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Feb 14

Newsletter-323-February-1998

By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

Volume 6 : 1995 – 1999‎ > ‎
Newsletter-323-February-1998

HADAS DIARY

First, an apology from Dorothy – due to lateness in booking for our 1998 lectures the drawing room where our 1997 lectures were held has been booked by another group for the whole of 1998. We should be using the Stephens Room upstairs as we did in previous years. Any changes will be signposted on the night.

Tuesday 10th February

PLEASE NOTE The Stephens Room will not be available until 8.15 instead of 8pm due to an earlier booking.- Lecture to start at 8.30 as usual. Hopefully a very quick cup of coffee may be possible before the lecture. The Lecture is ‘A Report on the Excavation at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden’ by Gordon Malcolm.

Thursday 5th March

Visit to Lambeth Palace, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society and The Museum of Garden History with Mary O’Connel 1- Details, application form and map with directions enclosed. Numbers are limited, so hurry!

Tuesday 10th March Lecture to be Confirmed.

Tuesday 14th’ April Roman Villas in Sussex by David Rudling.

Tuesday 12th May A.G.M. All lectures are held at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley N3.

Members are reminded that the Society’s Library in the Garden Room is open on Lecture Nights and Librarian Roy Walker will be pleased to assist with member’s book requirements, several recent donations (including one by Ann Kahn, following a clear out prior to moving house) have increased our stock still further and have permitted the replacement of more fire-damaged stock.

MICHAEL ROBBINS CBE

Members will be sorry to hear that our President, Michael Robbins, has been ill. He has written to our Chairman, Andrew Selkirk, explaining that he is having to reduce his activities and therefore he will be relinquishing the presidency of HADAS at the A.G.M – with regret, as he has enjoyed his term. HADAS is most grateful to Michael for his help, interest and guidance and wishes him a speedy recovery.

Conference Time! 14 February 1998 Medieval London; Recent Archaeological Work and Research, a CBA Mid-Anglia Group Conference. A one day conference at the Museum of London. £24.00 including tea, coffee and conference papers. Tickets from Derek Hills, CBA Mid-Anglia, 34 Kingfisher Close, Wheathampstead, Herts AL4 8JJ.

AND… Portrait of a City – Continuing lectures on the Archaeology of London. Thursdays at 7pm at The Institute of Archaeology , Gordon Square ,WC I . Admission £5.00 on door. Including Londinium to Lundenwic (5 Feb) Saxo-Norman London (12 Feb) and The Medieval City (19 Feb). Very informative !

LECTURE REPORT – DIANA ROOKLEDGE

`Here’s Looking at You !’ Mummy Portraits From Ancient Egypt

Those of us who braved the elements to get to the January lecture had the pleasure of meeting some of the pre-eminent Egypto-Greek citizens of Hawara, an ancient city of the Fayum Oasis, with 12th Dynasty pyramid and Labyrinth, renamed Arsinoe when settled by the Greeks, and later known as Ptolomeus Eurgetus, when part of the Roman administration. We in turn were scrutinised by them, politely and without too much amazement, but they had perhaps got used to the appearance of 20th century humanity during their five months at the ‘Ancient Faces’ exhibition at the British Museum last year.

Our Master of Ceremonies on this occasion was Dr Paul Roberts, the eminent classicist from the British Museum, who had been one of the organisers of that unique exhibition. During his preparation for the exhibition he had the none too easy task of deciphering the handwriting of Flinders Petrie’s notebooks and journals, written up daily from 1888 when he started excavations there. It is thanks to Petrie’s meticulous recording and precise drawings of the finds in each tomb, that so much useful research can continue today, and that we know so much about period or possible family groupings. Petrie had gone to Hawara expecting to work on 12th Dynasty tombs, but quickly realised that the `Portrait’ mummies of the Roman period (approx.AD50 to 320 when mummification died out as Christianity took hold in Egypt) might prove to be more important. The portrait mummies represent perhaps 2% of the mummies of the period, and have been found in many sites in lower Egypt. The portraits are of three kinds – gilded, on linen, and on wood. The earlier ones have the portraits placed on to traditional Egyptian mummy cases complete with scenes of Osiris and Anubis. Those painted on linen and wood were attached to the traditional beautifully folded mummy-wrappings. Interestingly, the wood is mainly lime, brought from the northern shores of the Mediterranean and not so far found in Egypt before that time. Some of the pigments found were also not known in Egypt before Roman times.

At that time there was only one mummy portrait in Britain, that of the ‘Blue Lady’ now in the Petrie Museum, and Petrie felt he would pay his expedition costs if he could find a couple of portraits a week. He found 20 in the first month and soon talked of the path to his tent being ‘strewn with mummies’ and later of a ‘plague of gilt mummies’ which he himself did not rate very highly but thought he had better bring with him as ‘their gilt gaudiness may be attractive to British philistines’. As he started on some conservation, Petrie wrote ‘I wish I knew something about picture cleaning’ Some he covered in wet rice paper which set like concrete – those are now being reconserved – others he washed with water and covered with warm wax which had to be local and heated in local copper pots, but there were some disasters due to overheating !

He was visited on site by Schliemann (the excavator of Troy – Ed.) who brought with him a colleague who was fascinated by the study of race, and was allowed to take 40 of the skulls to Berlin for study. They have never been heard of since! However, in 1995, work started on 20 of the skulls which were brought to London and had been ‘stored’. To date, 5 have been matched to portraits, and two of these were in good enough condition for facial reconstructions to be attempted, and only later matched to the portraits. CAT scans show some of the bodies to be in excellent condition, others to have bones all crushed together inside their wrappings. The most common age of death was in the 20s and 30s, though one man who carved his own marker had left the age of his death blank and this had been filled in by a different hand as 66. There is still a lot of scientific analysis to be done.

The real pleasure of our evening with these beautiful citizens of Fayum was in looking at them, and admiring their hair styles and jewellery copied from the very latest in Roman high society, thus enabling accurate chronology and perhaps dating. Some we know by name or soubriquet – Hermione Grammaticae (thought to mean ‘exponent of culture’) who has found a suitable resting place at Girton College; Aphrodite, daughter of Didos, who died. aged 20; the young man Artemidorus, aged about 20; the austere and authoritative older man of Trajan style, his purple clavus (edging of his tunic) showing him to be a fully -fledged Roman citizen; the younger ‘Bruiser’, and the beautiful ‘Jewellery Girl’ hair piled high and covered in gems.

We hope they enjoyed meeting us!

BARNET ARCHIVES

Following the report in the January newsletter concerning closure of Barnet Council’s Archive Storeroom at Lyndhurst Avenue, your editor has been contacted by Joanna Carden, Archivist at the Barnet Local Studies and Archives Centre at Hendon Library. She writes:

`There have been developments on this front since the last HADAS newsletter; The Friern Barnet Bookstore (which is not open to the public, but used solely as a store) is to be emptied at the beginning of 1998. Another storage location for the Church Farm House artefacts has been found, and the remaining books are to go to Hornsey. Homes have been found for the building plans; Herts Archives and Local Studies Centre has agreed to take the plans relating to the former County of Hertfordshire, and the London Metropolitan Archives (formerly Greater London Record Office) are considering taking on the plans relating to the former County of Middlesex. The rate books are not to be thrown away, as it is hoped that space will be found for them at Hornsey.

The duplicate council and committee minutes have been offered to local societies, although so far only Barnet Museum has expressed an interest. We do actually have a full run of the signed minutes at the Local Studies and Archives Centre, so losing the duplicates is not a disaster. The duplicate electoral registers (mostly post amalgamation) are to go into the book sale. Should anyone, society or individual, wish to acquire any of these, please get in touch with us.(0181-359-2876).

There are some highways plans, transferred to us with the building plans when they were all removed from the basement of Avenue House and Hertford Lodge and now stored at the bookstore, and these are to return to Planning. The Hornsey destination for the rate books is a provisional one, but we are all relieved to know that this vital source of local information will not be destroyed. It is of course a pity that the building plans for Barnet will be split up, but rather that than being destroyed.’

HADAS were contacted by a couple of local newspapers , including the ‘Ham And High’ concerning this issue, though nothing has appeared in print at the time of writing.

35th LAMAS LOCAL HISTORY
CONFERENCE – November 1997

The Conference on London of Human Frailty opened with Brian Bloice of S&LAS quoting the logistics of feeding and cleaning up after the horse population of London – facts recorded by Mayhew in his 1849 article on Labour and the Poor. Night-soil was removed by private contractors, and the sewermen, also known as flashermen, were employed by the Vestry or by private sewer owners. Public sewers were built in the 1860s following a series of cholera epidemics from 1830 to 1860. The poor lived in circumstances unpleasant for us to even contemplate. An impression was given of a fierce sub-culture fighting to exist – the sewer-hunters, or toshers, working in small groups for safety in the filth of the sewers, sieving for anything re-saleable. Their finds earned them around 6s a week from dealing with second-hand sellers. Patterers found a cleaner way of making a living by selling stationery, books and song-sheets. Do we still have such wonderful job titles?

Dr Lesley Hall, a senior Assistant Archivist at the Wellcome Institute had an intriguing title for her talk: Hairless Perverts with Twitching Lips – about the British. Sexology Society. Founded in 1913, they numbered a few hundred people, mainly literary and medical, from Bloomsbury, Hampstead and Chelsea. Lady doctors invited to join included Marie Stopes, who criticised them for their lack of effectiveness. Members had to be nominated, approved and over 25 years old. Their purpose was to investigate sexual psychology, and a library was set up. The Society’s final publication was in 1934 and the records of their studies on various matters have ended up in Texas via Houseman’s papers. We looked around the lecture theatre, but everyone seemed perfectly

Sinful Sport, by Dennis Edwards; a London Guide, described what we would call cruel sports: bear, bull, cock and duck fighting, and ducking ponds, such as those as Tottenham (Court) Road, were for duck baiting. rather than witch or scold duckings. Opportunities to go to such events were many as there were some forty public holidays such as the Duke of Cumberland’s birthday, Oak Apple Day, Deliverance from the Great Fire of London, and the Lord Mayor’s Show. Dennis Edwards quoted a German describing in 1710 the British who ‘act like madmen betting twenty guineas or more’ (on cockfighting). A Cruel Sports Act in 1835 apparently ended bull and bear baiting but cock and dog fighting continued. Cocks were led up’ from hatching and were weighed before a fight – as are human fighters. The Long Main was the name given to a series of cock fights lasting a week and both Pepys and Defoe wrote about the sport; the name Cock Pit Steps survives at Queen Anne’s Gate.

Then, from Sport to Opium Dens with Virginia Berridge of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine explaining how, with the influx of settlers from the Orient in the 1860s, unrestricted sales meant that opium was common to all levels of society. However, ten years on, the public image of the opium den was that of an evil

place – illustrated by a print by Gustav Dore -giving rise to public anti-Chinese sentiments. The Pharmacy Act of 1868 decreed that preparations over a certain strength must be sold from pharmacy shops. Adding to the seedy image was the death around of a music hall artist due to cocaine supplied by her dresser. A series of legislative measures were taken to curb the menace of drugs, including Regulations about opium not being allowed in lodging houses, an International Treaty signed at a Hague Convention, the 1914 Harrison Act in the US and in the UK the 1920 and 1923 Dangerous Drugs and Amendment Acts. Depressing to note how the problem has changed shape but not diminished.

Father Scott Anderson of St Andrew, Willesden Green, speaking on Sin and Good Works traced the history of the Anglo-Catholic movement, arising in the mid-1800s and evolving from the intellectual ‘Oxford movement’ to the 1866 consecration of the church of St Peter, Wapping dedicated to helping the poor. During a cholera outbreak, Father Lauder stayed to help while the professional people in the area fled. The Hospital for Sick and Incurable Children was run by nuns; it was recorded that the sisters were arrested for begging. The hospital did survive and moved to Edgware, later becoming a home for the handicapped and elderly. Another example of the movement was at St Pancras where Father Jellicoe campaigned in 1899 for better housing for the poor. In the 1960’s Father Bill Sherwood was in the news with his mission to the Bike Boys, to counter the opinion that Anglo-Catholics were backward-looking and paternalistic.

John Black of Royal Holloway & New Bedford College brought out some interesting facts about Plebeian Illegitimacy in 18th century London. Some 150-200,000 Settlement Statements are held in the London Metropolitan Archive; a wealth of material recording life histories. The study John Black discussed centred on 2,283 Bastardy Statements sworn to the Bench, from the three areas of 1) St Clement Danes, 2) St Mary-le-Strand and 3) St Leonard, Shoreditch. The statements noted occupation, place of residence and place of conception. Area 1) was the Inns of Court, etc; area 2) was a smaller parish with ‘traditional’ gentry and the population of 3) were poor weavers and better-off manufacturers. The study showed a pattern of servant illegitimacy where the fathers cited in the western, area tended to be shoemakers etc, in the eastern area they would be weavers.

The sexual activity of footmen became obvious from an analysis of peaks and troughs in birth dates; the footmen migrated with their employers and it is noted they were most procreative in the autumn!

Cathy Ross from the Museum of London, speaking on Bethnal Green Criminals, pointed out that the one and a half square mile area of Bethnal Green had remained a static, London-bred population, by-passed by main roads and surrounded by areas which, over the centuries, traditionally received immigrant communities. The population rose from 15,000 in the 18th century, to 130,000 by the end of the 19th century and fell to under 60,000 after WWI. The people within the community had their own culture and their own morality, not necessarily that accepted by the rest of London. The Booth Survey on religious influences saw them as independent, rough, poor, English. The Metropolitan Churches Fund provided for the building of twelve new churches dedicated to the Apostles from 1839-49. Bethnal Green had several Mission settlements to improve local ethical standards. Victoria Park was built in the 1840s in an area which had previously been a meeting place for ‘Infidels’. Bethnal Green was notorious for political dissenters meetings and for Sunday bands of music (Sabbath desecration). A book by Raphael Samuels on the East End Underworld described organised crime and noted the many different types of pickpocketing skills. With the building of an estate in one disreputable area, – the Nickel -Booth wrote in 1902 that the old population had

been dispersed and people in the new estate tended to be incomers. But that didn’t prevent the Kray phenomenon.

Once again, LAMAS produced an excellent event and we look forward to their Archaeology Conference in March.

Thanks to Vikki O’Connor for the above conference report.

Cat-astrophe Vikki O’Connor

An accident has befallen Henry Roots, ginger torn and hunting supremo of Church Farm House gardens. His tail has sustained a double fracture which is mystifying his human family. Theories include possible vehicle collision, squirrel power, or a falling gravestone in the Churchyard. Gerard Roots, curator of Church Farm House Museum, says the poor old mog is looking very sorry for himself – we hope he will recover his spirits by the new hunting season.

DOLLIS BROOK SEWER WORKS

English Heritage have informed us that a foul water sewer is to be laid by Thames Water along the Dollis Brook Valley. The area of interest for HADAS is the section covered by four exploratory boreholes in the Hendon Avenue/Village Road area opposite Holders Hill Road Other areas are expected to be professionally watched, but English Heritage have requested our assistance in checking the contents of the spoil heaps in the above area for anything of archaeological interest. There is a good chance that deep alluvial deposits may survive in the area and this is an excellent opportunity to check their archaeological potential, e g. Any evidence of the areas’ ancient environment. Prehistoric finds have certainly been made on the stream banks to the south.

We do not have a start date as yet, and we hope to be notified by Thames Water when work is to commence : However, work could start at very short notice, and it would be most helpful if local members could watch out for any signs of activity starting.

If you are able to help with this fieldwork or if you should observe any activity, please inform Brian Wrigley (0181 – 959 – 5982) who will be mobilising the HADAS forces.

HALF TERM AT THE MUSEUM OF LONDON;

Celebrating Tudor London : ‘Flower of Cities All’ ‑

Sundays 15,22 February Workshop Keep it Sweet! Making Tudor Pomanders with Brenda Coyle. 12.45, 2.15 and 3.30 pm.

Sundays 15, 22 February Performance A Step in Time : Tudor Dancing with musicians from ‘Baroque And Roll’. 1.30 and 3.00 pm.

ALBERT DEAN’S COPTHALL MEMORIES … (continued from the November Newsletter)

All the other fields were used as hay fields or just left to run fairly wild. Someone coming along with a tractor to cut the rough down every now and then, when it reached near jungle consistency.

So, apart from the ‘agricultural labourers’ from around the 1930s until Copthall Stadium was built, about the only ‘civilians’ to go in those fields were the rugby fans in the first field, the cricket fans in the long field, and us. Hardly any of the sports people ever moved outside the field their game was in. Very few people used the two main footpaths from Mill Hill and Mill Hill East, it was a long walk to Hendon from there, so most got the bus. Only one or two people might take their dog for a walk there on a good day. Otherwise, most of the time, the fields were as deserted as Dartmoor in a bad winter!

As we were very young and- ill advised then, in a period which some might consider to have even predated the `HADAS oscene’, we would very probably have missed the point that some of the curious bits and pieces we came across might have been pieces of pottery, etc., as against bits of weathered stone or half-rotted sparrow. But, even so, if the various adults who came and went had come across anything substantial, such as a 1920s gramophone needle, we would have known, wheedled such a titbit of information out of them, and got a good look at it. And if we had found a 1920’s gramophone, we would have gone on about it something chronic and had half the road out to it. And, if there were ancient stories of Roman Camps, etc., we would have heard. Regrettably, I can only say we had no such luck, no finds, no stories!

Some final points which should not be overlooked: (i) Contemporary rumour was that during WWII the Luftwaffe attack line on Hendon Aerodrome was more or less straight over Copthall Fields and short falling bombs often dropped in them. So any large circular patches in the clay anywhere around there might be the sites of craters or disposal works. Also, there was a good newt and dragonfly pond, about 20ft diameter, in the north-east corner of the long field, its old bed might appear similar. The only other pond in the fields was set in amongst some trees east of the Mill Hill East footpath entrance into the fields which is alongside the bridge over the old railway line. (ii) For some reason, possibly something to do with maintaining the soil quality, all the fields except the two sports fieldswere ploughed at least once at some time or other between about 1950 and 1955. I don’t think any of them were ploughed from then on. (iii) Somewhere amongst the hedging toward the Mill Hill side of the fields there was an old rusting harrow, a horse-drawn or very early tractor-drawn type. It was probably left from work in the fields in the second war but could have been there from long before that. In the 1950s it was almost rotted away and thoroughly overgrown, though we could stillclamber on it and work its levers. I don’t remember seeing it in wandering about after Copthall Stadium was built, so it might have been dug out and cleared away during the general tidy up of the fields just before the stadium was opened. We hardly ever went into the fields after the tidy up because the long field pond was filled in and most of the local wild life died off, a little survived in scattered pockets around the fringes, but nothing of any great interest. The other thing was the stadium of course, apart from the fact that it ruined every view and successfully obstructed just about every convenient route we used to go back and forth across the fields, we soon got the message that the council didn’t want local people using it until after the Olympics. Which baffled us, the whole site was about as inviting as a knacker’s yard. And, as we were used to hurdling genuine hay bales in the assault on the entirely mythical Castle Copthall and chasing equally mythical tigers through acres of really waist-high grass, we couldn’t credit the possibility that anyone would be likely to come half-way round the world just to run around in little circles on its very uninteresting little strip of tarmac. (iv) The Allotments end of the field that became Copthall Stadium’s main car park was used as an emergency rubbish tip for a few months about twenty-five years ago. It was the case that for a while anyone could drive up and chuck anything there. Over a few weeks there must have been several thousand dustbin-loads dumped there. Some of it was burnt off at the site and a good bit probably ended up in the hedging and ditching around that end of the field. (v) The cricket people didn’t have a

pavilion in those days, they and their fans used to congregate mainly along the hedges at the south-east corner of the long field and just leave their stuff by the hedges. There is probably a small treasure trove of assorted coins, watches and cigarette lighters in that area. Also, that was where the old keepers’ but was. It burnt down about 1960. The keepers had a small stove for making tea and getting a warm-up in the winter. One night, so the official story went, they forgot to put the stove out when they left. Personally, I’ve always been more inclined to the unofficial version, that one of them forgot about his fag at knocking-off time!

NEWS FROM OUR NEIGHBOURS

Enfield Archaeological Society (0181-804-6918)

20th February The Legend of Geoffrey de Mandeville (By HADAS’s Jennie Lee Cobban) The Historical Association (0181-455-8318)

26th February The Rise and Fall of The Lunatic Asylum Professor Roy Porter

LAMAS (0171-600-3699)

12 February AGM , followed by Presidential Address – A Tale of Two Cities 2 London and Paris in Medieval Times – Mark Hassel

14 March 35th Annual Conference of London Archaeologists Museum of London. Non-members

£4.00. Morning – Recent Work; Afternoon – 25 Years of Digging in London,

Pinner Local History Society (0181-866-3372)

5th February Narrow-Boating Through History Iris Long

Work in progress – The digging Team are still in residence at Avenue House most Sunday mornings carrying on with post-excavation work, and are presently making good progress with the phasing of the Studio Cole excavation in Whetstone back in 1989, where evidence of medieval metalworking was found.

TRANSPORT CORNER ANDY SIMPSON

Following Bill Firth’s report last month on the imminent demise of the former Finchley Tram/Trolleybus/Motorbus depot, those members with left over Christmas book vouchers may be interested in three local transport books published at the end of last year.

Following on from the previously reviewed ‘Barnet and Finchley Tramways’ Middleton Press have added ‘Enfield and Wood Green Tramways’ by Dave Jones to their ever expanding series on London Trams. Priced at £11.95 hardback, this 96 page book features more of the former Metropolitan Electric Tramways empire from North Finchley via New Southgate to Palmers Green and Enfield to the north and Wood Green, Alexandra Palace, Harringay, Manor House and Nags Head to the south. There is the usual detailed track plan, extracts from large scale Ordnance Survey Maps and a splendid series of photographs. There are three shots of Woodhouse Road, North Finchley, featuring Edwardian open-top tramcars and a 1930s Feltham streamlined tram. The photographs are reproduced to the usual high standard and the street scenes offer a wealth of period detail,

The volume on tramways along the Edgware Road and the Hendon/Colindale/Edgware areas is expected to be published in the summer.

Also by Middleton Press in their ‘London Suburban Railways’ series is ‘Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace’ describing in mainly pictorial form the former Great Northern Railway line from Finsbury Park via Stroud Green, Crouch End, and Highgate to Cranley Gardens and Muswell Hill to Alexandra Palace, closed to passengers in July 1954. At Park Junction the line continued north to East Finchley –

this section surviving as the Mill Hill East and High Barnet Branches of the Northern Line. At Highgate depot track was recently relaid to serve as a test track for the new Northern Line tube Trains which are scheduled to enter service this year. They are externally similar to the recent Central Line stock and will gradually replace the existing 1959-62 stock (Some of which was itself passed down from the Central Line ) and 1972 stock. So at least those lengthy waits at Camden Town or Golders Green will be in more modern seats!

The book itself includes lovely shots of Edwardian tank locomotives heading for High Barnet via Crouch End and photos and plans of Park Junction between Highgate and East Finchley. Another excellent book for rail buffs and local historians alike. This is in the usual Middleton format – 96 Hardbound pages for £11.95.

