DIARY

Tuesday May 12: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. Nominations for officers and members

of the committee must be submitted to the Hon. Secretary, Liz Holliday, Gorse Cottage, The Common, Chipperfield, Herts, WD4 9BL, to reach her no later than May 5. The consent of nominees must be obtained in writing before their names are submitted. After the AGM business – which we hope will be brief – members of the excavations working party will tell us about their recent work, followed by a talk with slides from member Stewart Wild on his journey to Tallinn, Estonia, last year.

The AGM will be in the Stephens Room at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley N3. starting at 8. I5pm for 8.30pm.

Members may also like to visit the HADAS library.

Saturday June 27: Outing to the Bletchley area, led by Micky Watkins and

Mickey Cohen.

Saturday July 4: Morning tour of the Midland Hotel at St. Pancras with

Vikki O’Connor.

Saturday July 25: Outing to Fishbourne and around. Tessa Smith and SheilaWoodward head for the Sussex countryside.

Saturday August 15: Outing to Shaftesbury and Fontwell Magna. Dorset this time with Bill Bass and John Enderby as HADAS guides.

September 3 – 6: Weekend in Bristol with Dorothy Newbury. (0181 203 0950).

Saturday September 26: Outing to Kensal Green Cemetery, led by Stewart Wild. Saturday October 10: the Minimart. Contributions and volunteers please!

Tuesday October 13: The Wroxeter Hinterland Survey: Gordon White launches the

new lecture season.

Tuesday November 10; Bronze, Brass and Zinc in Ancient and Modern China.

Lecture by Paul Craddock.

Tuesday December 8: Christmas dinner. Details to be arranged.

MEMBERS’ NEWS – A HAPPY EVENT! Dorothy Newbury

Robert and Paula Michel had a baby girl on Thursday the 9th of April. Robert has been a member for nearly 20 years, starting at our West Heath excavations before going to university where he gained a joint Honours degree in history and archaeology.

CATAL HUYUK RECONSIDERED. Sheila Woodward

“It may be considered without undue exaggeration” wrote James Mellaart in 1965 “that Anatolia, long regarded as a barbarous fringe to the fertile Crescent, has now been established as the most advanced centre of Neolithic culture in the Near East”. He had then just completed several seasons digging at CATAL HUYUK in south-east Turkey and it was his discoveries there which prompted this observation.

In the HADAS March lecture Theya Mollison looked again at Mellaart’s findings in the light of modern technology and the result of new excavations at Catal Huyuk by Ian Hodder and his Cambridge University team. Undoubtedly it is one of the great Neolithic sites, recognisably a town, large and well structured, a permanent settlement. Domestication of plants and animals enabled such settlement; marketing and trade, especially in raw obsidium, ensured prosperity. Catal flourished from about 8000 BC and its 12 successive building layers cover about a millennium. The superimposed layers of mud-brick construction formed a huge tel. Mellaart excavated quickly and therefore recovered much organic material. Sadly, there has since been considerable erosion.

The houses of Catal Huyuk have always been intriguing: doorless, windowless except for a few high ventilation slits under the eaves, they must have been entered by ladders from the roof. This design would have given protection from excessive heat and cold, both features of a continental climate. The walls were of mud brick, plastered in white and re-plastered once or twice a year. The white dust for the plaster had to be dug from a base layer beneath the clay of the site at a depth of some 10 metres – and the digging implements would have been oxbone blades. Tough work! But the inhabitants knew how to ‘cut corners’. Damaged wall plaster was reground and used to repair floors. Ovens were very like modern Turkish pitta bread ovens and dung was used for fuel. Caches of food such as lentils have been found and caches of trading items such obsidian blanks and blades. Rows of aurochs’ horns decorate many houses. Mellaart suggested that they were horns of consecration to ward off evil; modern thought regards them as coat pegs!

Each room had two platforms under which the dead were buried after the flesh had been removed (presumably for hygienic reasons). Lurid wall paintings in some rooms, identified by Mellaart as shrines, depict vultures pecking the flesh from headless human beings. Our lecturer suggested that these should not be interpreted too literally. The burial rites and their significance still present problems. In one house, there were more burials under the north-west platform than under the eastern; and over 50% of the north-west platform burials were children. Does this mean anything? One room contained 64 burials, earlier burials were pushed aside to make room for new ones, but were not removed. In one foundation level there was a threshold burial of four newborn babies – did this indicate deliberate sacrifice?

Studies of the skeletons have indicated that these people were stocky in build, had few dental caries, but suffered from arthritis of the jaw and had striations on their teeth, probably from chewing straws and reeds when baskets making. But what do we make of the burial of some headless corpses? Are they related to the painting of headless people attacked by vultures? Much more research, said our lecturer, is certainly needed.

CATALL HUYUK – Further comments. Margaret Phillips

In her recent lecture, Dr. Mollison appeared to be tempting us to wonder why some of the skeletons she has been studying have been decapitated. James Mellaart in his book Earliest civilisations of the Near East (published by Thames and Hudson in 1965) includes a reconstruction of a funerary rite. Priestesses disguised as vultures are depicted in a shrine in Level VIII. It is based on the actual discovery of wall-paintings of vultures with human legs. Also in the reconstruction are human skulls in baskets below each large bull’s head on the walls of the shrine. James Mellaart also describes wall-paintings some of which seem to consist of symbols most of which are unintelligible to us. However, there is a reproduction of a painting of a dead man’s head from a shrine in Level IV c.5825 BC. There is also an illustration of a contracted burial in a basket from Level VI. At the end of her lecture Dr.Mollison described human teeth, probably damaged by basket-making.

Such considerations of the dead seems depressing and even sinister, but on a more cheerful note, they were furnished with funerary gifts. In the case of women and children, this would be jewellery, and in some cases obsidian mirrors, and once again baskets, this time containing red ochre mixed with fat to form ‘rouge’. Cosmetic spatula were also included.

