. Its temples were wooden structures that leave scant traces in the landscape, but evidence can be found for their beliefs in cemeteries like Sutton Hoo, looking at evidence and literature such as Beowulf and history written by Christian scholar Bede.
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Wednesday 8th February, 2.30p.m. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, NW7 3TB. The Changing Face of Social Disadvantage of Young People in London. Talk by Tim Sledge. Please check www.millhill-hs.org.uk.
Wednesday 8th February, 8p.m. Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on zoom by Kirsten Forrest. Dolly Shepherd: The First Female Balloonist from Alexandra Palace. Please see Wed. 11th Jan. for details of link.
Wednesday 15th February, 7.30p.m. Willesden Local History Society, St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (round corner from Magistrates’ Court) The Willesden Trunk Murders. Talk by Dick Weindling (Camden Hist. Soc.). About two murders where the bodies were disposed of in Harlesden. May also be on zoom. If not a member , buy a ticket(£3). For details please check www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Thursday 16th February, 8p.m. Historical Association: Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Saladin: The Conquest of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade.Talk by Prof. Jonathan Philips. Meet at Fellowship House, 136A, Willifiield Way, NW11 6YD( off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune. Hopefully also on zoom. Please e-mail Jeremy Berkoff (Chair) on jeremyberkoff@mac.com or tel. 07793 229521 for details of zoom link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments afterwards.
Friday 17th February, 7.30p.m. Wembley History Society.For address please see Fri. 20th Jan. Woolwich Arsenal. Talk by Jeremy Foster.
Tuesday 21st February, 8p.m. Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Loc. Hist. Soc.Talk should be on zoom Brentham Garden Suburb by Sue Elliott and Alan Henderson. For details. please see Tues.17th Jan.
Wednesday 22nd February, 7.45p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society, North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL. The Mercenary River: The History of London’s Water. Talk by Nick Higham. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details (David Berguer, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 23rd February, 6p.m. Gresham College. Stonehenge: A History. Talk by Mike Pitts.Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view on-line. Please see Stonehenge: A History | Gresham College, Free. Describing an alternative narrative of ancient communities and presenting a Stonehenge re-imagined for modern Britain.
Thursday 23rd February, 7.30p.m. Finchley Society.Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. Barnet Green Spaces. Talk by Roger Chapman (HADAS Treasurer) For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
Saturday 25th February, 9.15a,m.-5p.m. Current Archaeology Live 2023. U.C.L. Institute of Education, Bedford Way, WC1.Joint with UCL Institute of Archaeology.Wide range of expert speakers sharing latest Archaeological finds and research. Annual C.A. Awards and Current World Archaeology photographic competition. Tickets on sale for £50. To book call 020 8819 5580 or visit www.currentpublishing.com/shop. Also Archaeology Fair with lots of stalls including booksellers, institutions and other Archaeological organisations and travel companies for archaeological travel incl. expert-led tours and heritage-themed holidays.
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Acknowledgements
With thanks to this month’s contributors: Don Cooper, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Beverley Perkins
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society Registered Charity No 269949
We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year.
HADAS Diary -Forthcoming Lectures and Events
Now that the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided, it is time to return to having our lectures at Avenue House, so as from January 2023, lectures will start at 7.45 for 8.00pm in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Buses 82, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by, and it is five to ten minutes’ walk from Finchley Central Station (Northern Line). Tea/coffee and biscuits follow the talk.
Tuesday 10th January 2023 at 8pm: Tim Williams Archaeology of the Silk Roads Tuesday 14th February 2023. The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture: Signe Hoffos Lost City Churches
Notes on a lecture by Ian Jones, Chairman of Enfield Archaeological Society given on the 8th of November 2022. The November lecture was supposed to be on the Ness of Brodgar, but due to a bereavement in the lecturer’s family was cancelled at short notice. Fortunately, Ian Jones, Chairman of Enfield Archaeological Society stepped in and gave an excellent talk on Enfield Palace. We owe our grateful thanks to Ian.
