We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please).
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Dr Kris Lockyear, (University College London). Mapping Verulamium.
The Verulamium survey started in 2013 as part of a one-year AHRC Community Heritage Development award to Kris for the project Sensing the late Iron Age and Roman Past: geophysics and the landscape of Hertfordshire. The Verulamium survey is uncovering significant information about private and public buildings, aqueducts and streets.
Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings
The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue are held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30am. The sessions are open to all HADAS members and are both important and convivial. It is advisable to check with the committee committee-discuss@hadas.org.uk that the session will be held before you travel, as just occasionally a session is cancelled.
Committee responsibilities: recent changes
Jim Nelhams has taken over the role of Membership Secretary, vacant since the death of Steve Brunning. The Committee are very grateful to him for taking on this important task for HADAS. Don Cooper had been filling the role on a temporary basis and thanks are due to him for stepping into the breach.
Jim will no longer be the overall Newsletter Editor which will be taken on by Sue Willetts. However, this is an interim solution and if this role appeals to any member, please get in touch to express your interest and learn more about what’s involved. For those unfamiliar with the process, there is a list of 12 editors to compile each monthly newsletter. We have a few slots available so please get in touch with Sue Willetts for more information. sue.willetts@london.ac.uk
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Sunday Morning Sort Andy Simpson
The Avenue House Sunday morning team recently took the opportunity to have a deep sort and tidy of the HADAS excavation tools and equipment.
As many of you know, (and have used) we have a good supply of essential items including wheelbarrows, mattocks, shovels, spades, pick axes, vintage ex-military trenching tools, buckets, ranging poles, hand shovels, brushes various, trowels, hammers, mallets, chisels, measuring tapes, kneeling mats, sieves, pot washing bowls, finds trays, ground sheets, and all sorts of other useful tools and items.
All of these were checked, cleaned where necessary and sorted by type and put back into the swept-out corridor cupboard. A few tattier items went to that great excavation in the sky.
In addition to the basement archive/working room, we have access to a rear storage room for larger tools such as shovels and wheelbarrows, and some boxed finds, and a corridor cupboard for smaller items. Hopefully there will be future opportunities to get them dirty again out in the field…
Clan chief’s coin hoard unearthed at GlencoeStewart Wild
A hoard of coins that may have belonged to a Highland clan chief who was murdered in the Glencoe Massacre in 1692 has been discovered under a fireplace during a recent archaeological dig. The 17th-century coins included international currency and were hidden beneath the remains of a grand stone fireplace at a site believed to have been a hunting lodge or feasting hall.
The site was associated with Alasdair Ruadh “MacIain” MacDonald of Glencoe, clan chief from 1646–1692, who was a victim of the Glencoe Massacre along with members of his family. The MacDonalds took part in the first Jacobite uprising of 1689 and were targeted in retribution with 82 clan members slaughtered on 13 February 1692, including MacIain and his wife.
Artefacts discovered during the University of Glasgow dig in August included European pottery and silver and bronze coins dating from the 1500s to 1680s. Currency from the reigns of Elizabeth I, James VI and I, Charles I, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and Charles II – as well as France and the Spanish Netherlands and Papal States – was found.
Other finds included musket and fowling shot, a gun flint and powder measure, as well as pottery from England, Germany and the Netherlands.
Archaeological student Lucy Ankers, who found the hoard, said: “As a first experience of a dig, Glencoe was amazing. I wasn’t expecting such an exciting find as one of my firsts. I don’t think I will ever beat the feeling of seeing the coins peeking out of the dirt.” The Glencoe Massacre happened during the Jacobite bid to restore a Catholic king to the throne, backed by the MacDonalds, who supported King James VII of Scotland and II of England after he fled to France
In late January 1692, 120 men from the Earl of Argyll’s Regiment of Foot arrived in Glencoe from Invergarry, led by Robert Campbell of Glenlyon. Historians speculated that the coins may have been buried on the morning of the Massacre two weeks later.
Dr Michael Given, co-director of the University of Glasgow’s archaeological project in Glencoe, said: “These exciting finds give us a rare glimpse of a single, dramatic event. Here’s what seems an ordinary rural house, but it has a grand fireplace, impressive floor slabs, and exotic pottery imported from the Netherlands and Germany.
“And they’ve gathered up an amazing collection of coins in a little pot and buried them under the fireplace.” SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 9 October 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild.
Historic England Releases Aerial Investigation and Mapping Data on Open Data HubInformation from CBA October online newsletter
In 2021 Historic England released the Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer, which provides free online access to over 30 years’ worth of Aerial Investigation and Mapping projects carried out or funded by Historic England. Since then, in order to make its data more accessible to more people, Historic England, with the support of the Historic England Archive, has now made all the project data available to download through the Open Data Hub. https://opendata-histoticengland,hub.arcgis.com/.
Other Societies’ EventsEric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Saturday 4th November, 10.30 am. – 4.30 pm. Geologists’ Association Festival of Geology. University College London. North and South Cloisters, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT. Free. Stalls from Geological Societies from all over the country, including The Amateur Geological Society – selling Jewellery, Gems, Fossils, Rocks, Minerals, Books, Maps, etc.
Saturday 11th November, 1.00 pm. – 3.00 pm. Eclectic Tours. North-West London Series: Discovering Colindale and its Role in Early Aviation. Colindale – or Hendon, as it was known back then – was synonymous with flying. Learn about early aviation and other factories and important institutions of the area. This is for Remembrance Day. This tour costs £15.00. For more information and to book, please go to: https://eclectic-tours.com/.
Sunday 3rd December. Barnet Xmas Fayre. Stalls and performers in Barnet High Street, The Spires, The College (Wood Street), The Bull Centre and Wesley Hall (Xmas Café also) and Food stalls on the College Forecourt and music in the street. Details not yet listed on www.barnetarts.uk.
Thursday 7th December, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, Holborn Library, 32-38, Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PA. Free for members of Camden History Society. Hopefully will also be on Zoom. History of Birkbeck College. Title of lecture. Nurseries of Disaffection: Birkbeck and educating working people: an illustrated talk by Joanna Bourke. www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details including membership rates.
Friday 8th December, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane / Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. The Petroglyph Survey by Anna Nicola. Visitors welcome £1.50. Visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.
Tuesday 12th December, 8pm. Amateur Geological Society.Talk on Zoom. Cornish Lithium Exploration. by Zoe Richardson. For details and link please visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.
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Tuesday 12th December, 6.30 pm. LAMAS. Lecture Theatre, The Gallery, Alan Baxter Associates, Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL. Hybrid Meeting, so also on Zoom. Buy tickets via Eventbrite. Non-members £2.50. The Failure of London – The Long Fourth Century. Talk by Professor Dominic Perring (Institute of Archaeology / UCL). Cycles of Urban Investment, followed by periods of disrepair and redundancy echoed London’s changing importance to the provincial administration. When, how and why did this important bastion of Roman power change, characterised as ‘Decline and Fall’. For further details please visit www.lamas.org,uk.
Wednesday 13th December, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. Fine Cell Work: Needlework in Prisons by Sarah Citroen. Visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk for further details.
Wednesday 13th December, 8 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on Zoom, Free for HHS Members. A Very British Art Form: The Story of Pantomime by Malcolm Jones. Visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk for further details / membership rates.
With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Eric Morgan, Andy Simpson, Stuart Wild,
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP (07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, London N2 9QP (07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Secretary Jim Nelhams, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE (020 8449 7076) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk
We are pleased to have filled the vacancy of membership secretary but please address any correspondence such as change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:
HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE
Website at: www.hadas.org.uk– join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.
Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings
The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue House are held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30am. The sessions are open to all HADAS members and are both important and convivial. I think it would be wise to check with the committee (committee-discuss@hadas.org.uk ) that the session will be held before you travel, as just occasionally a session is cancelled.
HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and events
We are pleased we are resuming lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/coffee available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please).
Tuesday 10th October 2023. Melvyn Dresner: Elsyng Palace – a digger’s view.
Tuesday 14th November 2023. Kris Lockyer (University College London): Mapping Verulamium.
A selection of other societies’ events – selected from information kindly provided by Eric Morgan
NOT ALL SOCIETIES OR ORGANISATIONS HAVE RETURNED TO PRE-COVID CONDITIONS. PLEASE CHECK WITH THEM BEFORE PLANNING TO ATTEND.
Wednesday 11th October, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society/Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, NW7 3TB. Talk on Grahame White and The London Aerodrome. By David Keen (Ex- RAF Museum). Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk
Tuesday 24th October, 1-2 pm. London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, EC1R 0HB. A Day in a London Life 1623. Talk. Also on Zoom. Free. Booking Essential. On Shakespeare’s Achievements making him one of Jacobean London’s most famous sons. But what was life everyday like for him and his contemporaries? Please visit London Metropolitan Archives – City of London.
Tuesday 7th November, 6 pm. Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn EC1N 2HH. Pilgrimages, Pandemics and The Past. Talk by Tom Holland. Also on line. Ticket Required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk. Please see Pilgrimages, Pandemics and the Past | Gresham College. FREE. Joint with Royal Historical Society. Will explore how tracing ancient routes on foot and experiencing travel as people did in age before trains and cars can offer insights into the past. Will also draw on experience of reading Chaucer and undertaking pilgrimage during and after the pandemic.
Wednesday 8th November, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. (address as 11th October) History of Highgate Cemetery. Simon Edwards.
Wednesday 8th November, 6 pm. Gresham College, Were there Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe? Talk by Ronald Hutton, view on line. Please see www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/pagan-goddesses Free. Considers a set of superhuman female figures found in Medieval and early modern European cultures. Mother nature the roving nocturnal lady often called Herodias, The British Fairy Queen and the Gaelic Calleach.
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Wednesday 8th November, 8 pm Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on Zoom, Charles Roach Smith by Dr Michael Rhodes. Please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk for further details.
Friday 10th November, 7.30 pm Enfield Archaeological Society – Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/Jnc Chase side, Enfield EN2 0AJ Towards a Geoarchaeology of London. Talk by Jason Stewart. Please visit www.enfacrchsoc.org for further details.
Monday 13th November, 3 pm Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St John Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, CNR High Street/Wood Street, EN5 4BW. David Livingstone and Hadley Green – Out of Africa. Talk by John Hall.
Thursday 16th November, 8 pm. Historical Association – Hampstead and NW London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). 1942 Britain at the Brink. Talk by Taylor Downing. Argues that Britain’s darkest hour was 1942 when British people faced the prospect of defeat, when a string of Military disasters engulfed Britain in rapid succession. Also shows how unpopular Churchill became, using mass observation archive new material. Hopefully also on zoom, please email Gulse Koca (Chair) on kocagulse@gmail.com or telephone 07453 283090 for details of zoom link and how to pay (There may be a voluntary charge of £5) Refreshments afterwards. Please note change of chair. These details also apply on the talk on 19th October, shown in the Hadas September Newsletter.
Friday 17th November, 7.30. pm Wembley History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s new church) Church Lane, Kingsbury NW9 Bombed Churches of the City of London. Talk by Signe Hoffos.
Saturday 18th November, 10.30 am – 6 pm. Lamas Local History Conference. Museum of London Docklands, West India Quay, off Hertsmere road, E4 4AL. The London Menagerie – Animals in London History. Tickets are £15 (£17.50 after 1st November or £20 on the day, subject to availability) For more info, including the full programme and to book, please visit www.lamas.org.uk/conferences/20.local-history.html.
Wednesday 22nd November, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. London’s Parks and Gardens. Talk by Diane Burstein (Tour Guide) Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 0208 368 8314 for up to date details (David Berguer, Chair) Non-member £2. Bar available.
Saturday 25th November, 10 am – 4 pm. Amateur Geological SocietyNorth London Mineral Gem and Fossil Show. Trinity Church, 15 Nether Street, N12 7NN (Nr North Finchley Arts Depot, Near the Tally Ho Pub) Large Hall with Jewellery, Gems. Fossils, Rocks, Minerals, Books, Maps and refreshments. Admission £2. For details visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.
Thursday 30th November, 7.15 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephen’s) House, 17 East End Road, London N3 3QE. Quiz Supper with Andy Savage as Question Master. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk.
Iceman Otzi is not the rugged warrior we had believed Stewart Wild
OTZI the Iceman was probably bald with dark skin – not too dissimilar to his desiccated state, scientists have said. The natural mummy, which dates from 5,300 years ago, was found in the Ötztal Alps at the border with Austria and Italy in September 1991, and is Europe’s oldest mummified human. The current reconstruction of Otzi in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano suggests that he had light eyes, a shaggy head of hair, a beard and the lightish skin of an Alpine climate. But genetic analysis suggests he had a predisposition for male pattern baldness, with dark eyes and dark skin. “It was previously thought that the mummy’s skin had darkened during its preservation in the ice, but presumably what we see now is actually Otzi’s original skin colour,” said Albert Zink, the study co-author.
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Prof Johannes Krause, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany, added: “The genome analysis revealed phenotypic traits such as high skin pigmentation, dark eye colour and male pattern baldness. It is remarkable how the reconstruction is biased by our own preconception of a Stone Age human.”
The new analysis, published in the journal Cell Genomics, also changes Otzi’s ancestry. Genetic profiling in 2012 suggested that he had descended from a mix of native hunter-gatherers, migrating farmers from Anatolia and Steppe herders. But the new results find no link to the Steppe herders, with scientists discovering that modern DNA had accidentally become mixed up with the original samples. (SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild).
As advertised in previous newsletters, HADAS held an Open Day at Avenue House on Saturday 16th September.
Considerable thought and planning had gone into this event, spearheaded by Bill Bass and other members of the Sunday Morning group, with assistance from members of the Avenue House staff.
The Stephens Museum near the café was opened up for our use, and display boards, which attracted much interest, showed part of our history, including our digs. Also in the museum were some activities for children courtesy of Janet Mortimer, Sue Loveday and Sue Willetts. The tables were occupied for large parts of the day by interested children and their parents. Outside, children could also get their face painted for a small charge.
Visitors during the day included Martin Russell, His Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London and the Lord-Lieutenant’s Representative for Barnet, and Barnet Councillor Philip Cohen, the council nominee to the Council for British Archaeology. We signed up five new members including Councillor Cohen.
Out in the grounds, on the area of the old pond (now no longer), Don Cooper led a team demonstrating the use of our resistivity equipment.
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We were also joined by members of the Finchley Society and Barnet Medieval Festival, both groups having tables of displays.
Reaction from members of the public was very positive, with some expressing surprise that, apart from the face painting, there were no charges.
Some of Bills team involved in the open day – from left to right, Jo Nelhams, Melvyn Dresner, Roger Chapman, Janet Mortimer, Sue Loveday, Tim Curtis, Jacqui Pearce, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Don Cooper, Andy Simpson and Bill Bass.
Photos: Melvyn Dresner/Andy Simpson.
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The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest AD9: The massacre of a Roman armyRobin Densem
Introduction Following centuries as a republic, Rome and its dominions was ruled as an empire by the adopted son of Julius Caesar, Augustus, as its first emperor, from 27 BC to his death in AD 14. After a Roman defeat of the banks of the River Rhine in 16 BC when the Roman governor of Gaul, Marcus Lollius, was defeated by a German raiding party which captured a legionary standard, Augustus turned his attention to the evidently dangerous north. Not satisfied with the Rhine as a frontier, he decided to advance into Germany to move the frontier 800km north-eastwards from the Rhine to the River Elbe.
Ancient sources tell us about the Roman attempts to conquer Germany and about the three or four day long battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9 when the Germans massacred a Roman army of three legions and nine auxiliary units, a force of perhaps 20,000 men, or more, led by Publius Quinctilius Varus (Varus). Augustus was so distraught after the loss of the three legions that the Roman writer Suetonius says Augustus often wailed, “Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!” Augustus had had a total of around 30 legions, each of about 5,000 men, accompanied by auxiliary units of 500 and others of 1,000 men which doubled the total size of his forces. The armies of auxiliaries and legionaries were to defend the Roman empire and to conduct offensive operations, so the loss of three legions and nine auxiliary units was a disaster considering the extent of the Roman empire and the length of its borders. After the battle, called by the Roman the Clades Variana, the Varian Disaster, the Augustus abandoned attempts to conquer Germany. Adrian Murdoch’s 2008 title for his book ‘Rome’s Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest’ gives a flavour of a modern, perhaps overstated, view of the very serious extent of the Roman disaster. (It could be argued that Hannibal’s victory of the Romans in 216 BC at the battle of Cannae was a greater defeat for the Romans who lost more men then.)
Ancient Latin sources for the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest include the Roman History, written by Velleius Paterculus who lived c. 19 BC – c. AD 31; Strabo’s Geography that he wrote in c. AD 20; Tacitus’s Annals (c. AD 120); and Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars (c. AD 121). Dio Cassius was a later writer who wrote his Roman History in Greek in the years AD 211-233. None of the ancient sources are exactly contemporaneous with the battle, and all relied on earlier sources, including official records. Excitingly, archaeology has revealed the actual battle site and many artifacts, and offers a correlation, confirmation and amplification of the account from the well-known ancient written sources.
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The text below on the historical background and description of the battle is from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_campaigns_in_Germania_(12_BC_%E2%80%93_AD_16)#Campaigns_of_Tiberius,_Ahenobarbus_and_Vinicius accessed 7th January 2023. Campaigns before the Clades Variana (the Varian Disaster): Campaigns of Drusus (the elder, 36 BC – 9 BC) Nero Claudius Drusus (Drusus the Elder), an experienced general and stepson of Augustus, was made governor of Gaul in 13 BC. The following year saw an uprising in Gaul – a response to the Roman census and taxation policy set in place by Augustus. For most of the following year he conducted reconnaissance and dealt with supply and communications. He also had several forts built along the Rhine, including Argentoratum (Strasburg, France), Moguntiacum (Mainz, Germany), and Castra Vetera (Xanten, Germany). Drusus first saw action following an incursion by the Sicambri and the Usipetes from Germany into Gaul, which he repelled before launching a retaliatory attack across the Rhine. This marked the beginning of Rome’s 28 years of campaigns across the lower Rhine.
He crossed the Rhine with his army and invaded the land of the Usipetes. He then marched north against the Sicambri and pillaged their lands. Travelling down the Rhine and landing in what is now the Netherlands, he conquered the Frisians, who thereafter served in his army as allies. Then, he attacked the Chauci, who lived in northwestern Germany in what is now Lower Saxony. Around winter, he recrossed the Rhine, and returned to Rome.
The following spring, Drusus (the Elder) began his second campaign across the Rhine. He first subdued the Usipetes, and then marched east to the Visurgis (Weser River). Then, he passed through the territory of the Cherusci, whose territory stretched from the Ems to the Elbe, and pushed as far east as the Weser. This was the furthest east into northern Europe that a Roman general had ever travelled, a feat which won him much renown. Between depleted supplies and the coming winter, he decided to march back to friendly territory. On the return trip, Drusus’ legions were nearly destroyed at Arbalo by Cherusci warriors taking advantage of the terrain to harass them.
Drusus was made consul for the following year, and it was voted that the doors to the Temple of Janus be closed, a sign the empire was at peace. However, peace didn’t last, for in the spring of 10 BC, he once again campaigned across the Rhine and spent the majority of the year attacking the Chatti. In his third campaign, he conquered the Chatti and other German tribes, and then returned to Rome, as he had done before at the end of the campaign season.
In 9 BC, he began his fourth campaign, this time as consul. Despite bad omens, Drusus again attacked the Chatti and advanced as far as the territory of the Suebi, in the words of Cassius Dio, “conquering with difficulty the territory traversed and defeating the forces that attacked him only after considerable bloodshed.” Afterwards, he once again attacked the Cherusci, and followed the retreating Cherusci
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across the Weser River, and advanced as far as the Elbe, “pillaging everything in his way”, as Cassius Dio puts it. Ovid states that Drusus extended Rome’s dominion to new lands that had only been discovered recently. On his way back to the Rhine, Drusus fell from his horse and was badly wounded. His injury became seriously infected, and after thirty days, Drusus died from the disease, most likely gangrene. When Augustus learned Drusus was sick, he sent Tiberius to quickly go to him. Ovid states Tiberius was at the city of Pavia at the time, and when he had learned of his brother’s condition, he rode to be at his dying brother’s side. He arrived in time, but it wasn’t long before Drusus drew his last breath.