I should like to express deep appreciation of Dr. Mollison’s talk, which, as promised, proved so stimulating.

35TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF LONDON ARCHAEOLOGISTS Sheila Woodward

This conference, held at the Museum of London on the 14th March, was exceptionally well attended, though HADAS members were fewer than usual. The programme followed the now well established pattern, with the morning session devoted to a series of short reports on recent work; and the afternoon to a more general theme, a review of 25 years digging in the City.

There was a short opening ceremony of the presentation of the annual Ralph Merrifield award by Mrs. Lysbeth Merrifield, this year an individual award to Jill Goddard. Then, following introductory remarks by the chairman Harvey Sheldon, there were reports by Andy Crockett of Wessex Archaeology on the excavation at Imperial College Sports Field, Harlington; Nick Holder of MOLAS on a prehistoric island at the Royal Docks Community School, Newham; Jon Binns on recent work on the foreshore by the Thames Archaeological Survey; a report on recent excavations at Hopton Street, Southwark and Westeroft Road, Carshalton; and on the excavation of a medieval mooted manor house at Low Hall, Walthamstow by Ian Blair of MOLAS.

The afternoon session considered excavation in London during the 25 years which have elapsed since the publication of The Future of London’s Past by RESCUE. Nick Bateman spoke on the Roman public buildings of Londinium; Bruno Barber on Roman cemeteries; Gustav Milne on the London waterfront; John Schofield on Building in the City from the Saxons to the Great Fire; and Simon Thurley on the Museum of London and London’s archaeology.

There were the usual displays of work and publications by local societies, including HADAS. A full and interesting day indeed. (Detailed reports will be included in the next Newsletter).

TUTANKHAMEN – REST, PERTURBED SPIRIT?

A book, The Murder of Tutankhamen, by Professor Robert Brier, from Long Island University in New York, is to be published next month. Professor Brier believes that the pharaoh was killed at the instigation of Aye, his chief consul and that the latter subsequently forced the young widow to marry him. (The Times 8 March 1998). (Professor Brier’s research had already been reported in the (Daily Mail, 20 March 1997) and quoted by this editor in the May Newsletter last year. An odd coincidence…

RESEARCH NEWS Vikki O’Connor, Co-ordinator

Well, it’s happening at last – after a couple of years of talking about it, we finally assembled a group of interested members and began the process of matching people to projects. It was encouraging that 30 members attended our meeting on Saturday 28th March at the hall situated directly beneath Barnet Local Studies & Archives Centre in Egerton Gardens, Hendon. Dr Pamela Taylor explained why the new researcher’s first port of call should be the Local Studies Centre and that she and fellow Archivist Joanna Garden (both HADAS members) would be only too pleased to advise on sourcing materials. After a quick cup of tea in the nearby Presbytery, Pam led the way to the Archives where people who had never been there before were suitably impressed – there really is something for everyone there. The Local Studies Centre is open Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday, telephone 0181 3592876.

* Industrial Archaeology (1) Bill Firth is the secretary of the Greater London Archaeology Society (GLIAS) and is presently working on their Gazetteer. He recently met with a small group of fellow HADAS members to discuss how we can assist in researching as yet unrecorded industrial features.

* Industrial Archaeology (2) We have contacted the Defence of Britain project which is accumulating records on World War II defences, working to complete a ‘Domesday’ survey by the year 2000, the project being sponsored by the Department of National Heritage. It is proposed that HADAS members undertake some recording for submission in a standard format. John Heathfield and Percy Reboul have already made inroads into this subject and are making available details of their work so that we can identify areas for recording. DoB are particularly interested in London’s inner and outer rings of defence. They are also keen to tap into the unwritten sources; if there is anything you can remember which you believe might be worth recording, please phone Vikki O’Connor on 0181-361 1350.

* History of HADAS

Sheila Woodward and Terry Dawson have begun the awesome task of identifying what we have been up to over the last 37 years – it will be of great practical value to have this information in a readily available format. Is there anyone else with an hour or so to spare on a (fairly) regular basis and who is willing to help Sheila and Terry?

* Non-Conformist Churches

One of our members has volunteered to look at this specialist area with a view to eventual publication. with another member on standby to assist on the architectural side further into the project. A plea for information – if anyone can provide input of any kind (newspaper cuttings, references in books, anecdotes etc) please send it to Vikki O’Connor, 2a Dene Road, N11 lES to forward to our researcher.

* Roman

Field-walking at Bury Farm, Brockley Hill, is expected to happen late July/early August. The timescale is tight and depends on how the farming season goes. In the meantime, we are organising a `hands-on’ day in May for members who intend to participate in the field-walking. This will involve instruction in using the surveying equipment and looking at what sort of material we can expect to pick up. If you weren’t at the meeting on 28th March but wish to join in, please contact Vikki O’Connor a.s.a.p.

More next month…

MONEY… RESEARCH… MONEY

York University’s Department of Archaeology received a grant of £25,000 from English Heritage for a Northern tiles survey. York’s Institute of Railway Studies, in conjunction with Manchester Metropolitan University, has landed a grant of 7,000 ECU (how much??) from the EU’s Raphael heritage project. The money will help fund an international conference on the use of information technology in accessing museum collections, to be held at the national Railway Museum this summer. Another of York’s projects is Regeneration through Heritage – set up to study best practice in the re-use of disused industrial buildings which are frequently ‘innovative in design and structure’ and they will be creating a gazetteer of industrial buildings on their website.

