Volume 9: 2010 – 2014

Mail-out Malady strikes again -and why e-mail has its advantages: Mary Rawitzer

Apologies to those few people who received their August Newsletter with a 2p instead of a 2nd class stamp. We’re still arguing about whose fault that was. Easily done -if you can ignore the difference in colour and what it says on the stamp. Compensation for added postal charges available by application to e-mail address below.

Now some 10% of our members and other Newsletter recipients are getting it by e-mail we would like to remind anyone else thinking of entering the internet age more fully that the Newsletter can be sent to them by e-mail instead of snail mail, with the added bonus of photographs likely to be included shortly. Just dropme a brief word: mary.rawitzer@talktalk.net.

Lecture Series 2010 – 2011

Tuesday 12th October sees the first of our winter lecture series. This will be given by Raksha Dave and is entitled “Behind the scenes on Time Team”.

This is followed on Tuesday 9th November by David Divers with “Archaeology and the Olympics”.

Lectures are held in the Drawing Room at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8 pm, with coffee/tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members: £1. Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a short walk away.

Looking at Finds Course

We are pleased to report that our weekly Practical Course in Post-Excavation Studies is fully subscribed .

Ruth Whitehill

Ruth appeared occasionally at our lectures and some of our outings, including last year’s trip to Hereford. Always very quiet, she never talked about herself. We knew so little about her. Attending her funeral, we found out so much more. Ruth came from a strong Jewish family, visiting her sister each Friday evening. She had for many years taught junior school children. She also played a part at her synagogue, including giving Hebrew lessons, and undertook other duties. She still played golf and tennis regularly and also played the piano. She was clearly much respected and much loved by her family who, with her friends, filled the synagogue at Hoop Lane.

Sunny Hill Park & the Borough of Hendon at War Gabe Moshenska & Stewart Wild

Compared to some councils in the 1930s, the Hendon Council arrived rather belatedly at the realisation that air-raid shelters would be required for the population in the event of war. While some councils took the bombing of Barcelona in 1936 or the Munich Crisis of 1938 as an urgent impetus to provide air-raid protection, shelter construction in public spaces in Hendon appears not to have begun until mid-1939. In April of that year the Council voted to reject a resolution, proposed by Southall Council, to push for the construction of deep, bomb-proof underground shelters. These had proved their worth in the Spanish Civil War, and a number of reputable engineers and scientists such as Ove Arup and J.B.S. Haldane were pushing for a British equivalent, particularly in dense urban areas. Elsewhere in London the pursuit of this enhanced protection in the interest of their residents, and in defiance of central government, led to legal actions against the Borough of Finsbury and some of its officers.

However, by 1939 the threat of war appeared more urgent, and by the end of May that year shelters were under construction in eight parks in the Borough of Hendon, and the Home Office had promised funding of £24,207 for shelters to accommodate some 12,000 people. It was planned that these would be built of corrugated steel with concrete walls, covered with a layer of earth for enhanced blast protection and located around the edges of local parks.

By mid-June of 1939 the shelters at Sunny Hill Park had not yet been begun, and elsewhere shortages of materials were holding up the construction process. In August of the same year the Council put the construction of shelters in public spaces out to tender, and accepted the bid of Rigg & Remington Ltd to build shelters of a capacity to seat around 12,000 people at a cost of £37,500.

The Council was obliged to provide shelters for ten percent of the resident population of the Borough: approximately 17,000 people. The initial plan laid out in early September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of war, was for this to be divided up: 3,400 people would use the Council-built shelters from the first stage of construction, while another 1,500 would use empty shops in the Borough that had been converted into reinforced shelters. The remaining 12,000 would be accommodated in the shelters to be built by Rigg & Remington Ltd.

Shortly afterwards, as the urgent construction of shelters around the country put a strain on concrete and steel resources, these figures were revised: shop shelters would now house 5,000 people while another 2,950 would use the small number that Rigg & Remington had produced up to that point. It was decided that another 5,650 would be housed in surface shelters that would be built out of bricks and mortar -a more plentiful resource at the time. The fluctuating availability of metal frameworks from Steel Ceilings Ltd caused these plans to be revised repeatedly over the following few months.

In October 1939 heavy rainfall caused flooding in some shelters in the Borough, and the sloppy cleaning and maintenance of shelters by park staff became an issue of concern. Park keepers reported that on their early rounds at 7am there were still too many people sleeping in the shelters, so that cleaning had to wait until later in their working day, by which time many were reoccupied.

Construction of shelters continued through this period; shortly after the war began land next to St Mary’s

Church of England School on Church Terrace was requisitioned for the construction of a school air-raid shelter. By mid-March 1940 the Council recorded that all planned trench shelters in the Borough had been completed. The shelters in Sunny Hill Park can thus be dated with reasonable certainty to the period mid-June 1939 to mid-March 1940.

The construction of shelters was only one of the impacts of the Second World War on Sunny Hill Park: in October 1940 the railings around the children’s playground were removed for recycling to aid the war effort.

Many parks were turned over to agricultural uses: in the spring of 1941 land in Sunny Hill Park was allocated to form 31 allotments, while in November 1942 a standpipe was installed near the allotments at the request of residents. Several parks in Hendon were used for grazing animals, and in 1941 Mr Hinge of Church Farm applied for grazing permission on Sunny Hill Park. His application was refused, but a compromise was reached in which for an annual fee of £15 he could cut and remove grass from the park for animal feed. This arrangement was renewed annually through to at least 1947. In the summer of 1941 the 10th Company of the Home Guard laid a telephone cable along the eastern side of Sunny Hill Park, linking their depot on Great North Way with their headquarters, the location of which is unclear. By this time the war had transformed Sunny Hill Park from its pre-war role as a venue for public meetings, theatre, music and play, into a part of the Home Front: stripped of its iron and hay, and dug up for planting and for air-raid shelters. Our question was: what traces remain of these wartime uses?

Thus it was that in 2009, following a successful summer dig in the grounds of Church Farmhouse Museum, HADAS in conjunction with University College London’s Department of Archaeology decided to ask permission from Barnet Council to carry out an investigative dig on some strange surface structures (including what looked like the top of a filled-in concrete staircase) almost completely covered by nettles, brambles and ivy in nearby Sunny Hill Park.

Gabe Moshenska is a Research Fellow at UCL, with a particular interest in World War II archaeology, and Stewart Wild is a member of both HADAS and Sub Brit (Subterranea Britannica), so we agreed to remain in touch and to call on Sub Brit’s resources and expertise as required. (Sub Brit is a society devoted to the study and investigation of man-made and man-used underground places.) Barnet Council’s Parks Department granted permission for the dig and cleared away a massive amount of undergrowth and the local residents’

association was enthusiastic. It was agreed that digging would start on 12 July 2010 for a maximum of two weeks under the direction of Dr Moshenska.

It was soon realised that we were dealing with probably five parallel rectangular sunken structures, each with a stairway at one end and overgrown square concrete-capped brickwork at the other, the latter presumably some sort of alternative exit shaft to each shelter.

Digging commenced at the first staircase that was partially visible and necessitated the removal of a large quantity of rubble and earth, along with bits of rusty corrugated iron. It took four days hard work to reach the bottom of the stairs, at a depth of around three metres and to clear a way around the brick blast wall, which was in remarkably good condition.

Entering the shelter itself, Dr Moshenska was delighted to find that it was more or less empty of rubble, only slightly damp, and contained a few rusty artefacts -buckets, scrap metal, electric cable and suchlike -and a small amount of graffiti.

At the far end, a decaying vertical metal ladder looked up to the sealed surface hatch that had served as an emergency exit alongside a brick wall whose purpose was to screen off a compartment for a chemical toilet. There was no evidence of chairs or benches, and seemingly no holes in the walls to which benches might have been fixed. There was, however, a row of widely spaced holes centrally along the roof of the shelter perhaps

to secure a central dividing screen.

With limited time available it would only be possible to enter two of the five shelters and a decision was taken to try to smash the heavy concrete cap off the exit hatch of shelter number three. After a lot of hard work by students and members of HADAS this was achieved on Sunday July 18.

Shelter number three was, unsurprisingly, very similar to shelter number one. It contained some post-war debris -beer bottles and rusty cans for example -which were believed to have been left by persons unknown who had broken in, perhaps in the 1960s, before the Council had finally covered the hatch with a thick layer of heavy concrete, like an enormous mushroom. The dimensions of the two shelters were almost the same: 18.23m long (net interior of 14.40m excluding the staircase), 2.14m wide and 2.00m high. On the wall of each shelter could be discerned the remains of a wartime poster -perhaps listing the rules of the shelter and

public health matters. It may be possible to identify the original wording from archival sources.

On Thursday 23 July the staircase of shelter one was backfilled and the concrete cap replaced on the hatch exit of shelter three. Barnet Council has agreed that one of the shelters can be preserved for future visits and further study, and the concrete cap of the emergency exit of shelter three has now been replaced by a welded hatch secured by a padlock. We have to thank Middlesex University for this and for their interest in this aspect of local history; their predecessor, Hendon College in nearby Greyhound Hill, is known to have been the HQ of the

Home Guard in WWII.

The finds are being recorded and evaluated, but in the meantime one piece of ‘treasure’ arrived from an unexpected source. A local lad, six-year-old David Wolffe, told us he had found an original wooden sign that had once pointed the way to the shelters.

It is in remarkably good condition for a wooden artefact seventy years old, and bears rusty nails and holes that seem to indicate that it may have found later use as part of a fence. David had discovered it hidden behind a hedge near his house on the edge of the park The splendid sign will be incorporated, along with some of the finds, in a display later this year at Church Farmhouse Museum, Greyhound Hill, Hendon NW4 4JR www.churchfarmhousemuseum.co.uk

350 years at Church Farmhouse Museum Jim Nelhams

On 19th August, Gerrard Roots presented an entertaining lecture to the London, Westminster and Middlesex Family History Society at Lyonsdown Hall, New Barnet.

Gerrard explained that the exact date of the building was not known – the first reference to it is in 1680, but it must be slightly earlier than that. So 1660 had been chosen, hence the celebration of the 350 years Gerrard himself has been curator for 31 years, and was only the second holder of the job.

Hendon appears in the Domesday Book, though the church is not mentioned. The manor was held by Westminster Abbey and after the dissolution was passed to the Herbert family – who were the Lords of Powys. Most of the manor, but not Church Farm, was sold in the 18th century to David Garrick, who built Hendon Hall, now a hotel, but there is no evidence that he ever lived in Hendon – he had other houses in London and at Richmond.

The farmhouse passed through various hands and in the early 19th century it was a hay and dairy farm owned by Mark Lemon. His grandson, also Mark, was the founder of Punch magazine and a blue plaque on the front of the museum notes this connection.

The building became the museum of the London Borough of Barnet in 1965 and is the smallest London Borough museum – in the largest London Borough. As well as static displays, it hosts exhibitions, often based on private collections, and of local interest – from teddy bears to traction engines. It is important for a local museum to bring local interest to the wider context.

The building is listed – Grade II -and structurally very sound. It stands as a reminder of the very recent rural past of the area.

“Things” come to the museum and documents and art go to the borough archives.

Gerrard’s talk ended with a demonstration of a number of unusual artefacts.

(Note – an exhibition is planned at the museum in 2011 to mark HADAS’ 50th anniversary)

HADAS at Friary Park Centenary Don Cooper

This year is the centenary of Friary Park in Friern Barnet Lane and there have been lots of events celebrating the opening of the park in May 1910. But the culmination of the celebrations was at the Friern Barnet Summer Show which was held on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of August. David Berguer, the chairman of the Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, kindly invited HADAS to partake in the celebrations. A marquee called “Past, Present and Future” financially supported by a grant from Barnet Council was provided, and a table in the marquee was assigned to HADAS. This annual summer show attracts a large number of visitors (although numbers were down a little this year). HADAS set up the table with posters and photographs of recent excavations, books for sale and membership forms. Many visitors asked questions about our excavation (in conjunction with UCL) of the air-raid shelters

in Sunny Hill Park in July and told us many tales of their experiences during the war. It was interesting that some of the visitors thought that we only covered Hendon and did not realise that our remit is to the whole Borough of Barnet. The Mayor of Barnet, the Deputy Mayor, Chipping Barnet MP, Teresa Villiers, and many local councillors, including Kate Salinger (councillor for Coppetts ward, which includes Friary Park), visited and were interested in the work we do.

Events like this are invaluable in promoting HADAS and the work we do and my grateful thanks go to Vicki Baldwin (who laminated the poster and photos and spent a full day with us), Bill Bass (who answered the visitors’ questions over the two days), Peter Nicholson, Peter Pickering, Eric Morgan and my wife Liz (who set up the stall and did lots of fetching and carrying).

Enquiries Through Our Website Jim Nelhams

We receive a number of enquiries from people who find our website. Most of these are from abroad and refer mainly to Hendon rather than our broader area.

One recent question was regarding a Belgian soldier whose death was reported in Hendon in 1941. The soldier was named Amédée Van Ingelgem. A copy of his service records showed that he had died from tuberculosis at Colindale Hospital on 16th September 1941 and had been buried at Hendon Park Cemetery on 23rd September. Could we find the grave and provide a photograph?

Hendon Park Cemetery is now called Hendon Cemetery and is in Golders Hill Road. A visit there confirmed the burial and that there was no headstone. Disappointment! However, a note next to the record showed that after the war, on 13th October 1949, the body was exhumed, to be re-buried in the Belgian Section of Brookwood Military Cemetery near Woking in Surrey. This information was fed back, and within 24 hours, our correspondent had a photograph of the new grave and gravestone courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Job done.

We currently have three further inquiries ongoing, two from Australia. More of those in a later edition.

Hephzibah Revealed Jim Nelhams

In the newsletter in January 2006, I noted that, when investigating Jo’s family history, we had discovered that Jo’s great grandfather, William Willows, who spent all of his life in the Cambridgeshire village of Coton, had not one, but two marriages. His first wife had died in 1843, but had left a daughter named Hephzibah, who seemed to have been raised by her maternal grandparents. Her existence had been totally unknown to any of Jo’s family.

We discovered that in 1875, Hephzibah had married a William Williams. In 1881, the couple were living near Wakefield in Yorkshire where William was working on the railways. At the time of the 1881 census, they had two children, Ethel and Sidney. But then we could find no trace of the family after that date. In April last year, I was able to continue the story, as we had found emigration records showing their arrival in Sydney, Australia in 1883. Using the internet, we had been able to contact a gentleman named Norman Dyer, Hephzibah’s great grandson. Both Hephzibah and her daughter had died at Gosford, some 60 miles north of Sydney, close to Norman’s home.

Jo and I had planned a long holiday for the beginning of 2010 and in particular, we wanted to visit Jo’s niece in New South Wales. This would also give us the chance to meet Norman and visit Gosford, and perhaps find some more information. We sorted out dates and booked all the flights. Before we could book hotels, we found out that the niece would be in Ealing at the time of our visit, and separately, Norman invited us to stay with him for the three days we had allocated, and also offered to guide us around the area. So what did we find?

Most of the immigrant voyages are well documented. We saw that Hephzibah’s voyage from Plymouth aboard the Ellora (P & O Lines), took 75 days. Daughter Ethel celebrated her sixth birthday on board. There was also an outbreak of measles and croup, so that when the ship arrived at Sydney, it was quarantined for several days.

From newspaper archives, we found that, after arriving, William and Hephzibah had run a boarding house at Millers Point in Sydney, close to where the Sydney Harbour Bridge now stands. At some stage William became the farm manager of a fruit farm at Gosford owned by Mr Jesse Dyer, who also had a provisions shop in George Street, Sydney supplying the ships in Sydney Harbour. As the farm produced oranges and lemons, needed to guard against scurvy during voyages, it is likely he was selling his own produce. The shop building is in a preserved area known as “The Rocks” so it still exists, though it is now a branch of Burberrys.

Jesse was at this stage married and his first marriage produced 7 sons, 4 of them dying in infancy. After his first wife died in 1901, he passed control of the shop to one of his sons and retired to his farm. In 1903, he re-married. His new wife was Ethel, Hephzibah’s daughter, with whom he had another 5 sons, including Norman’s father, John Willows Dyer, Willows being Hephzibah’s maiden name, and Jo’s also. While in Gosford, Norman took us to the “Pioneers’ Cemetery” where we found the grave of William and Hephzibah, so we had now traced her from cradle to grave.

But one surprise remained. On the following day, we went to visit Duncan, Norman’s cousin and another of Hephzibah’s great-grandsons. Duncan’s father had died in 2008, and when his house was cleared, they had found 4 large framed photographs – Jesse Dyer, Ethel, one of their sons, also named Jesse, AND HEPHZIBAH. Her photo was probably taken around 1905, and we could see the resemblance between her and her half-sisters, of whom we already had photographs. Norman and Duncan were both pleased to learn more about their ancestors, and to share their information.So the hunt continues, and together, we are now trying to establish Jesse’s origins.

Norwich 2010 Jim Nelhams

Our long trip this year was based in Norwich at the George Hotel. The hotel is part of the Arlington Group within Best Western Hotels. It is situated close to the A11 about 1 mile west of Norwich Castle. The hotel proved ideal for our group of 36 plus our coach driver, Dave. It gave us comfortable accommodation, and provided us with breakfasts, evening meals and the sandwiches for our packed lunches. Other packed lunch items had been provided by a Barnet greengrocer (fresh fruit) and newsagent, whose supplies included bottled water from ICENI WATERS Ltd. This did not seem to carry any royal warrant from Queen Boudicca.

THE THEMES

During our planning, a number of themes emerged, linking together our various stops.

Roman connections

The North Sea provided good access to Norfolk for the Romans. But the area around Thetford was possibly the residence of Queen Boudicca (Boadicea), and it was inhabited by the Iceni. A hoard of Roman coins and other valuable items was discovered in Thetford in 1979.

The main Roman town in Norfolk was established at Caistor St Edmund (Venta Icenorum). On the coast, Roman Saxon shore forts were built at Caister on Sea and Burgh Castle to protect the access inland along the river Yare.

Norman connections

Norwich Castle and Cathedral both date from Norman times. We saw the remains of Cluniac Priories at Thetford and at Castle Acre, which also boasts a Norman Bailey Gate and a motte-and-bailey castle. And Wymondham Abbey, which survived the dissolution, was originally a priory founded in 1107

Medieval Times

Our trip included the Ancient House (museum) in Thetford and the Merchants’ houses in Great Yarmouth.

Wind and Steam

We visited the Charles Burrell Museum in Thetford for traction engines. We took a steam train ride from Dereham to Wymondham, followed by a visit to the Forncett Steam Museum for static steam engines. And we visited Berney Arms Windmill, by boat (sorry -the boat was diesel powered).

And of course, the odd church (and pub) thrown in for interest.

Over the next few months, the Newsletter will carry notes written by a number of our pilgrims, covering our stops. If these catch your attention and you would like more information, perhaps to visit yourself, please get in touch with me and I will try to help. So off we go —

West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village Don Cooper

Our first visit of this holiday was at West Stow in Suffolk. This site, on a low hill near the banks of the river Lark, was occupied from Mesolithic times to the early Anglo-Saxon period but was abandoned in the 13th century when sand blows buried the farmed land. It was excavated in the 1960s. The excavations indentified the remains of an Anglo-Saxon village and produced a great many artefacts both of pottery and metal. Many of these artefacts can now be seen on display in the Anglo-Saxon Museum and some in the little museum by the visitor reception. However, for nearly the last 30 years the site has been used for experimental archaeology. As the original village structures were built of wood, all that was found in the

excavations were the post holes and beam slots. Based on the lessons learnt through trial and error, as well as evidence from elsewhere, constant reconstructions have been taking place to try and establish how an Anglo-Saxon village and its building structures might have looked in the early medieval period. Most of the latest reconstructions are on the footprints of the original buildings whose traces were found in the original excavations.

After our arrival (in our enormous Red Chariot!), we assembled in the site’s education room for an introductory talk by Hannah Simmons the resident experimental archaeologist. We were shown a video designed to recreate the atmosphere and location of the site in its original time and landscape and then off we went to explore the site. As it was a Bank Holiday weekend re-enactors and experimental archaeologists were demonstrating their experiments in the various houses, which enabled us to ask many questions and proffer and discuss our ideas.

After exploring the reconstructed buildings and garden plots, packed lunches were eaten in the picnic area outside the visitor centre in the sunshine. The café on site also so did a good trade in teas, coffees and cakes! The café overlooks a RSPB sponsored bird-feeding point so that those bird-watchers amongst us could eat their food while observing the wild birds. There are also bird hides around the site. To work off the food, many of us explored the walks and trails around the site. These include a nature trail, (West Stow is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)) and a lake walk around the large artificial lake created from gravel extraction pits by the river Lark. Then at about 13.30 we reassembled in the education room for a twenty

minute question and answer session with Hannah. This session produced fascinating answers to our questions, demonstrating, if that were needed, the important role experimental archaeology plays in helping us to understand the way our ancient ancestors lived. Having thanked Hannah and her colleagues, we rejoined Dave, our enormous Red Chariot driver, and set off for Thetford.

The Charles Burrell Museum Andy Simpson

On a drizzly afternoon in Norfolk, and as a definite contrast to a morning spent in early Saxon England, what better place to visit than here, to be welcomed by friendly volunteer staff and the evocative smell of steam and warm oil – one of the exhibits, a road roller, was still in light steam having run into the museum earlier that day. The independent Charles Burrell Museum – see www.culture24.org.uk/se000137 -opened in March 1991, and is housed in the original Burrell Works paint shop on Minstergate, just a five-minute walk from the ruined Priory. Though containing three of the renowned Burrell traction engines, including a

magnificent showman’s engine that used to power pre-war travelling fairs, complete with electric dynamo on the front, the museum is strong on local and social history. Full prominence is given to owners and workforce, including the many women workers employed during the Great War, as well as the devastating effect of the protracted wind-down and final closure of the three-acre works in 1930 on the local community, as internal combustion engines replaced steam. Before that, some 4000 stationary and road engines had been built there and exported around the world, including specialist showman’s, ploughing, and road tractor types. Happily, many survive in preservation and can be seen at vintage rallies throughout the UK and beyond. Other products, such as agricultural equipment, are covered, and there is even a link to the RAF

Museum at Hendon, as both the Grahame White factory at Hendon and the Burrell paint shop have timber ‘Belfast’ roof trusses. A nice exhibit is the sparsely equipped contractor’s ‘living van’ towed by engines when out on the road or working on farms etc. After a thorough inspection of the displays, HADAS members dispersed to inspect several other Thetford sites of interest.

Walmington on Sea -and The Ancient House Jim Nelhams

On our way to The Ancient House, Jo and I took a small diversion along Bridge Street to cross the splendid iron bridge dated 1829 which crosses the river close to the confluence of the Thet and the Little Ouse. Just across the bridge, we found a life size bronze statue of Captain Mainwaring seated on a bench and posing for a photograph with Stewart Wild.

Thetford, and the surrounding area, was used for much of the filming of the Dad’s Army television series and has a small museum dedicated to the subject. See www.dadsarmythetford.org.uk for more information. This museum is also manned by volunteers and, sadly, was not open at the time of our visit. So back to The

Ancient House – the Museum of Thetford Life. Like Church Farmhouse Museum this is a museum about Thetford and its past, and is inside an old building. Approaching the entrance to the house/museum, which dates from around 1490, lurks a surprise. Modern technology automatically opens the front door for you. Just one illustration of the wide spread of years on show. The house itself is worthy of study, with carved ceilings and some of the original walls showing how they were constructed.

The building became a museum thanks to the beneficence of a local resident. Maharajah Dulip Singh was the last Sikh ruler of the Punjab. When he gave up his kingdom and the Koh-i-noor diamond to the British in the 1840s, he moved to England, where he befriended Queen Victoria. He settled with his family at Elveden Hall near Thetford. His second son, Prince Frederick, bought The Ancient House and paid for it to be restored, before presenting it to the town in 1924 to be used as a museum. Being a local museum, it aims to help local schools with displays, including a 1901 kitchen.

Although the Roman hoard discovered in 1979 is in the British Museum, there is a display giving information about it. There is also a small collection of ornate clay pipes, not to mention a large carved narwhal tusk.

Thetford’s position on the old London to Norwich Road means that many travellers have passed through, some without stopping. The Romans were here. So, it is said, was Boudicca with her tribe, the Iceni. Clearly the Normans came – building the Priory.

The Cluniac Priory of Our Lady of Thetford Vicki Baldwin

Lowering skies and intermittent rain accompanied our visit to Thetford Priory. Although enough remains of the walls for one to be able to discern the differences between the buildings, there is little standing to any great height save the remnants of the west towers, a portion of one side of the east window frame, the façade of the Priors’ Lodgings and, in a separate area in the garden of a private house, the gatehouse. Nevertheless, there is still an overwhelming sense of the power and prestige that once was attached to this place. The gatehouse in particular seems especially imposing, representing as it does the threshold between the life the monks led and that of the ordinary people.

The Priory was founded on the north bank of the Little Ouse at Thetford in the early 12th Century by Roger Bigod. He had been allowed to commute a vow of pilgrimage to the Holy Land by using the money to found a monastery. The Abbot at Cluny was unable to send monks from France for the new establishment, but welcomed the addition of a daughter house and asked for a yearly payment in recognition of its dependent status. In 1104 the Prior of the Cluniac Priory at Lewes sent twelve monks, with Malgod as their Prior, to Thetford to form the new community. The foundations of the new Priory were laid in September 1107 and Roger Bigod is reported to have died eight days later. By 1114 the community was able to move

from its temporary residence in the cathedral church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.

The plan of the Priory follows the conventional layout of a monastery. Buildings are arranged round a cloister with covered walkways on its four sides. These include the church, chapter house, refectory and first floor dormitory. In addition there is the infirmary with its own cloister and the Priors’ Lodgings. Brewhouse, bakehouse, store rooms, kitchens and granaries are among the other buildings that would have supported the daily life of the community. Alterations and extensions to the buildings continued throughout the life of the Priory and it is known that the nave was not completed until at least 60 years after the monks took up residence. The impressive gatehouse was a 14th Century addition, and the remains of the Priors’ Lodgings (which have recently undergone conservation work) clearly show the many changes in building style over several centuries.