Campaigns before the Clades Variana (the Varian Disaster): Campaigns of Tiberius, Ahenobarbus and Vinicius
After Drusus’ death, Tiberius was given command of the Rhine’s forces and waged two campaigns within Germania over the course of 8 and 7 BC. He marched his army between the Rhine and the Elbe, and met little resistance except from the Sicambri. Tiberius came close to exterminating the Sicambri, and had those who survived transported to the Roman side of the Rhine, where they could be watched more closely. Velleius Paterculus portrays Germany as essentially conquered, and Cassiodorus writing in the 6th century AD asserts that all Germans living between the Elbe and the Rhine had submitted to Roman power. However, the military situation in Germany was very different from what was suggested by imperial propaganda.
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was appointed as the commander in Germany by Augustus in 6 BC, and three years later, in 3 BC, he reached and crossed the Elbe with his army. Under his command causeways were constructed across the bogs somewhere in the region between the Ems and the Rhine, called pontes longi. The next year, conflicts between the Rome and the Cherusci flared up. While the elite members of one faction sought stronger ties with Roman leaders, the Cherusci as a whole would continue to resist for the next twenty years. Although Ahenobarbus had marched to the Elbe and directed the construction of infrastructure in the region east of the Rhine, he did not do well against the Cherusci warrior bands, who he tried to handle like Tiberius had the Sicambri. Augustus recalled Ahenobarbus to Rome in 2 BC and replaced him with a more seasoned military commander, Marcus Vinicius.
Between 2 BC and AD 4, Vinicius commanded the five legions stationed in Germany. At around the time of his appointment, many of the Germanic tribes arose in what the historian Velleius Paterculus calls the “vast war”. However, no account of this war exists. Vinicius must have performed well, for he was awarded the ornamenta triumphalia on his return to Rome.
Again in AD 4, Augustus sent Tiberius to the Rhine frontier as the commander in Germany. He campaigned in northern Germany for the next two years. During the first year, he conquered the Canninefati, the Attuarii, the Bructeri, and subdued the Cherusci. Soon thereafter, he declared the Cherusci “friends of the Roman people.” In AD 5, he campaigned against the Chauci, and then coordinated an attack into the heart of Germany both overland and by river. The Roman fleet and legions met on the Elbe, whereupon Tiberius departed from the Elbe to march back westward at the end of the summer without stationing occupying forces at this eastern position. This accomplished a demonstration to his troops, to Rome, and to the German peoples that his army could move largely unopposed through Germany, but like Drusus, he did nothing to hold territory. Tiberius’ forces were attacked by German troops on the way west back to the Rhine, but successfully defended themselves.
The elite of the Cherusci tribe came to be special friends of Rome after Tiberius’s campaigns of AD 5. In the preceding years, a power struggle had resulted in the alliance of one party with Rome. In this tribe was a ruling lineage that played a critical role in forging this friendship between the Cherusci and Rome. Belonging to this elite clan, was the young Arminius, who was around twenty-two at the time. Membership in this clan gave him special favour with Rome. Tiberius lent support to this ruling clan to gain control over the Cherusci, and he granted the tribe a free status among the German peoples. To keep an eye on the Cherusci, Tiberius had a winter base built on the River Lippe.
It was Roman opinion that by AD 6 the German tribes had largely been pacified, if not conquered. Only the Marcomanni, under king Maroboduus, remained to be subdued. Rome planned a massive pincer attack
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against them involving 12 legions from Germania, Illyricum, and Rhaetia, but when word of an uprising in Illyricum arrived the attack was called off and concluded peace with Maroboduus, recognizing him as king.
Part of the Roman strategy was to resettle troublesome tribal peoples, to move them to locations where Rome could keep better tabs on them and away from their regular allies. Tiberius resettled the Sicambri, who had caused particular problems for Drusus, in a new site west of the Rhine, where they could be watched more closely.
Campaign of Varus: Prelude Although it was assumed that the proto-province of Germania Magna, east of the Rhine, had been pacified, and Rome had begun integrating the region into the empire, there was a risk of rebellion during the military subjugation of a province. Following Tiberius’s departure to Illyricum, Augustus appointed Publius Quinctilius Varus to the German command, as he was an experienced officer, but he was not the great military leader a serious threat would warrant. Varus imposed civic changes on the Germans, including a tax – what Augustus expected any governor of a subdued province to do. However, the Germanic tribes began rallying around a new leader, Arminius of the Cherusci. Arminius, who Rome considered an ally, and who had fought in the Roman army before. He accompanied Varus who was in Germania with the three Roman legions XVII, XVIII, and XIX to finish the conquest of Germania.
Not much is known of the campaign of AD 9 until the return trip to the Rhine, when Varus left with his legions from their camp on the Weser in Germany. On their way back to Castra Vetera, Xanten, on the Rhine Varus received reports from Arminius that there was a small uprising west of Varus’s Roman camp in Germany. The Romans were on the way back to the Rhine anyway, and the small revolt would only be a small detour – about two days away. Varus departed to deal with the revolt believing that Arminius would ride ahead to garner the support of his tribesmen for the Roman cause. In reality, Arminius was actually preparing an ambush. Varus took no extra precautions on the march to quell the uprising, as he was expecting no trouble.
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Victory of Arminius Arminius’ revolt came during the Pannonian revolt, at a time when the majority of Rome’s legions were tied down in Illyricum. Varus only had three legions, which were isolated in the heart of Germany. Scouts were sent ahead of Roman forces as the column approached Kalkriese. Scouts were local Germans as they would have had knowledge of the terrain, and so would had to have been a part of Arminius’ ploy. Indeed, they reported that the path ahead was safe. Historians Wells and Abdale say that the scouts likely alerted the Germans to the advancing column, giving them time to get into position.
The Roman column followed the road going north until it began to wrap around a hill. The hill was to the west of the road and was wooded. There was boggy terrain all around the hill, woodland to the east, and a swamp to the north (out of sight of the Roman column until they reached the bend taking the road southwest around the hill’s northeastern point). Roman forces continued along the sloshy sandbank at the base of the hill until the front of the column was attacked. They heard loud shouting and spears began falling on them from the woody slope to their left. Spears then began falling from the woods to their right and the front fell into disorder from panic. The surrounded soldiers were unable to defend themselves because they were marching in close formation and the terrain was too muddy for them to move effectively.
Within ten minutes, word reached the middle of the column where Varus was. Communication was hampered by the column being packed densely in the narrow road. Not knowing the full extent of the attack, Varus ordered his forces to advance forward to reinforce his forces at the front. This pushed the soldiers at the front further into the enemy, and thousands of German warriors began to pour out of the woods to attack up close. The soldiers at the middle and rear of the column began to flee in all directions, but most of them were caught in the bog or killed. Varus realized the severity of his situation and killed himself with his sword. A few Romans survived and made their way back to the winter quarters at Xanten by staying hidden and carefully travelling through the forests. Roman officers were gorily tortured and killed, and some captured Roman soldiers were kept alive as slaves of the Germans.
It is a rare achievement to locate the actual site of an early battle, and credit is to be given to Tony Clunn for his great achievement. The locations of the Roman victory under Suetonius Paulinus over Boudica in AD 60/61 in Britain, and the Roman victory under Agricola over the Caledonians, in Scotland, in AD 84, for instance, have yet to be found, archaeologically.
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Discovery of the Battlefield (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Clunn accessed 9.02,2023) John Anthony Spencer Clunn MBE (10 May 1946 – 3 August 2014) was a major in the British Army, and an amateur archaeologist who discovered the main site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest at Kalkriese Hill. Clunn searched for Roman coins with a metal detector as a hobby. In 1987, when he was attached to the Royal Tank Regiment in Osnabrück, he asked Wolfgang Schlüter, at the time the archaeologist for the District of Osnabrück, where he should look. He was advised to search 20 km north of the city, where Roman coins had previously been found, though none for 18 years.
Schlüter’s recommendation was based upon a study of maps and the 19th-century historian Theodor Mommsen’s proposal that the Kalkriese area was a likely location of the battle which took place in AD 9. On his first two days, in July 1987 Clunn found 105 Roman coins from the reign of Augustus (27BC – AD 14)2, mostly in excellent condition. No coins found at the site post-date AD 9. In 1988 he also discovered Roman sling shots at three locations in the vicinity of Kalkriese, the first indisputable evidence of Roman military activity there. Previously there had been many conflicting theories about the location of the battle, and scholars had searched for it without success for 600 years.
Archaeological Evidence
On the basis of Clunn’s findings, Schlüter began a comprehensive excavation of the site in 1989, later led by Susanne Wilbers-Rost. The finds are now displayed at the Varusschlacht (Varus Battle) Museum and Park Kalkriese, opened in 2002. Clunn went on to investigate the entire area around Kalkriese. The coins he discovered have made it possible to reconstruct the route taken by the Roman legionaries under Varus and to determine where they were ambushed and massacred. In Clunn’s opinion, the march route corresponds exactly to the environment described by Dio Cassius.
The archaeologists have found remains of Roman swords and daggers, parts of javelins and spears, arrowheads, slingstones, fragments of helmets, nails of soldiers’ sandals, belts, hooks of chain mail and fragments of armour plate. Other finds were less military in character, but may have belonged to soldiers nevertheless: locks, keys, razors, a scale, weights, chisels, hammers, pickaxes, buckets, finger rings. A doctor may have owned surgical instruments; seal boxes and a stylus may have been among the
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possessions of a scribe; and a cook must have carried cauldrons, casseroles, spoons, and amphoras. Finally, jewellery, hairpins, and a disk brooch suggest the presence of women. Overall, archaeological investigations at Kalkriese have unearthed more than 7,000 artifacts, and various archaeological excavations have been ongoing there since the site was discovered by Tony Clunn in 1987-88.
Excavations show the Germans had constructed a rampart or embankment at their ambush site from which to fight the Romans. The rampart presenting as a zigzag-ging structure c. 400 m long from east to west, between two creeks. It is no longer visible above ground level due to layers of soil. Excavation work showed that the wall was erected using sod, sand, and in parts limestone. Initially, the wall measured circa 3 m in width and almost 2m in height. Today, the remaining structure is 0.3 m in height due to the levelling of the rampart and erosion, and a slight 15m wide rising can be detected. At least parts of the wall were bolstered by a wooden parapet. (Rost, Achim and Wilbers-Rost, Susanne, 2019,‘Archaeology of Kalkriese’ in Smith, C (ed) Encyclopaedia of Global Archaeology https://www.academia.edu/67689095/Archaeology_of_Kalkriese?auto=download&email_work_card=download-paper accessed 3rd January 2023).
❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ With thanks to the contributors: Sue Loveday, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams & Stewart Wild ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖
Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350), email: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP (07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488), email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum. The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project. Mike helped to coordinate ‘The Barnet battlefield project’ on behalf of Barnet Museum which mostly took place 2015-2018. The aim was to locate more precisely the battle area using a large-scale metal-detecting survey by Huddersfield University (a method used successfully at Bosworth), digs by community archaeologists and volunteers processing finds in the museum. One of the digs was on the possible site of the Chantry Chapel (built to commemorate the dead) in Wrotham Park. This was led by Cotswold Archaeology with HADAS taking part in supplying some diggers and tools. Mike will inform us of the results and of any future work.
SATURDAY 16th SEPTEMBER at Avenue House,10am –4pm. HADAS OPEN DAY. See August newsletter for details. Please come.
Tuesday 10th October 2023 Melvyn Dresner. Elsyng Palace: a digger’s view – see also article on page 3 of this issue
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear, (University College London). Mapping Verulamium
On 9th August, with the kind permission and co-operation of Barnet Borough Heritage Development Officer, Hugh Petrie, members of HADAS attended Hendon Town Hall to install our new temporary display in the ’Heritage Barnet’ area of the foyer there.
The Sunday morning team have spent the last month or two preparing this new display, its exhibits and captions, and most of them were able to attend to fill up ‘their’ cases. We have included, in the Roman corner, material from the Pipers Green Lane cremation burial from the foot of Brockley Hill and the Moxom Collection found at its summit; also items from more recent excavations at Hendon School and even Avenue House grounds. There are items from the 1960s excavations at Church End Farm Hendon, the former Church Farm Museum in the 1990s, and the Burroughs Gardens, Fuller Street /Chequers Pub areas of Hendon in the
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1970s. A selection of HADAS publications are included and also there are new format HADAS membership forms to collect.
With thanks to the set-up team mostly seen in the picture below – (left to right) Hugh Petrie, Bill Bass, Andy Simpson, Melvyn Dresner, Peter Nicholson and Janet Mortimer – plus Tim Curtis (not pictured).
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Do go along to Hendon Town Hall and view our new exhibition! It will hopefully be available to view until Christmas.
Elsyng Palace Dig 2023: a digger`s viewMelvyn Dresner
Enfield Archaeological Society (EAS) has been digging at Elysng Palace since the 1960s and especially since 2004. This summer’s dig’s research aim was to locate the inner gatehouse and to identify the relationship between the moat features dug in 2022 and other buildings found on site in previous years, in particular the northern range.
Elysng Palace was a 15th century royal palace that was owned by Tudor monarchs. Prior to that there is evidence of medieval occupation. For the Tudor palace, we have substantial structural features, as well as rubble across the site.
This year revealed walls in situ, both internal walls and structures such as turrets or towers. As the palace is a scheduled monument, the archaeological design brief has been agreed with Dr Jane Sidell, Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Historic England.
BBC Digging for Britain with Dr Alice Roberts will feature the dig early in 2024. Alice, as well as a being a TV presenter, is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.
To find out more about the 2023 dig, you can read the daily blog on the EAS website: https://www.enfarchsoc.org/
For the October’s HADAS lecture, he will provide a digger’s insight into this year’s dig.
Romans built more in South-West than was once thought Stewart Wild
The Romans built more towns and roads in the South-West than archaeologists have thought, research has found. Experts at the University of Exeter discovered a Roman road network spanning Devon and Cornwall as well as a grid system of streets in North Tawton, Devon, suggesting its importance as a settlement.
Dr Joao Fonte, who led the research alongside Dr Christopher Smart, both specialists in landscape archaeology and the heritage of the Roman Empire, said that the findings suggested that the South-West was more ‘Romanised’ than previously thought. “We understand that the roads were probably constructed by animal-drawn wheeled vehicles, avoiding flooded areas as much as possible,” he added.
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After the conquest of Britain, Dr Fonte said, the entire network of roads would have been in use and the discovery “confirms that the South-West – Devon and Cornwall – were no different from other, more Romanised regions. The Roman influence was profound.”
In North Tawton, the Romans may have been interested in the area’s mining resources, he said, while its location in the middle of the region could have been useful in linking the site to ships and other resources. There was evidence of a grid system of streets and signs of the region’s first known amphitheatre, enclosed by both a rampart and a ditch, meaning that while it might not have been a full Roman city such as Londinium or Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum), it was a town of some importance.
The researchers used laser scans collected as part of the Environment Agency’s national LiDAR programme to identify sections of road west of the previously understood boundary. Among the insights is that, far from Exeter being the main nerve centre, it was North Tawton that supported vital connections with tidal estuaries north and south of Bodmin and Dartmoor. “Despite more than seventy years of scholarship, published maps of the Roman road network in southern Britain have remained largely unchanged and all are consistent in showing that west of Exeter there was little solid evidence for a system of long-distance roads,” Dr Smart said.
SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 8 August 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild
The following information has been taken from Heritage Alliance Sue Willetts
Campaign to Boost Free Bus Travel This Summer
The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a campaign to encourage more older people to make use of their free bus passes to get a ‘culture fix’ and rediscover local attractions. The campaign aims to improve wellbeing amongst older and disabled people as well as promote more sustainable forms of travel and grow the economy.
Sunday 10th September. 2pm. COLAS, Old St. Pancras Churchyard. Dying to get in. Visit with Lester Hillman leading a guided walk with an archaeological perspective on this ancient burial ground. The visit offers a chance to see the Grade II* listed church which has Roman fabric and has just completed works of repair and redecoration. Meet 1.50 pm at Old St. Pancras Church, Pancras Road, NW1 1UL, in park. Churchyard is immediately behind St. Pancras International Station.
Friday 15th September. 7.30 pm. Wembley Historical Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall, (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. Dan Dare. Pilot of the future. Talk by Lester Hillman (see COLAS above). Looking back nearly 75 years, The Eagle comic of the 1950’s was remarkably prescient. Lester explains the history and London links along with its insightful writing, images, clear predictions and some surprises. Visitors £3. Refreshments in the interval.
Thursday 21st September 8pm. Enfield Society. A history of Enfield Chase at Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane / Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Talk by Martin Paine, preceded by AGM. The first of two talks that aim to bring to life the medieval and renaissance worlds of Enfield Chase, drawing on an array of sources including hunting treatises, literature, maps, and archival records. Martin aims to demonstrate why an understanding of Enfield Chase is essential to understanding the history of Enfield, including the grand houses, palaces and lodges that were once so prominent in the local landscape. Martin’s second talk will take place on Monday 16th October at 8pm.
Thursday 25th September 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. 50 years of Fitzrovia News by Nick Bailey, Sue Blundell and Linus Rees (Editors). On the origins of the paper and later development, illustrating some of the leading themes and stories and in the contribution of community newsletters to recording and disseminating local history. Visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Tuesday 3rd October. 1-2pm Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE, also on Zoom. Duke Alexander and his Sarcophagi. Talk by Prof. Aidan Dodson. Also Wednesday 4th October. 5 pm. British Archaeological Association at the Society of Antiquaries. Reconstructing Bury St. Edmund’s Abbey. Talk by Dr. Steven Brindle (E.H.) Tea. Also Thursday 5th October 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. Forging iron from the sky. Talk by Ian Thackray. Also Thursday 12th October. 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries, Also on Zoom. The wood that built London. Chris Schüler. Also Thursday 19th October, 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. Mills Whip Projects-London’s Civil War defences: Rewriting history. Talk by Mike Hutchinson and Peter Milne. Also on Zoom. Also Thursday 26th October, 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. The Athenaeum Club. Talk by Michael Wheeler.
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Lectures are free but donations are welcome. Details and bookings through the website www.sal.org.uk/events.
Monday 9th October, 3 pm. Barnet Museum & Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High Street, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Enfield Chase: the making of a man-made landscape. Talk by John Leatherdale. Free to members. Visitors – £2.
Wednesday 11th October. 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. Artists, refugees & spies in Belsize in the 1930s by Averil Nottage. Including the Mall Studios (off Parkhill Rd), home to Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and critic Herbert Read and the iconic modernist block of Lawn Road Flats which welcomed many exiles including communist political refugees from Germany & Austria, some who set up British spy networks. www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Friday 13th October. 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Roman road to a dual carriageway – archaeological consultancy on the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project. Talk by David Lakin. Visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.
Monday 16th October 8 pm Enfield Society. Enfield Chase continued. See 21st Sept entry. Martin Paine explores the rich history of the local area and the visible legacy of the Chase today.
Wednesday 18th October. 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (round corner from Magistrates’ Court). Willesden’s post-war prefab-homes. Talk by Philip Grant (Brent Archives) may also be on Zoom. www.willesden-local-history.co.uk. If not a member, buy a ticket £3, for details www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Thursday 19th October, 8 pm Historical Association: Hampstead and N.W. London branch. Fellowship House, 136a Willifield Way, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune) The Mayans and Aztecs. Talk by Ian Mursell, hopefully also on Zoom. Email Jeremy Berkoff (Chair) jeremyberkoff@mack.com or telephone 01793 229521 for details of Zoom link and how to pay. There may be a voluntary charge of £5. Refreshments afterwards.
Friday 20th October, 7pm COLAS. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, EC3R 7NB Human remains from the River Thames. Talk by Dr. Nichola Arthur (Natural History Museum) A Palaeopathologist examines the who, how and why of human bones from the Thames and its deposit. Also on Zoom. Book via Eventbrite. www.colas.org.uk HADAS may send out the link to its members.
Friday 20th October. 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society, St. Andrew’s Church Hall, (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. The archaeology of the Thames foreshore. Talk by Dr. Will Rathouse (Senior Community Archaeologist for the Thames Discovery Programme hosted by MOLA) Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.