University of Nottingham’s Department of Archaeology hit the headlines last year when they found evidence of the earliest metal (copper) mining in Italy. Building on this success, they set up a multi­disciplinary team with their Department of Geography to work on a surveying project, adding air photography and photogrammetric digital imaging to the information gained from excavation, producing a digital video of modelling and visualisation for other students to access. They looked at three sites in Liguria: a late 4th/early 3rd millennium BC jaspar quarry at Valle Lagorara; the Monte Loreta copper mine of similar date; and Castellano di Zignano (2nd millennium BC), a fortified site which also revealed medieval activity. A new team of students has been sent out to continue the project this year.

A TOUR OF SUSSEX PAST

By the time you read this, you should have heard all about the Roman villas in Sussex from David Rudling, the April HADAS lecturer. He was expounding earlier in the month, too, at a major conference on Sussex archaeology, where his topic was broader — Roman rural Sussex, continuity and change.

The conference, the first major effort for 21 years to draw together new archaeological information on the county, was organised David Rudling wearing his University of Sussex hat. It included a number of topics which have relevance for HADAS, from Boxgrove man to mesolithic sites to Fishbourne Roman palace (the July outing).

To start at the beginning… Matthew Pope, standing in admirably for an indisposed Mark Roberts, revealed the very specific tool-making techniques of Britain’s 500,000- year-old hominids. Their standard tool was an ovate bi-face axe, sharpened with a tranchet flake. It was not, he emphasised, a general purpose tool, certainly not “the first Swiss Army rock”. It was made specifically for butchery, as his slides graphically showed. It was easy to hold, effective in cutting meat off carcasses in a less messy way than a simple flake, and quick to resharpen. With the exception of a single instance of hide polish, the only wear seen on the bi-faces was meat polish, while the animal bones found on the site showed very fine scratch marks, made with those same sharp tips. And Boxgrove’s first residents reached their food source before their rivals — their butchery marks preceded those of carnivores’ gnawing. Their butchery, too, was skilled, with the cut marks clustered around areas of major muscle attachment.

All that meat eating was good for them, Matthew Pope suggested. The activities at Boxgrove — hunting, butchering, making stone tools — went hand in hand with an increase in brain size, and was paralleled by a decrease in stomach size. It seemed there were almost certainly links between meat eating and increased brain size. He also hinted that the stone tool makers were probably right handed, as cut marks on the surface of a hominid incisor tooth, running from upper left to lower right, implied they were clamping a flint in their mouth to slice small amounts of meat. The right-handed theory was also supported by the patterns of waste at knapping areas.

Sussex mesolithic was summarised by Robin Holgate, now curator of Luton Museum. Most known sites dating before the mid 7th millennium were still located in the Weald, but new sites from the later mesolithic had been identified on the Chichester coastal plain. The three millennia from 6,500 BC were a time of change, with a greater number of sites in all environmental zones and a change to smaller tools. This could indicate, he suggested, close range hunting in the wooded landscape, and possibly task specific sites, with less movement of people. And the rising sea level, he concluded, affected the availability of resources, and possibly prompted the change to a farming economy.

John Manley, joint director of the Sussex Archaeological Society excavations at Fishbourne which HADAS will be visiting on July 25, devoted his lecture largely to that work, which is uncovering a building just to the east of the Roman palace and, at around 60AD, of slightly earlier date. It was one element in a busy area of activity stretching towards Chichester, where there were finds of military metalwork and of metalworking activity, traces of timber-framed buildings and of ditches. May be, he suggested, the military didn’t leave the area in AD43, as Barry Cunliffe had argued, but stayed around for most of the first century. May be, even, Chichester was the Roman bridgehead.

David Rudling himself argued there were both continuity and change in Roman Sussex. Roman culture was in many ways quickly absorbed in the countryside, with evidence of Romanisation of existing farmsteads, yet there were instances of Roman respect for Bronze Age monuments, and a similar continuity stretching forward into Saxon times.

The two days of lectures and discussion were a stimulating and far from parochial insight into 500,000 years of British past, continuing up into very modern times with such topics as defence medieval and modern (even nuclear bunkers!), the latest news on past coastal changes and the present threat to maritime remains. The papers will be published, probably late next year — watch out for them. Liz Sagues

HADAS AT CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM Andy Simpson

Members will recall that in 1993 and 1996 HADAS undertook highly successful excavations in the rear garden of the Church Farmhouse Museum, finding evidence of Roman and medieval occupation. Thanks to the kindness of the Museum’s curator, Gerard Roots, there will be a small display of finds from these excavations, commencing 14 May, hopefully until September. The ‘digging team’ have selected the finds for display, these include Roman the and pottery, including probable Brockley Hill produced Mortaria sherds, and a variety of medieval pottery, both glazed and unglazed, including much of a Kingston ware Jug found near- the present day pond, plus a few more recent finds. The display will hopefully include photographs and other illustrations. The captions have been written (comments/corrections to your scribe!) A few of the finds were displayed briefly at the Church Farmhouse Museum in 1993, but this will be the first time most of the items have been given public display, so do visit and have a look!

BARNET ARCHIVES Mrs. I. Carden, Archivist

The removal of the records stored at the Bookstore in Friern Barnet has now been completed. The building plans for all areas in the former county of Middlesex have now been transferred to London Metropolitan Archives (the former Greater London Record Office), although we did manage to find room for the building plans for the former Hertfordshire areas. All the rate books have now been transferred to the Totteridge Library, although they will still not be available to researchers except by request in advance, as before. Microfilm does exist for most of the rate books, and we would ask that if possible this should be used until the rate books have been fully re-shelved.

MILESTONES Bill Firth

My appeal for information on the Hendon Wood Lane to London milestones resulted in a marvellous response from Stewart Wild who has not only provided information but also photographs of the five of the nine which appear to be extant. These are:‑

– Whitestone Pond, junction of East Heath Road and Heath Street. Clearly marked IN it is upright behind a fence. It is not of course in the Borough of Barnet.