Ian has been researching Enfield Palace for many years and has amassed a large amount of evidence of its history from the earliest documentary evidence in 1439 to its destruction in the early nineteen hundreds. The remains of the palace lie under Pearson’s department in the centre of Enfield town. Ian gave us a fascinating account of the people who lived there from royals to trades people. The building became a school from 1841 to 1899. Ian was continuing to research the pupils who attended it, many of whom went on to have interesting and notable careers. He also discussed the architectural layout of the building over its long history. When the building was demolished in 1927 a number of rooms were dismantled and reassembled at the Grade ll listed Little Park in Enfield where they can be occasionally seen on Open Days.
Ian hopes to publish the Palaces history in due course.
Notes on the London Archaeological ForumPeter Pickering
In person archaeological conferences have started again. I have been to three recently. One was the London Archaeological Forum, which was held as a hybrid event – there were some forty of us in the lecture room of the Institute of Archaeology, and fifty participated by Zoom. It was organised impeccably. The London Archaeological Prize for the best publication of 2020-2021 was won by the article in the LAMAS Transactions “Syon Abbey: archaeological investigations in Syon Park, Brentford, 1997–2018” by Bob Cowie. The talks included one by Antonietta Lerz of MOLA about the remarkably productive excavation at Landmark Court, Southwark.
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That site, with two well-preserved, though not complete, mosaics with attractive pattern, was also the subject of Antonietta’s talk at a conference “Reconnecting Roman Britain” in the London University Senate House. Several other important papers were given at the conference. One was about a Romano-Celtic temple at Caistor-by Norwich (Venta Icenorum). – one of the few major Roman towns which have not been built over (HADAS, incidentally, visited it in 2010).
Most intriguing was a talk entitled “A Zoo at the edge of the Empire”, by Naomi Sykes, the Lawrence Professor of Archaeology at the University of Exeter; she had analysed the animal bones from round the Fishbourne Roman palace; many of them were of subspecies or varieties that were not those usually found in England (fallow deer, hare, chicken, cats). Her conclusion was that exotic animals had been deliberately imported from distant parts of the Roman world, whether for hunting or simply to demonstrate prestige; was this within the means of a client king like Togidubnus, (who had of course spent much time in Rome) or could it indeed have been intended for the emperor Nero?
We learnt much about torcs (neckrings with many local variants), which may have become adopted by Romans from Iron Age people. There were also contributions on Roman glass; the Winchester aqueduct; turf buildings; the wider context and post-Roman use of the building in Rutland with the Iliadic mosaic. Nor was the social context forgotten – there were talks on the lives of those ordinary men who worked on the excavation of Corbridge before the First World War, and on the representation of female archaeologists at the Limes congresses since 1949. It was a very impressive conference, but it was hard to take all of it in; it lacked the hand-outs that can aid comprehension.’
Finally, the last LAMAS Local History conference to be held in the Museum of London was, appropriately, devoted to that Museum. We learnt about the foundation of the Museum in 1976 (by the amalgamation of the Kensington Palace Museum of London with the Guildhall Museum); its redesign more than once over the forty-six years since then, with changing ideas about the proper focus of it and of museums generally; and the many special exhibitions it has held. Our President, Harvey Sheldon, ran through the most significant of the archaeological excavations in London over the period. The culmination was a breathtakingly enthusiastic talk by the Director of the Museum, Sharon Ament, about the new London Museum that is to be opened by the King in 2026.
HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 2 the excavation) Bill Bass & Fieldwork Team Site code OPS22
As mentioned in ‘The Introduction’ (Newsletter 620 Nov 2022) the proprietors of Hopscotch wanted to re-landscape their small garden area in the backyard and offered us the chance to dig there. A HADAS Fieldwork Team was assembled fairly quickly to carry-out the task.
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The site was in the small space in the rear yard of the shop, it was mainly laid with paving stone but with a small gardening plot that measured approx. 1.70m north-south x 2.00m east-west. A Temporary Benchmark (TBM) of 130.06m OD was established just outside of the gate to the site. See map above.
‘Hopscotch’ the single-storied shop with canopy, just beyond is their small yard and site of the HADAS dig. Taken from Barnet Parish Church tower in June 2022, looking north. All photos BB.