The Cluniac order followed a rigorous interpretation of the rule of St Benedict. The Divine Offices and Mass were celebrated every day. There were two meals: dinner at late morning and a lighter supper in the early evening. The timing of these meals meant that there was approximately seventeen hours between the last meal of one day and first meal of the next. However, Cluniac houses were amongst the finest and most influential in Europe. The Priory church at Thetford was one of the most impressive with two towers flanking the west façade and two rows of massive columns dividing the interior.

One way of ensuring a good income was to have relics with proven efficacy. In the 13th Century a craftsman had a dream that if he could cause a Lady Chapel to be built at the Priory his ailment would be cured. Once the Prior had been persuaded to have the chapel built, it was necessary to install an image of the Virgin Mary. Wishing to minimise costs, rather than commissioning a new statue the Prior selected one that had come from the temporary home of the community when it was founded. When the statue was cleaned a large collection of relics was discovered in a compartment behind a hitherto unnoticed silver plate. Within a fairly short period of time, at least three miracle cures were credited to the statue and relics, making it a

popular place for pilgrims and increasing the income of the Priory.

At the time of the Reformation, although the Duke of Norfolk, then patron of the Priory, petitioned Henry VIII with his proposal to turn the Priory into a church of secular canons with a dean and chapter because members of his family and indeed the King’s natural son were buried there, his request was denied and the Priory closed. The buildings swiftly fell into decay through disuse and the subsequent reuse of the materials for other buildings. The Priors’ Lodgings continued as a private residence for another two centuries but were recorded as a roofless ruin in the 1820s. Later in the 19th Century the remains of the Priory were

incorporated into the grounds of Abbey House as a romantic ruin. Now the site is cared for by English Heritage and has information boards detailing the main areas within the Priory. And I suppose it has once again become a place of pilgrimage for those interested the history of the

area as well as a convenient location for dog owners to exercise their canine charges.

And so on to our hotel.

2011 – Isle of Wight? Jim Nelhams

Jo and I have been looking at the option of a trip to the Isle of Wight in 2011.

Possible places to visit include: –

Osborne House

Carisbrooke Castle

Isle of Wight Postal Museum

Brading Roman Villa

Brading church

Fort Victoria (including maritime archaeology museum)

Burgh Castle and lighthouse (by boat)

Calbourne Water Mill

Arreton Church and shipwreck museum.

And on the mainland –

Portsmouth Naval Dockyard including

•The Victory

•The Mary Rose Museum

•HMS Warrior

(The Mary Rose is closed until 2012)

Our trips to Hereford last year and to Norwich have shown that hotels can work and fit to our ideas. We will need to find a suitable hotel on the island. We are also looking to move the date of the trip to mid-September which would save costs for members. Ferry and hotel prices drop once the school holidays end.

We would welcome other suggestions or comments.

Talk by David Robinson at Bishopsgate Institute

“The Weasel”: Some Incidents in the life of Chief Constable (CID) Frederick Porter Wensley (1865-1949).

A talk at the Bishopsgate Institute on Tuesday 26 October by HADAS member David Robinson.

David has been working on an extensive archive pertaining to the life and times of Wensley for some years. This talk is to mark the occasion of its permanent deposit at the Bishopsgate Institute (see http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/). The event will start with tea and coffee at 5pm, with the talk taking place between 5.30 and 6.30. Please note that these timings are provisional. Any member of the Society is cordially invited to attend.

Note: Frederick Porter Wensley was born near Taunton in Somerset but came to London at the age of 14. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1888 and spent the first 25 years of his career as Constable, Detective Constable, Detective Sergeant and Detective Inspector, successively, in the East End of London. He was involved in dealing with a number of the major causes célèbres of the period including the Sidney Street Siege. On promotion to Detective Chief Inspector, F.P.W. was transferred to Scotland Yard where he served until 1929.

London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Local History Conference.

The LAMAS 45Local History Conference will take place at the Museum of London on Saturday 27November from 10 am to 5 pm. The headline for the conference is “London Under Attack: Wars and Insurrections”

The lectures scheduled are:

•Enclosing Londinium, the Roman Landward and Riverside Wall – by Harvey Sheldon (our

President)

•“Londoners at Arms” from the Viking Wars to the Wars of the Roses – by John Clark, Curator

Emeritus, Museum of London

•Revival, Division and Restoration: The Artillery Company of London, 1611-1660 – by Ismini Pells, Honorable Artillery Company

•London’s Citizen Soldiers, 1757-1908 – by Peter Boyden, National Army Museum

•First World War in Sound and Film, from the Imperial War Museum Archive – by Dr Cathy Ross, Director of Collections & Learning, Museum of London.

There will also be displays of work and publications by Local History Societies.

Tickets cost £10 and can be obtained from Pat Clarke, 22 Malpas Drive Pinner, Pinner, HA5 1DQ, or from the LAMAS website www.lamas.org.uk, or on the day. Refreshments can be purchased in the Museum restaurant and a picnic area will be available if you take your own food.

HADAS DIARY

Wednesdays, 29 September 2010 to 23 March 2011, 6.30 – 8.30, Avenue House.

LOOKING AT FINDS – A PRACTICAL COURSE IN POST-EXCAVATION STUDIES is our exciting new course, run by Jacqui Pearce, BA FSA MIfA. There will be 22 two-hour sessions for the low cost of £275. For further details see last month’s Newsletter or the HADAS website. To book, please contact the class tutor at jacquipearce126@hotmail.com (evening 020 8203 4506) or Don Cooper, 020 8440 4350.

Our lecture season resumes in October with:

Tuesday 12th October 2010, Behind the Scenes on “Time Team”, Raksha Dave

Tuesday 9th November 2010, Archaeology and the Olympics, David Divers (English Heritage)

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8 pm, with coffee/tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members: £1. Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a short walk away.
News of Members

We are saddened to learn of the deaths of three of our members, Pat Karet, Virginia Pell and Ruth Whitehill. Virginia and Ruth had both booked for our Norwich trip. We hope to include more information about them next month.
Barnet Archives and Local Studies is moving to Hendon Library. It closed on 14th August and is expected to re-open November 8th 2010.
Queen’s Wood Haringey – Construction of a New Ecology Pond. Emma Robinson

Background This is a preliminary report of a project undertaken by an ad hoc group of volunteer members of HADAS and COLAS (Peter Collins, Michael Hacker, Geraldine Missig, Sigrid Padel, Emma and David Robinson) and David Warren of Friends of Queen’s Wood. The project was undertaken during the course of construction of a new ecology pond and was proposed to ascertain if any evidence exists of past environment(s) of the wood. The project was designed as an archaeological watching brief for Friends of Queens Wood by Mike Hacker (March 2010) – who is also leading the project. I am grateful to Mike Hacker for his assistance in drafting this note.

Site Code: QW2010

Location: Queen’s Wood Haringey London N10. OS Grid Ref: c. 2872/8860. Elevation: c. 66 m OD.

Introduction A new ecology frog pond is being constructed by the charity Froglife on the site of a derelict 1930s paddling pool. The pond site lies near the head of a steep-sided valley, the source of a tributary of the River Mosell. The underlying solid geology is the London Clay Formation, although at this point the British Geological Survey map indicates that it is covered by superficial deposits. Work started in June 2010 and involved the demolition of the base of the existing concrete paddling pool. This was constructed on the site of a Victorian ornamental pond – built when the park was landscaped to commemorate the purchase of the wood in 1897 as a public open space. The Victorian pond in turn was constructed on the site of an earlier pond the origins of which are unclear.

Archaeological Background A pond is indicated at this location on the 1896 and 1894 OS maps. On these maps a ford is also recorded – but strangely not on the earlier 1863/1868 OS map. A similar pond is shown on the 1862/1868 OS c. 25m to the west of the new ecology pond site. Trial auguring at this site (2004) revealed organic rich waterlogged deposits up to 1.8m deep and environmental evidence of a fresh water habitat.

Research Questions The research questions posed in the project design were:
1) Is there any evidence of the original pond on the site?

2) Was the original pond a man-made or natural feature?

3) Can the depth and size of the original pond be determined?

4) What evidence exists of past climate and anthropogenic activity?

Summary A watching brief was maintained for most of the construction work and by observation, recording, surveying and some excavation we managed to obtain a good impression of the succession of ponds on the site and the underlying deposits.

The construction features of the succession of ponds were identified and recorded as far as possible – with particular attention to drainage of the site. The ash-rich layers used during the pond’s construction were checked for finds and a representative selection collected for recording and dating. Disturbance caused by the contractor’s JCB made doing this systematically impossible. Finds from the ash layers comprised mostly domestic rubbish and provided an interesting picture of late 19th and early 20th century life. The origins of the material are not known, but evidence exists that the valley head, adjacent to Muswell Hill Road, was used as a tip site. Some of the finds have been dated; for example, the two intact pipe bowls are of moulded construction datable to the late 19th century. There is some evidence of burning – a common feature of rubbish tips. Full analysis of the finds remains to be completed.

The ‘natural’ deposits of the valley floor were sampled by taking a core with geo-archaeological help from the Museum of London. The earliest deposits were at the termination of the auger hole some 3m below the current ground level. The ash-rich retaining dam across the valley was augured and generally explored to assess if it was of natural or man-made construction. The latter was found to be the case.

The Victorian pond base is of interest since the dark ashy cement was found to exploit a technique familiar to the Romans, when volcanic ash was mixed with lime to create a hydraulic cement that would set under water and be waterproof. Such cements were widely experimented with in the 18th/19th centuries.

The construction of the 1930s pond was found to be surprisingly sophisticated. The complicated land drain system addressed issues inherent to any location subject to flooding and water logging – since it was designed to prevent water accumulating under the pool (potentially causing movement and cracking) and effectively allowing the concrete pond to exist as a waterproof dish.

Progress to Date in Addressing Research Questions

Progress has been made but much remains to be done. New avenues of investigation also opened up during the project in light of findings and broader research.

There is some evidence of the original pond on the site. However, an auger sample of the retaining dam reveals that the dam is clearly artificial – although when or why it was made is unclear but possibly it dates to 1860s to 1880s. The depth and size of the original pond is being explored; however initial examination of deposits seems to show that the organic rich layer under the Victorian pond base is comprised of woodland floor debris. No finds of non-organic nature have been retrieved from this level. With regard to anthropogenic activity – as the project progresses the extent of people’s influence on the making of the landscape and drainage is becoming increasingly apparent. A full report will be prepared for publication in due course.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge our gratitude to the following individuals and organisations:

Ian Holt, Project Officer (Nature Conservation), London Borough of Haringey

Lucy Roots, Chair, Friends of Queen’s Wood

Rebecca Turpin, Froglife

Dickinson Engineering Ltd (the contractors)

Jane Corcoran and Graham Spurr, Museum of London

Roz Artis-Young, Technical Director, Scottish Lime Trust

Rose Baillie, Chair, City of London Archaeological Society

Dr Nick Branch, QUEST, University of Reading

HADAS Summer Outing: Down House, the RAF Chapel, Biggin Hill, and Lullingstone Roman Villa, 11 July 2010. Our reporters: Jean Bayne, Andy Simpson and Sheila Woodward.

Our visit to Charles Darwin’s delightful Georgian house in Kent took place in summer sunshine. The accompanying audio tape was detailed and informative, dividing our exploration of Darwin’s life and work into three areas: the house downstairs, the house upstairs and the garden.

He and his family lived there for 40 years (1842–1882) though it should be noted that he travelled extensively throughout the UK in that time – an equivalent of one day a week away from home. He had married his cousin, Emma, from the Wedgwood family and was well-supported financially by them. By all accounts, it was a happy family life and the spirit of that seems to live on in the domestic section of the house downstairs. His daughter, Henrietta, said of her father, ‘He cared for all our pursuits and interests and lived our lives with us in a way that very few fathers do.’ It would seem that Charles Darwin did not conform to traditional Victorian patriarchy. And, in fact he involved his children in his work and experiments. For example, the children were asked to watch and monitor the bumblebees which buzzed around the red clover in one of the fields. Henrietta added, ‘we were very much with both my Father and Mother’. Emma and Charles had ten children of whom three died young.

We were able to see the drawing room with French windows leading on to the verandah and the lawn. Emma’s piano was also there and the backgammon game with its score card: Charles and Emma played in the evenings. The dining room with the enormous mahogany table was laid for a meal and would have been the setting for the Darwins’ hospitality towards the many and frequent visitors who came to the house as well as the growing family. The billiards room was the scene of Darwin’s attempts to relax and Parslow, the family butler, was often called away to play with him. Darwin’s study had been carefully recreated from old photographs taken in the 1870s and 80s and artefacts donated by the family after Down House became a

museum in 1929. It was possible to imagine Darwin sitting in his battered study chair with his writing board across his knees, his table of specimens and samples within reach, surrounded by books, journals and papers and within earshot of the children playing in the inner hallway. On the Origin of Species was written here in 1859 in spite of Darwin’s chronic ill health.

The first floor, which had been bedrooms and studies in Darwin’s time, now houses an exhibition of his life and work and family relationships. His early journey in the ship, The Beagle (1831–36), was described by Darwin in a letter to his sister, as ‘a voyage made with the intention of making maps of the Eastern side of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia; likewise to settle Longitude of many places more accurately than they are at present’. His detailed observations of plant and animal life there turned him into an accomplished naturalist and enabled him to gain access to colleagues in the scientific community when he returned. He began to write papers and publish the findings of his experimental work. His name was made.

Immediately at the back of the house are lawns and flower beds, cultivated by Emma. Dominating one corner of the house is a magnificent gnarled old mulberry tree, witness to the life of the Darwins, now propped up with an iron support but still able to produce juicy berries.

Further afield, the grounds are extensive and include: a kitchen garden, an orchard, greenhouses (including a hothouse), fields, a laboratory and the remains of a tennis court. Darwin also owned Great House Meadow and at the far end of this field lies the famous Sandwalk. He bought this narrow strip of land in 1846 and planted a hedge, trees and bushes round its border making a path of stone and sand. Every day he walked several circuits of his ‘thinking path’, marking the number of times he went round with a pile of stones, visible today.

All the land he owned was used for his experiments. You can still see the famous Wormstone which was developed by Darwin’s son Horace to measure the movement of soil displacement by worms. He also recorded the number and species of plants which sprang up in a given sized rectangle of lawn.

He was constantly in touch with his friend Joseph Hooker at Kew who kept him well supplied with plants. ‘You cannot imagine what pleasure your plants give me,’ Darwin wrote to Hooker, ‘I go and gloat over them.’ He was particularly interested in orchids, insectivorous plants and climbing plants. (The trellis over the back of the house was also in use for his climbing plant experiments.) Important publications on the growth and reproduction patterns of plants came from his experiments here. Today, similar plants are on show in the greenhouses.

‘Darwin died in 1882, as he had lived, in the quiet retirement of the country house which he had loved,’ recorded the Standard newspaper on his death. This tranquil setting was in marked contrast to the furore which his work brought about. The idea of evolution challenged religious beliefs about creation. This is summed up by WS Gilbert in a couple of succinct lines:

‘Darwinian man, though well behaved,

At best is only a monkey shaved.’

Nevertheless, his work was recognized as of seminal importance and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, attended by the great and the good of Victorian society.

What then happened to Down House? Emma and the children moved to Cambridge but returned every year in the summer till her death in 1896. In 1907 it became a girls’ school until 1921. After that, the house remained empty and began to deteriorate until an eminent surgeon bought it and restored it in1927. In 1929 it was turned into a museum and remained under the care of the Royal College of Surgeons till English Heritage took it over in 1996 and made major structural repairs. It opened to the public in 1998.

Jean Bayne

After our lunchtime pie and (very nice, if slowly served) pint at the King’s Arms, Leaves Green, we moved on to a personal highlight for me, not surprisingly – St George’s Royal Air Force Chapel of Remembrance and Battle of Britain Memorial Chapel, in a small remaining RAF-administered corner of what was RAF Biggin Hill, Kent, but is now a civil airfield.

And what could be more appropriate? As we got off the coach to enter the well-tended gardens and admire the full-sized pole-mounted fibreglass Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighter model ‘gate guardians’ in their Battle of Britain era 1940 camouflage and markings, the sky roared as over our heads at very low level flew a Spitfire at full chat taking off from the airport, its Rolls Royce Merlin making a lovely sound as it headed off to give a display elsewhere. (The original Hawker Hurricane which, along with a late-mark Spitfire, guarded the chapel for many years from 1954 is now part of the RAF Museum collection, being on long-term loan to the Hurricane & Spitfire Memorial Museum at Manston Airport, not too far away)

That treat over, we moved inside for a most informative introductory talk from a volunteer guide, who was delighted to get so many signatures into his visitor book and sell a good number of guidebooks and postcards also.

Following a national appeal spearheaded by Winston Churchill, the current simple brick chapel and tower was built in 1951, replacing an earlier prefabricated station church commemorating the Battle which originated in 1943 but was destroyed by fire in 1946 – even its exact location has now been lost. It records the names of the 453 aircrew, of many nations, from the 52 Squadrons of the Biggin Hill Sector, who were killed during the Second World War. The main part of the chapel has a superb collection of stained glass windows by Hugh Easton, who designed the RAF Memorial Window at Westminster Abbey, these being installed in 1955 with more added in the 1980s.

Along with medal groups, models, Books of Remembrance and paintings, (one a remarkable double-sided representation of the original chapel and of two wartime pilots c. 1943/44) the flags of Commonwealth and Allied nations and many RAF mementos are displayed around the main chapel sanctuary and adjacent St George’s Room; even the chapel floor is supposedly made from off-cuts of wood used in the manufacture of aircraft propellers. Andy Simpson

Our final port-of-call on this varied and interesting outing was Lullingstone Roman Villa, an old favourite of HADAS and certainly due for a revisit. Situated in the Darent Valley about five miles south of Watling Street and approached from a narrow lane which fords the river, the villa is peacefully rural. It is one of a group of villas built in this part of Kent. At Lullingstone the first simple villa-house dates from about AD 100. It was expanded between AD150–275, reshaped between AD 275–350, elaborated and dramatically changed between AD 350–425 and finally abandoned following a fire sometime in the 5th century. In its final phase the villa must have been a substantial structure with handsome reception rooms at its core, underfloor heating, an eastern verandah, domestic and cult rooms in the north wing and a bath suite in the south.

The remains of the villa were rediscovered in 1750. They were excavated briefly in 1939 and thoroughly between .1949 and 1958, and publicly displayed under a protective cover-building from 1963. In 1983 a small-scale excavation led to a rephasing of the villa, and in 2009 the site was ‘updated’ with modern viewing galleries, a film-o-light show, a recently returned collection of Roman artefacts and the usual hands-on opportunities for children (and adults!).

So what is special (and it is very special) about Lullingstone? Its obvious treasures include a particularly well-preserved bath-suite and its two 4th century mosaic floors depicting Europa and the Bull (triclinium) and Bellerophon killing the chimera (audience chamber). But the villa’s unique value lies in the evidence it provides for early Christianity in Britain and its apparent co-existence with continuing pagan worship. The so-called Deep Room near the north end of the villa with a well in its floor, its wall painting of three water

nymphs, and possible ritual vessels seems to indicate a pagan cult room. The later placing of two marble busts there may indicate a change to veneration of ancestors or the Imperial cult. Yet it was above this room that a Christian house-church had been erected in about 350 AD and it was in the cult room that the excavators found thousands of fragments of painted wall plaster which had fallen from the west and south walls of the house-church. They have been painstakingly reconstructed at the British Museum where they are now on display; replicas are in place at the villa. They depict six figures with hands raised in the manner of Christians at prayer. There is also a large painted Chi-Rho. When I first visited Lullingstone (with HADAS) in about 1975 the guide book had paintings of some of the fragments of wall plaster; reconstruction of them was only just beginning. Recently I took that old guide book to the British Museum and identified the panels reconstructed from the fragments illustrated. The work involved was awe-inspiring.

Why did a pagan cult continue at Lullingstone alongside Christianity? Who lived at Lullingstone: a prosperous Romanised local tribesman? – a retired soldier? – or was it Pertinax, Governor of Britannia 185- 186 AD and Emperor for three months in 193, and his father-in-law Successus? (The two marble busts mentioned above could be portraits of the latter.) Theories abound and study of the finds from Lullingstone, of the villa itself and of its five surrounding structures will surely continue.

Before leaving for home some of us wandered down to the river bank to admire the trout, the water plants and the brilliant damselflies. The Romans knew how to site their homes!

Thank you June (and the absent Stuart) for a truly splendid day. Sheila Woodward

THE EAST FINCHLEY HURRICANE Andy Simpson

HAWKER HURRICANE MK. 1 P3835/2694M

Sometimes the day job and the interest in local history combine, as when in early August I received a letter from RAF veteran Mr George Cull, a former resident of Finchley now living in York. He enclosed a box-Brownie photograph he had taken, dated 27 January 1946, of a well-worn wartime Hawker Hurricane fighter of No. 1825 Squadron Air Training Corps which stood adjacent to the by-then abandoned ATC HQ building, a large house on ground opposite East Finchley Underground station by the entrance to Cherry Tree Woods. It was common practice until the 1970s to issue obsolete aircraft to ATC units as attention-grabbing ‘gate guards’ and for technical instructional use for the cadets. Even today a select few ATC units maintain an aeronautical veteran, though nothing older than a 1950s Gloster Meteor these days. The unit had apparently closed in 1945. Just legible on the rear fuselage was the maintenance serial 2694M, as allocated to non-flying instructional airframes in the RAF.

A bit of cross-checking led to its original RAF serial number, P3835. I have now produced its outline history in the standard format I use for all 250 or so aircraft in the RAF Museum collection. Those of you with any knowledge of immediate post-war Finchley are warmly invited to let me know any additional information, such as when the aircraft was finally scrapped and the site cleared, and also of course any other photos of the Finchley Hurricane would be of great interest.

Mr Cull, who has kindly agreed to me telling this story in the HADAS newsletter, recalled that this stage the Hurricane was rapidly deteriorating, so he recovered, and still holds, the control-column spade-grip and a large section of starboard fuselage fabric; photos show it retains the roundel, green/brown camouflage, part of the maintenance serial number (..94M), and possible traces of the original squadron codes showing through. (The Hurricane had a mainly fabric-covered tubular metal structure fuselage with wooden formers)

19 Jun 40 Taken on charge as new aircraft at No 22 Maintenance Unit, RAF Silloth. P3835 was one of a batch of 500 Hurricane I aircraft (plus 44 attrition replacements) built by Hawker Aircraft Co at its Kingston, Brooklands, and Langley factories under contract 962371/38, delivered to the RAF between 21 February and 20 July 1940 at an average production rate of three aircraft per day.

13 Jul 40 To No. 245 Squadron (miss-recorded as 246 Squadron on the original RAF aircraft record card – that squadron did not re-form until 1942) Squadron code DX-, based at RAF Aldergrove, Northern Ireland for convoy patrols and the aerial defence of Belfast.

13 Oct 40 Slightly damaged in flying accident.

9 Jan 41 Returned to No 22 MU.

3 Feb 41 To No. 315 (Deblin) (Polish) Squadron (Squadron codes PK – ) , based at Acklington, moving to Liverpool (Speke) in March 1941. The Squadron became operational on 18 March and began local patrols and patrolling the shipping convoys in and out of the Mersey, its first (inconclusive) combat with a Luftwaffe Ju 88 bomber not coming until 24 May. The squadron re-equipped with the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IIA in July 1941, leading to the re-allocation of P3835 to another unit resident at Speke.

16 Jul 41 Retaining its Polish link, P3835 transferred to No 303 (Polish) Squadron (Sqdn codes RF -).The Squadron was resting after its intensive activity during the Battle of Britain, and P3835 presumably continued with local patrols over the River Mersey.

23 Sep 41 Allotted maintenance serial 2694M, and sent to No 1 School of Technical Training, RAF Halton. Total flying hours only 189.25. By now the Mk.1 Hurricane was obsolete as a day fighter, being replaced by the improved Hurricane Mk II and the ubiquitous Spitfire.

29 Apr 44 Transferred to No. 1825 Sqn ATC, East Finchley and displayed outside their HQ opposite East Finchley Underground station.

1945 ATC unit closed/disbanded.
1946 Scrapped on site?

Any additional information, or even reports of other surviving parts, awaited with interest!

As a footnote, Mr Cull subsequently reports that in May 1945 Potters Bar ATC celebrated VE day by burning their Gloster Gladiator biplane fighter – the type immortalised by ‘Faith, Hope and Charity’ in the defence of Malta. Thankfully several Gladiators still survive today, including one here at Hendon. At the same time, Mr Cull’s ATC unit, 393 Finchley Squadron ATC, at their HQ in a big old house called ‘St Michaels’ in Hendon Lane, were more restrained. They had a 1930s Fairey Gordon biplane day bomber/General Purpose aircraft outside, and its Armstrong Siddeley Panther engine inside on the ground floor. On VE day a cadet walked along the wings, putting his foot through the fabric covering with every step. Mr Cull reports this unit also had the fuselage of a Curtis Hawk 75A ‘Mohawk’. Some of these saw valiant service with the French Air Force during the Blitzkrieg of May/June 1940.

ERIC MORGAN’S MONTHLY ROUND-UP OF EVENTS

Some early September events were listed in the August Newsletter.

Sat/Sun. 11/12 Sept. 10.00 – 6.00pm RAF Museum, Grahame Park Way, NW9, Battle of Britain Weekend.

Mon. 13 Sept. 3.00pm, Barnet & District LHS, Church House, Wood St. Barnet, A Brief History of Pantomime, Marlene McAndrew.