– The Quadrant, Hendon, built into the wall near to no. 161 Brent Street, by Lodge Road. Very clearly marked, VII miles from London.

– Holders Hill Road, close to Rydal Court, recently re-erected. Clearly marked

VIII miles from London.

– Bittacy Hill, in front garden of no.8, near Junction with Bittacy Rise.

IX miles from London. In the photograph it is not very legible.

– Highwood Hill, Hendon Wood Lane bus stop. The only stone on the right hand side coming from London. Sunk into verge, only a small part is above ground.

MISSING STONES

– V miles from London, near junction of Wellgarth Road/North End Road.

– VI miles from London, outside White Swan pub, Golders Green Road

– X miles from London. Ted Semmes described this as ‘almost buried in the grass on Mill Hill Ridgeway, about 20 feet west of the War Memorial’. Last autumn I noticed some almost buried stones by the War Memorial but did not think any of them was the milestone. This warrants another look which a holiday and bad weather have prevented me from making.

PLEA TO HADAS EDITORS Dr. Pamela Taylor, Local Studies and Archives

HADAS members are currently as sympathetically aware of archival problems as they have ever been. Bill Bass’s article in the April Newsletter detailed the present difficulties and hoped-for future of London’s Archaeological Archive. One of the main discussions at the research meeting on 28 March concerned the better care and use of the Society’s own records. All the best archival care is womb to tomb, and this must therefore be the ideal moment to plead, publicly this time, for care in the Newsletter’s creation. We keep a complete file, complete partly because we send it for binding, but the recent tendency to produce a continuous triple sheet numbered into six pages is causing a real problem. Although the sheet can be cut up before we send it off, the pagination is often no longer continuous -anyone who can find a way of making April’s issue, for example, yield anything other than pp 1,2,3,6,4,5 is welcome to claim a large prize. Please, please, please, if the triple-fold has to be used, check that the page-order works for binding, and in general err on the conservation side in innovation, (I’ve no idea if the coloured inks that have sometimes been used recently are as long lasting), and on the generous side of margins.

MAP OF TUDOR LONDON. A crucial missing section of the oldest map of London, on copper plate, c.1550, has been discovered during a routine cataloguing of the Flemish collection at the Dessau Art Gallery in Germany. The Museum of London will have a replica, it will be displayed at the Museum until 10 May. (The Times 30 March 1998).

BONES OF CONTENTION.

A reader asks: “Since human bones survive over centuries, why is the environment not littered with the bones of all the wild creatures which have existed?” Peter Harrison, Altrincham, Cheshire. (The Oldie, March 1998).

PAPYRI ON-LINE.

The Petrie Museum, University College London, is making its valuable collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts more accessible via CD-Rom and Internet. Barbara Adams, curator, reported that the core of the project will consist of the restored Middle Kingdom papyri from Kahun. Much of the restoration work is carried out in conjunction with the British Museum. According to Bridget Leach, the latter’s senior conservator, the fibre structure of the papyrus plant is invaluable as it runs through each sheet of papyrus, both horizontally and vertically, forming an interwoven pattern, with each bunch of fibres forming a sort of bar code that can be used to identify fragments from the same source.(The Times Interface 8 April 1998).

ANGLO-SAXON COINS.

The most significant find of late Anglo-Saxon coins made in England this century was made by treasure hunters at Appledore, near Dungeness in Kent. It consisted of nearly 500 silver pennies of AD 1051/2. Most are of the ‘expanding cross’ type of Edward the Confessor. According to the British Museum, the find helps to establish that the ‘heavy’ type of ‘expanding cross’ penny is earlier than the light type. Only the ‘heavy type’ are present in the Appledore hoard, suggesting that the ‘light type’ had not yet come into circulation. The hoard was declared treasure trove and seized by the crown. (The Times, 6 April 1998).

MEDIEVAL PAINTINGS THREATENED BY SPIDERS. Extensive damage is being caused by spiders to the medieval wall paintings at St. Botolph Church in Hardham, West Sussex. The paintings date from 1100 and considered to be the most complete in Britain and include some 40 different subjects. A report by the Courtauld Institute of Art says that sticky cobwebs are pulling flakes of paint from the walls and that th spiders are dislocating fragile sections by scurrying over them and depositing their draglines. The cobwebs cannot just be brushed away because significant amounts of painting will disappear with then. There are 19 species of spiders in the church, including the common house spider. The report recommends extermination. (The Times, 13 April 1998).

OTHER SOCIETY’S LECTURES

THURSDAY 14 MAY 1998. 6.30pm. Whitehall Palace excavations, 1938-1964. By Simon Thurley, Director of the Museum of London. Interpretation Unit, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, ECZY 5124. (LAMAS. Visitors welcome).

FRIDAY 15 MAY 1998. 7.3Opm for 8pm. The anatomy theatre of the barber surgeons of London. By Professor Denis Hill. Jubilee Hall, Junction of Chase Side and Parsonage Lane , Enfield. (Enfield Archaeological Society. Visitors welcome, 50p per person).

THURSDAY 28 MAY 1998. 7.45pm. The history of the Post Office. By Andrew Perry. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3 (Flnchley Society)

THURSDAY 25 JUNE 1998. 7.45pm. AGM followed by ‘The Avenue House estate and its trees and plants’. By Janet Durrant, Friends of the Avenue House estate. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3 (Finchley Society).

Going home

Mrs Banham, a founder member of the Society, is leav­ing Hendon after 50 years in the same house. I asked her if she wasn’t sad at leaving her home and all its memo­ries. “Not at all,” she replied. “I am going home.”

In fact she is returning to the village where she was born, lived and worked as the school teacher, before coming to London. She still has relatives and friends there and will live in a sheltered flat near to them. I have her new address and phone number and she would be happy to hear from old friends.