Context 001 This was 20-40cm mixed/disturbed sandy humic-clay topsoil with a series of dump layers containing plastics, concrete lumps, pottery, bone, Ceramic Building Material (CBM) and glass. Intriguingly a number of ‘Tudor’ style bricks had been found by Alice Kentish in previous digging of their garden.
In the north baulk of the trench the footings of a red-brick wall at 129.91 OD, context 004, were uncovered running east-west with a corner turning north, it was fairly insubstantial being one or two courses high in possible ‘English Bond’. The bricks had little or no ‘frog’ (indentations in the top of the brick). The type of brick may date to the 18th century but perhaps reused in this context. This may have been the remains of an outbuilding associated with an adjoining property to the north.
Just to the south of the footings the outline of what at first was thought to be an irregular pit started to appear, the ‘fill’ was similar to context 001 – bands of clay, burnt material and sand, all at least 40cm thick. Doubts on the pit theory were cast as the ground became unstable with voids heading off here and there, also a 1946 photo taken from the church tower showed a large tree in the same spot as the ‘pit’ so we were dealing with a ‘tree-bowl’ and root damage.
Fairly modern finds including large amounts of pottery, glass, building materials together with smaller amounts of clay-pipe, metals, and bone etc were recovered.
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The brick footings (context 004) in the north baulk of the trench, in the foreground (with bucket) is the cut and root disturbance of the tree-bowl.
Context 002 This had implications as we did not have the time to properly excavate and sort out this disturbance at the northern end of the trench, so we tended to concentrate on the southern half. A section of the southern half of the trench was measured at 1.00m (north-south) from the southern baulk and 1.70m wide.
At approx. 0.50m below surface level (129.56 OD) we came across a substantial pebbly layer, context 002, this was around 20-25cm thick consisting of pebbles up to 10cm across in a brown-grey sandy-humic matrix, with occasional flint nodules. Finds in the context included large lumps of butchered bone, dumps of roof tile, glass, metal and Post-medieval Redware (PMR) and other pottery, generally 17th century in date. A number of clay tobacco bowls and stems were recorded. The evenness and make-up of the context led us to believe this may have been a pebbly floor surface.
Context 003 Under context 002 we revealed a dark-brown sandy/humic/clay layer with occasional pebbles and charcoal flecking. This was interpreted as a buried garden soil approx. 40cm thick which contained some flint nodules, brick and tile fragments including peg and pan type roof tiles, a worked piece of limestone was also recovered.
The pottery assemblage included PMR some with glazing and probably bowls. Further down in the context we started to uncover small amounts of medieval dated pottery – 1080 to 1500AD (see report elsewhere). A flagon neck was possibly identified in an as yet unknown pottery fragment. Several animal bones and oyster-shell were identified.
Context 005 The last layer we excavated was a grey-brown clayey sand with small regular pebbles and charcoal fragments. The top of this context was at 1.20m below ground level, approx. 128.86OD, we excavated this context down to approx. 1.50m below ground level (including a small sondage trial-pit) but this was our safety limit and time limit as it happens, so this layer was not fully dug but it felt substantial, the ‘natural’ was not reached.
The finds consisted of an amount of roof tile with small amounts of oyster-shell and bone fragments. Three sherds of medieval dated pottery – 1080 to 1450AD were recovered.
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So was this a medieval occupational layer? Perhaps a bit difficult to say from such a small area, but the finds didn’t appear intrusive, and we have context from the surrounding excavations in the district.
Looking at the south baulk, showing the context numbers and position of the sondage pit. The scale is in 50cm sections.
The HADAS Fieldwork Team in action illustrating the cramped nature of the site. We are looking south-west, the door to the left is the rear door to the ‘Hopscotch’ shop.
Conclusions We appear to have a fairly good sequence from the modern topsoil 001 with its dumping of glass/pottery etc, to the pebbly 002 context with post-medieval pottery and clay-pipe, to 003 with its post-medieval phasing.
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into medieval pottery and finally context 005 including medieval pottery and roof tile. This seems to reflect the working nature of the area with nearby shops, pubs and commercial premises.
Acknowledgements Michael and Alice Kentish
HADAS Fieldwork Team Bill Bass, Roger Chapman, Melvyn Dresner, Janet Mortimer, Andy Simpson and Susan Trackman.
