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Newsletter

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DAPHNE LORIMER, MBE

It is with deep sadness that we report the death at her Orkney home of Daphne Lorimer, a member of HADAS for over 35 years and one of our Vice Presidents. Further details and a tribute to Daphne will be included in our next Newsletter.

HADAS are having a major book sale

Over the Easter weekend 26th/27th March 2005, HADAS are having a major book sale at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE. During the last year or so members have been reviewing our library of books and journals with a view to cataloguing what we want to keep and assembling those duplicates and ones that are no longer deemed relevant for sale. The event coincides with Avenue House hosting a two-day Open Weekend. Entry is free, and there will be tours of the house and gardens, as well as a chance to visit the garden room where much of HADAS’ activities take place. Avenue House will have refreshments, sandwiches and teas, for sale, but HADAS are offering each member who attends a free glass of wine and nibbles. Please do come along and support this unique opportunity to enhance your book collection, meet and chat with fellow members. Don Cooper Can you help? HADAS will be at the Open Weekend at Avenue House on 26th_28th March, publicising Hendon & District Archaeological Society, alongside The Finchley Society and others. We will need helpers over the three days. If you would like to volunteer, please phone 020 8201 9271.

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 8 March — Pinner Chalk Mines – Ken Kirkman. A talk about a unique 19th C industrial site. Ken Kirkman, a member of Pinner Local History Society, has been going down the mines for 25 years. He has the access rights from the London Borough of Harrow, and guides groups of visitors. A book was published in 1992. http://www.pinnerlhs.freeserve.co.uk.

Tuesday 12th April — Sutton Hoo and the Horse Burial – lecture by Angela Evans.

Tuesday 10 May — The Road to Rome — in the steps of a Medieval Pilgrim — Mark Hassell Tuesday 14 June — AGM – Avenue House.

27-31 July – HADAS Trip to Northumbria – a message from Jackie Brooks. This trip is now fully booked, but people can go on a waiting list. (Tel 020 8349 2253).

Lectures and meetings start at 8 pm in the drawing room (ground floor) of Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3. Buses including the 82, 143, 260 and 326 pass close by along Ballards Lane, a five to ten minute walk from Finchley Central Tube Station.

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50 YEARS OF CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM

To mark the occasion of its 50th Anniversary this year, the Museum will be mounting a major exhibition from 30 April to 4 September — on the 350-year history of Church Farm. HADAS has always had a close relationship with the Museum, and, of course the exhibition will reflect that. But I also wonder whether any individual members might have more personal material — from memories to milk-cans — which they would care to contribute to the exhibition. If you have anything you think relevant, please ring me or Hugh Petrie on 020 8203 0130. I look forward to hearing from you.

BATTLE OF BARNET PRESENTATION

The Battle of Barnet Working Group is making a presentation on the battle of Barnet at 2.30 pm on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 March in the Swords Gallery of the National Army Museum, the occasion being the Annual Conference of the Battlefields Trust (South Eastern Region). The Group began work in September 2003, and its object is to collect and collate evidence concerning the Battle which took place on Easter Day, 1471. The Group enjoys the support of the Battlefields Trust, HADAS, and many other organisations. Its membership, expressed loosely in percentage terms, may be described as HADAS 60%, Battlefields Trust 40%, Richard III Society 20%, and local historical and archaeological societies 40%. These proportions do not reflect in any way the importance of the input received! The entire event should prove a stimulating weekend’s entertainment, expecially for those making presentations. Do come and give us your support. Andrew Coulson The National Army Museum is located in Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HT (Tel 020 7730 0717). There is no charge, a restaurant is available, car parking is metered on Saturday and free on Sunday. The nearest Tube is Sloane Square follow the brown signs to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and the museum is just to its west.

PROPOSED SPIKE MILLIGAN STATUE

The Spike Milligan Statue Fund has already raised £4,000 towards their target of £30,000 to put up a statue to Spike Milligan, author and humorist, at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, (where HADAS lectures are held). The aim of the Fund is to make this a nationwide appeal, but they think it important to have local support, and are approaching a number of significant local organisations in the London Borough of Barnet area to seek their support. They hope to raise the remainder of the £30,000 by the end of 2005. Any donation made will be acknowledged and incorporated into future publicity material. (Contact: David Smith, Secretary to the Spike Milligan Statue Fund — Tel 020 8883 4154)

ACCESSING OUR ARCHIVAL AND MANUSCRIPT HERITAGE

A new project under development at Senate House Library, University of London This project is to provide access for lifelong learners in the SE to archival and manuscript holdings held in higher education libraries. The project will develop a web interface, as well as providing opportunities for group visits to Senate House Library . Christine Wise, the Head of Special

Collections at Senate House Library, says they are now actively seeking feedback from target users such as family and local historians, genealogists, archaeologists etc. and hopes they will be prepared to comment on the development of the webface so far. Focus groups can provide feedback on Friday 11 March and Friday 18 March 2005 at Senate House Library. In return for attendance at the focus group for a maximum of two hours, the Library would be pleased to offer a free day reference ticket for the Library on either date. If you are interested to take part in the focus groups, for further information please contact Dr. Richard Butterworth, Project Technical and Liaison Officer (Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU). Tel. 020 7862 8477

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FROM THE PAPERS

Pay agreement – at present anyone can call themselves an archaeologist and bid for work (reports Prospect in their Dec/Jan 2005 issue). The only current form of regulation are the minimum standards set by the IFA (Institute of Field Archaeologists) for employers who are IFA members. Discussions are taking place between Prospect and SCALTM (the Standing Conference of Archaeological Unit Managers) on the principles of introducing a national pay agreement. Give us back our chariot — the Daily Telegraph reported on a tiny Umbrian village challenging the Metropolitan Museum in New York to return a unique 6th C Etruscan bronze and ivory chariot, sold to two Frenchmen by a farmer about 1902, and illegally exported to the US hidden in a grain shipment. (Family tradition holds that the farmer received two cows in exchange.) Metro reported the discovery of a mysterious burial in the Roman cemetery at York — 49 young men and seven children. Most of the men had been decapitated, one was shackled, and the skulls were placed in the graves beside their feet, legs or pelvis. Dr Patrick Ottaway of York Archaeological Trust suggested that the bodies could have been those of Rhineland soldiers serving under Septimus Severus (c. 200AD), and that they had been buried according to their own local customs.

Another Internet Success! Jim Nelhams

During January, the newsletters have proved useful to another member of the public with his research. On On January 1st, our Secretary, Denis Ross received the following Email from a Mr Andrew Wells, who lives near Maidstone: “I have seen your website and hope you won’t mind my bothering you in this way. I am researching the Puget family who lived at Totteridge in the 19th century. In particular I am trying to track down Puget Family by P G Dawson. This is mentioned in Vol 6 of the VCH of Middlesex (1980), under Education in Finchley. The HADAS Newsletter, April 1978, issue 86, p 4 refers to the family among other residents of the area. Kent County reference library can’t throw any light on this publication, which I suppose may have been privately produced. Can you tell me where I can find a copy please?” Mr Wells had used “Google” to search the intemet for matches with PUGET and TOTTERIDGE — leading him not just to our website but to individual newsletters. The article he discovered was one of a series written by Joanna Corden detailing AIDS TO RESEARCH held by local archives. His interest was because three members of the Wells family had married members of the Puget family. Denis then used our website to circulate this message to other members of the committee. First into action was Graham Javes; – his response – “I cannot help with the Puget family but I did a few quick net searches. There is a copy in the British Library. Its book catalogue gives more info. t was published privately in 1976 by the author, Percy

George Dawson, born 1905. – 40 copies only printed. ISBN no 095052221, pbk, 91 pages for only 3.50 pounds. The London Borough of Barnet has a copy in the Archives and Local Studies Library at Mill Hill — a prior appointment is needed. There is another copy at Chipping Barnet Public Library, Stapylton Road, Barnet, EN5, in the Local History Reference Collection. Ring first to check that it is available. Books do ‘disappear’ and often the catalogue entry is not deleted after the book has been officially withdrawn.” The name PUGET also rang several bells in my memory. Firstly, from my work on the newsletters, I was aware of the work done by Daphne Lorimer and others on the Dissenters’ churchyard at Totteridge. More particularly, I recalled seeing a foundation stone at Trinity Church, Nether Street, North Finchley, where I rehearse every week with Finchley Chamber Choir. So at my next rehearsal, I checked and sure enough, there is the foundation stone from a school that used to stand in Dale Grove close to the old Congregational Church on the corner of Dale Grove and Ballards Lane. With the merger of this church with Trinity church in 1984, both the school and church were demolished but the foundation stones were preserved and moved to Trinity church. John Hey Puget had given the land on which the Congregational Church and school were built, so the foundation stone had been laid by his daughter after his death. Discussions with another choir member who is also a church elder revealed that Mr Dawson, the author of the book being sought, had been a member of Trinity church, and his interest in the church’s history had led him to writing the history of the PUGET family. The copy of the book in the Barnet Library Archives had been sent to them by Trinity Church. Because Trinity has just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the merger with the Congregational church, they have recently held an exhibition, and this contained a history of the two churches, including some information on John Hey Puget — and a picture of him — a photograph of a portrait. They kindly gave me two copies, one of which is now in our library at Avenue House. I visited Avenue House on the following Sunday to check our library for the Puget History. It was not there — but I also checked the folder on the Dissenters’ churchyard — to find that it contained a copy of the book with a compliment slip from Mr Dawson. This has now been loaned to a happy and grateful Mr Wells. I have also sent him the church history, some other information from Trinity Church, and photographs of two memorials, which are in St Andrew’s Church, Totteridge. Work on the transcription of our newsletters to the website continues.

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A MYCENEAN ODYSSEY by John Enderby

I have recently returned from the Peloponnese, having travelled by road from Athens on an ancient road network which took in Corinth, Epidavros, Argos and, above all, Mycenae. This prehistoric town the most important in Greece, was built on the north-east side of the Argive plain, and was once the centre of a glorious civilisation lasting from 1600 BC until 1100 BC. Even today, modern Mycenae is an important point on the road system leading to Nafplion, the first capital of Greece after Independence (1822) and thought by many (including myself) to be the loveliest town in the whole of Greece. I visited Mycenae, a thirty-minute journey from Nafplion, on a bright sunny day but, even so, the extensive ruins of this once regal ancient city were invested with a brooding sense of darkness and horror. Here, Orestes committed the heinous crime of matricide. I hope to tell the chilling story in a future article on the curse of the House of Atreus. The remarkable Mycenean civilisation reached its zenith in the 2nd millennium BC, as can be seen from the fabulous gold objects — including the gold mask of Agamemnon in the Athens Museum. Many such priceless artefacts were excavated by the German discoverer of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann, who led a series of excavations from 1874. I visited the house — now an hotel — in which he lived in Mycenae and was honoured to sign the Distinguished Visitors’ Book in the name of HADAS! Like Epidavros, which is still being excavated by Greek archaeologists with a grant of £2M from the European Union, similarly-funded workers were busily engaged in excavating several areas of the huge site, some 170 years after the “first” dig! Today one enters the site (on payment of 1,500 drachmae, about £3) through the Lion Gate, a colossal monolithic limestone tympanum flanked by two headless lionesses of impressive dimensions. On the right are the concentric stone circles that form the Royal Tombs in which Schliemann found no less than nineteen skeletons. After transversing a large ramp there is an exhausting rough climb — no English Heritage—type path or handrail — to the summit (912 ft), the early part of the way bordered by walls made up of blocks of stone that weigh as much as 20 tons, and are 26 ft wide in places. They are all so accurately cut that no mortar was needed. The view from the Acropolis and the remains of the Royal Palace was fantastic in all directions, and one realised that it must have been impregnable to attackers. Fortunately, water was not too much of a problem for the residents of the Royal Palace, as there was a “secret” water source and cistern in the eastern fortress if one was prepared — I was not — to descend ninety-nine steps in total darkness. On the way back to the modern village, I came to a true masterpiece, the so-called Treasury of Atreus, thought to have been the Tomb of Agamemnon, dating from C.1300 BC. Entrance is gained through the dromos, a long stone tunnel cut deep in the hillside. The tholos, or circular interior, is reached through an impressive portal with a lintel of enormous stone blocks, one of which has been estimated to weigh 120 tons. The vault itself is an amazing beehive structure built of thirty-three courses of ashlar mansonry (again no mortar) reaching a height of 76 feet. To me, it proved to be one of the wonders of the ancient world and, without doubt, a landmark in the history of European architecture.

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UNDERGROUND NAPLES by Deirdre Barry

Our guide pushed aside the old black bed in the tiny flat, and lifted a large trapdoor. We peered warily at the steps leading down into the gloom. Somewhere down there were the remains of part of a Roman theatre where Nero had sung. If you are in Naples, don’t miss the recently-opened Napoli Sotterranea at 68 Piazza San Gaetano, off Via Dei Tnbunali, which was one of the old Graeco-Roman main streets. It is said that “sixty per cent of Naples rests on nothing”. Excavation of the soft yellow tufa stone began 5000 years ago. Then in the 4th C BC, the Greeks quarried the stone to build their city wall (remains of which are still to be seen), and used the resulting caverns for burials. In the Roman Augustan era, some of the tunnels were used as shortcut pedestrian underpasses. (Nothing is new!) During the war, the caves became bomb shelters. An amazing amount of debris (toys, helmets, even a small military tank) remains from those days, together with sad graffiti. My eeriest experience was when our group navigated a long, very narrow stone tunnel in single file, each of us clutching a candle in a china holder. Not an adventure for claustrophobes. The tunnel, carved from solid rock, had been part of the Graeco-Roman underground aqueduct, in use until the early 1600s, when more water was needed. The Roman theatre is nearby, partly under the basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore, which itself stands on the site of the Roman Temple of the Dioscuri. Not much to see, only part of the backstage, but from the curving passageway and arches, you can deduce the size of the theatre, and our guide suggested that the builders had perhaps used opus reticulatum to make the building a little more flexible in the event of earth tremors. There were earth tremors on the day that Nero sang at the theatre. Like a real trooper, he ignored them and sang on, commenting afterwards that the tremors had of course just been favourable applause by the gods. Apparently it took him a day or two at the baths afterwards to recover from the stress of his performance.

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OTHER SOCIETIES’ LECTURES AND EVENTS – Eric Morgan

Sunday 6 March, 2.30 pm Heath & Hampstead Society — Kitchen Garden, Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, N6. Hidden Heath — its History and Archaeology – walk led by Michael Hammerson (HADAS member). Donation £1.

Wednesday 9 March, 6.30pm, LAMAS Lecture Theatre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2 — First Celebrity Lecture — given by Julian Richards.

Wednesday 9 March, 8.15 pm, Mill Hill Historical Society, Harwood Hall, Union Church, The Broadway, NW7. Statues, Temples and Follies at Kew Gardens. Talk by Chris Sumner.

Thursday 10 March, 8 pm, Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane car park, Pinner. The Nelson Connection — talk given by Research Group. £2.

Monday 14 March, 3pm. Barnet & District Local History Society, Church House, Wood Street (Opposite Museum) Barnet. Background to the Wars of the Roses — talk by Alan Smith.

Friday 18 March, 8pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, Junction of Chase Side/Parsonage Lane, Enfield. Excavations at Copped Hall — talk by Christine Holloway of WEAG (HADAS did resistivity and surveying here). £1.

Saturday 19 March, 11 am-5.30pm .— LAMAS CONFERENCE, Lecture Theatre, Museum of London. Cost including tea £4, non-members £5. (For details, please see February Newsletter). HADAS will be there. http://www.lamas.org.uk/conference_arc_2005.html

Thursday 31 March, 8pm, The Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3 — Spirit Experiences in Finchley and Friern Barnet. Talk by Oliver Natelson (HADAS member, Friern Barnet & District Local History Society.

Newsletter

Table of contents
1 Newsletter
1.1 HADAS DIARY-forthcoming lectures
1.2 New Series of Time Team
1.3 New Book
1.4 Jack Goldenfeld, 27 December 1929 – 23 December 2004
1.5 Laurency Bentley
1.6 Lecture Report – Durolevum
1.7 Bedford Castle
1.8 Boy Racers (And that’s what The Times called them!)
1.9 Merci!
1.10 Burgh House Exhibition
1.11 Hadas in the News
1.12 Roman Meal Follow-Up
1.13 Roman Colchester: The Western Cemetery Explored
1.14 Other Societies’ Lectures & Events: Eric Morgan’s Monthly Round-Up

2 Archive Notes
2.1 See Also

Edited by Andy Simpson

HADAS DIARY-forthcoming lectures

Tuesday 8 February ‘The Silk Road’ Dr. Susan Whitfield
Susan Whitfield was curator of the excellent Silk Road exhibition at
the British Library last autumn. She runs the International Dunhuang
Project at the British Library, providing Internet access to over
50,000 pre-eleventh-century Silk Road manuscripts now in collections
worldwide. She has written many books and articles on the Silk Road
and China, and travels there regularly.

Tuesday 8 March ‘Pinner Chalk Mines’
Ken Kirkman of Pinner Local History Soc.

Tuesday 12 April To Be Announced
Tuesday 10 May ‘The Road To Rome’
In the steps of a medieval pilgrim Mark Hassell

27-31 July HADAS trip to Northumbria, organised by Jackie Brooks.
Lectures start at 8pm in the Drawing Room (ground floor) of Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3, and are followed by question time and tea/coffee, finishing 10pm prompt. Buses including the 82/143/260/326 pass close by, a 5-10 minute walk from Avenue House or 15-20-minute walk from Finchley Central Tube Station. Non-members £1, tea or coffee 70p

New Series of Time Team

That time-honoured feature of winter Sunday evenings is back-the new series of Time Team. Channel 4, around 5.00pm (times may vary); the first episode featured a Tudor Manor House at Chenies, near Amersham. See www.channel4.com/history/timeteam

6 February Grace Dieu Lower Hull of Tudor Warship in the River Hamble, Hants.
13 February Going Upmarket in Gloucestershire (Standish, Gloucs)
20 February Picts and Hermits; Cave Dwellers of Fife (Wemyss, Fife)
27 February Lost Centuries of St Osyth (St Osyth, Essex)
6 March The Puzzle of Pickett’s Farm (South Perrott, Dorset)
13 March Norman Neighbours (Skipsea, Humberside)
20 March Tower Blocks and Togas
New Book

…advertised in a ‘Flyer’ I received recently. Titled ‘Religious Devills’ of Hampstead Individually Respected, Collectively Reviled by Ruth Rowntree. Price £19.50, including P&P Published by Harris Manchester College, Mansfield Road, Oxford, England OXI 3TD ISBN 0-9534849-3-9 Cheques payable to ‘Harris Manchester College’ The title is taken from a ditty of 1700 relating how ‘strangers’ had fenced in some wells on Hampstead Heath; these ‘strangers’ founded the Hampstead Wells Charity and were also the founders of a dissenter’s Meeting for Worship in 1692. The book covers the development of religious dissent in England, and how the congregation of the dissenter’s Meeting adopted Unitarian beliefs and built the Rosslyn Chapel that stands off Rosslyn Hill in Hampstead today. The book describes the changes alongside the development of Hampstead, outlining the influence of each upon the other. Over 100 illustrations include maps showing the location of older properties in relation to modern day Hampstead streets.

Jack Goldenfeld, 27 December 1929 – 23 December 2004

HADAS has lost another long-serving member with the recent death of Jack Goldenfeld. Jack was a regular visitor to lectures and undertook valuable work on the Ted Sammes Archive; His widow, Alice Goldenfeld, has very kindly provided the following obituary:

It is with sadness that we report the death of Jack Goldenfeld, keen HADAS member and archaeologist of some repute, on December 23rd, days before his 75th birthday and just after his 50th wedding anniversary.

Jack came to archaeology towards the end of 1979, when he determined that he would make the time, despite running a business, to study his life-long interest in archaeology.

Between 1979 and 1999, he gained the Certificate in Field Archaeology, Diploma in Archaeology, Post-Diploma in Archeological Draughtmanship, and was engaged in approximately 20 digs in the UK, France and the USA and/or archiving exercises with Universities, HADAS, Museum of London and English Heritage, as well as mounting an exhibition at Church Vale Farm; additionally he was an advisor to The Big Dig on Channel 4 television.

His biggest source of pride, and his most enjoyable activity, though, was sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm with others. He taught at Stanmore Adult Education College and West Herts Colleges, and had the enviable problem of oversubscribed classes – because his enthusiasm and knowledge was infectious.