Wednesday 25th October. 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Westminster at war: How the Luftwaffe destroyed the House of Commons. Talk by Barry Hall. Visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 020 8368 8814 for up-to-date details (David Berguer, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
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Thursday 26th October. 7.30 pm Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, N3 3QE. Spymaster: the man who saved MI6. Talk by Dr Helen Fry about Thomas Joseph Kendrick, one of the most senior spymasters of the British Secret Intelligence Service in the 20th Century. Further details www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Andy Simpson, Stewart Wild, Sue Willetts. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)
Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project
Tuesday 10th October 2023 Lecture to be arranged
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear Mapping Verulamium
Saturday 16th September, 10am – 4pm HADAS “Open Day” at Avenue House See poster below
Subscriptions by Cheque
The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:
HADAS C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address, please let us know.
Future Newsletters
HADAS nearly did not have a newsletter this month. At the deadline given in last month’s newsletter, only one article had been received which would have given us 4 pages after including the list of Other Societies’ Events. Postage and printing would still have cost the same amounts if we used four pages.
This is your newsletter and you can help to keep it going by submitting items of interest. Even half a page helps. We could also do with another couple of editors – which involves assembling submitted items – not writing them – unless you want to. Contact jim_nelhams@hotmail.com if you can help in any way, or for more information. Thank you.
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No Dinosaurs were hurt in the making of this poster, if you want to help let us know. Its archaeology not paleontology. We know you know. ****************************************************************
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The City Wall at Vine StreetJanet Mortimer
Underneath a coffee shop a short walk from Tower Hill Station is one of the newest chances to see more of the London Roman City Wall. This little publicised and hard to find site opened in May of this year and is a fascinating glimpse of the wall built 2,000 years ago. The large section of wall, complete with bastion reminds us how durable the structures built by the Romans were, especially contrasted with the nearby very modern “Shard” and “Cheesegrater” buildings.
Items that were found during the excavations are displayed in a very pleasing manner in cabinets ranging from the oldest finds to the newest. The captions are interesting and informative, with comments such as wondering what the Romans would say if they could see us getting excited over their rubbish – and wondering what archaeologists of the future will make of our own rubbish!
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Although not large, a visit to this attraction is well worth it, especially as it is free (although you need to pre-book). There are other outside sections of the Roman Wall that you can visit whilst you are in the area, and you can even hold hands with Trajan!
The Tower Hill SundialJim Nelhams
Just up the stairs from the statue of Trajan to the south of Tower Hill Station is a large sundial. Around its edge are pictures reflecting the history of London from AD43. Look especially at “The Peasants’ Revolt”. In one corner in the cload, there is a familiar lady waving her handbag!!!
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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 6 the finds – Animal Bones, by Geraldine Missig.) Site code OPS22
‘Hopscotch’, a shop located at 88 High Street, Barnet, hosted in its backyard an exploratory trench which produced 88 animal bone fragments of which 67 weighing 1394g were identified to species and anatomical part. Unfortunately, 20 fragments weighing 107g lacked the sufficient distinguishing features for identification. Of the 20 fragments, ten were sheep size, eight were cattle size and two were unidentified bird. In addition to the bone group, 18 oyster shell fragments, weighing 94g were retrieved.
Method The bone fragments were identified by reference to the bone collection at Birkbeck, University of London and recorded for HADAS on an Excel spreadsheet noting species, anatomical part, side, state of fusion (following Schmid 1972), proportion of bone present, weight, and any modification such as dog or rodent gnawing, charring or butchery.
Cohen & Sarjeantson’s manual for the identification of birds (1996), was used to verify the identity of the bones of domestic fowl and woodpigeon from (001).
Apart from a deciduous fourth premolar and distal metatarsal, both of which were identified as sheep, there were no other diagnostic fragments among the caprine elements to distinguish between sheep and goat, which below will be referred to as sheep. (Boessneck 1969).
Mandible wear stages followed Grant’s illustrations of tooth wear stages (1982) with Payne’s suggested age attribution for eruption/wear state (1973) for sheep/goat.
All measurements were made by vernier callipers according to the von den Driesch guidelines. Each identified specimen was counted (NISP) and where two fragments joined, they were counted as one. All oyster fragments were counted NISP but their minimum number (MNI) was established by the presence of more than 50% of its hinge on the left valve, the more numerous side present.
Assemblage This small bone group was assembled from three presently undated contexts to which the bone contents of the trench had been allocated. (001) comprised 31 bone fragments, (002) only had 16 and (003) slightly more at 20. Together they contained an assortment of species.
Sheep were the most numerous having 27 fragments, cattle next with 18 fragments, pig followed with nine, bird with eight, rabbit with three and horse and dog each with one. Oyster fragments numbered 18.
Apart from (002) where sheep and cattle were equally frequent, sheep was the more numerous group in the other two contexts. The cattle fragments slightly increased in number through the contexts from (001) to (003) while the pig fragments moved the other way, fragment numbers decreasing from (001) to (003).
Although the three most numerous species contained some domestic refuse; cattle with its meatier sections of rib (in all contexts but much more frequently in (003)), pig with a solitary limb shaft (003), and sheep with the largest number of meaty shafts (001) (003), a few of the meatier rib sections (001) (003), and a lumbar vertebrae (001) (commonly recognised as a loin lamb chop bone), it was butchery waste which was more dominant.
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Cattle contained large roughly chopped fragments of lumbar and thoracic vertebral fragments (002) while there was one of the latter from sheep in (003). All three species were represented by butchered fragments of the less meaty chopped ribs (all three contexts) as well as the awkward articular ends of shafts or blades (all three contexts), the latter inadvertently suggesting in their absence what people were actually eating.
The presence of the cranial elements, maxillary and mandibular parts of sheep (all three contexts) and cattle (001), as well as the skull fragments of pig (002) and sheep (003), and cattle extremities (002) (003), all normally slaughter waste, raise the possibility that the local butchers of that period undertook more intensive duties towards the preparation of an animal carcass for consumption.
OPS22 also contains an entire cattle metacarpal (003) and similarly that of a horse (002). The metacarpal is a lower leg bone covered in little meat but in a large animal its length, smooth line and strength made it a useful resource in bone working. However, both metacarpals display several small knife nicks normally associated with the skinning of an animal. The length of a complete fused metacarpal can be used in established equations to calculate an estimate of the withers heights of a bone’s owner.
The greater length of the (003) cattle metacarpal (von den Driesch) is 19.04cm which if multiplied by 6.03, a multiplier introduced by Matolcsi (1970), which is not reliant on gender distinction, produced an estimated withers height for the animal of 1.15m. Comparing this figure, as (003) is presently undated, with today’s average withers height of between 1.37-1.5 for Angus or Holstein Friesian cattle, suggests that the (003) animal was quite small.
The maximum lateral length, 22.14cm, of the horse metacarpal (von den Driesch) multiplied by 6.41 (the factor following Kiesewalter (1888) and described by Chroszcz et al. (2014)) gives an estimate of withers height as 142cm or 14hands. This short estimated withers height places the animal near the borderline territory between a large pony and a small horse, but just misses the 14.3 hands high needed to be classified as a small horse.
The eight bird bones recovered came only from (001). Apart from any of the myriad reasons why bird bones did not land up in the earth of a particular back yard, a bird needs to have light bones to be able to fly. They are thus more fragile and vulnerable to destruction than the bones of other animals. Following the butchery evidence below, (001) may be the latest in time of the three contexts, another possible reason why bird was not found in the other contexts.
The bird fragments consisted of the bones of seven domestic fowl and one wood pigeon. Domestic fowl is represented by the classic food bones, the upper thigh bone and the bones of the meatier part of the wing, suggesting domestic refuse. Judging from the numbers of the same bones of the same side they would represent two birds.
The wood pigeon’s ulna, one of the bones from the meatier part of the wing, could have been in the yard as a consequence of a natural event. However, as it occurs in association with the group of domestic fowl bones and a chopped rabbit bone, mentioned below, it may suggest the exploitation at that time of local fauna in the sourcing of food.
A few rabbit bones, two pelves and a chopped thigh bone, were present in (001) and (002). The thigh bone also displays a small knife nick at the distal end, often the result of skinning. The bones’ presence supports the suggestion that local animals were used for food and, depending on the dates to be established for these contexts, practices continuing over some time.
Oyster shells appear in (001) and (002), predominantly in (002). Although breakage has occurred in (002) there were six left hand, the rounder side, remnants with more than 50% of their hinges present in the group which indicate that there were at least 6 oysters in the group.
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Several of the valves exhibited marks suggestive of interference at the side or near the hinge area but the fragmentation is too extensive to be certain.
The hinge of the oyster shell in (001) appears to be that of a right valve, the shallower side. Interference near the hinge and a few knife marks visible on the interior surface of the shell suggest that it had been used for food.
Condition Eighty five percent of the bone group was in average condition displaying only moderate erosion after their spell in the ground. Damage to the bone by the gnawing of rats or dogs, surface splitting, flaking or thinning contributed in varying degrees to a poor or severe state in the condition of the remaining 15%.
Rat or dog gnawing was observed in 21% of the bone assemblage but rat gnawing unusually only occurred in (001) while dog gnawing appeared equally only in (002) and (003). It may be that (002) and (003) came from a different time and source and had been buried more quickly than (001).
The surface of the majority of the oysters, largely found in (002), was extremely friable. The right valve of the more robust less fragmented but only oyster fragment in (001) displayed a single hole on the exterior of its valve made by a sponge or predatory marine gastropod trying to attach to its shell.
Charring There was no evidence of charring on any of the fragments.
Butchery Fifty four percent of the bone fragments showed signs of butchery. This amount rises to 69% if the horse, dog and bird bones were removed from the equation as customarily they are not butchered, as they are not in this assemblage.
The rates of butchery increase in OPS22 as the contexts numbers move from (001) to (003) but the greatest difference between the contexts is that it is only in (001) that saw marks appear. Sawing as a method of butchery only became a common practice in the 19th century suggesting a possible more recent date for (001) than the other two contexts.
The crumbly and fragmented condition of the oyster fragments in (002) obscured any marks though there may have been some possible interference at the sides or near the hinges. Interference near the hinge area of the sturdier oyster fragment in (001) was more visible, as were the few knife marks on its interior.
Age Evidence There is some evidence of a number of young animals in this assemblage.
Birds will display their youth by having long bones with soft ends which have not yet hardened. In OPS22, many of the bones of domestic fowl which have complete endings are soft, indicating immature birds.
There are a group of young animals in OPS22, mainly sheep and pigs, whose full growth had not been completed before death so the ends of their limb bones had not yet attached to their shafts and hardened. The general age of an animal at which this fusion for each bone occurs is known, which helps to furnish an approximate age at death should the animal die before a bone’s fusion is achieved.
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In (001) there are four, two pigs and two sheep, whose unfused shaft ends of bones indicate that all these animals were less than 3.5 years old when they had been butchered. Additionally the unfused end of another young pig bone showed it was slaughtered at less than one year, while in (003) a young pig’s unfused shaft end marked its death at around two years old.
In (002) there is a mandible of a young sheep whose tooth eruption and wear point to its slaughter at around six months old.
There are no cattle teeth in OPS22 to assess age by means of the stage of tooth eruption or patterns of tooth wear. Additionally the cattle bones in the group which are fused are those which complete the fusion process early in life, around one or two years, leaving too great an age range to be useful. At the other end of the spectrum there is a chopped unfused thoracic vertebra which fuses between 7 and 9 years.
However, there is one cattle bone fragment from (002), in two pieces, whose proximal articular end is in the process of firmly attaching to its shaft but hasn’t fully completed it as the line between the shaft and the attaching epiphysis is still visible. The age for the fusion of the proximal end of this bone, the humerus, is thought to be around 3.5 to 4 years old, placing the age of this animal at death at around the 4 year mark, an age at which the animal would have achieved its full growth.
Barring illness or accident, dairy or draught cattle have a longer lifespan than 4 years, which points to this animal in (002) having been raised for meat production as were the above other young sheep and pigs from (001), (002) and (003).
There are also a few cases of disposal, for no apparent reason, of the very young who had not been involved in the preparation and supply of meat. Single limb bones of a neonatal dog and pig, and that of a slightly older sheep appeared in (001) and (002).
Conclusion The anatomical parts recovered suggest that the assemblage has been derived from a variety of activities. That the fragments have been disposed of in the same area suggests the proximal nature of these different sources.
(001) is notable as it is more numerous than the other contexts, containing not only the largest amount of pig fragments in the group but also the largest presence of young animals and birds in the assemblage. It is also the only context which displays sawn bone and rat gnawing. Domestic refuse appears to be represented by the partial remains of at least six oysters, the meatier parts of the rabbit, domestic fowl and cattle ribs, and the occasional limb bone of sheep and pig.
Butchery waste is more common, consisting of sheep, cattle and pig’s unwanted awkward articular ends of long bones, pelves, less meaty parts of ribs and the vertebral fragments of the two most numerous species. The youth of the animals slaughtered enhances the quality of the meat supplied which in turn suggests the prosperity of the nearby community or part thereof. Cranial elements from cattle, sheep and pig, including mandibular, maxillary and occipital skull fragments and extremities suggest slaughter waste or possibly the earlier involvement of the butcher at that time in the processing of animal carcasses for consumption.
A semi circular cut on a cattle humerus from (002) implies nearby casual bone working activity. Knife nicks on a rabbit’s femur (001) and on cattle (003) and horse (002) metacarpals suggest the local skinning of animals.
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An intact horse lower leg bone from (002) and one from cattle in (003), as well as unfused limb bones of a neonatal puppy (001) and piglet and a slightly older sheep (002) possibly reflect the yard’s proximity to a well used road and might suggest it was a recognised place for the disposal of unwanted animal bone.
When dating is available and assigned to contexts (001) to (003), the information uncovered by the animal bone assemblage will contribute to a greater understanding of High Barnet’s local patterns of meat supply and consumption in their time frame. As OPS22’s bone group is not large, its value will be amplified with the excavation of further nearby sites.
Boessneck. 1969, ‘Osteological differences between sheep (Ovis aries Linne) and goat (Capra hircusLinne)’, in Brothwell, D. and Higgs, E.S. (eds.), Science in Archaeology, 2nd edn, London: Thames & Hudson.
Chroszcz, A. & Janeczek, M. & Pasicka, E. & Kleckowska-Nawrot, J. 2014, ‘Height at the withers estimation in horses based on the internal dimension of cranial cavity’, Folia morphologica, 73, 143-148. 10.5603/FM.2014.0021.
Cohen, A. & Serjeantson, D. 1996, A Manual for the Identification of Bird Bones from Archaeological Sites, London: Archetype.
Driesch, A. von den 1976, A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Bull. 1.
Grant, A. 1982, ‘The use of tooth as a guide to the age of domestic animals’, in Wilson, B., Greigson, C. & Payne, S. (eds) 1982, Aging and Sexing Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Oxford: BAR Brit. Ser. 109.
Matolcsi, J. 1970, ‘Historische Erforschung der Kopergrosse des Rindes augrund von ungarischem Knochenmaterial; Zeitschrift fur Tierzuchtung und Zuchtungsbiologie, 87, 89-137
Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.
Sunday 6th August. Eclectic Tours. NW London Series. – Colindale and its role in early Aviation. Colindale or Hendon as it was known back then, was synonymous with flying. Learn about early aviation and other factories and important institutions of the area. For tour info. and to book please go to Eclectic Tours – Walking Tours – London, England (eclectic-tours.com).
Saturday 19th August. Barnet Physic Well. Cnr. Well Approach/Pepy’s Cres.,Barnet, EN5 3DY. Open Day.
Also Sunday 27th August. Exploring Kingsbury and Places we call Home. In the 1930’s Kingsbury developed as part of Metroland , while typical of many suburbs with mock-Tudor houses, Kingsbury holds some surprises. For tour info. and to book please go to Eclectic Tours – Walking Tours – London, England (eclectic-tours.com).
Sunday 3rd September, 11am-5pm. Angel Canal Festival. Regent’s Canal, City Road Basin ,Islington,N1 8GJ. Lots of stalls including London Canal Museum. Also boat trips, craft stalls, food and live music. For more info, please visit www.canalrivertrust/events.
Wednesday 6th-Sunday to 17th September. Open House London. Free entry to London’s best buildings not normally always open to the public. For full detail. please visit https://open-city.org.uk
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Sunday 10th September. Avenue House. The Private World of Spike Milligan. An opportunity to take a look at Spike’s unseen archive guided by his daughter Jane Miliigan. Small groups. Multiple slots. Booking essential. Tickets £10. Please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com.
Monday 11th September, 3pm.Barnet Museum and Local History Society.St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner of High St./Wood St., Barnet, EN5 4BW. A Walk in the Park-London’s Green Treasures. Talk by John Lynch. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Friday 15th September, 7.30pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. London’s Waterfront, 1666-1800 and London’s Involvement with Slavery. Talk by John Scofield .Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.
Saturday 16th September 10am – 4pm. HADAS OPEN DAY at Avenue House. See Page 2 of this newsletter.
Sunday 17th September, 12-5pm . Queens Park Festival. Off Chevening Road or Harvist Road.,NW6. Lots of stalls incl.Willesden Local History.
Wednesday 20th September, 7.30pm. Willesden Local History Society. St.Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS (round corner from Magistrates’ Court). Shopping in Kilburn High Road. Talk. May also be on zoom. If not a member, buy a ticket (£3). For details .please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
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Friday 22nd September,7pm. COLAS. St.Olave’s Church, Hart Street , EC3R 7NB. Lord Elgin and the Parthenon sculptures at the British Museum. Speaker TBA. Hopefully also on zoom.Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out the link details to its members to book.
Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th September. Clitterhouse Farm Project. 10th Anniversary Weekend. 102,Clitterhouse Crescent,NW2 1DN. For details, please e-mail paulette@clitterhouse.com or visit www.ouryard.org.
Wednesday 27ih September, 7.45pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL. Alexandra Palace Theatre. Talk by Nigel Wilmott. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme,or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details. (David Berguer, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 28th September, 7.30pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue, House, 17,East End Rd.,N3 3QE. Amy,wonderful Amy. Talk by David Keen (RAF Mus.) Will tell the life story of Amy Johnson and make use of the magic lantern slides and script which she used during fund-raising tours following her pioneering solo Australia flight. For further details, please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Geraldine Missig. Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Jim Nelhams ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)
Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project
Tuesday 10th October 2023 Lecture to be arranged
Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear Mapping Verulamium
Welcome to new President of HADAS, thank you to Harvey Sheldon
At this year’s AGM, we said farewell to our President, Harvey Sheldon, and welcomed Jacqui Pearce as our new President.
Harvey has been our President for over twenty years, he has been involved in London archaeology since the early 1960s. He was Field Officer for the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Committee from 1972 until 1975, then Head of the Department of Greater London Archaeology in the Museum of London from its establishment in 1975 until 1991. He was part-time tutor in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies University of London, and later, in the Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck, University of London. From the late 1990s until 2010 he had responsibilities for the faculty’s archaeological field programme and for the direction of its MA in Field Archaeology, where many HADAS members participated.
Jacqui has led and tutored HADAS members on our finds course for more than 15 years, including work on sites dug by HADAS members in Southwark with Birkbeck and Harvey. Jacqui is a Senior Finds Specialist with MOLA and an internationally renowned expert in medieval and later ceramics, glass and clay tobacco pipes. She has wide ranging experience of medieval and later pottery and has been involved in the establishment and maintenance of the MOLA Fabric Reference Collection, the main pottery type-series for the London area. In addition, she has developed a detailed recording system for clay pipes in line with national guidelines and that was instrumental in the establishment of the Museum of London’s Clay Tobacco Pipe Makers’ Marks website. Jacqui is the author of numerous major papers and books, including four parts of an extensive Type-series of London Medieval Pottery, the latest of which covers shelly-sandy wares and greywares. She was Joint Editor of Post-Medieval Archaeology from 2009-2014 and is a committee member of the English Ceramic Circle, and Trustee of the National Clay Tobacco Pipe Archive. She is a frequent public speaker, leads workshops, and teaches evening classes in archaeological finds work and publication. In 2011 she was awarded the Ralph Merrifield Prize for Services to London Archaeology. She was President of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology from 2017 to 2021 and is currently Vice President. She is also Co-Editor of English Ceramic Circle Transactions.
Jacqui at the HADAS finds group.
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AGM Lecture
After tea, coffee and biscuits, our new President, Jacqui Pearce, took us through the top archaeological ceramics from 50 years of digs in London. Starting from the Department of Urban Archaeology in 1974 up to her work today with Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).