In earlier years she participated in everything. Mem­bers who came on the Orkney week will remember particularly the fun we had. She always brought a bottle of sherry with her on weekends away — and she would call us into her room for a tipple before our evening meal. And on day trips she always brought a large tin of mixed sweeties to pass round the coach.

In the very early years of the Society Mr Banham (now deceased) addressed the newsletter envelopes by hand and delivered them all.

We have a lot to thank them for, and we all wish Mrs Banham a happy retirement.

Mr Philip Canter

Another member of long standing, Mr Philip Canter, has died. Mrs Eileen Canter is now living in a nursing home in Elstree. Both of them lived in Golders Green for many years and came on most of our outings and weekends. I have Mrs Canter’s address and will give it to any mem­ber who would like to write to her. by Dorothy Newbury

Welcome to HADAS

HADAS is delighted to welcome the following new members to its ranks: Stephen Aleck, Galina Gos­podinova, Caroline Lomas and Ann Seurback.

We very much look forward to seeing you joining in all the society’s activities, from lectures and outings to research and excavations. There are lots of projects in the pipeline, so members new and old keen to get involved should contact me. by Vikki O’Connor

Modern and ancient

All of a sudden, there’s a rush of new sources of informa­tion on archaeology.

The traditional approach — on paper — comes from Cherry Lavell, who HADAS members may well remem­ber from her 25 years compiling the CBA Abstracts, or from her involvement with our neighbours, Camden History Society. Since she retired five years ago, she has devoted an ever-increasing amount of her time to compiling the Handbook of British and Irish Archaeology, just published by Edinburgh University Press (£29.95).

It’s an exhaustive, yet thoroughly orderly, treasure trove of references, from which universities offer which archaeology courses to how to find an expert on garden history, from the seminal books on archaeology to where to apply for excavation grants. She ranged round the country in her hunt for information, being the opposite of those archaeologists who don’t know — or don’t bother to find out — where to find what they need.

The handbook is, says Cherry, for every archaeolo­gist, from beginner to student to specialist. “I just hope it will be useful,” she adds. There’s little doubt about that.

For those with the Web at their fingertips, the ad­dress to type in is christine.ivory@onyxnet.co.uk, and back will come details of the brand new Archaiologia Jobs and People Finder, a service intended for everyone in­volved in archaeology, history and related disciplines. Use it to find jobs and contracts (volunteer places on digs, teaching posts, etc) or specialist services such as geophysical surveying or archaeological illustration. It also aims to help those seeking staff for archaeological projects. Individuals can register their personal details, or those of specialist services they can provide, for a small admin charge.

Watch this site

I think this is the fourth time that 142-150 Cricklewood Broadway has come up for development.

English Heritage has advised the borough planning department that it lies beside Roman Watling Street and within the extent of the medieval roadside village of Cricklewood. It is therefore of archaeological impor­tance and a field evaluation by an archaeological con­tractor is required.

Some site watching would be worthwhile when work starts. Are there any members in the vicinity? by Bill Firth (0181-455 7164)

The borough at their feet

GOAL! Football in Barnet Borough is the current exhibition at Church Farmhouse Museum, running until April 26. It traces the history of the three main clubs in the area, through kit, photographs, videos, programmes,trophies and personalia relating to important international players of the past such as Lester Finch (Barnet), George Robb (Finchley) and Laurie Topp (Hendon). While football has yet to be traced in the archaeological record, it has a venerable history, stretching back locally to a 1788 engraving (left) showing a game being played at the Market Place, Barnet. Hardly the strip today’s clubs sell to fans at controversially high prices!

We’re doing the Lambeth Walk…

George Sweetland maps the route taken by members as they ventured South of the River

The cosy reception room of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society offered a relief from the cold wind blowing from the river by Lambeth Bridge, as HADAS members as­sembled on March 5 for their tour of the Society’s head­quarters conducted by the indefatigable Mary 0′ Co n n e

Founded in 1841 to protect the interests of dispens­ing chemists and druggists, the Society moved from its original home in Bloomsbury Square to the present building in the late 1970s. Its museum, which is spread over several floors, includes a wonderful collection of dispensing jars, the oldest, from Italy, dated to the 15th century. They are quite beautiful and we were told they were intended to look attractive, so customers felt they were getting value for money. Most contained ingredi­ents of medicinal value; others, however, would have been at home in the witches’ scene from Macbeth.

Moving to the upper floor, our guide — himself a retired pharmacist — demonstrated how until quite recently powders were crushed and wrapped, tablets made and pills rolled. The last apparently had three grades, from a varnished talcum powder coating to silver and gold, depending on the financial means of the patient.

Time meant we could give only a cursory look at these fascinating relics and, after thanking our guides, we braved the heavy traffic to the Museum of Garden History housed in the redundant parish church of St Mary. Rescued from a sad state of neglect by the

Tradescant Trust, it is now a fine monument to the Carolean gardeners, father and son, who introduced so many exotic plants to the British Isles, plants which we think have always been with us. Their collection of rarities forms the basis of the Ashmolean museum at Oxford. Elias Ashmole, the Tradescants, and William Bligh are buried in the churchyard.

The most romantic story attached to the church is of Mary of Modena, James Il’s queen. In her flight from Eng-land she was forced to take shelter overnight in the porch, accompanied only by her infant son and lady-in-waiting.

The museum café provided us with a light but sustaining lunch, and after viewing the museum and churchyard, we met outside the doors of Lambeth Pal­ace. Once Mary had again counted her flock, and the last straggler had arrived, she gave a signal and someone pulled the bell handle (nothing so 20th century as a press-button here) and we filed in.

