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Issue no 286 January 1995 Edited by Liz Holiday

Diary
No meeting this month
Tuesday 3 January New Year Dinner at The Old Bank of England. There may be a few places left (or late cancellations). Contact Dorothy Newbury on 0181-203 0950.FINCHLEY
New meeting venue for 1995
AVENUE HOUSE, EAST END ROAD, 141NCHLEY, N3
Tuesday 7 February Mesolithic Sites in London. John Lewis from MOLAS describes some of the other sites in the London area contemporary with West Heath.
Tuesday 7 March Landscape Archaeology in North Wiltshire. Andrew Reynolds from the Institute of Archaeology, gives some recent results from the Compton Bassett Area Research Project. (We hope to be able to arrange a visit to Wiltshire this summer).
Finchley member, Miss A M Large, is delighted that HADAS will be meeting at Avenue House and points out that buses 143 and 326 will be particularly useful for members travelling from Hendon. Both stop in Gravel Hill, only a short distance from our new venue. Another member has written welcoming the change of venue and suggesting that perhaps the day could also be changed as some members cannot come on the first Tuesday each month. The second Tuesday has been suggested. Any support for this idea?
CHRISTMAS DINNER Bill Firth reports
This year’s dinner was held in The Old Bank of England, a Grade I listed building in Fleet Street on the corner of Bell Yard. Two earlier pubs, The Cock and The Haunch of Venison, were demolished in 1888 to make way for a new branch of the Bank of England which was set up to cater for the administration depart-ment of the Royal Courts of Justice_ The Bank occupied the building until 1975 when it was let to the Bristol & West Building Society and in 1994 the brewers, Fuller, Smith and Turner, took over the lease. Although it is now a pub, great care has been taken to retain and enhance the splendid features of the building.
The evening began with a visit to the Temple Church led by Mary O’Connell. We had a quick look at Brick Court, where Oliver
Goldsmith lived and died, Fountain Court (which by the time you read this will have featured in the last episode of Martin Chuzzelwit on TV) and the outside of both Middle Temple and Inner Temple Halls before entering the church.

Mary gave us an account of the history and the monuments in the church and then left us to wander round at our own pace admiring the various features. For anyone not familiar with the church, the original “round”, seriously damaged in 1941 but well restored, dates from 1185 and is in Transitional style. A small chancel was enlarged in Early English style to become “oblong” in 1240. The round is reminiscent of a chapter house and is decorated with “grotesques”. Most of them might be described as “mason’s naive” art, but among them are four kings. On the floor are recumbent figures, badly damaged in 1941, of Knights Templar. There are two fine monuments and a host of commemorative tablets in the “oblong”. There is lots more but not enough space to describe it …
From the church we crossed Fleet Street to The Old Bank of England where our dinner was served in a cosy room. It was all very friendly and I cannot do better than quote Dorothy from the menu:
” Our thanks to lain and Karen Anderson, managers, and to Xanthe in charge of banqueting, for receiving Mary and I in such a friendly and helpful manner in the first instance”
Our thanks go beyond the “first instance” to the occasion itself and must be extended to include Dorothy and Mary who arranged it all. Those who are going in January have a treat in store!