She explained how important were the pottery finds associated with revetments along the north bank of Thames providing a good basis for securely dating London ceramics found in other parts of London. This is related to direct dating such as dendrochronology and relative dating.
Early pots dated to the period of King Alfred were hand built and shell-tempered ceramic, which continued through Saxo-Norman period. Some wares from Stamford entered London in this period. These were high status pottery, lead glazed earthenware, made in Lincolnshire. Forms included spouted pitchers depicting birds. This type of pottery and the techniques are the earliest example of wheel thrown ware.
The beginning of London-type ware emerges late 11th century and early 12th century, wheel thrown, white slip and glaze, also tripod jugs with white and red. This was influenced by north French whitewares particularly from Rouen, with white slip on redware pot with green glaze. We also had London potters moving to Kingston in this period, and making decorated pots for the London markets, often decorated in flowers. These included zoomorphic forms such as griffins, including forms and decorations copying metal forms. As well as this higher status decorated wares, examples recovered from cesspits (Cannon Street), we also had emergence of south Hertfordshire greyware (SHER), typical forms include cooking pots, also course border ware. Border ware is from Surrey-Hampshire. We had a unique example of a horse head, probably a gaming piece. They also include crude human forms and animals, and face jugs, copying German stoneware. Also higher quality forms such as Edward II, probably made from a mould.
Jacqui took us through the story of ceramic finds in London, into the early modern period, including stone ware linked to trade via the Hanseatic League via money boxes found at the Rose Theatre, and like many things ending in chamber pots.
Reference: A dated type series of London medieval pottery: Part 5, Shelly-sandy ware and the greyware industries 2010, Lyn Blackmore, Jacqueline Pearce.
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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN(Part 5 the finds – Ceramic Building Material, (Tim Curtis and Andy Simpson) Site code OPS22
BRICKWORK Complete or partial bricks (BRIC) were recovered from three of the five contexts. With the sheer amount of CBM on site, especially red tile fragments, which made removing the top two contexts in particular mainly with mattock and shovel quite hard work, only a limited sample of each type of CBM was recovered. See also the ‘Tudor style’ bricks collected by the site owners in earlier articles.
CONTEXT 001 (The ‘topsoil’ layer) Included a ‘half brick’ of very dense fabric with no frog; also a single fragment of coarse creamy fabric brick with one smooth face and possibly burnt; and seven miscellaneous fragments of presumed modern red fabric bricks, well fired. There was also a single fragment of vitrified brick in a very dense fabric, with one recessed face.
Below this was context 002, with a single fragment of very rough fabric hand-made brick, with small possible flint inclusions and possible sooting on one face, with a matching broken off corner fragment. There was also an almost complete hand-made glazed brick mortared on the base, possibly reused.
There were no brick fragments recovered from context 003 which contained some medieval pottery. Context 004 was the footings of a relatively modern brick foundation wall, from which one red fabric brick, 8.5x4x2 inches, was retained as a sample. It had traces of mortar top and bottom from when it formed part of the wall foundation.
The bottom most recorded context, 005, containing some medieval pottery, contained no recognisable brick fragments, only unidentifiable small fragments of Nib or Peg (NIPE) tile.
TILE The vast majority of CBM recovered from the site was red tile of differing types. Possibly among the most modern material were the ten fragments, totalling 325 grammes, of grey roofing slate fragments from context 001.
Also relatively modern were the fragments of glazed ceramic wall tile (WALT) (pictured below) from context 001 – 16 fragments of white ribbed ‘Pilkington’ tile, a single fragment of a similar type of white smooth tile, one corner fragment of a brown tile with floral design, and four miscellaneous fragments of white and cream wall tile all typical of kitchen or bathroom use.
Also assumed to be relatively modern is a single fragment of chimney pot, wall thickness a half inch, slightly sooted on both faces, and slightly curved – possibly forming the base of a rim. A further relatively modern find in context 001 was the single fragment of drainpipe (DRAN), wall thickness a half inch, in surface glazed stoneware.
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A single fragment of DRAN was also found in context 003, possibly of a nine- inch diameter pipe, in a hard fired grey-black fabric.
Also exclusive to context 001 were the fragments of mortar, possibly from a wall surface, with traces of keying on the inner face and whitewash on the outer face, plus brick mortar and two flat slabs of mortar with traces of brick on the underside.
PEG TILE (PEG) All from Context 002 unless otherwise stated. One particularly fine piece recovered was the top half of a seemingly hand-made tile with three surviving straight edges and two peg holes. It had traces of mortar on the upper and lower faces and a slight curve. Measured 6 ¼ wide and a half inch thick. There was also the top one third of a tile in red fabric with one surviving peg hole and much mortar on both faces, measuring 5 ½ x 6 ½ x ½. inches.
One possible fragment of PEG tile from context 003, being a small corner fragment with possible peg hole, plus one more definite PEG fragment with a single hole. Both were 15mm thick.
NIPE (Nib or Peg tile) This is the term used for small fragments of tile which due to missing distinctive features cannot be firmly identified as either Peg (PEG) or Nib (NIB) type tiles.
Context 001 included a sample of 17 fragments of NIPE tile with an average thickness of half an inch.
Two red fabric fragments were recovered from context 002, and none from contexts 003 and 004. Bottom-most excavated context 005, as well as medieval pottery, yielded seven small fragments of unidentified NIP/NIPE/ PEG red tile, all with one very rough face. (Pictured below).
These consisted of two conjoining fragments, with a dark red core and another with a reduced grey core; one notably hard fired fragment, one with an unidentified moulding mark and two large fragments with an edge, noticeable flint inclusions, in a paler fabric than all the others.
CURVED TILE (CURV) Two fragments from context 002, in a red fabric.
WORKED STONE Perhaps the most notable item was from context 003 – a small but weighty fragment of worked stone, presumed to be limestone, with one dressed face, weighing 1,011g – the heaviest single fragment recovered from the site (photo below). It could perhaps be part of a window mullion or door surround, and it is tempting to link it to the much-rebuilt Barnet Church just a few yards away to the west.
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Worked stone from context 003 (finds photos Bill Bass)
Basement Room
Working behind the scenes, HADAS members are getting ready for forthcoming exhibition at Hendon Town Hall, more details to follow. We also working to get ready for the open day on 16th September at Avenue House- see page 2 If you interested in getting involved on the day let us know.
Romans pots…. Can’t wait to find out more? (Photo: Andy Simpson)Eric, Janet, Peter and Bill (Photo: Andy Simpson)
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Barnet Medieval Festival
HADAS at Barnet Medieval Festival on the weekend of 10th-11th June 2023 at Byng Road playing fields.
HADAS stall Bill, Don, Andy and Ted – set up
Visitors (Photos: Melvyn Dresner)
Thanks to Bill Bass,, Don Cooper, Melvyn Dresner, Jim & Jo Nelhams, Peter Nicholson, Any Simpson and Ted for giving up so much time attending our stall. A number of other members also visited. The Festival Website – https://barnetmedievalfestival.org/ contains more information and some short videos.
Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre -Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.
Monday 4th -Friday- 16th July. Society of Antiquaries. Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J OBE. Archaeo-Sexism Display. Can be visited on Open Fridays, on selected Fridays when the building will be open to the public to view and learn about the history, also at UCL from 19th – 24th July.
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Also on Tuesday 4th July,1-2pm.The Archaeo-Sexism Exhibition; Challenging Sexism in Archaeology. Talk by Kayt Hawkins (FSA).
Monday 10th July, 8 pm. Please note change of time. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./Wood Street Barnet, EN5 4BW. Tree dating and what it tells us about the Old Barnet Shop. Talk by Martin Bridges. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Friday 14th July. William Camden and his World. Full day Conference, For full list of events and to book, please visit www.sal.org.uk/events.
16th July – Enfield Archaeological Society open day ay Elysng Palace dig (10th July to 23rd July) at Forty Hall, Please note that this year’s summer dig in Forty Hall is now fully booked, and they will not be processing further applications for Society membership until the 24th July. Members of the public are of course welcome to drop by and check on our progress, especially on our public open day on Sunday 16th July. https://www.enfarchsoc.org/#news.
The search for the inner gatehouse:
Monday, 17 July 13:00 – 14:00 Willesden Jewish cemetery will deliver a talk at Willesden Green Library, 95, High Road, London, Brent, NW10 2SF, Unveiling the History of Willesden Jewish Cemetery 1873-2023
Monday 17th July 7.15pm. Camden History Society. Hampstead Parish Church. Church Row, NW3 6UU. How our ancestors saw the past. Talk by Gillian Tindall (Vice-president) preceded by AGM. Refreshments 6.45-7.15pm (incl. wine) AGM 7.15pm, Talk 7.45pm.
Saturday 18th July. St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury Open Day. Church Lane, Kingsbury.NW9 7HE.Part of re-kindling St. Andrew’s Church project., funded by Heritage fund. Big fun day. Willesden Local History Society will have a stall here, alongside Wembley History Society. For more details, please visit www.standrewskingsbury.org.uk/rekindling.
Wednesday 19th July 6pm. Willesden Local History Society. Please note change of address address to Cambridge House,12-16, Cambridge Avenue (not Road) Maida Vale, NW6 5BA. It is a grade2
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listed building, constructed to descend into the Victorian Ice Wells 1863, in corrugated iron, as St. James’ Episcopalian Church. It was taken on by the Sea Cadets after WW2 and named Training Ship Bicester. It is owned by Notting Hill Genesis Housing Assocn., currently working on conservation. Will visit the History display and learn about its history and plans for its future.
Sunday 23rd July. London Canal Museum.12-13, New Wharf Road, Kings X, N1 9RT.Ice Sunday. Annual day of ice-related activities including an opportunity to descend into the Victorian ice wells beneath the building. Please visit www.canalmuseum.org.uk/.
Thursday 3rd August, 7pm. Avenue House. Take a peek inside. Guided Tour. A rare opportunity to view the house from top to bottom and learn more of its 139 year history and the life of Henry Stephens. Tickets £8. For more info. and booking please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com.
Saturday 5th August. Kensal Green Cemetery. Harrow Road, Ladbroke Grove, W10 4RA. Sing a Song of Kensal Green. Musical themed guided tour. For more info visit https://kensalgreen.co.uk.
Sunday 6th August 2.30pm. Heath and Hampstead Society. Sandy Heath and the Heath Extension. Meet at Spaniard’s End (by flower stall and cattle trough) near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, NW3 7JJ. Walk led by Lynda Cook. Lasts approx. 2hrs. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.
Tuesday 8th August 7.45pm. Amateur Geological Society. Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6, East End Road/ Stanhope Ave.N3 3LX. (Almost opp. Avenue House) AGS Members’ Evening. 3 mini presentations by AGS members and wine and nibbles. Visitors £5 in advance through Mike Howgate at mailto: mehowgate@hotmail.com. https://amgeosoc.wordpress.com/meeting-dates/.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Bill Bass, Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Tim Curtis, and Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE . 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)
Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 13th June 2023
HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by Jacqui Pearce –Top pots from 50 years excavation in London
Tuesday 12th September 2023
Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum – The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project
The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:
HADAS C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE
If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address, please let us know.
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Barnet Medieval Festival
(Poster from the Festival Website)
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Barnet Medieval Festival returns on the weekend of 10th-11th June 2023 and we look forward to welcoming you to the fifth Festival at Byng Road playing fields. The Festival will feature re-enactments of the Battles of Barnet 1471 and the Second Battle of St Albans 1461 as well as displays by the gunners, archers and mounted knights. NEW this year will be a medieval fashion show and craft demonstrations for you to enjoy.
HADAS will have a stall on both days. This gives us the chance to meet many members of the public and maybe enrol a few new members. It is great if members can spend a time helping with this. Contact Don Cooper (contact info on back page of newsletter) if you can spend a little time. If you just visit, there is plenty to see and do for all ages.
Henge – a prehistoric monument consisting of a circular structure made of wood or stones.
The coastline around The Wash and the Northern coast of Western Norfolk have been marshy and made up of shifting sands. Kings’ Lynn, at the southern end of The Wash, was a busy Hanseatic Port but the entrance to the Great Ouse became silted up and now only smaller ships can reach the port.
In 1998, the shifting sands of Holme beach, some 20 miles north of Kings’ Lynn revealed something extraordinary. Preserved in the sand were the remains of a unique timber circle dating back 4000 years to the Early Bronze age. Although discovered on a modern beach, the circle was originally built on a salt marsh, some distance inland.
The discovery captured the imagination of archaeologists and the general public, and the site soon became known as “Seahenge”. The timbers made a circle some 21 feet in diameter, made up of 55 closely fitting oak poles, some 10 feet in length. In the middle was a large upturned stump. Dendro-dating showed that the timbers were all cut in the spring or early summer of 2049BC.
A decision was made to excavate the timbers, though there was some local opposition. The site was only exposed at low tide so work could only take place for between two and four hours each day and was dependent on the times of the tides. With funds from English Heritage (now Heritage England), the work was undertaken by Norfolk Archaeological Unit.
Seahenge was built by people living and farming near the salt marshes. Up to fifty people may have helped to build the circle, possibly coming together to mark a special occasion, perhaps the death of an important member of the community. It is thought that a body may have been placed on the upturned stump and left open to the elements. Birds and animals would have been allowed to pick the body clean before the bones were removed for burial elsewhere.
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The large upturned oak stump
The timbers had been naturally preserved by a layer of thick peat, but began to deteriorate through exposure to the air and the wetting and drying of each tide. As they were extracted, they were sent for preservation to Flag Fen, near Peterborough. Then in 2003, they were transferred to the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth.
While at Flag Fen, the timbers were laser scanned to record the surface details. This showed that the 56 timber pieces came from between 15 and twenty trees. They had been cut and trimmed using up to 50 bronze axes – the circle dates from a time when such implements were thought to be rare and quite new.
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Some of the timbers are today on permanent display in the Lynn Museum in Kings’ Lynn, arranged in a circle of their original dimensions.
Golders Green Steam II Andy Simpson
Newsletter readers may remember that in the July 2021 issue (No.604) I wrote about the industrial tank locomotive ‘Hastings’ built by Hunslet of Leeds in 1888; my interest arose from its time as a contractor’s locomotive when it was used in the construction of Golder’s Green tube depot circa 1905-1907. Having passed to the Kent and East Sussex Heritage line at Tenterden for preservation in 1964, it steamed again in 2021 for the first time since 1965.
Although a game little engine, an attempted run up the 1 in 60/75 bank from Horsted Keynes to the East Grinstead terminus pulling four coaches weighing some 120 tons proved too much for Hastings and her even smaller helper, a pretty little Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 0-4-0 ‘Pug’ tank familiar to those who built Airfix kits back in the day; they expired just north of West Hoathly tunnel and after a lengthy ‘blow up’ retired winded – but still pulling coaches – back down the bank to Sheffield Park loco shed.
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7 HASTINGS at Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell Railway 21 April 2023.
The cab of ‘Hastings’ showing various fittings and controls including two whistles, pressure gauges, the regulator handle, the gauge glass showing boiler water level, and the all-important white enamelled cans for the driver and fireman’s tea!
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Lakeside Nature Reserve Dudley Miles
Lakeside Nature Reserve is a hidden gem in the heart of Finchley, between Squires Lane and Strathmore Gardens. Unfortunately, there is no public access, but it can be glimpsed from a track behind Strathmore Gardens.
The lake was constructed as a reservoir by Peter Edmund Kay in the late 1890s to supply water to Claigmar Vineyard. Kay started trading as a market gardener in 1872, and by the end of the century Claigmar Vineyard was a site of almost thirty acres in Church End, out of which some sixteen acres was occupied by 145 greenhouses, producing around 100 tons of table grapes, 100 tons of tomatoes and 20,000 dozens of cucumbers. This meant that the vineyard’s water requirements were enormous, and Kay met them by building a two-acre reservoir. Rain falling on the greenhouses was collected in the reservoir, which held about five million gallons. It was then pumped to the tops of water towers, from which it was distributed to the greenhouses.
The system was built at great cost, but it was able to supply all the water needed by the greenhouses, saving a water rate of more than £700 per annum, equivalent to around £70,000 today. The soft rain water was also better for the crops than the hard and cold water supplied by the water company. Kay was well known for his water management, and in 1900 he read a paper to the Royal Horticultural Society on “Saving and Using the Rain”.
The land of Claigmar Vineyard was gradually sold off in the 1920s, mostly for house building, but the reservoir and adjacent land was sold to Finchley Urban District Council in 1923 for the use of the electricity department, and by 1934 it was also providing premises for the highways and fire brigade departments. The site was presumably sold by one of the Council’s successor authorities, as it is now the gated estate of Pentland Brands Limited.
In the 1990s, the reservoir and a small area of woodland around it was designated a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation, called Lakeside Nature Reserve, by the London Borough of Barnet. It is described in the London Ecology Unit’s 1997 publication, Nature Conservation in Barnet, which may now be partly out of date.
The lake has fish, frogs, toads and terrapins, and there are waterfowl such as mallards, tufted ducks, coots, barnacle geese and moorhens. There are small areas of white water lily, and a few plants on the margin such as water mint, fool’s water cress, yellow iris, water-plantain and purple-loosestrife. There is an island which has sycamores and poplars, with dense undergrowth. The belt of trees on the lake margin has white poplar, white willow, alder and sycamore, with an understorey of hawthorn, elder, bramble and ivy, and some patches of comfrey and Michaelmas Daisy.
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Claigmar Vineyard in 1920, with the reservoir in the centre (Ordnance Survey 26 inches to a mile Mid-Finchley map, reduced to c. 8 inches to a mile)
Aerial photograph of Claigmar Vineyard in 1921, showing the reservoir. Squires Lane runs vertically up the right hand side.
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Claigmar Vineyard reservoir, now Lakeside Nature Reserve, photographed by Dudley Miles in 2010
Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.
Saturday 10th June, 12-5 pm. Highgate Festival. Pond Square and South Grove, Highgate Village, N6. Lots of stalls including Highgate Society, and Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute. Also, craft and food stalls and music stage.
Sunday 18th June, 12-5 pm. Hampstead Summer Festival. Keats House and Community Library, 10, Keats’ Grove, NW3 2RR. Art Fair. Open exhibition of paintings and sculptures, craft stalls, food and wine bar. Free admission. Held in the gardens. Please check www.hampsteadsummerfestival.com for latest information. Also involved is Hampstead School of Art.
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Tuesday 20th June, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk hopefully on Zoom. Untold London: stories from the time-trodden streets. By Dan Carrier. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details. Talk is about his book of walks in the deserted streets of Central London during lockdown to uncover the forgotten stories the heart of the UK capital holds.
Thursday 22nd June-Tuesday 4th July. Hampstead’s Art Street. Canvas murals along the walls of Keats’ Grove, painted by local artists.
Saturday 24th June-Sunday 2nd July. Proms at St. Jude’s Music and Literary Festival, Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, NW11 7AH. For full details www.promsatstjudes.org.uk. The Festival also includes Heritage Walks. Each walk must be booked in advance via website.
Sunday 2nd July 12-5 pm. Big Fair in Heath Street, Hampstead, NW3. Over 100 stalls including crafts, food and drink. Music stage. Free admission.
Sunday 2nd July, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. Constable and Hampstead. Meet at Spaniard’s End (by flower stall and cattle trough) near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, NW3. Walk led by Suzanne Grundy. Lasts approximately 2 hours. Ends at St. John’s Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, NW3. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.
Sunday 9th-Sunday 23rd July. Enfield Archaeological Society. Elsyng Excavation 2023. At Elsyng Royal Palace in the grounds of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield, EN2. To join the dig please contact Dr Martin Dearne. Email martindearne@talktalk.net or visit www.enfarchsoc.org. This year the society is focussing on the Inner Gatehouse, believed to have medieval origins. Also Sunday 16th July, 11 am-4 pm, Open Day. Includes finds identification, displays and craft activities.
Monday 10th July, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./Wood Street Barnet, EN5 4BW. Tree dating and what it tells us about the Old Barnet Shop. Talk by Martin Bridges. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Tuesday 11th July, 8 pm. Amateur Geological Society, Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6 East End Road/corner of Stanhope Avenue, N3 3LX (almost opposite Avenue House). Looking at the South Coast from the Isle of Wight westwards along to Devon. Talk by Stephen Krause (AGS). Examining the structures and pictures from the air to understand how the coastline of this attractive and geologically interesting part of the UK was formed. Visitors £2. Refreshments in interval.