Latterly, he had been commissioned to archive part of the collection of Raphael Salaman, benefactor of a permanent display of tools (‘Tools for the Job’) at St Albans Museum, an exercise which he did in characteristic good humour and diligence, despite his rapidly weakening condition. He completed the exercise only days before his death.

During the latter days of his battle against cancer, he said his biggest sadness was being unable to continue teaching and inspiring others.

Jack leaves a wife, Alice, two sons Nigel and Anthony and four grandchildren Zippy and Zoë; Joe and Harry. Zoë has been touched by Jack’s devotion to archaeology, and has a good working knowledge of hieroglyphics and archaeological practice; Zoë is 6 years old.

Laurency Bentley

We also mark with regret the passing of another long standing member, with thanks to Rosemary Bentley for the following;

Laurence died 6 January 2005, aged 75, after refusing further surgery (He was a life member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society)

Laurence and Rosemary joined HADAS about 30 years ago, after he chanced to read a Newsletter in the library. There was an article on the theme of One Parking Metre equals 1.094 Parking Yards which particularly caught his attention. He was no archaeologist but took an interest in everything which came his way. Thus he went on as many trips and weekends as possible and sometimes did the write-up.

Rosemary thanks HADAS for all the fun you gave him.

Lecture Report – Durolevum

Beverley Perkins

November’s lecture was given by Dr Paul Wilkinson, Director of the Kent Archaeological Field School (KAFS) at Faversham, which offers training to archaeology students as well as to members of the general public. His subject was the ‘lost’ Roman town of Durolevum.

The first reference to Durolevum appears in the second Antonine Itinerary of the late 2nd century, which lists a road station of that name 13 miles from Rochester and 12 miles from Canterbury, placing it fairly well near the village of Ospringe, near Faversham. Flinders Petrie quotes the mediaeval chronicler Tysilio who names the gathering ground of the British at the time of Caesar’s invasion as Doral, probably a British form of Durolevum.

Judd’s Hill, situated in Syndale Park near Ospringe, has long been identified as a possible site of a Roman fort or camp. The hill dominates the surrounding area and has access to the sea via Oare Creek and the tidal Swale river – until the 19th century the main navigation route into London. When ploughing turned up pottery and a brooch in the 1780s, Hasted carried out an excavation and reported a square enclosure typical of Roman construction, defined by the remains of a ditch. A 1920s Ordnance Survey map identifies “Remains of a Camp (supposed remains of Durolevum)”. Later maps, however, show only fragments of ramparts. The cutting of a gas-pipe trench through the park in 1931 uncovered parts of Watling Street as well as storage pits, hearths, animal bones, oyster shells, Spanish oil jars and pottery; while east of the hilltop enclosure a cemetery was found containing over 380 burials.

KAFS has undertaken excavations on and around the site over a number of years. Their initial excavation found sections of a ditch with ‘ankle-breakers’ at the bottom. Pottery found in the ditch has been dated to the time of the Claudian invasion. Iron Age pottery has also been found, suggesting a long occupation of the site. However, owing to damage by extensive landscaping and gas-main trenching, no continuous ditch has come to light. There is also little evidence of permanent structures on the site. A Time Team excavation uncovered Roman ditches but concluded that there was no evidence for a fort. Interpretation has to remain inconclusive, but the site could have been a defended farmstead or a camp.

Geophysical surveys and excavations have uncovered ribbon development stretching about 2.5km along Watling Street. Although high-status artefacts were found, the buildings themselves were low-status timber constructions, suggesting ‘squatter’ developments built to take advantage of passing trade. The main town may lie under the village of Ospringe. The site appears to have been occupied from the 1st to the 5th century.

On the other side of Watling Street from Judd’s Hill lie the ruins of the Stone Chapel. The ruins were noted by Hasted as containing Roman remains, although a 1870s excavator concluded that they were “far too Roman to be Roman” and suggested that they were a Norman pastiche. KAFS excavations have identified a Roman building about 20ft square with an Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval church butting up to the remains. The entrance was located on the west side and a free-standing altar alongside the east wall. Since most Roman pagan temples had the doorway on the east and the altar outside, it is believed that this building was a Roman Christian church dating from at least the 4th century, with burials extending into the 5th century. It is the only known religious building in Britain showing continuity of worship from the Roman period into the 14th century. The area abounds in Roman remains. Dr Wilkinson pointed out on the map 18 Roman villas strung out at intervals of about 2.5 miles, set back from Watling Street along a line of springs. Most of the estates are located in the more fertile land between Watling Street and the coast, and cover about 2,000 acres, while those to the south of Watling Street, where the land rises towards the North Downs, cover about 3,000 acres. Some modern Parish boundaries can be shown to follow the Roman estate boundaries.

Our thanks to Dr Wilkinson for a most interesting and through-provoking talk on a area which is little known as compared to the familiar sites of Richborough and Rochester. HADAS members interested in the work of KAFS can visit their website at www.kafs.co.uk. The museum of the Maison-Dieu at Ospringe holds a collection of artefacts found in the area.

Bedford Castle

Just out of our area, the formerly virtually derelict site of Bedford Castle has been revamped. For this, Albion Archaeology, along with Bedford Borough Council, featured in the English Heritage sponsored Heritage in Britain Award for the best project securing long-term preservation of a site or monument. The former Royal castle at Bedford was deliberately slighted to prevent it ever being used again after a siege in 1224. Regeneration has created an urban park close to the river embankment. The castle mound has been restored as a recognisable feature. Work included restoration of stone facings to the mound, these revetment walls reminding your editor of pictures of stone and timber castles in Japan. A timber framed, tower-style shelter has been erected on the castle mound to display 13th century carpentry techniques. Timber sculptures flank the entrances to the site, and stone walling and a Victorian icehouse have been repaired and conserved. Interpretation panels have also been provided, and there has been selective felling and management of trees on the castle mound to retain its wooded character whilst ensuring he visibility and preservation of the earthwork.

Boy Racers (And that’s what The Times called them!)

Hot News from Essex is the discovery of what is being hailed as the only known Roman circus – chariot racing track – in Britain – found on the 209 acre site of a Army barracks in Colchester, now being redeveloped under the Private Finance Initiative to rebuild most of the garrison. English Heritage is studying reports on the site on Napier Road, which is hoped to be retained as open space in the new development by developers Taylor Woodrow. The Colchester Archaeological Trust have been working on the site investigating the few remains, which may be of First Century date. The site lies on flat land south of the walled Roman town, between two main Roman roads leading into the city. On each side, Two parallel walls have been found, some 250 m long and 70 m apart, the buttressed outer walls suggesting they once supported terraced seating, with other fragmentary remains. It was constructed of imported greensand stone The site has been heavily robbed, possibly to help build the nearby medieval St. John’s Abbey. Kate Orr was able to give some details at the January lecture.

Merci!

Audree Price Davies enjoyed December’s HADAS Christmas meal so much she has penned the following thank-you note – en Francais – to the French Chef, Pierre:

Cher Pierre Félicitations pour le diner que vous nous avey préparé à Avenue House, le Vendredi dix décembre. Il était bien cuisiné, et bien co-ordierré et le tout était bien présenté. Je vous en remercie.

Sincerèment
Audree Price-Davies.

(Good practice for my O-level French, Grade E, 1976 – Ed)

Burgh House Exhibition

On until 27th February at Burgh House, Hampstead is an exhibition examining Victorian Hampstead’s reputation as the healthiest suburb in London. The natural spring waters found there encouraged many hospitals to open in the area in the nineteenth century.

The museum is also looking to collect oral history testaments from Hampstead residents who lived there during World War II. If you would like to take part, contact Curator Marilyn Green on 0207 431 0144. Due to receipt of lottery funding, much of the building, including the Hampstead Museum, is closed for rebuilding in March/April.

Hadas in the News

HADAS have been in the press again – with a useful article in the 23 December 2004 edition of the Barnet & Potters Bar Times, who heard of the HADAS website from a press-release by Tim Wilkins. The article, ‘Excavated and online’ is illustrated with a photo of the first season of excavations at Church Farm House Museum in 1993, with Graham and Sylvia Javes to the fore! The article describes the website and past excavations, with details provided by Bill Bass.

Another press article of interest was in the Barnet Express, dated 25 November 2004, recording the discovery by amateur metal detectorist Darren Wright of a well-preserved Bronze Age palstave axe in a field north of High Barnet. The axe is shown being examined by Barnet Museum staff Pat Allison and Dr Gillian Gear – it had been sent to Verulamium Museum for identification. Mr Wright has now donated the axe to Barnet Museum

Roman Meal Follow-Up

Jeffrey Lesser

In the interests of experimental archaeology, I followed your recipe for Movetum, the Roman savoury relish. Perhaps something was lost in the translation. The amount of garlic would be better with 4 cloves rather than 4 bulbs (which is 32 cloves.) This could explain why the Romans were forced to leave Britain or alternatively why their enemies fled the field of battle. Similarly 4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar and 2 of oil should be the other way round for smoothness.

Salve!

Roman Colchester: The Western Cemetery Explored

Jean Bayne

Talk by Kate Orr from the Colchester Archaeological Trust, January 14th 2005

Close-up of part of Roman cremation burial with pottery lamp.

awaiting image –cja 02:08, 4 Mar 2005 (GMT)
Kate followed up the HADAS summer visit to Colchester with a talk on the Roman burial practices discovered during the excavation of the Western Cemetery in 2003. This took place as a result of the demolition of Handford House, a Victorian building. Some crude nineteenth century efforts at excavation had already been made but the techniques now available enabled more precise results to be ascertained although there were limited opportunities to explore the whole site of 75 square metres: only 10% was dug. It was calculated that the site contained around 600 burials of which 63 were excavated. On the whole, it was well preserved, as there had been very little ploughing on the site since Roman times.

As is usual in Roman towns, the burial site was outside the walled area and its use spanned the first and second centuries. It included both cremations and inhumations and two bustas or special pyres. Some of the cremations would have been removed earlier but even so the diversity of types of burial was very interesting. There was no consistent pattern apart from the clusters of inhumations on one side: these were presumably later, although probably not Christian as this cemetery was in earlier use. The skeletons were not arranged in an east -west direction. The cremations were scattered about the site.

The bodies were of Romanised Britons, buried with coins in their mouths, rather than native Britons and there may have been many military burials as there was a garrison at Colchester. The tombstone of the centurion, Facilis, was an example. But there is evidence, among the bones and the grave goods, that women and children were also buried there.

Some cremations were in single pots in circular pits; others included several pots alongside, or on top of, the covered urn These pots may have been for food and drink for the deceased to take on his/her journey to the underworld or left over from graveside feasts to commemorate the dead or libations. Some included lamps, many very well preserved, hidden under broken pots which seemed to be shielding them. Some had symbols, or pictures, on them: a crocodile, lion, coins, a masked head and may have represented guardian spirits, particularly for children. These were also likely to be linked with early interments, perhaps predating Boudicca (60 AD). There were also Amphora burials. These amphora, possibly from Spain, may have originally carried wine. The one excavated was over a metre down in a narrow slot. The urn and pots were found inside along with the top of the amphora, a flagon and a lamp. It was a factory lamp, not a picture one, and therefore later in the first century. One curious burial, thought to be that of a child, was found deep down in a very wide pit. However the remains, alongside a little beaker, melon beads and a small amulet were small in comparison to the space, suggesting that inhumation may have been a first choice and then came a change of mind. Evidence from hasps, a copper alloy lock plate and a ring mean that some circular urns were placed in wooden boxes. Scraps of textile suggest there was either a lining to the box or the bones were put in a bag. There may also have been decorative straps on the box.

An unusual find on this site was the evidence of bustas. This is were the body was burned above the pit and was left resting in it, rather than being placed in an urn or pot .In the first 6 ft. long rectangular busta, the body was in anatomical order: toe bones, pelvis and skull. Charcoal was evidence of burning and there were nails, most likely of hobnail boots. (Many hobnail boot nails were found on this site). In the second, roughly oval shaped smaller pit, the bones were jumbled. They were likely to have been those of a woman, as a two-piece mirror was put in after the pyre together with a spoon, maybe for lotions. Other types of burials included ones with debris placed around the pot.

This excavation raised many questions: there was such a diversity of cremation types that they may have had different meanings, perhaps representing the differing status of the people who died. Or it may just have been fashionable to undertake one type rather than another. There may also have been inhumations alongside cremations and some bones may have been kept rather than others. May be inhumation was easier and cheaper as it used less wood for burning .The later skeletons as evidenced by the pottery, although higgledy-piggledy, suggest ideas about resurrection and the after life which may have preceded Christianity. The two bustas cannot be dated precisely so they may be from different centuries or for different practices.

The quality of some of the artefacts was astounding: for example, a very well preserved first century cup in one piece, a glass jar, possibly for unguents and many of the lamps. The other claim to a special find for this cemetery was the discovery of the two bustas, known to be connected to military centres There is one in St.Albans and one in London but no others have yet come to light in Colchester. So it is a relatively rare discovery.

It was an intriguing, well presented and illustrated talk and led to many questions from the audience. Our thanks to Kate for a very enjoyable evening.

Other Societies’ Lectures & Events: Eric Morgan’s Monthly Round-Up

Wednesday 9 February 8.15pm Mill Hill Historical Society Harwood Hall, Union Church, The Broadway, NW7 AGM, followed by he Old Watling St –Talk by David Baker.

Thursday 10 February 8pm Finchley Society Local History Group Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Rd NW3 Speakers include archivists Hugh Petrie and Yashin Webb.

Monday 14 February 3pm Barnet Local History Society Church House, Wood Street Barnet Forty Hall Pleasure Gardens, Grounds and Park (where HADAS have done resistivity work) Talk by Geoffrey Gillam, Enfield Archaeological Society.

February 14-19 10-6 daily Royal Air Force Museum London (Note new name) Grahame Park Way Colindale ‘Helicopter Half Term’ – visiting helicopters, models, story telling and model making for the kids.

Wednesday 16 February 7pm. Royal Air Force Museum London (Hendon) Claude Grahame-White and his Aircraft Factory by Edward Sargent Grahame Park Way, Colindale

Thursday 17 February 8pm Enfield Preservation Society Jubilee Hall, Jcn Chase Side/Parsonage Lane, Enfield A Nostalgic Walk Around Enfield Frank Bayford.

Friday 18 February 6.30 for 7pm City of London Archaeological Society (COLAS) AGM and lecture: Survival or Introduction? Romanitas in Britain Ken Dark, Unvty of Reading St Olave’s Hall, Mark Lane, London EC3 (2 minutes from Fenchurch St Station)

Thursday 24 February 2.30pm Finchley Society Drawing Room, Avenue House Will Societies Like Ours Survive? Talk by John Hajdu

Saturday 19 March 11-5 42nd Annual Conference of London Archaeologists – the LAMAS CONFERENCE Museum of London Lecture Theatre. 11am – 5.30pm Morning session – recent work. Afternoon-LAMAS 150th anniversary presentations. Afternoon coffee available. Stands and displays, hopefully including HADAS, in attendance. Tickets £5.00 non-members from Jon Cotton, Early Department, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2 5HN. Early booking advised. See you there!

Thanks as ever to this month’s contributors; Bill Bass, Jean Bayne, Rosemary Bentley, Alice Goldenfeld, Jeffrey Lesser, Eric Morgan, Beverley Perkins, and Audree Price-Davies.

Please send copy for the March issue (by 13 February latest) to; DEIRDRE BARRIE

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HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 11 January: COLCHESTER Lecture by Kate Orr A follow up to our last summer visit.

Tuesday 8 February. . TIE SILK ROAD Lecture by Dr. Susan Whitfield

Tuesday 8 March: THE CHALK MINES OF PINNER Lecture by Ken Kirkman — Pinner Local History Society

Tuesday 12 April: TBA

Tuesday 10 May: THE ROAD TO ROME

Lecture by Mark Hassell, In the steps of a medieval pilgrim.

27 to 31 July 2005: HADAS trip to NORTHUMBRIA

Lectures start at 8.00pm in the Drawing Room at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley N3. Non-members £1. Tea or coffee 70p. Meetings close promptly at 10.00pm. Nearest tube station is Finchley Central.

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HADAS NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES by Jim Nelhams

Following an appeal for help, I have been working for the past few weeks to transcribe HADAS newsletters in a text format. This follows the work done by Andrew Coulson in scanning them as images — effectively photocopies, It is by no means a small task and so far 100 newsletters (over 500 pages of text) have been processed. So if it is so much work, why bother? Archaeology depends a lot on the quality and accessibility of documentation. The old maxim “Knowledge is Power” is of no use to an archaeologist if the knowledge gained by any predecessors is not available as a building block for progress. We have paper copies of most if not all newsletters at Avenue House — at least three sets — but they are not indexed, so finding something in them is not easy even if you know roughly when it was published. And they do contain a lot of information. By having them stored in text form on a computer, it means that anyone with access to the HADAS web site and the appropriate password, can now search for a word or name, and get a list of all the newsletters where that appears. I have already had some feedback from one user who is finding this extremely helpful in preparing a book on the history of Hendon. The storage on computer also gives us additional security so that if the paper copies should be destroyed or damaged, we have the computer copy elsewhere. Needless to say that we must also make sure that the computer copy is itself secure.

During the process, I have learnt a lot about the history of HADAS; the various digs and other projects which were undertaken, the outings, and most important the people who contributed so much to the foundation and growth of the Society. Some of these people are still active today. I noted on recent visits to Church Farm House Museum, Hendon and to W. H. Smith at Brent Cross how many of the books on sale there showed the names of people who were HADAS members. And at the Christmas Dinner. I was able to produce the newsletters which related to the 1979 Dinner (a Roman Banquet) — slides of which were presented by Sheila Woodward. These newsletters contained instruction sheets for making your Roman costume for the occasion. Since these instructions contained diagrams, they have not as such been transcribed, but can be easily found in the images Andrew has already stored. I have used several techniques in the transcription. At the start I used a program that allowed me to read the newsletter into a microphone and the program then did its best to translate my voice into words in a word processor. This gave some problems, since a lot of the more technical words were not in the computer’s dictionary, and I had to type those, but it got over 90% of the words correct. Some interesting misinterpretations arose: Fortifications came out as 40 vacations, Broxbourne came out as frog’s spawn, and a visit to Avebury came out as a visit to a brewery! (Now that sounds like a good outing! — BB). Gradually, as the age of the paper decreased and the quality improved, I was able to change to a scanning process, with rather better success, though occasional fading still gives a problem. A piece of Finchley history came out as a PIE of Finchley history. And the next article was headed “Food for Thought!” So I am now up to November 1979 — only 25 years to go and the newsletters have grown from 2 pages to 10, so I don’t expect to complete this quickly. And I am sure I will have made some mistakes which ideally should be found and corrected. Christian Allen’s recent appeal for further help has not as far as I know generated any response. Certainly help would be greatly appreciated and need not require keyboard or computer skills. For example, proof-reading what has been done already. And it need not be a big commitment. Each newsletter completed gets us nearer the final goal. So if you can spare a couple of hours and would like to help, please give me a call or email. My info is at the end of the newsletter.

HADAS NEWS

When Victor Jones died he left a legacy of £1000 to HADAS “to start a fund for a Borough of Barnet Schools Archaeological Finds Collection”. Church Farmhouse Museum are now hoping to take this project forward by making-up boxes of archaeological finds and other material from the museum and Hadas collections. These will be lent to schools for educational purposes. A bench dedicated to Brian Wrigley should be located (subject to administrative matters) on the terrace outside the Garden Room at Avenue House. There is a project in hand to rationalise and reorganise the HADAS library. The result is there will be a number of surplus library books for sale, it is hoped there will be a book sale early in the New Year, (watch this space). A resistivity survey was carried out at Pinner Golf Course in July, with useful results in connection with a demolished 17th century Manor House. Ken Kirkman of the Pinner Local History Society has approached the General Manager of the golf course with a view to digging two small trenches. Developments are awaited.