Weighing – in somewhat larger, heavier and pricier is the A4 format Trolleybuses in North-West London – A Pictorial Survey ‘ published by the London Trolleybus Preservation Society at £15.00.This has colour photographs on both covers and 8 colour pages within, featuring the old Trolleybus enthusiasts favourite haunts at North Finchley (three photos) and Golders Green in particular. There are lovely shots of a dewired trolleybus at Golders Green CI was late for school/work/lunch/our date – the poles came off !’) and Golders Green in the snow on the eve of trolleybus abandonment in the area in January 1962. There are even colour shots of Colindale Depot (demolished in 1964) and the terminus at High Barnet with the church as the backdrop. The black and white photos cover the whole period of Trolleybus operation in the Barnet/Finchley/Golders Green/Cricklewood/Craven Park/Sudbury/ Colindale/ Edgware/Canons Park area on quality glossy paper. They reflect on an era well within living memory that now seems like another age . Relics are few – other than a dozen or so preserved London trolleybuses, some of them in working order at the East Anglian Transport Museum at Carlton Colville near Lowestoft. Once Finchley Depot disappears, your scribe knows only of a curved wall recess that once held a traction pole at the site of Colindale Depot to suggest trolleybuses ever ran in Barnet, unless anyone knows different

TIME TEAM

We are now well into the new 8 part Time Team series on Channel 4 at Sunday Teatime as usual. At the time of writing we have still to see programmes on the return to the Gloucestershire Roman Villa from the last series, a quick trip overseas for Beaker Folk in Mallorca, a Shropshire Manor House site and the vanished Tees – Side medieval village at High Worsall. Not forgetting the Friday afternoon updates on how the excavations proceeded off – camera. Perhaps these cold be repeated at some stage when some of us are home from world
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Jan 14

Newsletter-322-January-1998

By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

ROMAN SILCHESTER

Members may remember a HADAS visit to this site in August 1995. The CBA’s British Archaeological Magazine for November 1997 reports that:

Aerial photography and a new excavation at the Roman town at Silchester near Reading, which was heavily excavated last century, suggest that more survives at the site than was thought. More stone buildings existed than were known, as well as a number of ‘blank’ areas that could have been open spaces.

The excavation, directed by Michael Fulford and Amanda Clark of Reading University, has revealed shops, workshops and a large timber building built at a diagonal to the street grid. The house, which is thought to date from the 5th or 6th centuries, was built over a period of time in a classically Roman style but with declining standards of workmanship. It may have been the residence of a post-Roman chieftan, trying to maintain a classical life-style at a time when society as a whole was breaking down.

TIME TEAM 1998

Eight programmes this year starting on 4 January. Excavations include a croquet lawn at Richmond Palace, a manor house in Shropshire and the ecclesiastical settlement of Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. Plus investigation for trackways in the Somerset Levels, of a series of mounds in Orkney and pursuit of the Beaker People on Mallorca.

CHRISTMAS DINNER 1997

A report by Denis Ross

Moral: Do not cross Dorothy Newbury! Before the dinner, I told her (joking of course) that my wife and I were concerned that we were among the few people on the attendance list who lacked Christian names. As a result of this unwise move, two-thirds through the dinner, Dorothy asked me to “write it up” having made sure that it was too late for me to make notes on what we had previously seen or been told!

Christmas start early for HADAS. The dinner took place on 3rd December at Sutton House in Homerton Road, Hackney and was attended by over fifty people. A fair number of them had been present at the same venue some 5 years ago. The coach arrived promptly at the various pick-up points, negotiated the evening traffic and delivered us safely. The evening was cold and a welcoming glass (or two) of warming mulled wine was greatly appreciated.

We were then addressed by Mike Gray, the President of the Sutton House Society and described in the brochure as “local historian, photographer, lecturer and guide”. He told us about the history of the oldest Tudor house in the East End of London. It was built by Sir Ralph Sadleir (who was Principal Secretary of State to Henry VIII and one of Elizabeth I Privy Councillors) as a red brick mansion (the bryk house) in about 1535 – a date supported by tree-ring analysis. The building followed the Tudor “H” plan and was sited on the edge of Hackney Brook, which apparently still exists. It is now difficult to think of Hackney as a village, then noted for its “healthful air” and suitable as a country retreat for City of London merchants or as a refuge from the plague!

The house went through many changes of ownership and use, including home to City merchants and Huguenot silk weavers, use by clergy, schools, a local Institute and a Trade Union. At one time, the house was split into two but it was subsequently reunited. Comparatively recently it was occupied by squatters. In 1938 it was acquired by the National Trust.

The house enjoyed a variety of names depending on ownership. The NT renames it Sutton House after Thomas Sutton who founded Charterhouse Hospital and School, who at one time lived next door.

The house fell into disrepair. However, in 1990 the NT, together with local interests, began, and subsequently completed at considerable cost, substantial building works to repair and restore the fabric. It is now used as an educational, cultural and social centre. During the course of restoration, it was possible to uncover many of the original features, such as stone fireplaces. The most impressive room is the Great Chamber with its fine panelling and recovered portraits of the Sadleir family. A staircase led to the principal bedroom with its own, somewhat primitive, privy. Mr Gray advanced the theory and suggested the evidence that Henry VIII may have visited the house and stayed in that “suite” but that does seem somewhat speculative. The old fireplaces and brickwork and the Tudor beams in the kitchen contrast well with the modern conservatory cafe and concert hall.

After touring the house we settled down to an excellent Christmas dinner – even though the crackers contained the worst riddles ever! The food and drink and the service were of a very high standard. At the end our Chairman, Andrew Selkirk, made a brief speech. He thanked all those concerned in HADAS affairs and particularly of course, Dorothy, for her organisation of this event with her customary military precision. There is no doubt that id she had been in charge of World War II it would have been over in half the time! Finally, there was a raffle – and I won a prize! A well-fed and contented party re-boarded the coach for the journey home. Altogether, an excellent evening.

A postscript from Dorothy: “Several members thought that Sutton House was the best Christmas effort ever. The food was certainly the best! The only exception I can think of was the Tower of London in December 1976. I cannot remember the meal at

all but the setting and the excitement of HADAS’ first “outside” venture is clear in my mind to this day. The Society had grown too big for our usual Christmas party at 166 Station Road and we took the plunge and booked at the restaurant inside the Tower precincts. December lit was a clear night sparkling with frost. Security and identification were paramount as the IRA was very active at the time. (The restaurant was. closed the following year and never re-opened). The Gurkhas were in residence for the Ceremony of the Keys at 10pm. We ventured out to watch, muffled from the cold and slightly inebriated. The frost and lights glistened on The Thames and the ancient buildings echoed to the eerie sound of marching as the soldiers performed the unique ceremony. It was a very moving experience – followed by a cup of hot punch in the warm restaurant. I think there was a police ‘incident’ in which we became involved after that but whether it was the punch, the food or just tiredness, 1 can’t remember the details!

As 21 years have now passed since our first Christmas dinner special, is it time for a newer member to take over the arrangements? Any offers?

Members should know that Dorothy dictated her postcript to the Editor from her sickbed when she was laid low by one of the virulent germs going the rounds before Christmas. I think we can assume her desire to relinquish the dinner was just a symptom of her wretchedness at the time.

FINCHLEY BUS DEPOT Bill Firth

Finchley bus depot in Woodberry Grove, N12 has been closed for some time and a planning application has been submitted for its demolition and replacement by a Homebase Store.

The depot was opened in 1906 as a tram depot to serve an expanding network. Electric trams first came to North Finchley from Highgate Archway in June 1905 and this line was extended in two stages to. Barnet by March 1907. The link to New Southgate was opened in April 1909 and the last link, through Golders Green to Cricklewood, in December 1909.

Finchley tram depot, in common with Hendon (Colindale), was unusual in that it had been built with the lines into the tram shed fanning out from points at the entrance. In the late 1920s the points were replaced with a transverser by which a car was moved from the entrance to a track in the shed. This resulted in a considerable saving of space.

In 1936 trolleybuses replaced trams on the Cricklewood section. This reduced the number of trams using Finchley but it was not until 1938 the Finchley became a trolleybus depot when the other tram lines in the area were replaced. This was fairly short-lived as buses replaced trolleys in the early 1960s.FINCHLEY,BUSes have gone now and the depot will follow shortly. Thus another bit of transport history in the borough -some ninety years of it – will disappear.

One thought on this: can it really be economic and is it ‘green’ to run empty buses from Finchley to Potters Bar garage?

A small memento of the depot will remain. The War Memorial to the men of the garage is to be preserved and repositioned on the new site.

NEWS FROM OUR NEIGHBOURS

ENFIELD ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (0181- 804 6918)

16 January A Tale of Two Provinces – Greeks & Romans in Ancient Lybia Ian Jones THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION (0181- 455 8318)

22 January Pageants and Propaganda. Colin Gregory LAMAS (0171- 600 3699)

8 January Art in Roman London. Dr Martin Henig

PINNER LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY (0181- 866 3372)

8 January Pubs of Pinner – a survey past and present. Ken Kirkman

POTTERS BAR & DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY (01707 642886)

30 January The Story of Forty Hall. Geoffrey Giliam

MUSEUM OF LONDON

11, 18 & 25 January at 2.00pm and 3.15pm Object handling: Roman objects 11, 18 & 25 January 1.00-4.00pm Roman London with actor/interpreters

16 January at 1,10pm Lecture: Mental disorder in Children: past, present and future

23 January at 1.10pm Lecture: From York Minster to Bedlam

GUNNERSBURY PARK MUSEUM

Popes Lane, London, W3 8QL (0181- 992 1612)

Rothschilds at Gunnersbury

An exhibition on the life of the Rothschilds using photographs and archive material. The family bought Gunnersbury Mansion in 1835 and were renowned for their lavish entertaining, ornate house decor and spectacular gardens. (Museum open I – 4 pm)RESTORATION AT FORTY HALL

Enfield Archaeological Society’s December bulletin reported that the restoration of the stable block and barn is well in hand, with the roof tiles about to be replaced. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to retain and restore the original tiles as many were distorted in firing and instead of being pegged in place, were bedded into a thick layer of mortar. A boarded roof and battens have been installed and suitable tiles will be pegged in place. Much of the lower part of the timber frame had rotted and has been replaced, as has the crumbling brickwork. English Heritage carried out a watching brief while work was in progress and wall foundations were dated to the late 17th/early 18th century. A brick floor and gutter dating from the 19th century was noted. These findings do not differ substantially from those published in Forty Hall 1629-1997.

COURSES

Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford (Department for Continuing Education) Telephone 01865 270369 for details.

Friday 9 – Sunday 11 January: The Early 19th-century Great House. Fees from £64.00. Saturday 17 – Sunday 18 January: Probate Records. Fees from £46.00.

Saturday 17 January 9.45-5.30: The Neanderthals and their European Ancestors. Fee £30.50 with lunch; £24.00 without lunch.

Friday 30 January – Sunday 1 February: Romanisation in Britain. Fees from £44 (nonresidential/no meals) to £126.50 (residential, single room).

Finchley Antiques Appreciation Group. 7.50pm at Avenue House. Telephone Mrs Mary Jackson 9181-203 3735 for details)

14 January: The Fashion for Tea Drinking in England. Speaker: Sarah Bowles. WEA Barnet Branch. Telephone Olive Harrison 0181.445 4423.

Mondays 8-10pm at Ewan Hall, Wood Street, Barnet. Industrial Archaeology.

WEA Elstree, Borehamwood & Radlett Branch. Telephone W A Whitehead 01727 873309. Tuesdays 7.30-9.30pm at The Vestry, All Saints Church, Borehamwood. History of Archaeology.

WEA Finchley Branch. Contact Joe Sellars on 0181-346 4613 or Jean Gruner on 0181-445 6733. Thursdays 2-4pm at Wimbush House, 6 Westbury Road, N12. London on the Move. (The growth and development of transport in the city). Mondays 2-4pm at Blue Beetle Room, St.Mary’s Church, Hendon Lane, N3. Historic Cities and Sites of the Mediterranean.

WEA Mill Hill & Edgware Branch. Telephone Moira Eagle on 0181- 959 1230. Fridays 10.30am-12,30pm at Small Hall, Union Church, Mill Hill Broadway, NW7. Archaeology of our Human Origins.

THE JEWISH MUSEUM

80 East End Road, Finchley, N3

“The Tailor, The Baker, The Cabinet Maker” is the title of a new exhibition which reveals the hard working lives of Jewish immigrants who tied to Britain from Eastern Europe at the beginning of this century.

There are reconstructed tailoring and cabinet-makers workshops of the type common in the East End of London in the early 1900s and children have the chance to handle tools and take part in activities.

Immigrant Furniture ,Workers in London 1881-1939 by William Massil, just published by the museum, traces the development of the trade and documents the contribution made by many Jewish craftsmen.

The museum is open Monday to Thursday 10.30-5 and 10.30430 on Sunday.

CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM Compendium of GAMES, the Christmas exhibition at the museum, offers something for games enthusiasts of all ages. On show until 25 January, there are hundreds of board games and pu dating from the mid-19th century. A games room gives children a chance to try their luck and skill.

You have probably played Mukshapatamu, which was brought to this country from India and we know as Snakes and Ladders. You may remember Lexicon, Scramble, Shake Words and Kan-u-go, Ludo, Nine Men’s Morris and Monopoly. But have you ever heard of Foo-Foo, advertised as “Just what is wanted to make a Jolly Party”? There can’t be many people who have tried to play Trade Up to Elite Cow, marketed by the Dairy Farmers’ Association!

Among the Mah-Jongg, Go and Scrabble is an intriguing game called Horsie-Horsie. This was invented by prisoners at Marlag and Milag Nord POW camps in Germany in 1944 and marketed after the Second World War but no-one seems to know the history of the game.

On show with the museum’s restored 1820s bagatelle table is a wonderful collection of chess sets designed by local resident and chess enthusiast, Peter Morrish. Pieces range in size from half an inch (pocket sets) to two feet (for patio games).

Board games are centuries old and were played in ancient Egypt, China, India and Africa. The Victorians invented hundreds of them and it’s fascinating to see how old games change to meet modern interests and new games are invented to test the players’ skill, luck and will to win.

Compendium of GAMES is on show until Sunday 25 January. The museum will be closed on 1 January but thereafter is open as usual Monday to Thursday 10-12.30 and 1.30 -5; (closed on Fridays); Saturday 10-1 and 2-5.30; Sunday 2-5.30.

A Victorian family Christmas

Until Twelfth Night (6 January) the dining room at the museum is dressed to celebrate a Victorian family Christmas. If you have young members in the family or visitors from abroad over Christmas and New Year, they will enjoy discovering all the detail in the museum’s magical recreation of a Victorian Christmas.
POST-MEDIEVAL POTTERY FROM 19-29 HIGH STREET , CHIPPING BARNET, HERTFORDSHIRE. by Bill Bass

NGR: TO 24735 96345 SMR: 082242 & 082243

The site was excavated by the HADAS in two phases: 1990 (19-25 High Street) site code BHS 90 and 1992 (29 High Street) site code BHS 92. They were reported in the HADAS newsletters of those two years. A report of the Medieval pottery is deposited with the archive and will be the basis of a future article. This article is a partial summary of the Post-Medieval pottery report. Excavations at this site produced a total of 1,083 sherds ranging from the 16th to 20th centuries. There were 10 identifiable fabrics from 48 contexts. Pottery from both phases are considered here together.

Cistercian Ware (CSTN) date 1500-1600 or Blackwares early 17th – late 18th century.

Blackware is thought to be a derivative of Cistercian Ware and is found over much of England (D Crossley 1990: 246-247). Blackware production centres range over the North, Midlands and East Anglia, but a more locally known centre is at Woodside in Hertfordshire where single-handled black mugs were made (ibid.). Cistercian Ware and Blackware fabrics are largely similar,

though the vessel forms here appear to be of the Blackware tradition.

There were 47 sherds of this type (4.5% of the post-med. total) from 6 contexts, of which 3 were For example pit-fill 604

(BHS 90) contained 30 sherds representing 2, one-handled mugs, one – a base sherd only, the second mug was reconstructed to about 40% of its whole (illustrated), (rim approx. 119mm dia). The fabric was of a hard/fine textured, medium-red, thin bodied (3-4mm ) ware with a mottled brown/black lead glaze covering most of the internal and external body.

Border Ware (BORD, RBOR) 1550-1750

25 sherds of this fabric (2.3 % of total) were found from 2 contexts – 102 pit-fill and 113 an associated gully (both BHS 92). Five vessels are indicated, including sherds of 3, one-handled Porringer bowls of c1590 in date, (one illustrated) all with internal mottled dark-green glaze. A further bowl (illustrated) 98mm deep with a rim dia of 290mm also had a dark-green internal glaze. The above bowl fabrics are of the fine white textures usually associated with Border wares originating from the Surrey-Hampshire

district. A handle, tubular in shape with an internal conical appearance and internal / external mottled dark-green glaze is probably a Pipkin or Skillet handle. The fabric is of a fine red-coloured texture and is likely to be Red Border Ware.

Tin-glazed earthenware (TGW) 1600-1800

20 sherds of this ware were found (1.9%) mostly plainly decorated , of which 18 came from pit-fill 604 (BHS 90), representing at l250mmvessels including: a chamber pot – 190mm dia, a plate rim with blue-banded decoration – 250mm dia also a jug rim – 150mm dia.

Staffordshire Slipware (STSL) 1600-1800

6 sherds were recovered (0.6%) mainly from context 604, representing 2 vessels, one being a cup.

Metropolitan Slipware (METS) 1630-17130

6 sherds of this fabric (0.6%) came from 2 contexts; 5 from context 601 (BHS 90) representing 3 vessels – one a possible plate 10mm thick, dia approx. 350mm. Various kilns are known in the London area at Epping Forest, Harlow and Woodside (nr Hatfield, Hertfordshire).

Post-Medieval Redware (PMR) 1650-1800

A total of 366 sherds (33.75%) came from 26 contexts. BHS 90 produced 160 sherds most notably from context 306 a 19thc pit fill, the sherds represented at least 2 vessels. Context 604 had 29 sherds , approx. 4 – 5 vessels, including two rims – one flanged, 260mm dia , one rolled 250mm dia , 3 base sherds, one handle section – flattened oval shape 32mm dia, a sherd with a handle scar 55mm dia. Also from 604 came a substantial vessel base 140mm dia with possible lime deposits.

BHS 92 accounted for 206 sherds mostly from contexts 102, 107, 113 – all pit or gully fills. Vessels included a tankard base (illustrated), (base dia 81mm), red fabric with a slightly reduced core coated internally & externally with a dark mottled black/brown glaze , externally there is a handle attachment and ribbed/turned decoration. A partly reconstructed ‘roaster dish’ came from context 113 dating to c 1590, these are usually oval in shape with a pouring lip at one or both ends (possible reconstruction illustrated). The

vessel appears to be hand made with knife trimming, it has a light red, fine textured fabric, with a thick grey reduced core, one handle is present. there is an internal thin green-glaze.Stoneware 1500-1900

There were 58 sherds (5.45%) from 16 contexts. 43 sherds came from BHS 90 most stratified material was contained by context 604 pit-fill (14 sherds). 15 sherds were recovered from BHS 92, 3 sherds from pit/gully fill 102/113 co-joined and were date stamped 1597 (illustrated). Also from 113 were a further 4 sherds including a handle = 4 vessels represented, A whole mottled mid-brown stoneware bottle (170mm tall by 65mm dia) stamped Frank of Barnet, was recovered from context 104.

White salt-glazed stoneware, 1720-1770, 10 sherds came from context 604 and form at least 4 vessels including a large rimmed jar of 120mm dia.

Transfer Printed Ware (TPW) 1800-1900

A total of 62 sherds (5.72%), BHS 90 produced 47 from 5 contexts e.g. context 202 – 22 sherds and context 602 – 15 sherds, both top-soils_ Prom BHS 92 there were 15 sherds mostly in context 108 – 13 sherds.

China (ENPO, CHPO)

The site produced 172 sherds of china/porcelain (15.9%), 118 from BHS 90 including 100 + sherds from context 601.

Discussion

The site in general was very disturbed in nature with probable varying occupation since the 12th century. This is reflected in that most contexts were mixed and disturbed throughout the excavations. Despite this, the bulk of the sherds appear ‘clean’ broken and seem to be dumped or originate on, near to the site. As far as possible fabrics were classified by known wares or industries.

The BHS 90 area covered 546 sq. m of which 20% was excavated, the most securely post-medieval dated context here was pit-fill 604 – (feature 6F1) which contained the Cistercian/Blackware ware mugs, Tin-glazed ware chamber pot and sherds of stoneware, slipware and other Post-Medieval Redwares. Together with other evidence this pit maybe dated to the 18th century.

Most of the other contexts contain a mixture of PMR, Transfer-Printed wares, Stonewares and Porcelain (China) and would seem to be disturbed layers of the 18th-20th centuries.

BHS 92 shares a similar story, approx. 50sq m were excavated. The earliest post-medieval feature here was a pit – (IF 15) contexts 102, 120 and an associated gully (1F10) context 113, the combined pottery weight from these contexts was 3.6kg. Pottery from here included the dated stoneware sherds (1597), the Border Ware vessels and PMR meat dripping dish both c 1590. There is also a larger amount variously glazed PMR sherds which may point to the pit being used mainly during 17th century but being disturbed/truncated by context 106 which was a later humic soil, some medieval pottery was also present. Context 107 & 108 contained sherds of PMR, Transfer Printed wares and China, these layers were near the area of a ‘Smithy’ as shown on an 1863 OS 25″ map and would seem to confirm a 19th century date.

Chipping Barnet’s location on the Great North Road and London to Holyhead road, plus local production centres gave the residents easy access to a selection of Post- Medieval ceramics, its market dating from the late 12th century distributing such wares. Identifiable vessels seem to include ordinary domestic types of tableware’s, cooking wares, sanitary ware and storage vessels – mugs, tankards, porringers, bowls, chamberpots, roasting dishes and plates, plus the usual forms associated with the later china and transfer printed wares – cups, saucers, plates and so forth.

Apart from the traditional Staffordshire sources, local kilns could account for some of the earlier slipwares and the variously glazed red earthenware e.g. at Essex, Hertfordshire, London. Borderwares came from the Surrey/Hampshire industry via London Stonewares are probably German imports although there are London sources from the 17th century. Tin-glazed wares were similarly imported in large quantities during the 16th and 17th centuries, with London production beginning around the late 16th century.

Bibliography

BARKER, D. North Staffordshire Post-Medieval Ceramics – a Type Series, Part One: Cistercian Ware; Part Two: Blackwares. CROSSLEY, D. Post-Medieval Archaeology in Britain. L.U.P. 1990

DRAPER. J. Post-Medieval Pottery 1650-1800. Shire. 1984.