Wednesday 19th July, 6 pm. Willesden Local History Society. Visit to Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Road, NW6 5BA (off Kilburn Park). Meet there for guided tour. For more information. please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Friday 21st July, 7 pm. COLAS. Talks hopefully on Zoom. Members’ Night. Talks by members of the society. For details. please visit www.colas.org.uk.
Friday 21st July 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. The 1948 Olympics at Wembley. Talk by Philip Grant (WHS). Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.
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Most groups shut down in mid-July until September.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are delighted that lectures are now face-to-face. Lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 9th May 2023Bill Bass – Hopscotch in High Barnet: a HADAS dig.
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023 HADAS Annual General Meeting
Followed by a lecture to be arranged.
Saturday 16th September Proposed HADAS “Open Day” at Avenue House More information to follow.
Subscriptions by Cheque
The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:
HADAS C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE
If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address please let us know.
HADAS Attendance at LecturesJo Nelhams
The members returned to face-to-face lectures on February 14th 2023: the previous one we had was on 10th March 2020. After nearly three years there were some very “happy to be back” faces especially those unable to link by Zoom.
We had 21 members plus one visitor. In the absence of the Chairman and other officers, our Vice Chairman, Peter Pickering, introduced the speaker, Signe Hoffos who presented a very interesting talk about Bombed Churches in the City.
The lecture in March by Robin Densem was attended by 23 members, an increase of 2 on the previous month, and 4 visitors, a total of 27, a very amusing presentation entitled “A Career in Ruins”.
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Although the April lecture was immediately after Easter Monday, the number of members attending rose to 25 plus 1 visitor, a total of 26. It has been encouraging to see the number of attendees increasing each month. Not all are able to come each month, but so far 30 different members have returned.
Thanks to Bill Bass who led the way with organising the speakers for lectures since the return of meetings.
April lectureJim Nelhams
The topic for the April lecture delivered by Robert Stephenson was “The Thames, its Myths and Mysteries. The lecture embodied lots of information about the river.
The river was a source of prosperity to London and helped communications. Its original course was further to the north, but it had been pushed south by the ice sheet in the last ice age. The location of the city was the first place where the river could be crossed with a bridge. The route was quite marshy with lots of islands. The suffix “sea” means an island as in Chelsea and Battersea. Thorney Island, where Westminster Abbey and the Parliament were built, was formed by the dividing of the Tyburn River. Robert guided us through various historical happenings and archaeological finds.
Although most swans on the river belong to the Crown, the Vintners and the Dyers Livery Companies have some rites, and marked their ownership with nicks to the beaks, one nick for the Dyers and two for the Vintners. These days, the birds are ringed.
Ownership of the river also rested with the Crown until 1350 when the stretch from Southend to Staines was sold to the City of London to raise funds for the crusades. The current owner is the Thames Water Authority.
The river is 215 miles long, the longest in England, draining over 5,000 square miles and dropping 360 feet. It flows through 9 counties at a maximum speed of 9 knots. The maximum tide is 25 feet with an average of 19 feet.
In 1952, Lord Noel-Buxton, a 6’ 3” tall peer, attempted to wade across the Thames close to Westminster Bridge to retrace the path used by Roman Legions. He managed to cross half-way but had forgotten that a deep channel had been dredged in the middle, so he had to swim the rest of the way.
The Hendon BeverleyRobert Michel
As a tail-piece to Andy’s excellent article on the Beverley (Newsletter 625), the following came to mind:
Another Hendon connection for the much-lamented XH124 was that it bore a small high-vis orange-coloured plastic ‘zap’ on its nose. This zap was sort of in the shape of a bird, meant to be a falcon at rest, being the centrepiece of the badge of the RAF’s 120 Squadron. The equally lamented RAF Station Hendon was for some time the home of 120 (Hendon) Squadron Air Training Corps, of which I had the (probably) dubious honour of being its longest serving cadet corporal. Anyway it was cadets from this squadron, which last I heard resided in Burnt Oak, who were responsible for affixing the zap to said Beverley – no mean feat given the height of the nose section from the ground. This act took place under cover of darkness sometime in the early-mid 1970s and is not one I have any memory of taking part in……….
NB – ‘Zap’ was (is?) the name given to bits of sticky-back plastic crafted into the shape of emblems of armed service units. Affixing these to all manner of prominent surfaces was all the rage during the 1970s-80s and may still be for all I know.
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Alan Godfrey’s reprint Old Ordnance Survey maps Pamela Taylor
Many HADAS readers will be devotees of Alan’s maps, but for those who haven’t yet discovered them, each one comes as a nifty sheet, folded in the traditional way, with the map on one side and the other shared between a history (brief when the series started, now up to four panels, some 3,200 words) and either some matching directory pages or, less frequently, part of another map.
Alan started the series in 1981, concentrating on the OS’s 25″ maps in the first three editions, which in most of SE England means one each in the 1860s, 1890s and early 1900s. Since then, he’s also embarked on the fourth edition, surveyed in the 1930s and the last before the OS changed the sheet lines, and has also made forays into the 1″ and 5′ scales and, thanks to some War Office sources, the Ruhrgebiet and D-Day landing beaches.
In the early decades Alan was busy scouring record offices and libraries for clean originals that could be transported to Gateshead where they were photographed on a camera the size of a fully-extended MRI scanner. Barnet Local Studies was one of his early discoveries and the borough librarian, David Ruddom, was very happy for his two borough archivists, Joanna Corden and me, to lend the maps and write accompanying notes, and for the libraries to sell the results. Today high-grade scans and the internet mean that Alan usually relies on scans from a single copyright library, much simpler but some of the fun’s been lost.
I left Barnet in 1999 but the link with Alan continued and I’ve now written some 200 sets of notes, mostly for places in and around London but with outliers ranging from Castle Douglas through Louth and Cambridge down to Winchester and Romsey. Both in new places and in those I thought I knew, the maps often provide real historical excitement. I’m by preference a medievalist and some boundaries on a Mortlake map kick-started an article in Anglo-Norman Studies. Better still, boundaries in Kensington Gardens delivered an Alice down a rabbit hole moment and, eventually, a book, Knightsbridge and Hyde (VCH Publication, 2017) which overturned all previous understandings of Knightsbridge.
Closer to home, Alan’s recently sent me to Enfield, Edmonton, Wembley, Kingsbury and also back to Hendon and Golders Green, but this time in the 1936 survey and therefore in massive contrast with the earlier editions. At this rate, though, he won’t be doing any more NW Middlesex maps because the sales are poor. As a matter of pride as well as self-interest would HADAS readers care to help reverse the trend? Roger Chapman explained in this Newsletter how the National Library of Scotland has put its OS maps freely online, and it’s a wonderful resource, but with Alan’s you can look at several side by side (boundaries are good, map edges less so) and the map notes, which also usually list the main sources, are a major bonus.
There’s a very easy website: www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk. The maps are cheap and there are often additional offers. Happy hunting.
Mail Rail Jim Nelhams
As a member of the Letter Box Study Group, I visited the Postal Museum at Mount Pleasant before it moved to expanded premises on the other side of the road although it still has the original space at the back of the Mail Centre, consisting of a shop and the current access to Mail Rail. The main building specialises in postage history.
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Before World War 1, the Post Office planned to build its own underground railway to transport mail between eight postal sorting offices on the north side of the Thames. Approval was given by the Post Office (London) Railway Act, 1913 and work started in 1914. One of the project’s chief engineers was Harley Hugh Dalrymple-Hay who had been involved in the design of the Bakerloo and Northern Lines. The tunnels were all dug by hand. Following the outbreak of the war, resources became limited and work was suspended in 1917. At one time, water from the River Fleet broke into the tunnel at Mount Pleasant but this was rapidly staunched. As Mount Pleasant is the least deep of the stations, flood doors were installed to isolate any flooding and protect the whole system.
During WW1, the completed tunnels were used to store valuable items from The British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy.
Work resumed in 1924 and after fitting out and testing, the service commenced in 1927. From that date, trains ran every day, except one when a bomb hit Mount Pleasant during WW2, until 2003 when rising costs caused the service to stop.
The line runs for six and a half miles from Paddington in the west to Whitechapel in the east joining together eight major sorting offices. The total track length was 22 miles. When the service commenced, this journey took two hours by road: by rail, it could be completed in 35 minutes with a maximum speed around 30 mph.
Trains were unmanned, running on a 24” gauge with electric power from a third rail system. They could travel at up to 35 miles per hour and ran to a strict timetable every four minutes for 22 hours per day, carrying 4 million items of post each day.
When the Postal Museum expanded, work was done to open a section of the railway for passenger rides and were granted right of access by Royal Mail.
Jo and I were fortunate enough through the auspices of Subterranea Britannica to join a special group visit to Mail Rail. This included a trip on the railway – some 15 minutes long around the Mount Pleasant Loop.
Trains are now battery driven. There were some audio-visual displays during the trip. The group also took a conducted walk of about a mile through parts of the system – a service not generally available. Most of the system is still owned by Royal Mail and not generally accessible.
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During the tour, we saw the railway graveyard where old rolling stock is now stored. There is no easy way to remove old trains to the surface.
A section of the tunnels which are about 6 foot six inches high. These tunnels seem to be in extremely good condition.A station platform at Mount Pleasant. Far right is a conveyor belt which would have carried sacks to the main sorting office above. The workers had less than four minutes to unload each train to preserve the timetable.
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One of the battery powered electric trains used for rides through the tunnels at Mont Pleasant. These operate from what was originally the maintenance depot under the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre.
The Postal Museum is open each week from Wednesday to Sunday between 10am and 5 pm. Tickets include free entry for a year and one ride on Mail Rail on the day of your first visit. Current cost is £16 if booked online.
We are happy to organise a bus-pass outing for members if there is sufficient interest. Please email jim_nelhams@hotmail.com or call 020 8449 7076 to let us know.
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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all societies or organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Update
Thursday 18th May, 7p.m. London Archaeologist. Please note the venue has now changed to L.S.E., Room 1.09, Marshall Building, Portugal Street, WC2A 2HD. But spaces are limited. Or you can attend on zoom. Please book your free place for either via www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk. as shown in April newsletter.
New Events
Sunday 4th June, 2.30p.m. Heath and Hampstead Society. From Parliament Hill to Highgate; History and Landmarks. Meet at Bandstand, Parliament Fields (off Gordon House Rd. Gospel Oak, NW5). Walk led by Jeska Harrington-Gould. Lasts approx. 2hrs. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.
Wednesday 7th June, 6p.m. Gresham College. How Pagan was Medieval Britain? Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view online. Please see How Pagan Was Medieval Britain? | Gresham College – free. Will consider figures in seasonal folk rites, carvings in churches, the records of trials for witchcraft and a continuing veneration of natural such as wells. Will also compare Ancient paganism and Medieval Christianity as successive religious systems.
Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th June, 10.30a.m. – 5p.m. Barnet Medieval Festival. Barnet R.F.C. Ground, end of Byng Road, Barnet, EN5. Lots of stalls including HADAS, Barnet Museum, Barnet Society, and Battlefields Trust. Battle of Barnet re-enactments. Also Battle of St. Albans 1461, re-enactments at midday on both days. Food and drink stalls. For more info. Please visit www.barnetmedievalfestival.org.
Monday 12th June 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./ Wood St., Barnet, EN5 4BW. A window into 1930’s Barnet;Cole collection photographs from glass plates.Talk by Terence Atkins. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Wednesday 14th June 6p.m. Gresham College. Sir Christopher Wren; Architect and Courtier. Talk by Simon Thurley. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view online. Please see Sir Christopher Wren: Architect & Courtier | Gresham College – free. Taking Wren the courtier as it’s starting point, this lecture uses new research to paint his talents and career in a new light.
Sunday 18th June, 12-6p.m. East Finchley Festival. Cherry Tree Wood, East Finchley, N2. (Entrance off High Road opposite Tube Station). Lots of stalls including Finchley Society, Friends of Cherry Tree Wood (with Roger Chapman of HADAS and North London U3A). Also craft, food and beer stalls. Music stage.
Wednesday 28th June, 7.45p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. R.A.F. Museum. Talk by David Keen. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme, or phone 0208 368 8314 for up-to-date details (David Berguer,Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
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Thursday 29th June, 7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’ House, 17, East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE. Annual General Meeting. For further details. please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Robert Michel, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Jo Nelhams, Pamela Taylor ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 11th April 2023 Robert Stephenson (Also with CoLAS) The Thames: its myths and mysteries
Tuesday 9th May 2023Bill Bass – Hopscotch in High Barnet: a HADAS dig.
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by a lecture to be arranged.
At the AGM our long serving President Dr Harvey Sheldon will be formally retiring, and we are delighted that Jacqui Pearce has accepted the invitation to take up this position.
Due to the untimely death of Steve Brunning we are seeking a new membership secretary. Informal enquiries to Don Cooper are very welcome.
Membership Renewals
It’s that time of the year again! However, HADAS have not increased their subscriptions again this year, therefore the amounts are: Full member £15, Additional member at the same address £5, Corporate member £15, under 18 or student under 25 in full time education £6. The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March, and so this is to remind all members who pay by cheque that their renewal subscription will be due on or soon after 31st March 2023.
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With the closure of many banks, it is helpful if payment is made by Bank Transfer using Account Number 00083254, Sort Code 40-52-40 (CAFBANK). Please include your surname and first initial in the reference field.
If you do need to pay by cheque, please post it to Don Cooper, Hadas, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE.
Members who pay their subscription by standing order need take no action. Following Steve Brunning’s untimely death in January 2023, there may be queries about membership issues, please address them to Don Cooper:
We look forward to receiving your continued membership and thank you for supporting HADAS in its objectives.
Highgate Roman Kiln ProjectInformation from Eric Morgan
The most complete Roman pottery kiln found in Greater London will be put on public display for the first time, thanks to a £243,550 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to the charity Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln. In the 1960’s and 70’s archaeologists excavated the kiln from Highgate Wood in Haringey, which is managed by the City of London Corporation as a registered charity.
The pieces of this unique find have been in store beneath Bruce Castle Museum, inaccessible to the public. Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, a joint project between Friends of Highgate Kiln, the City Corporation and Bruce Castle Museum will return the kiln to Highgate Wood to be displayed in a visitor centre from September 2024. The project is called Firing London’s Imagination: An Inclusive Approach to Highgate’s Roman Pottery Heritage.
The kiln is one of the best-preserved Roman pottery kilns found in the UK and thought to be the last one built by Roman potters who worked in Highgate Wood between 50 CE –160 CE to supply Londinium, the capital of Roman Britain, and southeast England with distinctive Highgate Ware pottery. The Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln was formed in 2018 to work with Bruce Castle Museum and the City Corporation to conserve the kiln, restore it to public view, and allow everyone to learn about an important aspect of London’s Roman Heritage.
My life in Ruins by Robin DensemSue Willetts
On Tuesday 14th March HADAS members and a few visitors were treated to a well-illustrated talk by Robin on his career in Archaeology from his early days as a volunteer, as a digger and later a manager on archaeological projects taking a degree in Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in Gordon Square (1973-76) along the way. He gave us an overview of how archaeology had changed from the 1950/1960’s to the present day with the change to mostly developer funded projects. We were entertained and educated with this talk which was not recorded.
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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 4 the finds – Clay Pipe, Tim Curtis and Andy Simpson.) Site code OPS22
Only a limited number of stratified clay pipe bowl and stem fragments were recovered from the top two of the five contexts recorded during the excavation, though the area excavated was quite limited. It is perhaps of note that none of the fragments featured decoration or makers’ marks of any sort, other than rim milling. The date range of the identifiable fragments, using the standard Atkinson and Oswald typology, is quite tightly dated to the Early Stuart/English Civil War/Restoration periods of the Seventeenth Century, with a total date range of some 70 years, 1610-1680.
The pipe fragments are discussed below, in context order.
UNSTRATIFIED
A single 50mm stem fragment plus bowl are recorded as unstratified.
In true archaeological tradition they were spotted on the spoil heap by a team member on the last day of the dig just as backfilling was about to begin. Dated 1610-1640, bowl type AO5, just a quarter of the bowl rim survives, but it does seem to have been fully milled, and is well burnished.
This is of course the earliest datable clay pipe bowl from the site.
CONTEXT 001 This is the modern/’Victorian’ topsoil/dumping context within which the vast majority of finds from the site were recovered – considerable quantities of roofing tile, pottery and both vessel and window glass in particular.
There are no clay pipe bowls and just twelve (12) well broken up and quite short stem fragments with a length of 20-40mm. Three bear signs of burning/heat through original use, and several have a very visible horizontal seam. Two lengths actually conjoin.
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CONTEXT 002 Lying immediately below context 001, this context also featured quantities of CBM and pottery but just two small fragments of vessel glass.
There are 21 lengths of stem, six of them with traces of contemporary burning indicating actual use. Length 15-70mm, with no evidence of decoration or maker’s marks. Of the three bowl types represented, one is just a fragment of bowl side and appears to be type AO12, 1640-1670. Also present is an almost complete bowl, missing its top rim, with heel plus 80mm of surviving stem attached, type AO13, dated 1660-1680.
Also of the ‘Restoration’ period are two fully milled and well burnished bowls of type AO15, also dated 1660-1680 as is the A013 bowl described above.
The clay pipes from context 002 (photos Bill Bass)
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Return of the Beverley…sort ofAndy Simpson
HADAS members of, shall we say, longer standing may well remember the Blackburn Beverley four-engine RAF transport aircraft that formerly stood at RAF Hendon East Camp from 1968, and latterly at the RAF Museum itself until 1990.
The Beverley on the former RAF Hendon East Camp, with the RAF Museum main building in the background; note the ‘Middle East’ camouflage scheme… (Commercial postcard)
Blackburn Beverley C.Mk.1 XH124 was one of 47 production aircraft of its type, and was built at Brough, East Yorkshire by Blackburn and General Aircraft Ltd, making its first flight on 1st April 1957, entering RAF service the following month. Robust and reliable, and with its distinctive rear loading doors, and carrying up to 94 troops or 70 paratroops, and a crew of four, the ‘Bev’ served with five RAF Squadrons; the Beverley saw widespread service in the Middle East, including Aden, Bahrein and Muharraq, and also in the UK, Singapore and Kenya. https://www.baesystems.com/en/heritage/blackburn-beverley
RAF popular belief had it that Beverleys did not need navigators, simply following the line of the four 2,850hp Bristol Centaurus 273 engine oil leaks left by fellow Beverleys as they cruised at around 170 mph across the desert! XH124 left Squadron service in April 1967 as the type was replaced by the turboprop Lockheed Hercules during 1967-68, of which a handful of later models remain in RAF service today, and after a period of storage made a final appearance at the RAF 50th Anniversary Royal Review at RAF Abingdon on 14 June 1968.
On 19 June 1968, with the new RAF Museum Hendon in the early planning stages (prior to opening in November 1972), XH124 became the last RAF fixed-wing aircraft – and at 63 tons one of the largest- to land at RAF Hendon before the runways were torn up to make way for the new 1700-home Grahame Park Council estate.
The aircraft flew in from RAF Abingdon; by the time it came to a halt after using only half the length of the main runway, its brakes were red hot and its unexpected appearance generated calls to the
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emergency services from concerned members of the public ; it had clocked up 4,478 flying hours, and was struck off RAF charge the following day, being given the static maintenance serial 8025M. Six months later, on 22 December 1968, a final fixed wing landing occurred using the extant perimeter tracks – a small Piper Cherokee aircraft flying from Blackbushe airfield which became lost in bad weather, taking off the following day.
The airfield had officially closed to powered flying on 14 November 1957 as it became ever more surrounded by suburbia, although occasional accidental landings by individual American and German air force transport aircraft did still occur in 1964 ,1965, and 1967 and the local Air Training Corps 617 Volunteer Gliding School still used it for gliding until 31 March 1968, as still remembered by some HADAS members.
After some 21 years standing outside in all weathers, the MoD, as owners of the airframe, decided that the Beverley was too corroded for safe further display, and the financially constrained RAF Museum had no money for its restoration, so it was put up for tender for disposal in December 1989. The successful bidders were scrap merchants Turnidges, who surveyed the aircraft in early January 1990 and were due to complete the actual scrapping within 30 days of starting the task. On Friday 26 January 1990, a group of RAF Museum staff (including your author, as a newly minted and very junior curator) paid a final visit inside the aircraft. During this visit the smaller of the two panels shown in the photo below, ahem, ‘fell off’. It covered the escape rope which drooped down from the rear of the tail boom for crew to shin down in event of an emergency.