Tues. 14 Sept. 11.00 –1.00pm, LAARC, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Rd, N1, Talk & Tour of Archives & Artefacts, Daniel Nesbitt, (curator) & Kenneth Marks (who lectured to HADAS on Archaeology of London Anglo-Jewry). Limited to 25 persons so pre-booking essential, £5, ‘M 0759 907 7869

Tues. 14 Sept. 3.00pm, Museum of London, Jewish Heritage in London, Julia Hoffbrand, (curator) talks about objects recovered from a kosher distillery in Brick Lane. FREE
but tickets allocated on arrival.
Tues. 14 Sept. 8.00pm, Amateur Geological Society, The Parlour, St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Avenue, N3, The Lying Stones of Beringer, Dr Paul Taylor

Wed. 15 Sept. 10.30am, Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries, Friern Barnet Library, Friern Barnet Rd. N11, Local Ghosts, Ollie Natelson.

Sat/Sun. 18/19 Sept. LONDON OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND, free access to hundreds of buildings across London. Details at www.openhouse.org.uk

Wed. 22 Sept. 7.45pm, Friern Barnet & District LHS, St John’s Church Hall, Friern Barnet Lane, N20, The Palace of Westminster, Major Peter Horsfall.

Sun. 26 Sept – Sun. Oct. 3, Barnet Borough Arts Council (outside Waitrose) , The Spires, High St. Barnet, Paintings & What’s On (including HADAS).

Thurs. 30 Sept. 8.00pm, Finchley Society, Avenue House, East End Rd, N3, Not Just a Pretty Place – The National Trust and how it works, Mike Watts.

THANKS TO ALL OUR CONTRIBUTORS: Jean Bayne, Stephen Brunning, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Emma Robinson, Andy Simpson and Sheila Woodward.

LOOKING AT FINDS – A PRACTICAL COURSE IN POST-EXCAVATION STUDIES

A course for HADAS to be held at Avenue House, Finchley from 29/09/10 to 23/03/11+

Course tutor: Jacqui Pearce BA FSA MIfA

Archaeology is about people – about reconstructing past lives and through them understanding the times and places in which they lived, the things they used and the wider world of which they were a part. The thrill of excavation, the discovery of structures, finds and even people long buried draws many to the romance of archaeology. But an even greater thrill – that of bringing the past to life – awaits those who carry out the painstaking detective work that follows excavation.

This course is aimed at everyone who feels they want to learn more about what happens after the excavation is over. How do we identify, record and analyse the finds and other evidence, how relate them to the site and explore all the means at our disposal to bring that site to life? How do we share the knowledge gained through the mysteries of publication? By focusing on one particular group of material from a site in the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC), we will explore all these questions and more, with tuition and handling sessions designed to give students first-hand experience of post-excavation work leading to publication.

Under the auspices of Birkbeck College, between 2001 and 2008, students worked heroically through the excavation archives for Church End Farm (the results published in 2005 as The Last Hendon Farm), Church Terrace and Burroughs Gardens (publications currently in preparation), all Hendon sites excavated in the 1960s and 1970s by HADAS.

For our next course we will be concentrating on a large assemblage of finds recovered from a single closed feature in the City of London. Closed groups of this kind are of considerable importance in that they provide a closely focused snapshot of a particular time and place, and thereby of those who originally used and discarded the material recovered through excavation. They also allow us to see clearly something of the range of goods in circulation at any one time and to associate these with the area in which they were found. A web of connections begins to build up, leading us along many different paths of investigation, some of them quite unexpected. The ultimate aim is to tell the stories of those people, places and things we have brought to light through excavation and to weave these into a whole that throws light on our past. The material we have chosen is from:

Abacus House (ABC87), 33-39 Gutter Lane, EC2, context [793]

From 1520 the site was occupied by Embroiderers’ Hall. Context [793] is a brick- and ragstone-lined cesspit that probably belonged to them. It cut an earlier cesspit ([1016]), and both features were dated to the late 16th/early 17th century. The finds were never analysed in depth and the whole assemblage is in need of detailed recording, quantification and checking. The pottery has been only partially examined and a fine collection of table glass has not been recorded at all. The Livery Company associations make this a most interesting assemblage, one that can be closely dated. Although selected items have been published, no overview of the assemblage has been carried out and there is no publication that brings together all the evidence. The assemblage provides an ideal opportunity to explore the context of the find and the period to which it belongs.

Over the two terms of the course, we will be sorting, recording and analysing the finds from our chosen assemblage in detail, planning and discussing the lines of enquiry to follow, with specific research topics identified and pursued by class members as we go. A major goal will be to use the information collected to aid our understanding and interpretation. We will also be looking at how to prepare an article for publication, covering illustration and photography, writing and editing. The selected assemblage is large but manageable and we would hope to produce an article under joint authorship that could be submitted for publication in LAMAS Transactions. The goals of the course are therefore clearly defined, with a definite end in view. The experience to be gained from this closely focused programme of study should stand all who participate in good stead for future post-excavation work. Newcomers to the mysteries of archaeological analysis and publication should not be put off by any lack of previous experience – the course is designed to be accessible at many different levels. Do come along all are welcome!

The cost will be £275 for the whole course, which will be held each Wednesday evening between 18.30 and 20.30 at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. The will run for 22 two-hours sessions over two terms from 29th September 2010 to 23rd March 2011. To book, please contact the class tutor at jacquipearce126@hotmail.com or Don Cooper at the address below.

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COPPED HALL TRUST ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT: FIELD SCHOOLS 2010

Monday 9th – Friday 13th August

Monday 16th – Friday 20th August

Continuing investigation into the development of a Tudor grand-house from Medieval beginnings at Copped Hall on the edge of Epping Forest, Essex.

At time of writing there are still places available at the two 5-day Field Schools for people already familiar with basic techniques of archaeological excavation and recording on the above dates. Cost is £90 for each week (WEAG members £80).

For further information please contact Mrs. Pauline Dalton: telephone 01992 813 725, or email pmd2@ukonline.co.uk

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THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF EARLY PREHISTORIC EUROPE

Arranged by the Mill Hill Archaeological Study Society

Venue: Lawrence Room, Hartley Hall, Flower Lane, NW7

Cost: £130 for 20 classes

Tutor: Scott McCracken

Enrol at the first meeting. If you have not previously attended the Society’s meetings please contact the Secretary: Peter Nicholson 020 8959 4757

HADAS long weekend in Norwich – 28th August to 1st September 2010

The arrangements for our trip to Norwich are nearly finalised – apart, of course, from the weather. The balance of the cost (£300 per person sharing a room or £340 for those in single rooms) is due by the 18th August 2010. Please send your payments to Jim Nelhams (address at back of newsletter). A little booklet of the trip and any instructions will be sent you as soon as it is possible.

A few places may still be available. We normally operate a waiting list as well because so often someone has to drop out, so please contact Jim if you are interested but have not yet signed up.

Return to Hendon School to teach practical archaeology and a SUPRISE.

By Don Cooper

This is a preliminary report on this year’s excavation at Hendon School from Monday, 28th June to Friday, 2nd July 2010.

Site code HDS06. Grid reference: 523675.129E 189026.785N height above sea level 59.850. The grid reference (which was set up by contractors who are preparing to build an additional building in the school grounds) was one and a half metres east of centre of the trench.

Introduction

This, the fifth season of excavation at Hendon School, was different from the previous ones. First of all it was only one week long, and secondly, the range of practical archaeological techniques demonstrated was vastly expanded. Sarah Dhanjal, a PhD student at University College London’s Institute of Archaeology and heavily involved in Community Archaeology , produced an excellent handbook for the pupils covering the areas studied. Twenty, mostly year seven (ten or eleven year olds) boys and girls took part. One session covered health and safety on site followed by a discussion on what is archaeology, as well as why we were digging at Hendon School. Each day also provided two hours of excavating including appropriate use of the tools of archaeology. Day two majored on Archaeological finds looking at what we had found in previous excavations, what they were, how they were recorded and what we might find this year. Day three concentrated on the use of photography on archaeological sites, and surveying techniques such as the use of the “dumpy level” to position our trench and finds. The fourth day brought plan and section drawing. Sarah, Angela Holmes, Vicki Baldwin, Jim Nelhams and I from HADAS as well as Gabe Moshenska, Mike Lewis, Hannah Page and Jennifer Bowen from university archaeological departments taught the various aspects, supervised and excavated a two metre by three metre trench in the north-east corner of the school playing field. This year’s excavation had a stronger educational structure to the activities in line with the way schools community archaeology is developing mainly thanks to Sarah Dhanjal.

Summary

With the emphasis this year on more educational activities and only one week’s digging, this year’s trench played second fiddle to the requirements of the pupils. Nevertheless, the trench gradually took shape, from the de-turfing layer, through a top soil layer, to a disturbed layer of mixed deposits. On the last day it was decided to dig a small sondage (a slot within the trench designed to look at lower levels) as we were unable to get down to natural for the whole trench in the timescale. This sondage half a metre long by two metres wide and about 25cm deep produced a number of surprises. Firstly, mid-way across the two metre width there was a post-hole, with all the characteristics of a wooden post secured by two nails and secondly, 117 sherds of early medieval pottery were found. This large amount of early pot in a secure context is, at the very least, surprising. It is more Early Medieval Pottery sherds than HADAS has ever taken from such a small area. What is going on in that area? A lot more work needs to be done on analysing the pottery, before we even guess at what might be happening. This work is already started with the sherds being referred to specialists to establish accurate dating, fabric types and the number of unique vessels involved. On the face of it, however, this is a very significant find for the area and comes as a major surprise.

Detail

A detailed report will be produced when the impact of all the finds has been assessed. However, after the de-turfing layer, context one produced the usual detritus from the school playing field, such as sweet papers, bits of metal, a few small sherds of modern pottery, some building material and glass. Context 2 was the main context and consisted of a deep layer of disturbed soil. It produced a wide range of pottery sherds from modern back to early medieval pot, there was metal, clinker, coal, building material, stems of clay pipes and glass both window and bottle. There was little animal bone compared to what had been found on previous digs. Context 3 produced no finds and was merged with context 2 after it was decided that there wasn’t any difference between them. Context 4 was a lense of London Clay but with no finds associated with it. There were pottery sherds in context 5 which was a pebble layer. The sondage as mentioned above produced an amazing amount of early medieval pot sherds. The feature in the sondage (a likely pot hole) produced three sherds of early medieval on top of it and nail heads at its base.

Contribution to research questions

The research questions posed by the project design brief can be answered as follows:

a. Is there any residual evidence of prehistoric activity? There was no evidence of prehistoric activity.

b. Considering the proximity to various Roman roads, is there evidence of Roman activity? There are a number of Roman and suspected Roman sherds from context 2 and the sondage.

c. Excavations in the area have uncovered considerable Anglo-Saxon material, is there any evidence of similar remains here? Within the early medieval sherds there are a number that are probably Anglo-Saxon, we will not know for certain until the detailed pottery analysis has been completed.

d. Is there any evidence of activity in the area between its mention in Domesday and the construction of the house? The large number of early medieval pot sherds recovered from the small undisturbed sondage imply a presence in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.

e. What evidence remains for the different phases of rebuilding of the house up to the demolition in 1909? No evidence was found this time.

Results

From an educational point of view this was the most successful excavation so far. Many more archaeological techniques were described, taught and demonstrated. Apart from the sondage, the contexts produced the finds expected namely the detritus from a school playing fields, residual finds from the allotments that were on the site during the Second World War and, unexpectedly a larger number of early medieval pottery sherds from the mixed contexts which in turn were overwhelmed by the number from the sondage.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to many people, first and foremost to Sarah Dhanjal, who created the training booklet and arranged all the activities. To Jill Hickman, our contact at Hendon School who makes the excavations on site possible as well as selecting the pupils, getting their parents’ permission and ensuring that they were on site at the right times. Thanks are due to all the HADAS members who did a splendid job throughout the week especially Angela Holmes whose teaching expertise and archaeological experience are unsurpassed. Many thanks are also due to our colleagues from university for their hard work, enthusiasm and expertise.

Notes re: HADAS Outing on 11 July 2010 to Down House, Biggin Hill Battle of Britain Memorial Chapel & Lullingstone Roman Villa Andrew Selkirk

Those of you who went on the splendid HADAS trip to Down House and Lullingstone Roman villa might like to see some of the photos that I took on the trip which I have now put up on the web, on our site at www.Ilovethepast.com. Just go to the site and do a search either for Down House or Lullingstone and you’ll see the pictures and my description. If you have any pictures of your own or would like to add any additional information or comments or indeed a review of either of these sites do feel free to do so — that is the point of Ilovethepast.com — and the more reviews we get, the better.

You might also like to look at Kelmscott which I have visited the previous day with the Society of Antiquaries. Kelmscott was William Morris’s house down by the River Thames, and by a series of accidents it was bequeathed to the Society of Antiquaries and I went down on their special summer outing and enjoyed strawberries and cream on the lawn! I don’t think that HADAS has ever been to Kelmscott, but it would make a very good outing.

Incidentally has anyone got any photos of the other two sites near Lullingstone Roman villa, namely Lullingstone Castle and Eynsford Castle? When I went down to Lullingstone Roman villa for the official opening two years ago, I took lots of photos of the other two sites as well, but unfortunately I had a computer crash and lost these photos. Everything else was backed up, but sadly I lost these photos and I would like to add something on these other two sites. Lullingstone Castle is of course essentially a Queen Anne house and a fine Tudor gatehouse, but Eynsford Castle is a superb example of an early Norman castle, miraculously preserved because it became stables and hunting kennels in the 18th century.

HADAS/UCL Digs in Church Farmhouse Museum Garden & Sunny Hill Park, Hendon Vicki Baldwin

Both digs ran from Monday 12th July until Thursday 22nd July.

The trench in Church Farmhouse Museum Garden was opened to enable further examination of the medieval ditch located and investigated on earlier occasions.

The Sunny Hill Park excavations focused on two of five air-raid shelters near St Mary’s church. The HADAS/UCL team was led by Dr. Gabriel Moshenska and members of Subterranea Britannica (http://www.subbrit.org.uk ) attended on several days.

Both locations attracted interest from members of the public, several of whom made daily visits, and useful information was gained from those who had personal memories of the air-raid shelters. The Open Day on Sunday 18th July was particularly busy.

However, it was one of the youngest visitors who provided Dr. Moshenska with directions to the location of an unusual relic. Six year old David Wolffe had found an original wooden sign that had once pointed the way to the shelters. The paint and lettering are still in good condition and now, rather than lying hidden behind a hedge, this small boy’s treasure will have a place in the museum with details of his part in its recovery. An account of the discovery appeared in the Hendon & Finchley Times on 22 July. This was the second week that a report of the excavations appeared in the local paper.

On Thursday 22 July the trenches were backfilled. The finds must now be processed and recorded and the reports written. Articles containing details of the finds and conclusions will appear in future editions of the newsletter.

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What’s On Eric Morgan

Sunday 1st August, 3-5pm: Finchley Society, Avenue House, East End Road. The Bothy Garden open day. (HADAS will be at Avenue House from 10.30am.)

Sunday 1st August, 2.30pm: Heath & Hampstead Society, meet at the cattle trough in Spaniards Road, nr. The Spaniards Inn, The Heath Extension, walk led by Tony Ghilchik (Vice-President). Lasts approx. 2hrs. Donation £2.

Tuesday 3rd August, 2-3pm: Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow: Tennyson & The Brontes. Talk by Judy Karbritz. Cost £3.

Also until 31st October exhibition: Medieval Harrow: Moats, Manors & Muck!

Thursday 5th August, 7.30pm: London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Road, Kings Cross, N1, Towpath Walk to Camden. Lasts 1½ hrs. Cost £7 including museum entrance.

Saturday 7th August, 2-4pm: Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2, Walking the Roman Wall. Book in advance£8 on www.museumoflondon.org.uk or telephone 020 7001 9544.

Sunday 8th August, 11am: Enfield Society. Heritage walk Enfield Cemetery starting at Gordon Hill station. Led by Graham Dalling to tell us about some of Enfield’s past residents. Circular, 1hr walk. Tickets free, but limited. Please write to Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, Middx. & enclose s.a.e.

Tuesday 10th August, 8pm: Amateur Geological Society, The Parlour, St. Margaret’s Church, Victoria Avenue, N3 (off Hendon Lane): Minerals & Gems of Africa: talk by Warren Taylor.

Saturday 14th August, 12-3pm on the hour: Guided Tour of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield. Free costumed tour lasting about 45mins. Booking required. For information email forty.hall@enfield.gov.uk or telephone 202 8363 8196.

Tuesday 17th August, 6pm: Highgate Wood Information Hut, off Archway Road, N6. Historical Walk.

Thursday 17th August, 6.30pm: Willesden Green Library Centre, High Road NW10: Ernest Trobridge – Kingsbury’s Extraordinary Architect. Talk by Philip Grant.

Friday 20th August, 7pm: COLAS, St. Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3: Talks by members of COLAS. Visitors £2. Light refreshments after.

Saturday 21st August & Sunday 22nd August, 12-6pm: Friern Barnet Summer Show, Friary Park, Friern Barnet Lane, N12. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society will be in a marquee with a special display on the Centenary of Friary Park. The Finchley Society & Barnet Borough Arts Council will have stands here also.

Sunday 22nd August, 2.30pm: Enfield Society, Heritage Walk: Southgate, starting from The Cherry Tree, Chaseside N14. We will be taken round this Conservation Area & told about the interesting buildings. We will also have visits to Christ Church & the Southgate Beaumont Home. Booking information as for 8th August.

Thursday 26th August, 12.30pm: Big Changes of Paddington Basin. Explore the developments of the Basin & Merchant Square. Find out more about the Basin’s history, view magnificent buildings & see the Rolling Bridge in action. Meet at the Hilton London Metropole, 225 Edgware Road, W2.

Tuesday 31st August, 2-3pm: Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow: The Medieval Churches of Middlesex talk by Pat Clarke. £3. Complements the museum’s Medieval exhibition (see 3rd August).

Wednesday 1st September, 8pm: Stanmore & Harrow Historical Society, Wealdstone Baptist Church Hall, High Street, Wealdstone. 40 Years With Kodak, talk by Tony Earle (who gave HADAS a talk on the Underground).

Thursday 2nd September, 7.30pm: London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Road, Kings Cross, N1, The Sleaford Navigation – Past, Present& Future. Talk by Steve Hayes on its history. Admission £3 (£2 concessions).

Friday 3rd September, 10.30am-12noon: Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries, South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10. History of Pharmacy talk & coffee.

Saturday 4th & Sunday5th September, 10.30am-6pm: Enfield Town Show, Town Park, Cecil Road, Enfield, Middx. The Enfield Society & Enfield Archaeological Society will have stands here. Lots more stalls. Admission £3 (£2 concessions).

Sunday 5th September, 3-5pm: Garden Party, The Bothy Garden, Avenue House Grounds, East End Road, N3. Admission £5.

Sunday 5th September, 11am-5pm: Angel Canal Festival, Regents Canal, City Road Basin, Islington, N1 (near LAARC). Many stalls, boat trips & rally. London Canal Museum & Islington Archaeology & History Society have stands here. Free.

HADAS DIARY

Sunday 11 July HADAS Summer Outing
The booking form for the coach trip to visit Charles Darwin’s home near Down, in Kent, was included in our last newsletter. There are still some places available and friends of members are welcome too, so if you didn’t book, but are still interested, please contact Jim Nelhams. His full address, e-mail etc, are on the last page of this Newsletter. The day includes a visit Lullingstone Roman Villa.

Digging in Hendon

By the time you receive this newsletter, our digging with UCL at Hendon School will be complete. But do not forget the digs at the back of Church Farm House museum starting on Monday 12th July and continuing until July 23rd. It is planned to open an old air raid shelter in Sunny Hill Park, and to open a small trench in the museum grounds to further investigate the medieval ditch.

Most digging will be during the week. HADAS members are welcome to join in, but please let us know in advance. For the air raid shelter, please contact Gabe Moshinska (UCL) on 07752 154791. Contact Bill Bass on 020 8449 5666 for the ditch.

As the weekend falls during the Festival of British Archaeology, we will hold an Open House on Sunday 18th from about 11am to 3pm, and would love to see any HADAS members during this time.

HADAS long weekend to Norwich – Saturday 28 August to Wednesday 1 September.

There may still be a couple of places available. Apply to Don Cooper, again,details on last page.

For your Diary: The last two lectures of 2010 will be:

Tuesday 12th October 2010 Behind the Scenes on “Time Team” Raksha Dave

and:

Tuesday 9th November 2010 Archaeology and the Olympics David Divers – English Heritage

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, and start promptly at 8 pm. Nearest tube station is Finchley Central. Non-members: £1. Coffee, tea and biscuits available. Buses 82, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by.

Annual General Meeting Report Jo Nelhams

The Society’s 49th Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday 8th June 2010 at Avenue House. There was a very good attendance, with 39 members (but just 5 apologies). The Chairman, Don Cooper, introduced the President, Harvey Sheldon, who proceeded with his usual high efficiency. The Annual Report and Accounts were approved by the meeting and the Officers remained unchanged and were duly elected. The current members of the committee plus two new members were then duly elected too.

In the closing discussion the Chairman referred to 2011 which will be the 50th year since the formation of the society and various possible plans were suggested to celebrate this forthcoming anniversary.

A reminder of who is who on the elected committee:

Chairman: Don Cooper Vice-Chairman: Peter Pickering

Hon. Treasurer: Jim Nelhams Hon. Secretary: Jo Nelhams

Hon. Membership Secretary: Stephen Brunning

Committee: Bill Bass, Andrew Coulson, Eric Morgan, June Porges,

Mary Rawitzer, Denis Ross, Andrew Selkirk, Tim Wilkins

and welcome new members Vicki Baldwin and Sue Willetts.

The meeting was followed by presentations of the activities in which some members had participated. Bill Bass presented an update on digging at Church Farm Museum. The dig that took place at Hendon School was presented by Vicki Baldwin. There will be a further digs in both of these locations this year. Andy Simpson reported on the long weekend trip to Hereford. Don Cooper updated members on the work concerning Hendon churchyard in collating the information from the burials, many of which were not of people that had lived locally, but were purchased as a cheaper alternative on the outskirts of London. The presentations concluded with Bill Bass showing members participating in an excavation in Wheathampstead.

Our thanks to those who contributed and informed us of the many activities in which different members have been involved during this last year. We look forward to our anniversary year and hope to see as many members as possible actively participating in digs, outings, lectures and other events organised by the society.

Roman kiln to be returned to its home in Highgate Wood

A 2,000-year-old kiln is to be returned to its original home in Highgate Wood. The Roman clay kiln, the only one of its kind in London, was discovered during excavations of Roman pottery across half a hectare of the northern end of the wood between 1966 and 1974 and has since been housed at Bruce Castle Museum in Haringey.

Archaeologists believe the kiln was used by craftsmen between 50AD and 150AD to produce a type of pottery called Highgate Wood Ware. The pots were a dark colour, often in a shape that resembled a poppy seed head. They were traded at markets and have been discovered in excavations as far away as Colchester and Lincoln.

Young people from across north London will re-enact the use of the Roman kiln during two weeks in July with a professional potter who will help design, make and dry clay pots, and build a replica of the original kiln to fire pots using the same methods the Romans would have done.

The £20,000 project is a collaboration between the Museum of London, Haringey Council and the City of London Corporation, the managers of Highgate Wood, and is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme “Stories of the World” which aims to encourage museums to team up with young people to re-interpret museum collections and historic sites.

The site was dug by HADAS President Harvey Sheldon between 1966 and 1974 and another member, Mike Hammerson, was a site supervisor.

Exhibition at Lambeth Palace Library Jim Nelhams

The Library at Lambeth Palace is celebrating its 400th anniversary by mounting an exhibition of some of its special treasures. Jo and I visited this exhibition and would recommend it. We spent about 2 hours looking at the items on show. The display cases are within the main hall of the library and are clearly displayed and annotated. Admission includes a free audio guide with good supporting information. There were plentiful chairs for sitting down when required.

The exhibits are mainly but not exclusively connected with church history and include:

· The Lambeth Bible (12th century)

· A Gutenberg Bible printed in 1455

· Books owned and used by Richard III, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Charles I.

· The Babylonian Talmud (Early 16th century)

· A copy of the warrant for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots

· A number of illuminated manuscripts and early printing

The Library is located in Lambeth Palace Road, close to Lambeth Bridge. Nearest underground stations are Waterloo or Vauxhall. Admission is £8 for adults, concessions £7. Tickets can be pre-booked on 0871 230 1107 or on website www.lambethpalacelibrary.org .

The exhibition continues until 23rd July, Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 17:00 (last entry 16:30).

Caldey Island (or Ynys Pyr) Sue Willetts

I was recently invited to spend 5 days on Caldey Island which is now owned by a Community of Cistercian monks and lies off the coast of Tenby in South Wales. The island is just about.1½ x ⅔ miles and is of geological and archaeological interest. A website, http://www.caldey-island.co.uk, provides information about this rugged, beautiful and peaceful island, the background to the Monastery, the spring/summer 20- minute ferry service for day visitors and the longer stays available for those interested in a retreat. There are good walks, including ones through woodland, and, if you are lucky, you might see seals basking on the rocks. There are masses of seabirds and an extensive sandy beach. The island is formed from two distinct types of rock: the northern part is mountain limestone, with old red sandstone in the south and along the line where they adjoin fresh water springs have been found.

Documentary evidence suggests there was a Celtic monastery dating from the sixth century founded by monks from Llantwit Major in Glamorgan. The name of the first Abbot was recorded as Pyro and it is said that he died after falling into a well due to drunkenness! Subsequently, there was a Benedictine foundation from 1136 until the dissolution of the monasteries, with the current Monastery built in 1906 by Anglican

Benedictines. In 1913 the monks joined the Roman Catholic Church, but due to financial problems the island was sold to the Cistercians from Scourmont in Belgium and the Benedictines moved away to Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire.

Sites of interest are the Old Priory containing an Ogham stone from the 6th century, a Norman Church, a Watchtower Chapel, a lime kiln and a Lighthouse built in 1828. There is a small museum in the Post Office which has displays covering geology and archaeology, including roman coins found on the nearby island of (now uninhabited) St.Margaret’s. It is possible to attend services in the plain Abbey Church of the Monastery (the rest of the Monastery is not accessible) and hear the beautiful chanting of the Monks wearing their traditional white habits. Services in the Abbey Church start at 3.30 am and continue at intervals throughout the day, ending with Compline at 7.35 pm. During the day, the monks usually wear practical working clothes as they perform manual tasks on the farm or kitchen.