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Digging in the City of the Sun: settlement archaeology in Egypt by Lynette Wilkins

The first lecture of the winter series took place at Avenue House on 12th October to a full lecture room. It was given by Lucia Gahlin, a lecturer in Egyptology for the Universities of Exeter, Bristol and Birkbeck College London. She is the Chairman of the Friends of the Petrie Museum and is responsible for editing that museum’s database of material from Tell el Amarna, a site she has worked at as Registrar of finds. Lucia began by explaining the significance of the site. It was created as a new capital, an administrative city, by pharaoh Amenhotep IV who took the new name of Akhenaten early in his reign (1352-1336 BC) to reflect his sponsoring of a new monotheistic cult of the sun god Aten. He moved the capital to a new site at Amarna, equidistant from Memphis in the north and Thebes in the south (about 200 miles from each). He called it Akhet-aten ‘Horizon of the Aten’ and it is thought that the site was chosen partly because the sun rises above a cleft in the surrounding rock cliffs. The move was also a political one to reduce the influence of the powerful and rich priesthood of the god Amun, based in Thebes. Akhenaten’s queen was Nefertiti, known to millions from the beautiful painted bust of her head, now in the Berlin Museum, which was found in one of the workshops at Amarna. Much of the art of the Amarna period shows Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their daughters being given life by the rays of the Aten sun god. the site is very large — about the size of Brighton — and it was abandoned a few years after Akhenaten’s reign, when the capital moved back to Thebes in the reign of Tutankhamun, The value of the site is that it is a city in a time capsule – it was a virgin site before its foundation and has not been built on since, except for a few Romano/Christian buildings. However, the area is now being settled by local families who scratch a living farming nearby, and the site is suffering from encroachment. It extends on both sides of the Nile, with the administrative and residential buildings on the east bank and mainly agricultural land on the west bank. It is bounded by cliffs on both sides of the Nile and the perimeter is marked by 15 massive inscribed stelae cut in the rock face. The main archaeologists who have excavated at Amarna are Flinders Petrie in the 1890s (hence the excellent range of Amarna finds in the Petrie Museum) and, more recently, Barry Kemp. Flinders Petrie is often called the father of scientific archaeology for his insistence on meticulous recording of the context of the finds and his interest in technology, trade and process of manufacture — he often kept the moulds and tools he found as well as the finished goods. Since 1979, Barry Kemp has been re-discovering the site — carrying out detailed mapping and using scientific analysis. especially archeobotany to learn more about the inhabitants. He has also encouraged experimental archaeology particularly bread and beer making! The extant remains at Amarna are nowhere near as impressive at first sight as those at the more famous sites. This is because they were constructed mainly of unfired mud brick with just a casing in stone blocks, and these collapsed over the years. The stone facings have sunken reliefs, which indicate the speed with which the city was constructed. Each stone block is exactly one royal cubit in length (about 52cm). However, there are remains of many types of building along the east bank, linked by a royal avenue, or King’s Road, as well as royal tombs in one of the wadis through the cliffs. At the north of the King’s Road was the North Palace, thought to be residence of the royal women. It had beautiful painted plaster walls and much conservation effort is now being made to conserve and consolidate the mud bricks to prevent further loss. Here, inscriptions naming Meritaten, a daughter of Akhenaten, have been cut over earlier inscriptions to Kiya, a second wife and possibly mother of Tutankhamen. The pharaoh would travel in procession each morning along the King’s Road to the centre of the city, where the Great Palace is linked to residential quarters via a bridge over the King’s Road. Also nearby are the Great Aten temple and the small Aten temple. These temples are different to normal temples found elsewhere in Egypt. They are open courts, rather than roofed, and filled with a grid of many offering tables to the god Aten and there are no shrines to the god as he can be worshipped in the sky. After worshipping the god Aten in the temples, the pharaoh appeared at a window in the residence to distribute gifts to loyal officials.The unique value of Armana is in the housing area, south of the temples and the nearby workshops. Unlike other Egyptian cities which have grown with the population, Armana seems to have been planned as a garden city. The main houses are large with gardens and smaller houses for servants clustered nearby. There are remains of ovens and granaries in the gardens. The houses, both large and small, have a tri-partite plan of entrance area, public rooms and private rooms. In the workshops have been found evidence of the processes of manufacture and numerous bread moulds. Barry Kemp has re-examined the spoil heaps from earlier excavations in this area and found much that was ignored or discarded by less meticulous excavators. Lucia illustrated her talk with many beautiful slides of the site and its finds, supported by clear maps of its location and layout. Her knowledge and evident enthusiasm for Egypt, and Amarna in particular, was infectious. Responding to questions following the talk, she noted that there have been very few domestic sites excavated in Egypt as they were usually located on arable land close to the Nile. This means that any archaeology is destroyed by subsequent inhabitants. The only exceptions to this are the workmen’s villages of Deir el Medina on the west bank at Thebes and on the Giza plateau, which are atypical as they were for a specific purpose. This is what makes the domestic areas of Armana so valuable and unique. Lucia encouraged everyone to visit the Petrie Museum at University College. just behind the British Museum and recommended the Petrie web-site at www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/museum where all of the museum’s collection can be viewed.

IT’S CHRISTMAS AGAIN!! by Don Cooper

HADAS held their annual Christmas dinner on Friday, 10th December 2004 at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley. More than 45 members and their guests assembled at 19.00 for 19.30 in the Drawing Room and were treated to canapes and a welcoming glass of wine. This year instead of “turkey and all the trimmings”, a French chef (Pierre) came, introduced himself, and primed us for the wonderful meal we were about to enjoy. Dorothy as usual had prepared a table plan and recorded the different courses we had all chosen when we first applied for tickets. this was a very sensible precaution as not everybody’s memory was totally reliable!! I won’t tickle your taste buds too much by describing the various courses, however, I must mention the Hot Fondant Chocolate, which was amazing!! In the interval between the main course and dessert, the customary raffle of many prizes” took place and gradually the pile of goodies” was reduced as winners collected their reward. After the meal. Sheila Woodward gave a brilliant talk, with many slides, on a previous HADAS Christmas dinner. The dinner; which took place in 1979, was a Roman banquet with togas. authentic Roman cuisine, slaves etc. Remarkably a least half a dozen of this year’s participants had been present on that famous occasion!! They had hardly changed at all!! The talk stirred up many memories and stories of the past. It was time for “carriages” and all that remained to round off a very successful evening was to thank Dorothy Newbury MBE and all her helpers for a great evening and to wish all HADAS members and their families a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

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Catacomb? Daily Mail 8/12/04

An ancient stone carving which was used as a headstone for a pet cat was sold at auction for more than £200,000. Johnny Beeston and his wife Ruth thought the slab, found in a quarry by stonemason Mr Beeston years before, would make a fitting memorial for their much-loved tabby, Winkle. It wasn’t until amateur historian Chris Brewchorne spotted the stone on his daily walk passed their cottage in Dawlish Walk. Somerset, that its historical importance became clear. The stone has been assessed as a rare piece of sculpture, probably from King Alfred’s reign between 871 and 899AD when he was fighting the Vikings from his base in Athelney, close to the Beestons’ cottage in Somerset. The 18 x 17in carving depicts St Peter and may once have been part of a l5ft Christian cross or on a frieze in a Saxon church. ‘It is a rare survivor of English stone carving at its best’ said specialist Alexander Kader.

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Report on Resistivity Surveys at Friary Park, Barnet

Site:Friary Park, Friern Barnet N12 (Woodhouse Ward, LBB). Grid ref: TQ 2730 9270 (centre of park) History and importance of the site: Friern Barnet Lane was until the 12th century the main road from London to the north. A community sprang up in the vicinity of St James church to serve travellers on this main thoroughfare. The original St James Church is first mentioned in 1187, the present (rebuilt) church contains a possible Norman arch. Because of the place-name ‘Friern’ it is suggested that there may have been a 12th century friary in the area possibly with an associated hospital (hospitulum). The Manor House of Friern Barnet, formerly held by the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem is thought to lie close by the church or the adjacent golf-course. The eastern half of Friary Park lies in an area of possible Special Archaeological Significance. as indicated by Barnet Council and English Heritage. Dr Oliver Natelson of the Friern Barnet & District Local History Society considers the present evidence:

(1) Evidence on the ground

Two earthworks – one mound (western), and one causeway or bank (eastern) now grass-covered are present.

(i)Local people who are well acquainted with the park cannot explain these earthworks.

(ii)These earthworks do not correspond to any known structures in existing records.

(iii)The western mound has old oaks growing on the surface and at a lower level to the south of the mound. These trees are about 2 centuries old, which indicates that the mound is older still.

(2) Other possible evidence

(i)A portion of land was originally given to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in a document signed by King John.

(ii)What the knights actually did with the land is not known. Nonetheless it is felt that the knights would have put up a building – a hospitulum. There may well have been a church. However this is speculative.

(iii)If a hospitulum was built, it would have served pilgrims on the road from London to St Albans via Muswell Hill – where there was a shrine in the Middle Ages – although the position of the shrine is now uncertain.

(iv)The parish became known as Fryan Barnet or Friern Bamet (modern spelling) on account of the Freren or brothers who occupied a Friary. However there is no documentary evidence that there really were Freren let alone a Friary.

(v)the name of this parish “Frier Barnet” (became Friem Barnet Urban District Council in the 20th Century)

(vi)Little is known of the site before about 1860.

(vii)The 1863 map shows that Friary Park and St James church land were under one ownership.

Suggested archaeological fieldwork (by HADAS): A resistivity survey may show up archaeological features such as banks, ditches, pits, postholes or foundations of earlier buildings. The natural sub-soil (probably London Clay with gravel) and how heavily the park has been landscaped in the past, may affect the readings. The park is known to have been landscaped and planted cl909.

Areas surveyed:

1.The ‘eastern’ bank or causeway running between the boundary of Friern Barnet Lane and the path in front of the house called The Friary’. There are obvious earthworks and undulations in this area.

2.The western terrace — a flattened mound or terraced feature to the west of the house and the bowling green.

Results For the record the meter used was the TR Systems Ltd/CIA Resistance Meter, using grids of 20x20m, recording at 1.0m intervals. During Spring 2002 HADAS surveyed 4 grids of 20x20m squares over the bank or causeway area (1. above) and another 4 grids slightly further south west. The straight white line across the plot is a modern tarmac path. Beneath this there appears to be two curved features of high resistivity (the light areas), these seem to be of two phases. Phase 1 is an existing curved gravel (or gravel topped) bank, the stones can be seen eroding from the top surface. On the ground, the bank fades away southwest beneath the modern path, but as can be seen from the plot it continues on a straight course southwest, appearing to terminate in a (broken?) hook/circle shaped feature. This gravel feature does not appear to be natural (glacial gravels etc.), neither does it look structural similar to building foundations, although without excavation this cannot be totally ruled out. Could it be an early access road, path or coach drive leading to the former mansion house within the vicinity? The hook/circle shape feature is a strong and substantial signal, it lies on higher ground on the edge of the south westward slope. The nature of this feature is not known, possibly a dump of demolition rubble or a solid foundation? Phase 2 is the earliest feature and curves gently southwest and appears to end indistinctly in the same area as the circle above. This may be a natural gravel feature or work connected with the early landscaping of the park e.g. ponds, of which one is thought to have been in this area. The second area surveyed (2. above), the western terrace, was surveyed with one grid of 17x20m this area proved difficult to survey as it was covered by many trees, bushes and plants etc. The plot shows no archaeological features. This garden is heavily terraced and at the western end leads to a slope and then a putting green. Any archaeological features surviving here would be difficult to detect.

Future work Although there are some strong signals from the plot, no obvious building plans that can be detected, it would be advantageous in the future to test the strongest signals by excavation to determine the nature and date of the high resistance levels.

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OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS by Eric Morgan

Thurs 6 Jan: 10.30am, Mill Hill Library, Hartley Avenue, NW7. The Story of RAF Hendon. Talk with coffee and biscuits, 50p.

Thurs 6 Jan: 8pm, Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner. The Chelsea Physic Garden – London’s Secret Garden by Mike watts, visitors £2.

Sun 9 Jan: 2.30pm, Pubs, Pomp & Paupers – Historical Walk in High Burnet. Meet outside Barnet College, Wood St, Barnet. Cost £5.

Mon 10 Jan: 3pm, Barnet & Local History Society, Church House, Wood St, Barnet, (opposite museum). Earning a Living in Barnet c1005-2005 by Graham Javes (Hadas member).

Weds 12 Jan: 6.30pm, LAMAS, Interpretation Unit, Museum of London. A Possible Bronze-Age/Iron-Age Crannog in the Lea Valley at Edmonton by David Birchfield.

Weds 12 Jan: 8.15pm, Mill Hill Historical Society, Harwood Hall, Union Church, The Broadway, NW7. St Albans Abbey – Past & Present by Mrs Pamela Martin (Cathedral Guide).

Weds 12 Jan: 8pm, Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, Corner of Ferme Park Rd/Weston Park, N8. The Dead & the Living in London in the 16th and 17th centuries by Dr. Vanessa Harding.

Mon 17 Jan: 8.15, Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries, Church End Library, 24 I lendon Lane, N3. 1936-An Incident in Cable Street-Terror in Londons’ East End by Cyril Dombey.

Weds 19 Jan: 8pm,Willesden Local History Society, Willesden Suite, Library Centre, 95 High Rd, NW10. The Naimster Collection (early paintings & sketches of Willesden) by Tim Morton & M Barres-Baker Thurs 20 Jan: 7.30pm, Camden History Society, Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, NW3. Eleanor Farjeon & Family in Hampstead by Ann Harvey.

Thurs 20 Jan: 8pm, Enfield Preservation Society, Jubilee Hall, Junction of Chase side/Parsonage Lane, Enfield. Spitalfields talk by Stuart Harvey.

Fri 21 Jan: 7pm, City of London Archaeological Society, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3. The Death Ritual in the Middle Ages by Robert Stephenson (Colas).

Weds 26 Jan: 8pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, St John’s Church Hall (next to Whetstone police station), Friern Barnet Lane, N20. The Friary Park Story from 1909 By Helen Hooper (Hadas did resistivity in the park – see this newsletter).

Thurs 27 Jan: 2.30pm, Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Rd, N3. Peru Journey by Bill Tyler (President).

Newsletter
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HADAS DIARY

Tues 10 February 2004′ Churchyards of Greater London: Decay and Resurrection’ . Dr. Roger Bowdler

Hendon and Finchley churchyards are among Middlesex’s finest. This slide lecture will look at them against the background of an ongoing survey of the graveyards of Greater London. Roger Bowdler works for English Heritage and is responsible for listing in London and the South East, but his academic speciality is in the understudied realm of funerary monuments.

Lectures start at 8pm in the Drawing Room (ground floor; of .4 venue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3, and are followed by question time and tea coffee.. finishing 10pm prompt. Buses including the 82, 143/260/326 pass close by, a 5-10 minute walk from .Avenue House or 15-20-minute walk from finchley Central Tube Station.

Saturday 6 March 2004 TR systems resistivity meter ‘Master Class’ — 10am — 5pm, Millbrook Village Hall. Beds, cost £35.00 for the day including lunch and coffee. Details from Kevin Fadden, tel. 01525 402273, . Full details in February issue.

Our July long weekend to Cumbria is almost full; 40 members have already booked; if you want to go, BOOK NOW! (Details in leaflet issued with previous newsletter)

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TRANSPORT CORNER Andy Simpson

Got some room for a nice print or two on the wall? The Sheffield based Fotheringay Folio continues to add superb quality full-colour prints and greetings cards of paintings by Richard Berridge of vintage London transport to their collection. Latest releases of local interest include a print of a wintry Finchley Tram Depot in 1938, with a Feltham double-deck tram in the foreground and depot building, overhead tower wagon and replacement trolleybuses in the background, approx size 15.5 x 11 inches, cost £15.00. Another print ‘Hampstead Heath 1952′ shows trolley bus 485 standing in the snow at South End Green on the 639 service to Moorgate; image size and price as before. (The surviving former tram shelter at this location is shortly to be restored, reports the Camden New Journal) Greetings cards (inside blank for your own message, supplied cellophane wrapped with envelope) include the Hampstead Heath trolleybus scene, size 179 x 129mm, price £1.50 each, and another of a trolleybus passing beneath the bridge at Archway Road in the winter snow of 1961. Size 145 x 145 mm, cost £1.25 each. They are available from the London County Council Tramways Trust (of which your editor is a trustee), with proceeds going towards restoration of surviving London Tramcars at the tram museum at Crich, Derbyshire. Send your orders to LCCTT (Promotions) Ltd.. 2 Sanctuary Close. Kessingland, Suffolk NR33 7SX; please add 10% postage and packing, minimum 50p. to orders for cards under £25 (you can order both prints for £25 the pair, post free, sent in toughened tubes). Cheques payable to `LCCTT (Promotions) Ltd’
FIRE ENGINE CORNER by Andy Simpson

In October 2003 I made my annual return visit to stay with old college friend Greg Hunt. whom many of you have met when he makes his annual visit to coincide with a HADAS outing. He kindly took me along on the Saturday to the Science Museum Air Transport Collection and Storage Facility at Wroughton Airfield, Wilts, just off the A4361 near Swindon, for one of their occasional open days; many of the museum’s large objects are held here. The Iron Age hill fort of Barbury Castle overlooks the Museum site from the north. Close by are the prehistoric sites at Avebury, the Ridgeway track along the Marlborough downs, and Hackpen Hill. See; (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/wroughton) Two of the hangars were open, full of airliners including a De Havilland Comet 4B, 1936 built Douglas DC-3 and Lockheed Constellation, aero engines including one from a Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter, vintage buses including a splendid Swindon Corporation 1943 Guy Arab double decker complete with wartime austerity bodywork and wooden slatted seats, the Science Museum collection of invalid carriages, and a splendid collection of vintage fire engines, including an ex London County Council Dennis Big 4 pump/escape ladder engine in use 1936 – 1956, a former Southgate horse-drawn Merryweather built fire engine, and a remarkable — and well-preserved – specimen from the one-time Finchley District Council. Supplied to Finchley by Merryweather and Sons Ltd in 1904,and with the registration number H1553, this was the first self- propelled petrol motor fire engine used by a public fire brigade. In excellent condition and mechanically complete, though now minus its original escape ladder, it is painted fire-engine red with straw coloured lining out, and proudly bears on its side the crest of Finchley District Council Fire Brigade. It was relegated to spare engine in 1913, but not finally withdrawn until 1928! (Peter Pickering tells me it featured on a Royal Mail postage stamp some years ago) Also on show is a 1944 Austin K4 with 60 ft Merryweather turntable ladder. This was one of the special machines built to equip the small ‘flying columns’ of fire engines formed to deal with the German VI flying bombs and V2 rockets attacking London during 1944-45.
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INTERESTED IN VIKINGS? Peter Nicholson

Oxford University Department of Continuing Education (OUDCE) is holding a Weekend School ‘The Viking Contribution to Britain’ from the 16th to 18th of April. Besides England, both Scotland and the Irish Sea region will be covered. and also topics such as Viking Art and artefacts and the Vikings’ contacts with the Church.OUDCE runs a wide-ranging programme of weekend and day schools on archaeological (and other) topics. Examples of those scheduled for this year include Egypt above the Nile Cataract. The Neolithic in the British Isles, and Tribes of Ancient Italy. Anyone who wants to be on their mailing list can contact them at: Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA or (Tel) 01865 270368 or e-mail) ppdayweekox.ac.uk.
NEW SERIES OF TIME TEAM

That time-honoured feature of winter Sunday evenings is back-the new series of Time Team. Channel 4, around 5.30pm (times may vary) Syndale (1 February); Green Island (8 February); Oakamoor (15 February); Goldcliff/Severn Estuary (22 February); Cranborne Chase (29 February); Wittenham (7 March); Nassington (14 March); Ipswich (21 March) Roxborough (28 March)
ROMANTIC BRUM

Also on the theme of continuing education, following on from our talk on the archaeology of Birmingham’s Bull Ring during our September 2003 HADAS long weekend, those wishing to spend Valentine’s Day (Saturday 14th February) in Birmingham can for £20.00 including tea/coffee attend the University of Birmingham, Centre for Lifelong Learning with CBA (West Midlands) annual round-up of West Midlands Archaeology ‘NEWS FROM THE PAST — 2003’, 10am — 5pm, at the Education Building, University of Birmingham. Details on the University web site — www.ell.bham.ac.uk/2003dayschools.htm#Archaeologv or phone 0121 414 8065. Provisional papers include The Shotton Project: A Midlands Palaeolithic Network: The Birmingham and Warwickshire Burnt Mound Survey; Iron Age and Romano British Farmsteads in Central Worcestershire; Medieval Parks in Herefordshire; The Crescent Lockworks, Willenhall, and The Stone Street Square Glasshouse, Dudley.
GOTHIC AT THE V&A by Bill Bass

The exhibition GOTHIC – Art for England at the V&A included a couple of items of local interest. One exhibit was a gold ring said to have removed from the body of Earl of Warwick after his death in the Battle of Barnet. The oval bezel of this massive ring is engraved with a hear chained to a staff This was the badge of the Warwick’s in the 15th century. There is no written record of the finding of the ring on his body before the 18th century. The ring is on loan from Liverpool Museum. Another exhibit was a large pair of doors from St Albans Abbey. They were made for the two portals of the now-demolished Early English west end, constructed between 1195 and 1214. The doors themselves are of mid 15th century date with an impressive tracery pattern,they are of laminated construction held together by wrought-iron nails which also act as decoration. The exhibition finished Jan 18th 2004.
Membership Renewal: Standing Orders Mary Rawitzer (Membership Secretary)

HADAS membership charges for next year (from 1st April 2004) have increased to £12 for individuals and £4 each for further family members at the same address. Members who pay by standing, order will need to fill in a new form for their hank or building society. If you normally pay by standing order you will find a form enclosed with this Newsletter. There is also a Gift Aid form for people who have not yet completed one, but might like to help HADAS’s income in this way. Members who normally pay by cheque don’t need to do anything YET: they will get their renewal forms with the April Newsletter. Any mistakes, questions or uncertainties? Please let me know – see contact details on the back page.