Our guide introduced himself as the chief security officer and while we were all issued with identity cards to hang round our necks, he gave us an introduction to the history of the palace. The original building here was the manorial house of one sister of Edward the Confes­sor, and it became the custom for the Archbishops of Canterbury, who also held the post of Lord Chancellor the the monarch, to stay there when at Westminster. Archbishop Walter in 1197 exchanged land in Kent for

Roy Walker reports on the February lecture

Until the 1980s was believed that mid-Saxon Lunden­wic (c650-850 AD) was located within the walled Roman city. However, Martin Biddle and Alan Vince independ­ently researched the excavated evidence and concluded that the “market for many peoples coming by land and sea” (Bede) was situated west of the city alongside the Strand. The Jubilee Hall, Covent Garden, excavation in 1985 provided confirmation of this conclusion. Gordon Malcolm, at our well-attended meeting, continued the story of Saxon London by detailing the work recently undertakenby MoLAS at the Royal Opera House site and explaining how further parts of the jig­saw were now in place — the important edge pieces.There have been many small excavations within the area of Lundenwic, but at the Opera House site an area equivalent to 2% of the settlement was excavated. Deeply stratified, multi-period archaeology was revealed including truncated features suchas pits and wells. From the earliest Saxon period on site was a road aligned north-south with alleys perpendicular to it. One metre thick, it hada cambered surface of compacted gravel. Its alleyways had buildings aligned to them with associated yard areas.

There was poor wood survival on site, unless carbon­ised, although various building construction techniques were recognised. One building consisted of a series of ground-fast uprights with wattle on a ground beam running between. Within was a succession of metal­working hearths and a ridge of brickearth indicating a furnace. Here was found ornate jewellery, gold wire, strap ends and crucible fragments with silver deposits. Here too was a mould carved from bone, perhaps for an ornate button, with a ring and dot pattern and the image of a bird. Among a group of stone homes was one re-used as a mould.

Another building had upright posts and evidence of an internal partition. A gravel alleyway adjoined it. Also, the same plot showed a different technique — a brickearth wall with a wooden beam on top surmount­ed with wattle and daub walling. The finds indicated this was a we room. Ye t another building contained loom weights and the remains of a wooden bench.

Various hearths were found, one with the remains of the wooden lining used for supporting pots. Re-used Opera tells much more of the Saxon story There were fewer buildings by the turn of the 9th century. Rectangular pits emerge probably for industrial use. A v-shaped ditch, aligned east-west, was dug on the northern side of the site and lined with sharpened stakes jutting out of the southern face. This feature has not been dated but it is known that the Vikings invaded around 830AD.

Mid-9th century finds include two sword guards (one with part of the hilt), spear head ferrules and an iron cauldron buried in a barrel well perhaps for safe keeping. The hoard of Northumbrian coins of c840 AD buried with in a layer of dark earth could be a sign of those troubled times. Then, in Gordon’s own words, “in 886 AD the mid-Saxons moved into the City, becoming late-Saxons”.

This excavation has yielded the largest quantity of Anglo-Saxon pottery yet recovered from a single site in this area of London. It includes fragments from three or more pottery lamps, a very rare find. The results have given a greater depth of knowledge into this period and will serve as a model for any future work undertaken within the area of Ludenwic.

• The Museum of London has updated its permanent Saxon display to include many recent finds. A feature is a diorama constructed on the basis of evidence from the Opera House site; there are also remarkable survivals of wood and leather

called “Lollards’ Tower”, the chapel with its crypt, and the guardroom. To the east are the old stables and workshops.

The crypt, which served as an air raid shelter in the last war, is the oldest part of the palace. From it, we were taken to the Great Hail.Demolished during the Commonwealth, it was rebuilt in a mixture of Gothic and Classical styles by Archbishop Juxton after the Restoration. It has a fine hammer beam roof, and fragments of the old stained glass from the chapel are incorporated in the windows. On display are a pair of gloves given to the Archbishop by Charles ‘before the latter’s execution. As with the Great Hall, the chapel was badly damaged in 1941 and has also suffered ry from Victorianisation. Apart from the 13th cen­tury west door, it is not particularly impressive and the modern highly-coloured frescoes seem out of place.

Next was the guardroom. Prompted by the Tyler revolt, it was built as an armoury in 1380, but was modern­ised by Edward Blore, fortunately retaining the medieval roof. The first Lambeth Conference was held here, in 1867, and it is now a gallery, with portraits of early Archbishops by Van Dyck (Archbishop Laud) through to Hogarth. More portraits continue along the walls of the adjacent corridor, including works by Lawrence and Sargent. We were now in the Gothic-style building designed by Blore in the 1830s and erected over the site of the demolished manor house. It was the end of the tour. As South Londoners we can rarely go to HADAS events, but are most appreciative of the hard work of Dorothy and Mary.

A capital place for archaeological finds

Bill Bass visits the planned new London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre

Members may be aware of the problems in dealing with London’s Archaeological Archive and the fact that it was effectively closed two years ago. This was due to a number of reasons, including a lack of funding and the chaotic nature of the existing archive — it was full up.

During February members of London’s archaeo­logical community, professional and voluntary alike and including HADAS, were invited by Dr Simon Thurley, Director of the Museum of London, to view how the archive has been stored in the past and the plans for the future.

The archive consists of every kind of find from environmental to monumental (a combined volume of 3,500 cubic metres) plus the documentary side — record sheets, plans, drawing, photographs and so forth (300 linear metres of shelf space) from 100 years of excavat­ing in the London region. This, of course, will be added to as archaeological work continues. To put the scale of London’s archive in perspective, it is three times larger than that of York and ten times larger than any other in the country.

We were given a tour of the present site at Lever Street, near Old Street. Floor space and racking was chock-a-block with boxes of finds — boxes of 329 differ­ent shapes and sizes, in fact, as a survey discovered (a storage system to be drastically refined). Outside, pal­lets were full of soil samples, stonework, etc. The nature of the problem was obvious when even members of the museum or MoLAS had difficulty in accessing material for research. At the time of our visit stuff was being packed up ready for transfer to the “new” building.