Refreshments for visitors can be found in a tea shop beautifully situated next to the village green and duck pond. A video-hall (free) shows a DVD about the life of the Monks and visitors can buy souvenirs of perfume and chocolate both made on the island (also available on the internet!). I would thoroughly recommend a visit if any HADAS members are in the Tenby area, but note that boats do not sail in rough weather. I have booklets available on loan for anyone interested.

THE STAFFORDSHIRE HOARD

A detectorist’s dream find Christopher Sparey-Green

One thing is certain about the latest bullion from the English countryside, it is an unusual hoard and contains some unique objects, but another Sutton Hoo it is not. And it is hardly the archaeological equivalent of the Book of Kells. But how so much rich metalwork could come to be scattered in the topsoil of a recently cultivated pasture is unexplained, since apparently no primary context or burial pit has been identified.

The weight of bullion (6.3kg) as compared with Sutton Hoo (4kg) is not exactly an important factor in the archaeological interpretation of the site, but the quantity of items, mostly fittings from Anglo-Saxon swords but including some magnificent bent and desecrated crosses and jewelled fittings, will be the cause of much speculation. The presence of something like 650 scraps and 56 earth lumps containing tiny fragments of metal suggests detritus from an early jeweller – a precursor of more recent metal workers in the Birmingham area. This writer wonders if it is the product of Viking raids on some royal hall decked with museum pieces from past battles, the rusty and antiquated blades discarded, the gold and silver fittings in the process of re-working.

One decorated gold strip is of particular interest in view of the inscription it bears, a biblical quote from Numbers 10 v. 35. This is a particularly militaristic phrase of Moses calling on the Lord to rise up and scatter those who hate Him, the text in Insular Miniscule lettering of the seventh or eighth century. As viewed on line the text may contain some errors or abbreviations in the Latin and there appears to be a blundered inscription on the reverse, perhaps a trial. The text would have been an appropriate quote for a Christian Anglo-Saxon combating the unconverted of the period, the form of the lettering and the source of the exact quote perhaps one of the most useful aids in tying down the source and date of at least one item in what must be the most expensive treasure find recently bought for public display.

The Staffordshire web site is well worth looking at – http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/interview – if only for the very appropriate quote placed on page 1 and there is a comment in the Editorial of Antiquity 84(2010): 295-296 (http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/84/ant840295.htm).

Brunel’s Great Eastern Construction Site Jim Nelhams

At the recent meeting of CBA London, we were given information about an open day of the London Foreshore Project in Docklands, including information about Brunel’s Great Eastern steamship which was built at Millwall. As Brunel fans, this was not an opportunity to be missed.

We reached the small exhibition at The Docklands Settlement in East Ferry Road by Docklands Light Railway, using the amusingly named Mudchute station. If you had seen it when they were constructing the DLR tunnel from the Isle of Dogs to Greenwich, you would understand the name.

A small but interesting exhibition showed some of the finds that had been discovered along the foreshore of the river, and a few other items from the Museum of London. Then at midday we were guided down to the river where we were met by Professor Gustav Milne from UCL, shortly afterwards joined by the director of the Brunel Museum, cleverly disguised as Isambard Kingdon Brunel (without cigar). We were led on a conducted tour of the on-land parts of the Great Eastern construction site, which were discovered by accident as recently as 1984. As the tide reached its lowest point, we were able to see parts of the launch ramps which still exist in the river.

The tour had a second purpose. The Great Eastern commenced its first Transatlantic voyage on 17th June 1860, so we were celebrating the 150th anniversary of this event. Using the original charts, the outline of the ship had been marked out with chalk and we could see it’s considerable size – 25 metres wide and 211 metres long. The Great Eastern was the largest ship of its time, and nothing larger was built for over 50 years. Its size enabled it to carry enough coal for a return voyage to Australia, since little coal was then available en route. Because of its size, the ship was built along the shore and launched sideways.

The ship was powered from five steam boilers. Four of these, in two pairs, powered a large paddle wheel on each side of the vessel, with the fifth separately powering a screw at the stern. The steam technology being still relatively new, backup was provided by six masts with sails, the masts being named Monday to Saturday. The positions of the funnels, masts and paddle wheels had also been marked in chalk, and members of the tour party were invited to position themselves as funnels, masts or part of the paddle wheels. Then on the command from Mr Brunel, “Start engines”, the funnels simulated smoke, the masts raised their sails, and the paddle wheels propelled water towards the stern. This was recorded on film, presumably to be used for publicity. Should you come across this, I was Wednesday and Jo was Boiler No 2, or was it 3. A lot of fun for all involved, and a great way to illustrate the size of the leviathan.

When you pass the site on a riverboat, the commentary may tell you that the Great Eastern was built on the banks, but nothing is visible from the river because of the concrete embankment. It has been proposed to decorate the riverside embankment with a profile of the Great Eastern, including a paddle wheel. The area is already public land and it is hoped to plant trees in such a way that, seen from the river, they will appear as the funnels and masts of the great ship.

The Great Eastern was ahead of its time, being built with a double hull, and with keel to deck bulwarks separating it into 5 sections. Had the Titanic been similarly constructed, it would likely have survived its collision. Unfortunately for Brunel’s ship, by the time it was launched, the market for passenger voyages was not to be found, and the ship was put to a different use. Her size made her very stable, and with a stern screw and side paddle wheels, she was easily manoeuvrable. This made the ship ideal for cable laying, a need not known when she was designed, and thus she was used to lay the first Transatlantic telephone cable on the ocean floor. From 1865 to 1872 she laid four telegraph cables under the Atlantic, and others to link Bombay and Aden.

Brunel is well known for his bridges, but perhaps his greatest bridges were those cables, bridging the gap by telephone from England to America.

Eric Morgan’s Monthly Round-Up of What’s On, especially the Festival of British Archaeology

Fri. 2 July 10.30am. 350 Years of Church Farm House. Talk by Gerrard Roots. South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10.

Sat. 3 July 11am – 5.00pm. Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery Open Day. Harrow Rd, NW10/Ladbroke Grove W10. Tours, displays, refreshments, stalls, including Willesden Local History Society & Friends bookstall.

Sat. 3 & Sun. 4 July 12-7pm, East Barnet Festival. Oak Hill Park, Church Hill Rd, East Barnet. Lots of community stalls, including Barnet Arts Council.

Sun. 4 July 3-5pm, The Bothy Garden Open Day. Avenue House Grounds, East End Rd, N3, including The Alyth Youth Singers and Pandamonium, performing 3.30pm. £5 on gate.

Sun. 4 July 2.30pm, Fabulous Finchley. 2hr guided walk through 1000 years of Finchley Central & East Finchley. Meet Finchley Central tube, Ballards Lane exit, finishes East Finchley tube. Led by Paul Baker. £7

Fri. 9 July 7pm, Oddities Along a London Leyline. COLAS. Guided walk exploring a short stretch of a famous London straight track. Meet outside National Gallery, Trafalgar Squareed by Roy Walker.

Sat. 10 July 7pm, City Churches Walks. The Friends of City Churches give a rare chance to visit historic churches within the City. Choice of different 90-minute walking tours, each visiting 3 churches and taking in places of interest en route. Itineraries announced on the day. Meet St Mary Aldermary, Bow Lane, Cannon St, 10.30am or 1.30pm. Details on www.London-city-churches.org.uk. Churches open 10am-4pm. £7.

Sat. 10 July 12 noon-3pm, on the hour, Guided Tour , Forty Hall, Enfield. Free costumed tour lasting c.45min. Booking required. Information: forty.hall@enfield .gov.uk or 020 8363 8196.

Sat. 10 July from 12 noon, Finchley Pentland Community Festival. Lots of community stalls, including the Finchley Society. Victoria Park, Ballards Lane, N3.

Sun. 11 July, 2.30-47pm, The Hidden River Fleet. London Canal Museum guided walk exploring part of the course of the river around St Pancras/Grays Inn Rd. 12-13 New Wharf Rd, Kings X, N1. £7.

Tues. 13 July 8pm, Talks: Around Hitchin 100 Million Years Ago (Mike Howgate) and The La Brea Tar Pits Museum, Los Angeles (Mike Cuming). Amateur Geological Society , The Parlour, St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Ave., N3 (off Hendon Lane).

Wed. 14 July 12.30pm, Paddington’s Industrial Heritage. Walk, wharves, windings, train sheds & the early days of railway development. Meet Starbucks, 15 Sheldon Sq, W2. Also on Wed. 25 July 12.30pm.

Fri. 16 July 12-2pm, World Archaeology and Archaeology in Action. Also: Sat. 17th July – Sun. 1st August, Festival of British Archaeology. Many events at the Museum of London. Details on www.museumof london.org.uk including special hands-on events 24th & 25 July. Also:

Sat. 17/Sun. 18 July, Excavating at Elsynge Palace (& pageant). Forty Hall, Enfield: forty.hall@enfield .gov.uk/020 8363 8196.

Sat .17/Sun. 18 July11.30am-4pm, COLAS at the Tower. Foreshore events, Tower Beach, finds handling, etc.

Sat. 24/Sun. 25 July, Dig at Theobalds Palace. Cedars Park ,Cheshunt. Enfield Archaeological Society

Sat. 24 July 1-3pm, Myddelton House: History, strolls, garden viewing. Bullsmoor Lane, Enfield.

Wed. 28 July – Sun. 1 August 2pm, Royal Society Science Walks, Science in the City. Led Mike Howgate. Start Museum of London, finish St Pauls tube. Booking essential: mehowgate@hotmail.com, 020 8882 2606.

Thanks to all our contributors: Stephen Brunning, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Jo Nelhams,

Peter Pickering, Sue Willetts, Christopher Sparey-Green.

HADAS AGM

Tuesday 8th June 2010 at 8pm at Avenue House.There will be a slide presentation looking at last year’s digs at Hendon School & at the back of Church Farm Museum, the long weekend at Hereford and how we are getting on with St Mary’s Hendon cemetery recording.

HADAS DIARY

Sunday 11 July HADAS Summer Outing

Following last year’s successful Sunday outing, a Sunday has once again been chosen for
our next coach trip, a visit to Charles Darwin’s home in Kent. Recently and extensively
refurbished to celebrate two hundred years since the great man’s birth, the house and
gardens are superb. They have recently been submitted for consideration to be included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.
In the afternoon we go on to visit Lullingstone Roman Villa, another English Heritage
property that has undergone a top-class makeover in the last couple of years. There is
much more to see now than on our last visit in 1999.

Please book as soon as possible using the booking form enclosed.

12 July for 2 weeks – Digging with UCL on WWII bunker in Sunnyhill Park.

More details in the next Newsletter

HADAS long weekend to Norwich – Saturday 28 August to Wednesday 1 September.

There are still two places available. Apply to Don who is working hard for us; contact details at back of this Newsletter.

Galleries of Modern London – Launch Sue Willetts

Discover the story of the greatest city in the world at the Galleries of Modern London.

On 28 May 2010 the Museum of London unveils its spectacular £20 million Galleries of Modern London.
7000 objects, together with interactives, film and changing displays, transport visitors through London’s tumultuous history, rich with drama, triumph and near disaster. From the devastation of the Great Fire of 1666 to wonders of invention at the Great Exhibition in 1851,
the Suffragettes’ fight for voting rights to the fashions which made the sixties swing, the galleries are an experience of rebirth and renewal, of excess and struggle. They embody the creative spirit of the capital. Every artefact tells a personal story as Londoners reinvent their city and are changed by it.

Independents Day 2010. Andrew Selkirk

The Council for Independent Archaeology will be holding its next meeting in Waltham Abbey on Saturday, 14th August 2010, and I hope that many members of HADAS will be able to attend.

The Council for Independent Archaeology, which was established in 1985, sets out to promote the interests of independent archaeological societies, like HADAS. Its biannual weekend congresses alternate with one-day conferences which highlight the work of local societies in a particular region. This year, the one-day conference is being held at Waltham Abbey and is run by the very active Waltham Abbey Historical Society, and this will give an excellent opportunity to hear about the work of the Society and other societies in the area and to tell other societies what we are doing, and of the success of our evening classes.

Waltham Abbey itself has a fascinating history. The Abbey was originally intended to be the great church of King Harold who met an unfortunate end at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but who was buried at Waltham Abbey. Following his death the abbey inevitably went into something of a decline, but a century later King Henry II, in a fit of multi-culturalism, decided it was time to put Harold back on the map again and to tell the Anglo-Saxons that they were really English too, so he re-founded the Abbey as an Augustinian foundation. Today only the nave of the church survives, but Peter Huggins carried out excavations there in the 1980s (see Current Archaeology 125). At the end of the Conference he will be leading a tour of the Abbey and the surrounding areas of the town.

The cost of the Conference is £15 which includes lunch, and full details can be found on the Council’s website www.independents.org.uk

I look forward to seeing a number of HADAS members there!

Death on the (Greco-Roman) Nile; Peter Pickering

Egyptian Funerary Practices 332BC-AD130

Our last lecture of the 2009-2010 season was by John Johnson of the Egyptian Exploration Society. Its theme was the interaction between native Egyptian culture and ideas of the afterlife and those of the Greeks and Romans.

Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great in 332BC; his general Ptolemy established a dynasty which lasted for three centuries until Egypt became part of the Roman Empire. Ptolemy indeed hijacked the corpse of the dead Alexander, so that he could be buried next to where Ptolemy himself intended to be buried, rather than with the Macedonian kings in Vergina.

Although the language and literature of the rulers and settlers was Greek, as was their culture generally, their building projects were firmly Egyptian. Their coins were Greek, but the Ptolemies were represented in sculpture as Pharaohs in the traditional way. The practice of burial as mummies in coffins decorated inside and outside with traditional Egyptian iconography spread among the Greek population. Indeed, although the very elaborate mummification procedures which had ensured the status of the Pharaonic élite in the afterlife were lightened, they were available to much wider sections of the population (some of whom had Greek names and some Egyptian). Some tombs had both Egyptian and Greek paintings on their walls, while others contained many ‘loculi’ (recesses) with false doors – much cheaper than individual tombs.

Mr Johnson produced many fascinating, and indeed gruesome illustrations (including the sacrifice of a leg of a living calf) of his theme, a theme which was made more difficult because in the past archaeological exploration in Egypt had concentrated on the earlier periods, often removing Greco-Roman levels with little recording. He noted that Greek inscriptions on mummy cases were often misspelt, and wondered if that was because of ignorance by the craftsmen, or a subtle hint that they did not think too much of these immigrants and their strange language. He suggested that the famous ‘portraits’ on mummy cases found by Flinders Petrie and others were of types rather than actual individuals – a proposition which several in the audience found it hard to accept.

At the end of the period covered in the lecture, Hadrian had his favourite Antinous, who was drowned in the Nile, commemorated in Egyptianising statues. Our speaker wondered whether the god Antenociticus, with his shrine near Hadrian’s Wall, was in fact the deified Antinous.

Mr Johnson finished his lecture with a promotion of the Egypt Exploration Society, which has done so much to forward the study of ancient Egypt. Interested members can find more about it on www.ees.ac.uk.

SOME NOTES ON LECTURES AT THE LAMAS 47th ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF LONDON ARCHAEOLOGISTS

SATURDAY 13th MARCH 2010. MUSEUM OF LONDON Andy Simpson

After a few years in the very pleasant Museum of Docklands, it was still good to return to the refurbished education wing of the Museum of London for this year’s conference.

The Thames Discovery Programme; Finds, Floods and Fabulous FROGS

Natalie Cohen, Thames Discovery Programme

…the FROGS being members of the Foreshore Recording and Observation Group set up and trained in safe practice by the project. With some 300 volunteers covering the Greater London area, this is a three year, HLF funded programme, based at UCL and the LAARC facility of the Museum of London. See www.thamesdiscovery.org Running for 18 months already, the small professional team administering the project is led by Director Gus Milne. Features recorded being uncovered, and sometimes eroded, by the Thames include gridirons at Bermondsey (with causeway) Charlton, Isleworth (with causeway), and Custom House. At Fulham/Putney an 18th –century bridge abutment was recorded. The work of Gus Milne and Mike Webber on the Thames Archaeological Survey, 1995-99 (with which CoLAS were involved) has been invaluable. Time Team excavated at Vauxhall in 2000, with Neolithic pottery being found in front of the MI5 building there along with a second Neolithic or Bronze Age causeway bridge. Chelsea has yielded Mid-Saxon fish traps along with a trepanned Bronze Age human skull. At Fulham the wooden piles of a lost 18th century bridge were plotted.

At Charlton an impressive quantity of timbers from scrapped 18th/19th century ‘wooden walls’ warships were found neatly stacked at the site of Castles Ship breakers. At Burrell’s wharf an intriguing complete18th century burial of an adolescent was found, most unusually buried on the Foreshore. Where the giant transatlantic Brunel steamship Great Eastern was launched in 1859, remains of the launch platform were recorded. On line resources include, as part of a community research project, a ‘Riverpedia’ and ‘Frog Blog’. Groups are taking responsibility for their own sections of Foreshore, e.g. at Swan Drawdock, where the other side of the 18th century Putney Bridge footings were found which formed the former bridge between Putney and Fulham.

Dan Hounsell of Network Archaeology Ltd reported work on ‘Settlement activity along the Harefield – Southall pipeline’. This was advance work ahead of construction of a new pipeline, which revealed two previously undiscovered late Iron Age and early Roman farmsteads, superseded by Roman field ditches.

Roman Cemetery at Trinity Street, Southwark

Doug Killock, Pre-Construct Archaeology

Dated c. 180AD – late 4th/early 5th century, with a ditch running through the middle of the site, this was a mix of inhumations and cremations, with triangles of skulls placed in the ditch with pottery.

Much of the site was disturbed by recent basements, with a lot of work actually being carried out within a basement, though with some outside work. Glass vessels and a pot with carbonised seed were recovered, which included grape seeds and others not as yet identified. Also found was a lead strip-reinforced wooden coffin, dated 180 – 300AD, of a type not known outside of London, though examples also recovered in the eastern cemetery of Roman London. Grave goods included glass vessels placed outside the coffin. There was evidence of cremated boots still on feet, and the spoil was metal-detected with good results, revealing 157 Roman coins, mostly fourth century in date. This is further evidence of the late survival of the Southwark ‘bridgehead’ to Roman London, with evidence of activity into the fourth/fifth century, so occupation had not simply retreated into the walled area at the time. One very late burial of c.388-402 was recorded, with then-antique bottles of 2nd-3rd century date buried with it. Another had a slab of tile, seemingly within the coffin. Burials within the cemetery were fairly densely concentrated, with a suggestion of demarcation within the cemetery, with densely used areas with burials in clusters and different, superimposed, East-West and North-South aligned burials. A plaster-lined burial of c.335 was dated by an associated coin, as it had no grave furniture or coffin evidence. As evidence of intense use, one grave had four stacked contemporary burials, perhaps hinting at a family tragedy?

The afternoon session – Saxon and Medieval London – Forty Years On, was most informative. Geoff Egan (MoLA) began by giving an overview of Medieval London’s Material Culture. Interesting finds from waterfront dumps included eleventh-century Byzantine items; nine coins and nine seals from the Vintry waterfront site. In the fourteenth century, pewter buckles began to supplement the traditional copper alloy variety. He pointed out also that metalwork of 1450 – 1480 was still rare.

Lundenwic; Discovery and Outcome Martin Biddle, Hertford College, Oxford

This was a fascinating review of middle Saxon London. In the early 1970s, little archaeology was being done in London and much evidence was being destroyed by redevelopment. The newly formed organisation ‘Rescue’ produced its document ‘The Future of London’s Past’ which focused on the walled city – a mistake, noted Biddle, who was one of its authors. Biddle referred to his work at Repton in Derbyshire, where 260 human bodies of Viking era origin, first noted in 1729, were excavated, having been buried in the winter of 873/4.

Despite Bede referring to the London of 731-2 being a trading emporium for many nations, the 1970s view was that at this time the Thames was lined with farms, not a major settlement. As far back as 1726, the minutes of the Society of Antiquaries recorded (Saxon) finds from under the portico of St Martin in the Fields, including a glass claw cup, supplemented by more similar finds – a bowl of c.700AD – from nearby recently. The Strand runs along the riverside, and the name Aldwych – ‘Old Vicus’ – the old vic of London, is a placename indictor of earlier Saxon occupation in this area, which became archeologically apparent only since the early 1980s.

In 1984, Biddle plotted the distribution of finds west of the walled area, and in 1985 came archaeological evidence of intensive seventh-century (middle Saxon) occupation at the Jubilee Hall excavations, with post holes, pits and a major ditch. At the Royal Opera House excavation a dense pattern of buildings gable – end on along a street was found. The western end of the still-occupied walled area probably featured high – status sites at this time, as did the White Tower area, perhaps a riverfront fort of late Roman origin, and there are early church dedications within the Temple area between the walled area to the east and Lundenwic to the west, perhaps suggesting this area too was part of Lundenwic, which had been abandoned by AD1000, and Westminster was colonised by church institutions.

Tales from the Riverbank – The Archaeology of our Medieval Port

Gustav Milne, Thames Discovery Programme

This covered work on London’s Riverbank along Thames Street 1972-2003, with emphasis on the Medieval port, which is also covered in Gus Milnes’ 2003 book, ‘The port of Medieval London’. The old docks were dying in the 1960s with the development of containerisation. Much destruction of archaeological deposits was caused by the still-unpublished redevelopment of the Baynard’s Castle site on the north bank of the Thames in 1972.

In the tenth-eleventh century, land on the North Bank was being reclaimed from the river, resulting in some 150 metres wide and one mile long being eventually reclaimed out to the present waterfront between Blackfriars and the Tower of London, using dumps of material that included domestic rubbish such shoes, pottery and metalwork – an invaluable archaeological source. At the earliest phase, a ‘beach market’ developed, with a dry standing laid up to the then-surviving Roman riverside wall and readily-beached shallow-draft ships berthed on this communally constructed ( like bridges and defences) timber and gravel riverside embankment/civic quay

London Bridge itself was built in stone in the twelfth century, following on from its timber-built Saxon predecessors.

Health in Medieval London – Jelena Bekvalac and Rebecca Redfern, Museum of London Centre for Human Bioarchaeology

Drawing on analytical work funded by the Wellcome Trust on the Museum of London’s very large collection of human skeletal material, this was a talk on the Bioarchaeological approach to Health studies. The data, giving some of the information to be gained about medieval life from the study of human remains, such as life expectancy, disease, diet and lifestyle is available online at

www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/Onlineresources/CHB/database

In the 14th/15th centuries, the climate was unstable, with a loss of agricultural land through flooding, and the population’s health was weakened by multiple epidemic events, with the great famine of 1315-17 followed by the Black Death c. 1348.

Urban populations were dominated by people under 40 – with many of them migrants vulnerable to, or bringing in, disease, since their immune systems were geared to a rural environment. There was a high population turnover. Average heights were 171.5cm (5ft 8 in) for males and 160.3cm (5ft 2 in) for women in medieval London – average for the UK medieval population. Most men died between the ages of 26 and 45, including those who died in epidemics. Many died at a younger age, due to a weaker immune system and riskier lifestyles, women on average dying between the ages of 36 and 45.

Diseases included osteoarthritis, common in both sexes, with diabetes and obesity evidenced especially in well-fed monastic community cemeteries. Dental health was fair, with no access to damaging sugar at that time, though cavities etc indicate poor dental hygiene.

Archaeology indicates syphilis was present in London pre-1492, despite earlier suggestions it came from South America post Columbus, with the earliest evidence being found in a monastic cemetery in Hull.

Metabolic diseases such as rickets and scurvy are not limited to urban populations.

Trauma wounds sometimes indicate evidence of assault, with hand and face fractures and limb dislocations, with weapon injuries indicated by evidence of recovery – regenerated bone – and surgery as well as embedded weapons such as an arrow point in one victim’s spine- he healed and lived for at least a year in that state. Cancers, both benign and malignant, are evidenced, and increased with urbanisation and industrialisation.

Changing Perspectives of London’s Monastic Archaeology

Chris Thomas, Museum of London Archaeology

The Archaeology of the Dissolution of the Monasteries might be seen as representing the end of the Medieval period. This aspect of archaeology has only really been studied over the past 20 years, and the ongoing series of MoLA monographs on these monastic sites, including their precincts and cemeteries, means that this area of London’s history is now more thoroughly researched and published than any other British urban centre. The Monasteries, or at least the religious buildings, wee usually made unusable by the stripping of lead and timber from roofs, the smashing of stained glass windows, again to recover the lead framing, and the removal of the dead from their tombs, (sometimes, but not always, with due warning for reburial elsewhere) sometimes leaving part for local use as happened at St Barts; other buildings were re-used for residential or industrial use. Others served simply as stone quarries.

Courses from Eric Morgan

Birkbeck Training Excavation. June & July. Syon Park, Brentford

Excavation of dissolved Bridgettine medieval abbey of Syon & Formal Gardens of16th Century.

Details available on http//www04.bbk.ac.uk/study/ce2009/summerschools/awards/XSCAR002.html

Cost per 5 day course £230-£265.

350 Years of Church Farm, Hendon Gerrard Roots

2010 is the 350th anniversary of Church Farm, the oldest surviving house in Hendon, and now Barnet borough’s museum. The Museum is marking the anniversary with an exhibition and associated events.

The exhibition, House on a Hill: 350 Years of Church Farm, Hendon, tells the story of the building- as centre of a busy hay and dairy farm, as dwelling and as museum- and runs from 29 May to 18 October.

Supporting the exhibition, we shall have a ‘Living History Day’ in the Museum garden in July, with re-enactments of scenes from everyday life in the 1600s; a series of talks (at Hendon Library), setting Church Farm in the context of national and local history; and, we hope, an evening of 17th Century music.