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IN MEMORIAM

Christmas 2003 sadly brought the passing of several well-known I IADAS members and associates.

BILL FIRTH, HADAS and GLIAS stalwart, whose company we had so recently enjoyed at the HADAS Christmas dinner, died suddenly at home. Dorothy Newbury adds; It is with great sadness that l have to report the sudden death of Bill Firth. He died on December 18th aged 78 and his funeral was held at Golders Green on December 29th. Bill joined HADAS in 1969 and had been a valuable member ever since. Industrial archaeology was his main interest. He was Secretary of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society (GLIAS) for 11 years. HADAS members will have read his name in our newsletter over the years. He recently encouraged members to observe old and new letterboxes in our area-and to keep an eye on old milestones, many of which have disappeared. Years ago he fought hard to save the Graham White aircraft hangar at Hendon (now moved, reconstructed and incorporated into the Royal Air Force Museum), which was. then near collapse. (He had served as a Navigator in the wartime RAF). Sheila and I sat next to him at the Christmas dinner on December 9th and he was his usual lively self and knew all the answers to our Hendon Quiz. HADAS Christmas dinner was one of our social events he never missed, and HADAS will miss Bill too.

VERA TILL, widow of HADAS digger and all-round handyman Arthur, also passed away on Saturday 271h December after a short spell in hospital; her well-attended funeral service was held at New Southgate on Wednesday 7th January, including several HADAS members. Vikki 0- Connor adds; Mrs Vera Till joined HADAS in the late 1980s in joint membership with her husband, Arthur. Like many ‘partners’, Vera’s interests had not until then included archaeology, but it was impossible to ignore the growing stack of books, magazines, collection of unstratified artefacts, and HADAS digging equipment which came home for repair to the Till workshop (usually the spare bedroom, rather than the shed!). Fortunately for Vera, there were the good times too — the outings and the HADAS minimart which she continued to support after Arthur’s death in October, 2000. Although the archaeology books made their way to the HADAS library, Vera did not forget the people she met at HADAS and we were saddened to learn of her recent death. Some of these friends attended her funeral at New Southgate; the chapel was full to capacity — a tribute to a loving wife and mother. Our condolences to children, Barbara, Liz and Alan.

Dorothy adds also BARBARA HOWE joined HADAS in 1980 and died in Eden Hall Hospice. Hampstead, shortly before Christmas. She joined HADAS shortly after her sister Dr Joyce Roberts joined in 1976 to investigate and date seeds and pollen on the bog site at West Leath, Hampstead during our Mesolithic excavation there 1976-1978. Barbara was a regular on our summer outings until a few years ago. She had no near relatives and Micky O’Flynn regularly visited her at home, in the Royal Free hospital and finally at the hospice.

STAN MORGAN and MRS MORGAN, who many of our old members will remember. joined HADAS in 1973. They were active members and after moving away in the late 1980s continued membership up until now. Mary Rawitzer then heard from a relative or friend to say Stan had died, and that he had always enjoyed receiving and reading our newsletter until he died.
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OTHER SOCIETIES’ LECTURES & EVENTS Eric Morgan’s Monthly Round-Up

Wednesday 4th February 5pm British Archaeological Association Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House. Piccadilly WI; Gothic Remodelling Itself; Restoration and Intention at The North Porch of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol Talk by Jon Cannon.

Thursday 5th February 7.30pm London Canal Museum 12-13, New Wharf Road, King’s Cross N1 The Navvies Year: Talk by Martin Ludgate £1.25 concessions.

Saturday 7th February 10.30 —4 LARC — Mortimer Wheeler House, 46, Eagle Wharf Road, NI; Piecing Together The Past: Conservation Open Day Meet the experts who care for the objects and discover the many techniques they use to preserve archaeological finds for storage, study and display, and Ceramics and Glass Project. LAARC is opening up its internationally important collection dating from 4,000 BC to the present day.

Monday 9th February 3pm Barnet & District Local History Society Wyburn Room, Wesley Hall. Stapylton Road. Barnet. The History of the English Public House Talk by Graham Javes (HADAS Member)

Wednesday 11th February 8.15pm Mill Hill Historical Society Harwood Hall. Union Church, The Broadway, NW7 Our Marble Tribute; Napoleonic War Funerary Memorials in St Paul’s Talk by Dr Ann Saunders (Former HADAS President)

Wednesday 11th February 8pm Hornsey Historical Society Union Church Hall, corner of Ferme Park Road/Weston Park, N8 From Electric Palace to Multiplex Cinemas, a History. Talk by Allen Eyles. Visitors £1.00.

Friday 13th February, 8pm Enfield Archaeological Society Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield Ethiopia: Africa’s Empire From the Cradle of Humanity to A Democracy Talk by Ian Jones. Visitors £1.00

Wednesday 18th February 6.15pm London & Middlesex Archaeological Society, Interpretation Unit. Museum of London, 150. London Wall, EC2 The Third Radio-Carbon Revolution. Talk by Clive Orton (President) Preceded by AGM.

Wednesday 18th February 8pm Stanmore and Harrow Historical Society Wealdstone Baptist Church. High Road. Wealdstone Leslie Green’s Underground Stations Talk by Geoff Donald.

Wednesday 18th February (Popular date!) 8pm Willesden Local History society Willesden Suite, Library Centre. 95, I ligh Road, NW10 Mother Emily Ayckboum-Some Willesden Schools A Talk by Margaret Pratt (Featuring Schools in the Victorian Era)

Thursday 19th February 8pm Enfield Preservation Society Jubilee Hall. Junction of Parsonage Lane/Chase Side. Enfield E A Bowles-his garden at Myddleton Talk by Christine Murphy (I IADAS have done some resistivity survey work there)

Friday 20 February 7pm City of London Archaeological Society St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3 The Arte & Crafte To Knowe Well To Die — Archaeology of Medieval Burials Barney Sloane (English Heritage) following CoLAS ACM.

Friday 20 February 7.30pm Wembley History Society St Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9 Amy Johnson — talk by Terry Lomas £1.00.

Wednesday 25 February 8pm Friern Barnet & District Local History society St John’s Church Hall, Friern Barnet Lane, N20. Theatrical London Diane Burstein.

Thursday 26th February 2.30 for 3pm Finchley Society Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3 Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum 011ie Natelson (HADAS Member)

Saturday 28th February I lam —4pm North London Transport Society St Paul’s Centre, Junction Church St/Old park Ave. Enfield (5 minutes walk from Enfield Chase railway Station) Spring Transport Enthusiast’s Bazaar — your chance to stock up on road and rail memorabilia including tickets. timetables, postcards, models, books, magazines, badges and luggage labels..11.50 admission. Light refreshments available.

And, advance notice — Saturday 27 March 11-5 41S` Annual Conference of London Archaeologists — the LAMAS CONFERENCE Museum of London Lecture Theatre. llam — 5.25pm Morning session — recent work, including Roman sites in Enfield. Shadwell, and Southwark. Afternoon — Victorian London and its Archaeology. Afternoon coffee available. Stands and displays, hopefully including HADAS, in attendance. Tickets £5.00 non-members from Jon Cotton, Early Department, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2 5HN. Early booking advised. See you there!

Newsletter
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HADAS Diary

Tuesday 13 January 2004, Portable Antiquities A lecture by Nicole Weller, the new Portable Antiquities Liaison Officer and Community Archaeologist at The Museum of London. Nicole will be talking about her work, the treasure act and related matters. She will also discuss any small finds that members would like to bring along.

Tuesday 10 February 2004, London Burial Grounds, A Lecture by Dr. Roger Bowdler

Saturday 6 March 2004, Resistivity ‘Master Class’ — more details on the back page.

Lectures start at 8.00pm in the Drawing Room at Avenue House, East End road, Finchley Tea or coffee are available after the talk, meetings close promptly at 10.00pm
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HADAS Training Dig by Don Cooper

A HADAS training dig took place at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE (TQ 2512, 9023) over the weekend of 20th/21st September in beautiful autumnal weather. The dig took place in what is purported to have been a Victorian Rose garden at the rear of the house. We opened a small trench of 5m x 1 m. About 6 cms of the surface had already been removed by the Avenue House gardener in preparation for winter planting. A group of five “trainees” supervised by four members of the HADAS digging team (Andrew Coulson, Bill Bass, Andy Simpson and Don Cooper) took part in the dig. Most of the techniques of excavation and use of tools were demonstrated with particular emphasis on safety. What did we find? Apart from 81 pottery sherds mostly from modern flower pot and rusty nails , there was an interesting ammonite fossil, two clay pipe stems with the initials CR (The CR initials are most likely those of Charles Russell or his wife Caroline who were making pipes in Bethnal Green between 1856 and 1884) and IL (more difficult to identify because there are lots of IL initials of pipemakers but given the probable date based on the shape and fabric of the sherd it is likely to be Julius Lewis & Co. manufacturing in Finsbury Park in 1876) respectively. Perhaps “Inky” Stephens, a noted pipe smoker, used them!! There were also some lumps containing burnt glass — traces perhaps from the fire that took place in 1989! Amongst the pottery sherds were one small fragment of green-glazed Border ware (BORDG) 1550-1700, a rim fragment of Post- Medieval Black-Glazed ware (PMBL) 1580-1700, and three pieces of Transfer-printed ware (TPW) post-1830. Of 40 sherds of glass, three were of brown glass and three of green the remainder were white glass sherds of glass vessels and window panes. The only animal remains we found, was a tooth from a sheep. Surprisingly, perhaps beneath the topsoil we reached good old London clay at a depth of approximately 18cm. Other than the top centimetre or two the clay showed little sign of having been penetrated by any human activity. The reason this was surprising was because one would have expected a Victorian Rose gardener to have dug down the traditional “spade and a half’ say 35 — 40cms. Can we draw any conclusions? The objective of the dig was to provide an opportunity for members to try their hand at excavation and to learn some of the techniques involved. It achieved this objective. From an archaeological point of view no conclusions can be drawn, however further digs in the grounds of Avenue House may well add to our knowledge of the area and ought to be considered as a future HADAS activity.
HADAS News by Bill Bass

This year’s Christmas Dinner was held locally at the Pavilion on the Park Restaurant, part of Barnet College. The food was excellent, and the editor’s ignorance was enlightened when he found out what `Veloute of Roast Squash’ was (soup). Members also enjoyed a cryptic London quiz and a raffle. Thanks to Dorothy for her usual organisation and enthusiasm.

Phillip Bailey who did a watching brief of the site in East Barnet which turned up Roman, Medieval and other finds (reported in Jan 2003 NL) has now produced a professional looking report on his work — ‘An Archaeological Investigation At 4a Church Hill Road, East Barnet, Herts’. This will be deposited in the HADAS library.

Further to comments on Brian Wrigley who died in October, I would like to say how much he will be missed by the `digging/surveying team’ at Avenue House. He led the team for over 15 years and had been involved in fieldwork all his HADAS life. He was particularly fond of producing plans, maps and such like where his eye for detail was exceptional. Brian’s favourite period was the Prehistoric but he brought enthusiasm to all fieldwork he attended. The Garden Room and pub will not be the same without him.
Newsletter Project

Currently there is an ongoing project to digitally scan all of our Newsletters onto disk. This will enable us amongst other things to: • securely preserve them for the future

• make them more accessible for use, reference and searching

• possibly make them available on the Internet

So far about 213 of 394 have been done, but we could do with some help. Could you spare some time to support this project? At present the work is being done via the societies laptop and scanner at Avenue House generally on Wednesdays and Sundays, you could help here, but it could equally be done at home. You would need a computer and flatbed scanner, if you know how to use these then the work is straight forward, and any instruction would be given. If you think you could help, please contact Bill Bass (020 8449 5666) or bill bass@yahoo.com
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The End of the Line

This is the title of a new book of local interest by Martin C. Dawes. The book tells the story of a railway funeral service that ran from Kings Cross to the Great Northern London Cemetery (GNLC) at Colney Hatch (now the New Southgate Cemetery). Although primarily about the railway, the book begins with a chapter on the problems and social history of the inner London Metropolitan cemeteries in the mid 19th century. By this time the cemeteries were filled to capacity with the associated risks of hygiene and disease, on top of this a series of cholera epidemics swept through the capital exacerbating the problems. In 1850 and 1852 Government Acts led to plans for cemeteries to established in certain outer London Boroughs. One of these was Brookwood near Woking, a massive cemetery of some 2000 acres created in 1854 and the first to be railway connected. This was via a private station adjacent to Waterloo, the railway connection finished with heavy bombing of the terminus during the war. The Great Northern London Cemetery was created by the 1860s, the railway connection began at a Funeral station separate and just north of Kings Cross, it was an impressive two-storey building with a mortuary, chapel of rest, waiting rooms and offices etc. Trains ran via the Great Northern Railway to a station and siding within the GNLC. Unfortunately and in contrast to Brookwood the funeral railway service did not prove popular and was discontinued within two years. The reasons for the failure were complex and are discussed in the book. Other chapters deal with the subsequent history of the cemetery, locomotives and rolling stock used. There are extensive notes, references and a useful appendix. The book has numerous photos and line drawings.

SILCHESTER — The November Lecture by Tessa Smith

We were delighted to welcome Professor Mike Fulford as our November lecturer, especially after our summer outing to the Silchester excavation. Even though a pointer could not be found anywhere, he gallantly climbed a chair to indicate on the screen the location of Insulae 1 X. This is an area of 3,000 square metres north-west of the forum, that is gradually being exposed and evaluated. Starting in 1997 with a training field school and research excavation, his team and students have now reached early Roman and late Iron Age levels. It seems that in the mid third century, timber and stone buildings and workshops all aligned with the Roman grid system. However, the area of particular discovery at the moment is of a hall type house, long and barn- like, built on stone foundations, dated 150-250 AD and built askew and at odds with the regular Roman grid pattern of building around it. Unquestionable evidence shows good concentrations of metal working areas, bronze, gold and copper. Sadly no crucibles have been found and to date there is no evidence of what they were making. Below this barn-house are now emerging two houses built on late 1st century foundations, one square timber framed with 3 rooms, tessellated pavements and decorated wall plaster. Amazingly, 2 complete Alice Holt type jars of Claudian dating have been found quite unbroken. The second house had flint cobbles, and is rectangular. The tesserae floors are comparable with others of the earliest mosaic floors in Britain, the reds and greys coming from Kimmeridge. Burnt deposits dated 40-60 AD have been found. Questions raised for future interpretation were, how much buildings at Callela were actually Roman and how much was a perpetuation of the Iron Age? What is the significance of the burnt area? If there is an earlier Iron Age town why did some buildings continue to be built on this orientation? Could it be that the tribal chief was reclaiming territory of the Atrebates? The excavations are funded for another 6 years only during the summer, it seems that there is a lot of work ahead. Our thanks to Professor Fulford for enlightening us as to the latest thinking on Silchester.

If you would like volunteer for the Field School in 2004, the dates are Monday 5th July — Sunday 15th August. Applications forUK residents will be open from early January 2004. You can apply online at www.silchester.rdg.ac.uk Or by writing to: Silchester Applications The Department of Archaeology University of Reading Whiteknights PO Box 227 Reading Berkshire RG6 6AB Phone 0118 931 6762
TR Systems

The people that supplied the latest HADAS resistivity meter (TR Systems) are holding a ‘Master Class’ on Saturday 6th March. “This will be a day dedicated to helping users gain the maximum advantage from their machine and software”, Bob Randall who designed the equipment and software will lead the sessions. The main emphasis will be looking at problems experienced with users results, then discussing on how they could be improved and interpreted. Some HADAS members will be attending the event. The sessions and demonstrations will be from 10.00am — 5.00pm and held at Millbrook Village Hall in Bedfordshire not far from J13 on the M1. The cost for the day will be £35.00 including lunch and coffee. Contact: Kevan Fadden, 7 Lea Road, Ampthill, Bedford MK45 2PR. Tel 01525 402273. Email fadden@kbnet.co.uk

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Other Societies’ Events by Eric Morgan

Wed 7th Jan, 8pm. Stanmore and Harrow Historical Soc. Wealdstone Baptist Church, High Road, Wealdstone. Elstree and Borehamwood History (with particular ref to Elstree Studios) Alan Lawrence.

Thurs 8th Jan, 10.30am, Mill Hill Library, Hartley Avenue. NW7. An Introduction to Antiques Talk. (coffee/tea/biscuits 50p).

Thurs 8th Jan, 7.30pm, London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Road, Kings X, Nl. Ice Wells & Ice Works (London’s Commercial Ice Trade) Malcolm Tucker, concessions £1.25.

Thurs 8th Jan, 8pm Pinner Local History Soc., Pinner Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner. Dick Whittington’s London (The true life story of Dick Whittington) Muriel Jones, donation £1.

Mon 12th Jan, 3pm, Barnet & District Local History Soc., Wyburn Room, Wesley Hall, Stapyton Rd, Barnet. After the stage coach had left – David Ruddom.

Weds 14 Jan, 6.30pm, LAMAS, Interpretation Unit. Museum of London. 150 London Wall EC2. Archaeology of St Pancras burial ground (Account of recent investigations undertaken as part of the construction of the new London terminus (hr the Channel Tunnel Rail Link) Phil Emery & Kevin Wooldridge (Pre-construct Archaeology).

Weds 11th Jan, 8.15pm, Mill Hill Historical Soc., Harwood Hall, Union Church, The Broadway NW7. London Industrial Heritage — Dr. Denis Smith

Thurs 15th Jan, 7.30pm. Camden History Soc., Burgh House, New End Sq, NW3. A day in the life of a Merchant Taylor — Dr. Ann Saunders (previous HADAS President).

Fri 16th Jan, 7pm, City of London Archaeology Soc St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3. The earliest Human occupation of Britain — Nick Ashton (British Museum).

Weds 21st Jan, 8pm, Willesden Local History Soc., Willesden Suite, Library Centre, 95 High Rd, NW10. Brent Archive & The Grange Museum — Alex Sydney & Tina Morton.

Weds 28th Jan, 8pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Soc., St John’s Hall, Friern Barnet Lane, (next to Whetstone Police Stn). The two remarkable Stephens (Inky Stephens) — Norman Burgess. (Please note change of venue and day).

Newsletter
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Seasons greetings to all our members for a happy holiday and a healthy and prosperous New Year.
HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 9 December CHRISTMAS DINNER at the Pavilion On The Park Restaurant, Barnet College, Colindale, NW9 Some tickets at £23 still available – hurry to book. Phone Dorothy Newbury on (020) 8203 0950. The recent postal strike has played havoc with book¬ings and Dorothy is anxious to fill vacant spaces. So if you and a friend would like to come please let Dorothy know as soon as possible – a private room has been reserved for us and the deposit paid.

Tuesday 13 January 2004 Portable Antiquities, A lecture by Nicole Weller, the new Portable Antiquities Liaison Officer and Community Archaeologist at The Museum of London, Nicole will be talking about her work, the Treasure Act and related matters. She will also discuss any small finds that members would like to bring along.