LAMAS/SAS Excavations in Southwark 1973-76, Lambeth 1973-79. Joint Publication No.3. 1988

PEARCE, J. Post-Medieval Pottery in London 1500-1700, Border Wares. HMSO, 1992

January HENDON AND DISTRICT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1998

Over recent years, the number of people participating in HADAS projects has dwindled. In the HADAS Newsletter of March 1995 the idea of reviving the Research Sub-Committee was mooted. The HADAS Committee has now considered areas in which research is needed and the following list sets out ten themes for which members’ participation is requested.

This list is NOT definitive and we hope that members will come forward with their own ideas and suggestions. Talents required to participate in these projects are varied – use of our own records, public archives, other societies’ records etc will be necessary in some instances; photography may be necessary as may analytical skills. Individuals may also find they have time to commit to more than one project so please send off the reply slip advising your interests.

1. FRIERN BARNET/WHETSTONE – VILLAGE PROJECT. During HADAS excavations at St James’ Church, Friern Barnet during the 1970s, crop marks were noted. These were interpreted as part of the original Friary complex and two of our current HADAS members feel that this area is where the village of Whetstone originated. Documentary, map, and other relevant research is needed in order to produce a suitable research design if excavation is to be undertaken in this area.

2. ROMAN HENDON. HADAS excavations at Church Farmhouse in 1993 and 1996 produced evidence of Roman activity. Previous HADAS excavations nearby have produced similar evidence. A review of all excavations undertaken within the area is proposed, including work by other units, in order to assess the extent of the evidence and to consider the feasibility of future fieldwork.

3. VIATORES ROUTE 167. The Society undertook considerable fieldwork in the 1960s on the possible route of this Roman road. Our attention has been drawn to another possible location which needs to be investigated, with publication in mind, survey and possible excavation.

4. HAMPSTEAD HEATH RESISTIVITY SURVEY. This long-term project on an Anglo-Saxon boundary ditch requires people with specialised ecological knowledge in order that our survey report can include natural history data, especially flora, as a feature of the area under survey. For example, there is a need to quantify the type of ground cover, and its effects upon the survival of the ditch.

5. FIELD WALKING PROJECT. We need to set up a small working party to review field walking undertaken by the Society since its inception and to decide on the feasibility of returning to certain sites in order to undertake further work. Also, to locate other accessible areas within the Borough where field walking is viable, and to propose an ongoing programme. This group to take on organizational responsibilities.

6. REVIEW of a) Schedule of Listed Buildings, b) Scheduled Monuments, and c) Archaeological Priority Areas within the Borough – with a view to adding to the lists and areas.

7. NON-CONFORMIST CHURCHES PROJECT. The late George Ingram, a Society member for many years, carried out considerable research into Chapels within the Borough. It is intended to continue his work with a view to publication, as a tribute to George.

8. EAST BARNET VILLAGE/MANOR. Work has been undertaken on this area by individual HADAS members as well as other groups, and has included excavation and historical research. Consolidation and review is necessary to identify future fieldwork and the possibility of excavation.

9. INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN BARNET. Although industrial archaeology has not played a key role in HADAS activities, it is known that several members are active in this speciality. We believe that there are enough sites of interest within the Borough for a HADAS occasional paper to be published on this theme, perhaps incorporating World War II features.

10. RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF HADAS. As the Society approaches its fortieth anniversary, in the new millennium, it would be appropriate to review and catalogue the Society’s past activities, including projects undertaken by individual members, excavations and surveys, and to identify where this information is held. This is intended to avoid duplication of work over the next forty years. To complete this history, it should include the listing of outings, long weekends, exhibitions, etc. We hope to set some projects in motion by the summer. It all depends on you, our members.

Dec 16

Newsletter-321-December-1997

By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 13 January: “Here’s Looking at You! Mummy portraits from Roman Egypt”: Paul Roberts

Tuesday 10 February Report on the Dig at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Gordon Malcolm

Tuesday 10 March Update on Flag Fen? (To be confirmed)

(Lectures are held at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3 – 8.00 pm for 8.30 start).

NOVEMBER LECTURE JUNE PORGES

We were very disappointed to hear at the last moment that Garrick Fincham, who had been our guide round Flag Fen in 1996, had not recovered from his illness sufficiently to be able to come to speak to us. I have asked Maisie Taylor from Flag Fen if someone can come to speak to us in March and update us on what has been happening there. The problem is that March is the lambing season when they are all very involved, as we know this contributes to Francis Prior’s theories about prehistoric agriculture in that area. Watch this space for further information! Many thanks to Andrew Selkirk for stepping in and giving a challenging talk on Roman London.

Terry Dawson reported on Andrew’s thought-provoking speech, which sugiested that Roman London was an Imperial city, ic built on land owned by the emperor himself, and the result of property speculation which brought additional monies to the emperor’s personal fortune. This explains not only the city’s symmetrical layout, but how it grew so quickly (from nothing to the biggest town in the province in 10 years) and how it recovered so soon from the disaster of AD61 when it was destroyed by Boudica. London was one of the few Roman towns with a large fort – the only parallel is Rome itself. Tiles marked PPR-BR have been found, a marking that signifies that they are the property of the emperor. In the 4th century Londinium changed its name to Augusta – another possible pointer to imperial ownership. What do members of HADAS think of this theory?

CHRISTMAS DINNER

At the time of writing this, we are about 20 overbooked. I have been waiting to hear from Sutton House to know if they can place a few more members in another room. If this is possible I will have notified those members next on the list. If any booked-in members find they cannot join us on December 3′, please let me know as soon as possible. Dorothy Newbury (0181-203 0950)

METAL WORKING IN NORTH WALES Roy Walker

Our lecturer in October was Peter Crew, the Snowdonia National Park Archaeologist, an area visited nearly twenty years ago by HADAS when Peter was our guide. He gave an overview of the wealth of metal-linked activity within his area of operation – copper mining at Great Orme in the Bronze Age, slags at Llandudno (the residue of Bronze Age smelting) and hillforts with evidence for iron working. There were medieval bloomeries and a 16th century blast furnace with documentary evidence from 1598-1603 held in the records of the Star Chamber! At Dolgeen was one of Abraham Derby’s blast furnaces dated to 1719 – documentary evidence this time held at Friends House in London, Derby being a Quaker.

Peter looked at two prehistoric sites where extensive excavation had revealed much of how metal working was carried out. The first was the small hillfort Bryn-y castell, one of ninety in the region, traditionally thought to be a Dark Age site but proved much earlier with intensive iron working over three to four hundred years and abandonment in the 3rd or 4th century. 1.2 tons of slag were recovered from the smelting areas – modern blast furnaces produce the same quantity in five minutes – along with a 20 cm square anvil stone with traces of slag on it and stone hammers. Three stones seemed to have Bronze Age-type cup marks which were later recognised to be fire stones for use with a fire drill, the only examples yet found in Britain although common in Europe. A snail-shaped building was identified as a smithy for the working of iron, the shade created by its curves essential to the working of the iron and recognition of the distinguishing colours of different temperatures of hot metal. A significant find was made in 1982 when a stake-wall roundhouse was identified, the first timber structure to be found in northwest Wales.

The second site was at Crawcwellt where first just a piece of slag was found, then a bucketful, the excavators realising they were back with iron working! The low, wandering walls contained semi-circular kinks – the site of timber buildings. Here were the post-holes of three successive stake-wall roundhouses with fifteen internal iron smelting surfaces. The smelting, surprisingly, was undertaken inside these wooden buildings. But as Peter pointed out, this was essential in order to keep the charcoal and furnaces dry, to keep out of the wind and to check the temperature colours of the hot metal. Although stratigraphy was almost non-existent with only 10 cm of deposits, a complex sequence of activity was uncovered. Furnaces, stake holes, rings of stakes around furnaces creating wattle formers were revealed. The furnaces had poor preservation with only sub-soil features remaining. The clay inner linings were vitrified. Elsewhere on site, a stone founded but containing smithying evidence was found above a stake-wall building. There were three or four other overlapping stake-wall buildings with smithy hearths dated to 350 BC plus an oval pit containing a Bronze Age beaker of 1710 BC. There were 2.5 – 3 tons of slag.

Experiment is a feature of Peter’s work – essential if the technology is to be understood. Furnaces based on the archaeological evidence have been reconstructed which have shown the importance of the amount of air bellowed in. Too little results in slag with no iron being produced, too much and cast iron results. Iron when smelted is contaminated with slag and clay from the furnace unlike copper which smelts clear. These “blooms” need some two hours processing to produce workable iron. It has been shown that 1 kg of refined iron requires 100 kg of charcoal which requires 1 ton of wood, the whole process requiring 25 man days of work. A fuel- and time-hungry past-time. This is why very little iron is found on prehistoric sites – it is reused. These experiments have enabled the quantity of raw materials used to create the amount of slag recovered from the two sitesto be ascertained as well as the number of years work involved. The “value” of finished objects can be determined- For example, the Betws-y-coed firedogs would have required 3-4 man years works. Just to supply each settlement with one knife a year would have required one ton of iron although the slag has not been found to match this. Peter asked whether the importance of slag was being ignored by archaeologists. New sites had been found in E Yorkshire including one with the largest quantity of prehistoric slag – some 5,000 kg near Arras culture settlements. In contrast, very little slag had been found at Danebury despite the evidence of much iron working.

Peter looked at trade and the role of currency bars. These were not money but used for trade. The drawing of the iron into bars proved that it could be worked, the bending of the ends showed its quality. There were twenty distinct types of currency bars in Britain (plough, sword etc) which fell into regional groupings. There was also bulk traded iron in the form of smithed blooms, round blocks of which have been found in the Forest of Dean.

This lecture went beyond its prehistoric base. It showed the results of “two dimensional” excavation on shallow deposits, the importance of a single theme to the understanding of the past societies and especially the relevance of experiment.

WITCH WAYS VIKKI O’CONNOR

A recent article by History Professor Ronald Hutton, in the University of Bristol’s newsletter, outlined his researches into the roots of modem paganism, identifying four common strands. The first, high ritual magic, uses invocations and sacred equipment such as swords, and can be traced back to Hellenistic Egypt, via Moorish Spain and medieval Christendom to 19th and 20th C organisations such as Freemasons with, as an example, one Scottish lodge parading through the streets carrying torches on Midsummer’s Eve (This category reminded me of archaeological items such as swords found in the Thames). Secondly, folk memory – the “hedge witchcraft “information was held and passed on by “wise women” and “cunning men”; this was assembled and written down by 19th C folklorists. The Professor includes “Horse Whisperers”, who tamed horses by secret methods, in this category as they had their awn society involving initiation ceremonies. I found the third, literary strand harder to follow. Professor Hutton states that writers form medieval monastic sources through to 2011 C novels have “glorified ancient paganism”, and latterly representing urban society’s longings for an idealised rural past. His illustration of a “green man” carving in a church, and his reference to Hardy’s novels form part of his hypothesis. He believes that these various writings influenced the fourth strand, the folk customs and rituals, where modern survivals of folk customs are believed to have derived from old religions, as set out in Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough (late 191″ C).

Professor Hutton goes on to point out that Margaret Murray’s The Witch Cult in Western Europe (1921), (which proposes that Europe remained predominantly pagan in the face of a powerful Christian establishment) is factually flawed.

He concludes that the late 20th C Wicca religion is a modern invention which has been heavily influenced by its co-founder Gerald Gardner being a Freemason, Rosicrucian spiritualist, Druid, ember of the Folklore Society and Order of Witchcraft Chivalry; also the Wicca phenomenon is a product of British 19′” and 201″C culture.

The newsletter did not mention publication of Professor Hutton’s work; it will doubtless be of interest to at least one HADAS member, won’t it, Jenny?

THE LONDON BOROUGH OF BARNET: TEXTILE STUDY CENTRE PAST AND PRESENT by BILL BASS

A donation of over Ulm from the Clothworkers’ Foundation, the charity of the Clothworkers’ Company, will support the establishment of a World Textile Centre within the future British Museum Study Centre. This Clothworkers’ Textile Centre will bring together for the first time some 18,000 textiles at present dispersed round the museum’s many departments. It will include one of the most spectacular collections of ethnographic textiles in the world. The collections cover the 7000 years from the Fayum Neolithic period in Egypt of about 5000 years BC to the present day. Among the treasures are ancient Egyptian Books of the Dead on linen, a Peruvian embroidered mantle of 400-200 years BC, a Tahitian mourning dress of bark cloth and pearl shell, 18′ century Hawaiian feather cloaks and 17111 century Assamese silk textiles. The Textile Centre will offer a unique combination of exceptional public access to the collections, specialist conservation services and wide-ranging education programmes. It will open in 1999.

Britain in Old Photographs
(Sutton Publishing, 1997)

Percy Reboul and John Heathfield, HADAS members and chroniclers of the history of the Borough, have produced another excellent book of photographs, this time placing the current view against its historic equivalent. The price is £9.99 and will be on sale at HADAS meetings. These would make ideal Christmas gifts and if you require a copy before our next meeting (in January) please contact Roy Walker (0181 361 1350), who will try to get one to you as soon as possible.

The new HADAS resistivity meter was purchased through generous donations from the Lando Borough of Barnet and the CBA to whom the following report was recently sent.

PROGRESS REPORT ON RESISTIVITY SURVEYING

CHURCH FARM MUSEUM, HENDON (Site of CFM93, CFM96 excavations)

On 31 March 1997 we tested our new resistivity meter, making 2 runs 5m apart running E/W which both went through an area 10 X10m where we had augered in 1996, and we compared the resistivity results with those of augering.

The most striking results were:

On each run, the lowest resistance reading came within a metre or two of a point where augering had shown considerable water, probably running, in a sand subsoil layer.

At at least two points on the runs, high readings were shown close to auger holes where an impassable hard layer had been found within 1 metre of ground surface.We felt these results could give us some useful information of what layers lie beneath the ground surface, if we continue the survey over the whole site as far as possible. and could indicate where further excavation might be rewarding.

ANCIENT BOUNDARY DITCH, KENWOOD AND HAMPSTEAD HEATH

Our object here was to try to find the course of the ancient (probably Anglo-Saxon) ditch between the points where signs of it are still visible at ground level; the attached part of a contour map (kindly supplied by English Heritage) shows, at the bottom, an end of the visible depression, and, since July, we have started a resistivity survey in the area to the north of this, starting from near the boundary stone marked near the top of the map, which may be associated with the same boundary.

On the enclosed map, the lowest resistivity readings in each run are shown as black dots. We are encouraged by these results,
which appear to show a linear feature curving round the west of the boundary stone (possibly following the contours?) and progressing in the general direction of the visible ditch remains

to the south. The pattern, clear near the boundary stone,
becomes somewhat confused towards the south with low readings to the east; however these may be due to the general slope of the ground (shown by the contours) down towards the east causing the

lower part to be damper. We may hope that continuing our
survey to north and south will show a clearer linear pattern which could safely be interpreted as the course of a filled-in ditch.

SITE WATCHING BRIAN WRIGLEY

Earth-moving works (cables, sewers, etc) in the Borough from current planning applications may be of archaeological interest. They are of course being monitored by English Heritage’s adviser to the Borough, but members might be interested to keep an eye open for them in the areas concerned.

Dollis Brook, where Hendon Lane crosses it

Brockley Hill and Edgware, Stonegrove Park

Hampstead Garden Surburb (an “application to dig ducts”)

Anyone interested to have further details, please get in touch with Brian Wrigley (0181 959 5982) or Roy Walker (361 1350)

Portrait of a CITY: Illuminating London’s past through Archaeology

Thu Birkbeck College series of lectures organised by Harvey Sheldon continues on Thursday evenings at the Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, WO, 7.30-8.30 pm.

December 11th Art and Society in Londinium (Martin Henig)

January 22nd Religion in Londinium (Roman Conquest to 5″ Century AD) (Ian Haynes)

January 29′ Death and Burial in Roman London (Bruno Barber)

The admission fee is £5.00 (£2.50 concession) per lecture, payable at the door.

Dec 14

Newsletter-321-December-1997

By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 13 January: “Here’s Looking at You! Mummy portraits from Roman Egypt”: Paul Roberts

Tuesday 10 February Report on the Dig at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Gordon Malcolm

Tuesday 10 March Update on Flag Fen? (To be confirmed)

(Lectures are held at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3 – 8.00 pm for 8.30 start).

NOVEMBER LECTURE JUNE PORGES

METAL WORKING IN NORTH WALES Roy Walker

WITCH WAYS VIKKI O’CONNOR

The newsletter did not mention publication of Professor Hutton’s work; it will doubtless be of interest to at least one HADAS member, won’t it, Jenny?

THE LONDON BOROUGH OF BARNET: TEXTILE STUDY CENTRE PAST AND PRESENT by BILL BASS

Britain in Old Photographs
(Sutton Publishing, 1997)

The new HADAS resistivity meter was purchased through generous donations from the Lando Borough of Barnet and the CBA to whom the following report was recently sent.

PROGRESS REPORT ON RESISTIVITY SURVEYING

CHURCH FARM MUSEUM, HENDON (Site of CFM93, CFM96 excavations)

The most striking results were:

On each run, the lowest resistance reading came within a metre or two of a point where augering had shown considerable water, probably running, in a sand subsoil layer.

ANCIENT BOUNDARY DITCH, KENWOOD AND HAMPSTEAD HEATH

lower part to be damper. We may hope that continuing our
survey to north and south will show a clearer linear pattern which could safely be interpreted as the course of a filled-in ditch.

SITE WATCHING BRIAN WRIGLEY

Dollis Brook, where Hendon Lane crosses it

Brockley Hill and Edgware, Stonegrove Park

Hampstead Garden Surburb (an “application to dig ducts”)

Anyone interested to have further details, please get in touch with Brian Wrigley (0181 959 5982) or Roy Walker (361 1350)

Portrait of a CITY: Illuminating London’s past through Archaeology

Thu Birkbeck College series of lectures organised by Harvey Sheldon continues on Thursday evenings at the Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, WO, 7.30-8.30 pm.

December 11th Art and Society in Londinium (Martin Henig)

January 22nd Religion in Londinium (Roman Conquest to 5″ Century AD) (Ian Haynes)

January 29′ Death and Burial in Roman London (Bruno Barber)

The admission fee is £5.00 (£2.50 concession) per lecture, payable at the door.

Nov 14

newsletter-320-November-1997

By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 11 November LECTURE: “Latest News from Flag Fen”. Garrick Fincham who guided us when we visited Flag Fen last year, will up-date us on last seasons dig.

Wednesday 3 December CHRISTMAS DINNER

At Sutton House, Hackney. The evening, organised by

Dorothy Newbury, includes a guided tour of the House.

( Details and application form enclosed. )

Tuesday 13 January LECTURE: “Here’s Looking at You”, Paul Roberts of the British Museum (on mummy portraits from Roman Egypt)

( Lectures are held at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N.3. 8.00pm for 8.30 pm. start.)

THE MINIMART by DOROTHY NEWBURY

I would like to thank all those members who helped us in so many ways to make the annual event a success – and success it was – in spite of us all thinking it was poorly attended on the day, and also that I had not sold so much before the day. In the end, our total profit is an amazing £1100. Part of this sum is from selective goods which Percy Reboul and I took to the Finchley Sale Room, and also donations from Julius Baker, Olive Banham, Mrs Simpson and Myfanwy Stewart, members who were unable to attend or donate items for sale. I am also endeavouring to obtain a refund from the Times advert as they put in a non-requested news item about the Minimart ( page 10 ) which gave the day of the event as SUNDAY instead of Saturday. – And I’m still selling odds and ends!

TAILPIECE TO THE JUNE OUTING by SHEILA WOODWARD

After tea at the village hall in Yanworth some of us walked down the lane to the small church and were disappointed to find no indication of its age and history. I have since looked it up in Pevsner. It dates from the late 12th century and its architecture is part Norman and part Perpendicular. There are Norman windows in the north nave wall and north transept, and in the north chancel wall where the masonry may be from an older building. The south door by which we entered) is late Norman, and the chancel arch transitional (c.1200). The screen is modern. The transept roof is Perpendicular with corbel heads. The font, very fine, is Norman on a modem pedestal. That strange wall painting of a skeleton with a scythe (Father Time) is post – Reformation. The windows contain many fragments of medieval glass.

MEMBERS’ NEWS DOROTHY NEWBURY

Betty Jeakins. All our members of earlier years will remember Mrs Jeakins, mother of Alec ( the member who discovered West Heath Hampstead Mesolithic Site ). She came on most of our outings and to lectures and weekends away. Sadly she died on 22nd June this year at Robin Hoods Bay, Whitby where she had moved to live with John, her other son. Alec moved to Gloucester last January and bought a large house to enable him to share the caring of his mother. Betty was born in Moscow in 1913. Alec has sent me a delightful leaflet celebrating her life and will send a copy to any of her friends who would like it.

Gill Baker. Gill’s death was reported in the last Newsletter and in spite of not being able to circulate the date of the funeral, there were about 26 HADAS members in attendance, and the Golders Green Chapel was full, revealing the many groups and charities to which she belonged and devoted her life.

Derek Batten has bought a castle believe it or not – in Northamptonshire near where he lives – actually a 12th century Norman Ringwork. Plans of this and all the other Northamptonshire castle sites are available for anyone who would like to see them – a visit maybe! Derek is one for the unusual!! He excavates in America nearly every year in an effort to research the Civil War. He came to talk to us about these excavations a few years ago and has established that they DID die with their boots on

ODD LEGS IN HASTINGS by JEFFREY LESSER

We all enjoyed the visit to the shipwreck museum at Hastings as reported by Pat O’Connell in the last Newsletter. Some of us were intrigued by the partial skeleton of the unfortunate cabin boy Adrian Welgevarem, who died when the ‘Amsterdam’ went down in 1749. His leg bones were arranged within an outline of the lower body, but the “left” thigh-bone seemed to be a right femur placed back to front. So either he had two right legs or the left leg had been badly attached after an accident. Either way, he must have drowned due to his difficulty in escaping from the shipwreck; a mermaid’s tail as displayed in the museum at Aden would have helped him more. It is recognised that those with two left feet make poor dancers, but a double right leg constitutes a terrible handicap in a rolling ship. Although Nelson had only one arm and one eye, with this disability Adrian could never have made Admiral.

THOMAS CORAM FOUNDATION AND GREAT ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL

A WALK WITH MARY O’CONNELL MICKY WATKINS

On a sunny September morning we met Mary O’Connell outside the Thomas Coram Foundation in Brunswick Square. From the outside the building was unremarkable, a 1930s neo-Georgian block. But inside we found that parts of the old Foundling Hospital had been conserved. Up an old oak staircase, past many interesting pictures we came to Hogarth’s portrait of Thomas Coram which the artist gave to the Hospital. Captain Thomas Coram was a master mariner who was involved in colonising North America. Appalled by the plight of the orphaned and illegitimate children he saw on the streets of London, he petitioned King George II to grant a Royal Charter to open a Hospital in which they could be housed and educated. Hogarth’s portrait shows Coram as a short and portly man, bursting out of his uniform, with a plain but kindly face under an untidy wig. The Foundling Hospital was built on Lamb’s Conduit Fields and was supported by the aristocracy and by artists, many of whom were persuaded to follow Hogarth’s example of giving pictures to the Hospital. Thus the Hospital became a sort of early Royal Academy. Fashionable people visited to see the foundlings in their neat uniforms, view the pictures and sometimes hear Handel performing – his keyboard is still there. When he died he gave the score of the Messiah to the Hospital. We

were all surprised by the wealth of pictures. Hogarth’s ‘March to Finchley’ arrested us. The scene is set in Tottenham Court Road in 1745 when a band of guardsmen is moving off to Finchley on the way North to fight Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebels. The soldiers are drunk, flirting with the girls, unaware of the spies; no wonder the King disapproved of it. Hogarth decided to sell the picture by lottery, giving the unsold tickets to the Hospital – and luckily the Hospital won the picture.