HADAS and UCL Institute of Archaeology, with pupils from local schools, will once again be digging in the Museum garden in July; then HADAS & UCL (using CFM as a base) will move on to excavate the WWII public air-raid shelters close by in Sunny Hill Park. (A small selection of finds from previous digs will be included in the exhibition.)

Children visiting will be invited to draw or paint the Museum, and we shall display their pictures during the exhibition. There will also be new displays within our exhibition of playthings past, The Moving Toyshop.

Dates and details of the events will be posted on the Friends of the Museum’s website, at: www.churchfarmhousemuseum.co.uk. Please come and join us in celebrating this splendid building- and keep your fingers crossed for decent weather!

Other Societies Events Eric Morgan

Wednesday 2 June 5.30pm Institute of Archaeology & British Museum Medieval Seminar. Room 612, IoA, UCL, Gordon Sq. WC1 “Fecit or Fake it? Anglo-Saxon Forgeries Old and New” Leslie Webster.

Saturday 5 June 12 noon-3pm on the hour, Guided tour of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield. Free costumed tour lasting about 45 mins. Booking required & info from forty.hall@enfield.gov.uk or 02083638196

Sunday 6 June 2.30pm Battle of Barnet Guided Walk. Meet at jnc. of Gt. North Rd./Hadley Green Rd. Led by Paul Baker. Cost £7. Lasts 2 hrs.

Sunday 6 June The Bothy Garden Open Day. Avenue House Grounds, East End Rd. N3

HADAS will be in the Garden Room in the morning from 10.30am.

Thursday 10 June 7.30pm Barnet Borough Arts Council, Trinity Church Centre, 15 Nether St. N12. AGM (HADAS is affiliated to BBAC). Talk by Gilly Kilburn on the new building at Barnet College. Coffee at 7pm.

Saturday 12 June 12.30-5.30pm Highgate Summer Festival,Pond Sq. N6. Lots of stalls incl Hornsey Hist. Soc., Highgate Soc.

Saturday 12 June 2-4pm Museum of London. Gardens in the City Tour of the Capital’s hidden historical gardens led by Sue Jackson.

Book in adv. £8 on www.museumoflondon.org.uk or 02070019844

Sunday 13 June 2.30pm Hooray for Hendon. Guided walk through 1000 years from the Domesday Book to Hendon Aerodrome. Meet at hendon Central tube stn. Led by Paul Baker. Cost £7. Lasts 2 hrs.

Monday 13 June 3pm Barnet & District Local History Society, Curch House, Wood St., Barnet (opp.Museum). “Shop till you Drop” 17th Century London Tokens. Talk by Barrie Cook. Tea & biscuits after.

Friday 13 June 7pm. COLAS, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3. “Roman Glass-Making in London”. Talk by Angela Wardle (MOL) Visitors £2.

Wednesday 23 June 7.45pm Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, St. John’s Church Hall (next to Whetstone Police Stn.), Friern Barnet Lane N2. Freeman of the City of London&Liverymen of the Stationers Company – A Personal View. Talk by Andrea Cameron. Cost £2.

Wednesday 23 June 7.30pm.Museum of London. London Festival of Architecture. London Wall, EC2. Talk by Dan Cruickshank on “How Georgian London Was Shaped by the Sex Industry”. Free, but booking is advised as above

Thursday 24 June,8.00pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Rd. N3. A.G.M. followed by “Return to the Kruger National Park”. Talk by Roz Avery. Non-members £2.

Saturday 26 June 2.30pm.Enfield Society. Battle of Barnet. Meet at Arkley Hotel, Barnet

(307 bus terminus) for about 3 hour linear walk via Monken Hadley/Hadley Woods/Trent Park, ending at Oakwood Stn.. Led by Monica Smith.

Sunday 27 June East Finchley Festival,Cherry Tree Wood N2 (off High Rd. opp. Stn.)

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events in 2010 / 11

An important date for your diaries. By Don Cooper

Tuesday 8th June 2010

The HADAS annual general meeting (AGM) takes place at Avenue House at 8 pm.

This is member’s opportunity to hear what your Society has been doing and what it intends to do in the coming year as well as being your chance to make suggestions, ask questions and contribute to the running of your society. Last year’s AGM was poorly attended but we are hoping that more members will come along this year to show support and appreciation for the hard work your volunteer committee does on your behalf. Do come along – I look forward to seeing you there.

Forthcoming Lectures

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, and start promptly at 8 pm. Nearest tube station is Finchley Central. Non-members: £1. Coffee, tea and biscuits available. Buses 82, 143, 326 & 460 pass close by.

Tuesday 11th May: John Johnson. ‘Death on the (Graeco-Roman) Nile’ examines some of the cultural, religious and literary influences which impacted upon the funerary beliefs and practices of those living in Egypt from the time of Alexander the Great’s arrival in 332 BC until the close of the Second Century AD. This heavily illustrated lecture presents evidence from throughout Egypt as it considers the conservative nature of Egyptian religious belief against the backdrop of an increasingly multi-cultural society which developed as a result of Alexandria’s pre-eminent position in the Mediterranean world.

John J. Johnston read Egyptology and Classics at the University of Liverpool and Open University, respectively. He obtained an MA in Egyptian Archaeology from University College London (UCL), where he is currently reading for a PhD. John is a Trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) and a Committee Member of the Friends of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, where he contributes to a wide variety of projects and events.

Sunday July 11th – Outing to Down House in Kent, the home of Charles Darwin

Saturday 28 August – Wednesday 1 September, HADAS long weekend in Norwich

Tue. 12th Oct. Behind the scenes on Time Team – Raksha Dave. NB. The new series (13 episodes) of Channel 4’s Time Team began on Sun. 18th April at 5.30 pm.

Tue 9th Nov. Archaeology and the Olympics – David Divers, English Heritage

Tue 11th Jan. 2011: Science as a tool to help understand London’s archaeology – Jane Siddel, English Heritage

Tue. 8th Feb. 2011: The Roman wooden water pump – an ingenious machine – Richard Stein, MA, PhD, FCA

Local News:

Local Studies and Archives. Peter Pickering / Don Cooper

HADAS and the other societies concerned with local history have recently been worried about the future of the Local Studies and Archives Centre currently located at 80 Daws Lane, Mill Hill. Barnet Council have decided that the building was going to become surplus to requirements, and the Centre would therefore have to be relocated. A meeting was held in February, following which our Chairman, Don Cooper, wrote to Councillor Rams (the Cabinet Member for Investment in Learning) expressing concern over the proposal and asking to be reassured that the service, facilities and space at the new location will not in any way be reduced or inferior to those provided at present. He pointed out that the local studies centre serves as a focus for local societies involved in preserving the heritage and archaeology of the Borough, those researching its history, and Family History organisations providing genealogical service to the residents of the borough, as well as the tasks it carries out as the official Barnet Archive on behalf of the council etc. In his reply Councillor Rams reassured us that the Council remains committed to providing a strong, developing Local Studies service with the input of local history societies and groups much appreciated.

The Council aims to provide an accessible service to all customers and local groups, with some reduction in spending in the present challenging financial context. They are exploring the potential to integrate the service into a library, probably Hendon Library. Their intention is to provide a Local Studies service point supported by the Local Studies staff, with assistance from Library staff and to have direct access to as much of the most frequently consulted Local Studies material as can be accommodated and administered, alongside a longer-term plan to digitise more materials. Sharing duty with Library Staff will free the Local Studies staff from some of the most common local studies inquiries, thus allowing them to spend more time on specialised local studies work. The general facilities at a library are likely to be superior to those at Daws Lane, including better lighting, refreshment facilities, pay photocopiers, greater numbers of public computers, and Wi-Fi access for visitors and supporting book and non-book material. Moving these services into a Library would improve access – Hendon Library is, for example, open seven days a week, and until 8pm on three of those days. Although Local Studies staff would not be present all that time, it gives greater flexibility to the service and some level of access could perhaps be provided when the Local Studies team are not working.

HADAS and the other societies will monitor developments closely and will hold the Council to its assurances. One beneficial outcome from this worrying business is the closer co-operation of the concerned societies in the borough.

Jewish Museum – is now open after a major transformation project. Raymond Burton House, 129-131 Albert Street, London NW1 7NB. Tel: 020 7284 7384. The collection includes a mikvah, a medieval ritual bath, one of the most important archaeological finds relating to Anglo-Jewry, excavated in 2001 in Milk Street in the City of London.
St Andrew’s Old Church – Heritage and Cultural Centre, Old Church Lane, Kingsbury, London, London, NW9 8RU. Drama Workshop are planning for their future and want to hear from interested parties as they develop activities such as storytelling linked to its heritage as the oldest building in Brent. Contact Kaye James at: Drama Workhouse, PO Box 957, Wembley HA0 9EZ kj@dramaworkhouse.org.uk

Conferences / Study Days

Thu. 20th – Fri 21st May. University College London, Institute of Archaeology. 31-34 Gordon Sq. London, WC1. Wrapping and unwrapping the body. Global and multi-period coverage of this topic, including practical demonstration, at Petrie Museum. Free to attend but book in advance: Email ioa-wrapping@ucl.ac.uk and/or further details at www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/events.

University of London Study Days: Hughes-Parry Hall (The Garden Halls), 19-26 Cartwright Gardens, Bloomsbury, London, WC1. Both days are aimed at adults.

Tut-ankh-amun on Saturday 29 May 2010: 11am – 5pm. Costs £35.00 incl. refreshments. Booking and payment before 10th May.

Forensic aspects of ancient Egypt. Sat. 19 June 2010: 11am – 5pm. Cost £30.00 incl. refreshments. Booking & payment before 2nd June. Those of secondary school age need permission from the Organizer. Posters & application forms available at http://www.icon.org.uk – follow link to Events or send application and payment by cheque (made out to Joyce Filer) with name/address/phone no./email & SAE to Joyce Filer. 4 Lowndes Court, London, W1F 7HE

Lecture Report Andy Simpson / John Chapman

The May lecture on ‘The GWR (Great Western Railway) Comes to the Thames Valley’ was given by Berkshire-based local historian and archaeologist John Chapman, who has kindly provided the lecture summary below. (Slightly shortened for space reasons) This was an excellent talk, illustrated with some fascinating nineteenth century illustrations, including early photos of the 1840s/50s, and was much enjoyed by the audience, prompting a number of questions at the end.

Before the coming of the railways the ability to carry people and goods over long distances was strictly limited. Heavy goods were hauled in huge lumbering carts by teams of up to a dozen horses and you had to be fairly well off to have a carriage. Also the state of the roads was worse than awful. Things improved with the turnpikes and stage coaches provided some sort of public transport system. Canals were developed to carry heavy goods.

The GWR was conceived by merchants in Bristol as a short cut in a journey from New York to London, and the first Bill was proposed in 1824 as a railway with a corresponding turnpike to collect passengers between stations and just off the route. Although it was fully subscribed the proposal failed. A new bill was promoted in 1833 when Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed as Engineer – this included a line through Windsor, Newbury and Devizes with some very long tunnels but it was strenuously opposed by landowners, the canal companies and Eton College, who were concerned about its effect on the behaviour of its pupils. The name Great Western Railway was proposed but – as a member of the House of Lords observed – it was neither Great, nor Western or even a railway. The route was resurveyed by Brunel to run via Southall, Didcot and Chippenham and most of the tunnels were replaced by cuttings. Brunel achieved a most remarkable mathematical feat in his calculations which gave an almost level railway with only a few hundred tons of spoil left over.

The new Bill received Royal Assent in 1835 and gave the railway the right to compulsorily purchase land. Brunel hired many teams of contractors and each set to build their bit of the railway. The British contractors devised methods which were so efficient that over the next 50 years or so they were hired to build railways all over the world – local contractors just could not compete. Brunel designed every last detail – even down to his own special screws. He had a standard range of buildings and bridges which could be readily adapted to local situations, but his attempts to design and specify locomotives was a disaster – about 20 years behind the times – and he employed the young Daniel Gooch as his locomotive engineer. The first section of line from London to Maidenhead (actually Taplow) was opened on 4th June 1838, but the locomotives Brunel had ordered were so dreadful they were unable to keep to the timetable and Gooch had to do a vast amount of work to keep two or three locomotives operational and eventually designed his own Firefly Class of fast-running 2-2-2 tender engines which were immensely successful. The Thames at Maidenhead posed a real problem as the river authorities required that river traffic must be unimpeded – Brunel’s standard designs were of no use so he designed a brand new bridge with shallow brick arches – everyone said it would fall down – but it didn’t and is still there today.

The tunnels on either side of Reading were replaced by deep cuttings at Sonning and Purley and the line to Steventon opened on 1st June 1840 and later a branch from Didcot to Oxford was constructed. At the same time construction had started from the Bristol end and the line to Bath was opened on 31st August 1840, Chippenham was reached from Steventon on the 31st May 1841 and on June 30th when Box tunnel was completed it became possible to traverse the whole route from Bristol to London. Branches were built to Windsor, Oxford and Newbury and then to Cheltenham and under the direction of Charles Russell a thriving business was established which saw off most of the canals. Expansion to Penzance, Birkenhead and Fishguard followed and soon they had a very comprehensive travel business which eventually got into hotels, steamships, package holidays, buses and aeroplanes.

Initially the first station from Paddington was West Drayton but the Enclosure Acts had allowed the building of estates on the fringes of London and the railway built stations to serve them. A deal was done with the North London Railway to provide a link from Acton to London Docks and with the Metropolitan Railway to link to the markets at Smithfield and Covent Garden and to the City of London. At first, rolling stock was based either on stage coaches or farmers’ carts but an accident in Sonning cutting on Christmas Eve 1841 (killing 8 and severely injuring another 17), caused the Board of Trade to begin to take rail safety seriously. Signalling had been a matter of hand signals but it was so obviously inadequate that other methods had to be devised and GWR introduced a simple ball and crossbar system.

The GWR ran to a ‘Broad’ gauge of seven feet which enabled trains to be much bigger, faster and more stable, but the rest of the country were adopting Stephenson’s standard gauge of 4ft 8½ inches. The Manchester and Southampton Railway got the right to build a standard gauge line in 1844 which meant that the GWR from Birmingham to Basingstoke had to have dual gauge track. These complications became so uneconomic that finally the GWR gave way and the last Broad Gauge train ran from Paddington to the West Country in May 1892. (The 2009 HADAS long weekend allowed us to view the replica Broad Gauge line and train at Didcot Railway Centre, hauled by a new-build ‘Firefly’ class engine – Ed.) In the early 1850s there was a take-over bid by interests in South Wales and the Midlands and Brunel was sacked after the railway ran into severe financial difficulties. He turned his hand to building Steam Ships and died on September 15th 1859. Daniel Gooch bought Brunel’s Great Eastern and pioneered laying transoceanic cables to link the Empire. He became an MP and was very wealthy and long-lived.

Exhibitions: Church Farm House Museum, Hendon

DREAMS OF FLIGHT: Hendon Aerodrome 1910- 1925 Gerrard Roots

7 April – 9 May 2010. The exhibition includes material from London Borough of Barnet’s Archives and the archives of the Royal Aero Club and marks the centenary of the French aviator Louis Paulhan’s victory in the London to Manchester Air Race of 1910. Paulhan took off from Hendon and landed in Manchester some 12 hours later, so easily winning the Daily Mail newspaper’s prize of £10,000 for anyone flying the distance in under 24 hours.

Hendon has long had an important place in the history of aeronautics. Manned balloons flew in the area from the 1860s onwards, and a non-rigid airship took off from Hendon in 1909 to drop suffragette leaflets over the Houses of Parliament. The first Hendon Aerodrome was built in Colindale in 1909 by Everitt and Edgecumbe, and when this was taken over by Claude Grahame-White in 1910, flying at Hendon quite literally ‘took off’. Grahame-White’s flying school was successful – it even, with some reluctance, trained women as pilots – but after 1911 his ‘Aerial Derbies’, in which planes flew over London, starting and finishing at Hendon, were even more profitable. 45,000 spectators attended the 1912 Aerial Derby, and by 1914 Hendon was as much a part of the Social Circuit as Royal Ascot or Cowes.

Grahame-White was an advocate of the importance of military aviation, and during World War I he placed London Aerodrome (as it was now known) at the disposal of the government, who used it to train pilots for the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, and to test new military planes. (The first bombing raid from Britain took off from Hendon in 1917.) The War saw a massive increase in the manufacture of aircraft at Hendon: Grahame-White’s own factory employed 3500 men by 1918, and there were other major factories nearby such as Airco and Handley Page. After WWI the demand for aircraft fell, and Grahame-White’s factory turned to making cars and furniture instead. The aerial displays started up again in 1919, with a Victory Derby, but Hendon was soon deemed inadequate for the faster new planes and in 1923 the Derbies were moved to Croydon. In 1922 the Air Ministry requisitioned London Aerodrome and, after a bitter legal battle, Grahame-White pulled out of Hendon in 1925. However, his name is commemorated by the Grahame Park Estate, which occupies much of the old aerodrome site; nearby still stands ‘Aeroville’, the ‘model’ cottages that Grahame-White (an enlightened employer) built for his factory workers; and the Royal Airforce Museum incorporates some of Grahame-White’s factory buildings. Flying at Hendon may have long ceased, but all around us are reminders of Hendon’s fascinating aeronautical past.

Membership Matters Stephen Brunning

Many thanks to everyone who has already paid their subscriptions for this year. As the newsletter went to press, well over half of our members who pay by cheque have done so. Having the money by 5th April means we can claim Gift Aid this year for those people who have signed the declaration form. If you intend to pay by cheque this year and have not renewed, I would be grateful if you could do so as soon as possible. To request a Renewal or Gift Aid form, please contact me (details on back page). Thank you. We extend a warm welcome to new members who have joined HADAS recently, Paul Jackson, Susan Gordon and Alan Slade.

Media – TV & Cinema

Channel 4’s new series of Time Team began on Sunday 18 April, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Episodes 1 and 2 were based on Westminster Abbey and Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. The next episode on 2nd May features Piercebridge but the following list of sites may not be broadcast in this order since it has been obtained from the unofficial Time Team website: Sutton Courtenay (Oxon), Hopton Castle (Shropshire), Cunetio (Mildenhall, Wilts), Tregruk Castle (Wales), Burford Priory (Oxon), Governor’s Green (Portsmouth), Norman Cross (Cambs), Litlington (Cambs.), Dinmore Hill (Herefordshire), Bedford, Purlies Wood (near Peterborough).

Agora, a new Roman epic film – released 23rd April – stars Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria, an astronomer-philosopher and Max Minghella as her slave Davus.

Other Societies’ Lectures and events Eric Morgan / Sue Willetts

Sun. 2nd May, 2pm. Enfield Arch. Society. Theobalds Lane, Theobalds Palace, Cedars Park, Cheshunt. History tour led by Mike Dewbrey. Meet outside the Tearooms in the Park. No booking required.

Mon. 3rd May – Fri. 14th May 10.30, Tues. 4th – Fri. 14th May. Barnet Borough Arts Council. South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10. Spring Art Exhibition and Information stalls – including HADAS. Mon. 3rd May 10.30, Tues – Sat 10am – 5pm (closed 1 – 2pm) & Wed 10am – 8pm.

Mon. 3rd May, 10.30 am – 5.00 pm. Harrow Museum. Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow. Medieval May Day including Morris Men, Falconry, Maypole dancing and craft stalls. Small entry fee.

Tues. 4th May 6.15-8.15 pm Highgate Society. Summer Walk. The ecology and history of Highgate Wood (site of a Roman pottery kiln). Information Hut near Café, Led by Michael Hammerson, HADAS member. £5.00

Thur. 6th May, 1.15 pm. British Museum, Stevenson Lecture Theatre. Calleva (Silchester): facing up to Rome, Prof. Michael Fulford. Free, booking advised. (book online or phone 020 7323 8181 or Ticket Desk in BM,10.00 to 16.45 daily).

Fri. 7th May, 10.30 am. Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries. South Friern Library. Colney Hatch Lane, N10. Talk: Southgate before World War I.

Sun. 9th May, 2.30 pm. Historical High Barnet. Guided walk Through 1,000 years led by Paul Baker. Meet outside Barnet College, Wood Street. £7.00

Tues. 11th May, 6.30 pm London & Middlesex Archaeological Society. Clore Learning Centre at the Museum of London, London EC2Y 5HN at 6:30pm. Refreshments from 6 pm. Open to all: members may bring guests, and non-members welcome. Life in London’s Eastern Suburb c.1550-1700, Philip Baker, Senior Research Officer, Centre for Metropolitan History, University of London

Thurs. 13th May, 1.15 pm. British Museum, Stevenson Lecture Theatre. Vindolanda writing tablets, Prof. Alan Bowman. Book tickets online etc, – see May 6th.

Fri. 14th May, 8.00 pm. Enfield Archaeology Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield. The Rose Theatre. New Developments, Harvey Sheldon (HADAS President). Doors open 7.30p.m. Visitors £1.00. Refreshments available.

Sat. 15th May, 6.00 – 8.00 pm Clore Learning Centre at Discover Greenwich, the Old Royal Naval College. The Archaeology of the Roman Temple in Greenwich Park, Harvey Sheldon. Tickets cost £20.00 (no concessions). Book tickets www.ggc.ac.uk or call 020 8853 7037 or 020 8853 7034

Sun. 16th May – Sun. 23rd, Barnet Borough Arts Council. The Spires, High St, Barnet, Spring Art exhibition and Information stalls, including. HADAS.

Phone 0208 445 8388 for opening times.

Sun. 16th May, 2.30 pm. Guided walk around Georgian Monken Hadley led by Paul Barker. (2 hours) Meet outside The Spires, High Street, Barnet. £7.00.

Tue. 18th May, 7.00 pm. London Archaeologist. Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2. Annual lecture & General Meeting. New light on London’s Shakespearean Playhouses. Julian Bowsher. Refreshments from 6.30 pm.

Wed. 19th May, 10.30 am. Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries Friern Barnet Library Rd, N11. A peep at Barnet postcards. Talk.

Wed. 19th May, 8.00 pm. Islington Archaeology & History Soc. Islington Town Hall, Upper St, N1. St. Pancras on Time. Talk.by Lester Hillman.

Fri. 21st May, 7.00 – 8.00 pm. COLAS, St Olaves Hall, Mark Lane EC3. Near Fenchurch St (BR) station. Doors open 6.30pm. Copped Hall Excavations. Christina Holloway MoLA / West Essex Archaeology Group. Visitors £2.00. Refreshments after. NB HADAS helped WEAG with resistivity & surveying.

Fri. 21st May, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. The Air-Co Rag. Talk by Malcolm Barres-Baker (Archivist) on the Aircraft Manufacturing Co’s magazine (1917-20) incl. artwork

Wed. 26th May, 8.00 pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. St. John’s Church Hall, Friern Barnet Lane. 100 Years of the Phoenix Cinema by Gerry Turvey. (Preceded by AGM) £2.00, free refreshments 7.45 pm and afterwards.

Wed 26th May, 7.00 pm. St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, SW1. A Tudor body in Georgian clothes. Update on archaeological findings at Westminster. Talk by Warwick Rodwell + music by Cecilia Osmond & Robert Quinney. £15 incl. wine. Buy tickets online www.westminster-abbey.org/shop or from Abbey Shop or Chapter Office in Dean’s Yard. Proceeds to Church Appeal Fund. Tel: 020 7654 4963

Thurs. 27th May, 8.00 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Rd, N3. Long Lane Pasture. Talk by Ann Brown. Non-members £2.

Mon 31st May, 10.30 am – 4.00 pm. Kingsbury Open Day. St.Andrews Church (see p.3) HADAS helped on a dig here with Andy Agate. Stalls e.g. Wembley History Soc.

Thurs. 3rd June. 1.15 pm. British Museum, Stevenson Lecture Theatre. Hordes and hoards in Roman Britain, Dr. Andrew Burnett. Booking as for 6th May. Also Roman Society 100th Anniversary. A celebration will feature the Legio II Augusta http://www.legiiavg.org.uk

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events.

The winter lecture series is as always at Avenue House. Lectures start promptly at 8pm; non-members £1; coffee, tea and biscuits can be bought.

Tuesday 13th April. The GWR comes to the Thames Valley -John Chapman.

In this month’s lecture we find out how the GWR came about. The talk traces the building of the railway and the early days of the broad gauge between London and Didcot, focusing on the main towns & villages. John Chapman has been Chairman of the South Eastern Museums Service and Deputy Chairman of the Rail Users Consultative Committee for Western England. He is a local historian with special interest in transport history.

Tues. 11th May -Graeco-Roman Period Funerary Practices in Egypt. John Johnson.

Tuesday, June 8th at 8pm at Avenue House – the 49th HADAS Annual General Meeting takes place – an important date for your diaries. Nomination papers for committee places will be sent out next month – so if you wish to join our committee of volunteers this is your opportunity.

Sunday July 11th We tried having an outing on a Sunday last year and it worked well. So keep your diaries clear for when we plan to visit sites in Kent including Darwin’s home – Down House

HADAS’ long weekend to Norwich – Saturday, August 28th to Wednesday, 1st September 2010.

Don Cooper, announced this trip in the last newsletter, and has had a splendid response. The trip is now three-quarters full. For those still making up their minds, the details are repeated here. The venue will be a hotel in Norwich. The city with its lovely cathedral, castle and museum has many attractions. We will travel by luxury coach, indeed, probably the same coach and driver as last year. Details of the weekend will be available in due course but an interesting trip is in prospect. The cost will be approximately £350 for people sharing and £390

for those requiring single rooms. There will be a limited number of places so please let Don know as soon as possible if you are interested in coming. A deposit of £50 per person is required together with an indication of whether you are sharing or not. Cheques should be made out to HADAS please. Don’s address details are:-59 Potters Road, Barnet, Herts EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350) e-mail to chairman@hadas.org.uk.