Tuesday 10 February 2004 London Burial Grounds. A lecture by Dr. Roger Bowdler, Lectures start at 8.00pm in the Drawing Room at Avenue house, East End Road, Finchley, and are followed by question time and coffee. Meetings close promptly at 10.00pm
CAN YOU SPARE AN AFTERNOON ONCE A MONTH ?

The Stephens Collection at Avenue House is in desperate need of stewards to preside while the museum is open from 2pm to 4.30pm on Tuesdays. Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. Members may well be familiar with the collection_ featuring the fascinating history of writing implements, ink and the Stephens family, as it often open by special arrangement prior to our monthly meetings at Avenue House. This is an easy, relaxing task that might suit some HADAS members whose bent is not for excavation or finds processing.Volunteering for as little as one afternoon a month would help enormously, and you would be accompanied by an experienced steward to learn the ropes’. Your reward would he a greater knowledge of Avenue House and the amazing Stephens family, and the oppor-tunity to help preserve the memory of Henry Stephens whose generosity led to Avenue House being left in public ownership.
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Brian Arthur Wrigley remembered

1926 -2003 Some twenty members of HADAS attended the service for Brian Wrigley at the church of St. Michael & All Angels, Mill Hill on Monday 3 November, The well-filled church testified to the affection and esteem in which Brian was held. Conducted by Canon Barry Wright, the service celebrated and gave thanks for Brian’s life in all its aspects: as a family man, as a solicitor and colleague and as a friend sharing in many leisure activities. The reading from Ecclesiasticus on the value of friendship and the qualities of a true friend seemed particular¬ly apt. Three speakers paid tribute to Brian. Roderick Hunter remembered him as a colleague and convivial drinking companion. He spoke of Brian’s work as a solicitor for The Prudential, of his service in litigation especially in the High Court and Appeal cases and his clear and concise presentation and advice. Brian was greatly respected by both barristers and the judiciary – witness the comment by Lord Denning when Guest of Honour during Brian’s Presidency of the Holbourn Law Society, that for all to go well one needed a Mr. Wrigley in charge. Peter Manix, Best Man at Brian and Joan’s wedding, said that he had known Brian since 1943. He recalled their respective wartime service, their subsequent law studies together and their continuing long friendship. He also spoke of Brian’s sporting activities and amateur dramatics. Denis Ross spoke of Brian the archaeologist, who joined HADAS over 25 years ago, became secretary in 1983 and was latterly Vice Chairman, until ill health led to his resignation last year. Brian was an active field-worker, obtained his Diploma of Archaeology in 1978 and continued his archaeologi¬cal studies until very recently. He also handled all the Society’s legal work. Brian and Joan have been regular attenders at the Society’s functions and out¬ings and have for many years hosted committee meetings at their home. A much loved and respected members of HADAS, Brian will be greatly missed. The service reflected Brian’s love of music. His son Stephen and Didier Messidoro played Gymnopedie No.1 and Gnossienne No.1 by Erik Salle, the choir sang a Walford Davies anthem, there were traditional and modern hymns and music by Handel and Elgar. There was also a reading of John Rudney’s poem “Do Not Despair”. Afterwards, during refreshments in the Hartley Hall, there was a delightful “Brian” touch – he had arranged that we should drink to his memory in champagne. Sheila Woodward
From Joan Wrigley:

Joan. Norman, Stephen and Ann (Brian’s sister in Devon) wish-to thank everyone for their kind messages and sympathy on the passing of Brian, a good hus¬band, father, brother, lawyer and an even better archaeologist. He will surely rest in peace.
250 YEARS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM Sheila Woodward reports on the October lecture given by Marjorie Caygill

The British Museum: a simple all-embracing title for a great institution which most of us probably take for granted. It is 250 years old this year and historian Marjorie Caygill talked to us about its foundation and some highlights in its history. She pointed out that cramming so long a story into an hour’s lecture neces¬sitated rigorous selection. The founding father of the Museum was Sir Hans Sloane, physician and naturalist. He returned from a trip to the West Indies with a huge natural history collection (and a recipe for a milk chocolate drink which Cadbury’s were still said to he using in the 20th century!). Sloane established a lucrative medical practice, became President of The Royal Society and continued to indulge his collecting enthusiasm. When he died in 1753 at the age of 92 he bequeathed his collection to King and Parliament in return for a payment of £20,000 to his daughter. As his collection was estimated to have cost him about £100,000, it was a bargain. The bequest was accepted and on 7 June 1753 the British Museum Act became law, establishing the first national museum freely open to the public. Its principal trustees were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House of Commons. Sloane’s collection was eclectic. Its 71,000 objects included an Asante drum from Ghana, a lower palaeolithic hand axe found in 1696 and an English asto¬lahe of about 1295. The 50,00() hooks, manuscripts, prints and drawings includ¬ed an album of 138 drawings attributed to Albrecht Duren There were also 337 volumes of dried plants. Parliament immediately supplemented the collection with an earlier bequest of coins and manuscripts from the estate of Sir Robert Cotton which included the Lindisfarne Gospels, two copies of Magna Carta and the manuscript of Beowulf. A further addition was the purchase of the l-larleian Library and in 1757 George II gave the Old 250 years of The British Museum continued

Sir Hans Sloane 0660-1753) Royal Library to the Museum with its right to a copy of every publica¬tion printed in the country. The first home of the Museum was Montague House in Bloomsbury, situated where the Museum still stands. Its galleries and a reading room opened on 15 January 1759. Despite generous donations, money was a problem and initial funding was by a scandalously conducted public lottery. (Lotteries, comment¬ed Dr. Caygill, are almost always scandalous!) The prospect of public access to the collection was viewed with horror by the Trustees and total mayhem was anticipated. Visitors had therefore to obtain pre-booked tickets and were taken round in small groups led by a curator. But there was no charge; even tips were forbidden. In its early days the Museum was more like a cabinet of curiosities; its hotchpotch collections even includ¬ed a portrait of a horned lady. However, a vogue for the Grand Tour benefited the Museum and the purchase in 1772 of Sir William Hamilton’s classical acquisitions changed the balance of the whole collection. In 1778 a South Sea Room was opened to display items brought hack from Captain Cook’s voyages and further connoisseurs’ bequests increased the Museum’s stock of drawings, prints and coins. By the end of the 18th century the Museum was shabby and over¬crowded and expansion was planned. Antiquities from Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign which were ceded to Britain in 1802 vastly enlarged the Museum’s Egyptian Collection. The “plum” was the Rosetta Stone which enabled the decipherment of ancient hieroglyphs. In 1818, courtesy of Henry Salt, the British Consul in Cairo, came the splendid bust of Rameses II. The classical collection was augmented by the superb Charles Townley collection (includ¬ing the famous Discobolus) and in 1816 the Elgin Marbles arrived. Building expansion was gradual and by this time “persons of decent appearance” were allowed to wan¬der unescorted through the Museum. In 1808 the first purpose-built gallery was opened to house the Townley Collection. In 1817 a tem¬porary Elgin Room was erected to house the Marbles. In 1823 George IV gave his father’s library to the nation, parliament granted £40,000 to the Museum to house it and the architect Sir Robert Smirke began his neo-classical building. The East Wing (for the King’s Library) was completed in 1827 and the rest of the quadrangle in 1847. The famous domed Reading Room in the central courtyard was completed and opened in 1857, Kari Marx was one of its first regular readers; he visited it daily for nearly 30 years. Meanwhile, new acquisitions to the Museum’s collections continued to pour in. Layard was excavating at Nimrud and when the first massive Assyrian sculptures reached the Museum in 1847 they caused a sen¬sation. In 1852 a room was opened for the display of British antiquities, previously much neglected. Augustus Woolaston Franks, who joined the Museum staff in 1851, had a private income which he used for the benefit of the Museum. He became Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography and with his friend and fellow benefactor Henry Christy, laid the foundation for much of the Museum’s later work. At Frank’s death in 1897 his huge bequest to the Museum included the Oxus treasure. The creation of a separate Museum of Natural History, long mooted, was implemented in 1880. Plans for further expansion in Bloomsbury, shelved during the Boer War, were resumed in 1902 and the Edward VII Galleries were opened in May 1914. During World War I the possi¬bility of air raids necessitated the evacuation of precious exhibits. Things returned to normal briefly in the 1920s and Leonard Woolley’s excavations at Ur produced rich finds which were divided between Iraq, the British Museum and Philadelphia. By -1933 preliminary plans were already in place for the packing and removal of treasures in the event of war. The excavation of the great Anglo Saxon ship at Sutton Hoo in 1939 entailed the storage of finds under Mrs. Pretty’s bed before they were taken to the Aldwych tube tunnel “for the duration”. In 1941 incendiary bombs hit the south west corner of the Museum, destroying the coin room and about 250,000 books. During the 1950s much repair work and refurbishment was done. The Duveen Gallery for the Elgin Marbles was finally opened in 1962. The 1960s also saw the beginning of the great special exhibitions. The Tutankhamun Exhibition was seen by over 11/2 million visitors. A plan in 1962 for new buildings to the south of the Museum to provide more space for the library was rejected and in 1973 a new institution, the British Library, was formed and was moved to its new building at St. Pancras in 1998. Work was then begun on the Museum’s central courtyard area and the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, the biggest covered courtyard in Europe, was opened in December 2000. It has proved very popular.. Dr. Caygill commented that the British Museum has not been good at publicising and celebrating its special anniversaries. She has ensured that its “quarter of a millennium” should not pass unrecorded.
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MORE NEWS FROM FONTWELL MAGNA

Recent finds at Spinghead Farm, Fontwell Magna indicate that there may well be a Romano-British settlement or rural Roman villa/farmhouse on the site. Finds unearthed by metal detectorists from the Dorset Detection Group include coins (mainly Constantine and Constantius c. 300AD), bronze brooches and a solid gold strip with striations on one side. The gold strip is of course Treasure Trove and is currently being examined at the British Museum. Their initial opinion is that the strip dates from the late Bronze Age and thus very rare. Fontwell is one of Dorset’s oldest villages, first recorded in the Shaftesbury charter of 888AD, almost 200 years before the Doomsday survey. John Gadd, the village archivist, has long suspected that the village may have a Roman settlement as it is so close to the Roman fort at Hod Hill. The exact location of the site is being kept secret to prevent disturbance and theft of atrefacts by treasure hunters while permission is sought to excavate, possibly next year..
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Joyce Corlet 1912 – 2003 remembered

Members will be sorry to learn of the death, on 17 October, of Joyce Corlet, aged 91. Joyce, who was born on the Isle of Man, published many short stories and travel articles over the years and was a great devo¬tee of cats. Dorothy Newbury remembers Joyce’s late husband Geoffrey spending many weeks copying out the church records of St. Mary’s, Hendon before these were called in by the Church of England. Joyce is survived by her son Andrew and her grandchildren Kate, Vickie and Grace, who live in Powys.Deirdre Barrie
Helena Nash 1909 – 2003 remembered

Helena Nash, a HADAS member for many years, died in November during a fire at her home in Denman Drive, Hampstead Garden Suburb. Sadly, a gallant attempt to rescue her from her bedroom by her neighbour David Ambrose failed and Mrs. Nash was found to have died from smoke inhalation while asleep. Mrs. Nash was horn in the house and had lived there all her life. She was still very active, well-known in Temple Fortune and a dedicated supporter of the North London Hospice.
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CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM

New exhibition opens on 15 December “Winter Wonderland” Victorian and early 20th century toys Displays will include dolls’ houses, toy soldiers. Christmas angels and many more items from the vast and wonderful collection owned by Irene and Mark Cornelius. An ideal outing at Christmas and the New Year. Note: The Museum will be closed on 24,25 & 26 December and on 1 January 2004
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OTHER SOCIETIES’ DECEMBER EVENTS Prepared by Eric Morgan

Wed. 3 Dec. 5.00pm British Archaeological Association Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House,Piccadilly, W I ‘De Profundis’: an archaeology of the medieval funeral Talk by Barney Sloane

Thur. 4 Dec. 7.30pm London Canal Museum 12-13 New Wharf Road, Kings Cross, N1 Built Heritage of British Waterways Talk by Nigel Crowe and Mike Manuel Concessions £1.25

Mon. 8 Dec. to Sat. 20 Dec Barnet Borough Arts Council Chipping Barnet Library, Stapylton Road

Newsletter
Page 1 HADAS Diary

HADAS Diary The winter lecture series takes place at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. Lectures start promptly at 8pm.

Tuesday, 14th October 2003: “250 years of the British Museum”. Lecture by Dr. Marjorie Cayhill

Tuesday, 11th November 2003: “Roman Silchester” Lecture by Prof. Mike Fulford

Information sought

We have had a request for information concerning the ownership of land in Harrow by the Clerkenwell Nunnery (Convent of St. Mary). Can you help please? Do any records exist? This is part of a project by the Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society to trace the ownership of Clerkenwell Green itself. If you have any information please contact me (Don Cooper) at the address on the back of this newsletter.

Early notification of the LAMAS conference

The annual local history conference run by the London & Middlesex Archaeology Society will take place this year in the Museum of London’s Lecture Theatre on Saturday the 15th November 2003 from 10.00am to 05.00 pm. It is entitled “Lunatick London” and is concerned with the care and housing of the mentally ill over the ages in the London area. Among the many interesting speakers will be Dr. Oliver Natelson of the Friern Barnet & District Local History Society who will deliver a lecture on the Friern Hospital. As usual there will displays of recent work and publications by the many London based Local History Societies and of course afternoon tea. The tickets are £5 each (£4 for LAMAS members). Please send your application with an appropriate cheque and a stamped, self-addressed envelope for your tickets to Local History Conference, 36 Church Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7PX

Stephens Museum Support Group by Stewart Wild Invitation to an Inaugural Meeting

Finchley’s Stephens Collection, described as “one of the best small museums in England”, has decided to establish a Stephens Museum Support Group. The inaugural meeting will take place in Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE on Friday 10 October 2003 from 5 to 7pm. All members of the public are invited to attend.

The meeting will discuss procedural matters, steering committee, members’ benefits
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and future plans. For further information call Norman Burgess on 020 8346 6337.

As most HADAS members will know, the Stephens Collection (a registered charity, no. 1051384) was established at Avenue House in 1993 to honour the memory and achievements of Dr Henry Stephens FRCS (1796-1864), the inventor in 1832 of the famous ink, and his son Henry Charles Stephens (1841-1918), who was a chemist, inventor and successful businessman, MP for Finchley (1887-1900) and a generous local benefactor. On his death in 1918 he bequeathed his family estate, Avenue House and Gardens, to the people of Finchley. Since then it has been the responsibility of a succession of local councils until late last year (2002) when the London Borough of Barnet transferred ownership to Avenue House Estate Management, a responsible newly formed local charitable trust.

Like many small museums, The Stephens Collection, which welcomes visitors every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoon from 2pm to 4.30pm, is run entirely by volunteers and relies on donations and fund raising for its income. The Support Group will be dedicated to ensuring the financial stability of The Stephens Collection in the face of increasing costs for insurance, service charges and other overheads.
More on standard railway gauges by Jim Nelhams

An article in the May newsletter tells us that very old wheel tracks in Malta are a “standard” width apart, and that the distance is close to the Standard Railway Gauge. Should this be a surprise?

A number of mostly humorous articles have been written on the subject, but they do seem to contain an element of possibility. I’ll try to summarise.

Firstly, the standard railway gauge throughout most of the world is 4 foot 8.5 inches. There are exceptions – Spain, Portugal, Ireland and most of Eastern Europe have different gauges, and there are a number of narrow-gauge railways throughout the UK.

Most early major roads in Europe were built by the Romans particularly to help them transport the army and the supplies that it needed. They would have used horse drawn carts, and chariots. Some of the equipment required, such as the yoke worn by the horses, as well as the carts and chariots, would have used standard specifications and models which were designed for practical purposes. A yoke for two horses would need to be comfortable for them, and would also need to fit between the shafts of the vehicle. This would also allow the wheels to run without the dirt kicked by the horses getting underneath them. So our starting point is the width of two horses!

Once this has been established and the wheels start to travel on the road, ruts will appear, and any vehicle that does not conform to these ruts is liable to be damaged. Visitors to Pompeii will have seen ruts in the stone roads and will also have seen the stepping stones in the roads. The stones allowed pedestrians to cross the road without stepping in the “pollution”, but they would have caused a major problem had not all the wheeled traffic been wide enough to span them. So perhaps the ruts are actually grooves cut to guide the wheels rather than grooves made by the wheels themselves. And of course, the stepping stones would have the effect of keeping the traffic to a sensible speed. So did Pompeii effectively have a tramway and speed bumps? Also, since there are no passing places, did the streets operate a one way system?

The tramway idea is not as absurd as it sounds. Evidence exists that the Persians and Assyrians, to improve the safety of their war chariots, deliberately cut grooves on mountain passes to prevent the wheels from slipping sideways. The distance between these grooves fits closely to our standard.
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Move on to the industrial revolution. The first railways would have been horse drawn, with the trucks adapted by those already skilled in carriage building. So why change the width? After all, it did allow for the horses to walk between the rails without risk of injury from them.

How was the standard spread? Well if you want to join two railways together, or even build one railway in sections that join up later, you must have a standard. And when steam power comes along, the cost of changing to anything else may be prohibitive. Isambard Kingdom Brunel built his Great Western Railway with a seven foot gauge, and it was undoubtedly faster, smoother and more economic, but being a minority of one, the great man was unable to persuade Parliament that his answer was “best”, and was forced to conform.

During the Victorian era, railways sprang up all over the world, most of them were built by British engineers, and started with British locomotives and other equipment. So they used the same gauge.

Effectively, the standard had become a default, and had perpetuated that used long before railways came along.

Some isolated places used different gauges. Even today, most of Eastern Europe has rails wider apart, and trains travelling between west and east have to stop and change wheels.

And the effect of the standard must not be underestimated. How does equipment reach Cape Canaveral? And how are the rockets moved to the launch pads? You’ve got it – by rail. So perhaps the size of the rockets is influenced by the width of those long dead horses.

It’s not finished. The love of some of our road engineers for speed bumps and width restrictions could have similar effects. Cars should be narrow enough to go through the width restrictions but with wheels far enough apart to miss the bumps! Pity the poor person driving a Robin Reliant! Except that speed bumps don’t seem to have a standard width, so there have been lots of complaints from the Ambulance services.

And with tramways returning to our cities, we do not want our car wheels to catch in them. (Remember the film Genevieve!). So cars must use a different standard, if that makes sense.

I leave you to make up your own mind, but it does seem to be a case of the old adage, “if it works, don’t change it!”

So why did Brunel consider a 7 foot gauge? Well, I don’t know the answer, but the standard width of canal locks in this country is either 7 foot or 14 foot!
ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE BALEARIC ISLANDS by Stewart J. Wild

On a recent visit, I was reminded how much there is of archaeological interest in the lovely Balearic Islands. The Majorca Daily Bulletin (20 August 2003) had an article under the headline Digging in Valldemossa about ongoing excavations at an ancient cemetery complex at Ferrandell-Oleza that dates back to around 2,500BC.

Dr William Waldren has spent 30 years working on these excavations, unearthing human remains of the people who inhabited Mallorca in prehistoric times. The project, which is funded by Earth Watch, a research centre based in Boston, Massachusetts, attracts volunteers every summer from all over
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Europe and from as far away as Australia and the USA. Some come year after year. Many of the finds unearthed can be seen in the Museum of Deià, which is also under the direction of Dr Waldren.

The earliest inhabitants of the Balearic Islands probably arrived from the Iberian peninsula; archaeological evidence suggests that the islands were occupied by 4,000BC. Prehistoric remains include flint tools, arrowheads, primitive pottery, and artefacts made of horn, indicating that these early settlers were shepherds and hunters.

As well as herding sheep, the early inhabitants hunted the local species of mountain goat (Myotragus balearicus), now extinct. Most archaeological finds were discovered in caves, which were used for shelter and ritual burials.

The best preserved complex of caves, developed and extended by the Talayotic settlers, are the Cales Coves near Calla en Porter, on Menorca. There is also evidence of the culture of the Beaker folk who were capable of working in bronze. The Beaker people appeared in the islands around 2,300BC.

Close to Es Pujols on the north coast of the tiny island of Formentera is the megalithic burial chamber of Ca Na Costa dating from around 1,700BC. It consists of a circle of seven vertical limestone blocks, an arrangement not found anywhere else in the islands. Excavations were begun in 1974 and have unearthed a number of objects, including ceramic and bronze vessels and axes, which are on display in Ibiza’s Archaeological Museum.