The Courtroom, like the staircase, was part of the original Hospital. When it was demolished in 1926, the Courtroom was dismantled and reassembled in the Thomas Coram Foundation. This room, in which the Governors held their meetings, was decorated by Hogarth and his friends. There is a lovely plaster ceiling, and on the walls 8 roundels with charming views of London hospitals. The large pictures are of scenes from the Bible showing abandoned children. Though the Foundation no longer has any resident orphans, it certainly has not abandoned its social work.

Leaving the Comm Foundation, we walked through Coram’s Fields, a pleasant park on the area where the Foundling Hospital once stood. We peered through the railings at the sheep and hens in the playground: a notice told us that adults could only enter if accompanied by a child! In Conduit Street, Mary told us that in 1577 a conduit was laid to take water from the Fleet to the Greyfriars at Newgate. The benefactor was William Lamb, evidently a very sensible man for he also presented 120 buckets to the local womenfolk.

Great Ormond Street has many 18th century houses, and the Museum and Archive of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children where we were told about the history of the Hospital. Founded in 1852, it was the first children’s hospital in this country – though only the 17th in Europe. Its founder, Dr Charles West, trained in Medicine in Paris and Bonn, so when he returned to London to work in the Universal Dispensary in Waterloo Road he saw the need for a hospital for children. With the support of eminent public health reformers such as Lord Shaftesbury, Baroness Burdett-Coutts and Edwin Chadwick, the Hospital opened in 1852 in a house in Great Ormond Street (150 years earlier it had been the home of Queen Anne’s physician). It was intended to serve the children of the poor and was conveniently placed close to the ‘rookeries’ and slums of Clerkenwell and St Pancras.

The Hospital rapidly expanded, took in a neighbouring house, and in 1869 opened a convalescent home at Cromwell House, Highgate Hill. By the 1870s the patients were very overcrowded and in 1875 a custom built Hospital was opened. The architect was Edward Barry, son of Charles Barry who with Pugin had designed the Houses of Parliament. This was a neo-Gothic building, but inside were state of the art paediatric wards and operating theatre and under floor heating. HADAS member Margaret Phillips told us that she remembered the old building very well: she was a nurse tutor there in the 1960s..

In 1994 the old Gothic building was demolished and replaced by the new Variety Club building. This new hospital has plenty of accomodation for parents and some nights there may be as many as a hundred parents staying here close to their sick children. Within the new Hospital, one part of the old Hospital has been preserved – the Chapel. Edward Barry’s Chapel of St Christopher was boxed up and shifted by hydraulic rams to its present position where it was very carefully restored to its former glory. By chance, the restoration was undertaken by Peter Larkworthy who proved to be a descendant of the original builder! The Chapel is lavishly decorated with gold and alabaster, marble and mosaic. Oscar Wilde called it “the most delightful private chapel in London”.

Mary was thanked for the excellent tour and for showing us the inside of buildings we had previously only passed by. Stewart Wild put it more aptly: “Mary is the guide who reaches the parts that other guides don’t reach”.

COPTHALL STADIUM SITE, 1950s ALBERT DEAN

I lived on the Great North Way at the time the stadium was built. The Copthall Fields were my playground when I was a lad. The fields were owned by the Council from at least the late 1940s, probably earlier. I never did get around to finding out when the Council actually acquired them, probably about 1930 when the great North Road was put through I suppose. No matter.

The first field on the right (entering from the Sunny Gardens side) was on two levels, the part nearest the entrance being on the higher level. About 1950 a bulldozer turned up and started levelling it to make a rugby field. At the end of the day he had to drive up the bank from the lower to the higher level. It had been raining and the bulldozer’s track slipped on the wet clay. So he got out and tried to jab a long crowbar between one of the tracks and the clay. But something went wrong and he was caught betweeen the track and its wheels. His yells attracted attention straight away. The ambulance and fire crew arrived They finally got him free about midnight. But he died in hospital a few hours later.

The field was left until the Spring when a couple of fellows turned up with a very strange tractor that had a huge cutting wheel on one side. it was a weird looking machine, like a thin water wheel on wheels.They proceeded to cut herring bone trenches across the field with it. They wouldn’t tell us why. Eventually we found out, field drains! Well we were only about six years old then, we didn’t know fields could be drained. The effect was that the first field was stripped to natural and then its topsoil was re-scattered back across it. During that time I was out there every chance with half a dozen friends, ‘skating’ on the frozen winter puddles and generally buzzing about in that glorious ocean of clay, in the wet and in the dry. We found nothing except stones. Anything on or in the top-soil is either recent or it has been moved substantially.

The long field was the cricket field and had been used for that for years, possibly from before WWII. The pond was filled in about the time Copthall Stadium was built. Half way down the airfield side of that long field, just on the other side of the hedge, was a small radar station for the airfield. If there wasn’t an officer about, then the RAF technichians used to let us go in and watch the planes come and go on the radar.

Copthall Stadium is built across the hedge line between two fields. My friends and I helped build it in a way. A little fellow, about as big as a jockey, appeared one day with a caterpillar tractor and land levelling unit in tow. It was during the summer holidays. During his lunch break he would go and sit under a big oak tree to have his beer and sandwiches, and we carried on with the tractor and land leveller! In those days stripping out a hedge or two meant nothing.

We were out there for the whole operation, we found nothing. If anyone finds anything there, where the ground has been obviously landscaped or within the stadium and track perimeter, or in the car parking areas, then almost certainly it will be recent or have been moved.

CLIVE OF INDIA’S GOLD IN A PIRATE WRECK

In 1755 Clive set sail for India aboard the Stretham., stowing his hoard of gold coins in a sister ship, the Doddington.. While rounding the Cape of Good Hope , the Doddington sank with the loss of 247 lives. The wreck was searched by divers in 1977 and 1996, but to no avail. Now a small heavily armed ship has been found nearby, containing 1400 gold coins dating from the 1750s. (Times 29.9.97)

SUMMER MEMORIES: AN OUTING TO HERTFORDSHIRE SHEILA WOODWARD

“Hertfordshire” said E.M. Forster “is England at its quietest, with little emphasis of river and hill; it is England meditative”. And so we found it on a hot sunny day in August: picturesque villages, quaint churches, a restored windmill, gently undulating countryside, castle mattes now peaceful and unthreatening. Our leaders Bill Bass and Vikki O’Connor had done their homework thoroughly. Vikki’s 24 page guidebook was packed with fascinating snippets of history and legend and Bill’s commentary during our journey made us appreciate how little we (well, I) knew about an area so close to home.

Much Haddam, our ‘coffee stop’, gave us an opportunity to watch a blacksmith at work, photograph some lovely timbered-and-thatched cottages, and pay homage to Henry Moore who sculpted a pair of heads on the door corbels of the cottage where he once lived. Anstey, our next main stop, has a fine church, its Norman tower topped with a Hertfordshire spike, that thin cheeky spirelet of wood sheathed with lead which is so typical of this county and no other. The Norman font intrigued me: chunky and rather clumsy, it is decorated with a frieze of mermen holding their tails. The rest of the church is later, mainly late 13th to 15th century, and there are some interesting early graffiti. The lychgate incorporates the village lock-up. The latter seems a surprisingly common feature in Hertfordshire villages. Was it such an unruly area? Or are the people thereabouts of a cautious nature, careful to preserve even this slightly unflattering element of their history?

Before leaving Anstey we walked round its much eroded castle-mound, site of a Hying Fortress crash in World War II, and admired the carp swimming in the moat. Then on via leafy Barkway, Great Chishill and Barley (with its delightful Fox and Hounds inn-sign bridging the road) to Buntingford and lunch.

Buntingford is an attractive little town. It was on the London to York stage-coach route and is recorded as having 20 coaching inns. Some still exist and traces of others can be recognised. One of these, The Angel, was surmounted by a bell which summoned people to worship, weddings and funerals – and to gleaning! The town’s old buildings proved well worth studying and its pleasant Layston Court Gardens provided shade for a picnic lunch. The River Rib meanders through the town and the riverside footpath called “Pig’s Nose” is flanked by a most beautiful 16th century house of that name, perhaps originally “Piggy’s Eye” meaning a small secret place.

Our afternoon visits included Cottered where the church contains a 14th century wall-painting of St Christopher, now headless (go to Pickering in Yorkshire to see an almost identical one with head). Windmills are always a joy to explore and Cromer Mill was no exception. It was salutary to learn that it was still working in my lifetime! Now a preserved monument (the mill, not me) it has been beautifully restored and will be back in working order when the sail shutters have been replaced.

Pirton, our final main stop, has an imposing church of Norman origin though much restored. Both it and the modern village lie within the castle bailey; the shrunken medieval village can be traced, carefully aligned outside the bailey. The castle motte is extensive and impressive and we were given a guided tour by Mike Newberry, local historian. The mound is known as Toot Hill, meaning a look-out or meeting place, a name which may pre-date the castle. The latter was probably of 12th century date and may have consisted of a timber tower and palisade topping the mound.

Access to the beautiful moated Pirton Grange, currently being restored, was denied to us and we had to be content with a glimpse from the coach of its timbered glory. But a sumptuous cream tea in the tree-shaded garden of Hexton Village Hall did not disappoint; it was a pefect end to a perfect day.

Thank you, Vikki and Bill.

Recent Archaeological Projects in Hertfordshire – CBA Mid-Anglia Bulletin

A substantial excavation of a late Iron Age enclosure in Stevenage has just been completed by Johnathan Hunn on behalf of The Heritage Network. Archaeological investigations have been continuing at Leaysden Aerodrome near Watford, prior to redevelopment. The forthcoming phases of archaeological work will include the photographic and video recording of the extensive aircraft production and airfield buildings that date from World War II. During the war, the two large factory buildings were used to produce the Mosquito fighter bomber and the Halifax bomber. This year, one of the factory buildings is being used as a studio for the filming of the new Star Wars films.

The most extensive archaeological evaluations in the county tend to be carried out in response to planning applications for gravel extraction. Two of the largest proposals, one north of Hertford and the other near London Colney, were the subject of a programme of investigation by the Oxford-based company Tempus Reparatum.

The use of fieldwalking, aerial photography, geophysical survey and trial trenching found significant archaeological remains at both sites, including the remains of a Late Bronze Age settlement. Another evaluation carried out by the Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust at a proposed quarry near Hatfield discovered the previously unknown Iron Age site.

SITE WATCHING Bill Bass

The former “Wheels Parking Lot” at Potters Lane, Barnet. (NGR TQ 2540 9585)

The land lies at the bottom of Barnet Hill adjacent to the Great North Road, it was latterly used by a van hire business and is currently being developed for housing. A concrete layer 20cm thick covering most of the site was removed. Revealing at the northern end 30-40cm of a mixed clay top soil with sand and turf layers, the southern end was similar with a 50cm layer of top soil, concrete and sand directly over a 40cm black, silty clay layer. All these deposits overlaid the natural stiff natural yellow/brown clay. This site has been heavily disturbed and truncated in the past by concrete foundations and buried diesel storage tanks. No archaeological features were seen although several sherds of modern pottery including probable Victorian stoneware were noted from topsoil at the front of the site.

1263 – 1275 High Road, Whetstone, N20.

Members may have seen in the local press plans by the ‘Halfords’ chain of shops to locate a superstore on the junction of Totteridge Lane and Whetstone High Road where the present bakery/butcher and other assorted small shops are.

English Heritage are recommending a field evaluation here as the land lies in an area that “covers the site of the later medieval village of Friern Barnet that is thought to have relocated from around the church (St James) in Friern Barnet Lane to the newly constructed road to Chipping Barnet, at its junction with Totteridge Lane, in the 14th century” [HADAS ‘A Place In Time’ p58-59, 1991].

It may be interesting from an archaeological point of view to see what lies beneath this area. But it may be a greater shame to lose this part of the High Road, especially as other areas such as the row of shops opposite (some dating to c1500) have been restored sympathetically.

Last year, for the first time since my illness, I was able to go to some of the Society’s events, and be in touch at the Church Farm House site where the Society’s ‘hands on’ archaeology team was working, regrettably only to watch. The project there was to trace the source of the underground water feeding a pond in a corner of the house grounds. This may not only have been water for the farm, but in earlier times also for the house. It was found to come from very near the adjacent churchyard. The equipment used to trace this was used in finding the suspected Roman Road at the fields at the Copthall Centre. Towards the end of this project finally it became terminally ill, but luckily the stream had been found by then. Two London charities kindly granted funds to replace it.

The new project at Kenwood also involved underground investigation. Mr Sullivan, a resident of the Heath Extension area had, after much research, suggested that many old parish and manorship boundaries were on those of much earlier times, some of Saxon origin. Existing milestones still to be seen in the Kenwood grounds date back to the mid 1700s. Finding the boundaries might lead to the discovery of early habitation sites forgotten as a result of the extensive sand and gravel extraction for house-building and, in war-time, for sandbags.

The Society’s excavation team led by Brian Wrigley, and now armed with a new USA made instrument

(used in the building industry in searching for underground objects ) was able to start the new project in late July, and kindly invited me along. The first survey session which took place on 20 July, with a team of five, was very successful. (For those who know the Heath, it was alongside the gravel path that runs from Kenwood car park to the estate boundary fence, at about a third of the way towards an exit to the Heath proper.).

The new equipment proved very fast and accurate. The four man operating team performed what appeared to me to be a well rehearsed country dance and made an astonishing 500 or so measurements. From these Brian could see the indications of a depression made by a boundary ditch. They later had three further sessions in suitable weather and showed, with increasing and astonishing accuracy, a wide channel. I undertook graphical analysis of the great mass of measurements, and think it possible with this accurate tool to get a guide to size, distance and depth of objects.

If any members are interested to join the archaeological ‘dance’, or do some research in local libraries, or come to see the team at work, please ring Brian Wrigley or Roy Walker.

BIRKBECK LECTURES

The Birkbeck series of 20 lectures, organised by Harvey Sheldon, entitled Portrait of a City: Illuminating London’s Past through Archaeology continues with Londinium: The Roman City by Mark Hassall

(Thurs 6 Nov), Roman Southwark by Harvey Sheldon (Thurs 13 Nov), The Environs of Londinium: Roads, Roadside Settlements and the Countryside by David Bird (Thurs 20 Nov) and Roman London: Port and Riverside by Gus Milne (Thurs 27 Nov).

Venue: Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, all at 7.00-8.30pm. Admission: £5 (£2.50 concessions) on the door. The series began with a general talk on the development of the archaeological units operating in London. The Roman lectures end on 22 January, with Saxon to 18th century featuring in the Spring.

More information next month… ….. ( The Harvey Sheldon Fan Club! )

PULLMAN THE TRAIN MAN

An Exhibition at Church Farm House Museum

If you are interested in design, social history or railway trains in the age of steam, don’t miss the chance to see the magnificent collection now on show at Church Farm House Museum. This special exhibition commemorates George Pullman, the American inventor who designed sleeping and dining cars for the railways. The local connection? England’s first Pullman cars were used by the Midland Railway in 1874 and steamed through Hendon on their way north.

Pullman car services were renowned for their quality and comfort. You can see fine examples of fixtures, fittings, porcelain and cutlery made by leading manufacturers to meet the Pullman Company’s exacting standards. Spode tea services seem a long way from polystyrene cups! The recreated 1930s dining coupe and selection of menus on show give some idea of the dining car service enjoyed by passengers on The Brighton Belle and The Golden Arrow. There are models, posters, signs, uniforms and countless other mementos which give the flavour of luxury steam travel in another age. The exhibitiion is on show until 23 November.

`CLEARINGS IN THE FOREST’ A COACH TOUR ROUND BARNET’S PAST

On Sunday afternoon 2 November, local historian and archivist Pamela Taylor (well-known to many of our members), will be guiding a coach tour round the borough. The tour leaves East Finchley tube station forecourt promptly at 1pm and will return at 4pm. During the three-hour trip round Barnet’s past Pamela will reveal why people in the past settled in particular areas. Whether you’re a new resident or were born and bred locally, you’re sure to learn something new from Pamela. The tour costs £5 per person in advance, or £6 on the day. Phone 0181-203 0130 to book your ticket.

Oct 13

Newsletter-319-October-1997

By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

HADAS DIARY

Saturday 18 October MINIMART Please note the revised date

11.30am – 2.30pm at St Mary’s Church House, top of Greyhound Hill, Hendon (opposite Church Farmhouse Museum). Admission 20p.

Tuesday 14 October EVENING LECTURE*

“Prehistoric and Medieval Metal Working in North Wales: Excavation and Experiment” by Peter Crew.

Peter guided us around one of his excavations during our 1979 long weekend in North Wales

Tuesday 11 November EVENING LECTURE*

“Latest News from Flag Fen” by Garry Fincham

Garry was our guide when we visited Flag Fen last year.

Wednesday 3 December CHRISTMAS DINNER

At Sutton House, Hackney. The evening, organised by Dorothy Newbury, includes a guided tour of the House.

Lectures are held at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3. Doors open at 8.00pm for an 8.30 start.
See page 8 for more dates for your diary.

MEMBERS’ NEWS

The Minimart A few final points on the run-in to the revised date:

Will helpers, old and new, please contact Dorothy to confirm that they can still attend.

Posters advertising the Minimart are available from Dorothy – these are suitable for car windows or other prominent places.

Further donations of items for sale would be appreciated especially bric-a-brac.

Dorothy’s home phone number is 0181-203 0950

From the Membership Secretary The Committee welcome the following new members who have joined since April: Rhoda Baker, Diana Benyon, Martin Doran, Pauline Drayson, Gillian Hartnoll, Jean Lamont, David and Alex Miles, Julie Mirvis, Eve O’Connor and Ruth Whitehill. We hope they will be able to attend some of the new season’s lectures and support the Minimart!

So that’s where it was! The Observer newspaper reported in August that the Anglican Church in South Africa was trying to find the long-lost Black Christ, a painting by Ronald Harrison which became an icon for the anti-apartheid movement in the 1960s, The report jogged the memory of “a spry 90-year-old” in Hampstead who for several years had been storing the painting in his cellar. Startled HADAS member, Julius Baker, scribbled “Well I’m damned, I’ve got it!” across’ his newspaper when he read the story.

SCOLA Conference Peter Pickering tells us that tickets for the SCOLA conference, revisiting “The Future of London’s Past”, are selling well but that he would like to see more HADAS members at it. The scene of the conference, to be held at the Museum of London on Saturday 6 December commencing 9.30am, will be set by Martin Biddle, one of the original authors of “The Future of

London’s Past”, and Simon Thurley, the new Director of the Museum of London. Peter Addyman, one of our guides this year at York, is also a speaker. The cost is £7.50 (6.00 for SCOLA members). Tickets are available from Peter Pickering at 3 Westbury road, London, N12 7NY, cheques payable to SCOLA with an sae please.

GILL BAKER

It is with great sadness that we record the death in the North London Hospice of dear Gill. She was a member of long-standing who joined us on all our outings and most weekends for the past twenty years. She has also been one of our leading helpers at all our Minimarts – pricing goods and running the gift stall. Gill may have been quiet and unobtrusive but she was one of the pillars c the Society. She started work in the Civil Service with her lifelong friend, Gwen Searle (they were often mistaken for sisters) and Gwen has been an outstanding strength to Gill over the last year or so, travelling almost daily from Twickenham to be with her, sometimes staying overnight when the going was tough. Gill’s funeral was held at Golders Green on Wednesday 24th September, but it wasn’t possible to let all her friends know. HADAS will miss her.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

From Pam Taylor

Barnet Local Studies & Archives

It was interesting to read Roy Walker’s description of the use of ground probing radar at The Priory, but unsurprising that no tunnel was found. In the first place, The Priory was never more a manor house than it was a religious establishment, and although it has 17th century origins it underwent considerable 19th century alterations. Secondly, and more importantly, underground tunnels are an extremely widespread myth, but very rare in reality. I have been told, among others, of tunnels to both Hendon and Finchley parish churches, from Abbots Gardens in East Finchley to Parliament Hill Fields and, best of all, under the Thames between Fulham and Putney churches. I reply that the technology would have to have been remarkably advanced – even up here just think of our London Clay and high water table, that I assume ladies in their finery, who in any case had carriages, would find rain preferable to mud, and that tunnel-travelling never features in the novels which are our best social history (Mrs Gaskell, Jane Austen etc), where the gentry clearly enjoy meeting and impressing each other as often as possible. The result is disappointed looks but no convincing rejoinders, although, so strong is the apparent need for such myths, I doubt if my rationalism is ever persuasive either.

From Philip Venning

Secretary, The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

I wasn’t wholly surprised to read in the September Newsletter that no tunnel was found between the building and the church. “The tunnel leading to the church” is one of the most common myths associated with old buildings. Occasionally they do exist, but this, are even rarer than timber framed buildings made of “old ships’ timbers”. In the latter case many buildings were built of reused timbers but except in areas close to ports, rivers, etc, they were more commonly taken from other buildings.

Many of our ideas about what old buildings should look like are based on what the Victorians did. Today, homeowners generally know that in most regions the blackening of exposed timbers was largely a 19th century practice, but a specially pernicious fashion -stripping old plaster to expose stone or brickwork in the mistaken belief this is “authentic” – is much harder to counteract. Then of course there are the more recent trends such as the stripping of pine, an inferior wood Us’ was meant to be painted; the prominent use of so-called “bulls eye” glass, the waste glass; the use of brass door and window fittings when cast iron was more common; and the list of myths and misapprehensions goes on.

The above comments from HADAS members are welcomed. MoLAS was aware of the myth of tunnels leading to churches – the work was funded by the houseowner. I understood one reason for the myth might be glimpses of “tunnels” leading of poorly-lit crypts not externally but to private vaults within the crypt. The term “ships timbers”, I believe, has been applied to the quality of ancient timber not its origin, in the same way as ‘marine ply” today perhaps sees more bathrooms than boats. Roy Walker

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB The third edition of Henrietta’s Dream by Kathleen M Slack, revised and expanded, has recently been published. It examines the aim of Henrietta Barnett to create from scratch a green, healthy and beautiful environment, in which “all classes could live in neighbourliness together”. Her social ideals were less fully achieved and Kathleen investigates the reasons for this and the way in which Hampstead Garden Suburb has subsequently developed. The author has lived on the Suburb since 1972 any draws on the direct testimony of those who were children when autocratic Dame Henrietta was an all too immediate and authoritarian presence. The book, 157pp, 23 illustrations and a map, can be ordered from The Trust Office, 862 Finchley Road, London, NW11 6AB, price £9.95 plus £1.50 p&p.