Our party was transferred to the new site at Eagle Wharf Road, slightly north towards Islington, which is a much more modern and spacious affair. This has been owned by the Museum since 1989 and has housed its extensive social history collection for several years. It was decided to combine the whole archive here rather than find an alternative site, perhaps outside London.

The new establishment has been partially fitted out and is receiving the archive from Lever Street. This building will house the basic record, with enough space for future deposits hopefully for the next ten years or so.

However, the real plan is to expand this facility to make it a major centre for the storage, processing and research of the archive by making it accessible to every­body — archaeologists, borough museum services, local societies, historians, schools, members of the public, in fact anybody interested in London’s past.

To do this Eagle Wharf Road will need extensive alterations and expansion, including new floors to ac­commodate new public study, research and activity rooms, photograph and computer sections plus other offices. A computer documentation system is being developed to allow easy access to the wealth of records in the archive, with possible future connections to the Internet. As this worthwhile project must find funding, it is hoped contributions can be attracted from the Lot­tery, research councils and private sponsors.

… and one which won’t stay

One object on display at the Museum of London from April 2 won’t cause a storage problem. A third section of the first known map of London (the museum has the other two), has been located in Germany and is on loan until May 10. The map, engraved on copper plate, dates from the mid-16th century and shows old St Paul’s.

Long may the local society flourish!

Sheila Woodward, HADAS representative on the CBA, reports from Bristol

The Winter General Meeting of the Council for British Archaeology is now customarily held outside London. This year the venue was Bristol University where the elegance of Clifton Hill House rivalled that of the Society of Antiquaries, venue of London meetings.

The agenda ranged widely, from the Peatland Cam­paign (some progress in efforts to control what remains of our raised bogs) to the continuing problems of illicit excavation, both here and overseas, of portable antiqui­ties and their illegal export.

There was a lively debate on recent cuts in local government funding and the consequent reduction in local government archaeology officers. Loss of local knowledge and expertise was generally deplored.

The importance of the amateur contribution was emphasised by Dr Peter Addyman of the York Archaeo­ logical Trust. While acknowledging that technological developments create obstacles for amateur excavation, he argued that local societies can do invaluable field­work in observing, surveying, recording and reporting. He cited instances of such work which he has encour­aged in the environs of York.

In the field of education the Council has currently two main concerns: the exclusion of prehistory, and indeed of most matters archaeological, from the English national curriculum, and the equal absence of archaeol­ogy from the Open University’s teacher training pro­gramme.

National Archaeology Days in 1998 will be July 25­26. And HADAS’s treasurer will be delighted to hear that the CBA affiliation fee for societies remains un­changed for 1998-99.

What’s on, close at hand…

If the postman is quick with this Newsletter, you may catch Pinner Local History Society’s meeting on April 2, when Patricia Clarke talks on Shops in Pinner Long Ago. Venue is Pinner Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, time 8pm. Visitors are welcome (£1 donation).

The subject for LAMAS on April 9 is Libraries and Institutes in the City of London, by David Webb, Librar­ian of the Bishopsgate Institute. The lecture — HADAS members very welcome — is in the Interpretation Unit of the Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2, at 6.30pm.

Enfield Archaeological Society holds its AGM on April 17, with the business followed by reports of field­work and research. The society meets at Jubilee Hall, junction of Chase Side and Parsonage Lane, Enfield, at 8pm, and visitors are welcome (50p charge).

The Finchley Society will learn of London Docklands, Then and Now, at its next meeting, on April 30. The speaker is Arthur Farrand Radley, and the meeting is at Avenue House, East End Road, at 7.45pm. Following on from the talk, a coach trip to Docklands is scheduled for May 9.

… and further afield

Pots, People and Processes is the title of a joint conference to be held by the Northern Ceramic Society and the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology in Stoke-on-Trent on April 24-26. The busy programme includes a MoLAS contribution on the production of tin-glazed ware on the North Bank of the Thames. Ring the conference organiser, David Barker, on 01782 232323 for more details.

And the Sussex Archaeological Society is organising training courses in June and July at Clay Hill ringwork, probably one of the very first fortifications built by the Normans in England. Contact Dr Richard Jones, Anne of Cleves House, 52 Southover High Street, Lewes BN71JA to find out more.

A walk in the Wood MoLAS surveyors have been using the very latest state-of-the-art computerised recording technique, digital terrain modelling, to locate and map a triple-ditch and double-bank earthwork running through Highgate Wood, close to the Roman pottery production site with which many HADAS members are familiar.

English Heritage has commissioned the survey, as the first stage of further study of the earthwork, which is just one of a series running through the wood. The data, which on the surveyors’ portable computer produces a graphic display of the relief of the site, will be used with even greater sophistication at the MoLAS lab, alongside study of maps.

No excavation is planned, as the earthwork — prob­ably some kind of delineation feature, medieval or ear­lier — is not under threat.

Views of the past

Hornsey Historical Society stalwart Ken Gay is the man behind a new title in the Chalford Publishing Company’s Archive Photographs series. Hornsey and Crouch End contains more than 200 fully-captioned photographs, plus a short introduction, two maps and an index. Cop­ies cost £9.99, plus £1 postage, from HHS, The Old Schoolhouse, 136 Tottenham Lane, London N8 7EL.

A happy ending

Madam,

I was deeply touched by the sympa­thetic account, published in your January Newsletter, of the recent injuries to my tail. I am delighted to report that my caudal appendage is now fully restored to its former glorious tumescence. My thanks are due to HADAS members for their concern.