Scrapping of the aircraft commenced on Tuesday 30 January 1990, and on Valentines’ Day 1990 of all days I purchased the larger of the two panels, originating from the starboard outer engine, from the scrap merchants for £5. Scrapping proceeded using axes, cutting gear and a JCB to wrench off major sections, starting with the outer wings and tail section on 30 January; the engines were simply cut free and allowed to drop to the ground. The last of the Beverley, its cockpit section, left Hendon by road on Thursday 1st March 1990. One of the four-bladed propeller units was retained by the RAFM, but has yet to go on public display, currently being stored at the RAF Museum facility at MoD Stafford.
After some 30 years in my airing cupboard (!) it was time to hand over my two panels from XH124 to long term care, and I contacted the South Yorkshire Air Museum at Doncaster – South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum | Doncaster – they are located not far from where she was built and include other Blackburn built aircraft in their collection, including a small section of cockpit from fellow Beverley XL149. They were delighted to accept and despatched their volunteer Chris to meet me at Hendon for the handover in the wind and sleet at a point close to where XH124 latterly stood.
One other Beverley cockpit/flight deck (from XB261) is preserved, and the last fairly complete Beverley airframe, XB259, currently hangs on by a rather decayed thread on Humberside.
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South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum volunteer Chris takes delivery of the two Beverley panels at the RAF Museum Hendon (now known as RAFM London), Friday 10 March 2023.
References Oliver, D Hendon Aerodrome – A History Airlife 1994 Renwick, A RAF Hendon The Birthplace of Aerial Power Crecy 2012 Thetford. O Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918 Putnam 1995
What the Romans did for my grandson Janet Mortimer
As memories of the Pandemic lockdowns fade, and in the certainty that Sue Gray will not be reading this, I can admit to making the not quite essential trip to visit my son and daughter-in law at their home in Lancashire in June 2020 as I hadn’t seen them in many months and the grandchildren were growing up fast.
Whilst there we decided to have a day out to Chester. In the car on the way there I explained to my then 3 year-old grandson, Frankie, who the Romans were, how they had come over to conquer us, and how they had built things that we would still be able to see.
He seemed very excited about this and, when we got to the car park, there was a large map with a picture of a Roman soldier on it. I pointed it out to him and said “Look there is a Roman” only to see the disappointment etched on his little face. He didn’t want to look at pictures of Romans. He had expected to see legions of them marching around the streets. I tried to explain that they were there two thousand years ago, but trying to explain the concept of time to a 3 year-old for whom the week before their birthday seems like a thousand years was not an easy one!
Sadly the Museum was shut, but we visited some of the Roman sites like the gardens and the amphitheatre and Frankie did seem fascinated by them. We stood in the centre of the amphitheatre and he liked my tales of how the gladiators would bravely fight lions. I am not really sure whether there
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were any lions in Chester (except perhaps at the Zoo) but grandmothers are allowed a bit of poetic license.
Despite the lockdown there were lots of people in the town that day. Although nearly everything was closed, we managed to find a sandwich shop that was open and headed for the park, also needing a toilet break. There were public toilets there, but they had a notice saying they were closed due to Covid restrictions. It was amusing to see other people heading for them, watch the anguish on their faces when they realised they were closed, then watch them furtively head for the nearest clump of bushes. I am not sure which was more dangerous – the risk of catching Covid or getting cholera. It was a good day out and I am sure we will go back again when more things are open to the public, especially the toilets!
Ancient stone arrowhead comes to light in Coldfall Wood in Muswell HillAnn Bronkhorst.
(Reproduced with permission from The Archer (www.the-archer.co.uk) January 2023)
“One day last year I was watching a bird. I looked up, then down, and there it was at my feet.” Philip Hogg, a Haringey resident and a regular dogwalker, had almost trodden on an early Neolithic arrowhead in Coldfall Wood. Luckily he was not barefoot.
The photo shows a leaf-shaped, nicely napped object, still capable of giving a cut or two. It is thought to date from 4,500 to 1,500 BC and is one of many small archaeological finds such as weapon parts, pottery shards and coins discovered in London over the years. This, however, is much earlier than most such finds. In the 1940s a Neolithic axe head was found in Windermere Road, Muswell Hill, but little else has emerged in Haringey. As Adam Single of Historic England says, “Our understanding of the early human occupation of the area is not great.” Adam is one of several experts consulted about this arrowhead. He clarified its ownership: like most similar finds it belongs to the landowner, in this case Haringey, and not the finder. Digital information about it will become available to anyone, however, on the Portable Antiquities Scheme site at finds.org.uk. Another helpful source of expertise in this case was the Finds Liaison Officer at the Museum of London, Stuart Wyatt.
Where should the actual arrowhead find a home? Philip should hear more this month from the experts who are examining it. The consensus is Bruce Castle Museum in Haringey, where the curator, Deborah Hedgecock, hopes to welcome it to the museum’s fascinating and varied collection. The Archer
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(appropriately) will tell readers when and where to view it. Meanwhile, back in the wood, the arrowhead’s exact resting place for the last 4,000 or so years must remain unidentified.
Local news: Hendon Hub – The Burroughs – Middlesex University plans – update.
Campaigners are calling for a major development planned for Hendon to be scaled down, warning it poses “great risks” to a “historic neighbourhood”. Residents’ group Save Hendon has urged Middlesex University to reduce the size of the Hendon Hub – a Barnet Council-led scheme that is set to see hundreds of student flats built on sites in The Burroughs and Church End. More details in this link from the Barnet Post.
Professor Brad Blitz, an administrator of the Hendon Residents Planning Forum, which represents 2,500 residents, has written to the university to urge it to scale down the scheme. He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service residents who saw the latest plans were “shocked” to find their scale was apparently unchanged, with the only proposed alterations to be made to internal space. Professor Blitz said if the council could make changes to the library, he believed it could make further amendments. Cllr Houston has indicated that the project will be going ahead, and that further substantive changes to the scheme are unlikely. He pledged to meet with Save Hendon campaigners “in a couple of weeks’ time” to speak to them again about their concerns.
New exhibitions
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean. 24th Feb – 4th June 2023. Many of the more than 200 objects from three of the largest Mediterranean islands, Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia will be seen in the UK for the first time. This exhibition helps us understand the ways these island cultures reflected, and even shaped the larger Mediterranean world with its migrations and movement of peoples.
Oxford. Ashmolean Museum. Knossos: Myth and reality. From 10 Feb – 30 Jul 2023. According to legend, an elaborate labyrinth was built at Knossos on the island of Crete to hold a ferocious Minotaur. The palace of Knossos, discovered and excavated over 100 years ago, was the centre of a Bronze Age civilisation of people we now call the Minoans, named after the legendary King Minos. This is the first UK exhibition to focus on Knossos. It will include over 100 objects which have never left Crete and Greece before, alongside discoveries from the Ashmolean’s Sir Arthur Evans Archive and an exclusive experience of Knossos Palace from the acclaimed video game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. His archive at the Ashmolean has been central to our understanding of the site of Knossos, and many of his excavation plans, artworks and records will be on display alongside objects from the site.
Mea Culpa CornerAndy Simpson
In my review of the newly published book on the Life and Times of Dr Henry Hicks of Hendon in the previous newsletter, I managed to miss out the most important detail of all – the authors’ name! The very understanding author who responded to my apology sent with a copy of said newsletter is Dyfed Elis Gruffydd, who kindly says of HADAS ‘It’s good to see such an active organisation’.
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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Friday 21st April, 7.30 pm. Failed to Return; Amy Johnson and Leslie Howard. Talk by Tony Eaton. On their disappearance on board aircraft. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. Visitors £3. Refreshments available.
Tuesday 25th April, 7.45 pm. Saving for old buildings. Talk on zoom. An introduction to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings by Douglas Kent (Technical and Research Director, SPAB) St. Alban’s Architectural and Archaeological Society. Talk will explain the society’s approach to caring for old buildings and present an outline the activities it undertakes today plus an account of the award-winning SPAB work the speaker has carried out on his own Grade 1 listed Medieval house in Saffron Walden in Essex. www.stalbanshistory.org for details. Non-members may be charged £5.00
Thursday 4th May, 6pm. Lecture, Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, The History of Bart’s Hospital; Bart’s at 900. Talk by Charles Knight. Ticket required. Register www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/barts-900 and view on-line. St. Bartholomew’s is the oldest hospital in London still operating on its original site. Telling its history from 1123 to today, via its people, buildings and the events that defined this iconic medical institution.
Tuesday 9th May, 6.30 pm. LAMAS. Joint event with Prehistoric Society. Talk on zoom. by Andy Dakin (MOLA). Excavations of a Roman Cemetery, Hoard and Prehistoric and Post-Medieval remains of Principal Place, London. Incl. inhumations, cremations and a large hoard of Roman Coins, and discussion of extensive remains of the C17-18th buildings and yards and the remains of the early C19th Curtain Road Gasworks. Please book via www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.
Wednesday 10th May, 8pm. The Brunel family-father, son and grandson Talk on zoom by Bill McNaught. Hornsey Historical Society. Please email hornseyhistoricalchairman@gmail.com for link. Visit www.hornseyhistorical.org,uk. NB The speaker for the Wed. 12th April talk mentioned in the March newsletter is Suzanne Bardgett.
Monday 15th May, 8pm. Monarchs, Courtiers, Technocrats and Kitchen Boys of Elsyng Palace. Talk by Dr. Martin Dearne E.A.S.) Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane / jnc. Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 OAJ. Non-members £1.
Wednesday 17th May, 7.30 pm. Grunwick Strike, 1976-78. Talk by Christine Coates. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (Round corner from Magistrates’ Court). May also be on zoom. If not a member buy a ticket (£3) For details. please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
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Thursday 18th May, 7pm. The Archaeology of Wren given by John Schofield. London Archaeologist. UCL, Institute of Archaeology. 31-34, Gordon Square, WC1H OPY. AGM followed by Annual Lecture. May also be on zoom. On the 300th anniversary of the death of Sir Christopher Wren and reviewing the archaeology of St. Paul’s and the parish churches in the City. Please book on www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk.
Thursday 18th May, 7.30 pm. Pickford’s Stables. Talk by Peter Darley (Camden Railway Heritage Trust Camden History Society) Primrose Hill Community Library, 14, Sharpleshall Street, NW1 8YN. Non-members £2 at the door. Please visit www.camdenhistory.org for details.
Wednesday 24th May, 7.45 pm. Westminster at War: How the Luftwaffe destroyed The House of Commons. Talk by Barry Hall. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society, North Middx. Golf Club. The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Preceded by AGM. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk click on programme or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details. (David Berguer, Chair) Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 25th May, 6.30pm. A Tour of Avenue House and Gardens. Finchley Society. Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. Please note earlier time, For further details. please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non members £2.
Saturday 27th May. Alexandra Palace. Alexandra Palace Way, N22. The Big Birthday Party at Ally Pally, Alexandra Palace celebrates its 150th Anniversary this year. This Special Event’s theme is “Living Archives” with focus on connections between Heritage and Current Activities. Hornsey Historical Society should be represented here.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Bill Bass, Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.
Buses 82, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 14th March 2023 Robin Densem (HADAS) A Career in Ruins – Robin’s career in Archaeology.
Tuesday 11th April 2023 Robert Stephenson (Also with CoLAS) – The Thames: Its Myths and Mysteries
Tuesday 9th May 2023 Bill Bass – Hopscotch in High Barnet: a HADAS dig
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023 HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by a lecture
Membership Renewals
It’s that time of the year again! However, HADAS have not increased their subscriptions again this year, therefore the amounts are: Full member £15, Additional member at the same address £5, Corporate member £15, under 18 or student under 25 in full time education £6.
The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March, and so this is to remind all members who pay by cheque that their renewal subscription will be due on or soon after 31st March 2023.
With the closure of many banks, it is helpful if payment is made by Bank Transfer using Account Number 00083254, Sort Code 40-52-40 (CAFBANK). Please include your surname and first initial in the reference field.
If you do need to pay by cheque, please post it to Don Cooper, Hadas, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE.
Members who pay their subscription by standing order need take no action.
Following Steve Brunning’s untimely death in January 2023, there may be queries about membership issues, please address them to Don Cooper:
We look forward to receiving your continued membership and thank you for supporting HADAS in its objectives.
Obituary – Edward Harris
We have received a letter from Mrs Valerie Harris informing us that her husband Edward Harris has died. Mr & Mrs Harris have been members since 2009.
Mrs Harris says in her letter “we have had a lot of pleasure from attending meetings and thank everyone for their welcoming kindness”
On behalf of the committee and members of HADAS we express our condolences to Valerie and members of their family.
The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture Jim Nelhams
Although a relatively recent introduction to the Hadas calendar, this is intended as a special event in our year. Most appropriate therefore that it should be the first face-to-face lecture since lockdown. Those attending clearly appreciated being able to meet up not just for the lecture but also the tea and coffee that followed. What a splendid lecture it was!!!
The speaker was Signe Hoffos, a member of the Colas committee (as is our April speaker) who spoke on “Bombed Churches of the City”.
Bombing first happened in the 1914-1918 war, starting with airship raids on Great Yarmouth in January 1915, followed by Stoke Newington in May. The first London air raid by bombers was in June 1917. The development of airships largely stopped following the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 but aircraft development continued into WW2 (during which unmanned machines, the V1 and V2, appeared) and beyond.
In parallel ran the development of bombs. The first ones were small and dropped by hand. These could be incendiary or explosive. As bombers improved, they could carry heavier loads, dropped mechanically. In the City, much of the damage came from incendiaries, which also caused fires identifying target areas for following bombers.
The first WW2 raid on London was on 24th August 1940, with the Blitz running from 7th September to 21st May 1941 during which time, there were 71 raids on London. Signe gave a detailed timeline of the raids which occurred on 29th December 1940 which caused much damage with comparatively little loss of life. As with the 1666 Great Fire of London, this was in the holiday season, but also the Thames was at low tide and the Fire Services were unable to draw much water from the River.
There are now 40 functional churches within the City, many of which were damaged by fire and needed restoration. Signe listed the details. In 1666, there had been around 110, and the remains of some of these were demolished after WW2, being surplice to requirements and in some cases beyond repair.
HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 3 the finds – glass, Tim Curtis, Janet Mortimer and Andy Simpson.) Site code OPS22
Glass Report A variety of utilitarian glass food and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink containers were found, mostly in fragmentary form, with some drinking vessel pieces and some window glass and a number of
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unidentifiable fragments, but seemingly not much in the way of ‘decorative’ domestic glassware. Most appears to be of twentieth century date, with a small number of earlier fragments.
Context 001 There were five complete vessels from this context – four bottles and one jar. One Pint milk bottle, probable 1930s date, of clear glass with relief moulded ‘A1’ Dairies, base moulded ‘A1’ and UGB (United Glass Bottle) machine mark of 1913-1968. Has a distinctive wide neck for a card stopper. This former company had local links, being based at 1411 High Road, Whetstone by 1920 until at least the late 1960s. (There is also the broken base of a half-pint A1 Dairies bottle).
A1 Dairies milk bottle (all finds photos Bill Bass)
Half Pint brown glass beer bottle, post-1892 crown cork bottle cap rim, with no identification marks. Machine-moulded seams running across the rim (pictured below).
Small brown glass cylindrical bottle with external screw threaded rim. No identification marks, UGB makers’ mark (post 1913) and machine-made mould mark running across the rim.
Small clear glass cylindrical bottle with external screw threaded rim. No identification marks. Machine mould running across the rim.
Squat clear glass ramekin canning style food jar, machine made, with no identification marks. Other Bottles
A variety of bottle shapes were recovered, mostly in clear glass but with some green and brown bottle glass also.
They include one post-1872 Codd-neck bottle rim lip, familiar to older readers as ‘marble bottles’ comparable to a complete example owned by co-author Tim Curtis, plus a fragment of base and side,
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possibly also from a Codd bottle, marked ‘’’ATE & CO… ARM moulded into bottle side and ‘12’ on base bottom (pictured below).
Green bottle glass frags include a well broken up but part reconstructed ‘rich green’ soft drink bottle, probably lemonade, marked ‘BANKS OF DEPTFORD’ with ‘1/4D DEPOSIT CHARGE ON THIS BOTTLE’ in relief moulded lettering (pictured below x2).
George Banks of Church Street, Deptford in South-East London also produced ginger beer sold in stoneware bottles by the 1890s.
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There are further fragments of body and base of a similar bottle of ‘R. WHITE’ also with ‘1/4D DEPOSIT CHARGED referring to the one farthing charge on each bottle. This Camberwell, South London-based company, R.White & Sons Ltd, started to charge the farthing deposit from the 1890s to encourage the return and reuse of its bottles.
There are other green glass fragments which may be parts of those above, but we cannot be certain. They include three quite substantial and weighty internal screw thread top/neck fragments, bagged separately by slight differences in the shade of green of the glass, plus a further fragment of 1/4D deposit from a likely further bottle. There is also a miscellaneous green base fragment with part sides and an interesting internal dome, being notably thick walled with an unstable base. Additionally, there are five fragments, four cojoining, of a thin-walled cylindrical bottle with external screw thread rim.
Brown bottle glass fragment: there is one fragment of bottle neck with external screw thread and two seemingly associated fragments of ferrous threaded bottle cap.
Clear bottle glass: there is a selection of bases from six other anonymous cylindrical bottles, one with an interesting ‘TVT’ base mark and another with the familiar ‘UGB’, and one-part base with registered number on base ‘792625’ . One particularly nice item is a glass stopper, possibly for a sauce bottle, such as Lee & Perrins Worcester Sauce or HP Sauce.
There is a single fragment of the ribbed side with ‘S’ of the maker’s name of a distinctive Chichester-based Shippam’s Paste jar, introduced by that company from 1906 with airtight metal caps. An interesting (and appropriate, given the shop at the front of the site) group is the ‘BOTT SQ 1’ square glass bottle or jar fragments, including eight body and rim fragments from one large square vessel with rounded corners, possibly an old-style sweet display jar, and two large co-joining body fragments also with rounded corners, possibly part of the vessel first described.
Nearby leisure drinking is indicated by the bases of two substantial vessels with notably deep and heavy weighted bases, identified as tumblers.
A variety of fragments of further GLASS JARS were found, consisting of one base and eight rims, including two heavy externally threaded rim fragments and two collared rims.
A number of fragments were too small too definitively identify as to vessel type;
There are three fragments of green bottle glass with surface patina, two of them base fragments with a notably pronounced kick up, possibly of nineteenth century date. Also two heavy dark green fragments, one a shoulder fragment of a large bottle embossed with the word ‘PROPERTY’ the other ‘-KO-‘ plus seven miscellaneous fragments of green and brown glass, probably bottle glass.
There are also 34 miscellaneous clear glass body sherds from bottles and a wine glass.
Several varieties of window glass were found, 37 fragments in all, of four different thicknesses between 1-7mm, including clear glass, 15 frosted/obscured glass fragments, some with a distinctive ‘star’ design and others with a triangular raised facet design, and four pieces which joined, identified as possibly being from a table-top.
Context 002 Yielded just two small body sherds of green glass, probably 19th century in date. One was from a cylindrical bottle, possibly wine, probably mould blown with bubbles and an irregular surface. The other
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had an irregularly shaped profile and was possibly part of a mineral water bottle, of patent shape, possibly Codd patent of 1872.
6 had an irregularly shaped profile and was possibly part of a mineral water bottle, of patent shape, possibly Codd patent of 1872.
Hopscotch in one of its previous incarnations as ‘Loraine’ in the 1950s or 60s – this shows the nearby ‘King’s Head’ McMullens pub and other establishments which could have generated the dumping of glass and other materials in the back yards. The tree (now gone) at the back of ‘Loraine’ was the site of our dig and caused a few problems with soil disturbance.
Flooding in the basementDon Cooper
Following torrential rain and falling leaves on the weekend of 5th November, the HADAS Sunday Morning group arrived to find water flowing down the wall nearest the window in the basement creating a small lake on the floor. The storage unit in that corner contained some of our new books store. Note the amount of water in the storage box in the photo below.