In the next article we will have a closer look at the finds.
Arbeia Roman FortDavid Willoughby
HADAS visited Arbeia Roman fort during the long weekend summer trips to the north in both 1995 and 2005. A report of the 1995 visit is to be found in the October 1995 edition of the Newsletter. Sue and I visited during the 2005 trip and since my move to Northumberland I have used public transport to visit on two more occasions, the second of which was to see a re-enactment of Roman cavalry in action.
Roman Cavalry in Action at Arbeia
Arbeia is located on a low headland, close to the mouth of the Tyne, in South Shields, South Tyneside. It originally likely fulfilled two purposes, the first of which was to protect the (yet to be located) Roman port below through which goods and Roman troops flowed on their way to both the south and west. The second function was to protect against incursions from the north across the
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Tyne beyond the eastern extent of Hadrian’s Wall which meets the Tyne on the north bank at Wallsend, some four miles upriver from Arbeia on the south bank.
View across Granaries to Reconstructed West Gate
The earliest occupation of the site dates from 3000-4000 BC, and an Iron Age farmstead dating to the third century BC has been recently excavated. By the end of the first century AD the Roman army was well established in the north-east. The earliest known Roman buildings on the site are from about AD 125 but are civilian in nature. These are thought to represent a vicus serving a yet to be discovered early Roman fort located near the current site.
Remains of Headquarters Building (Principia)
The building of Hadrian’s Wall commenced in AD 122 but the wall was abandoned after a few years following the building of the Antonine Wall between the Forth and Clyde some 100 miles to the north.
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This reduced the strategic importance of the Arbeia site, whose garrison was either depleted or completely removed. In about AD 158, Hadrian’s Wall was reoccupied, and a new fort built on the current site of Arbeia. It covered an area of 4.1 acres and had a garrison consisting of 480 infantrymen and 120 cavalry. Two cavalry barracks from this period have been excavated but are now not visible on the site. Towards the end of the second century the garrison was greatly reduced but in AD 205-7 most of the buildings were demolished and replaced by thirteen stone granaries. The south wall of the fort was demolished and replaced by a new one situated further to the south thus increasing the area of the fort to 5.2 acres. The southern part of the fort was separated from the grain stores by a wall which was interrupted by the headquarters building. The southern area housed the Fifth Cohort of Gauls along with two additional granaries to supply them with food. The fort was now functioning as a supply base for the campaigns of the emperor Septimus Severus in Scotland in AD 208-10. There is archaeological evidence from lead seals that the emperor may have actually stayed at the fort.
Roman Latrine Block
During the Severan campaign the internal dividing wall of the fort was demolished to allow room for seven more granaries and a little later a new headquarters building was built. Following the death of Septimus Severus in York in AD 211 and the Roman withdrawal from Scotland the fort continued as a supply base, but now for the Hadrian’s Wall garrison. The supplies themselves were mostly shipped in by sea to the nearby port.
In the late third century the fort was attacked and destroyed. The fort was rebuilt with the southern granaries being converted into barracks buildings and two new granaries built to the south. There was a large courtyard house in the southern corner which probably housed the commanding officer. This house had private quarters, a dining room and baths. A new headquarters building was built on the site of the original which had been converted into a granary during the previous rebuilding period.
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The fort retained its division into two areas with the supply base to the north and the garrison housed to the south. The southern area was arranged around two streets crossing at right angles. This is a typical plan for the late Roman period. The headquarters building was situated on the side of the fort opposite the main gate and stood at the end of a street lined with columns. This period was the last period of major rebuilding of the fort and probably marked the arrival of a new garrison formed of Tigris Bargemen (numerous barcariorum Tigrisiensium) and it is from them that the name Arbeia (meaning ‘the place of the Arabs’) was probably derived, replacing the likely earlier name of Lugudunum.
Reconstructed Centurion’s Quarters
Throughout the fourth century the fort appears to have declined. Only minor alterations were made to buildings and the heating system and at least one dining room in the courtyard house fell into disuse. During this period a small building containing a table altar was built in the courtyard of the headquarters building which may have been an early Christian church.