‘The Celtic World – Myth and Religion’ course by Peter Nicholson

Some elements of Celtic mythology are known to many. To enhance that knowledge the Mill Hill Archaeological Study Society is running a course of six classes entitled “The Celtic World – Myth and Religion”. The course will examine the background to Celtic belief systems and their priesthood, the Druids, through a study of both documentary and archaeological evidence. The mythology of archaeological sites in continental Europe, Britain and Ireland will also be explored. The course tutor is Scott McCracken. The course is on Friday mornings from

10 to 12, beginning 16th April, in the Lawrence Room, Hartley Hall, Flower Lane NW7. The cost for the course will be £36. For further information contact Peter Nicholson (020-8959 4757)

Walks in East Barnet and Hendon

Many members will remember the lecture that Paul Baker gave to us on Barnet last year. Some of us have also been on his interesting and entertaining themed walks around Barnet. On Sunday 18th April he will lead a walk round East Barnet (Meet outside East Barnet Library, Brookhill Road at 11am.) Then he will turn his attention to Hendon. His new series of walks will be called “Hooray for Hendon” and start from outside Hendon Central Station. The next one takes place on June 13th 2010 at 2.30pm and the one after that on the 7th November 2010 at 11am. The cost is £7 per person, children under 12 £3.

Site of the Battle of Barnet

The 11th March edition of the Hendon and Finchley Times, and its sister paper the Barnet and Potters Bar Times, included an article about the site of the Battle of Barnet. The Battlefields Trust claim that it may be a mile to the north of the accepted site, and are launching an appeal to raise money for an archaeological survey to be undertaken near Kitts End, where they think the battle really took place. The Trust, which is based in St Albans, made headlines earlier this year when members found evidence of the real site of the Battle of Bosworth, which was fought on August 22 1485 in Leicestershire, two miles away from where people had thought it was.

We may well hear more about this subject in the near future.

Bentley Priory by Peter Pickering

Our lecture on Tuesday 10th March was given by Erica Ferguson, the retired Squadron-Leader who runs the Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust, set up to preserve Bentley Priory, the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Its history goes much further back than the Second World War. It was a priory of the Augustinian Friars until the dissolution of the monasteries, but little if anything remains of that building; much remains however of the work which Sir John Soane designed at the end of the eighteenth century

for the Marquess of Abercorn, about whose family connection with Great Stanmore Church we heard in our November lecture. Later it was the home of Queen Adelaide, the widow of William IV, and after many vicissitudes (including a school which failed financially in 1926) was bought by the Air Ministry in 1926, who remained until 2008.

Despite the changes made for operational reasons (like replacing the orangeries by utilitarian blocks) by wear and tear, and by a serious fire during renovation in 1979 there is still much historic fabric – including the office used by Air Chief Marshall Dowding during the Battle of Britain. Erica Ferguson spoke of the efforts being made to preserve the main rooms of the priory as a sustainable museum, focusing on intangibles like leadership and courage, rather than the hardware which is the speciality of the RAF Museum. She was very hopeful that these efforts would succeed, despite a major setback when Barratt Homes, who were to have provided funding for the museum out of planning gain from redeveloping the rest of

the estate, backed out at the very last minute. In the meantime, the Trust opens the Priory for various events in the course of the year. Members may be interested in the 1940s day to be held on 22nd May. From 11 until 4 there will be re-enactments, tours, a Spitfire display, children’s activities, an art exhibition and lots more. Then from half-past seven until half-past eleven there will be a dinner and dancing to the sounds of the forties. The cost for the daytime will be £3.50

(children under 12 free) and for the evening £25 (concessions £22.50); the profits will go to St Luke’s Hospice, Harrow. For further details and a booking form consult Mita Vaghji on 020 8382 8063 or e-mail mvaghji@stlukes-hospice.org website stlukes-hospice.org.

St Andrew’s Old Church Kingsbury.

Many members will remember the excellent lecture that Andy Agate from UCL gave in May 2006 on his researches at Kingsbury Old Church (St. Andrews) and then his excavation there. The newsletter of the Ancient Monuments Society reports that the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a grant to permit this, the only Grade I listed church in Brent, now the property of the Churches Conservation Trust (the subject of our lecture in May 2008), to be repaired and softly adapted as a theatre by the body known as Drama Workshop. St Andrew’s, effectively redundant since 1934, has been through a series of unsatisfactory ‘solutions’ and it is hoped that this really will be the sustainable option which secures the fund for repairs and sees off the vandals.

Current Archaeology Conference by Peter Pickering

I went to the British Museum on the last weekend in February to the Awards for the Presentation of Heritage Research 2010 followed by the annual conference organised by ‘Current Archaeology’. Except for a talk by Julian Bowsher on the Rose and Globe Playhouses, there was nothing of specific London concern, but there was much of great interest. Among the contestants for the Awards were an amateur-run diving investigation off the South Devon coast which has found large quantities of copper and tin ingots – perhaps from the cargo of a Bronze Age ship bringing material from Mediterranean for processing in Britain (this entry was the winner) and a very detailed analysis of wall-paintings in Lakenheath Church Suffolk which found the origin of the unusual iconography in arguments between Ely Cathedral and Bury St Edmunds Abbey for control of the village. Most way-out was research into the carvings on trees (‘arborglyphs’ to you) by soldiers on Salisbury Plain – the researcher had managed to trace the descendants of some of those who had so defaced nature.

The conference offered choices -usually between two subjects each worth attending. Among my choices was a session on archaeology and climate change, which explored the evidence for past climates -were they warmer or colder then than to-day? As one might expect, the evidence is ambiguous. Although soldiers in Vindolanda wrote letters asking to be sent warmer clothing, that might have been because they came from southern climes, not because it was really cold – species of beetle, for instance flourished at Hadrian’s Wall which are now found only in southern England. Professor Baillie had studied long tree ring sequences in Ireland,

but trends in the width of rings was not a satisfactory proxy for the temperature – for instance older trees grow more slowly than younger ones, and major replantings in the eighteenth century invalidate calculations; Professor Baillie demonstrated amusingly how graphs could be drawn in ways which gave quite different impressions. Professor Fagan from California showed how people in pre-colonial America adapted to changing climates by moving from one area to another (especially in search of reliable water supplies); he was concerned that people to-day would be unable to adopt that strategy, and could suffer greatly as a consequence.

Another valuable session was on the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which has revolutionised views about the monument, what preceded it and why it was built – as a cremation cemetery for the powerful and house for the dead ancestors, linked with Durrington Walls where there were perhaps a thousand houses for the living, occupied not permanently but for feasting at recurrent festivals. Our old friend Mark Hassall tried to undermine this new account by quoting Diodorus Siculus, who says that in the land of the Hyperboreans there is a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is

spherical in shape; he did not shake the speakers.

There was much at the conference about the notable advances in our knowledge produced by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, on subjects as diverse as settlement patterns, the recurrent shortages of small change in mediaeval England (which led to the illegal use of Venetian money), and a type of enamelled Roman brooch found especially on the Wirral peninsula. And, of course, the great hoards of Viking silver from the Vale of York, and the Staffordshire hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and garnets.

ROMANS GO HOME by Peter Pickering

This was the controversial Logo for the very serious conference on the End of Roman Britain which was held in the British Museum on 12th and 13th March. 2010 is not only the sixteenth centenary of AD 410, the traditional date for the end of Roman rule in Britain, but also the centenary of the founding of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. The Lecture Theatre was as packed as the programme of 26 half-hour lectures, which eschewed mention

of Arthur or Vortigern. Inevitably, since the subjects were separate and the speakers differed in their approaches, the conference had no single clear message. But I came away much better informed both as to the extent of general agreement among scholars and as to the matters which are of lively contention. With such a programme, there was little time for questions or discussion (and such questioning as there was was hogged by one or two individuals).

I had not properly realised before that the historical sources for the first decade of the fifth century are quite extensive though of low quality – “we know more about the years 406-410 than we know about any other quinquennium of Romano-British history, apart from the periods that Tacitus describes for us”, that sources agree that there was a major Saxon raid on Britain during those years (though not on the precise date) and that the text of the historian Zosimus as we have it says that the emperor Honorius wrote a letter to the cities in Britain saying that they should protect themselves, though most scholars believe that, since the context is Alaric’s campaigns in Italy, ‘Britain’ is a scribal error for ‘Bruttium’.

The conference papers that discussed the archaeological evidence for a withdrawal of Roman forces from Britain tended to see geographical differences; several Saxon Shore forts were abandoned by 400, though there were many early fifth-century coins at Richborough; there was a lack of late defences in Wales, despite the Irish raiders, but on Hadrian’s Wall the late Roman garrisons remained and were slowly transmuted into the forces of local war-lords (two inscribed British names at Vindolanda being evidence of this). But everywhere the monetary economy collapsed, since soldiers and civil servants were no longer being paid in coin.

The conference heard about the evidence of continuity between Roman and Saxon London, shown by the fact that Saxon burials near St Martin’s-in-the-Fields seem to have respected the Roman ones (as described to us last October by Alison Telfer), and also that the late Roman city was not so sparsely populated as is generally believed (if the ubiquitous Dark Earth comes from biologically reworked middens, then there must have been a considerable population producing the rubbish that went into the middens). The experience of small towns was varied; Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews found good evidence for vigorous activity in Baldock extending well into the sixth century; Baldock might be atypical, perhaps because of a nearby pagan cult stronghold, or it might be that the evidence elsewhere has been removed by ploughing or unrecognised. There is a problem also with recognising the evidence in rural areas, where it may be that there was just not so much digging of ditches as in the Roman period. As for Verulamium, David Neal argued, as he had recently in Current Archaeology that development at Building 2 in Insula XXVII had not continued into the fifth century; he was met by a powerful rejoinder from Sheppard Frere, the original excavator, now 94 years old, read for him by a friend.

There was quite a lot about Gildas, the author of ‘The Ruin and Conquest of Britain’. Neil Faulkner saw him as “the Red Monk of the first peasants’ revolt” condemning an embryonic Dark Age élite that was constructing new forms of exploitation and domination after a lengthy period in which the peasantry had been relatively free of burdens. Another speaker praised Gildas’s latinity and used it as evidence of a continuing high level of education in the fifth century, for a society which needed literate men for the law and the church. It was

agreed that Gildas was not writing history, but apocalyptic polemic, and that it was wrong to judge him by historiographical standards. Ken Dark agreed about the level of education in Western Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries; Britannia Prima was the only one of the British provinces to remain wholly under British rule, and though hill-forts like Tintagel replaced villas and walled towns the evidence of inscriptions and trade with the Mediterranean showed that civilised life continued.

Buried hoards of Roman gold and silver -some of the most spectacular remains of late antiquity -were the subject of three papers. The far from uniform pattern of such finds throughout northern Europe (including Scandinavia) was analysed with suggestive results. One speaker saw burying treasure as a post-Roman rather than a late-Roman practice. Hoards could be linked in some way with the largesse that emperors provided to their own subjects (later to be returned through taxation) and to barbarian raiders like Alaric. Were hoards buried

in times of threat with the intention of recovery, or was the purpose more ritual? A particular paper was given by Kenneth Painter on the Traprain Law hoard -a collection of silver bullion from southern Scotland made up of crushed, chopped and hacked-up vessels.

I was especially fascinated by a paper on the linguistic divisions of Britain, though it was not presented very clearly, and the argumentation and evidence were much compressed. But the thesis seemed to be that the English language was not brought to this island after the end of Roman Britain by people from overseas, but that a germanic language had been spoken here from before the Roman conquest. Evidence adduced for this included the language on the coins of the Iceni, some things which Tacitus, Claudian and Nennius write, and the tribal name Deceangli. One consequence was that the Saxon shore got its name not because Saxons raided it, but because Saxons lived there in Roman Britain.

Finally, we were told how memories of Roman Britain persisted in later centuries, but sometimes in a strangely distorted form. Magnus Maximus got a good press in Wales – “Maxen was Emperor of Rome, and the handsomest and wisest of men, and the best fitted to be emperor of all that had gone before him; he married Helen of the Hosts, and built her Caerleon and Carmarthen as wedding presents; she then built roman roads (called Sarn Helen) throughout Wales”. Cleopatra was confused with Claudius Gothicus, and one saint’s life takes a list of Roman emperors to be a Bible-style genealogy (Carocius -ie Carausius -begat Diocletian,

Diocletian begat Galerius, Galerius begat Constantine the Great and so on.)

A very interesting conference, but pretty hard work for those attending.

Other Societies’ Events by Eric Morgan

Monday 12th April 3pm Barnet and District Local History Society. Church House Wood Street Barnet (opposite museum) “In the Footsteps of the Famous in Finchley” Talk by Paul Baker. Tea at 2.30 pm

Wednesday 14th April 8pm Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall; Corner of Ferme Park Road and Weston Park N8 “Percy Joseph Barralet: Victorian Photographer” Talk by John Hinshelwood Visitors £1.

Thursday 15th April 8pm Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane\Junction Chase Side Enfield.”Centenary of the extension of the Railway from Grange Park to Cuffley” Talk by Dave Cockle and Roger Elkin. There is an exhibition on this from 20th April to 20th June at Forty Hall.

Friday 16th April 7pm COLAS St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3. “Deptford and Chichester – an archaeological comparison” Talk by Joanna Taylor. Visitors £2.

Friday 16th April. 8pm Enfield Archaeological Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane\Junction Chase Side Enfield. AGM and “The excavations and fieldwork of Enfield Archaeological Society 2009”. Visitors £1.

Saturday 17th April 11am to 2pm. Enfield Society Historic Buildings Group. Guided tours of two Enfield churches – St Mary Magdalene, at the corner of the Ridgeway and Windmill Hill (with opportunity to ascend the Tower) and Christ Church United Reformed Church in Chase Side; refreshments and historical displays.

Wednesday 21st April 10.30 to 11.30am Friern Barnet Library Friern Barnet Road N11 “The history of Friary Park.” Mel Hooper. With coffee.

Thursday 22nd April 6.30pm Willesden Green Library Centre High Road NW10 “Neo-Tudor and its Enemies” talk by Gavin Stamp

Saturday 24th April 2-3pm Museum of London “Playhouse Finds” Jacky Kelly. Free.

Thursday 27th April 10.30 am Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane\Junction Chase Side Enfield. “Discovering historic buildings in Edmonton, Winchmore Hill and Southgate” talk by Stephen Gilburt.

Wednesday 26th April. 7.45pm Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. St John’s Church Hall (next to Whetstone Police Station) Friern Barnet Lane N20. “The Fleet Valley” Ken Griffin. Visitors £2. Refreshments.

Thursday 29th April 8pm Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road N3 “My granny had one of these, but she threw it away” Talk by Maurice Collins. Non-members £2.

Friday 30th April 2-3pm Museum of London “London’s Bodies” Walk to find out where the bodies are hidden. £6.50 Book in advance – 020 7001 9844.

Exhibitions

Till 5th April. Kenwood House. “Lost London 1870-1945”

Till 19th April Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor “Historic Views of London”

Till 2nd May Hampstead Museum, Burgh House “Religious Freedom in Hampstead”

Monday 12th April to Saturday 26th June Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, Holborn Library, Theobalds Road “Victorian Artists of Camden Square”.

The Archaeology of Anglo-Jewry in London 1066-1290 and 1656-c.1850

A review of the January lecture by Simon Williams

Ken rather fascinatingly introduced the talk with a sub-title of “work in progress” (particularly of the re-admission period); making clear that the talk comprised the actual physical evidence (both documentary and artefact-led). The first question to be answered was: were there Jews here before 1066?—there may well have been individuals, in the Roman and Saxon periods, but there is no physical evidence for their presence.

The first set of dates represent the admission of the Jews to their expulsion; the second the re-admission by Cromwell (possibly after noticing how Amsterdam thrived). Why to 1850? Because from 1850 to1880 the community roughly doubled in size (approx. from 30,000 to 60,000). For the first 80-odd years they were only allowed to live in London. From documents it is possible to find some of the individual houses (out of a population of approx. 1,000) where Jews lived; and those which were confiscated before Edward 1st’s expulsion of 1290 (and hence reverted to the Crown and courtiers).

Prior to the expulsion there was a total population of only about 2,500 in the whole country. There was a cemetery for Jews (the only place in Britain in which they were allowed to be buried from 1070 to 1170) outside Cripplegate, near their early centre at the Guildhall. This appears to have been desecrated—when Grimes excavated here after the blitz, he found not a single skeleton complete and in place, the only substantial finds being two broken fragments of tombstones bearing parts of Hebrew inscriptions, re-used in the London City Wall.

The remains of two C13 ritual baths (Mikvaot) are the most substantial evidence to survive of British Jewry, found beneath basement level in the population centre adjacent to the Guildhall. One is currently being re-assembled in the lobby of the Jewish Museum. Much documentary information comes from tax receipts. In the Public Records Office, Kew, over 200 talleage sticks are a remarkably fleeting survival of the C13; these are split wooden sticks bearing on either side in Latin the amount paid, in and in Hebrew the names of the payer.

Jews were unable to do business within the city bounds, due to their inability to take a Christian oath so as to join a guild. This, on their re-admission, together with a barring of their return to the Guildhall area, caused them to move further east. Other artefacts comprise cemetery monuments: there are two unique to Britain to be found from the Brady Street cemetery, where most of the monuments are being eaten away by acid rain, one to the outstandingly philanthropic Miriam Levy, singularly adorned with a bust of her, and another with the skull and cross-bones (“for immortality / we are all equal in the eyes of God”) – of a type known from Amsterdam.

Synagogues of note surviving till recent times are the Great Synagogue – 1690 (Ashkenazi), Duke St (destroyed in the blitz), and the Bevis Marks example, of a similar date, where the candles are still lit every Friday night; these being the sole modern survivors of an original total of 5 known. Further artefacts comprise a dish from Mitre St. inscribed Halav (milk), of about 1710 .Other finds: from rubbish dumps around London are lead meat seals marked ‘kosher’; 2 shofarot, [ram’s horns] dating from 1800 (+/- 10 years) have also been found, both damaged. One was dredged from the Thames.

Thanks to Ken for an interesting and informative talk.

Further reading: The Jews of Britain (Todd M.Endleman, University of California Press, 2002)

An important date for your diaries by Don Cooper

During this unwelcome spell of cold weather it is nice to think forward to summer and HADAS’ long weekend. This year the long weekend will take place from Saturday, 28th August 2010 to Wednesday 1st September 2010. The venue will be a hotel in Norwich. The city with its lovely cathedral, castle and museum has many attractions. We will travel by luxury coach. Details of the weekend will be available in due course but an interesting trip is in prospect. The cost will be approximately £350 for people sharing and £390 for those requiring single rooms. There will be a limited number of places so please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in coming. A deposit of £50 per person is required together with an indication of whether you are sharing or not. Cheques should be made out to HADAS please. My address details are below.

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events in 2010

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, and start promptly at 8 pm. Nearest tube station is Finchley Central. Non-members: £1. Coffee tea and biscuits available.

Tuesday 9th March 2010 – The History of RAF Bentley Priory – lecture by Erica Ferguson

Squadron Leader Erica Ferguson left the Royal Air Force in 1996 after 18 years of service as an Air Traffic Control officer. She had always had an interest in military heritage and veterans’ welfare and consequently was delighted to help with the project to preserve the important site of RAF Bentley Priory for the Nation after its closure by the Ministry of Defence in May 2008.

For this month’s lecture, Erica will give a presentation on the history of Bentley Priory and the plans for its future as a vibrant museum and education centre.

Tues. 13th April – The GWR comes to the Thames Valley – lecture by John Chapman. More on God’s Wonderful Railway! (John is also a military historian, and was part of the group with which HADAS member Andy Simpson toured the WW1 Salonika (Northern Greek) battlefields in 2009).

Tues. 11th May – Graeco-Roman Period Funerary Practices in Egypt. Lecture by John Johnson.

Saturday 28 August – Wednesday 1 September – HADAS Long Weekend in Norwich (details to come)

Membership Matters Stephen Brunning

A warm welcome to the new members who have joined since October 2009: Juliette, Colin and Christopher BROWN, Anthony BUCK, Andrea CATANIA, Edward and Valerie HARRIS, Joanna KACORZYK, Dot RAVENSWOOD, Fiona RICKLOW.

The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March, and so all members who pay by cheque will need to renew from next month (except those people who have joined since January this year).

Please find enclosed a renewal form, and I would ask that you fill it in and return it to me along with the appropriate amount as soon as possible. The current rates and where to send your payment are on the form. Many thanks. If the renewal form is not enclosed and you require one, please contact me (details on back page)

February lecture – The Trendles Project given by William Cumber Liz Gapp

The subtitle of this talk was ‘Exploring Marcham’s Past’. Last year one of the HADAS outings was to this site, and as a result this talk was set up.

William Cumber introduced himself as the farmer who owns the land which this site occupies. He bought the farm in 1973, and started farming then. In 1975, a combine harvester driver commented on strange patterns noticed when the wheat was cut. The next year, in 1976, William Cumber used a crop-spraying helicopter to photograph a circle with a square on one end, which was very clear from the air. The corn in it was about waist high. Nothing much happened for a few years, but in 1981-2, when an archaeologist walked a field to the north of the one where the photo was taken, he was shown the photos taken of the circle. As a result, two sample trenches were cut by Richard Hingley, and the resultant discoveries led the experts to declare an undiscovered amphitheatre.

On this farm boundary the right-hand side is the farm, and the left hand side, that adjoins the farm, is a scheduled ancient monument with a Romano-British style temple. It is thought that this may overlay an Iron Age Celtic building. Due to the proximity of these remains, it was not altogether surprising that the farm field had remains in it to be discovered. Once William was aware of the likelihood of this, he made sure that ploughing in this field was kept to a minimum, and, with the advent of ‘set aside’, designated this field as such.

In the 1930s, this area was excavated by J.S P. Bradford and R.G. Goodchild, leading to the uncovering of the temple area as well as Iron Age roundhouses, pits and ditches. In 1964, Dennis Harding also did some excavation, resulting in a slightly different assessment of the age of the temple. Subsequently, a large tile scatter was found in one area on a recent excavation by Gary Lock which resolved the dilemma. The tiles actually had two different ages as there were two groupings a hundred years apart, probably relating to two separate occasions when the roof was tiled.

This area appeared not to be an occupation site. It is thought that it lies on the boundaries of three British tribes, namely the Atrebati, Catuvellauni and Dubunii tribes, and that this may have been where they met for religious and trade purposes.

In the 1990s, William Cumber’s wife met Gary Lock from Oxford University, and it was decided to use Marcham as a training dig for Oxford archaeology undergraduates. Geophysical surveys of the field were undertaken, which showed features at the cardinal points of the ‘amphitheatre’. It also showed a large rectangular building in the centre of the field and a system of prehistoric ditches in the south-western corner. The initial idea was for the excavation to be carried out over three years, but as time went on and the extent of the discoveries grew this has extended to more than ten years. This has been helped by lottery funding, and the various farming allowances that supplanted the set-aside scheme. Whilst these exist, it is economically viable for excavation to continue, especially as it is considered to be a very important site.

The first season, the rectilinear building base was uncovered, but it is not clear whether the building was ever completed, especially as there was no debris in the middle of the building, and so no indication of a tiled roof.

It was estimated that the building was dated to either the late 3rd century or 4th century. The floor is built on the local bedrock, and the building is thought to be some sort of shrine.

Over the following seasons more buildings were uncovered, and to distinguish them they were given nicknames according to the artefacts found in their vicinity. So ‘the café’ was located near to fragments of pottery and stone; the ‘trinket shop’ had metal working and evidence of burning nearby; another building was nicknamed ‘the pizza parlour’.

In another area, a four-metre square deep pit had been dug and refilled with stone except for one hole which was filled with coins. Buildings were found that had only ever had three sides, like the typical shops found at Pompeii, although the inside was barren of finds. The digger found 120 artefacts in a random trench that was found to contain two hearths. The walls Richard Hingley had uncovered were uncovered once more; he had marked them by covering them with old sacks. In the ‘Royal Box’, a raised dais in the middle of the ‘amphitheatre’ building was found a 2 ½” tall bronze brooch with enamel on it.

In the ‘Royal Box’ was found the centre of a drain, the extent of which is still being investigated. The amphitheatre was now re-identified as an arena, due to the fact that it is circular, not oval, and also that it is not near a large centre of population.

During the very wet years of 2006-7, there was a resultant problem with the water table, in particular on 20 July 2007 four inches of rain fell in Tewkesbury. The result was that it was impossible to excavate, and it took another year fully to drain, so it was only in 2009 that excavation of the drain could be continued. So far 300 metres have been discovered, and there is more to find. It didn’t work well as parts had collapsed, and it was built without man-holes to correct this.

The ‘arena’, which is about 40 metres in diameter and had walls around 4 to 4 ½ metres high, could also be a sacred pool, a concept which looked very likely in 2006-7. However, it is possible that this building has alternated between these two functions. The surrounding wall was scooped through revealing six skeletons. They are Christian burials dating to 380 AD, and there may be more, but due to the delicacy required in excavating them it was decided not to try to find any more. It was felt possible that these were buried in a ceremony to close the site.

An interesting find was the skeleton of ‘Daisy the cow’ which although a mature animal, was about half the size of the cows we see nowadays.

In the course of excavation, there have been several finds including; an intaglio, coins, pins, pottery and skeletons, both human and animal. The human remains have now been reburied close to where they came from, and the rest of the artefacts are temporarily stored in Beaumont St in Oxford.

One of the problems that arose once this very important site became well known, was that of theft by illegal metal detectorists often called “nighthawks“. Security on the site is difficult, so at various times the site was seeded with metal washers, and when that became possible to be screened out by the detectors, was then seeded with cartridge cases from the local clay pigeon club. This strategy has improved the situation, although it still happens.

The digging obviously costs money to pay for the supervisors and other facilities, so trainees pay to do the dig. A trust, the Vale and Ridgeway Trust, was funded by the Lottery Fund. This paid for three years’ worth of ‘people’s trench’ and for pamphlets about the excavation to be printed.

As William Cumber said at the end of his very interesting and entertaining talk, as the years go on there is more and more to talk about, so more has to be left out each time to fit the talk into the available time. It is impossible to give the full flavour of this talk as the slides shown added so much to the talk, but I hope this overview gives an indication of what was an excellent talk.

STOP PRESS – Congratulations to Dorothy Newbury, well-known long-term HADAS member, who has just celebrated her 90th birthday.