The Talayotic Period

The mysterious prehistoric structures made of giant stones found on the islands, especially on Menorca, date from between 2,000 and 1,000BC. The most typical of the time, which also gave the period its name, is the talayot, derived from the Arabic word atalaya meaning observation tower. These structures are only found in Mallorca and Menorca, none having been located on Ibiza or Formentera.

Other common stone buildings are taulas (tables) and navetas (like upturned boats). Some taulas on Menorca are over 14ft high. In southern Europe the only other place with similar structures is Sardinia, where they are called nuraghi.

Menorca alone has an estimated 1,600 megalithic sites, while the best site on Mallorca is arguably Capocorb Vell, a rocky plateau on the south coast of the island. This settlement, dating from around 1,000BC, had five talayots, 28 smaller dwellings and Cyclopean walls reaching 13ft high in places. The area was protected as a cultural heritage site as long ago as 1931.

Nobody really knows the exact purpose of all these structures – they may have been used as defensive towers and guardhouses, burial sites or storehouses, as well as dwellings.

Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians

The Phoenicians arrived in the islands sometime after 1,000BC, founding a trading settlement on the north coast of Menorca. Two hundred years later the roving Greeks arrived, but did not stay. Apart from apparently getting a hostile reception from the inhabitants, the islands lacked the metal ores that the Greeks were after.

They did however leave the islands with a name: Baleares derives from the Greek ballein (to hurl from a sling, as in ballistic). It seems the early islanders used volleys of sling-shots to repel invaders.
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By the 7th century BC the Carthaginians were in the ascendency. They founded Eivissa (Ibiza Town) in 654BC, and indeed, it was here that the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal was born in 247BC. Ciutadella and Maó (Mahon) on Menorca were also founded by the Carthaginians.

The Roman Period

The Balearic Islands played a strategic role during the Punic Wars. Following their defeat at Zama (north Africa) in 202BC, the Carthaginians were crushed. Soon afterwards they left Mallorca and Menorca but remained in Ibiza until the Romans conquered the island in 146BC. Roman rule was to last over 500 years, during which the islands were renamed Balearis Major (Mallorca), Balearis Minor (Menorca), and Ebusus (Ibiza).

The tiny island of Formentera, which the Greeks called Snake Island, derives its name from the Latin Frumentaria (Wheat Island), so called by the Romans on account of the cereals and other crops they grew here. In fact, Roman rule brought peace and prosperity to all the islands, but that’s another story.
PHOTO-FINNISH! By Jack Goldenfeld

This month, I paid a short visit to Helsinki and was fortunate enough to get to the National Museum of Finland on the one day in the year when an archaeological event is held, somewhat similar to that which I reported in last month’s Newsletter. However, this one was utterly Nordic in character and featured artisans producing objects which were modern-day replicas of the museums exhibits. There were tools and projectile points being formed from slate and other local stones, as well as from (imported) flint in one area whilst, in another, barbed hunting and fishing spears, arrows, harpoons and leisters were being made from wood and bone. There was a digging area which had been seeded with pottery fragments and stone debitage for the benefit of the younger vistors, something which my two granddaughters (of Mill Green Museum fame!) would have greatly appreciated. Regrettably though, they’ve now returned home to Illinois. There was also a food-preparation display, with querns and examples of indigenous edible plants, exampling environmental seed evidence from excavated sites.

The Museum is well worth a visit. It has a most impressive prehistoric display of stonework and ceramics with the only known example of a fragment of fishing net, complete with stone sinkers and firbark floats, dating to circa 8000bc, part of the contents of a fishing canoe which sank, with much of the fisherman’s equipment, organically preserved in a silted-up water channel.

Helsinki is easy and cheap to get to, and is well recommended for a short visit.
TRANSPORT CORNER by Andy Simpson

BOOK REVIEW –

NEXT STOP SEATON! – 50 years of Modern Electric Tramways Limited By David Jay and David Voice Published by Adam Gordon 2003 ISBN 1 874422 43 5 Price £17.00, soft back.

Why review a book about a three-mile long narrow-gauge tourist tramway in Devon? Well, read on. This book is full of Barnet, Hadley and Hendon connections. This book celebrates the golden jubilee in 2003 of the Modern Electric Tramways Company, formed 19th May 2003 by Claude Lane to run his trams. Claude Lane was born in 1908 in Totteridge, the son of William Lane, joint manager of Manor
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https://www.hadas.org.uk/cgi-bin/nl/nlarchive.pl?issue=391&page=6 Issue 391 Page 6] Farm Dairies, Highgate; having introduced pasteurisation he became a director. In 1911 the family moved to Finchley, where the infant Claude, fascinated by trams, would persuade his nanny to take him to the tram depot off Rosemont Avenue to watch them entering and leaving the depot. As a young boy he would travel to Hendon to watch the trams at the depot/workshops on the Edgware road, where Merit house now stands – of which more later. At school he developed a flair for electricity and mechanics, and served his electrical engineering apprenticeship at Stoke Newington power station. Aged 22, he formed the Barnet based ‘Mobile Welding and Workshop Company’, and opened a small workshop in Lancaster Road, New Barnet, renamed the Lancaster Electrical Company, after the road. Here he repaired batteries, radios and the like.

A growing interest in battery vehicles led to his building a workshop at 77-79 Brookhill Road, New Barnet, whilst spending his summer holidays driving trams in Llandudno and Blackpool. From WW2 his company produced many battery-operated vehicles such as the ‘Lecar’ for local deliveries by traders. In 1949, he produced his first own 15-inch gauge scale model tram, number 23, based on a modern double decker then running in Llandudno; he built a test track in the Barnet works and locals soon got use to this little tram running around the yard, giving rides to local children. As news spread, invitations to local fetes, using portable overhead and track, grew; one such being the Hadley House Conservative Association Fete of July 1949, followed by South Mimms later that month. Summer weekends saw the tram travel as far as Hitchin and Uxbridge, often with ’19 Barnet’ on its destination blinds – the pre-1938 route via Finchley to High Barnet. In 1950 a second tram was completed in New Barnet, based on the ‘Blackpool Boat’ open top single deck design, and numbered 225. In 1951 the two trams moved to a new sea-front miniature tramway at St Leonards, Hastings, as a holiday attraction. They were supplemented in 1952 by a third Barnet-built tramcar, a traditional four-wheel open topper, number 3, but local complaints had seen an end to the Hastings operation after a few months. Also built at Barnet in 1952 was a four-wheeled battery operated tram for the Air Ministry. In 1952 the whole set-up moved to a park at Rhyl. A planned move to Eastbourne in East Sussex saw trams 225 and 3 move back to Barnet for refurbishment. The Rhyl operation was leased out and the Barnet works produced a fourth tram, open ‘toastrack’ number 6, in 1954 to help maintain services there. The Rhyl operation closed in 1957.

Operations in Princes Park, Eastbourne began in 1954, with the track gauge increased to two feet. Barnet works produced a second ‘boat’ car, No.226 to help work the line, and number 238, based on the double-deck Blackpool ‘Balloon’ design. Toastrack number 6 was rebuilt at Barnet 1955/56 as a traditional bogie open top car using parts from original full-sized trams from Southampton and Llandudno. The last tram partially built in East Barnet, in 1958, was similar tram number 7, again using full-sized components such as electrical gear rescued from newly scrapped Llandudno trams, and seats from Leeds trams. The Barnet works closed, and were sold in 1959, and operations moved entirely to Eastbourne, where the tramway was partly lit by ex-Hendon gas lamps! Also built at Barnet in 1957 was a miniature ‘B’ type open top bus, based on the 1929 chassis of a Swift car, registration LA 9927.

In 1963, three of the Barnet built trams – 3, 225, and 238 – were sold to a collector in America. Barnet built Cars 6 and 7 remain in operation at Seaton, to where the tramway moved in 1969. In October 1964 the former Metropolitan Electric Tramways tram/trolleybus depot and works in Hendon, where Merit House now stands opposite the oriental shopping complex, was being demolished, following closure in 1962, and Claude Lane rescued two sets of depot gates, for use at Eastbourne and, later, Seaton. Another local link at Seaton is tram 14, originally Metropolitan Electric Tramways 94 of 1904, later London Transport 2455, rescued in 1961 from an orchard near Waltham Cross, and now cut down to single deck, of the type once common around Hendon, Finchley and Barnet until the local tramways converted to trolleybus operation c.1935-1938.
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https://www.hadas.org.uk/cgi-bin/nl/nlarchive.pl?issue=391&page=7 Issue 391 Page 7]

This is a splendid book. Though not cheap, it is well written with plenty of ‘human interest’ and lots of pictures of the Barnet works and its advertising literature, Hadley Fete, and the Hendon depot gates! Well recommended for transport and local history enthusiasts.

Other Societies’ Events

Talks

Thursday 2nd October 10.30am at Mill Hill Library, Hartley Avenue, NW7 there is a talk entitled “The changing face of Mill Hill – from agriculture to modern development”.

Thursday 2nd October 7.30pm at the London Canal Museum, 12-13, New Wharf Road, Kings Cross, N1 there is a talk by Clive Chambers (historian) entitled “Greenwich & Wapping Thames ferries”. Admission costs £1.25.

Thursday 2nd October, 8.00pm at Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner there is a talk by Andrea Cameron entitled “The story of Pears’ transparent soap – a history since its foundation in 1789”. Admission for visitors costs £1.

Tuesday 7th October, 2.00pm at Harrow Museum and Heritage Centre, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow there is a talk by Noel Lynch entitled “2500 years of auctioneering”. Admission costs £2.

Wednesday 8th October, 5.00pm at British Archaeological Association, Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1 there is a talk by Dr. Jane Geddes entitled “Christina of Markyate & the St. Albans’ Psalter”.

Wednesday 8th October, 8.00pm at Barnet & District History Society, Wyburn Room, Wesley Hall, Stapylton Road, Barnet there is a talk by Valerie Johnston entitled “Man, Myths & Magic in Anglo-Saxon England”.

Wednesday 8th October, 8.00pm at Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, corner of Ferme Park Road/Weston Park, N8, there is a talk by Malcolm Stokes (HADAS Member) entitled “The Bishop’s hunting park in Highgate”.

Monday 13th October, 6.00pm at the Ancient Monument Society, Kenneth Clarke Lecture Theatre, Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, Strand, WC2, there is a talk by Phillip Venning (HADAS Member) entitled “Schools in 16th to 18th centuries”. Admission costs £2.

Wednesday 15th October, 6.30pm at LAMAS interpretation unit, Museum of London, 150, London Wall, EC2 there is a talk by Ken Walsh entitled “Human inhabitation of the Heathrow landscape”.

Wednesday 15th October, 8.00pm at Willesden Local History Society, Willesden Suite, Library Centre, 95 High Road, NW10, there is a talk by Alyson Herbert entitled “The origins of the Francis Frith collection (famous national photographs)”.

Friday, 17th October, 7.00pm at City of London Archaeological Society, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3, there is a talk by Lesley Dunwoodie (MoLAS) entitled “Recent re-evaluation of the Roman London forum”.
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https://www.hadas.org.uk/cgi-bin/nl/nlarchive.pl?issue=391&page=8 Issue 391 Page 8] Friday, 17th October, 8.00pm at Enfield archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, junction of Parsonage Lane/Chase Side, Enfield, there is a talk by Kim Stabler entitled “Planning for archaeology – Current thoughts on evaluation methodologies”.

Saturday, 25th October, all day conference from 10.00am at Edmonton Hundred Historical Society, Jubilee Hall, Corner 2, junction of Parsonage Lane/Chase Side, Enfield on the theme “People, Places and Events in Southgate”. Admission costs £6 or £3 for morning or afternoon only.

Tuesday, 28th October, 8.00pm at Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, Old fire station (next to the Town Hall) Friern Barnet Lane, N12, there is a talk by Jim Lewis entitled “Royal Gunpowder Mills”. Admission costs £2.

Thursday, 30th October, 8.00pm, at Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road N3, there is a talk by Ros Ward entitled “Planning Barnet’s Future (Jean Scott Memorial Lecture)”.

Exhibitions & Displays

Saturday, 4th October 4.00pm to 7.00pm, at Avenue House, N3, The Finchley Society have a display commemorating the 70th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter to the borough of Finchley. There will be a display of books, photos and artefacts from their archives.

Sunday, 5th -19th October, at the Brent Cross Shopping Centre Barnet Borough Arts Council have exhibitions & what’s on.

Wednesday, 8th October 10.30am – 3.00pm at Highgate Wood Information Hut there is a demonstration of a charcoal kiln.

Saturday, 11th October 10.00am – 4.00pm at Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard off Gresham Street, EC2 there is an exhibition and talks entitled “London maze 2003”. Find your way through London’s history from the Romans to the Victorians.

Saturday, 1st November, There is an open day at Avenue House.

Saturday, 1st November, 10.30am – 4.00pm at LAARC, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, N1 there will be an exhibition devoted to “The Archaeology of Rubbish” with displays of objects washed up on the Thames and from rubbish pits. Thanks to our contributors: Jim Nelhams, Stewart Wild, Jack Goldenfeld, Andy Simpson, Eric Morgan

Newsletter
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HADAS DIARY

Thurs 11 – Sun 14 September: London Weekend in the West Midlands Now full, but ring Jackie Brookes in case there is a cancellation

Tues 14 October, 8pm: 250 years of the British Museum. Lecture by Dr Marjorie Cayhill

Tues 11 November, 8pm: Roman Silchester. Lecture by Prof Mike Fulford
HADAS TRAINING “DIG” AT AVENUE HOUSE by DON COOPER

As announced in the last newsletter, HADAS will run two training “digs” at Avenue House, one on each of the last two weekends in September 2003. Each session is expected to take the two full days. The objective will be to impart as much excavation methodology as we can during that time. We already have a number of applicants. If you would like to participate please contact Don Cooper – his postal and email addresses are at the bottom of the newsletter – and don’t forget you need to have an up-to-date tetanus jab. We regret that we will only be able to take people aged 16 or over
VISIT TO WEALD & DOWNLAND OPEN AIR MUSEUM: Saturday 20 September

Graham Javes is organising a coach outing to the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum for members of the Barnet & District Local History Society and invites HADAS members to join them. The museum has a collection of -over 40 historic buildings which have been rescued from destruction, carefully dismantled and painstakingly reassembled in 50 beautiful acres of the Sussex Downland, just north of Chichester. The coach will leave Barnet Odeon at 9.00am, returning at 5.00pm from the museum. The cost is £16.00, including coach, driver’s tip and group entrance to the museum. Barnet Odeon is at the junction of the Great North Road and Station Road, near the foot of Barnet Hill, or High Barnet tube station is about 5 mins walk. The outing may be popular so please ring Graham initially to see if there are vacancies. Only then send your application to him with your name, address, contact phone number and your cheque, made payable to Barnet & District Local History Society.
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EXHIBITION: Memories of Hendon Aerodrome from Gerrard Roots The current exhibition at Church Farmhouse Museum is based on the remarkable collection of photographs of early aviation in Hendon belonging to Clive and David Smith. The photographs concentrate on the beginnings of flying here – with Claude Grahame-White, Gustav Hamel and Samuel Cody – to the great aerial displays of the 1920s and 1930s which brought thousands of excited visitors to North West London. The Exhibition also includes flying memorabilia from the Royal Air Force Museum and from local private collectors. Memories of Hendon Aerodrome ends on 14th September, so hurry if you don’t want to miss it. Phone 0208-203 0130 for further information, or to check on opening hours.
OUTING TO READING AND SILCHESTER Deirdre Barrie

Reading Museum’s Roman Section holds many of the important finds from Silchester, and the limited time we had here meant we had to concentrate on a quick look at just this part, but the whole museum really merits another visit. The large Roman mosaics from Silchester were being restored and repaired so for now we could only view them from a distance. Their Victorian excavators had lifted one mosaic out in nine hexagonal pieces and reassembled them on a metal backing against a wall, but the sections were now rubbing against each other, so that individual tesserae were falling off. Among Reading Museum’s virtues were the drawers full of real objects available for handling and the “dressing-up” clothes to allow schoolchildren – and, inevitably, others – to experience the feeling of power that comes with joining the toga-wearing plutocracy. (Footnote: the Museum’s 2nd C AD wingless eagle, excavated in Silchester Basilica in 1866, inspired Rosemary Sutcliffe to write “The Eagle of the Ninth”) Just part of Denis’s secretarial duties On we sped the 9 miles south-west to Silchester, the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, where the Department of Archaeo¬logy at the University of Reading were holding a very colourful open day. Prof Michael Fulford, who wrote a guide to Silchester in 2002 and recently figured in “Meet the Ancestors” on TV, was not there, but our groups were conducted round the site by Dr Hella Eckhart and Amanda Clarke (Prof Fulford is giving the November 11 HADAS lecture – see HADAS Diary on page1). The site is not only a research excavation, but also a training school. Younger members of the archaeological team mingled with the crowd, dressed in robes, togas and tunics. (The contingents of “Ancient Britons” with their spiky hair and woad-covered chests, suitably loud and unruly, had to be called to order by the person taking our party round the site.) Victorian excavation methods involved driving long trenches across the site until they hit a wall, which meant they did not take into account the many wooden buildings in the town An overview of the modern Silchester dig (photos courtesy of Barry Reilly but not available on the site yet!!)