Reconstructed Commanding Officer’s Courtyard House
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The fort appears to have remained occupied following the departure of the Roman Army in the fifth century. It was probably a stronghold controlling the local area and it appears to have subsequently become an Anglo-Saxon royal house associated with King Oswin of Deira. Archaeology indicates it was finally abandoned sometime in the ninth century.
Rare Bilingual Tombstone
On the site today can be seen the remains of several of the later Roman buildings as well as imaginative reconstructions of barrack blocks, the commanding officer’s house and the western gateway. On site is an excellent small museum which houses amongst other things the tombstone of Regina, a freed slave girl of the British Catevellauni tribe who married her master, Barates, who was originally from Palmyra, now in Syria. It bears an extremely rare example of a bilingual inscription which, is both in Latin and Aramaic.
Entry to the site is free!
Interesting object in the Olympia Museum, GreeceDon Cooper
We recently (October 2022) visited Olympia, the ancient site on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula that hosted the original Olympic Games, held every four years from the 8th century BC to 4th century AD. It is an enormous site with excavated remains of athletic training areas, a stadium, temples and many other monuments from ancient Greek and Roman times. Excavations have recently started again to expose more of the site. The Archaeological Museum of Olympia exhibits finds from the site. Among the wonderful statues (including the “star” of the museum, the statue of Hermes by the sculptor Praxiteles from 4th century BC), friezes, and everyday artefacts, one object caught my attention.
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This ceramic early Bronze Age vessel would have contained smoke-making embers that were used to calm the bees. The explanation of why beekeepers use smokers is apparently not fully understood. The common explanation seems to be that the bees smell fire and swiftly start eating as much honey as they can in preparation for possibly having to abandon the hive and that this leaves them calm and docile. Another part explanation seems to be that the guard bees and bees injured in the beekeeper inspecting the hive give off a pheromone which agitates the bees, however using smoke masks this signal.
Whatever the scientific reasons the ancient Greeks had worked out that smoke works to calm the bees and reduces the chances of a beekeeper being stung while inspection his/her beehives.
Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Tuesday 10th January,6.30p.m. L.A.M.A.S. Talk on Zoom. London in the Roman World. by Prof. Dominic Perring. (I.O.A,U.C.L.) Please book via www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.
Wednesday 11th January 2.30p.m. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100, Broadway, NW7 3TB. The history of hat making in Luton. Talk by Elise Naishe. Please check www.millhill-hs.org.uk.
Monday 16th January, 8p.m. Enfield Society joint with Edmonton Hundred Historical Society. Talk on zoom. Dickens’ Magic Lantern. By Julie Chandler. On a with the c19th novelist and hear his life story, whilst discovering the London that sparked his imagination. Please visit www.enfieldsociety.org.uk.
Wednesday 18th January 7.30p.m. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (round corner from magistrates’ court). The History of Chess in Brent. Talk by Anthony Fulton. From the late c19TH to the present day. May also be on zoom. If not a member buy a ticket (£3). For details please check www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Thursday 19th January 7.30p.m. Camden History Society. May also be on zoom. The Mercenary River; A History of London’s Water. Talk by Nick Higham. On the New River flowing through North London. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org.
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Thursday 19th January, 8p.m. Historical Association; Hampstead and N.W. London branch. The Hugenots, with emphasis on those of Soho and Westminster. Talk by Paul Baker, Barnet L.H.S. (and Guide) on their cultural and historical importance, and their contribution to British life, to illustrate their skills and artistic contribution in silks, gold, silverware, furniture, etc. Meet at Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Hopefully also on zoom. Please e-mail Jeremy Berkoff (chair) on jeremyberkoff@mac.com or tel. 07793 229521 for details of zoom link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5) Refreshments afterwards.
Wednesday 25th January 7.45p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL.How Trams Changed London. Talk by David Berguer(chair) Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details (David Berguer) Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 26th January 7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’ House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. Petrie’s People- Famous People in Barnet. Talk by Hugh Petrie (Barnet Heritage Development Officer) including inventors, sports people, artists, musicians, etc. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to this month’s contributors: Bill Bass, Eric Morgan, David Willoughby, Peter Pickering
Hendon and District Archaeological Society Registered Charity No 269949
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