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Fortunately, although the cardboard boxes in which the books were stored, were destroyed, only about 38 books were damaged.
Once we had mopped up and removed the racking it was clear that there was black mould on the wall. It must have happened before!
The cause appears to be heavy rain on the flat roof, a blocked hopper (probably incorrectly sited anyway) and autumn leaves. When informed Avenue House said a builder was coming.
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As a result, we are replacing the cardboard boxes with secure plastic ones, relocating the books and in the meantime, we are clearing the drains and downpipe hoppers. We are writing to Avenue House for them to take action on the mould and redecorating the space.
Thanks to all who helped to clear up and supplied the photos.
BOOK AND MAGAZINE REVIEWS Andy Simpson
Dr Henry Hicks (1837-99) The Life and Times of Dr Henry Hicks of St David’s, and the Bubble that refused to Burst.
Published by Y Lolfa Cyf 2023 Softback, portrait format. 105x212mm, 24 colour and monochrome images. ISBN 978-1-80099-331-0.
HADAS occasionally get sent newly-published books; some are of direct relevance to local history; some, like this slim but readable 42-page volume received in January 2023, contain unexpected gems relevant to our local history.
Welsh born and speaking, the energetic Dr Henry Hicks MD, MRCS, FRS was a GP, chemist, amateur archaeologist and renowned and widely respected amateur geologist, who was at one time President of the Geological Society of London. Though dying in Hendon relatively young aged 62 years on 18 November 1899, he left a legacy in UK geological research and many publications. He lived and practised in Hendon for nearly three decades from early 1871, and is buried in Hendon St Mary’s church-yard, although his gravestone is now lost. However, he is remembered on a plaque inside the church. He was a long-time resident of the long-lost Grove House – which stood in extensive grounds to the north of the Burroughs. Grove House (otherwise known as Hendon Grove or The Grove) was a large stuccoed two-story building built by 1753 and shown, un-named, on Crow’s 1754 map, and was originally owned by John Cross and Mrs. Marsh jointly, being sited to give commanding views westwards towards Harrow and north to Mill Hill. By 1796 Cooke recorded it having ‘coach-house, stabling, out office, yards, garden etc. with road leading to the same.’
‘The Metropolitan Convalescent Institution’ accommodated 40 young girls at Burroughs House c. 1874. It was substantially rebuilt in the 19th century by a Mrs. Campbell, who in turn leased it to Dr Hicks who ran it as ‘Hendon Grove Asylum’ – a private nursing home, from February 1879 to 1898. By 1881 it was caring for 12 mentally-ill female patients and was home to Dr Hicks, his wife, three daughters and staff. He was greatly active in local affairs and by 1888 Chairman of the Hendon Drainage Committee.
Grove House later continued as a mental home run by Dr Edridge-Green.
It was demolished in 1934, following purchase by Hendon Council. The now-levelled site of the house and part of its grounds survive as a small public park called The Grove at the rear of the Fire Station and University, with the original entrance avenue off the Burroughs which led directly to the house. The entrance is still extant between University buildings and now leads to the park and site of the house.
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As originally reported in the ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries’ for 5th December 1889, page 16, and the ‘Hendon and District Times’ of 13 December 1889, the earliest recorded find of Roman material in the Hendon area is that from the former Grove House.
At a point 730ft W.S.W of the church and 300ft north of Grove House, during the digging of a gravel pit its then occupant, the St. David’s, Pembrokeshire-born Dr. Hicks found bone fragments, flanged roofing tile, brick, millstones, a complete 19 cm high ring-necked single-handled flagon of second century date (see below) and other fragments of mortaria food mixing bowls, water jugs and other pottery, including ‘broken cinerary urns’ all scattered about in the soil a foot below the surface, mostly in a ‘well defined longitudinal excavation’ some ten feet long, and extending down for about 18 inches into the undisturbed sand below.
Dr Hicks had previously excavated prehistoric sites in the St. David’s area.
The approximate OS ref is TQ 2270 8940, SMR/HER 081913-01, 02. Whether in a Roman pit or even a burial is not now clear. (See Robertson, B 1973, ‘Roman Material Found at Grove House, Hendon, in 1889.’ Transactions of The London And Middlesex Archaeological Society 24, 146-150)
Four pieces of this material reportedly survived in the Barnet local history collection, including two pieces of brick, one of them, most interestingly, a section of circular brick of the ‘bessalis’ type used in hypocausts, sculpture bases or to build small diameter columns which would be faced with moulded cement and painted plaster; the surviving material is considered to be of late first or second century date, and includes the single-handled Roman flagon of c.175-250 A.D, presented by Dr F.H.K Green, a relative of Dr Hicks, in March 1949, as were the two brick fragments, and a small, cased fragment of 133 plain buff tesserae tessellated pavement believed to have also been found at the Grove, though this is disputed, as there is no evidence to link it to the Grove House finds, since it was not listed with them at the time. Supposedly found in Hendon prior to 1890, it was donated in December 1948 by Miss N.F.Waters and looks more like a collectors’ item from elsewhere.
In 2011, the pavement fragment at least remained in store at the now-closed and much-lamented Church Farm Museum, and passed to the care of HADAS in May 2012, with whom it remains, with original paper label on the rear recording accession no A61 ‘Fragment of Roman pavement believed to be part of a collection excavated at Hendon Grove in 1889 Don 3124 Mrs. N F Waters’;
The other Grove House fragments and three other fragments of Roman pottery, possibly from the same site, have not been seen since at least 2011, since Church Farm Museum records were incomplete and the items could not be positively identified when it closed.
And the Bubble that Refused to Burst? That was Dr Hicks and his contentious identification and dating of rocks of the Llyn Peninsula and Western Isles of Scotland.
The High Barnet Branch by Peter Kay, published in London Railway Record Number 114, January 2023. Portrait format, 113x210mm. Numerous colour and monochrome images. ISSN 1355-8013. £4.50.
HADAS of course has a number of railway enthusiast members, and several of us already regularly purchase this particular quarterly magazine, which has proved an invaluable source since first published in 1994. Although it covers the whole of London, past and present, concentrating in particular on stations and infrastructure rather than the usual locomotives and rolling stock, the Barnet Borough area regularly appears in coverage of the Midland Main Line via Hendon and the East Coast Main Line via East Barnet, along with the interconnecting tube lines and secondary lines.
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Editor and Publisher Peter Kay has just started what would appear to be the first of several articles covering the former Great Northern/London and North Eastern Railway suburban branch lines from High Barnet, Edgware and Alexandra Palace via Finchley and Highgate to Finsbury Park, parts of which now form the Barnet and Mill Hill East Branches of the Northern Line, or leafy walks to Edgware and Alexandra Palace. The Barnet Branch opened in 1872 and hosted regular steam-, and later diesel-hauled ‘main line’ freight trains to High Barnet until 1962 (which also ran to Edgware until the spring of 1964). This first article features Victorian/Edwardian and later photographs and detailed plans of the stations at High Barnet, Totteridge, Woodside Park, and West Finchley.
The extended photo captions and detailed text cover historical and operational matters, including an 1870s developer trying unsuccessfully to have Woodside Park, then named ‘Torrington Park, Woodside’ renamed ‘Belgravia Park’ as propaganda for his development.
This excellent magazine is always worth a look, even for those without a particular railway interest, given the breadth of its local history coverage, and is normally available from the London Transport Museum shop at Covent Garden, and local transport collectors’ fairs at Borehamwood, Enfield and Chiswick, as well as by subscription. Further details from www.londonrailwayrecord.co.uk
Other Societies’ EventsEric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Thursday, 16th March, 7.30 p.m. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. Ship of Lost Ambitions: The ‘Titanic’ Connections with Camden, by Kevin Brown. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Friday 17th March, 7.30 p.m. Wembley History Society, St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. (Please note new venue). Time and Tide, Treasure and Trash: A Mudlark’s Searches for London’s History. Talk by Monika Bettling-Smith. Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.
Monday 20th March, 8p.m. Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ. The World of Art Nouveau. Talk by Mark Lewis on its origins, the key exponents of the movement and its eventual demise.
Tuesday 4th April, 8p.m. Historical Association, North London Branch. Jubilee Hall (address as above). Beyond The Seas and Return: The English Catholic Cross-Channel Community in the 17th C. Talk by Dr. Liesbeth Corens (Queen Mary, University of London).
Tuesday 11th April, 6.30 p.m. LAMAS. Talk on Zoom. Syon Abbey Revisited: Reconstructing Late Medieval England’s Wealthiest Nunnery. Talk by Bob Cowie (MOLA). Please book via www.lamas.org/lectures.html.
Saturday 15th April, 11a.m.-2.30p.m. North London and Essex Transport. Enfield Transport Bazaar. St. Stephen’s Church Hall, Village Road, Enfield EN1 2EY. Lots of stalls selling books, photos, DVDs, maps, models, timetables, tickets and other memorabilia. Refreshments available. Admission £3.
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Monday 17th April, 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner of High St./Wood St, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Enfield: The Other Royal Palace. Talk by Ian Jones (Chair, Enfield Archaeological Society) Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk
Tuesday 18th April, 7.30p.m. Camden History Society. Talk, hopefully on Zoom: The Bombing of London,1940-41: The Blitz and its Impact on the Capital talk by John Conen. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.
Tuesday 18th April, 8p.m. Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society. Talk should be on Zoom. Northolt Park Racecourse (1929-40) by Colin Richards. Please see www.RNELHS.org.uk.
Wednesday 19th April, 7.30 p.m. Enfield Society, joint with Edmonton Hundred Historical Society. All Saints Church Hall, Church Street, Edmonton N9 9AT. (Please note different venue). Thirty Years at the Edmonton Charity Girls’ School. Talk by Irene Money. Free.
Thursday 20th April, 8p.m. Historical Association: Hampstead and NW London Branch. Ancient Sumeria and its Modern Legacy. Talk by Karin Doll. Will present hypotheses on where key developments in civilisation began including writing, the wheel, plough, bricks and irrigation, and mathematical and writing systems 5,000 years ago. Meet at Fellowship House, 136a, Willifield Way, London NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Hopefully also on Zoom. Please email Jeremy Berkoff (Chair) on jeremyberkoff@mac.com or tel. 07793 229521 for details of Zoom link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments after.
Friday 21st April, 8p.m. Richmond Archaeological Society. Talk on Zoom. Surviving in Lower Palaeolithic Europe by Prof Rob Hosfield. For information on how to join, please visit www.richmondarchaeology.org.uk or email richmond.archaeology@gmail.com.
Saturday 22nd April, 11a.m. Willesden Local History Society. Meet at Dissenters’ Chapel, Kensal Green Cemetery (Entrance off the Flower Maiden, Ladbroke Grove, W10) John Passmore Edwards Festival. To mark the bi-centenary of the birth of the philanthropist on the 24th March, 1823 and the anniversary of his death on 22nd April, 1911, including a laying of a wreath on his grave, a tour of the philanthropists buried at the cemetery, presentations about him and his work, an exhibition in the chapel, and refreshments. To join please contact Irina Porter (Chair and Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery Trustee) on irinaporter@outlook.com or tel. 07510 933282 It is free, but donations are welcome. Please book in advance on www.willesden-local-history.co.uk or by email.
Wednesday 26th April, 6 p.m, Gresham College. Finding Lost Gods in Wales. Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view on line. Please see Finding Lost Gods in Wales | Gresham College. Free. From the poetry and stories of medieval Wales in such as the ‘Red Book of Hergest’ and the book of Taliesin about pagan gods and goddesses with characters such as Rhiannon, Arianrhod,, the flower maiden Blodeuwedd and Lieu Deunedd
Wednesday 26th April, 7.45p.m, Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL. The Great Northern Railway. Talk by Dave Cockle (Enfield Society Chair) Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on ‘Programme’, or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details. (David Berger, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday, 27th April, 7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. H.G. Pelissier: A Famous Son of Finchley. Talk by Anthony Binns and Jaudy Pelissier. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
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++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Bill Bass, Don Cooper, Tim Curtis, Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Jim Nelhams and Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP (07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec Vacancy
While we have no Membership Secretary – for the present, please address any correspondence such as change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:
HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE
Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face to face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom.
Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.
Buses 82, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five-ten minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after the talk.
Tuesday 14 February 2023 The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture: Signe Hoffos: ‘Bombed Churches of the City (WWI and WWII air raids and the City of London churches)’
Signe has spoken to HADAS before on other aspects of City churches, and several of us know her through the City of London Archaeological Society – CoLAS.
Tuesday 14th March 2023 Robin Densem(HADAS): ‘A Career in Ruins’ – Robin will talk about his career in Archaeology
Tuesday 11th April 2023 Robert Stephenson(Also with CoLAS): ‘The Thames; It’s Myths and Mysteries’
Tuesday 9th May 2023 Bill Bass: ‘Hopscotch in High Barnet: A HADAS dig’
Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.
Tuesday 13th June 2023HADAS Annual General Meeting Followed by a lecture
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FUNERAL OF STEPHEN BRUNNING
Steve’s funeral took place at Hendon Crematorium on Friday 6 January. The weather was kind with sunshine interrupting the rain and some 16 HADAS members attended. The humanist service included some of Steve’s favourite music, by Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, and Enya. Celebrant Debbie Coe read memories of Steve by long-time evening class leader Jacqui Pearce and Chairman Don Cooper (see below), and the nicely illustrated order of service included a photo of a clay pipe alongside pictures of Steve to mark a particular interest of his. Thanks to Jacqui Pearce for this order of service picture of Steve who was a proud member of the CIfA.
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At Steve’s funeral, the celebrant read out these tributes to Steve from Evening class tutor Jacqui Pearce and HADAS chairman Don Cooper …
Jacqui Pearce
I first came to know Steve about 20 years ago, when he joined the Birkbeck evening classes in archaeological post-excavation work, which were being held at Avenue House in Finchley. He signed up for the very first course and for every single course since then, including all those run under the auspices of HADAS from 2009 onwards until 2020, when they finally came to an end. There were times when his health made it difficult for him to attend, but he was always fully involved with everything we were doing and was hugely helpful and supportive whenever he was with us. He loved looking at archaeological finds and had a particular interest in the study of clay tobacco pipes, which he made something of a specialism, writing up the pipes from Church End Farm and Church Terrace for the two publications that the Finds Class produced. This is why we’ve included a photo of a clay pipe in the Order of Service, in case you were wondering!
Steve had a genuine passion for archaeology and did all he could to promote, study and further the cause. I remember how delighted he was when he was accepted into the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists as an Associate, something which came about because he was proposed and supported by an existing Member who could vouch for his credentials. In fact, he became Editor of the Institute’s Newsletter, no mean achievement! He had a probing mind and was very thorough in everything he did for archaeology, always wanting to find out more and always asking questions. And he did this in a very unassuming way, never self-regarding, never promoting himself above others.
Steve was a very gentle and courteous man, and it was a real pleasure to spend time in his company. Over the years I knew him his health deteriorated noticeably, and he always bore this with courage and maintained a positive attitude as much as he possibly could, even through the incredibly difficult time when he lost his father. I never heard him get angry or impatient with anyone, even when he was finding life tough. As much as he could, he wanted to help other people and it was always a pleasure to spend time with him. And one more bond we had was a shared love of Star Trek! Although we never spoke about it, he did talk to my daughter about the music he loved and the choices we are listening to today are based on her recollections of conversations she had with him.
My recollections of Steve started with his love of archaeology, and he played a very important part in the Hendon and District Archaeological Society, which I haven’t covered in any depth. For this, I’d like to hand over to Don Cooper …
Don Cooper
Steve had a great interest in all things archaeological especially ceramic clay pipes and joined HADAS as a member in November 1998.
He was elected onto the Committee in June 2004 and served as a committee member continuously up to the present.
He took on the office of membership secretary in 2008. This involved maintaining the database of members, keeping their subscriptions up to date, producing address labels files for the newsletter and preparing Gift Aid returns for the Treasurer.
He also organised the annual lecture series – booking the speakers and venue. He was an invaluable member of the committee.
Over and above all that he was a kind, helpful participant in HADAS’ activities and I well remember his successful contributions to many a Quiz night.
He will be greatly missed. Rest in Peace, Steve.
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Afterwards a number of HADAS members and fellow evening class students (Hello Jeremy!) who had attended the funeral raised a glass or two to Steve’s memory at the Three Hammers pub on Mill Hill Ridgeway… (photo; Andy Simpson)
January Lecture Report – History Underfoot: Britain’s Industrial Heritage in Barnet Streets by David Willoughby.
Drawing on knowledge acquired through his membership of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society (GLIAS), David very kindly stepped in when the previously advertised speaker was unavailable and gave twenty or so HADAS members this most informative lecture via zoom. He reminded us when walking around Barnet to look down as well as up for heritage artefacts hiding in plain view. He began by discussing coal plates (known as Opercula) – holes in the pavement or in front of houses for coalmen to deliver coal to cellars below. The covers were square and made of stone in Georgian times, later usually circular and of cast iron. Many were made in Birmingham and Wolverhampton as well as bearing the markings of London foundries and ironmongers, such as the St Pancras Ironworks. He also discussed Sir Henry Bessemer and his steel production process and Mariott Brothers of Barnet, who were builders and contractors 1881-2; some of their coal plates were produced at a foundry in Shoreditch.
Next discussed were utility covers for water mains, sewers, gas mains, fire hydrant point covers, Post Office Cables and stopcock coves for instance. Another example was those of ‘Northmet’ – the North Metropolitan Electricity Power Supply Co, with their power station at Brimsdown, Enfield and offices in Wood Green.
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Drain covers were discussed in some detail, especially those produced for local councils – including Potters Bar Urban District Council and Barnet London Borough Council, formed only in 1965. This also included detailed discussion of individual manufacturers and their history. Other ironwork discussed included gates and railings, post(pillar) boxes, and of course Stink Pipes as recently discussed in some detail by Dudley Miles in the HADAS newsletter. Miscellaneous items covered included stone and cast iron boundary markers including those for the War Department, and cattle troughs, boot scrapers and Ordnance Survey bench marks. A varied discussion at the end permitted certain members to bring in Barnet station cast iron platform canopies and trolleybus overhead junction boxes…Our thanks to David for this enjoyable and informative talk.
BOOK REVIEWAndy Simpson
Flying Up the Edgware Road The birth of North-West London’s Aviation Industry Mark Amies Published by Amberley Publishing 2022. Softback, portrait format. 168x232mm, 100 colour and monochrome images and maps. ISBN 978 1 3981 0946 9.
This handily sized 96-page book covers exactly what it says on the tin/title, and in considerable detail. It records how this area of North-West London became a hub of the British aircraft industry in the early years of the twentieth century, from the Edwardian suburb of Cricklewood north towards the then semi-rural hamlets of Colindale and Kingsbury.
They played a vital role in aircraft production during the First World War, but companies such as The Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd (Airco) and the Grahame White Aviation Company led by the charismatic Claude Grahame-White declined rapidly by the early 1920s as government orders for new aircraft were slashed overnight. Others such as Handley Page and de Havilland maintained a presence into the 1960s on reduced sites minus their former airfields at Clitterhouse and Stag Lane. Hendon aerodrome of course vanished beneath the Grahame Park Estate in the late 1960s but retains the Royal Air Force Museum which recently celebrated its 50th Anniversary on that site. The industrial buildings themselves often remained in other uses, and some survive today as shown in specially taken modern day colour photographs which record a few precious survivors amongst the ever-growing forest of huge residential tower blocks that nowadays line the Edgware Road.
Historical footnotes such as the very short lived Hendon Factory railway running around the edge of Hendon aerodrome are covered, and we are reminded that a hot air balloon landed in Mill Hill as early as 1862, and the Welsh Harp was an early aviation centre with unsuccessful aircraft trials nearby in 1908, barely five year after the Wright brothers first successful powered flight in 1903. By 1912 Hendon Aerodrome, then known as London Aerodrome, was a flourishing social centre and hub of flying training and demonstrations. Smaller component manufacturers are given due record too.
At Cricklewood Aerodrome, Handley Page Transport Ltd flew international flights to Paris from 1919 using converted bombers and versions developed from them until the airfield was mostly sold for housing in 1929-30. Even the much-reduced Metropolitan Police training facility on Aerodrome Road, Colindale and its successor tower blocks stands on the site of the short-lived London Flying Club, another Grahame-White venture.