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT IN BARNET

October 31, 1997 (Halloween) sees the publication of HADAS member Jennie Lee Cobban’s new book entitled Geoffrey de Mandeville and London’s Camelot: Ghosts, Mysteries and The Occult in Barnet. In the book, which includes 24 photographs and 21 illustrations, Jennie closely analyses law the local legend of Geoffrey de Mandeville’s ghost came into existence in the early years of the twentieth century. She also surveys the life story of this infamous medieval Earl, his local connections and his relationship with the enigmatic Knights Templars. The history of excavations in Trent Park at the mysterious archaeological site known as Camlet Moat, long associated with the de Mandevilles and recently described as “London’s Camelot”, is also described here in detail for the first time along with the fascinating myths which have attached themselves to the site over the years. Other historical mysteries into which she delves include Hadley Wood Camp, the whereabouts of the Battle of Barnet chantry chapel and Monken Hadley’s elusive monks, mounds, secret passage and hermitage. Some of her thoughts may well prove controversial! Jennie has been collecting Barnet folklore and ghost stories for several years, many of which she recounts in the book. There are headless ghosts in East Barnet, smoking ghosts in Chipping Barnet and ghosts of grey, blue and white ladies in abundance. She also investigates the bizarre religious cults which have flourished in the Barnet area over the years. These include the “Reverend” John Ward’s Confraternity of Christ the King at Park Road, New Barnet in the 1930s and 40s, the cult of the 18th century “prophetess” Joanna Southcott in East Barnet and the more recent antics of “Bishop” Sean Manchester, whose “Church of the Holy Grail” was based in Chipping Barnet until a few years ago.

To launch her book Jennie is holding a private Halloween party on 31 October at the 17th century Church House in Monken Hadley (just behind the graveyard) from 8.30pm until the witching hour. Copies will be on sale at the special price of £8.50. She extends a general invitation to any HADAS members who would like to come along. Halloween costume is optional, but please bring a bottle (or two!) Contact Jennie on 0181-440 3254 for further details. The book will also be on sale at local bookshops and Barnet Museum or from Jennie direct (£9.99 incl. p&p) at 42 Tudor Road, New Barnet, Herts, EN5 5NP. Any profits arising from the sale of the book will be donated to Marie Curie Cancer Care.

ARCHAEOLOGY FROM BENEATH THE BRITISH MUSEUM

An excavation in advance of the redevelopment works on the Great Court at the British Museum has revealed the remains of Montagu House, the original home of the Museum’s exhibits. Montagu House, the London home of the Dukes of Bedford, was constructed in 1686 and was bought by the nation in 1754 to house the national museum; the stable block was used to house the museum’s senior staff! The present BM, begun by Smirke in 1823, was built over the great garden with the bulk of the old house lying under the forecourt on Great Russell Street. Only the main wing of the first museum, demolished in 1842, lies under the present building. The excavation has revealed the internal north-eastern angle of the courtyard of Montagu House. Fragments of the demolished House have been uncovered including decorated plasterwork, some gilded and the usual discards – clay tobacco pipe and glass bottles. Excavation will take place over the next two years when it is hoped to find evidence of London’s Civil War defences.

ARCHAEOLOGY FROM BENEATH THE WAVES

Southampton University’s Archaeology Department and students have been excavating 18th century shipbuilding slipways on the Beaulieu River basin. In collaboration with the Hampshire & Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology and the Beaulieu Estate they have conducted archive research, topographic and hydrographic surveys and recording timbers. Finds are being preserved at the Buckler’s Hard Maritime Museum where they plan to display virtual reality shipyard reconstructions.

After five year’s work, excavation of The Swan, a Cromwellian warship which sank off the Isle of Mull in 1653, will now cease due to lack of funding. Although much has been achieved there is still much more left to be done.

Robert Ballard, who located the wrecks of the Titanic and Bismarck, has found the wrecks of another eight ships including some that plied the Mediterranean between ancient Rome and Carthage. The finds are of five Roman ships (200 BC to 400 AD), a 17th/18th century Islamic fishing vessel and two 19th century ships.

The playhouses and brothels around Southwark Bridge in Shakespeare’s time were built on the edge of a marsh, surveys of the Thames foreshore have shown. Reclamation work began in the Middle Ages but the area around Bankside remained very damp until the advent of wharves…, and shipyards.

Timbers found in the Thames off Chelsea have been carbon-dated to the 8th century. This reinforces Thames Foreshore Survey officer Mike Webber’s view that these are the remains of Offa’s Palace. (Mike lectured to HADAS on the aims of the Survey in 1996)

THE YORKSHIRE TALES Edited by Roy Chaucer

This year’s long weekend to York, from Thursday 4th to Sunday 7th September was, as you will see below, a great success thanks Mainly to Dorothy’s hard work during the previous twelve months and for the excellent groundwork put in by her and her son Christopher. This was a return visit by HADAS with five of the previous party of twenty-one years ago present giving the trip the sense of being a periodic pilgrimage to this former capital of northern Roman Britain.
The HADAS pilgrims rose early, cantered off, loathe to tarry
Lest they missed a coach called Shire and its driver Barry.
Alas, they waited long, for one was late in getting in
But cheerily they applauded him, that tardy Paul O’Flynn.

The Bentley’s Tale: Day One
The Addyman summoning all his powers
Enthraled his audience for two whole hours

There was a round of applause when, at exactly 11.30, our coach drew up in its reserved space outside Selby Abbey, writes Rosemary Bentley. Commenced in 1069, this former monastic building is now the parish church, standing on one side of the market square. The west door is framed by four heavily carved concentric Norman arches on slender columns, very like Rochester Cathedral. The interior columns are, fortunately, traditionally sturdy, one of those under the centre tower having subsided so far that one side of the arch has stretched into perpendicular shape. A genuine perpendicular east window is mostly hidden by the altar screen but illuminates the fan vaulting of the choir. A fire in the roof in 1906 resulted in the building being scrubbed inside and out, traces of soot remaining on the delicately carved capitals in the south aisle. If fault is to be found with this lovely place it is that the new roof is still aggressively shiny in the midday sun.

After finding our rooms at the College of York and Ripon St John, beside the town wall of York, we met the first of several dedicated members of the York Archaeological Trust. Richard Kemp’s theme was the Roman wall and he marched us, sinister, dexter, to the Multiangular Tower at the western corner of the Roman fort which would originally have had a simple rounded corner. The adjacent short stretch of Roman wall, still standing 20 feet high, shows that the Tower was addedlater, perhaps to impress a visiting dignitary, rather than for any direct military purpose. Dr Kemp introduced us to Saxa quadrata stone bricks of varying length but all cut to the same height, that of a modern house brick. During our walk we looked out for medieval buildings repaired with these recycled bricks. The original fortification would have been of earth and three further layers of soil have been identified between the Roman remains and the existing walls which were begun in the mid-13th century. We walked along the, , west and north walls which stand above or beside the Roman work, passing the immaculate gardens that lie behind the Minster. The Roman headquarters are beneath the Minster but on a different axis, the Romans having aligned themselves NW-SE alongside the River Ouse. We left the wall at the point where it was extended by the Vikings and visited the Archaeological Resource Centre where the enthusiastic staff encouraged us to identify fragments, write our names in runes and play with their computers. After supper Peter Addyman of the Trust explained, with slides, how York developed on a defensible site between two rivers after the IX Legion had been sent from Lincoln to quell a rebellion. The Ouse, flowing past York to the Humber, was a vital means of transport and its floodwaters equally important in preserving artefacts.

The Smith’s Tale: Day Two

They dieseled by bus around the Riding

Then nostalgia’d by train into the siding.

Having mastered the door-locking systems of the University, we sped away via Gillygate and Bootham Bar accompanied by Peter Addyman, writes Tessa Smith. Up the wide Vale of York, where once a forest of gall-oaks grew, now a patchwork of harvest fields and grazing sheep, passing the White Horse of the distant Kilburn Hills, through Coxwold, the flag of its 15th century church flying sadly at half-mast, then just a glimpse of Byland Abbey, grey on the steep hillside, through Ampleforth, with a wave from an Ampleforth boy, dropping down via Helmsley Castle, thence winding steeply through wooded banks until unfolded the secret stone glory that is Rievaulx Abbey. The slender elegance of the 13th century east end, with its narrow lancet windows and slim-arched flying buttresses contrasted with the massive strength and severity of the earlier 12th century stonework. The golden ruins are built on a rocky outcrop surrounded by hills that go down to the River Rye. We admired the frater or great dining hall with its preserved doorway, the infirmary, the apsidal chapter house and the elaborate drainage system. English Heritage is working here at the moment, recording every stone and crack so as to maintain the structures as they are now.

But, “lateness is the enemy of the soul” as the Cistercians would say, and although we wouldhave liked to linger longer we sped onwards through the soft landscape of the south side of the moors to St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale, a comparatively tiny church, very secluded, late Anglo-Saxon, to be welcomed by Professor Philip Rahtz and his wife Lorna. He has found evidence of an earlier monastery and in his current dig behind the church recently found a lead plaque with an 8th/9th century inscription plus a piece of elaborate twisted coloured glass from an imported Italian vessel. Within the chuchyard walls are built Saxon grave slabs and crosses Inside the church are two more grave slabs, intricately carved, one showing a sword with a hollow where could have been a great jewel. These grave slabs a century ago were said to bear the inscription Cyning Aethilwald in runic characters, inspiring the idea that an ancient building lay nearby. Certainly, the present church was built from material of a previous building. A unique feature of St Gregory’s is the Saxon sundial set over the south doorway. It is a stone slab, seven feet long, the centre third being a very simple dial which divides daylight hours into four “tides”. The two outer thirds proclaim “Orm Gamal’s son bought St Gregory’s Minster when it was all broken down and fallen and let it be made anew from the ground… in Edward’s day the King and in Tosti’s day, the Earl” (AD 1060). The sundial told us it was time to travel on to Pickering where we climbed aboard our North Yorkshire Moors Railway carriage. Like Bisto kids, but sniffing evocative smells of smoke, we set off at a leisurely pace heaved along by our engine Repton, one of the Schools Class of thirty engines (thank you Andy), through woods and moorlands to Grosmont. There we strolled through the world’s earliest railway tunnel where Stephenson’s first horse-drawn trains ran in 1833, to the deviation sheds where the Blue Peter engine was being overhauled. One cream tea later, the Eric Treacy chuffed us back at a good clickety-clack. Finally – and I really can’t believe we did all this and more in one day – to Malton and the Old Lodge. This was no ordinary hotel being built over part of a Roman Fort at the hub of the Roman road system, adjacent to a medieval castle and with the ruins of a Jacobean mansion in the back garden. The new owner, Norris Binner, was well-pleased with his acquisition of this large lodge, and with theparticipation of English Heritage. He told us that the Time Team had excavated in the garden last year and that the finds were at Malton in the local museum. Our host kindly showed us the heavily panelled Jacobean gatehouse, dated 1604, the gallery and rooms above. And finally, at last, we sat down to a really splendid meal which all of us agreed was one of the best.

The Bass’s Tale: Day Three
The pilgrims bravely uttered no cry for mercy
On the wet slippery slopes to Wharram Percy.

Understandably today’s events were overshadowed by the funeral of the Princess of Wales. York in the morning like so many other towns was almost deserted as people watched the proceedings on television, some visiting York Minster where the service was relayed on screens.

HADAS set off in the afternoon to visit the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy located amongst the rolling hills and valleys of East Yorkshire, writes Bill Bass. On our way we passed through Stamford Bridge where Harold of England defeated a large invading army under Harold Hadrada of Norway in September 1066 shortly before the Battle of Hastings. Unfortunately, a large area of the battle site, described by Peter Addyman as “wonderfully evocative”, is likely to be developed for new housing. By the time we arrived at Wharram the weather had turned against us – wind and rain prevailed. Never mind, our party made its way down a long track to the site. Avoiding a herd of cows, most of us headed for the shelter of the ruined church.

Before excavation of Wharram Percy it was thought that deserted medieval villages were relatively rare and that they were fairly simple crafting and farming hamlets. Earthworks of these sites were generally thought to be of one phase, ie the one when they were deserted. Excavation and surveys by Maurice Beresford and John Hurst over forty years from 1950 have shown that the situation is far more complex and that Wharram along with other medieval villages may have had occupation, some continuous, from the Neolithic and later periods. Early work at the Yorkshire site revealed an array of differing post-holes, footings, foundations and floors from various structures built on the same area or toft, many on different alignments. It can now be seen that the origins of Wharram Percy appear to follow a regular series of intensively-used Iron Age and subsequent Roman farmsteads but not as yet a nucleated settlement. It’s not until the middle and later Saxon period that excavation points to what later became the planned medieval village. This later Saxon “village” is thought to have been re-planned in the Scandinavian 10th century or possibly by post-Conquest Normans. It was based around a communal green with two rows of crofts, a re-sited manor house and church.Excavation of St Martin’s Church also reflects the changing fortunes and population levels in the village. This sequence begins with a small timber structure. perhaps 8th century, later replaced by a larger example in sandstone with further expansion during the Saxon period. Growth can be seen throughout the medieval occupation with the addition of aisles, altars, enlargements to the chancel and so forth. In the 16th century the church along with the village shows signs of abandonment. This was due to many factors including a rise in population, over-working of existing and marginal land and crop failure. Often it was more economic to farm sheep – as a result peasants were forced to move away from the village. We inspected the mill-pond and shallow earthworks then made a soggy return to the coach for our next stop at Melton.

Melton is a fair-sized market town lying in the south-west corner of the Vale of Pickering on the River Derwent. The geography of the area makes it a natural gateway to the Vale and land-routes connecting the Wolds and North Yorkshire Moors. The museum was the focus of our attention here and reflects the rich pattern of settlement in the surrounding area from an early stage. The post-glacial lakes, marsh and forest attracted Mesolithic people to the well-known winter and spring camp at Star Carr. Mahon itself was well-frequented by Neolithic people with finds of axes, maceheads and flints, the distribution of long barrows mainly confined to the Wolds and Tabular Hills. The Bronze Age is represented by at least nineteen barrows around Mahon and the nearby parish of Norton. Unfortunately many were levelled in the 19thcentury. The “food vessel” tradition is strong in this area. Evidence for the early Iron Age is a bit sketchy. There is occupation from a later (3rd century) period with square-ditched barrows in Norton. Other dykes and linear

IN. earthworks are in the vicinity. This community is probably part of the Parisi tribe. One of their sites with quernstones, potboilers, chalk statuettes and weaving artefacts was discovered beneath the Roman fort. The fort was built around AD79 as part of Agricola’s system of forts and roads linking northern England, replacing an earlier camp. Mahon was then known as Derventio. There have been several digs on the fort and its vicus revealing a continuing story of expansion and contraction of the fort and the surrounding town and industries. In the same area as the fort were Malton’s medieval castle and the Jacobean mansion. It was these two areas that the Time Team investigated, finding evidence for the location of both. A small room displayed some of the programme’s results including a replica medieval-style sword made in a local blacksmith’s forge.In the evening we had an opportunity to visit the renowned Jorvik Viking Centre “after hours.” When HADAS was last here in 1976 they saw this area of Coppergate when it was under excavation. Today, we were met by a real live Viking in chain-mail and after a short introduction were sent back in time – to October AD948 to be precise. Our route passes bustling market stalls and rows of basket goods for sale before turning into an alleyway between buildings heading down towards the river. In a house, a family are preparing their evening meal, in the backyard are animals, wells and a cess-pit (engaged). Finally, we pass the wharf with a boat unloading its cargo. All of these scenes are based on excavated evidence down to the smallest detail. The waterlogged nature of the site preserved a rich variety of finds – metal, wood, leather, bone, fabrics and environmental material much of which was on display. We passed through a reconstruction of the dig and processing laboratories – real Viking-age timbers have been stabilised and then re-erected where they were found. They are the best-preserved timber buildings of this period to be found in Britain.

Emerging back to 1997 time (it’s still raining) HADAS decided to visit the local hostelries. The so-called “hardened drinkers” set off to a riverside pub, while the “social drinkers” returned to the college bar. Returning to the college the “hardened drinkers” found they had been outdone by one D. Newbury who had drunk her companions under the table demolishing the entire bar’s sherry stock.

The Walker’s Tale: Day Four

On Sunday the group once more did walk

Around Eboracum, then Yorvik, now York.

Sunday morning saw HADAS, Andrew Jones, our guide (who we first met at the ARC) and an equal number of Canada geese at the foot of Clifford’s Tower, writes Roy Walker. It was built in 1068 at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss thus controlling the main trade route into the area. Originally of wood, the current stone tower dates from the 14th century and comprises four intersecting circular drums with mini-turrets at the intersections. The gatehouse is at the front and at the opposing side is an external garderobe complex unfortunately facing the Stakis Hotel! The Tower has a bloody history of repression and this law and order aspect of the site is maintained, less bloodily, by the adjacent law courts and the prison, now the Castle Museum.

Excavation on the Stakis Hotel site revealed medieval ditches leading to the Foss providing water defences for the Castle. Dams on the river created mill ponds for grain milling giving William control over food production and fish ponds to provide high status food-gifts when necessary. A traditional method of controlling the conquered.

We crossed the Victorian cast-iron Skelmersdale Bridge to the site of the second of William’s castles – Baile Hill. This is on the opposite side of the Ouse to the first and was not as important. It was constructed in 1069 within the area of the Roman Colonia, the administrative centre of 2nd/3rd century York. It was conjectured that the Roman bank and wall might lie beneath the medieval ones which we were following.

Leaving the walls we entered the Bishophill area, observing the entrance to air-raid shelters beneath the wall and were shown the site of Peter Wenham’s excavations in the 1960s when timber-lined wells and square timber buildings of the Roman town had been revealed. The 2-3 metres of stratigraphy required further work. The church of St Mary Bishophill Junior despite its name is the oldest surviving church in the city. The tower is built of re-used Roman masonry with white limestone blocks in the lower courses and sandstone blocks at the top – the reverse order in which the Romans used them indicating that they were removed from the Roman buildings top downwards as the tower went upwards. Inside, the tower arch leading to the nave is an intact re-used Roman arch. Nearby is the graveyard of St Mary Bishophill Senior with its wall showing Roman terracing in its stonework. Higher-status domestic buildings were found in this area.

Once more back on the wall, Andrew pointed out the Bar Convent, home of Margaret Clitheroe’s hand. In the 17th century she had sheltered Catholic priests, was arrested and refused to recant her religion. She was slowly crushed to death and her hand remains as a grisly relic to her martyrdom. We passed through Micklegate Bar, the main Roman entrance to the city and observed the new railway station situated outside the walls. The original station, its platform still visible, was inside the walls. A Roman cemetery was excavated beneath the 1870s station and the finds deposited in the Yorkshire Museum. As this was within the Colonia large civic buildings should be expected but due to York’s decline in the 19th century there has been little development with less opportunity for excavation.

We dropped down to the waterfront by Lendal Bridge to look at the river frontage of the Guildhall. This was the site of a major Roman bridging point which has been located together with lead pipes for a public river water supply. It was possible to ford the river here before weirs were constructed so this point was under the control of the fortress. Roman warehouses have been found but no wharves as yet. Nearby was a Roman temple with around 2000 low-grade coins perhaps used as offerings for a safe river journey.

Our tour finished within the nave of St Mary’s Abbey next to the Yorkshire Museum. This was a most prosperous Benedictine house, a place of pilgrimage, which survived the Reformation as Henry VIII took the monastery for himself and it was not fully robbed. The Museum is built on Abbey remains and they have been incorporated into its displays.

Andrew was thanked for giving up his Sunday morning to show us the south-west corner of York and the group dispersed to the far corners of the city to make up for the time lost on the previous day.

We rejoined the coach a few hours later and a traditional HADAS return home followed with a comfort stop at Grantham. Stuart Wild had kindly donated souvenirs of his world-wide travels for use as prizes in the raffle, the proceeds of which went to the driver whose skill and patience had contributed greatly to the outing. Paul O’Flynn had acted as Dorothy’s right-hand man throughout – map-reading and making the announcements – which was greatly appreciated. Julius Baker proposed a splendid vote of thanks to Dorothy for all the work that she had put into the outing (and into the Society for that matter), sentiments we were pleased to heartily endorse. (Where to next year – Dorothy?)

BARNET & DISTRICT LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY The emphasis at their next meeting is local history. Richard Selby will talk about Barnet’s Pubs, the subject of his recent book. Wednesday 8 October, The Wyburn Room, Wesley Hall, Stapylton Road, Barnet, at 8.00pm.

ENFIELD ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Friday 17 October The Thames Archaeological Survey by Mike Webber. 7.30 for 8.00pm, Jubilee Hall, junction of Chase Side and Parsonage Lane, Enfield. 50p for visitors. Phone 0181-804 6918 for confirmation of programme.

FINCHLEY SOCIETY WINE AND CHEESE EVENING A reminder for those who notified Liz Holliday of their intention to attend this Finchley Society function on Sunday 19 October – it commences at 7.30pm in the Drawing Room of Avenue House.

FINCHLEY SOCIETY Thursday 30 October 40 Years On – Renewing Civic Pride by Michael Gwilliam, Director of the Civic Trust. 7.45pm, Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3. Phone 0181-346 7182 for confirmation of programme

Sep 13

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Newsletter-318-September-1997
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DIARY

September 4th to 7th — Long weekend in York, No vacancies at the moment, but if any member would like to join us, please phone Dorothy 0181-2030950 in case we have any last minute cancellations.

September 26th (Friday) — Visit to Thomas Comm Foundation, WC1, (The Foundling Hospital) and a morning walk with Mary O’Connell. Details and application form inside.

October 11th (Saturday) — The fabled Minimart. St Mary’s Church, Hendon.

October 14th (Tuesday evening) — First lecture of the new season: Iron Age Working in Wales by Peter Crew.

October 19th (Sunday) — An Invitation from The Finchley Society, see inside.

Lectures are at AVENUE HOUSE, EAST END ROAD, FINCHLEY, N3, 8pm for 8.30

Ground Probing Radar at The Priory, Totteridge Lane — Roy Walker

In September, 1996, the Museum of London Archaeology Service undertook a Ground Penetrating Radar Survey at The Priory, a 17th century manor house in Totteridge Lane, Barnet. The cellar of the building had suffered problems with water seepage and it was thought that the cause may have been due to the presence of a tunnel traditionally supposed to link the Priory to nearby St Andrews Church. The owner of the property commissioned the Clark Laboratory, based at MOLAS, to locate the tunnel by use of Radar. Basically, the system sends a radio pulse into the ground which interacts with the immediate surroundings and is reflected back. This interaction is recorded by a receiver and analysed by computer. The interaction is varied depending upon the medium through which the pulses passed and a value can be given for the type of medium – for instance, air has a value of 1, concrete 7. Changes in the reflected signal are “recorded as anomalies. The transmitter and associated receiver are moved across the area in a series of survey lines. In this instance twelve lines laid out and the anomalies were noted. In two areas the anomalies were considered to reflect underground services such as drains, power cables and so forth. In one area, however, a possible buried structure was thought to be present -perhaps the tunnel – and a limited excavation was recommended. Text Box: IIn July this year, a small pit (about lm square) was dug by the owner’s contractors with HADAS attending by way of a limited watching brief. It was located in the area of the unknown anomaly but as the sketch shows, there was no significant archaeological deposits although disturbances were present including a patch of tile and brick rubble. There was no tunnel. Six days later we were notified that a further pit had been dug with the same negative result. The sequence of layers was in a slightly different order but it bottomed-out on the same sandy/clay as the first pit.