Waitrose Community Matters Stephen Brunning

HADAS was one of three nominated charities in January 2010 under the above initiative at Waitrose Mill Hill.

Each month, shops will have £1,000 to divide between three local organisations. Customers are offered a green token every time they shop. These can be inserted in one of three perspex boxes – one for each organisation. At the end of the month the tokens for each organisation are weighed. Then the beneficiaries will each receive a proportion of the cash depending on the number of tokens received.

I am pleased to report that shoppers have raised the splendid sum of £260 for HADAS. We had to compete with Copthall Swimming Club and Whetstone Wanderers Youth Football Club, so receiving over 25% of the cash is a great achievement. There is hope yet for the Historic Environment!

Remembering Helen O’Brien Sheila Woodward

It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of Helen O’Brien, a member of HADAS since 1973. She was a regular digger throughout the first phase (1976 to 1981) of the West Heath excavation. She also took part in the post-excavation work, and contributed to the West Heat Report, published in 1919.

Helen often participated in HADAS social activities in those early days, and those of us who shared them with her remember her quiet charm and beauty, her friendliness and her good humour. They are happy memories. We extend our sympathy to Helen’s husband and daughter in their great loss.

Graham Hutchings Don Cooper

We also have to report the death of a long-standing member, Graham Hutchings, in December 2009, aged 85. Graham was a member from 1981 to 2008 and kept an eye on developments and issues from the Cricklewood area. He was one of the organisers of the Cricklewood Festival and usually persuaded HADAS to have a stall there! Our condolences go out to his family and friends.

19th C Population History Workshop – a few places left

The LAMAS Local History Committee is organising a workshop for Saturday 20th March 2010, to demonstrate how members of affiliated local history societies can construct a nineteenth century population history of their parish. The workshop will be conducted between 10am and 1pm in the new e-learning suite of the Museum of London, London Wall, EC2.

The workshop will consist of a presentation showing how the census statistics have been used to create a population profile for one particular nineteenth century Middlesex parish. There will then be an extended hands-on session during which participants will be able to extract figures for their own parish from The Online Historical Population Reports website and compile a full set of data to take away. There are still a few places left. For further information or to book a place contact:

LAMAS Local History Workshop, c/o 9 Umfreville Road , London , N4 1RY ,

or email to: johnhinshelwood@btinternet.com – subject Local History Workshop

OTHER SOCIETIES’ LECTURES AND EVENTS Eric Morgan

Wednesday 3rd March, 8pm, Stanmore & Harrow Historical Society, Wealdstone Baptist Church Hall, High St, Wealdstone. “The History of Uxbridge” – talk by K. Pearce. Visitors £1.

Thursday 4th March, 10.30am-12 noon, Mill Hill Library, Hartley Avenue, NW7. “London Walks – History and Highlights of the Capital Ring”. Talk. Coffee, biscuits 50p.

Sunday 7th March, 11am – 1pm. “Hooray for Hendon!” Guided walk through 1,000 years from the Domesday Book to Hendon Aerodrome. Meet at Hendon Central Tube Station. Led by Paul Baker. Cost £7.

Monday 8th March, 3pm, Barnet and District Local History Society, Church House, Wood Street, Barnet (opposite Museum) “Hornblower’s Navy.” Talk by {Paul Chamberlain). Tea: 2.30 pm.

Wednesday 10th March, 8pm, Mill Hill Historical Society, Wilberforce Centre, St Paul’s Church, The Ridgeway, NW7 . “The Building of the Underground.” Talk by Tony Earle.

Saturday 13th March, 11am-5.30pm. Lamas Archaeology Conference, the Weston Theatre, Museum of London, London Wall, EC2. (For details please see February Newsletter)

Friday 19th March, 7.30 pm. Wembley Historical Society, St. Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9: “My Little Bit of History”. Talks by Members.

Sunday 21st March, 11am-1pm – “Fabulous Finchley”. Guided walk through 1,000 years of Finchley Central and East Finchley. Meet at Finchley Central Tube Station (Ballards Lane exit). Finishes at East Finchley. Led by Paul Baker. Cost £7.

Wednesday 24th March, 7.45 pm, Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, St John’s Church Hall, (next to Whetstone Police Station) Friern Barnet Lane, N20. “Allotments”. Leon Price and Phyll Miles. Cost £2. Refreshments 7.45 pm.

Thursday 25th March, 2.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley N3. “Liquid History – London and the Thames”. Brenda Cole. £2.

Sunday 28th March, 11am-1pm “Battle of Barnet”. Guided walk. Meet at Junction of Great North Way and Hadley Green Road. Led by Paul Baker. Costs £7.

Please note that the exhibition on “The History of the Welsh Harp” at Church Farmhouse Museum, Greyhound Hill, NW4 mentioned in the February Newsletter has now been extended to Sunday 28th March

HADAS EVENTS 2010

The winter lecture series is held, as ever, at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. Nearest tube Finchley Central. Lectures start promptly at 8pm, non-members £1, coffee/biscuits available for purchase.

Tues. 9th February Lecture by William Cumber – The Trendles Project

The site at Marcham/Frilford is an Iron Age settlement which is overlain by a Romano-British temple complex. Its is often referred to as just ‘Frilford’. Marcham/Frilford is located in the Vale of the White Horse (on the A338 to Wantage at what used to be The Noah’s Ark pub) not far from the sites excavated as the Hillforts of the Ridgeway Project. Together the two projects explore life in this area through the later prehistoric and Romano-British periods.

William Cumber was born into a long-standing Berkshire farming family, and graduated in agriculture from Reading University in 1970. The M4 motorway destroyed the family farm at Theale (now Junction12!) and Manor Farm Marcham was bought to replace it. William and his wife became interested in archaeology once they knew there was potentially interesting archaeology on the farm (in 1982), but nothing more happened until the Oxford University dig started in 2001. Their focus is on the continuing occupation of a religious site through the Iron Age and Romano-British periods, and it is fair to say that they have found more than they expected – an intended three season dig enters its tenth season in 2010.

This talk complements the HADAS trip to Broughton Castle & Oxfordshire on Sunday 26th July 2009 when members were given a guided tour of this splendid site.

Tues. 9th March Lecture by Erica Ferguson – The History of RAF Bentley Priory

…which was just up the road at Stanmore until it closed in May 2008. Your editor was part of the RAF Museum team which recovered many of its historic artefacts.

Tues. 13th April Lecture by John Chapman – The GWR comes to the Thames Valley

More on God’s Wonderful Railway! –see Didcot shed visit report in this issue. John is also a military historian, and was part of the group with which your editor toured the WW1 Salonika (Northern Greek) battlefields in 2009.

Tues. 11th May Lecture by John Johnson – Graeco-Roman Period Funerary Practices in Egypt

NEW SERIES OF TIME TEAM

That time-honoured feature of winter Sunday evenings is back somewhat later this year – reportedly at the prime-time slot of 7pm in March.

THE GERRARD ROOTS PAGE…

I75 Years of Brent Reservoir Gerrard Roots

Until 14 February, Church Farmhouse Museum, Hendon, is celebrating the 175th anniversary of Brent Reservoir- ‘the Welsh Harp’- with a new exhibition on the fascinating history of this major resource, which spans the London boroughs of Barnet and Brent. The two borough’s Welsh Harp Joint Consultative Committee has sponsored the exhibition.

Brent Reservoir was built to replenish the water lost by the many locks on the Regent’s and Grand Union Canals. It opened in 1835, and was from the start much used for swimming and fishing, but it really took off as a recreation spot in the 1860s, thanks to William Perkins Warner, landlord of the now-demolished Welsh Harp pub (from which the reservoir takes its popular name) who added skating, shooting, a menagerie and even horse racing to the area’s attractions. The Welsh Harp had its own music hall, and its own music hall song- ‘The Jolliest Place That’s Out’- and it was until the rise of the seaside holiday in the 1890s a very popular resort for day-tripping Londoners.

The Welsh Harp has long-standing connexion with navigation: the modern ship’s propeller was created there in 1836; speed- boats and small flying-boats were common sights there in the 1920s and 1930s; and a number of boating groups use the reservoir today.

The Welsh Harp has some unusual associations, too. Torpedoes and tanks were tested there, and it was the scene of the Hendon Nudist Riots in the hot summer of 1930, which involved fist-fights between some 200 Hendon residents and nude sun-bathers.

Brent Reservoir, now managed by the Welsh Harp Conservation Group, has a diverse wildlife- from voles to slow-worms, and in 1975 was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, because of its wealth of over-wintering waterfowl; teal, grebes, shovellers, coot and Canada geese are frequent visitors to the Welsh Harp- for nearly 200 years a wonderful breathing-space for London.

‘New’ Discoveries

Church Farm Museum Curator Gerrard had to move his museum off-site store just before Christmas. Amongst his discoveries was a small wooden crate of Ted Sammes material – building material – brick and roofing tile – from the HADAS Church End Farm, Hendon, excavations of the 1960s, as published in the recent HADAS publication ‘The Last Hendon Farm’. This material will be recovered to Avenue House, cleaned, and possibly summarised in a short note, as it can be added to some field drain pipes from Church End Farm and the Paddock also rediscovered since publication of the book

British Museum extension gets the go-ahead

Another important planning decision reached a head on 17 December when the British Museum obtained planning permission at the second attempt for its planned north-western corner development, designed to provide new research and conservation labs and new space in which to stage large-scale temporary exhibitions. The Museum’s architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, produced a revised plan that reduces the height of the extension by placing more of the structure beneath the ground.

The latest excavations at El Amarna Tim Wilkins

The ancient Egyptian city of Akhetaton, at the modern site of El Amarna in central Egypt, was the short-lived capital built by the ‘heretic’ Pharaoh Akhenaten from about 1353 BCE, and abandoned shortly after his death in about 1332 BCE. It was here that he pursued his vision of a society dedicated to the cult of one god, the power of the sun, the Aten.

As the city of Akhetaton was built, lived in and abandoned in such a very short period, excavations there give a rare snapshot of a population at a single particular time.

The latest excavations started in 2005 when an archaeologist walking the site noticed fragments of human bone and potsherds lying on the sand. These were traced back to a narrow wadi, about 600m long, at the extreme Eastern edge of the city plain, where recent, rare, rains had washed them out onto the sand. Investigations in the wadi found the cemetery of the ordinary citizens of the city where, according to the Project Director, Professor Barry Kemp, the density and area of the burial site could indicate maybe three thousand graves, of which less than 200 have been excavated so far. Work is slow and laborious because the sand is very soft and great care must be taken to prevent the sides slipping into the burial pit, and every breath of wind blows it back in. The spoil sand is also sieved to make sure that all bone fragments are recovered for analysis. Temperatures on site limit the digging season severely, with temperatures well over 40degrees in summer.

Only one grave found had brick walls and a vaulted roof, a few had wooden coffins, but mostly the bodies were just buried wrapped in linen cloth and bound with thin straight sticks. The graves were dug into the sand without any attempt to cut into the underlying rock, and, when filled in, were then outlined with stones on the surface. Once the body was bound it would have been hard to tell which way up it was, and so some are found buried facing down. None of the bodies were mummified.

The ages of the bodies at death are analysed and show a strong indication of a young population (See chart below). This may be because the people living in the city were primarily there to build and serve the temples and other institutions, and as a result older people did not move there. Also, with the site being abandoned in such a short time, the population didn’t get the chance to grow old. Consistent with this is that most bodies show signs of wear and tear, such as spinal compression from lifting and carrying heavy loads. These may have been talatat blocks – the stone blocks used for the more important buildings at Amarna, where most buildings were made from mud brick. These talatat blocks were cut to a standard size for faster construction: 27 cm x 27 cm x 54 cm (½ x ½ x 1 cubit), which would also make them about the maximum weight that a man could carry on his shoulder unaided. Where a body showed broken bones there are no indications that these had been splinted or treated in any other way – just left to heal.

The high statistics of deaths of young people may also indicate outbreaks of disease. The statistics from the plagues of the 1500’s show similar patterns and there are mentions in Hittite texts, probably from the time of Tutankhamun, of Egyptian prisoners introducing devastating epidemics to Hittite towns. There are many signs of undernourishment, or at least gross imbalance of diet, and there are many signs of a cereal-based diet (bread and beer) but very few animal bones. 74% of the under-20’s have signs of anaemia, caused probably by the unbalanced diet and an increased demand from the body for iron to cope with infections and parasites. The average male adult height at Amarna is about 5’ 4”, a significant drop from an average height of 5’6”, both before and after Amarna.

This presents a very different picture from the carvings on the walls of the city buildings and in the tombs of the Amarna period, which show vast numbers of offering tables piled high with all kinds of foods, especially meat, which the texts indicate were then distributed to the people. Hyena bones found at the workmen’s village to the south of the site show signs of butchering with knife cuts – so were they eating hyena as a delicacy, or as a rare source of meat?

A few of the bodies show signs of war wounds. One unfortunate man had been shot by an arrow in the same hip at two different times; having survived the first wound he was then killed by being shot again in the same place!

Further information can be found at: http://www.amarnaproject.com and http://www.amarnatrust.com

More on the Staffordshire Hoard By Don Cooper

I visited the British Museum to view the artefacts on display from the Staffordshire Hoard (there are 33 of them displayed in Room 37 – up the stairs on the left after you go in the main entrance – it’s the first room at the top of the stairs). To my mind one of the most interesting items on display is a crumpled up gold cross which had been studded with garnets. The garnets appear to have fallen out when the cross was crumpled up in the hoard as they were all found with it. The cross itself would appear to be Christian and to have been cherished by its owner as at one time the main garnet had cracked and had been repaired with a piece of gold “wire”. Would he or she then crumple it up to put it in the hoard or had it acquired a less pious owner? There is a lovely photograph of it on the web site www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk and to quote Leahy and Bland (2009, p36) “this apparent lack of respect shown to this Christian symbol may point to the hoard being buried by pagans, but Christians were also capable of despoiling each other’s shrines.” It will be interesting to follow the story as more and more research is carried out on the artefacts.

At the end of November 2009 the hoard was valued at £3.85 million pounds by the Treasure Valuation Committee at the British Museum and the race is on to raise the money. One pound of the £4.99 price on the Leahy and Bland (2009) book goes towards the fund.

Bibliography

Leahy & Bland. (2009) “The Staffordshire Hoard” London: The British Museum Press.

HADAS 2009 Long Weekend — Day 5 Off home – via Caerwent Jim Nelhams

Time to leave our Hereford base and head for home. But two more planned visits on the way. Our chosen route was via the picturesque Wye Valley with a chance to enjoy some more scenery, and a brief photo-op at Tintern Abbey.

Caerwent is today a small village on the south side of the A48 between Gloucester and Caerleon. The Romans called it Venta Silurum (the market of the Silures), and it was at one stage the largest centre of civilian population in Roman Wales. Within the Roman walls, sits now a rural village with church, Post Office and two public houses.

We arrived through the East Gate and left our coach in the car park close to the West Gate. The excellent guide book published by Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government’s environment service, is normally sold in the Post Office which is closed on Sundays. Because of this, a supply had been delivered to the car park for our members by a local historian. Thus armed, and having examined the helpful information boards, we scattered to view different parts of the village.

Although the site has not been extensively excavated, though Time Team have been there, most of the finds are stored in Newport or Caerleon. Nevertheless, the footings of numerous buildings are visible, including a row of shops. More surprisingly, some ninety per cent of the town walls are still standing. The average height is around ten feet, though in some places, it reaches an impressive seventeen feet. Throughout the village, and round the walls, there are clear information boards.

At the centre of the “town” now sits the small church of St Stephen and St Tathan. Here are to be found a few Roman relics dedicated according to the priest to “Gods other than our own”, and including a Roman funerary urn.

Having started by the West Gate, our rendezvous point was The Coach and Horses, next to the East Gate, where we enjoyed coffee/tea before boarding our coach in the pub car park. At the back of the car park, mounds in the grass indicated the position of walls as yet unexcavated, but that is for another day!

So eastwards over the old Severn Bridge, with a good view of the new crossing, onto the M4, with a brief comfort stop on our way to Andy’s treat.

Didcot Railway Centre Andy Simpson

After the delights of Roman Caerwent, and having already enjoyed statically preserved steam locos at Blaenavon and at the Waterways Museum at Gloucester, our last port of call of the weekend was to that temple of Great Western Railway steam, Didcot Railway Centre. Of course, depending on your railway allegiances, the old Great Western Railway, which existed until nationalisation on 1 January 1948 when it became part of British Railways (though still pretty much going its own way as the ‘Great Western Region’ as it was known) could be known as ‘God’s Wonderful Railway’ or ‘The Great Way Round’. Speaking as a native of Wolverhampton which once boasted two GWR loco sheds and a GWR works (and an LMS loco shed) I do of course have a soft spot for the designs of GWR loco designers Gooch, Dean, Hawksworth and Collett. The Great Western Society, who run the centre on a volunteer basis, was founded by a group of schoolboys in the 1960s who wanted to preserve one of their favourite GWR steam locos. Today it has an extensive collection of copper-capped, Brunswick green (and black, and wartime Khaki) GWR steam power, from humble local goods/passenger tank locos to heavy goods engines and express passenger locos of the immortal ‘Castle’ and ‘King’ classes, plus some 40 carriages and several wagons. Many of the locos were rescued from the famous scrapyard at Barry, South Wales in the 1970s/80s after 20 years or more in limbo and restored to full working order. Others were purchased direct from BR, who retired their last standard gauge ex GWR steam power in November 1966, nearly two years before the final grubby end of BR steam in the Northwest in August 1968.

On site, the locos can stretch their legs on a half-mile ‘main line’ paralleling Network Rail lines, a shorter ‘branch line’ on which a 1940s GWR diesel railcar was running on the day of our visit, and Britain’s only operating Broad Gauge (7ft) line, on which we could take a ride behind the glorious replica 1840s loco ‘Fire Fly’ with its open topped third-class carriage.

The ambience of a working GWR/BR steam shed is maintained with the original locomotive shed, turntable and coaling stage. There is an excellent small relics museum, shop, cosy cafe, refurbished 1940s air raid shelter, and well-stocked collectors sales facilities which added to my existing stock of musty 1960s railway magazines to help with my research into the history of the above-mentioned Barry scrapyard.

An extra bonus was a working visit by Britain’s brand new mainline steam loco, the LNER designed ‘Pacific’ express passenger loco 60163 ‘Tornado’, behind which several of us enjoyed a run.

After that, it was time for a run back home to London. The end of another wonderful HADAS weekend. Our thanks again to Jim, Jo, and Don for all their planning and hard work.

Postscript Jim Nelhams

It was lovely to see people enjoying the trip, and the various visits we had planned, including places that some people would not have chosen to visit on their own. There were several comments from unexpected quarters on “the smell of the steam engines recalling wonderful memories of childhood”.

Our thanks to Don, who instigated the trip, and to all who have contributed to the write-ups which have appeared in the Newsletter. Here’s to 2010.

My Kinda Group – The Society of Dilettanti (From Society of Antiquities online newsletter)

The Society of Dilettanti are the subject of a new book of the same name by Jason Kelly, which traces the transformation of that society from a group of spoiled and self-indulgent libertines meeting to eat and drink to excess to a well-respected archaeological society, with aspirations (never realised) to learned society status and a set of apartments in which to display the spoils of travels in Italy, Greece and Turkey. These same fifty-nine aristocrats and antiquaries were also members of the Egyptian Society, the Divan Club (whose members had to have travelled in the Ottoman Empire) and the Royal Society!

Letter To Barnet Council Strategic Service (Planning and Housing) from Peter Pickering, HADAS Vice-Chairman, 7 Jan 2009; HADAS is the only archaeological society in the Borough of Barnet, and has for many decades conducted research, including a large number of excavations, throughout the borough. It is based in Avenue House, Finchley. It is concerned with the whole historic environment, and not simply that part of it which is buried. It engages with the public through lectures, events and community projects with schools.

HADAS welcomes the opportunity of participating in the process Barnet Council is now embarked on of producing a Local Development Framework to replace the old Unitary Development Plan, and offers the following comments on the ‘Direction of Travel’ document which was issued for consultation in November. The comments all relate to matters omitted from, or dealt with much too cursorily in, the document.

We note the references to the character of Barnet and its historic environment in the document. They are welcome so far as they go, but they do not go anything like far enough, and should have a chapter to themselves (as the natural environment has in Chapter 11) or at least a separate section in Chapter 9. This chapter or section should, in particular, outline the council’s policy on conservation areas (as the UDP did in Policies HC1 and following) and on the ‘local listing’ (as it is currently termed) of buildings of importance to the borough’s heritage and townscape character – as the UDP did in Policies HC14 and 15. It should also mention the wealth of nationally listed buildings which Barnet enjoys – Barnet is, I believe, very high in this league table among outer London boroughs. Examples of policies on these matters which Barnet could usefully emulate are in Policy 9B of the draft Core Strategy of Islington, and in SP10 of the Tower Hamlets Core Strategy.

Archaeology in the narrower sense makes even less of an appearance in the ‘Direction of Travel’ document – indeed I have found none at all. This must be rectified, and it must be made clear to the people of Barnet and to developers that the Council will insist on proper archaeological investigations in advance of any development where it seems possible that there are buried remains, and that the results of any investigation will be made public. Including Archaeological Priority Areas in one of the maps would be very helpful.

Another omission is of museums. There are two perfunctory mentions, one of Church House Farm Museum in the context of the library estate, and the other of the RAF Museum in the Colindale box in Chapter 7. One would not guess from this that the RAF Museum is a National Museum which the Council should be proud of having within its area. (although the Colindale Area Action Plan – a subsidiary plan within the overall Barnet Plan – does cover the RAF Museum and recognises its importance. The CAAP is available on-line-Ed. Nor is there even a mention of other museums, such as the Barnet Museum in Wood Street and the Stephens Collection in Avenue House. This contrasts pointedly with the several paragraphs devoted to the various types of open space. Although not really within HADAS’s remit, the document appears to neglect culture and the arts completely (there is not even a mention of the Arts Depot in North Finchley, let alone the various smaller arts centres). Surely they are significant in land use terms, and in making Barnet rather more self-contained, and not a mere dormitory suburb whose inhabitants look to central London for their entertainment (Chapter 12, rightly, sees local employment opportunities in such a context, and as reducing the need to travel). We ask for a chapter devoted to culture and the arts in their widest sense.

We hope that the Council will follow the suggestions we have made, and that the next version of the Core Strategy will deal adequately with all these matters. We give notice that if it does not, we shall seek to persuade the Inspector that their omission makes the Core Strategy unsound.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ LECTURES & EVENTS ERIC MORGAN

Sunday 7 February 10.30am Heath & Hampstead Society Meet at the Flag Pole, Whitestone Pond, NW3 How The Heath Was Saved For The Nation Walk led by Thomas Radice. Donation £2, lasts approx. 2 hours.

Monday 8 February 3pm Barnet and District Local History Society Church House, Wood St, Barnet 500 Years of English Architecture Talk by Pamela Wright. Tea at 2.30pm.

Wednesday 10 February 8pm Mill Hill Historical Society Wilberforce Centre, St Paul’s Church, The Ridgway, NW7 The Timber Framed Buildings of Middlesex Talk by Patricia A Clarke (preceded by AGM)

Saturday 13 March LAMAS 47th Annual Conference of London Archaeologists

Weston Theatre, Museum of London (NB NOT Docklands Museum as recently)

LAMAS members £8, non-members £10. Tickets (SAE please, and cheques payable to LAMAS) from Jon Cotton, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN

Thursday 18 February Camden History Society Burgh House, New End Square, NW3 London’s Bridges: Tolls, Suicides & Bombs. Talk on their history by Peter Matthews

Friday 19 February 7.30pm Wembley History Society St Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9 The History of Neasden Len Snow. £1 admission.

Wednesday 24th February Friern Barnet & District Local History Society St John’s Church Hall (Next to Whetstone Police Station) Friern Barnet Lane, N.20 Freemasonry Norman Greenshields £2. Refreshments 7.45pm.

Thursday 25 February 2.30pm Finchley Society Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3 Murders in the Finchley area Talk by Roger Morris Non-Members £2.

Sunday 28 February 11AM – 1PM Battle of Barnet Guided Walk. Meet at junction of Great North Rd/Hadley Green Road. Led by Paul Baker. Costs £7.

HADAS EVENTS 2010

The winter lecture series takes place at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Nearest tube Finchley Central. Lectures start promptly at 8 pm, non-members welcome – £1 donation please, coffee or tea available.

Tues. 12th January lecture by Ken Marks

The Archaeology of Anglo-Jewry in London 1066-1290 and 1656-1850.
This month’s lecture will concentrate on the physical evidence (the archaeology) of Anglo-Jewry in London in the periods 1066-1290 and 1656-c1850. Following the blitz in 1941 and during excavations in the City post War and even up to c1950 when the City was being redeveloped excavations near the Guildhall which was near to the Jewry in the medieval period revealed the remains of two 13thc. mikvaot. The bombing destroyed the area which to day is the Barbican and revealed the only Jewish Cemetery in England from c.1090-1177. In the re-admission period the speaker will discuss the first synagogues: the only one remaining being Bevis Marks (1701) The first cemeteries in Mile End and objects that have been found during excavations such as two shofarot, one dredged up from the Thames and the other found in a rubbish dump in Leadenhall Street.

Ken Marks has a B.A. (Hons) in Archaeology and a M.A. in Archaeology (U.C.L) where the subject was the Archaeology of London. Ken’s talk to HADAS is based on his M.A. dissertation. He has now started an MPhil on the Archaeology of Anglo-Jewry 1656-1880 covering the whole of England and Wales.

Tues. 9th February lecture by William Cumber – The Trendles Project

Tues. 9th March lecture by Erica Ferguson – The History of RAF Bentley Priory

Tues. 13th April lecture by John Chapman – The GWR comes to the Thames Valley

Tues. 11th May lecture by John Johnson – Graeco-Roman Period Funerary Practices in Egypt

Oliver Cromwell and the readmission of the Jews to England in 1656

10 October 2009 – 14 February 2010. Members with an interest in January’s lecture may find this exhibition at Church Farmhouse Museum worth looking out for.