I beg to remain, your obedient servant,

Henry Roots

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

HADAS DIARY

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

Tuesday 10th February

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

Thursday 5th March

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

Tuesday 10th March Lecture to be Confirmed.

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

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

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

MICHAEL ROBBINS CBE

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

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

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

LECTURE REPORT – DIANA ROOKLEDGE

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

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

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

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

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

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

We hope they enjoyed meeting us!

BARNET ARCHIVES

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

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

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

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

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

35th LAMAS LOCAL HISTORY
CONFERENCE – November 1997

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cat-astrophe Vikki O’Connor

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

DOLLIS BROOK SEWER WORKS

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

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

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

HALF TERM AT THE MUSEUM OF LONDON;

Celebrating Tudor London : ‘Flower of Cities All’ ‑

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEWS FROM OUR NEIGHBOURS

Enfield Archaeological Society (0181-804-6918)

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

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

LAMAS (0171-600-3699)

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

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

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

Pinner Local History Society (0181-866-3372)

5th February Narrow-Boating Through History Iris Long

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

TRANSPORT CORNER ANDY SIMPSON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TIME TEAM

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

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

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

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

TIME TEAM 1998

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

CHRISTMAS DINNER 1997

A report by Denis Ross

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FINCHLEY BUS DEPOT Bill Firth

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEWS FROM OUR NEIGHBOURS

ENFIELD ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (0181- 804 6918)

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

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

8 January Art in Roman London. Dr Martin Henig

PINNER LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY (0181- 866 3372)

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

POTTERS BAR & DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY (01707 642886)

30 January The Story of Forty Hall. Geoffrey Giliam

MUSEUM OF LONDON

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

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

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

GUNNERSBURY PARK MUSEUM

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

Rothschilds at Gunnersbury

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

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

COURSES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE JEWISH MUSEUM

80 East End Road, Finchley, N3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Victorian family Christmas

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

NGR: TO 24735 96345 SMR: 082242 & 082243

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

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

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

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

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

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

Border Ware (BORD, RBOR) 1550-1750

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

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

Tin-glazed earthenware (TGW) 1600-1800

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

Staffordshire Slipware (STSL) 1600-1800

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

Metropolitan Slipware (METS) 1630-17130

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

Post-Medieval Redware (PMR) 1650-1800

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

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

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

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

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

Transfer Printed Ware (TPW) 1800-1900

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

China (ENPO, CHPO)

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

Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bibliography

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

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

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

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

January HENDON AND DISTRICT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 1998

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HADAS DIARY

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

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

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

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

NOVEMBER LECTURE JUNE PORGES

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

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

CHRISTMAS DINNER

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

METAL WORKING IN NORTH WALES Roy Walker

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

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

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

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

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

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

WITCH WAYS VIKKI O’CONNOR

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

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

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

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

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

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

Britain in Old Photographs
(Sutton Publishing, 1997)

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

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

PROGRESS REPORT ON RESISTIVITY SURVEYING

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

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

The most striking results were:

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

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

ANCIENT BOUNDARY DITCH, KENWOOD AND HAMPSTEAD HEATH

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

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

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

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

SITE WATCHING BRIAN WRIGLEY

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

Dollis Brook, where Hendon Lane crosses it

Brockley Hill and Edgware, Stonegrove Park

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HADAS DIARY

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

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

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

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

NOVEMBER LECTURE JUNE PORGES

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

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

CHRISTMAS DINNER

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

METAL WORKING IN NORTH WALES Roy Walker

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

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

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

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

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

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

WITCH WAYS VIKKI O’CONNOR

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

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

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

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

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

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

Britain in Old Photographs
(Sutton Publishing, 1997)

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

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

PROGRESS REPORT ON RESISTIVITY SURVEYING

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

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

The most striking results were:

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

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

ANCIENT BOUNDARY DITCH, KENWOOD AND HAMPSTEAD HEATH

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

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

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

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

SITE WATCHING BRIAN WRIGLEY

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

Dollis Brook, where Hendon Lane crosses it

Brockley Hill and Edgware, Stonegrove Park

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HADAS DIARY

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

Wednesday 3 December CHRISTMAS DINNER

At Sutton House, Hackney. The evening, organised by

Dorothy Newbury, includes a guided tour of the House.

( Details and application form enclosed. )

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

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

THE MINIMART by DOROTHY NEWBURY

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

TAILPIECE TO THE JUNE OUTING by SHEILA WOODWARD

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

MEMBERS’ NEWS DOROTHY NEWBURY

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

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

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

ODD LEGS IN HASTINGS by JEFFREY LESSER

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

THOMAS CORAM FOUNDATION AND GREAT ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL

A WALK WITH MARY O’CONNELL MICKY WATKINS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

COPTHALL STADIUM SITE, 1950s ALBERT DEAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

CLIVE OF INDIA’S GOLD IN A PIRATE WRECK

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

SUMMER MEMORIES: AN OUTING TO HERTFORDSHIRE SHEILA WOODWARD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you, Vikki and Bill.

Recent Archaeological Projects in Hertfordshire – CBA Mid-Anglia Bulletin

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

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

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

SITE WATCHING Bill Bass

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

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

1263 – 1275 High Road, Whetstone, N20.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BIRKBECK LECTURES

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

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

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

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

PULLMAN THE TRAIN MAN

An Exhibition at Church Farm House Museum

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

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

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

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

HADAS DIARY

Saturday 18 October MINIMART Please note the revised date

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

Tuesday 14 October EVENING LECTURE*

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

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

Tuesday 11 November EVENING LECTURE*

“Latest News from Flag Fen” by Garry Fincham

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

Wednesday 3 December CHRISTMAS DINNER

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

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

MEMBERS’ NEWS

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

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

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

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

Dorothy’s home phone number is 0181-203 0950

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

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

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

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

GILL BAKER