Other photographs concerning the local aviation industry incidentally survive in the recently sorted and listed HADAS photographic archive at Avenue House, including a rare shot of the main Titanine Paints building in Sheaveshill Avenue, Colindale.
I would heartily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the industrial history of our area.
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‘His Name Liveth For Ever in Hendon’Andy Simpson
Whilst in Greece on the latest Salonika Campaign Society battlefield tour in September 2022, one of our regular Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery visits brought to my attention a native of Hendon who was laid to rest in Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery, Thessaloniki in Northern Greece, known as Salonika during WW1. He was a member of the British Salonika Force (BSF), engaged in fighting alongside Greek, French, Russian, Italian and Serbian troops against Bulgarian and German troops in Greece and what is now the Republic of North Macedonia in the Balkans.
At the invitation of the Greek Prime Minister, M. Eleftherios Venizelos, Salonika was occupied by three French Divisions and the 10th (Irish) Division fresh from the debacle at Gallipoli in October 1915. Other French and Commonwealth forces landed during the year and in the summer of 1916, they were joined by Russian and Italian troops. In August 1916, a Greek revolution broke out at Salonika, with the result that the Greek national army came into the war on the Allied side. The campaign continued until an armistice was signed in October 1918, some weeks before that on the Western Front.
The Hendon soldier was Gunner Ralph Henry Byatt, service number 35729.
Luckily a partial service record for him does survive, athough incomplete and fire damaged in places as are so many other WW1 personnel records since only some 40% of the First World War Army Service Records survived the Second World War bomb damage in September 1940, when during the London Blitz the War Office repository in Arnside Street was hit.
Whilst employed as a Plumber’s Mate, he had enlisted in peacetime London, having attested (swearing allegiance to King George V) on 27 July 1911 with the Royal Regiment of Artillery (Royal Garrison Artillery) Territorial Force, Special Reserve, height recorded as 5ft 6 inches, with fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair.
The Special Reserve was established on 1 April 1908 as a semi-professional force to maintain a reservoir of manpower as reinforcement drafts for the regular British Army serving overseas in wartime and training these replacement drafts in times of war. Reservists enlisted for a six-year term of service and had to undergo six months of basic training on recruitment and three to four weeks training annually. This presumably explains why for the 1911 census Ralph is recorded as being resident in barracks on the night of the census, Sunday April 2nd 1911, his age recorded as 17. At this point he was part of the 6th Battalion Royal Fusiliers according to the census entry. The 6th (Reserve) Battalion Royal Fusiliers was part of the Special Reserve, based in Hounslow. By 1917 Ralph was serving with the heavy howitzer-equipped 130 Siege Battery part of the 9th Brigade of the Royal Garrison Artillery, which had been in Salonika since August 1916, having four of the recently introduced 26cwt, six-inch calibre howitzers on strength.
Their role was mainly to provide plunging high explosive fire to soften up enemy defences prior to an infantry attack, and also to target opposing heavy artillery batteries in counter battery fire. However, with supply of men and material always an issue, there were never more than a few dozen of these weapons available to the BSF.
He died on Wednesday, 10 January 1917, aged 25. Confusingly however, his pension record card gives a date of 10 April 1918, killed in action.
The son of Sandon-born 44-year old Hendon Urban District Council carman (horse drawn cart driver) Arthur and his 42-year old wife, Henlow-born ‘charwoman’ Emma Byatt of 15, Heading Street (Off Church Road), Hendon, he was actually a native of the village of Sandon, Hertfordshire, where he was baptised on the 14 April 1895. Father Arthur Edward Cornelius Byatt. Ralph was one of three children, his parents having by then been married for 20 years.
His mother Emma was awarded a pension of 5/6d a week payable from 29 October 1918, along with £8 10s 1d unclaimed pay and a war gratuity of £14. A soldier’s pay that had been credited to his account but not issued to him, along with any gratuities, were eventually distributed in accordance with his will.
The war gratuity would be paid to every warrant officer, non-commissioned officer and man who served with the army or air force, either voluntarily or compulsorily, since 4 August 1914, and to the legatees or next of kin of those who had lost their lives with some exceptions. There was a minimum payment of £5, with various increments for length of service, and was issued in the form of a Post Office Savings Bank Book deposit.
For his gravestone, his grieving parents chose (and had to pay for, as was standard practice) a personal epitaph for his standard CWGC headstone ‘ His Name Liveth For Ever In Hendon. Mum and Dad’ This is a variation on the phrase “Their name liveth for evermore” is a phrase from the King James Version of the Bible, forming the second half of a line in Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, chapter 44, verse 14, widely inscribed on war memorials since the First World War. See Their name liveth for evermore – Wikipedia. The message had to be composed from a maximum of 66 characters including spaces. Each character used cost the family 3½d. The 37 letters in this inscription cost his parents 10s 9d, equivalent to some £22 at 2022 prices.
The Cemetery is located at 192 Langada Street, on the Serres highway approximately 2 km north of Thessaloniki city centre on the west side of the street. The cemetery is inside a very large, mainly First World War Allied cemetery containing Serbian, French and Italian casualties and is known locally as ‘’Zeitenlik’’ and is to the rear of the Serbian, French and Italian sections. The city of Salonika was the base of the British Salonika Force and it contained, from time to time, eighteen general and stationary hospitals.
The earliest Commonwealth burials took place in the local Protestant and Roman Catholic cemeteries. Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery (formerly known as the Anglo-French Military Cemetery) was begun in November 1915 and Commonwealth, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian sections were formed. The Commonwealth section remained in use until October 1918, although from the beginning of 1917, burials were also made in Mikra British Cemetery.
After the Armistice, some graves were brought in from other cemeteries in Macedonia, Albania and from Scala Cemetery, near Cassivita, on the island of Thasos.
There are now 1,648 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. The Commonwealth plot also contains 45 Bulgarian and one Serbian war graves.
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The Church End area of central Hendon once featured a densely-packed area of Victorian terraced houses and workshops running down to Sunny Gardens and up to Church Walk, centred around the now lost or re-routed Prince of Wales Road, Heading Street, and Fuller Street. They were cleared in the years around 1970 and replaced mostly by low-rise council flats.
Ralph is one of 362 First World War casualties from Hendon commemorated on the still extant Grade-2 listed Hendon War Memorial now sitting rather isolated on an island on the A41 Watford Way by the junction with The Burroughs and Station Road. Costing £185, paid for by private contributions and Hendon Urban District Council, and with a military presence and large crowd attending, this was dedicated by the Bishop of Willesden on 23 April 1922 – appropriately enough, St Georges’ Day, and was resited in 1962 as part of a Watford Way improvement scheme.
On the front and left faces of the memorial, on bronze plaques, are listed the 224 names of those of the Central Ward of Hendon who died in WW1, and on the right face, a similar bronze plaque lists the 138 names of the West Ward of Hendon. All the names are listed alphabetically by surname, followed by first names and any further initials, without any ranks of units.
(All recent photos by Andy Simpson)
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From the names listed on the memorial it would seem that at least three other former residents of Hendon lie at rest in Greece having served in the Salonika Campaign, two of them in the same cemetery; See Roll of Honour – Middlesex – Hendon (roll-of-honour.com)
All four men came from solid working-class backgrounds (two of them with fathers employed by Hendon Council) and only one of them attained even junior NCO rank during their service; they were truly the lost rank and file generation. They are further discussed individually below.
Gunner Robert Franklin, service number 58207 Royal Horse Artillery/Royal Field Artillery 11th Battery, 1st Brigade;
Son of Robert and Emma Franklin, of 3, Salisbury Plain, off Brent St, Hendon.
Headstone inscription; GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN MOTHER
Only his Medal record card, soldier’s effects record, Grave Record, and Dependent’s Pension card seem to survive.
Christened at St Mary’s Church Hendon on 11 December 1895, in the 1911 census his father Robert was a 52-year-old general labourer at the Hendon District Council sewage farm, which had opened at Clitterhouse as a sewage outfall works in 1886, extended in 1913 and closed in 1935; (interesting that he was another Hendon UDC employee, like Ralph Byatt’s father) his mother Emma being the same age; they had been married 33 years and were both born in the village of Yelling, Huntingdonshire, which in 1911 had just 246 inhabitants. They had nine children, the first three born in Gelling, of whom seven survived.
In 1911, 15-year-old Hendon-born Robert was living at home as a printer’s apprentice.
He had served initially in France from 6 September 1915, and therefore qualified for the 1915 Star and War and Victory Medals. His soldier’s effects record indicates that he died in the field and that pay of £19 4s and war gratuity of 10 guineas was credited to his mother.
From 6 November 1918, his mother Emma was granted a pension of 5s a week.
1 Brigade was a unit of Britain’s pre-war regular Army; it went to France in December 1914 and on to Salonika in late 1915, presumably taking Robert Franklin with it as part of 27th Division. A word here perhaps about the structure of the British Army during the Great War; The smallest unit in an army is the squad, which contains 7 to 14 soldiers and is led by a sergeant (A slightly larger unit is a section, which consists of 10 to 40 soldiers) Three or four squads make up a platoon, which has 20 to 50 soldiers and is commanded by a lieutenant. Two or more platoons make up a company, which has 100 to 250 soldiers and is commanded by a captain or a major.
Two or more companies make up a battalion, which has 400 to 1,200 troops and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel. The battalion is the smallest unit to have a staff of officers (in charge of personnel, operations, intelligence, and logistics) to assist the commander. Several battalions form a brigade, which has 2,000 to 8,000 troops and is commanded by a brigadier general or a colonel.
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A brigade is the smallest unit to integrate different types of combat and support units into a functional organization. A modern combat brigade, for example, usually has infantry, armoured vehicles such as tanks, artillery, and reconnaissance units. Two or more brigades, along with various specialized battalions, make up a division, which has 7,000 to 22,000 troops and is commanded by a major general A division contains all the arms and services needed for the independent conduct of military operations. Two to seven divisions and various support units make up an army corps, or a corps, which has 50,000 to 300,000 troops and is commanded by a lieutenant general. The army corps is the largest regular army formation, though in wartime two or more corps may be combined to form a field army (commanded by a general), and field armies in turn may be combined to form an army group.
The original Struma cemetery plot, Plot I, was set too close to a ravine and the graves in it were moved after the Armistice to the present plots VIII and IX.
The remainder of the cemetery consists almost entirely of graves brought in from the battlefields, from the churchyards at Homondos, Haznatar and Kalendra, and from little front-line cemeteries (established by Field Ambulances or Battalions), of which the chief were those at Ormanli (24 burials), Dolab Wood (17 burials) and Big Tree Well (on the right bank of the Struma, opposite Ormanli; 17 Burials)
The Struma River flows through Bulgaria southward to the Greek frontier, then south-east into the Aegean Sea. From the Allied base at Salonika, a road ran north-east across the river to Seres, and it was this road that the right (eastern) wing of the British sector used for the movements of troops and supplies to the Struma front during the Salonika Campaign. For two years or more until the final allied advance in September 1918, fighting in the Struma featured outposts, raids and patrols, with the main British and Bulgarian positions either side of the malaria-ridden valley.
In the autumn of 1916, the 40th Casualty Clearing Station was established not far from the road near the 71 Kilometer stone and the cemetery made for it was originally called Kilo 71 Military Cemetery. Struma Military Cemetery contains 933 British casualties of the First World War, 51 of them unidentified. There are also Indian, West Indian, Maltese, Greek, Bulgarian and Turkish war graves located there.
Australian gun crew with standard British 18-pdr field gun as used by some of the Hendon soldiers discussed, Ypres sector, 1917.
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6-Inch calibre 26 Pdr. Howitzer – a type the Hendon men were also familiar with.
Struma Military Cemetery
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Gunner Stafford Lawrence Lindsell, service number 163587; Royal Field Artillery, ‘B’ Battery, 116th (CXVI) Brigade;
Died of wounds Saturday 17 November 1917, aged 20; buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery.
Personal Inscription LOVING SON, BROTHER KIND Baptised in Hendon 18 April 1897, enlisted in Hendon; Eldest son of Stafford and Harriet Lindsell, of 18 Stratford Road, Hendon, London. The Stratford Road houses dated to around 1879. In the1911 census his Essex-born 41-year-old father Stafford was a house decorator. He and 38-year-old Finchley born wife Harriet had been married for 15 years and had nine children, all born in Hendon and all then still living. 14-year-old Stafford Lawrence was then a ‘Dairy Boy’.
CXVI Brigade RFA, sometimes recorded as here as 116 Brigade was formed as part of the raising of Lord Kitchener’s new Third Army in 1914, with each battery equipped with four of the standard 18-pdr field guns (six from December 1916), under the command of the 26th Division. In service since 1904, the quick-firing and reliable18-pounder was the British Commonwealth’s most widely used field gun during the First World War, using high explosive and shrapnel shells to cut barbed wire and impact front line defences and troop concentrations. Its 84mm calibre and shell weight were greater than its French and German equivalents.
The Brigade had moved to Salonika in November 1915, and in April/May1917 fought in the first Battle of Doiran.
Only his soldier’s effects and pension claimant details survive.
His mother Harriet was granted a pension of seven shillings a week from 4 June 1918.She also received £8 10s 1d in unclaimed pay and a war gratuity of £3 10s.
Acting Bombardier Percival (Percy) Frederick John Lemon, service number 49331; Royal Field Artillery ‘D’ (Howitzer) Battery XCIX (99th) Brigade;
Died of wounds (killed in Action) Friday 26 April 1918 aged 23; also buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery.
Personal Inscription FATHER IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING LEAVE WE NOW THY SERVANT SLEEPING
Son of Frederick James and Minnie Lemon of 8 Ramsey Road, West Hendon, London. Houses built around 1900.
99th Brigade RFA was under the command of 22nd Division, which had been formed in 1914 as part of Lord Kitchener’s New Third Army, moving to Salonika in October 1915. At the time of death, Percy’s rank of Acting Bombardier was equivalent to Acting Corporal, in charge of a section of 7 – 12 men. 99 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in the Great War – The Wartime Memories Project –
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Only his dependent’s pension and personal effects records survive.
At the time of the 1911 census, 16-year-old Percy was a domestic gardener living with his 40 year old father Frederick James a labourer, who had been married to 41 year old Minnie (employment recorded as ‘Charing – cleaning) for 18 years, having two children, of whom both then survived. His mother Minnie received £18 13s 11d in owed pay, a war gratuity of £16 10s and a pension of 5s a week from 6 November 1918.
Percy is the highest ranking of the four men from Hendon.
Karasouli cemetery was begun in September 1916 for the use of casualty clearing stations on the Doiran front. At the Armistice, it contained about 500 burials but was greatly increased when graves were brought in from a number of cemeteries.
All photos by the author.
With thanks to my sister Alison for compiling the available online personnel records. In time I may also look to trace Salonika casualties from Finchley and Barnet also, so I would be interested to hear of any details readers may know of. I hope to be able to visit and pay my respects at local graves on my future visits to the battlefields, hopefully during the 2024 visit which will study the Salonika Air Campaign in particular.
Karasouli Military Cemetery
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HADAS members will remember the hugely enjoyable September 2019 trip to South Wales, so ably organized by Jim and Jo Nelhams. One place we visited was the ‘out of town’ conservation and restoration facility for the remaining hull portions of the medieval Newport ship. It has recently been in the news again…see link below for an excellent summary and CGI of the ship at sea.
These continue, with much good work being done in sorting and repacking HADAS archive material including many historic local photographs and much ‘History of HADAS’ material featuring past HADAS personalities and trips. There is even a poster for the renowned HADAS Minimart in Hendon, as organized for so many years by the late Dorothy Newbury. Most recently we have just started sorting archives and finds (mostly flint flakes, especially ‘debitage’ waste flakes) from the 1976-85 HADAS excavations on West Heath, Hampstead.
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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Saturday 4th February, 10 a.m.-4pm. Elstree and Borehamwood Transport Collectors Fair. Allum Manor House and Hall, 2, Allum Lane, Elstree and Borehamwood, WD6 3RJ. Bus and Railway Memorabilia incl. Models, Books, Photographs, Tickets, Timetables, Ephemera. Admission £3. Refreshments available.
Monday 13th February, 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./ Wood St., Barnet EN5 4BW. Reporting Barnet; Why it is so difficult to find out about Local News. Talk by Nick Jones. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Wednesday 8th March, 2.30 p.m. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, NW7 3TB. Sir John Laing and his Mill Hill legacy. Talk by Alex Finkenrath. Preceded by AGM. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.
Wednesday 8th March, 6p.m. Gresham College. Viking Pagan Gods in Britain. Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at What’s On | Gresham College and view on-line. please see Viking Pagan Gods in Britain | Gresham College. Free. In the c9th and c10th the Vikings brought with them their own gods; Odin, Thor, Tyr, Lok and Freya, and left their trace on the British landscape in the form of scenes carved on stone slabs and material evidence in richly furnished graves, esp. on the Isle of Man.
Monday 13th March, 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local Historical Society. For address. please see 13th Feb. The Woodvilles; Witchcraft and Politics during the Wars of the Roses. Talk by Gemma Holden.
Wednesday 15th March, 6p.m. Gresham College Landscapes of Roman Britain. Talk by Martin Millett. Ticket required. Register at What’s On | Gresham College. and view on-line. Please see Stonehenge: A History | Gresham College . Free. Will explore our current knowledge of the nature of Roman hardware shop Imperialism and the History of Britain.
Wednesday 15th March, 7.30p.m. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (round corner from Magistrates’ court). Harlesden Green.in the1870’s. Talk by Margaret Pratt (Gen. Sec.) on the life and times of the Beeson family and their famous hardware shop in Harlesden High St. and recollecting on a childhood in Harlesden Green when it was a small village. The family ran a shoeing forge, ironmongers and wheelwrights in the High St. during the early years of the 20th century. May also be on zoom. If not a member, buy a ticket (£3). For details, please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Thursday 16th March, 8p.m. Historical Association; Hampstead and N.W, London Branch. The Historical Arthur. Talk by Prof. Andrew Breeze on the controversial thesis that this classic of Middle Welsh Literature was written by a woman. and argues that he was a historical figure who fought other Celts in battles in Scotland and Northern England in the 6th century. Meet at Fellowship House, 136a, Willifield Way, NW11 6YD. (off Finchley Rd., Temple Fortune). Hopefully also on zoom. Please e-mail Jeremy Berkoff (chair) at jeremyberkoff@mac.com or tel. 07793 229521 for details of zoom link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments afterwards.
Tuesday 14th March, 6.30p.m. LAMAS Talk on zoom. A Work in Progress; A new display for The Cheapside Hoard. By Hazel Forsyth (MOL). To be housed in a permanent gallery at the new London Museum in West Smithfield alongside the Worshipful Co. of Goldsmiths’ collection. Please book via www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.
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Saturday 18th March, 10.30a.m.-6p.m. LAMAS Archaeological Conference. Morning session; Recent work in and around the Capital. Afternoon session; Recent work on Roman Towns incl. London. To book please visit www.lamas.org.uk/conferences. This will be on zoom again. Tickets will be available to purchase via the lamas eventbrite website. Early bird before 28th Feb. (£15). Standard tickets (after 1st Mar.) £17.50.
Tuesday 21st March, 8p,m. Ruislip, Northwood and Eastcote Local History Society. Talk should be on zoom. When Horses ran London. By Charlie Forman. For details, please see www.RNELHS.org.uk.
Wednesday 22nd March, 7.45p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Picture Shows before Cinema. Talk by Ian Christie, Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 020 83688314 for up-to-date details. (David Berguer, Chair) Non-members £2. Bar available.
Thursday 23rd March, 6p.m. Gresham College. The Medieval Agricultural Revolution.; New Evidence. Talk by Helena Hamerow. Tickets required. Register at What’s On | Gresham College and view on-line. Please see The Medieval Agricultural Revolution: New evidence | Gresham College. Free. Using new evidence from plant and animal remains from archaeological excavations in England linking new forms of cereal farming and the use of the mouldboard plough and systematic crop rotation leading to open-field farming.
Thursday 30th March ,7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17, East End Road, N3 3QE. A presentation from the Finchley Society Planning Committee. For further details, please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Don Cooper: Eric Morgan; Jacqui Pearce. Andy Simpson ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP (07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec SITUATION VACANT For the present, please address any correspondence such as subscriptions, change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to ; HADAS, c/o Avenue House 17 East End Road Finchley London N3 3QE
Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.
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