MEMBERS NEWS

Pat Bromley – In July we reported that Pat was in hospital and we were missing her and the Bromley family oel our outings. Recently she had a second operation, and again we all wish her well.

Congratulations to Stephen Wrigley on working with the Prince’s Trust as a guitar Tutor. He will be remembered by West Heath diggers where he regularly dug with his father Brian.

Congratulations to Julius Baker who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, several members attended his party.

Gareth Bartlett has passed his Diploma course of Physical Data in Archaeology, well done to him and other members who have passed exams recently.

Hendon Aerodrome Part 4 – Transporting the masses

A noted local railway historian Mr J..F.Aylard mentions in a recent ‘London Railway Record’ (July 1997) that “a regular event on the (now closed) ex-GNR Edgware branch which occurred every summer from the 1930s up to WW2 was the use the LNER made of it to assist passengers to attend the Hendon Air Force Pageant which was held in June. From 1.00pm to 7.30pm the normal Edgware service was replaced by buses and the end of the branch was used to store the trains, which stretched nose to tail from Mill Hill The Hale to Edgware after the passengers had been decanted at The Hale from a succession of nine special trains”. In the evening locomotives that were used to pull the afternoon trains were simply attached to the rear of the previous train’ before setting back off down to Finsbury Park, signalled by men with green and red flags stood at intervals. Mr Aylard says ” I think one must give the LNER full marks for ingenuity in arranging this system”.

VISIT TO HASTINGS & BATTLE, July 97, by — Pat O’Connell

The passengers and coach were all on time and off we went on a fine misty morning, which was soon gone when the sun came out for a glorious day.

We drove straight through London on clear roads to Kent and the village of Goudhurst and The Vine for a welcome coffee. Giving us time to explore the interesting village built on a hill in the 17 & 18th centuries including Kentish houses, an oast house, shops and the old church with its graveyard on top of the steep hill. As we returned to the coach, we passed the village green and duck pond. Then we were off again passing the lovely green fields and hedgerows for Hastings and the old part of town.

In no time we were there by the Net Shops and the “-L- de (shingle beach). In fact they were not shops at all, but stores for the Hastings fisherman – tall wood huts, mostly three stories high used for storing nets and tackle, 45 net shops still survive, they are unique in Britain.

THE SHIPWRECK HERITAGE CENTRE Created in 1986 by the Nautical Museums trust, a registered educational charity. Funding from the Government, local authority, charitable sources and admission charges. Staffed with volunteers, in 1989 it received the Museum of the Year Award. I must say it deserved it.

Its aim was to illustrate the history of ships and seafaring in north-west Europe primarily from

archaeological remains rescued and preserved. It is in the right area as there are thousands of sunken ships known to lie off south-west England, because for 2000 years the channel has been one of the busiest seaways in the world. We could see part of the channel navigation on the radar,/ would never make a coast guard!.

Being a large party we divided into two groups. I went to the Annex to see the Primrose a small
spritsail barge that sailed the rivers Rather, Tillingham and Brede in East Sussex and along the Royal Military Canal in Kent. The Primrose was the last to be built in the 1890’s and the only one to be built with a spritsail (- a great spar supporting and crossing the mainsail diagonally from the base of the mast) by Mr Clarks yard at Winchelsea Road, Rye. It carried up-river coal, chalk, sand, corn, lime and salt. Returning with timber bark, stone, bricks and hop-poles.

Being sold in 1937 to J & T Mackey for harbour works. In 1954 when restriction on access to the river banks were lifted it was found abandoned in the River Rother near Rye Harbour. But it was not recovered and rescued until 1992 by the Centre. Having been totally submerged by all the tides, all the planks and fittings loosened, the stern and stempost being ripped . They had a crew of two, a master and mate usually father and son. They had a cabin in the bow with a stone base for the stove, to boil their kettle on.

MUSEUM

Then on into the museum to see the Cognac brandy bottles part of a cargo of French wine and spirits, bound for the Caribbean in the Danish tombstone wreck of 1862 there were 100’s of bottles minus labels. The tombstone was carved in England for a mother and son who died on the Virgin Islands where the ship had been due.

There was so much to see and touch for the children – a Saxon dug-out, a piece of London Bridge built by the Romans c85 AD, a 15th century pot and sherds some imported, Medieval rivets used in Saxon and Viking ships, animal hair for caulking and English clay tobacco pipes from 1610 to 1750. There were Spanish silver Pieces of Eight minted in Mexico City. Carried in Spanish treasure galleons from Central America to Amsterdam, bought by a Dutch merchant ship (an East Indiaman) the Hollandia, bound for Java to buy silks and spices but the ship sank in the Isles of Scilly in 1743 while on the way to Java.

Another East Indiaman called the Amsterdam sank off Hastings in 1749, outside of the centre we had seen its anchor and also some planks wrapped in plastic, the wood felt like stone. Two-thirds of this ship is now buried in mud. Owned by the Dutch Government and a protected monument the remains are well preserved..

Finally in the theatre we saw a show of slides and talk by the ships Captain Klump giving his points of view on the loss of the Amsterdam. His 16 year old cabin boy Adrian Welgevarem from Leerdam died in the ship in 1749 Before we left the theatre we saw the much repaired timbers of the 15th century Blackfriars Bridge.

Battle by Beverley Perkins

Our tour of Battle Abbey, led by the able and enthusiastic Jane Fraser Hay , started at the imposing gateway. She explained that the original gateway had been smaller, but had been enlarged and fortified in the 1330s in the face of increasing unrest and raids by the French.

We then watched a video explaining the background to the Battle of Hastings. Edward the Confessor had died in early 1066 without a clear succession. There were three claimants to the throne: Duke William of Normandy, related through Edward’s mother, whose claim was backed by the Pope; Edward’s brother-in-law, Earl Harold of Wessex; and Harold Hardrada of Norway who based his claim on a treaty made with an earlier English King. In the September following Earl Harold’s coronation, Harold Hardrada invaded but was soundly beaten at Stamford Bridge. While King Harold was occupied in the north, William invaded, landing at Pevensey. King Harold rushed his army southwards and met William’s army on 14th October 1066. Our guide explained the Battle. The English army of foot soldiers occupied a narrow ridge backed by woodland. The Norman army, including 2-3000 mounted knights, was spread out on the opposite side of the marshy valley. The battle raged inconclusively for several hours, but finally the Normans lured the English off the ridge by feigning retreat. Harold was killed (though not by the arrow in his eye, as legend has it) without their leader the English army collapsed and fled.

Battle Abbey was built on the orders of William I both to mark his victory and as a penance, imposed by the Pope, for the regicide and slaughter. The Benedictine monks who came over from Marmoutier to: supervise its construction were horrified by what they found: a swampy, uneven site with only a narrow ridge to build on, and no water supply. They started to build to the west, but William was adamant that the abbey be built where King Harold had fallen. With great labour the site was levelled and water was brought in on an aqueduct. The abbey church, 225 ft long and built of Caen stone, was constructed first and consecrated in 1076. The complete abbey became the fifteenth wealthiest religious house in the British Isles and owned the surrounding land to a distance of 3 leagues – about nine miles.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII gave Battle Abbey to Sir Anthony Browne, who demolished the church, chapter house and part of the cloisters and turned what remained into a residence (now a school). He had the guest range restored for use by the royal princesses, Elizabeth and Mary, but they never visited Battle. We inspected the undercroft of the guest range, a series of barrel-vaulted rooms used for storage by the abbey cellarer.

Further along the ridge are the remains of the reredorter and the latrines, backed by the infirmary. The arches carrying the latrine seats may have been supplied with wooden gates which could be raised to allow the night-soil to be removed on carts. On the Abbey’s sloping site, the water supply was arranged so that it reached first the kitchen, then the abbot and monks, then the infirmary and finally the latrines.

The ground floor of the dorter is in a good state of preservation. Impressively high at the south end, the vaulted ceilings of the rooms become progressively lower as the site slopes upwards. This building housed the monks’ sleeping quarters on the first floor and the common room and novices’ room below. At the back was the parlour, the only room in which the monks of the silent Benedictine order were allowed to speak.

Finally we saw the outline of the vast church, now marked out only by a line of stones. The site of the high altar is believed to be the spot on which King Harold died.

Our visit to Battle ended with a delicious cream tea at the picturesque Pilgrims Rest, an ancient building originally built to accommodate the abbot’s guests. A great end to a thoroughly enjoyable day – thank you, Sheila and Tessa, for organising what everyone agreed was a most successful and interesting trip.

BOOKS

An extract from “Among the New Books” Antiquity March 1997 — from Peter Pickering

A singular approach to understanding the past is offered by JOHN IVIMY in Lives relived Like many other respected people, IVIMY advances the case for reincarnation. The successive lives of individual psyches can be reconstructed from outstanding similarities in character traits and resultant deeds. There are rules to reincarnation, and a distinct patterning in time and place; souls follow the centre of gravity of civilisation and so progress from the East to the Classical world and from thence to Northwest Europe. IVIMY’s classical background is ever apparent . Suggested probable reincarnations are the great Athenian Pericles, as John Churchill first Duke of Marlborough and, in a familiar vein Julius Caesar as Winston Churchill, possibly by way of William the Conqueror (succeeding in conquering Britain at that time). “A mass of purely objective historical evidence in the form of biographical sketches” supports these identifications. In favour of the reincarnation of Felix Sulla and Pompey’s souls, together, as Franklin D. Roosevelt is that all three were political men less concerned with ideology than with practical measures determined ” to restore vitality to an economy that was running down through fear and uncertainty”.

EGYPT: ANTIQUITIES FROM ABOVE by MARILYN BRIDGES , Published by Bulfinch , £27.

If your interests take in Egypt, black & white plus aerial photography then this may be the book for you. This

well produced volume contains 68 plates of Egyptian monuments some world famous, to others less so but still rich in

interest. Mostly taken between 1992-3 using the raking morning or evening light every, shape and shadow of this

countries ancient buildings – pyramids, temples, tombs and other ruins can be seen, set amongst the desert, valleys and the Nile. The authors pictures are clear and sharp allowing the contrasting light to pick-out a myriad of detail from upstanding monuments to those still lying beneath the sand.

Obtaining these images is a story in itself – after a scouting mission in 1984 this accomplished photographer of many previous exhibitions and books managed to return in the early ’90s. Permission to over-fly this security conscious land was very difficult, eventually a flight in light plane became available (you can’t hire your own) the pilot being distinctly unenthusiastic. The ride was bumpy due to hot thermals rising from the desert floor, then at one time Bridges was asked to take the controls as the pilot turned the plane east and fervently prayed! other flights were undertaken by military helicopter. Whatever method used the results were worthwhile.

The Royal Commercial Travellers Schools 1845 – 1965 — from Ted Sammes

These schools when they existed have recently been drawn to my attention by Dorothy Newbury. With a little more vision and interest they might still be functioning at Hatch End.

Richard Nichols – Secretary of the Mill Hill Historical Society, pupil of the schools 1927-1934 has written a book charting their demise in 1965. He has more recently produced a supplement to this. The original publication gives great details of the schools and the recent supplement gives eight pictures showing the inside of some classrooms and outside views. The last entry for the United Commercial Travellers Association was 1981 when it moved to Knutsford.

In a thesis by a Mrs Halsey, she stated that in 1880 there where 80,000 commercial travellers. There was camaraderie amongst the “The Knights of the Road”, who were away all week and longer. In 1880 these travellers raised £80,000 on Orphans Day that year. It is probable that the Schools were closed too quickly, possibly to achieve a commercial advantage perhaps another case of “selling the family silver”!

Today much of the re-furbished site has been sold and is now a Supermarket, but much of the park remains to give the local residents pleasure.

This was a self supporting, charitable school and in many ways can be compared with Mill Hill School, the Bushey School and the Royal Masonic School at Bushey, to mention a few others with the welfare of orphaned children at heart. Richard Nichols MSc is a life governor of the schools

For further details and copies of the book please contact Mr Nichols on 0181 959 3485

EXCAVATIONS AT THE VERULAMIUM MUSEUM, ST ALBANS — a brief account

Between August ’96 and June ’97 excavations were conducted at this well known museum at the centre of the Roman town. The building itself is to be extended providing improved facilities for general visitors and school parties (they come from all over the south-east), to increase the display space and shop area as well as extending the workshop and lab.

Much of the area has of course been dug previously most notably by Mortimer and Tessa Wheeler, Lowther and Frere amongst others. Some of their trenches were re-excavated (mostly Lowthers’s) which enabled some re-interpretation of previous ideas , however large parts still lay relatively undisturbed. The most recent work was overseen by the St Albans Museum Service, with contract archaeologists and help from local volunteers. Two trenches were opened-up, the largest , trench ‘A’ on the north-west side of the museum (adjacent to the car park) and a smaller one, trench ‘B’, to the south hidden behind the pavilion.

Trench ‘A’

After the clearance of modern drains, soakaways, walls and so forth there were the remains of a farm (St Germain’s) originally founded c1500 and lasting several centuries. This took the form of a hard rammed pebble and chalk floor/yard surface, this took some time to uncover, plan, then excavate. No obvious Saxon or Medieval features were seen although some Saxon (St Neots Ware) and Medieval pottery was recovered. Once the farmyard surface had been removed the Roman road could now be revealed, in fact there were two roads in evidence here, Watling St and a road leading from the south-western Silchester Gate forming a junction. The road’s camber could well be seen together with its silted-up ditches, in section there was a depth of a least 1 % to 2 m deep – over 400 years of relaying, patching and heavy use (sounds like the M25), again the fabric consisted of assorted compressed pebbles in a clayey sand. Channelled into the metalling were drain and water-pipe systems, with iron-collars – their wooden pipes long decayed tracing their direction.

BASILICA

This major establishment was on the west corner of the junction, in fact its northern end can now be slightly extended by several metres due to a wall uncovered during the present dig. Hopefully a small section of this building will be on display near to the new entrance. Over the road from the basilica on the southern corner several walls were found, some substantial others less so, and of different phases. Within a ‘room’ layers of a number of slumped clay floors were excavated, burnt areas could also be seen.

Trench B’

This trench was smaller and more shallow, excavation nearby in the ’70s had revealed rooms – some with mosaics, this time floors uncovered were made of plain red tesserae, these had been re-laid over the years, one area showed signs of burning and may have been the site of a brazier and a hearth was also present. Interestingly a pile of animal rib bones were discovered sitting directly on the floor surface seemingly as left by the last Romans ? or by later Saxon inhabitants living in the old premises. Also a substantial section of fallen decorated wall plaster was lifted for conservation. Again walls of different phases pointed to these rooms being changed or converted over their life time.

FINDS

Conveniently all the artefacts that needed stabilising were only a few steps away from the laboratory. Finds include – hundreds of coins many 3-4th century in date some earlier, either found insitu or metal detected from the spoil heap, several brooches, a fine hippo sandal (to protect animal feet), toilet instruments, a ligula (for extracting medicine or cosmetics from narrow bottles), bone counters/buttons/pins and a carved knife handle. A large selection of the usual Roman pottery types were excavated most notably a complete poppy-head beaker and near complete indented beaker For the duration of this dig members of the public could observe the work proceeding and would ask questions, some must have followed it from beginning to end. Coach loads of school children would pass by every day (found anything yet ?) was a universal greeting – a good way of seeing archaeology in action followed by a tour of the finished result in the museum. One day members of the Ermine Street Guard were seen in full regalia marching up and down a genuine bit of Watling St looking very at home.

“Warwick the Kingmaker at Waltham Forest Refuse Depot — by Roy Walker

The Museum of London Archaeology Service has been excavating the site of Low Hall, Walthamstow, adjacent to the council’s rubbish depot! The site is some relevance to Barnet’s history. Low Hall was a moated manor house first mentioned in 1825 which from 1532 was the property of the Earls of Warwick. In the mid 15th century it passed to Warwick the Kingmaker who was slain at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. The manor, not unexpectedly, then passed to the Crown which in the 1560s passed it on to the Argyll family. By the 17th century it was no longer a manor and became a farmhouse. The original building had been extended in the Tudor period by the addition of a wing but the excavation strategy is to ignore the later works and to concentrate on the earliest activity on the site. There are very few small-finds, few pits to contain datable evidence, much undatable building material and accordingly much interpretation to be undertaken at the post-excavation phase. The moat was infilled in 1890 and in 1Vindolanda,e was damaged by a V1 flying bomb. Parts of the bomb have been recovered! The house had been totally demolished leaving MoLAS to machine-clear the top soil to find the subsurface foundations of chalk, Reigate stone and Kentish ragstone. The moat is visible, edged with an orange gravel band, and what is probably a bridge abutment has been revealed.

The British Museum

The BM Magazine reports that earlier this year a new suite of galleries has been opened at the museum: Later Bronze Age, Celtic Europe and Roman Britain. General themes covered include the way that different cultural groups interacted, whether between Etruscans, Greeks and Celts, between Romans and Britains, or between more remote communities of prehistoric times. “Our galleries seek, therefore, to set out material evidence for the very beginnings of British history, and place it within the wider European protohistoric background”.

Along with the well known displays there are new sites and finds which have been found and interpreted more recently, including from the Roman gallery – many more tablets and inscriptions from Vindolanda_, the Hoxne hoard and most spectacularly a section of the barn-like building from a 4th century villa estate at Meonstoke, Hants. It was lifted by the museum in 1989, and proved not only to be colourfully and elaborately decorated, but to have an uncanny resemblance to the elevation of an early Romanesque church.

In the not to distant future it is hoped to complete the galleries with the Department’s rich holding of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and earlier Bronze Age periods. The prospect is a 100-metre range of rooms which take the visitor down a logical cultural sequence spanning some three million years.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ NEWS

The Barnet Countryside Centre in Byng Road, Barnet has focused primarily on providing an environmental educational facility for school children for the past 24 years. However, this did not deter Barnet & District Local History Society who held their annual summer Garden Party at the Centre, enjoying the company of snakes, rabbits, donkeys, guinea pigs, frogs , gerbils, bees and a tarantula !

B&DLHS’s next lecture is – With Dr. Johnson to the House of Charles Townley 1737-1805, Wednesday 10th September, 7.45 for 8.00pm. At the Wyburn Room, Wesley Hall, Stapylton Road, Barnet.

They also have an outing on Wednesday 17th September to COLCHESTER AND THE WORKING SILK MUSEUM, BRAINTREE, cost £12.00. Contact Pat Alison on 01707 858430 (no later than 10th Sept please).

The London & Middlesex Archaeological Society are holding their 32nd LOCAL HISTORY CONFERENCE – The London of Human Frailty – The Weak the Wicked and the Well-Meaning. Saturday November 29th 1997 at the Museum of London 10.00 am to 5.00pm. Cost £5.00 tickets and details from Local History Conference, 36 Church Road, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7PX.

The Archaeological Group of the St Albans & Hertfordshire & Archaeological Society are at present digging

a site at Harpenden. The nature of this site is not yet certain but it consists of a substantial burnt flint layer in a very dark matrix which includes charcoal, beneath this is a pebble-surfaced depression in the natural subsoil clay. Finds include struck flint at all levels (Late Neo/Bronze Age), the large parts of a Middle Bronze Age bucket urn stratified in the burnt flint layer, Roman sherds from the top soil. Nearby is a man-made pit probably for clay extraction.

THE STANWAY BURIALS

There’s a chance to visit the cemetery site at Colchester which has been producing remarkable finds such as the gaming boards and ‘doctors’ medical kit amongst other objects. The site consisttheseveral enclosures containing wooden chambered tombs – where all finds were cremated or smashed. But other secondary burials, are the intact ones with the fine grave-goods.

Excavations started on July 13th for 10 weeks. There will be site tours, replicas of some of the finds, and video presentations. Visitors are welcome any time, Wednesdays to Saturdays. The site is near Colchester Zoo, on the opposite side of the road, and about 100 yards back towards Colchester

Sep 13

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Newsletter-317-September-1997
By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

No. 317 AUGUST 1997 Edited by Peter Pickering

DIARY

Saturday 16 August Visiting Hertfordshire with Bill Bass and Vikki O’Connor.

Moats, mills, lock-ups – and we trust, no hiccups. Visiting Reed, Anstey, Buntingford, Cottered, Cromer & Pirford. Booking form within. (Extra pick-up point).

September 4th to 7th Weekend in York

Friday 26th September Thomas Coram Foundation, WC1, and a morning walk with Mary O’Connell. (Please add this to your programme card)

NEWS OF MEMBERS

Alec Goldsmith is leaving our Society with regret. His initiation into HADAS was a very, very wet weekend on Hadrian’s Wall in 1974. But that did not deter him, and since then he rarely missed an outing or lecture. Some ill-health (and age) overtook him a year or so ago and he has decided to move to Dorchester to be nearer his sister. We miss him, and wish him well in his new home.

HADAS FIELDWORK – Back on the Heath

Our work on the Anglo-Saxon ditch on Hampstead Heath continues. We have completed the `—contour survey within the Kenwood area and are now using our new resistivity meter on an area where the ditch has disappeared, in order to trace its previous course.

Our main task then will be to produce an interim report on the above work supplemented by descriptions of the state of the ditch, photographs/drawings, locations of its boundary stones, and details of trees and vegetation alongside and within it. This latter task will require expert experience as the excavation team cannot tell a bramble from a blackthorn or a beech from a birch. Our contact at the Suburb weekend will be helpful, but are there any experts amongst our membership?

Our presence on the heath has provoked curiosity (and concern!) but much interest (and relief!) is shown when our purpose is explained. It would be helpful if more members could attend Sunday mornings to help on the publicity side if not on the survey side.

If you are interested please contact Brian Wrigley (959 5982) or Roy Walker (361 1350) for details of the days we are active.

—FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF (1)

An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms by C Arnold, has recently been fully revised – paperback £17.99, hardback £50.00.

Site Watching (1) by Tessa Smith

If you are walking in any of these areas please take a lively archaeological interest and report any “goings on”

Planning applications have been received regarding:-

Copthall Stadium to be demolished and a multi-sports stadium erected. Pottery and evidence of a possible Roman road have been found nearby by HADAS. English Heritage say that it warrants further consideration.

Brockley Hill Farm – west of Watling Street Extensions to the farm are planned to become a crematorium. Although it is out of our borough, we are still concerned as it is in the areas of the Roman potteries.

The Corner House – Stone Grove – Edgware. The Museum of London are watching this site, where extensions to the public house are being built, alongside Watling Street

Land between Belmont Riding Stables and St. Vincents – The Ridgeway NW7. Robert Whytehead of English Heritage considers that this application warrants further consideration as a mediaeval hamlet stood on the ridgeway – also, prehistoric finds have been made at Mill Hill School.