Why was Silchester finally deserted? Is the date of the Roman street grid earlier than AD 40-60? The present excavation is now concentrating on one of the “street blocks”, Insula IX, and hopes to answer these and other questions Insula IX was chosen because one of the houses is asymmetrical to the street grid, which means it pre-dates the Roman street plan. It is hoped to interpret some of the earlier layers known to exist – the settlement was founded in the Iron Age. There was practically no running water near the town, and the large number of wells are yielding finds (pottery, ritual objects) from the time of the Emperors Claudius and Nero. As we managed to lose at least one member (temporarily) in the woods around Calleva Atrebatum, the coach arrived late at the Vyne. Shrewd people made straight for the house. Others stopped for tea. The Vyne was built in the early 16th century for Henry VIII’s Lord Chamberlain and, from the mid- 17th C belonged to the Chute family. The house is on a small scale and set in beautifully kept gardens. Some of the furniture and paintings are from National Trust “central stores”, but there is a fine Palladian staircase, a unique mid-17th C classical portico and a Tudor chapel with renaissance stained glass. (One of the Chutes was offered one hundred pounds, then a very large sum, for the 400-year old oak in the grounds, and refused to sell. The buyer returned the next day and offered one hundred guineas. The owner said if the oak could increase in value so much overnight he thought he would just keep it.). Our thanks again to Tessa and Sheila for their hard work in arranging an excellent outing.
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Visit to Bodrum Jeffrey Lesser’s recommendations

Recently I had a successful holiday outside Bodrum in south-west Turkey. Now a holiday town, Bodrum was once the site of one of the seven wonders of the Classical world – Halicarnassus – and the original e century Mausoleum (occupying a site higher up in the town, but now hardly worth a visit, it has been robbed of almost all its stonework and only the base and a few columns remain, scattered on the ground – much cheaper and cooler to visit Room 22 at the British Museum). Stonework taken from the Mausoleum was used by local inhabitants, but principally by the Knights of St John to build their Citadel, the Castle of St. Peter, at the edge of the harbour. The castle is well worth a visit, needing several hours. It celebrates underwater archaeology with several shipwrecks reconstructed to show how cargoes and parts of the ships themselves were found on the sea floor. Along one courtyard is a display of amphora, explaining their characteristic anthropomorphic variations of neck, body and lip as well as handles and base and how these, and their clay, define their origin, purpose and period The Spanish Tower has a further display of amphora, this time arranged in groups of types as a serried audience in a lecture theatre. The Chapel of the Knights now houses a reconstructed trading vessel, showing its construction. As one walks round it at different levels, the crew quarters, their cooking and working methods can be seen as well as the methods of stowing cargo. Although there are many more conventional displays of archaeological materials – statues, reliefs, domestic and trade articles – it is the castle itself with its many towers used by different nationalities of the Knights which repays inspection, Despite a grisly dungeon and platform for dispatching but not discharging prisoners, there are many shady courtyards, some with pools, where one can buy refreshments during the lunch hour.
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OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan

Thurs 4 Sept 8pm: Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner Pinner Chalk Mines Revisited Talk by Ken Kirkman on the historical features, etc

Sat 6 Sept 10.30-4: LAARC, M Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Rd, NI Urban Jungle Open Day

Tues 9 Sept 8pm: Amateur Geological Society, The Parlour, St Margaret’s United Reform Church,Victoria Ave, N3 Stonehenge: Geology & Prehistory Talk by Dr Christopher Green Wed 10 Sept 6-7.30pm: Highgate Wood Information Hut Walk to look at places of historical interest

Thurs 11 Sept 10 30am: Mill Hill Library, Hartley Ave NW7 Late Victorian Enfield, 1880-1900 Talk

Sun 14 Sept 11.30am-3.15pm: Natural History Museum Flint Knapping Demonstrations A chance to meet Phil Harding, flint expert & star of Time Team. Cones. £1,50 2pm-4pm: Friern Barnet & District Local History Soc, meet forecourt New Southgate Stn Tour of Friern Hospital led by Dr Oliver Natelson £1

3pm-5pm: Finchley Arts Centre Trust, The Bothy, Avenue House Grounds Garden Party (proceeds in aid of bothy and walled garden) music, refreshments, £5

Mon 15 Sept 8.15pm: Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries, Finchley Church End Library,Hendon Lane, N3 The Old Watling St from Marble Arch to Edgware Talk, David Barker

Wed 17 Sept 8pm: Willesden Local History Society, Willesden Suite, Library Centre,95 High Rd, NW10 Some Willesden Churches Between the Wars Talk, Dr Rex Walford

Thurs 18 Sept 7.30pm: Camden History Society, Burgh House, New End Sq, NW3 Dollis Hill House Talk by Hamilton Hay

8pm, Enfield Preservation Society, Jubilee Hall, jctn Parsonage Lane/Chase Side Commons & Village Greens Talk by Margaret Smith

Fri 19 Sept 7pm: City of London Archaeological Society, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3 London’s Pottery from Alfred toVictoria Talk by “our”Jacqueline Pearce (MoLSS)

8pm: Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall (see 18 Sept) Romano-British Cavemen Talk by Dr Martin Dearne, Visitors £1

Sat 20 Sept 12.30pm: LAARC (see Sept 6) Connected Earth History of telecomms lecture, Neil Johannessen, BT Group Historian, followed (2-3.30pm) by tours incl. communications equipment

Sat 20/Sun 21 Sept London Open House Weekend Various buildings not normally open1 lam-5pm: Enfield Autumn Show, Town Park, Cecil Rd, Enfield, incl E. Archaeol_ Soc, etc

Tues 23 Sept 8prn: Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, Old Fire Station (adj. Town Hall),Friern Barnet Lane, N12 Vernacular Architecture Talk by John Donovan (Pres. & Sec.) £2

Thurs 25 Sept 8pm: Finchley Society, Drawing Rm, Avenue House, East End Rd, N3 Work of the Peabody Trust & Urban Development Talk by Christine Wagg

Newsletter
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HADAS DIARY

Thurs 11 – Sun 14 September. Long Weekend in the West Country. Now full, but ring Jackie Brookes in case there is a cancellation.

Tues 14 Oct. 250 Years of the British Museum. Lecture by Dr Marjorie Cayhill.

Tues 11 Nov. Roman Silchester. Lecture by Prof. Mike Fulford.
HADAS TRAINING DIG from our Chairman DON COOPER

Following requests from members who would like to improve their skills in excavation techniques, HADAS are arranging a training dig at Avenue House during the last two weekends in September. A specific area has been allocated by Avenue House and we are hoping to open a 1 metre by five metre trench. We expect to be able to cater for a maximum of 10 trainees per weekend. There will be more details in the September newsletter, but this is early notice to those who might like to participate
SECRETARY’S CORNER from DENIS ROSS

On 11 July the Committee held its first meeting since the AGM in June. Don Cooper was welcomed as the new Chairman and Peter Pickering as the new Vice-Chairman. Among matters discussed were the following: 1. It was agreed to co-opt June Porges ( who has had a very long association with the Society ) to fill the one vacancy on the Committee. 2. Mary Rawitzer was re-appointed as Membership Secretary. 3. The following appointments of Co-ordinators were made: Field Work: responsibility was allotted to the ‘Digging Team’ of which the principal members are Bill Bass, Christian Allen, Andrew Coulson, Graham Javes, Eric Morgan and Andrew Simpson. Programme and Newsletters: Dorothy Newbury with June Porges who arranges the lectures. Equipment: Andrew Coulson. Publicity: Tim Wilkins. Events: Eric Morgan. Archives/Library: June Porges. 4. Mary Rawitzer reported that there were now 283 paid members ( which represented a drop in numbers ) and a number of members had not so far paid their subscriptions for the current year. It was agreed that steps be taken to survey members’ requirements. 5. The Society’s resistivity equipment and expertise were in demand and surveys had been or will be conducted in various areas. 6. Eric Morgan reported on successful displays of the Society and its activities at the Cricklewood and Barnet Festivals and also at Avenue House on one of its Open Days.

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY IN SAUDI ARABIA by STEWART WILD

Reading in the press recently that Mount Sinai, a revered holy site, is now believed to be an extinct volcano located in Saudi Arabia, and not in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, has reminded me how much archaeology there is in this little-known and much-maligned country. I was fortunate to spend some time here earlier this year (during the Iraq conflict, actually) and although 1 didn’t get to all of the major sites, I was invited to write about them. Saudi Arabia is a vast country the size of western Europe; it is a two-hour flight from one side of the country to the other (Jeddah on the Red Sea to Dammam on the Arabian Gulf). In the southeast of the country, the Empty Quarter, beloved by explorers like Wilfred Thesiger and Harry St John Philby, is a huge desert the size of France. Archaeological sites include the remains of Qaryat Al Fau that for around 1,400 years was a wealthy town on the spice and frankincense routes across Arabia. It was abandoned in the first century AD when maritime routes carne to prominence and the trading centre of Najran (close to the border with present-day Yemen) declined. Finds from recent excavations, which are on-going, may be seen in the King Saud University Museum in Riyadh. The Jawan Chamber Tomb, on the Arabian Gulf coast, was excavated by oil company employees in 1952 and was found to contain a number of objects, including gold, bronze, iron and ivory, probably dating from at least 2,000 years ago. In the northern desert, Al-Rajajil is a barren plain with groups of standing stones believed to be well over 5,000 years old. The tall thin stones, up to 10 feet high, have Thamudic inscriptions and are aligned to sunrise and sunset. Like Stonehenge, they are a bit of a mystery and together with pottery shards and nearby rock carvings make the area a magnet for archaeologists. The most spectacular site, however, is undoubtedly Mada’in Saleh, in the northwest of the country. Sister city to Petra in Jordan, the site is famous for its more than 80 rock-cut tombs, evidence of the wealth of the Nabateans who levied taxes on the camel trains on the incense route to Mesopotamia, Greece and Egypt in the first century AD and before. Unlike Petra, however, Mada’in Saleh was never colonized by the Romans. Archaeological digs in the area (including one in 1968 by a team from the University of London) have uncovered buildings made of adobe with stone foundations. They have also uncovered a variety of coarse, plated and polished pottery, with animal, plant and geometric ornamentation. Other finds include glasswork, some thin and some thick with a snow-white colour, stone cisterns, cooking vessels and 96 coins. Some of these artefacts are in the National Museum in Riyadh while others are kept in a local museum. The surrounding area has many other archaeological treasures, including rock-cut tombs, petroglyphs and inscriptions in obscure Dedanite, Lihyanite and Minaean dialects dating from the 7th to the 5th centuries BC. The nearby town of Al-Ula is on the route of the famous Hejaz Railway, which T E Lawrence and his Bedouin supporters famously wrecked in a series of raids during the First World War. The origins of the railway go back to 189’7 when the Turks, who controlled most of the Arabian peninsula as part of the Ottoman Empire, conceived the idea of a railway between Damascus and the holy city of Madinah. The idea was supposedly to make it easier for pilgrims to reach Madinah and Makkah (Mecca) and it would cut the journey time from Syria from six weeks to four days. The Arabs, however, saw the project for what it was: a method of reinforcing Turkish military and political aims in the region, since troops and ammunition could quickly be supplied in the event of an insurrection. Despite opposition, construction of the railway began in 1900.The route ran from Damascus to Amman in Jordan, and on to Al-Ula and Madinah. Along the 1,000- mile route about 50 stations were built, although some were never finished. The planned extension to Makkah was never built. The line opened in 1908 and was a source of friction from the outset. Although pilgrims benefited from the convenience, the Bedouin camel-train operators saw only declining revenues. The trains were frequently stopped and raided, forcing the Turks to provide armed guards all along the route. During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany. Sherif Hussein of Jeddah made an alliance with the British to drive the Turks from the region, and Lawrence led the Arab Revolt. The Turkish garrison in Madinah was cut off which heralded the end of Turkish domination in the Arabian peninsula. In recent years, in the area around Al-Ula, some old railway engines and carriages have been put on display. Elsewhere, in the middle of the desert, you can see the remains of the track-bed, derelict engine sheds and abandoned stations. Some restoration is under way and it is hoped that one day it will again be possible to travel from Al-Ula by train.

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LOCAL SOCIETIES CONFERENCE by VANESSA BUNTON

May 31 2003 On the last Saturday in May a conference was held in the Museum of London on, about and for London’s archaeological societies and their members. There was a good turnout and societies from all over the region attended. The morning session focused on the contributions that each society had made to our understanding of London’s archaeology with the afternoon focusing on single events, programs, or research. The morning was started by Tim Harper of Enfield Archaeological Society (EAS) who gave an overview of how EAS had identified the roman settlements of the borough and introduced the Past finder’s activities to the forum. Dennis Turner followed Tim from Surrey Archaeological Society (SAS) who told us how SAS has supported smaller societies in southwest London. Betty Jones from West Essex Archaeology Group (WEAG) told us of their past research in Waltham forest, increasing our understanding of prehistoric east London and that the group also excavated Little London a roman staging post near modern Abridge. Michael Meekums of Orpington and District Archaeological Society (ODAS) spoke of the gazetteer the group has put together identifying sites from different periods in the Upper Cray Valley. He also highlighted the work at Survey House where ODAS had undertaken an exciting standing building recording of a multi-phased dwelling prior to its remodelling. John Boult of Kingston Upon Thames Archaeological Society (KuTAS) talked of the origins of the group and their ongoing work in conjunction with Surrey Unitech at Tolworth Court Farm in Kingston; a multiphase and multiuse site that includes iron age, through a moated manor and 19111 century fanning remains. He indicated that the current part of the project being undertaken by the group is the ceramic analysis. From Richmond Archaeological Society (RAS) we had Anna Cronin who informed us of the varied activities of the group, including their ongoing work along the Thames Foreshore. These foreshore studies have revealed many exciting finds covering Saxon Richmond and particularly focusing on the remains of the Tudor Palace. In addition Anna outlined the attempts RAS has made to incorporate younger members and attract teenagers; these include targeting schools and participation in local fairs and displays. Moving much closer to today, Daniel Hayton of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society (GLIAS) gave introduction of the work that GLIAS undertakes in and around London. Daniel featured a recent visit to the Hawker Siddeley Power Transformers factory and testing station in Waltham Forest recording the testing of the last transformer. Before the factory closed down earlier this year. City of London Archaeology Society (COLAS) was represented in the morning by Stacey Callagher who spoke of the public open days that CoLAS runs in conjunction with the Tower of London. This event, which includes opening the Tower Beach, attracts a wide variety of the public from both the local area and tourists visiting the city. Stacy outlined the types of activities that are run, ranging from identifying the clay pipes turned up on the beach through ethnographic archaeology where children are given the opportunity to make a wattle wall, to dressing up as a roman with hand ground makeup and environmental sampling. From just south of the river Richard Buchannan of the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society (SLAS) spoke of the societies beginnings in rescue archaeology and their support of a more structured scheme for archaeological survival, which gave rise to current commercial archaeology. Richard spoke of the variety of lectures that the group now holds and the regular attendance at their monthly meetings and outings. John Clark representing the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS) finished the morning session with a brief overview of the societies almost 150 years of existence. John outlined LAMAS’s development from a Victorian gentlemen’s society to the active role they have today in supporting other societies through their annual conferences and publication programs.Hedley Swain of Museum of London started the afternoon session by engaging the attendees in a lively debate over the role of Societies in archaeology today and the need to publicize more widely the valuable work being undertaken by these groups that is often ignored by other sectors. Moving into backyard archaeology Tim Harper of EAS spoke of the recent excavation work to uncover roman Enfield in a family’s back yard. Some possible remnants of Roman Enfield were discovered, but interestingly a 1940’s bicycle buried upright was excavated. It is thought that this bike was buried when a bomb shelter was removed. Karen Thomas from YAC central London gave a brief outline of the activities that the children undertake and how they enjoy being part of the group. Also highlighted that the YAC shows a varied ethnic mix that may be reflected in local societies and the profession in the future. Audrey Monk of SAS spoke of the exciting work that they are undertaking in Village Studies. This program utilizes a variety of tools well known in archaeology to decipher how villages have developed over time. Looking into technological advances to identify archaeological information Christian Allen of Hendon and District Archaeological Society (HADAS) talked of the resistivity surveys undertaken by the group and the answers that they have displayed, along with the practicalities of getting results from the instruments. He touched on the resistivity undertaken at Burnt Oak and the resulting excavation, along with more recent studies undertaken at Friary Park and Bowling Green house. Betty Jones of WEAG updated us of the ongoing work at the Tudor manor Copped hall and the finds that they had made in the previous two weeks. These included the possible base for a turret and a great variety of ceramics from the Tudor period through the 19th century when the area was used as a rose garden. Alan Hart of ODAS talked of the 2002 work at Scadbury Manor. This site consists of a moated manor with surrounding buildings and was occupied from as early as the 13th century. Alan focused on the excavations of the footprint of a new prefab classroom where they revealed an extensive range of 18th/19th century brick lined sunken storage bins found in last seasons excavation. In a step forward in time Susan Hayton of GLIAS talked of the history and recording of the rise and fall of the famous chronometer and anemometer makers Lowne Instruments. GLIAS was informed of the impending closure of Lowne Industries and destruction of the factory; this detailed recording on the processes, history and building of a small factory in South London. Such insightful research in recent archaeology ensures that we have a good understanding in the processes that took place as well as the building that housed it for over 150 years. Graham Dawson of SLAS spoke of the tin glazed ware industry in Southwark, particularly Montague Close. The pottery was produced on site for 140 years from 1612 with a great variety of patterns and vessel styles. Moving back to the north side of the Thames, Bethan Featherby of CoLAS talked about the ongoing research COLAS undertakes along the foreshore. A core group of keen members search the foreshore of the City and Tower Hamlets when the tide allows. Most recently they have been recording and researching the lock that leads from the now built over Gun Dock in Tower Hamlets. Robert Whytehead of the Greater London Archaeological Advisory Service (GLAAS) spoke of the importance of the work being undertaken and that it should be linked to the Sites and Monuments Record. GLAAS advisors are interested and should be kept abreast of development in their areas. He also reminded us all that Local Society members are also the eyes on the ground for archaeology and should let people know if there is anything they feel uneasy about in their areas. The day was highly successful in bringing together groups from throughout London and giving them a forum to speak to each other and discover the exciting possibilities for projects they could apply in their own areas. It also highlighted the great amount of good research and archaeology that is being undertaken by local societies and speaks brightly for the future.

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AVENUE HOUSE OPEN WEEKEND from BILL BASS

As part of the National Archaeology Weekend HADAS held an open weekend at Avenue House on July 12 & 13th. Good weather saw many people sunbathing or admiring the landscaped gardens adjacent to the house. In amongst the footballs, shuttlecocks, picnics and a wedding HADAS members were seen conducting a resistivity survey on the lawns in readiness for a large scale survey in the near future. Some of the local children tried the resistivity machine and a competition evolved on who could produce the highest number! There was also a chance for members to brush up on their levelling skills using the dumpy level and theodolite. The Garden Room was open, our base of operations, where the library was open for inspection currently being reorganised) and some of the finds from previous digs were being displayed together with the HADAS sales stand. Thanks to those members involved with the weekend.
EGYPTIAN DAY OUT by JACK GOLDENFELD

I took my son and his family to an Egyptian Day Out at the Mill Green Museum and Mill at Hatfield on the 20th. July, part of the nationwide series of archaeological events, intended to stimulate the interest of the general public. The weather was brilliant and the activities there were a tribute to the effort and ingenuity shown by the team of volunteers from the Welwyn Hatfield Museum service, splendidly co¬ordinated by Sarah Adamson, the Education and Access Officer, and ably assisted by Eve Lloyd. They created a series of displays and projects, which were experienced and enjoyed by a large public attendance, with many young people and children present, all of whom were able to involve themselves with explanations and guidance. There was flour grinding, using a quern and rubbing-stone, then bread- making, Egyptian food of various types, all of which w ire delicious, a working model of a shaduf, or water-lifting device, excavations in both loam – with real Roman shards – and in sand, with jewellery items which were lost by Queen Nefertiti’, ceremonial collar making and colouring, pyramid construction, using paper, hieroglyphic studies, cartouche designing, herb-identification and – best of all – dressing up as ancient Egyptians! The event was clearly very child-oriented, but the grown-ups participated fully too, including this correspondent, and his two granddaughters, the younger of whom is a keen and knowledgeable budding Egyptologist, the elder being more concerned with the neolithic. The whole enterprise proved that a public awareness and enjoyment can be created with few simple resources, supported by unbridled enthusiasm and unstinting effort.
WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS

The following new members have joined since the start of our 2003-4 year, last April: Martin and Laura Ellis in East Barnet, Monika and Jean-Paul Bannister, North Finchley, Elaine Ackley, East Finchley, David Marcus, Finchley,N3, Robert Hogan, Earls Court, who lived in Whetstone as a boy, Michael Hammerson, who is very active in the Highgate Society and a retired professional archaeologist, and Fran Martell from New Barnet. They are all most warmly welcome and we hope to see them at some of the meetings, outings and at Avenue House. From Mary Rawitzer, Membership Secretary.

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OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by ERIC MORGAN

Sun 3 August, 2.30pm Heath & Hampstead Society. Burgh House, New End Square, NW3 Lakes and 1342116 of Kenwood, Walk led by Andrew Ginner. £1 donation. Also Hampstead Antiques & Collectors Fair, Community Centre, 78 High St, NW3 10am – 5pm.

Thurs 7 August, 7.30pm – 9.30pm London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Rd. Kings Cross, N1 Along the Canal Towpath to Camden. Guided Walk. Also on Sat 16 August, 2-4pm.Concessions £1.25

Fri 8 August, 7.30pm Wembley History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. Welsh Harp Guided Walk, led by Leslie Williams (Brent Conservation Officer)

Tues 12 August, 8pm Amateur Geological Society. The Parlour, St Margaret’s United Reform Church, Victoria Ave.N3. Santorini and the Story of Atlantis Talk by Susanna Van Rose Fri 15 August, 7pm City of London Archaeological Society St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3. The Bishop of York’s Palace. Wandsworth. Talk by Karl Hulka (pre-construct archaeology)

Sat 16 & Sun 17 August, 12-6pm Friern Barnet Show Friary Park, Friern Barnet Lane, N12. Friern Barnet Local History Society will have a stand here with latest details of HADAS resistivity survey.

Tues 19 August, 7.30pm Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, Dissenters Chapel, Kensal Green Cemetery, Ladbrooke Grove, W10. Highgate Cemetery – Past. Present and Future. Talk by Jean Paternal], £3; refreshments.

Wed 25 August,! 1am Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane NW3. Gardeners’ Walks, walk and talk about landscape surrounding Kenwood House and current work. 1.50 – £3.50.

Sun 24 & Mon 25 August, 12-6pm Barrow Show, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow. The Museum& Heritage Centre will be open till 5pm each day.

Newsletter
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HADAS DIARY

Sat 26 July, Outing to Reading and Silchester. Prof. Mike Fulford will guide us around the current excavation. Details enclosed. It might he possible to borrow a tape of the TV programme shown last spring. Contact Tessa 020 8958 9159. (See also November lecture below.)

Thurs 11 to Sun 14 September, Long Weekend to the West Country. Now full, but ring Jackie Brookes in case there is a cancellation.