The Jews were expelled from England in 1290, but in 1656 Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate government took an important step towards their readmission to this country. Cromwell was petitioned by Menasseh ben Israel, a rabbi based in Amsterdam, which had a thriving Jewish community, to live and worship freely in England again. Three councils were held, and although they came to no formal decisions, in 1656 Jews were allowed to worship privately, and the first synagogue and Jewish burial ground were allowed to be founded in London without any legal hindrance.

Cromwell may have had mixed motives for his actions: the Jewish community had made a major contribution to the economic success of the Dutch, which impressed him, and he also believed that that God’s Kingdom on earth could not be established until the conversion of the Jews to Christianity, but Cromwell also counted the Jews amongst the ‘Godly’ people, and there is no question that, after 1656, Jewish people were able to live in this country with a religious tolerance which would have been unimaginable in the preceding three centuries. (This exhibition, which was prepared by the Cromwell Museum at Huntingdon, has never been shown in London before.)

Brockley Hill Roman pottery project

Work continues at the Garden Room, Avenue House to process the finds from various Roman Brockley Hill finds in our care. It’s a big job, but we’ve nearly finished the initial processing of the original 8 tea-chest size boxes of material. But there’s plenty more to do – we have to separate the pot into the year of excavation, weigh the material and check our findings on the database

We are at the Garden Room most Sundays 10.30-1.30pm (contact Bill 8449 5666)

Brick and Skeletons: 1632 Brick Church Ruin – review of the November lecture Stephen Brunning

St John the Evangelist church of 1632 is located on the edge of Stanmore Park on the site of an earlier Saxon church (St Mary’s). The building was paid for by Sir John Wolstenholme, and was dedicated by William Laud in 1632. Laud was Bishop of London at the time, but went on the become Archbishop of Canterbury. Further increase in population led to a third (and present) church being built of Kentish Ragstone in 1850. A year later the people of Stanmore wanted to demolish the brick church to pay for the new one, but this was halted after a public outcry and it was left to decay. As the title of the lecture suggests, the church is now a ruin, with only the tower still standing intact.

In 1989 work was needed to “consolidate the ruin”, and English Heritage agreed to fund 80% of the restoration costs. Ivy covering the structure was removed, and a firm of builders and masons made safe the loose brickwork with lime and mortar. The work took 1 year 9 months to complete, at a cost of £175,000. Three monuments in the churchyard were also deemed to be at risk, and more funds will for their repair.

During the consolidation work, the missing coffin of the 4th Earl of Aberdeen was discovered. George Hamilton Gordon KG, KT was Prime Minister from 1852 to 1855. He was identified by the coronet of an earl and insignia of the Ancient Order of the Thistle of Scotland. Members of the Abercorn and Aberdeen families are buried in the Bentley Priory vault on the north side of the ruin.

Another vault was revealed underneath the floor at the east end of the church. This vault contained the burials of four John Wolstenholmes’ who are associated with Great Stanmore, including the tomb and lead coffin of the Sir John who built the church. Identification was made by a plaque on the wall, which unfortunately turned to dust when moved!!

There then followed the usual short question-and-answer session after the talk. One of the audience members asked about the connection of St John’s with Russia. The lecturer Dr Frederick Hicks said he did not know, but in bed that night remembered the Bernays’ family. Henry Arthur Bernays died on 8th July 1913 aged 61 in Moscow. He was buried in the churchyard under a marble monument. I have a letter with further information that Dr Hicks would like the gentleman who asked the original question to have. Please contact me on 020 8959 6419 if you are that person.

The ruin is open for viewing April to September every Saturday from 2.30 to 4.30 PM with guides – FREE. Other times and groups by appointment. Contact Dr Hicks on 020 8954 1677.

HADAS 2009 Long Weekend — Day 4

Day 4 saw us visiting the third city of the Three Choirs Festival – Gloucester, with a stop en route at Newent. Sadly, The Shambles in Newent had been sold though it was possible to see part of it.

Visit to The Church of St.Mary the Virgin, Newent Andy Simpson

A most appropriate stop-off on the way to Gloucester, this! (after an interesting sat-nav induced diversion around Newent and an ensuing short-cut taken by some 40 HADAS members through the back garden of one slightly bemused, but very helpful, Newent resident – (we sent her a bunch of flowers – JN)).

I was last at this beautiful Anglican church a couple of years ago when my old Wolverhampton primary school friend Simon Mason was inaugurated as vicar of the church – his first full rectorship after time as a Curate. As is the modern way, this means he is also responsible for ‘The United Benefice of Newent and Gorsley with Clifford’s Mesne in the Diocese of Gloucester’. Unfortunately Simon was away on the day of our visit, but the church was open for a detailed exploration by HADAS members. Shame the Guidebooks ran out!

The earliest visible parts of the present church dates back to the thirteenth century, with arcades in Early English style and a fourteenth century tower with its much-rebuilt spire reaching a height of 153 feet, and has the largest unsupported wooden ceiling in the country, dating to 1679 to replace the original nave which collapsed under a heavy fall of snow in 1674. The church displays some notable Saxon sculpture, including a probable early ninth-century Mercian cross-shaft in the porch (found in the churchyard in 1907). The Northumbrian style carving shows the fall of man and the sacrifice of Isaac. Close by at the base of the bell tower are two grave slabs of probable seventh century Celtic workmanship – Gloucestershire and much of Herefordshire being a Celtic enclave in the early medieval period.

There are smaller (replica) sculpted stones within one of the aisles. Notable is the small but closely carved Newent Stone found in 1912 serving as the support for the skull of a medieval burial. It shows the ‘Harrowing of Hell’ and the name EDRED along with the names of the four evangelists. It again reflects Northumbrian styles and possibly originated as a portable altar in the pre-Conquest eleventh century before being re-used as a pillow stone in the burial, though one study suggests an eighth century date commemorating EDRED as the first Saxon Abbot. The Newent Stone cast is flanked by four further replicas of originals held in Gloucester Museum; the originals are again of probable seventh century Irish Celtic origin from a monastic community.

There was just time also to explore a little of the pretty town of Newent – with its well-stocked charity shops. Particularly notable is the timber –framed Market-house built as a butter market back in 1668. Now run by Newent Town Council, it hosts the Newent Heritage Exhibition, open in summer months, recoding historical information on the town which has prehistoric and Roman occupation in the vicinity (and an abandoned railway station closed since c.1964!) and was formerly on the drover’s road from Wales and retains a large lake created from former monastic fish ponds. The town is also known for its annual Onion Fayre held in September (www.newentonionfayre.org). Close by is the 900ft Masy Hill, the highest point in Gloucestershire. For further details see Newent-online.co.uk

Gloucester Docks and the National Waterways Museum Jo Nelhams

The River Severn had provided an important trade route for hundreds of years for shallow draft sailing vessels, which were able to navigate the narrow, winding river. In 1580 Gloucester became a customs port by charter from Queen Elizabeth 1, but few sea going vessels were able to sail as far as Gloucester. With considerable growth of trade in the 18th century, there was a proposal to construct a canal this was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1793. However, as with many projects, there were financial difficulties and delays with changes of plans, and the canal was finally completed in 1827.

With the canal fully operational, merchants took advantage of the new facilities. The geographical position of Gloucester being so far inland gave it advantages over Bristol, because goods could be transferred to narrow boats to supply the Midlands through the canal network. Imports increased dramatically in the 1850s and 60s, but unfortunately vessels had to go elsewhere to find a return cargo as salt was the only regular export.

Improvements to the docks enabled them to take ships that were increasing in size and the docks remained busy until the 20th century. The First World War saw a dramatic decline in trade and competition with road transport also added to the dock’s demise.

During the Second World War, the docks played a vital part in handling cargos for the Midlands, but after the war, the docks were used less as competition from other ports increased and larger coastal vessels were too big to enter the port at Gloucester. The last commercial traffic on the canal were grain barges passing through to Tewkesbury, but these came to an end in 1998.

The National Waterways Museum is housed in a warehouse at Gloucester docks. Here you can find a comprehensive history of the development of transport by water with the construction of the canal system.

The Third Duke of Bridgewater is known as the Father of Canals. By the middle of the 18th century the need for improvement in transport was widely recognised and the Duke needed an outlet for his coal and he needed cheap transport. In 1759 he obtained an Act of Parliament to build the first proper canal from his coalmines at Worsley to Manchester. This eventually led to the construction of what is still known as the Bridgewater Canal. A few years earlier the Sankey Brook from St. Helens to the River Mersey had been widened and new cuts were made to straighten the brook. The Duke of Bridgewater employed James Brindley, who had already a reputation for his work with early steam power and flint mills. The Bridgewater canal was built with just hand tools and gangs of men who became known as navvies.

Over the next 30 years numerous canals were built and much of the network is still in existence. However the introduction of the railways signalled the end to the majority of commercial traffic on the canals, although small amounts of traffic continued until the early 1960s, until the ‘big freeze’ of 1963, which caused the canals to freeze over for nearly three months.

The canals have given us some famous and beautiful constructions such as Telford’s Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the Llangollen canal, the Anderton boat lift to the River Weaver and the Crofton Pumping Station on the Kennet and Avon canal, which houses two Cornish beam engines, the older built by Boulton and Watt dating from 1812. The Crofton Society restored the steam pumps in 1970 and regular steam weekends have been held ever since.

Many of the canals have been restored and this programme continues. The canals are used for pleasure and narrow boating is a wonderful way to appreciate the beautiful scenery this country has to offer. Our visit to the Docks and Museum included a leisurely cruise along the canal with all the members of the party.

On a personal note, after the Hereford trip, Jim and I explored the Monmouth and Brecon canal on a narrow boat with our daughter and her husband plus two dogs. We visited Llanfoist Wharf, which was where Blaenavon was connected to the canal by a tram road. Here we saw the replica truck and position of the former tram track to the wharf from Blaenavon.

Gloucester Cathedral Jean Bayne

My initial impression of the interior of Gloucester Cathedral was not very favourable. The view of the Great East Window from the West end was obscured. (I later realised that it was by a magnificent Tudor organ, very tall and richly decorated).

Also the floor space of much of the nave had been given over to an exhibition on Icons and reduced a powerful open space to something fragmentary and visually out of place. However, by the end of my visit, I was enchanted and enthralled by the glory and beauty of this great holy place.

Founded as a Anglo Saxon religious house by Osric, Prince of Mercia in 678, it became a Benedictine monastery in the 11th century. In 1072, William the Conqueror appointed Serlo, a Norman monk, to redesign and extend the building. So an entirely new Romanesque style church replaced the original Anglo Saxon building and the large round columns in the nave are testament to this. In the following centuries grand scale and small scale additions and projects demonstrated Gloucester’s capacity to develop and respond to changing contexts. For example, the Lady Chapel was added in 1470, using the Perpendicular style of English architecture and was later restored by the Victorians. The stained glass here is both medieval and Victorian Arts and Crafts but there is no dissonance between the two types. Moreover, the beautiful music scroll stained glass windows, placed in the chapel in 1992 to celebrate a local composer of English church music, carry on this tradition and meld in as part of a whole. And my favourite window of all is also a very modern one in the South Ambulatory Chapel by Tom Denny in moving swirls of blue and yellow depicting Thomas in the presence of Christ and animals, plants and birds from Psalm 148. (He also has a smaller window in Worcester Cathedral)

There are many fascinating monuments here too. Osric is immortalised in stone, holding a model of the building he founded close to his chest and the last Abbot of Gloucester, who died just before the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, is also represented. A poignant monument is of two sisters in effigy, facing each other across an aisle: they had both died in childbirth within a year in Tudor times. There are two other unusual monuments which reflect earlier times: one is of Robert of Normandy, the eldest son of William, and the other is of King Edward 11. Robert was imprisoned by his younger brother, Henry, and died in 1134. He was a benefactor of the Abbey and is buried in the Chapter House. His effigy is made from Irish bog oak and is highly coloured and decorated. Moreover, he was a warrior in the first Crusade and is shown ready to fight. One leg is raised and his hand is on his sword, suggesting that he is about to spring up and go into battle. Nearby, there are 2 massive cope chests from the 1300s in which ceremonial church vestments were securely locked. The other monument of Edward 11 is huge. He is represented in alabaster, a rare medium at that time, and beautifully carved in great detail. He rests on a tomb clad in Purbeck marble and is covered by a intricate, pinnacled canopy made from local limestone with angels surrounding his bearded head. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage so he was very revered at the time. His best known claim to fame nowadays, though, is his alleged homosexuality and his supposed very gruesome murder by his estranged wife, Isabella and her lover Mortimer. Red hot pokers seem to have been involved according to later commentators! His death (1327) was also the impetus for the transformation of the East end of the cathedral by his son, Edward 111

Between 1337 and 1348 a perpendicular styled Quire replaced the Romanesque one of Serlo’s time and stone screen walls were taken to great heights. New stalls and misericords were put in place as well as a vaulted roof above the high altar with carved angels playing musical instruments around the central figure of Christ.

Dominating the east end is the magnificent Great Window. It is the second largest in Britain and fills the whole wall space. It is as big as a tennis court, and the impact of its recurring patterns and strong horizontal and vertical lines reflect the medieval notion of hierarchy, rising from earth to heaven. Noble families at the bottom, followed by bishops ,abbots, saints ,apostles and angels in separate layers going up to its high centrepiece, Christ and the Virgin Mary with the 12 apostles .In front is the high altar, designed by George Gilbert Scott in 1873. The Victorians were very active restorers in the nineteenth century and their work in Gloucester Cathedral is particularly sensitively done. They added more misericords and relaid the floor in the quire.

We were lucky to be shown round by one of the cathedral guides and, therefore, able to go down into the Crypt. Very well preserved, it dated from 1087 and contained some of the earliest Norman architecture in the cathedral. Its solid round pillars, low vaulted ceilings and mix of light and shade infused with a strange silence, evoked images of monks moving slowly, chanting softly. It was also the place where monks’ bodies were laid to rest before burial.

In contrast, the cloisters were light, airy and welcoming. The view down the east walk was stunning. The beautifully carved fan vaulting is the earliest surviving example in Britain. Its ‘white’ look suggested recent cleaning but not so! The word ‘cloister means an enclosed space and it comprises walled walks on the sides of a central open garth . Consistent with Benedictine practice, the domestic quarters were built on the outside of 3 of the walks (1412). The east walk gave access to the Chapter House and the dormitories. Twenty carrels were placed on the South walk where the monks read and studied at wooden desks. There was also a lavatorium for communal washing on the north walk which used water from a local stream and there was a well in the garth, or outside space, in the centre. Monks were able to hang up their towels on the wall on which the kitchen was built as it was warmed from the fire on the other side! Some small compensation for the privations of monastic life!

This life came to an end in 1540 with the Dissolution and Henry VIII reconsecrated the building as a cathedral in honour of Edward 11. The next great upheaval in the seventeenth century was the Civil War. Gloucester escaped the ravages of Puritan fanaticism and later the Mayor and city of Gloucester saved the cathedral from planned destruction

One tiny detail which we enjoyed: our guide told us that there is a resident stone mason at Gloucester Cathedral who has been working there for 50 years. On one of the newly repaired stone walls in the garth, the stone mason had left not only his mark, but a tiny carving of himself at work! It is details like this that enhance a guided tour and, thanks to her, we learnt from her knowledge and enthusiasm as she brought this wonderful building alive for us.

Gloucester Folk Museum Brenda Pershouse

The Folk Museum in Gloucester was well worth a visit. It had exhibits showing ancient machinery with descriptions of a variety of trades. The making of metal pins was skilful. Very small machines cut up the wires which had been stretched to great lengths. At last I know the meaning of “wire drawers”, who have a livery hall in the City of London.

There were exhibits of old fashioned dairy methods that I remember on my cousin’s farm in the 1950s. There was a shoemaking factory, a Victorian classroom, a room full of children’s toys, fishing nets of all kinds, civil war weapons and many more interesting exhibits.

CBA Study Weekend – Shrewsbury 16th to 18th October 2009 Emma Robinson

The CBA must yet again be thanked for organising a most enjoyable and stimulating weekend. Participants were given wide ranging insights into impressive sites and landscapes around Shrewsbury and located on or near to the River Severn. We are all in great debt to those who gave up time to talk to us, guide us round the various sites and to the CBA staff themselves. The main foci of the weekend were on landscapes of the British industrial revolution and Roman settlement – but this was set in a wider context stressing the complexity of the making of the landscapes. It was above all an active weekend where morning lectures were skilfully crafted to illuminate field trips in the afternoon. Fortunately the weather was kind to us.

On Friday afternoon we were introduced to Shrewsbury by Martin Wood the Town Crier and joined his party for a memorable walking trip to explore its past. He opened so many doors for us. We were fascinated, for example, to be shown the recently discovered remains of the Norman castle wall below the Prince Rupert Hotel’s newly opened heath club.

The tone for the formal part of the programme was set by Professor Marilyn Palmer the speaker for the De Cardi Lecture on Friday evening. Marilyn became Britain’s first professor of industrial archaeology in 2000 and gave a most informative overview of the history of the discipline. She also reminded us that Britain was effectively the birthplace of the industrial revolution from the 16th century.

On Saturday we departed in good time for the World Heritage Site of Ironbridge for morning lectures in the Heritage Centre at Coalbrookdale. To give some background context – Dr Roger White spoke eloquently on the archaeology of Shropshire. This gave us a strong foundation for Paul Belford’s talk on Birthplace of Industry? Coalbrookdale from 1500 to 1900. We learnt that the geographical location and fortunate geology of this area simply brought together so many of the mineral resources that were required for exploring and perfecting new industrial techniques. The achievements of pioneering industrialists – including Abraham Darby, William Reynolds and John Wilkinson – led to these landscapes becoming the most technologically advanced area in the world by the end of the 18th century. Roger and Paul then spoke further on Antiquarians and Archaeologists in Shropshire and the Manufacturing Industrial Heritage in Telford. (The new town of Telford is the local government area into which the World Heritage Site of Ironbridge now falls and its industrial heritage is seen as an important element in giving rise to its place identity.) This gave us further insights not only into how this part of the nation’s past was being re-discovered and re-interpreted, but also into the rise of industrial tourism which has surprisingly early roots. In the afternoon Roger and Paul took us for a walk through the surviving built and natural environment, including the world famous Iron Bridge of 1779. All of this reminded us of the area’s unique contribution to the history and development of industrialised society. In the evening many of the party met for a convivial dinner in the Prince Rupert Hotel.

On Sunday we explored the adjacent landscapes of Wroxeter (the Roman city of Viroconium) and Attingham Park (an 18th century mansion, gardens and park) which are located on the outskirts of Shrewsbury. Before leaving Shrewsbury Roger White first gave us a most informative talk about Wroxeter which gave us real insights into its position in the landscape and land use in the area for settlement, trade, agriculture and routes of communication. We found his work on the study of the history of place names particularly interesting. The physical remains are impressive – particularly the walls known as the ‘old work’ – however, it was Roger’s tour of the hinterland of Viroconium which for us was a particular highlight. He led us to the highest point in the vast city and described the landscape – naming the hills and rocky outcrops around and also the building materials and mineral resources that were so close to hand – whilst a mixed herd of interested cows looked on. Only a fraction of the city has been excavated – the rest is now mostly under grassland. The fine mid 19th century model farm (located opposite the current visitor centre) is an increasingly rare survival. It is good to hear that they have been preserved with the intention of forming a more fitting interpretation centre for the site.

The afternoon found us at Atcham Memorial Hall (the village in which Attingham is situated) for a talk on the history and archaeology of Attingham Park. Atcham itself was a planned medieval town. However, much of the original settlement was ‘lost’ when ‘improvements’ were made to the park which was the ancestral home of the Berwick family for over 160 years and where each generation has left its mark. The mansion is set in a magnificent deer park, substantially landscaped by Humphrey Repton. However, we were reminded that the park had its origins in an industrial landscape and evidence of this is etched onto the surface of the landscape. Eamonn Baldwin spoke briefly about current archaeological work in the Deer Park. He focussed on a Roman marching camp (an overnight camp with surrounding ditch thrown up as and when required) – which unusually showed signs of having been reused We enjoyed a guided walk through the deer park and viewed the environmental study centre, the walled gardens, conservatories and orchards which are under restoration.

Since the programme was largely focussed outside Shrewsbury many participants (ourselves included) decided to stay over until Monday. We particularly wanted to see the remains of the great Abbey church outside the city walls and also have a better opportunity to look at the strong defensive setting of the city in a loop the River Seven. The great Benedictine Abbey Church of Saints Peter and Paul was founded in 1083 by Roger de Montgomery, a relative of William the Conqueror – although it has Saxon origins. It grew to become one of the most important and influential abbeys in Britain. After the relics of the Welsh Saint Winefride were brought to the Abbey from Wales in 1147 it became an important centre of pilgrimage. The Abbey was granted its own charter and its Abbot was privileged to sit in the House of Lords. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Abbey was finally surrendered to the Crown in January 1540. The town was allowed to keep the nave of the Abbey which had been a parish church – but most of the rest was destroyed and the stone robbed for other buildings – but nevertheless it is still impressive.

RAF Museum watchtower move

St George, London’s leading mixed-use developer, and the Royal Air Force Museum, held on December 7th a turf cutting ceremony to celebrate the beginning of the relocation and refurbishment of the historic Grahame-White Watchtower building from Beaufort Park to the Museum’s site.

The redundant Watchtower building, built in 1911, was once the centre piece of the aviation pioneer Claude Grahame-White’s aircraft factory in Hendon and was home to the birth of British aviation. Flying from Hendon ceased in the late 1960’s and since then, the Watchtower has fallen into disrepair and is to be renovated and relocated to the adjacent museum by St George.

Ross Faragher, Managing Director of award winning developers St George Central London commented: “Today we celebrate the first steps to relocate and refurbish the redundant Grahame-White Watchtower. This historic building is to be rejoined to the Grahame-White factory at The Royal Air Force Museum and is set to become an important learning resource reflecting the achievements of this early aviation pioneer and the history of the local area, for the benefit of the nation.”

Dr Fopp, Director General, Royal Air Force Museum commented: “Claude Grahame-White was one of the most important pioneers in British Aviation. The relocation of The Watchtower marks a continuing chapter of the Museum’s efforts to preserve the historic fabric of this cradle of aviation. It will provide a fitting tribute to him and the history of aviation in the local area.”

CAMRA celebrates news of National Brewing Museum

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is delighted to announce their support for the opening of the National Brewery Centre in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, in 2010, after brewer Molson Coors UK reversed its decision to close the brewery site. Last summer, the Coors Visitor Centre, formerly the Bass Museum, closed its doors due to falling visitor numbers, despite opposition by CAMRA, Janet Dean MP, local and county councils, Burton Civic Society and Chamber of Commerce, and the local media.

However, through the work of a Local Action Group, CAMRA is pleased that the Brewing Centre will now become a reality, and will retain key elements of the existing facilities to ensure the building’s historic aspects remain.

Nik Antona, CAMRA Director, and Burton branch spokesperson, said:

‘It’s fantastic news that we will again have a brewing museum in this country, and a centre reflecting the brewing styles of the UK. This is something CAMRA has been campaigning strongly for over the past year. Having passed a motion at our national AGM to campaign to keep the museum open, we participated in a march through the town centre of Burton, as well as organising a petition at our Burton Beer Festival last September.

The plans for the Centre are very promising, and an official opening could be a real boost for the local Burton economy. As the capital of British brewing, this is exactly what the town deserves. This is especially promising for the White Shield Brewery, which is based on site. Having won CAMRA awards in the past, it will be great to see their quality recognised further in the public domain. Once again this is a really exciting development, and CAMRA is looking forward to working with all parties involved in the opening in order to promote real ale and celebrate one of Britain’s most historic industries.”

Other societies’ events Eric Morgan

Weds 6th Jan: 8.00pm, Stanmore & Harrow Historical Society, Wealdstone Baptist Church Hall, High St, Wealdstone.

40 years with Kodak by Tony Earl

Thurs 7th Jan: 7.30pm, London Canal Museum, 12=13 New Wharf Rd, Kings X, N1

Birmingham Canals – Past & Present by Eric Lewis. £3 (cons £2)

Thur 7th Jan: 8.00pm, Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner.

London’s Woodlands by Colin Bowlt . Visitors £2.

Mon 11th Jan: 2.30 for 3.00pm, Barnet & Local History Society, Church House, Wood St, Barnet, (opposite museum).

Hospital & Quarantine Ships on the River Thames by Dr Ian Johnston

Weds 13th Jan: 8.00pm, Mill Hill Historical Society, The Wilberforce Centre, St Paul’s Church, The Ridgeway NW7.

Newspaper Printing by Martin Bourn

Weds 13th Jan: 7.45pm, Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, Corner of Ferme Park Rd/Weston Park, N8.

History of Crouch End & Hornsey by Steven Denford. Visitors £1.

Fri 15th Jan: 7.30pm, Wembley Historical Society, St Andrews Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury NW9.

The History of the Welsh Harp by Mr Leslie Williams. Visitors £1

Weds 20th Jan: 8.00pm Islington Archaeological Society, Islington Town Hall, Upper St, N1.

Islington’s ‘Baby Farm’ by Joan Lock.

Thur 21st Jan: 7.30pm, Camden History Society, Charlie Ratchford Centre, Belmont Street, NW1

From Hatton Garden to Hampstead – Buildings of the Royal Free by Neil McIntyre.

Thur 21st Jan: 8.00pm, Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield.

Enfield’s Industrial Heritage by Stephen Gilburt.

Sun 24th: 11.00am-1.00pm Battle of Barnet Guided Walk, meet at the junction of Great North Rd/Hadley Green Rd.

Led by Paul Baker – cost £7.

Weds 27th Jan: 7.45pm, Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, St John’s Hall (next Whetstone Police stn), Friern Barnet Lane, N20. 50 Years in Estate Agency by Barry Carmody. £2

Fri 29th Jan: 7.45 SAHAAS, College of Law, University of Herts, Hatfield Rd Campus, St Albans.

The Second Battle of St Albans, 17th February 1461 by Dr Peter Burley