SITE WATCHING (2) Bill Bass

HADAS will be observing the ground clearance and foundation trenches of a site at the ex ‘Wheels’ Parking Lot, Potters Lane, Barnet (junction of Potters Lane and the Great North Road). This is due to take place during the middle of August; would any volunteers contact me on 0181449 0165.

Development of a site on land at the northern end of Barnet Gate Lane has been given a waiver of archaeological assessment/evaluation by English Heritage as it is unlikely to affect any archaeology in this area (none is known).

The vast Aldenham Works, latterly used to overhaul Routemaster buses has been demolished to make way for a business park. It was originally built to service the proposed tube extension from Edgware to Bushey Heath. When this was abandoned it was adapted for aircraft production especially Halifax bombers during the war, the overhead traverser cranes being particularly useful in their assembly. Used as a bus depot from 1955 it was closed in 1986.

BROUGHT TO BOOK IN THE SUBURB Roy Walker/Andy Simpson

Those who watched BBC1’s Omnibus on 7th July would have noticed the scenes filmed at the Hampstead Garden Suburb Weekend. We were there too – selling HADAS books. Our stall, initially, was not under cover but the rain held off until later in the day after we had moved into a nearby tented vacancy. Membership forms were distributed to those who showed interest in the Society’s activities, and a useful contact was made with the secretary of a Hampstead Heath ecology group who can advise us on the horticultural aspects of our ongoing Saxon ditch survey. Our books sales for the one day we were there totalled £60.60, and our presence resulted in a meeting with a local bookshop proprietor who subsequently purchased a selection of publications for resale in his Temple Fortune shop. In all, a worthwhile day, even though we just missed appearing on BBC1 – possibly a blessing! Many thanks go to Arthur Till for transporting our display to and from the Suburb and to Andy Simpson and Vikki O’Connor for manning the stall

FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF (2)

The latest volume of Hertfordshire Archaeology is now published. Copies are available from the Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust, The Seed Warehouse, Maidenhead Yard, The Wash, Hertford, SG14 1PX. Cost 215.00, plus p&p £1.80.

PREHISTORIC SOCIETY STUDY TOUR IN THE NETHERLANDS June 1997 Brian Wrigley

This was a most interesting week, if at times a little strenuous – we never stopped at one hotel more than two nights! Our round trip started from Maastricht in the south-east, via Leiden (or should I spell it Leyden?) near the coast clockwise northwards to Assen then south to Nijmegen, and Leendert P Louwe Koolimans, our guide, was assiduous in explaining the varying geology of the areas we passed through. This gave a very good picture of the millennia-long contest between dry land and water partly from natural forces and partly from human activities; this has left many areas of past occupation in wet environments so that organic remains are preserved.

A good example of this is the terp, a man made mound for dwelling and cultivation (equals Dutch dorp, village – and English thorpe?). There are many of these in Friesland and Gronigen in the north. Terpen seem to have originated (6th or 5th centuries BC) by the building up of land in areas periodically inundated, and quite often animal dung was used in quantity which has made a useful preservative for archaeology! Examples go from Middle and Late Iron Age to the middle and late Middle Ages, and can show the distribution of dwellings/farms, and the laying out in plots of agricultural land. much impressive archaeological evidence of ancient land use patterns we were also told about at Weert and Someren in the south, where since 1990 large areas of the landscape (formerly mediaeval arable lands) have been surveyed by test excavations, yielding evidence of Early Iron Age urnfield ‘cemeteries’ and, in the area around, traces of dispersed Iron Age farmsteads – 13 at Weert, some 20 at Someren; and besides prehistory, both sites have traces of continuing occupation through Roman times on to the Middle Ages.

Indeed, we got an overall impression of the lack of any dividing line between ‘prehistoric’ and `Roman’ in the attitude of Dutch archaeologists, who have the evidence of the continuity of the way the native population carried on in the same way during Roman times. Some of us prehistoric enthusiasts were a little put out by the amount of Roman stuff we were shown in the areas of the Roman frontier (Limes was a word much used), but we began to realise the advantage of this non-divisive attitude in finding out the story of local communities. And we certainly got an impression of the local-community interest in archaeology, reflected in work being done by archaeological groups in partnership with local authorities – and at Oss, in the south, we were invited to the start of a dig where the local Mayor operated the mechanical digger

..„) open up the first trench at a site of numerous Bronze Age barrows! We were also welcomed by the mayor at Stein, where a boat Museum contains, in situ, a neolithic gallery grave which was the centre of a settlement of the early Neolithic (Bandkeramik), of which the ground-plans of many houses have been found.

Stone monuments are limited in Holland – there is not much rock about. However, in areas in the north, glacial erratics have been used to construct hunebedden, which are gallery-graves, 2 rows of upright stones with capstones across the top; they date from 3400 to 3000 BC and are related to the Neolithic TRB (Trichterband) culture of Schleswig-Holstein and southern Scandinavia. They have yielded quite a lot of grave goods and offerings (pottery, flint etc.) and burnt bone remains. We saw quite a number of these in our travels.

Another point of community interest was the extent of amateur work we were told about. A particular site we visited was the flint mine at Rijckholt, in south Limburg. Here there is what the Dutch call ‘a hill’ (they realised we should think this an exaggeration!) which has chalk below it with seams of flint – very reminiscent of Grimes’ Graves. Research has gone on here since last “century, and vertical shafts were discovered in the 1960s; however these could only be explored with the help of a group of amateur archaeologists who happened to have mining expertise, and this group tunnelled horizontally into the side of the slope, with the result that now there is a neat

Text Box: On 1st January the Greater London Record Office was renamed London Metropolitan Archives. Owned by the Corporation of London, the Archives now offer a greatly expanded range andconcreted passage, with apertures at the side giving a view along the ancient galleries and of the shafts that have been found. The mining experts were most impressed with the extremely safe and efficient mining techniques of their prehistoric predecessors.

Time and space prevent me from giving details of the many more sites we visited than the above few, but I hope this is enough to demonstrate the interest of this trip.

SOME SITES IN NORTH YORKSHIRE Peter Pickering

On a recent week in North Yorkshire with the Royal Archaeological Institute we visited Philip Rahtz’s excavation at St Gregory’s Minster, Kirkdale. The church is especially famous for a sundial (now hidden from the sun in a porch) with an Anglo-Saxon inscription recording its rebuilding by Orm son of Gomal between 1055 and 1065. Research on the church and area, including topographical and geophysical survey, documentary study, structural analysis and excavation, has been in progress since 1994, on behalf of the Helmsley Archaeological Society and the University of York, with some support from North Yorkshire County Council. Important finds include a piece of lead sheet with an Anglo-Saxon inscription of 8th-early 10th century date, and a tiny (6mm by 3mm) bead or fragment of glass with spiral yellow and white trails – “a very classy piece” according to Professor Rahtz, paralleled only from San Vincenzo in Italy; whether it was imported, or made locally it emphasised the importance of St Gregory’s Minster, very remote though it seems now. On our visit there was a 3m by 3m trench open at the foot of the tower; an empty stone sarcophagus had just been extracted from it, and besides bones (including three skulls which had been found facing east) there was a robber trench, probably of the church which Orm rebuilt, and perhaps traces of glass-making.

Also during the week – which was led by Brian Dix, who talked to HADAS recently about garden archaeology – we saw the Roman camps at Cawthorn, in the middle of a forest; when these camps were partially excavated in the 1920s, they were thought to form practice works – it is certainly odd to find adjacent a coffin-shaped camp enclosing some 2 hectares, a square one immediately to the west overlying its defences, and another to its east – the last one subsequently provided with an annex on its eastern side. But re-appraisal suggests that they were used by a permanent garrison up to about 120 AD. From the other end of the Roman occupation of Britain came the Signal Station on the edge of the cliff within the precincts of Scarborough Castle. Little survives of that, but English Heritage are thinking of constructing a replica nearby.

ARCHIVES

The British Library has recently published a report of the Newsplan project in the London and South eastern Library Region. Member Ann Kahn has drawn attention to a review of this in a recent number of Refer, the journal of the Library Association, which says “No-one should doubt the importance of Newsplan. Although many libraries have acted to preserve their local newspapers, Newsplan offers a co-operative solution, with cost-sharing opportunities, to some of the problems which local newspapers bring to libraries. It works through a two-stage programme in each region. The first stage is an audit of regional resources and preservation requirements and priorities, carried out with substantial financial support from the British Library. In the second stage, which the London and South Eastern Library Region project has now reached, the region’s libraries co-operate, with continuing support from the British Library, to achieve more preservation of local newspapers at less cost.

This volume provides, for the first time, a view of London and south-east England’s local newspapers as a regional resource and in a national context. This is an indispensable tool for all local historians and researchers into aspects of local studies and a splendid role model for how reference books should be compiled.”

quality of service. There are some 31 miles of archives, books, maps, prints and photographs including a rich and varied collection of official and deposited London and Middlesex archives. The Archives are open to everyone five days a week (nearest stations Farringdon and Angel). There is access for people with limited mobility and parking bays are available for orange badge holders next to the building.

BROCKLEY HILL

The latest Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society includes an evaluation of the Roman Road at Brockley Hill. Members may recollect our own field walking and small excavation in that area in 1987. The Museum of London Archaeology Service dug fourteen archaeological evaluation trenches in February 1995 and had a watching brief subsequently. In six of the evaluation trenches adjacent to the modern road a Roman road with a ditch on the west side was found directly below the topsoil. Limited investigation showed that the road had been constructed on a bank of clay and gravel layers, and had undergone periodic maintenance as indicated by a number of successive road gravels and re-cutting of the ditch when it had silted up. Dating evidence confirmed the road was in use into the fourth century, Early Roman pottery was of the type produced at Brockley Hill and the Roman ceramic building material was of fabric types produced in kilns found alongside Roman Watling Street. The most significant find was a Roman folding knife.

BOXGROVE MAN

Members who went to Boxgrove in July 1995 or heard Simon Parfitt’s lecture last year may be interested to read “Fairweather Eden: Life in Britain Half a Million Years Ago as Revealed by the Excavations at Boxgrove” by Michael Pitts and Mark Roberts (Century, £17.99). A recent review of this in the New Scientist by Paul Bahn includes the following paragraph “Boxgrove’s other major contribution to our knowledge of early humans derives from its evidence for butchery and hunting. Cuts on animal bones were first noticed here in 1986. Gradually archaeologists discovered them on the remains of many more large animals, indicating the systematic and skilful removal of muscle from creatures such as a horse and a rhino. Moreover, any marks of carnivore teeth on the bones occur on top of the cut marks, proving that the humans were there first. Finally, a horse’s shoulder blade displays part of a circular perforation which pathologist Bernard Knight found to be consistent with a blow from a thrown spear these early humans were hunters of large, fit, mature animals. They also carried out the butchery of the carcasses in an unhurried, efficient and cooperative manner.”

MINOAN WALL PAINTINGS

Professor Doumas of the University of Athens gave a lecture recently in the Institute of Archaeology on the wall-paintings of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Thera or Santorini. These wall-paintings, in mineral colours, and lacking green, were preserved by a volcanic eruption in the middle of the second millennium BC. They come from private houses – presumably from the wealthiest part of the ancient city – and have a great variety of themes – a frieze of a naval expedition, showing its various ports of call; youths holding fish; women gathering saffron; two youths boxing; a woman in obvious pain from a cut to her toe; flowers of various sorts, aquatic birds, dragonflies, and decorative patterns. The style owed something to Egypt and the near east, but Professor Doumas emphasised the European nature of the art. He interpreted several of the scenes with figures as of initiation into adulthood, since heads seemed to be shaven. It was with sadness that the audience learnt at the end of the lecture that there was no point in rushing straight to Heathrow for a plane to Santorini, since the paintings are not yet on display.

Enfield Archaeological Society’s chairman, Geoffrey Gillam, was apparently ‘trampled in, the rush’ of volunteers offering to assist with their society’s activities. Geoffrey – what’s the secret?!!

JUBILEES

It is 100 years since Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and twenty years since HADAS published “Victorian Jubilees”, edited by Ted Sammes, in the year of our present Queen’s Silver , Jubilee. It is evocative to read of the celebrations – church services, dinners, teas, sports, processions (in some places these put off for a couple of days and then spoiled by rain); and of the projects – two parks, a cottage hospital, and the refurbishment of the Campe almshouses in Friern Barnet Lane. Members who do not have a copy of this booklet can get one at the genuine bargain price of £1 including postage and packing (50p at meetings) from Roy Walker (2a Dene Road, N11 1 ES).

EXHIBITIONS

The Islington Museum Gallery, 268 Upper Street, N1, has an Exhibition: Your Museum: Present schemes and future dreams’ from 6 – 31 August. The gallery is run by the Islington Museum Trust, an independent charity whose aim is to establish a permanent museum located in the Town Hall, Upper Street, which would house and display their collections. The Trust has three support schemes: the Business Friends; Patrons; Friends of the Museum, and they are currently working on a lottery bid. This exhibition offers the chance to view part of their collection, learn their future plans and visit the proposed site. Opening hours are: Wed – Fri 11am – 5pm; Saturday 11am – 5pm; Sunday 2pm – 4pm, Admission free. —

The Church Farm House Museum, Greyhound Hill, has an exhibition this month entitled “Made in Heaven”; some 400 wedding photographs selected from a unique private collection. The Museum is closed on Fridays and Sunday mornings.

A DAY-SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER

A day-school “Treasures from the Grave: Latest spectacular Discoveries at Colchester and St Albans” is to be held at The Lecture Room, Colchester Castle, Colchester on Saturday 27th September from 11.00 am to 4.45pm. Fee £16 (£12 concessionary) Speakers are Philip Crummy, Director of Excavations, Colchester Archaeological Trust, and Rosalind Nisbett of St Albans Planning and Heritage Department, St Albans District Council. For more details and tickets send to: The Centre for Continuing Education, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, C04 3SQ). (tel 01206 872519). Cheques payable to ‘University of Essex’.

A CONFERENCE IN DECEMBER

SCOLA (the Standing Conference on London Archaeology) has decided that it would be timely to revisit and expand “The Future of London’s Past”, that seminal document published almost twenty-five years ago. A conference, with Martin Biddle and Peter Addyman among the speakers, is therefore being arranged for Saturday 6th December in the Museum of London. It will cost £7.50 (£6 for members of SCOLA) to include tea and coffee.

This month’s editor is the Assistant Secretary of SCOLA, and if you will send him (P E Pickering, 3 Westbury Road London N12 7NY) a cheque payable to SCOLA he will send you tickets.

(A stamped addressed envelope would be helpful)

Jul 13

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Newsletter-316-July-1997
By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

No. 316 JULY 1997 Edited Micky Cohen

DIARY

Saturday 12th July: Outing to Hastings application form with Tessa Smith and Sheila Woodward. Apillication form enclosed.

Saturday 16th AugSeptembershire with Bill Bass and Vikki O’Connor. – September 4th to 7th :Weekend in York.

Friday 26th September: Thomas Coram Foundation, WC 1, and a morning walk with Mary O’Connell. (Please add this to your programme card.)

MEMBERS’ NEWS

A message in a recent Newsletter from our old friend ‘Shenny’ (Miss Shenley) has been followed by the sad news of her death on 6th June.

She will be remembered by many members on our outings and by many Garden Suburb friends far her kindly gifts of fruit and flowers and never failing good humour. Her sewing skills raised some hundreds of pounds for good causes. – all done a real ‘labour of love’ – she had never an idle moment; truly an unforgettable character.

Pat Bromley, a Member who always joins us on our weekends away and on outings with husband David and Con Graham (who is one of our digging team) is in hospital. We missed the happy trio on our June outing to Chedworth and Cirencester. We wish her well and look forward to seeing them all again soon.

And Vikki O’Connor reports a letter received from long-standing Member Elizabeth Sanderson, who has decided that,having lived in Sussex for twelve years, it is time to resign from HADAS. She sends “her best wishes to the Society and hopes we enjoy our outing to Sussex in July.

Just a thought – but – do people retire TO Hendon ?

HADAS Chairman ,Andrew Selkirk, has been celebrating the thirtieth birthday of his publication ‘Current Archaeology’ and told Vikki of his plans for a ten-year lead-in to ‘retirement’ with the writing of more books and the possibility of a ‘Current World Archaeology’ publication. If there are any HADAS members who do not subscribe to ‘Current Archaeology’, but would like to do so, Please contact Andrew on 0171-435-7517.

It carries a lively letters page, and the HADAS Newsletter would also benefit from more comment, constructive criticism or questions from the membership over to you ….

HADAS member Pat Alison asked Vikki to publicise the outing she has arranged for the Barnet District Local History Society on Wednesday, 2nd July. They will visit Brixworth and Cottesbrooke Hall,Northampton, and several Places are still available; cost £14.

The report of the HADAS excavation at 296 Golders Green Road, the Old Forge Site (GGR91), will shortly be published but as a taster some details of the clay tobacco pipe finds are set out below.

The shape and dimensions of the pipe fragments found at the forge indicate dates from the early 17th century to the late 19th century and possibly later. A few intact bowls and the larger pieces enable closer dating of some samples.

Makers’ spur marks include: -B, NA, GD, -W, WT, CC, N-, and W-.

One spur bore a crown each side. Only one stem had a legible maker’s mark, that of W.TINGEY, HAMPSTEAD.

Clay tobacco pipes are some of the most usual finds on our digging sites and are well-known as a useful aid for dating the context in which they are found. Fragments are so numerous that it is easy to forget that through these common bits of clay our ancestors actually drew breath, tempered by the smoke of tobacco when they could afford it and pure undiluted Hendon and District air when they couldn’t.

HADAS AGM 1997

The AGM was held on May 13th and chaired by our President Michael Robbins FSA. The formal business was dealt with very smoothly, the Chairman gave his yearly report (see IN 4 ) and the accounts were presented by the Hon. Treasurer, Micky O’Flynn, and approved by the meeting. Officers and members of Committee were re-elected, and the appointment of Dorothy Newbury to be a Vice-President was acclaimed.

From Palmyra to Petra June Porges

After the A. G. M. a short formal proceedings, Stewart Wild showed us what he called his holiday snaps which he had taken while on a fantastic three week tour which started in Damascus and finished in Aqaba on the Red Sea. There were many high-lights but obviously Palmyra was one of the brightest. It was a way. station on caravan routes from Tyre on the Mediterranean via Damascus to Mesopotamia and eastern frontiers of the Roman Empire at Doura Europas on the Euphrates. After 1000 years as an Assyrian trading post, it was in turn a Greek, a Parthian and finally a Roman town,when it became for a time the richest city on earth. Emperor Hadrian visited in AD129 and declared it a free city, thus introducing the world to the concept of duty-free goods. Palmyra’s most famous character was Queen Zenobia its ruler from 266AD, who claimed descent from Cleopatra, and who defeated a Roman army sent to clip her wings, besieged and sacked Bosra and invaded and conquered Egypt. The Emperor Aurelian finally captured her after regaining Egypt and Asia Minor, and conquering Palmyra. After becoming a Christian, then Muslim town, Palmyra was destroyed by an earthquake in 1089. It was later visited by another remarkable woman, Lady Hester Stanhope, during her travels in the Levant. There are remains of all these cultures to be visited, and Stewart showed many slides to illustrate them.

After visiting Bosra with its fortified Roman theatre the tour left Syria, and moved into Jordan which Stewart likened to leaving the scruffy and old-fashioned Spain of thirty years ago and entering the lively and modern Spain of today.

We saw slides of Jerash, and of Stewart reading the Times while lying in the buoyant water of the Dead Sea, 1300f1 below sea level and geologically part of the Great Rift Valley. Next , a ytsit Xarak Castle, which is the site of a citadel as far as back as the Iron Age. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Moab, and is shown on the world’s oldest map, a sixth century mosaic map preserved on the floor of a Byzantine church in Madaba.

Then we saw Stewart’s first sight of ancient Petra. It lies on cross-roads of two important trade routes of the ancient world, and had abundant fresh water , plenty of rain in winter which was stored in the many cisterns to be seen. There was also copper mining in the area, possibly the origin of King Solomon’s mines. Rome annexed Petra from the Nabateans in 106AD in a peaceful takeover. The first westerner to see Petra was the Anglo-Swiss explorer John Lewis Burkhardt in 1812. Access is by a narrow defile about one mile long called the siq. Swiss archaeologists last year uncovered paving of an ancient roadway here. Horses are no longer allowed, visitors have to walk or go by carnage, the dramatic entrance to the siq brings you out facing the Treasury. This is a misnomer for what was in fact a temple, or a tomb or a royal mausoleum, or possibly all three. The facade is a memorial frieze full of the symbolism of death and life after death. It is a mixture of Nabatean, Egyptian and Greek beliefs all mixed together. This was the first slide in a series from this fantastic site, which must have inspired everyone who has not been there to start plotting to make the journey. We all envy Stewart his tour, and were very grateful to him for sharing the experience with us.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman’s Report, AGM, 13th May 1997

The past year has been one of quiet but steady work. Once again an excavation was carried out to the rear of Church Farmhouse and in July and August work took place on ten Sundays and eight weekdays with a total of 27 volunteers participating. Three trenches were opened, one of which contained many shards of medieval pottery and a possible Roman tile. The medieval pottery appears to have been redeposited at a later date, but at least it suggests that there had been some substantial medieval occupation in the area.

Subsequently the Society has also purchased a new resistivity meter to replace the old meter which, after 25 years, was becoming increasingly erratic and we would like to thank those charitable trusts who supported us in this. Already the Excavation team under Brian Wrigley, Bill Bass and Roy Walker have put it to good use in carrying out surveys along the line of the Saxon boundary ditch on Hampstead Heath. The excavation section also continues to support English Heritage in monitoring threats in the Borough and they have submitted a dozen Error Report Forms for English Heritage’s Sites and Monuments Record.

A regular series of lectures and excursions took place throughout the year, thanks to the energetic work of June Porges, the lecture secretary and Dorothy Newbury the excursion secretary and her team of helpers. A highly successful four day visit to Cornwall took place from 29th August to 1st September and after an initial shock when the windscreen of the coach shattered on the way to Cornwall, the remainder of the trip was conducted with the usual efficiency. There was also a memorable Christmas dinner combined with a viewing of the mechanism of Tower Bridge. The annual Minimart took place on 12th October which not only raised £1000 a vital element in the society’s accounts, but also proved to be a very enjoyable occasion.

The Newsletter continues to appear throughout the year edited, as is our custom, by a rota of editors. It is a system that should not really work but in practise it does, thanks to the gentle support of Dorothy Newbury who actually prints the Newsletter.

The problem of the Society’s premises remains difficult, and the rent we pay continues to strain our finances. Other societies are taking the opportunity to acquire their own premises. At Hornsey and in the Upper Nene, former chapels have been acquired and at Dunstable the Manshead Society has bought a former pub. With the lottery continuing to offer money to local societies such as ours, it would appear that there is a ‘window of opportunity’ which may not stay open for long, but I suspect that the great British gambling public would be happy to let us have 50% of the cost of any premises, which would present us with the interesting challenge of raising the other 50%. The Lottery may not continue in its present affluent guise for very long, so if any member has any ideas, please let me know as soon as possible.