Tues 14 October, 250 Years of the British Museum, by Dr Marjorie Caygill

Tues 11 November, Roman Silchester, by Prof Mike Fulford. (See 26 July above)

The AGM by Denis Ross

The Society’s Annual General Meeting was held at Avenue House on 10 June 2003, with the President. Harvey Sheldon, in the Chair. Some 40 members attended. All the Resolutions set out in the Notice of Meeting were duly passed. The Meeting recorded the end of an era – Andrew Selkirk did not seek re-election as Chairman after 17 years in that Office and Brian Wrigley did not seek re-election as Vice-chairman after many years in that office and having previously served as Secretary. Each had agreed to continue to serve on the Committee. The Meeting approved with acclaim the proposal that each of them be appointed as a Vice-President and also an Honorary Member of the Society. After the formal business of the Meeting, Dorothy Newbury thanked each of them for their long and valuable services to the Society and the President presented each of them with a picture. The Officers duly elected for the current year were: Chairman: Don Cooper

Vice-Chairman: Peter Pickering

Hon. Treasurer: Micky O’ Flynn

Hon. Secretary: Denis Ross

The following were duly elected as other members of the Committee: Christian Allen, Bill Bass, Jackie Brookes, Andrew Coulson, Catherine Da Costa, Eric Morgan, Dorothy Newbury, Peter Nicholson, Mary Rawitzer (Membership Secretary), Andrew Selkirk, Tim Wilkins and Brian Wrigley. The Constitution provides for up to 13 members of the Committee apart from the Officers so there is one vacancy at the present time. The other matter to note is that the Meeting approved the proposal that as from 1 April 2004 the annual subscription for membership of the Society be increased from £8 to £12, subject to the following concessions: (a) £4 for a person who is a member of the same family as, and lives at the same address as, a member paying the full subscription; (b) £5 for a member under the age of 18, or under 25 if a student in full-time education. After the formal Meeting had ended, members of the Committee gave presentations on some of the Society’s activities during the past year.

Following the AGM … Don Cooper

After the business of the AGM there were a number of short talks by members of the society on events that had taken place during the past year and also mentioning some forthcoming attractions:
Don Cooper described the course run jointly by Birkbeck College, University of London and HADAS

entitled “Post excavation: An analysis of materials from the Sammes archive.” During last year the dozen of so students of this course concentrated on completing the analysis of the Church End Farm excavation from 1961-1966, under the expert guidance of Jacqui Pearce (the countr•’s foremost expert on Medieval and Post-medieval pottery) with lectures by experts on metals, glass, buildings etc. The results will be published in the next volume of HADAS Journal. A new course will start in September 2003 and will concentrate on analysing the archive from the Church Terrace excavations at Hendon. The artefacts from these excavations covering Roman, Saxon, Medieval and Post-medieval will provide a great opportunity for anyone wishing to become more familiar with the methods and techniques of post excavation analysis as well as the story of Hendon over the years. We are delighted that Jacqui Pearce has agreed to run the course again. For further details see the enclosed flyer.
Andrew Coulson then spoke on river walking on the upper Dollis Brook.

It was both amusing and informative and in what is now becoming an annual event he showed slides of verdant foliage and enigmatic “cobble” surfaces. He also displayed a small collection of “finds”. There are many unanswered questions in relation to the brook and its environs and Andrew with his team hope to continue river walking during the coming year. Anyone wishing to join him in this venture will be most welcome.
Andy Simpson described the major exhibition put on by HADAS at Church Farm Museum between 15 March and 15 June 2003.

The exhibition entitled “Hendon’s Hidden History” concentrated on the story and artefacts from the many HADAS excavations in the immediate area of Church Farm Museum. He praised and thanked Gerrard Roots, the curator, for his help and co-operation in mounting the exhibition. Andy and other members and Gerrard are to be congratulated for all their hard work in making it such a success.

Finally Bill Bass described the many other events that have taken place during the last year.

These ranged from the excavation at Hanshawe Drive (lots of demolition rubbish but no Romans!) to G.I.S. surveys at Friary Park and Middleton I louse, using the new resistivity meter, the latter survey being a joint operation with Enfield Archaeological Society. HADAS had a presence at Avenue House Open Days, the East Barnet Festival, and the LAMAS conference.
A Letter from Joan and Brian Wrigley

June 2003 The Editor Joan and Brian would like to thank the Committee for their kind words and the most apt retirement gift. It is most appropriate as we had just come back from a visit to Stonehenge with the Prehistoric Society. Brian hopes to be able to contribute as a Committee Member and Joan is happy to provide a venue with refreshments for Committee Meetings. Thank you HADAS for all the good wishes. Sincerely, Joan & Brian Wrigley

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Society visit to the Mackerye End excavation and Ely by Graham Javes

In March Simon West, field archaeologist at St Albans Museums Service gave us a lecture about the ongoing excavations at Turnershall Farm, Mackerye End, Wheathampstead (see the report in the April Newsletter). On 14 June Simon gave HADAS a guided tour of the site. Metal detectorists working in a field had reported to St Albans Museums finds of bronze objects which seemed to come from cremations burials; soon after a massive gas pipeline was routed through the field. This led the Museums Service to mount an archaeological excavation last year. This season’s digging had only begun the week previous to our visit and Simon showed us how the site had weathered and ‘greened up’ since last year. Geophysical survey and excavation has dated the site from the Late Iron Age, about 50 BC, through to the Late Roman period in the 4th century AD. There is some suggestion of an Anglo-Saxon settlement, before AD 600. Pollen evidence suggests a dry, open wooded landscape similar to today, with ponds when it is wet, but fields were smaller. Simon showed us the two burials, seen now only as changes in coloration of the soil but which probably once were small barrows 3-4ft high, though there is no evidence of quarrying, The excavation was very dry making it difficult to see features but Simon was able to delineate for us the semi-circular outline of half of a Late Iron Age roundhouse. Analysis of pottery, especially of Samian ware has revised the date for the burials to no earlier than AD 140-155. Coin pellet moulds excavated containing traces of bronze, silver and gold raise the question was this a minting site? A pyre-related pit and the quality of objects buried in the grave suggest a high status site. Some of the pottery and bronze vessels may have been already over 100 years old when buried and the deceased may have been clothed in material from Egypt or Turkey. In another field we saw the corner of a flint building emerging which geo-physics tell us is 10m x 10m, certainly indicating a villa estate but very large to be an agricultural building. By the time this report is read the suggestion that it may be a temple mausoleum might have been proven. There is a public open day on 5th & 6th July 2003. The site is at Turnershall Farm, Mackerye End, off Marshalls Heath Lane, Wheathampstead. it can also be found on the internet at www.stalbans@museums org.uk Coffee was taken at the Crooked Chimney pub in Lemsford. It is not often that one is able to get into the roof space of an ancient timber-framed building, but pursuing the call of nature, the gentlemen in the party were able to inspect the roof timbers of the oldest part of the building. I later discovered the pub was called The Chequers in 1756 but had previously been a farmhouse known as Hornbeam Hall. We proceeded to Ely, where our itinerary included a guided-tour of the cathedral, with time free to visit some of the numerous attractions. These included the Stained Glass Museum in the cathedral triforium, where it was possible to examine windows not normally at such close distance. Built in the 13th-century Cromwell’s House had been an inn, a vicarage, and now a museum. devoted to Oliver Cromwell, although he only lived there a mere ten years. The Town Museum occupies the former gaol of the bishops of Ely, dispensers of justice until 1836. The day ended with a delicious clotted cream tea in the cathedral Almonry, Our thanks go to Micky Watkins who planned and led the outing so successfully.
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Reminiscences of Southwark Peter Pickering

Our President’s lecture in May was very nostalgic for me. For when I came to London in 1958 and was looking to pursue an interest in archaeology, the first society I found was the London Natural History Society, which had at that time an active archaeological section. We had a close association with the Cuming Museum in Southwark, and helped with the sorting of pottery stored there from Kathleen Kenyon’s excavations at Newcomen Street and 199 Borough High Street later we worked on material in an old and draughty building in Upper Ground, which I came close to setting on fire with one of the heaters. I also remember spending a few days digging on another site in Borough High Street (where I was almost left behind in a deep trench) and at Winchester Palace (one of Francis Celoria’s unpublished excavations). We tried, without success, to find evidence of a Roman Road behind a pub called The Two Eagles on the Old Kent Road. We also helped in the work Peter Marsden did on a wooden Roman boat found on the site of New Guy’s House. It was all interesting, and 1 hope productive, though some aspects of the excavation techniques would not measure up to the requirements of to day – those were the days before the Health and Safety Act.
River meanders to the end of its Journey Emma Freeman

To the relief of many, Emma Freeman is proud to announce that her dissertation on the River Brent is nearing completion. The prolonged gestation of this monster has been arduous for all concerned, but I would especially like to thank Andrew Coulson and the river walkers for their optimism and ideas and for trailing through the mud on behalf of the greater good! If anyone has any last minute nuggets of history, archaeology or general wisdom they wish me to include, please feel free to e-mail me at em-ma@rocketmail_com. Thanks again to everyone for all your help. Luv and kisses Emma We wish Emma success with her submission and hope that she might allow us to read her dissertation in due course. Ed.
The Battlefields Trust walk of the site of the Battle of Barnet. by Graham Javes.

The Battle of Barnet, one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses, was fought on, or near, Hadley Green. Two crowned kings of England fought for the English crown. Actually Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker) represented Henry V1 of the House of Lancaster, who was present as the prisoner of the Yorkist Edward 1V. As the legend on the Hadley Highstone reads: ‘Here was fought the Famous Battle between Edward the 4th and the Earl of Warwick April 14th ANNO 1471 in which the Earl of Warwick was Defeated and Slain’. Not many people know these facts according to The Battlefields Trust, which seeks to raise public awareness of this and other battlefields. To this end and to mark the anniversary of the battle, the Trust, in co-operation with this society, organised a battlefield walk on Sunday 13 April this year. Participants assembled in Barnet Museum to hear a welcome speech by Gillian Gear and introduction by Frank Baldwin. others joined the walk at Ye Olde Monken Holt, the original advertised meeting point. Some sixty people, members of the Battlefields Trust and from local organisations including HADAS, and other interested people assembled at the Hadley entrance to King George’s Fields where Jonathan Smith and Frank Baldwin of the Battlefields Trust produced a large sketch map of the possible battlefield site. They admitted that they didn’t have all the answers and indeed that there are more questions than answers; further, the recent English Heritage Battlefields Register is not without error, as became obvious during our walk. We moved on to about the middle of King George’s Field, to be told that the marsh from where Edward attacked was probably at the bottom of the hill. It was a hot spring day as we looked down on New Barnet. To attack uphill in full armour, holding formation seems to this listener a poor strategy and rather unlikely, even if the hillside might then have been well-grazed by animals. On Hadley Green we were asked to assemble into opposing ‘battalions’, and to imagine we were each many times our number. the purpose to consider the area offal ground needed to execute a medieval battle on the scale of Barnet. On Old Fold Manor Golf Course we inspected an ancient hedge behind which Warwick may have sheltered. I’m told there are three possible hedges depending upon your theories of the battle and that the one we saw was not the one examined recently for the TV programme Two Men in a Trench’. Finally we looked at fields at the end of Warwick Close, off Barnet Road, marked ‘Deadman’s Bottom’ on the English Heritage battlefield map. Deadman’s Bottom has traditionally been associated with the burial of many of the common soldiers who fell in battle_ According to my Pathfinder 2.5-inch OS map Deadman-s Bottom lies further north between Barnet Road and Wagon Road? The organisers warned that there are more questions than there are answers. They were right, but only by walking the area might we begin to answer some of them_ I realise there are people who have walked the battlefield for many years longer than myself and I was grateful to meet some of them. The walk stimulated a lot of interest and the organisers are to be congratulated. The weather too was kind and the day most enjoyable. [A slightly different version of this report appeared in Barnet & District Local History Society Newsletter 2003-2] Page 4

News of Members

Jack Goldenfeld was selected as one of the archaeological advisors for the Channel 4 Time Team Big Dig on the weekend of the 28th and 29th June. Also, he continues with his work as Tutor in Archaeology at West Herts College where the next Academic Year commences on 29th September at Berkhamsted, and on 1st October at Hemel Hempstead. His ‘Introduction to Archaeology’ 1-year course has now been arranged as two 15-week semesters, instead of the usual three 10-week terms, with Berkhamsted’s being on Mondays_ from I till 3pm whilst Hemel’s is on Wednesday evenings, from 7.15 to 9.15pm. Anyone who is interested and wants further details may contact Jack
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Madingley Hall. Cambridge

The new brochure of ‘Residential courses at Madingley Hall’ was published last month listing a wide range of fascinating courses for ‘life-long learners’ (aren’t we all?). For those not in the know, Madingley Hail is the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education centre: a Jacobean manor house, sensitively extended, set in grounds laid out by Capability Brown. Most courses run from Friday evening until Sunday, midweek, Madingley is a conference centre, and standards of accommodation and catering are excellent. To single out individual courses is invidious: two archaeology courses which caught my eye are: Medieval Pottery and Osteoarchaeology, the Study of Ancient Human Remains, other courses include The Black Death (a personal recommendation) and The Architecture of Ely Cathedral. There is also Natural History, Philosophy, Psychology and Religion. For a brochure contact Madingley Hall, 01954 280399, or visit the website at www.cont-ed.cam.uk
Exhibition of West Heslerton excavation. by Sylvia Javes

Members travelling to the York area this summer may be interested in an exhibition at Malton Museum, celebrating 25 years of digging at West Heslerton. Following the discovery of Early Anglo-Saxon burials in 1977, West Heslerton has been the focus of one of the largest archaeological research programmes in Europe. This exhibition provides the first opportunity to present the results of this project, which has changed our understanding of settlement in the Vale of Pickering from the prehistoric to mediaeval periods.Many of the finds in the exhibition are displayed for the first time, including Anglo-Saxon jewellery, Bronze Age beakers, flints and pottery. The museum also has an excellent display of local Roman artefacts including pottery from the Norton and Crambeck potteries, and a small display of items from Wharram Percy. At nearby Orchard Fields, the ramparts of the Derventio Roman fort can be seen, close to The Lodge (now a hotel) and the site of the castle, where Time Team dug some years ago. Another attraction in the area is Eden Camp at Old Mahon. This was a prisoner of war camp consisting of 35 huts, which is now a ‘Modern History Theme Museum’, mainly a museum of WW2. Each but has a different theme, such as Bomber Command, The Blitz, The Home Front, Women at War, Rationing, and so on. A small section is devoted to WW1, and recent conflicts are represented. A visit to Eden Camp needs several hours’. Mahon is 18 miles north east of York. The museum is in the old Town Hall in the market place. Open: Monday Saturday, I0 — 4, until October 31st, closed Sundays. Eden Camp is open daily from 10 — 5, admission adults £4, cons £3. .West Heslerton is on the web at www.landscaperesearchcentre.org/Research also on the English Heritage site at www.eng-h.2ov.uk
Archaeology in Lithuania by Stewart Wild

I recently spent a few days in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, one of the three Baltic States making great strides since gaining their independence from the former Soviet Union in August 1991. In the heart of the city, just behind the Cathedral and in the shadow of Castle Hill, there is an unusual archaeological site that has attracted international attention. It is the site of a 14th-century royal palace razed during the Tsarist occupation at the end of the 18th century. Vilnius was founded in 1323. The old palace was built by Grand Duke Gediminas, a pagan ruler who consolidated his power over the newly created state. After a fire in 1419, Grand Duke Vytautas rebuilt the palace, and a century later Zygimantas the Old added a third storey, remodelling it in the Renaissance style. In 1610 further renovation introduced elements of the Baroque style. During the war with Moscow in 1655 the palace was looted and burned and decline set in No longer a royal residence it was ignored, robbed and finally torn down in 1799. The foundations and filled-in cellars were left in the damp earth, coming to light once more in 1987-2001, when a four-year project of excavations provided a cornucopia of information_ Now, in a celebration of statehood and to mark Lithuania’s joining the European Union, the palace is being rebuilt. The excavated archaeological remains have been conserved and protected against the elements, and 200 piles are being sunk to carry the weight of the new building. The site is open on weekdays (there’s a tiny museum/souvenir shop) and visitors are welcome. At an anticipated cost of 100 million Litas (E18 million), the project is scheduled for completion in 2009. The controversial new building will become a cultural and educational centre and museum of statehood as well as, no doubt, a tourist attraction.

Piddington Roman Villa, Northamptonshire by June Porges

I had a message from Roy Friendship-Taylor who spoke to us in April 2002 and whose site we visited in August. The latest news from the Piddington Roman villa site is that another building has been found in the adjacent field. It seems to have burnt down in the late second century. There is much associated burnt Sam ian and other pottery. Roy says anyone who wishes to visit during the August dig will be most welcome. See the excavation on: www.unas.org.uk [Ed]
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Other Societies’ Events Compiled by Eric Morgan

Thurs 3 July, 7.30pm, The London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Rd, NI. The River Fleet, Past, Present & Future’ by Jane Trowel].

Sat 5 July, 10 00-5.00pm Kensall Green Cemetery Open Day, Ladbrooke Grove, W10

Sat/Sun 5/6 July, 12.00 – 7.00pm, East Barnet Festival, Oak Hill Park, EB. Theme: ‘Glory Days’, with 50s- 70s music & dance. HADAS hopes to have a stall on the Sat if there are sufficient members to man it. Offers of help, part/full day to Eric please, .

Sun 6 July, 10.30-7.00pm, North London Transport Society, ‘Uncompleted Northern Line Extensions’ Walk, led by Jim Blake, starting Finsbury Park Station. Walk via Highgate to Alexandra Palace, then vintage bus connection to Mill Hill East, walk to Edgeware and Bushey Heath. Return to Finsbury Park by vintage bus. Advance booking essential, with large SAE to NLTS Events, 8 The Rowans, N13 5AD.

Sun 6 July, 2.30pm, Heath & Hampstead Society, Burgh House, New End Sq. NW3. ‘Artefacts of East Heath’, walk led by Michael Welbank, £1. (HADAS surveyed a Saxon ditch here.) Also Hampstead Antiques & Collectors’ Fair, Community Centre, 78 High St, NW3, 10.00-5.00pm.

Tues 8 July, 8.00pm, Amateur Geological Society, The Parlour, St Margaret’s United Reform Church, Victoria Ave, N3. The History of the Thames, by Prof. John Catt (UCL).

Thurs July 10, 6.45pm, Friends of Cricklewood Library, Cricklewood Library, 152 Olive Rd, NW2. The Grange Museum and Churchill’s Bunker, by Alex Sidney, (Brent Archivist).

Sat/Sun 12/13 July, 10.00-3.00pm, HADAS at Avenue House for a pre-National Archaeology Weekend. Surveying in the grounds of Avenue House, training in use of the level, resistivity meter & computer processing of results. Members are needed to open the library, run bookstall. Other activities could include finds processing, etc. depending on the number of members available.

Sun 13 July, 2.00-4.00pm, Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, Tour of North Finchley, led by Oliver Natelson, £1. Meet corner Dale Grove/Ballards Lane, N 12.

Tues 15 July, 2.00pm, Harrow Museum & Heritage Centre, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow. `History of Neasden & Dollis Hill’, by Mr Barres-Baker. £2.

Thurs 17 July, 7.30pin, Camden History Society, Burgh House, New End Sq., N3. Burgh House Now & Then, by Marilyn Greene.

Fri 18 July, 7.00pm, City of London Archaeological Society, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3. Recent Excavations at Fenchurch St, by Vaughan Birbeck (Wessex Archaeology).

NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY WEEKEND, Saturday/Sunday 19-20 July, at various venues: Sat 10.30-4.30pm, Sun 12.00-4.30pm. LAARC, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Rd, N1, National Archaeology Weekend, Local Societies’ Fair. Come and investigate many London archaeological societies, see what’s happening in your area. Museum of London, London Wall, EC2, London Archaeological Trail between five sites: MoL, LAARC, Museum in Docklands, the Roman Amphitheatre at Guildhall Art Gallery, the Billingsgate Roman House & Baths. Events include discovering our ancestors using DNA testing, object handling, Roman soldiers, reconstructing prehistoric tools, the reconstructed Roman water lifting machine, participation in a dig, recording ancient buildings, etc. COLAS will be working at the Tower of London

Sun 20 July, HADAS will give a demonstration Resistivity Survey at Forty Hall, Enfield at the invitation of Enfield Archaeological Society.