Other projects which we would like to undertake include a revised edition of our booklet on The Blue Plaques of Barnet and if any member would like to undertake what will probably not be a too arduous task of revising the former booklet and adding in the new blue plaques, will they please contact me. We are also planning to hold a Saturday symposium at which members of the society and others can present work done in Barnet.

Finally can I extend my thanks to all those who have helped throughout the year -to Dorothy Newbury who not only masterminds excursions and the news letter but also runs the invaluable Minimart; then to our meetings secretary June Porges; and finally to my fellow officers, Brian Wrigley the Vice Chairman and excavationsecretary who does much of the real work;to Liz Holliday our hard working secretary to Vikki O’Connor the membership secretary; and a particular welcome toMicky O’Flynn whose work as Treasurer has meant that for the first time in three years, the Chairman has not had to step in at the last minute to prepare the accounts. Thanks to you all.

NEWS from OTHER SOCIETIES and GEOLOGY TTEWS Vikki O’Connor
Barnet & District Local History Society, The Finchley Society and Enfield Archaeological Society all resume their lecture programmes in September. We will advise details nearer the dates.

Islington Museum Gallery, 268 Upper Street, N1. From 9-27 July: ‘OWODYO’ an exhibition on the use of art and design in everyday Africa – textiles, antique masks, jewellery and wood carvings.

GEOLOGY

Two items from the June edition of Bristol University’s newsletter report some current work on dinosaurs. A series of 52 footprints found in a National Trust-owned quarry in Dorset are thought to be those of 70-ton herbivore Sauropods. Led by Dr Jo Wright, Bristol University Geology Dept is examining the finds which will be conserved and accessible to the public.

The Geology Department team is also working on mineralised soft tissue from Pelecanimimus polyodon, found in Lower Cretaceous rocks in Spain. These fossils were so well preserved that external wrinkles and underlying muscles are discernible. A report is to be published in the July edition of the Journal of the Geological Society.

Sale of the Centuries A national newspaper reported in May that the Bronze Age Rollright Stones are up for sale with an asking price of £50,000. The vendor, Pauline Flick, inherited them from her father who bought the Little Rollright Estate in 1929. She wished them to go to ‘someone who will look after them but not commercialise them’. Legend has it that the stones cannot be accurately counted – so how will the new owner know he/she has them all?

Jun 13

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Newsletter-315-June-1997
By LWDadmin | Past Newsletters, Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999 | No Comments

Newsletter 315 JUNE 1997 Edited by VIKKI O’CONNOR

Members News

GOOD NEWS DOESN’T TRAVEL FAST… The Committee passed a ‘secret’ resolution at their meeting in February this year and kept it hidden from fellow Committee Member, Dorothy Newbury, for two months. But what – and why? All was revealed at the AGM on Tuesday 13th May when Andrew Selkirk, who chaired the Meeting, announced that Dorothy Newbury had been appointed as a HADAS Vice-President. This gesture of appreciation for her prolific contribution to the administration of the Society is long overdue. Dorothy says “how unexpected it was and how much I appreciate the thought behind it, and my apologies for not acknowledging the honour when it was announced at the AGM”. No problem Dorothy, the honour is all ours!

HADAS Chairman, Andrew Selkirk, has this month been appointed Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute. The Institute, founded in 1844, has some 1500 members and aims to assist in the preservation and conservation of national antiquities, offering research grants, keeping in contact with local societies, and publishing The Archaeological Journal. Congratulations, Andrew!

WE sadly record the death of Paul Beevor at the Royal Marsden hospital last month. Paul, who was only 35, was a long-standing member, having joined HADAS as a 12-year old during our excavation behind the Town Hall at Hendon. His Mother and Aunt are members and our sympathy goes to them both.

Hendon Aerodrome Part 1 Bill Firth

Just too late for the last Newsletter the Hendon Times reported plans for a massive expansion of the RAF Museum including the rescue of the Grahame-White hangar and the construction of a new aircraft display hall.

I did not have time to inspect the plans before the next issue of the Hendon Times appeared. This gave a more complete picture. The Ministry of Defence is negotiating the sale of the East Camp to developers, the Mercury Group, including the listed factory buildings and the control tower but not the Grahame-White hangar which would be moved to a site nearer the RAF Museum.

The Mercury Group’s plans for the site include a leisure complex with a cinema, health and fitness centre, bingo club, bowling, restaurants, a theme pub, an MOT driving test centre, an `autopark’ with up to ten motor dealerships and other facilities. It does not sound so very different from some earlier plans for an `autopark’, and other facilities.

English Heritage has said it will support the plans provided the hangar is moved in an “acceptable manner” and the other listed buildings are repaired.

A number of development schemes along these lines have been proposed over the years. It will be interesting to see what comes of the latest plans. Perhaps we have come far enough out of recession for redevelopment at Hendon Aerodrome, with preservation of the historic buildings, to become a reality at last. We must wait and see.

Part 2 Claude Grahame-White and Hendon Aerodrome – Andy Simpson

The April lecture had a very local theme covered in detail by our own Bill Firth. Claude Grahame-White was a pioneer motorist and airman with a strong

connection to Hendon although, as Bill pointed out, flying in the area can be traced back to August 1862 when a hot air balloon landed in fields, possibly on the later aerodrome site. Later in the 19th century there were balloon ascents from the Welsh Harp pleasure grounds which attracted a rather rowdy element to the proceedings. Another venture was the aeroplane built in the ballroom of the Old Welsh Harp pub. This plane, which never flew, was built by H P Martin and G H Handasyde, who three years later formed the successful Martinsyde Aeroplane Company at Brooklands, employing Sydney Camm, later designer of, that Battle of Britain stalwart, the Hawker Hurricane fighter.

In 1909 E J Everett, director of a local firm of instrument makers built a single seat monoplane in a shed at the edge of what was to become the Hendon airfield. His `Grasshopper’ or ‘Hedge Hopper’ taxied but never flew, although a model made from drawings of the original, with an improved power/weight ratio, did later fly.

Grahame-White first flew from Hendon in January 1910 and took out an option to purchase 207 acres of pasture between Colindale and Hendon as an aerodrome, purchasing it at the end of the year. He was born in 1879 near Southampton, the third child of a local businessman; at sixteen he became an apprentice with a Bedford engineering company and in his spare time was soon running his own bicycle factory and established his own automobile business in 1901. He took up ballooning but was frustrated by its lack of directional control.

All this happening as powered flight developed. As Bill commented, ‘Who invented the first aircraft that would not fly? – The Wrong Brothers!’. In 1910 he was awarded Aero Club de France certificate No 30 as the first internationally recognised British pilot. In 1911 he formed the Grahame-White Aviation Company which set about turning the leased 207 acres into an airfield – the ‘London Aerodrome’ with its flying schools and aircraft factory producing Grahame-White machines. The Great War was a busy time, with the airfield served by its own branchline and sidings connected to the Midland main line near Silkstream Junction; some 8,000 aircraft were produced at factories surrounding the aerodrome from a wartime British total of 55,000. The post-war years were difficult for Grahame-White with aircraft contracts cut overnight following the armistice, with no compensation for materials already purchased and the Grahame-White factory surviving by using wartime timber stocks to build car bodies and furniture. A long-running campaign for compensation from the Government, following their requisition of the airfield, was finally settled in 1925 for some half million pounds. An embittered Grahame-White emigrated and concentrated on property investments, dying in August 1959, having served as a firewatcher in WWII. He was ahead of his time and possibly trod on the toes of too many politicians to get a fair deal.

As a curator of the RAF Museum myself, I enjoyed Bill’s photos of the last days of the former East Camp side of the Hendon airfield, closed to flying since 1957 and now largely covered by the Grahame Park Estate. Development proposals for the East Camp land have been less than successful to date and its few remaining buildings are derelict, with the exception of the former Officers’ Mess which is now part of the Middlesex University’s student accommodation.

An excellent lecture that brought numerous questions at the end and I would recommend David Oliver’s paperback ‘Hendon Aerodrome – A History’ (Airlife 1994) to those seeking more detail.

HENDON AERODROME Part 3 – The Follow-up Bill Firth

There were a few unanswered questions after my lecture for which I now have answers.

FIRST – “Hangar” – I remembered this on the way home! Hangar is a French word for a shed and since aviation in Europe developed in France, the English at least, adopted the French word. The full French term was ‘hangar aux avions’ to distinguish an aeroplane shed from other large sheds but the ‘aux avions’ was soon dropped. The word actually derives from the medieval Latin `angarium’ – an agricultural shed or barn.

SECONDLY – Flying Fortresses at Hendon. Flying Fortresses were never based at Hendon which was far too small for them but several battle-damaged B-17 Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of the USAAF made emergency landings at Hendon in 1944 when returning from bombing raids.

THIRDLY – Last Flights The last official day of flying at RAF Hendon was 4 November 1957. However, in January 1959 No 617 Gliding School was based at Hendon and continued glider flights until March 1968. In the meantime helicopters used Hendon (as they still do) and occasionally powered fixed wing aircraft landed with by special permission or in emergency and, once or twice, by mistake for Northolt.

The very last aircraft at RAF Hendon was a helicopter on 1 April 1987 which flew in for the closure ceremony.

HADAS Visit to the Garrick Club

There is currently an eight-year waiting list for those wishing to join the £800pa Garrick Club. Membership is restricted to gentlemen only, who must be good conversationalists with an interest in the arts. Actors are especially welcome. HADAS members, thanks to Mary O’Connell, however, did not have to wait that long nor pay such a large sum to spend a morning at this pillar of London’s clubland.

The Garrick was founded in 1831, some fifty years after the death of David Garrick after whom it was named. The Duke of Sussex, its founder, wished to establish a club where actors and men of refinement might meet on equal terms. A club which was ‘noisy’ hence the desire for good conversationalists. The first meeting was at the Drury Lane Theatre, subsequently at premises in King Street and finally at the purpose-built Garrick Street premises from 1864. The street, incidentally, was named after the club.

The Club is a veritable art gallery dedicated to the theatre. A founder member, Charles Matthews, was an avid collector of theatrical portraits. His collection was purchased after his death by Robert Durrant, Trustee of the Club, who presented them to the Garrick. This collection has been added to, principally by donations, so we were able to recognise portraits of actors of our own lifetime amongst the 1,000 or so paintings as well as those of the great names from theatre history.

Our first sight of these treasures was in the Coffee Room which is the focal point of the Club. The long table is for members only and it is a rule that members must sit next to an occupied seat – no gaps are to be left. This is to encourage conversation. The table has been designed especially narrow to facilitate cross-table discussion. The paintings here include those of Garrick, in costume, showing the extravagant gestures of his then revolutionary acting style. We saw Mrs Siddpns as Lady Macbeth and Mrs Garrick who outlived her husband by forty years. They had no issue but this apparently does not deter visitors to the Club claiming to be descendants!

The Irving Room is dominated by a typical David Roberts painting on a classical theme which, unfortunately, is too large to be removed through the renovated kitchens. The key portrait in the room is, of course, Sir Henry Irving (1838 to 1905) showing off his distinctive profile. Surprisingly, his first application for membership was blackballed. Anthony Trollope (in a letter on display) suggested he stood again, this time with success.

We then entered a rather hybrid room – the tablecloths were pink and white, even the chandeliers had pink shades. This was the Ladies’ Lunch Room! It is actually called A A Milne’s Room after his donation of 25% of Pooh royalties to the Club some 25 years ago. His donation funded urgent upgrading of the Club’s facilities. Relics of Milne are few – a bear statuette and a small portrait of Christopher Robin.

The landings on the stairs to the first floor are home to Garrick’s chair and Henry Irving’s chair ‘where he breathed his last’. At the top of the stairs is a portrait of the Club’s patron, the Duke of Edinburgh. The Cocktail Bar (reminiscent of those found in older theatres) had portraits of theatrical artists of more recent times – Olivier (wearing the Club tie of ‘salmon and cucumber’ stripes), Michael Hordern, Leslie Howard, Constance Cummings, Ben Travers, Sir John Gielgud (the only one actually purchased by the Club), Alistair Sim, Alec Guinness, Basil Dean and many others.The Morning Room, where we enjoyed coffee and biscuits, had unfortunately suffered water damage from leaks in the heating system and looked the worse for wear – paintings had been damaged, the walls looked very bare by comparison with the rest of the building.Stage memorabilia occupied several cases on the landing outside, including such items as the crown Donald Wolfitt wore as Lear.The first Constitution of the Club stated that a library should be formed from donated books, such donations to be noted on the members’ list. It took three years for the library to actually get under way and until 1982 a guinea was deducted from the membership fee to fund acquisitions. Nowadays it is generally funded. Naturally, the theme is the theatre. Henry Irving donated Garrick’s papers – the Club must have appreciated his eventual election to membership – a much valued research collection. Gems from the acquisitions include: Kemble’s prompt books; ‘The Era’ (forerunner of ‘The Stage’) for 1859-1939; Drury Lane/Covent Garden playbills 1798-1859 and Noel Coward’s visitors’ books from three houses, Bona fide researchers can access this unique resource.These outings organised by Mary O’Connell let us access London’s treasures. We know of the Garrick as a Club but, thanks to Mary, we are now aware of its history and the wealth of theatrical art and literature within its walls – and we can even recognise the Club tie!

Roy Walker

An item in the May edition of NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY’s newsletter reports the publication of Wollaton Hall: an archaeological survey. This Nottingham Tudor great house was investigated by their Department of Archaeology who unravelled four centuries of building alterations, including cellars, water supplies and a Tudor sewer system. The survey sheds new light on original plans and impact of lifestyle on the accommodation. The house was designed by master mason Robert Smythson who later designed the re-build of Hardwick Hall for Bess, Countess of Hardwick. The Nottingham house brought no such fame to its owner Francis Willoughby who was financially ruined by the building of Wollaton, which he had hoped would elevate his social standing.

Unfortunately for him Queen Elizabeth never slept there.

Planning Applications in the Northern Area Bill Bass

Barnet College, Wood Street, Barnet This extension to the college lies in the grounds of Tudor Hall (the oldest standing building in Chipping Barnet 1577). English Heritage have recommended a watching Brief on any earthmoving. In a subsequent application, agents for the above site have asked for the above condition to be removed (decision forthcoming). Land South of the Marie Foster Home, Wood Street, Barnet

This site lies on high ground overlooking the Dollis Valley and may have been little disturbed in the past, on topographic grounds English Heritage are asking for a watching brief here. HADAS conducted an excavation near this location finding a medieval ditch. Hadley Green Garage, Great North Road, This empty structure has been the subject of previous planning applications. It lies within the Battle of Barnet area, has been identified as the site of a medieval windmill and is near to an ancient boundary ditch to Enfield Chase which met the South Mimms boundary, known as Gannick Bank (J.Cobban).

The Duke’s Head – Rosemary Bentley

York: So, if the issue of the elder son Succeed before the younger, I am King. Warwick: What plain proceedings is more plain than this?

Henry VI Part Two

AT LAST there are firm plans for a statue to commemorate the Battle of Barnet, 1471, one of the major conflicts of the Wars of the Roses. If we walk round the walls of York this September we shall pass a display about one of the battle’s protagonists, the future Richard III and, on the opposite side of town, the Micklegate Museum where one can see a spike ‘similar to that on which the Duke of York’s head was displayed’. The power struggle between the royal houses of Lancaster and York and their Geographia of followers originated in 1399 when the son of John of Gaunt the last Duke of Lancaster deposed Richard II and was crowned Henry IV. He was succeeded by Henry V and then, in 1420, by eight-month-old Henry VI. Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, the baby’s uncle, found his authority as Regent constantly challenged by his own uncles, the Earl of Somerset and the Bishop of Winchester, ‘the Beauforts’, sons of John of Gaunt but born many years before their parents married. The rivalry became permanent when Henry VI proved to be unworldly if not actually feeble-minded. England was badly governed, France was lost; the next Earl of Somerset was elevated to Duke and Humphrey died in disgrace, his wife accused of witchcraft.

The second Duke of Somerset was a close friend of the Queen, Margaret of Anjou. There is no evidence that they were lovers but when, in 1455, Margaret was pregnant after ten years of marriage, Henry said it was the act of the Holy Ghost. He was so disoriented by this miracle that it was necessary to appoint another regent, so, Somerset keeping a low profile, the Council sent for the Duke of York who, for thirty-five years had been the unacknowledged heir to the throne.

To understand the Duke’s place in the Plantagenet family tree it is easiest to go back a century to Edward III whose large family included the Dukes of Clarence, Lancaster and York. Clarence left a daughter, Phillippa: Lancaster’s legitimate son became Henry IV and York’s younger son, the Earl of Cambridge, married cousin Phillippa’ s granddaughter. She died in 1411 giving birth to a son whose distant connection with the more senior house of Clarence gave his father an excuse to plot against the Lancastrian King. Cambridge was executed by Henry V and the little orphan put in the Tower for safe keeping. He inherited the Dukedom of York when his uncle was killed at Agincourt and grew up to be a loyal Lancastrian, serving in France and then in Ireland. He had spent little time at the court he now ruled.

Henry VI regained what there was of his wits and York returned to Ireland but the King became permanently incapacitated a few months later, after Margaret gave birth to Prince Edward of Lancaster. York was sent for again and tactlessly suggested that, all things considered, he might as well be king. By then the Earl of Warwick, the Duchess of York’s nephew and grandson of a female Beaufort, had already fired the first shot in, what some Victorian was to dub, the Wars of the Roses. According to legend it was a lucky shot, bringing down the signboard of a St Albans’ inn upon the head of the Duke of Somerset. He was replaced by the third Duke but not before Warwick had taken charge of the King and the country on behalf of York.

During the next five years power changed hands several times depending

HADAS member Rick Gibson wrote about the Golders Green clocktower in newsletter 289 (April ’95). Last summer we noticed that the clock had, once again, came to a halt for several weeks. Rick explains “the electric motor that winds up the weights burnt out and it took Barnet Council a while to obtain a replacement”. Rick’s article mentioned two electric motors, fitted after the last war. Does this mean the other motor is due to burn out? Should we campaign for a millennium sundial?

BOOK REVIEW – Andy Simpson

YES, I’ve found another excuse to write about trams in the HADAS Newsletter! Over the past three years or so the Middleton Press have been producing an excellent series of hardback books in their ‘Tramway Classics’ series covering the tramways of Southern England. Whilst some titles cover the former tramways of such towns as Southend, Portsmouth and Reading in a single volume, the tramways of London are being covered very comprehensively area by area; already some 18 volumes have been published on London alone, with more (including the Edgware Road routes) to come. Volumes of local interest already published include `Holborn and Finsbury Tramsways’ covering Highgate Angel and Manor House routes (published 1996) and `Hampstead and Highgate Tramways’ covering Chalk Farm, Hampstead, Parliament Hill Fields, Highgate Village and Archway Tavern and south to King’s Cross.

All of these volumes feature a short introductory piece of text, a very high pictorial content from 1900s-1950s, tramway rolling stock details, track plans, rules and regulations, timetable extracts and extracts from 1-2500 O.S. maps of the areas covered. Latest volume published is ‘Barnet and Finchley Tramways’ by Robert J Harley (April 1997, ISBN 1.873793 93 6) which follows the former Metropolitan Electric Tramsways route along the Great North Road from Highgate Archway Tavern, through East Finchley, North Finchley, Whetstone and High Barnet, plus the route to Golders Green via Church End the heart of HADAS territory! All this for £11.95.

There are some splendid photos of the terminus at Barnet Hill with St John’s Church prominent; of trams – and a trolleybus – under the railway bridge at the foot of Barnet Hill; street scenes in Whetstone; (there is a good balance of street scenes and rolling stock close-ups); Tally Ho Corner; the former tramway station at Kingsway; a lovely night-time shot of Finchley Tram Depots Ballards Lane, Church End, Golders Green East Finchley, and Highgate Archway, often of locations still recognizable today, sixty or more years after the trams (which finished in this area in 1938) ceased to run. For anyone with an interest in local history – not just transport – I would recommend this volume unreservedly.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ NEWS

The City of London Archaeological Society found themselves in the news recently. Several COLAS members are taking part in the Thames Foreshore Project which held a Press/Open Day at Shadwell which was reported in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian. Project Leader, Mike Webber, gave a talk to HADAS in April last year (reported In May 1996 newsletter). There will be another Open Day on Sunday 6 July to be held at Chiswick. If anyone would like to attend, they should contact the COLAS Chair/Field Officer, Rose Baillie on 0171-359 1774 (evenings).

The next Barnet & District Local History Society lecture is by Jennie Lee Cobban (a HADAS member), entitled The Legend of Geoffrey de Mandeville. Date: Wed 11 June, 7.45 for 8pm. Venue: Wyburn Room, Wesley Hall, Stapylton Road, Barnet. (Confirmation of details from Barnet Museum on 0181-440 8066).

Hampstead Garden Suburb weekend: 21/22 June – see local Press for details. HADAS will have a bookstall there – we need helpers to man (person??) the stall, please phone Roy Walker – 0181-361 1350.

Church Farmhouse Museum

The current exhibition The Splendour of Heraldry , prepared by the Middlesex East Heraldry Group, explains origins and displays a variety of examples of insignia. There is a section on local families’ coats of arms and, for the faithful, pub signs in the borough of Barnet. (Closing time is June 29th). Liz Holliday informs that a group of medieval archers, the Handown Mercenaries, will be visiting the museum on Sundays 22nd and 29th of June to display weapons, livery badges and an encampment showing 13/14th century campaign life. If you wish to check times, please phone the museum on 0181-203 0130.

While you are there, watch out for Henry (Curator Gerard Roots’ ginger torn) who prowls the garden area. He is famous for decimating the local squirrel population single-pawed and might not take kindly to a group of archers on ‘his’ hunting ground. Pusstols at dawn?

Butser Ancient Farm – is once again running a season of 3- and 6-day residential courses on Roman Villa construction, pollens, experimental earthworks, and experimental archaeology. Also planned are one-day workshops on flint knapping, bow making and food in prehistory. The last course of the year is in November. Information from: Butser Ancient Farm, Nexus House, Gravel Hill, Waterlooville, Hampshire P08 OQE. Tel: 01705 598838.

(A personal favourite memory of HADAS is our visit to Butser two years ago, with our members sitting round a smoky campfire on logs and sheepskin rugs, snug inside the roundhouse whilst the rain tipped down outside, and being told by Peter Reynolds that Celts do not exist).

Past Newsletters

Newsletter-323-February-1998

Newsletter-322-January-1998

Newsletter-321-December-1997

Newsletter-321-December-1997

newsletter-320-November-1997

Newsletter-319-October-1997

Newsletter-318-September-1997

Newsletter-317-September-1997

Newsletter-316-July-1997

Newsletter-315-June-1997

Volume 11: 2020 - 2024

Volume 10: 2015 - 2019‎

Volume 9: 2010 - 2014

Volume 8 : 2005 - 2009

Volume 7 : 2000 - 2004

Volume 6 : 1995 - 1999

Volume 5 : 1990 - 1994

Volume 4 : 1985 - 1989

Volume 3 : 1980 - 1984

Volume 2 : 1975 - 1979

Volume 1 : 1969 - 1974

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