MEDIEVAL LIFE, a quarterly magazine of the Middle Ages, is due this year. Supported by the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York, this new publication will concentrate on the period between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. Although it will be for sale at selected museums and historic houses, it will primarily be available by subscription, price £8.50. Cheques, payable to Medieval Life should be sent to C J R Pickles, Rectory End, Gilling East, York, YO6 4JQ with your name, address and postcode.
On Thursday 17 November 1995, Edward Sammes, Vice President of HADAS, was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
The Antiquaries are the oldest of our archaeological societies and claim to he the most prestigious – the members, who call themselves Fellows, are encouraged to display their prestige by putting the letters FSA after their names. Thus Ted Sammes will in future be known as Edward Sammes, FSA.
The Antiquaries were founded in 1707 and met at the Young Divel Tavern; Stukeley soon became their first secretary and the driving force, and after various ups and downs, they acquired a Royal Charter in 1752. Today it occupies prestigious grace and favour premises at Burlington House in Picadilly, next door to the Royal Academy. It boasts one of the finest archaeological libraries in London and it holds meetings every Thursday evening at 5 o’clock in the winter months, preceded by the best archaeological tea in London.
Election is by ballot. Ballots are held three times a year: there are mahogany ballot boxes where you insert your hand, and nobody can tell whether you are voting aye or nay, and the officers distribute one cork ball per fellow per candidate. One black ball in four excludes: noes are counted first. Academics and professionals sail smoothly through, but anyone suspected of being an amateur, or of being in trade, or right wing in politics is always suspect. Ted, being an amateur, described on the ballot paper as being “Retired Assistant Chief Scientist, Western Research Labs Ltd” was inevitably in the suspect area.
After the votes have been cast, the counting of the ballots always takes place in very public view, the President counting the balls as he drops them into a glass howl. Barry Cunliffe, the President, was unable to be present and his place was taken by one of the Vice Presidents, Sheridan Bowman of the British Museum Research Lab, surely the youngest and most glamorous Vice President to preside at an Antiquaries ballot.
When the name Edward Sammes was called out we all held our breath. Postal votes: no
noes. The ballot box was opened: the ‘no’ box was empty! There were no noes at all: Ted was through! The rest was a formality, as the President counted the ayes – first those on blue paper, then the postal votes, then the little cork balls, till eventually it came to a grand total of 41.
Only one question then remained: was no-one going to be blackballed? An Antiquaries ballot is like a public hanging, and the Fellows always expect to have a least one good hanging per ballot. A Tudor historian came near. Apparently he is a star of the telly, and was therefore suspect. He duly received 11 noes: But alas! he received 49 ayes, so he too was through, despite the telly. (One fears that many Fellows do not actually watch the box and were therefore unaware of his heinous crime).
Afterwards the Sammes supporters gathered round and we mutually congratulated ourselves – Lady Hanworth, Ann Saunders and others -each hoping to be the first to telephone Ted with the good news. We then went to the Fellows room on the top floor for some sherry commiserating with each other over the lack of hanging and vowing that next time we would do better.
The next week Ted duly completed the process, appearing in his best suit to be formally admitted, signing the ‘Book’ and shaking hands with the President – Barry Cunliffe in person – and graciously accepting our plaudits. So the next time you see Edward Sammes, FSA bow low …
(Contributed by our Chairman, a fellow Fellow)
SHEILA KELLAWAY applied to join Mary O’Connell’s City Walk in October but instead of becoming a member of the group, found herself inveigled into leading part of it to help Mary cope with the large number of members who turned up!
GRAHAM JAVES has recently succeeded Arthur Jones as Hon.Editor of Hertfordshire Publications, the imprint of Hertfordshire Libraries, Arts and Information, in association with Herts Association for Local History.
DIERDRE BARRIE is happy and settled in her new home in Enfield and has been busy researching the area with a view to a HADAS visit.

THE ” THING ” Bill Bass investigates
A couple of months ago a stone bowl-shaped object was handed in to Gerrard Roots at Church Farmhouse Museum. It had been dug up from a garden in Hillside Gardens, Edgware. Gerrard then asked HADAS if we could identify the “thing”.
Its dimensions are 20cm diameter (top), 10cm (base),12.5cm (tall) and weighed a hefty 10 lbs with walls 2.5cm thick. Around the opening are four rounded lugs. The fabric appears to be an unpolished marble-type stone.
The object lived in the boot of my car for several weeks as it was shown to various people including HADAS members, Barnet Museum and the Rector of Monken Hadley. To some it suggested a garden ornament (bird bath), others thought maybe a stoop which held holy water or perhaps some other piece of church architecture.
Finally, I took it to the British Museum. They said it was a mortar, possibly used by an apothecary or chemist to grind medicine. Dating was difficult – perhaps 19th century -and it may have come from Italy.
Gerrard suggested a mortar in the first place -so back to you Gerrard!
If you need something identified, it can be taken to the BM Department of Medieval & Later Antiquities on weekdays between 2 and 4.40pm – go to the information desk first.
INFORMATION WANTED – CAN YOU HELP ?
A friend of Peter Keeley is researching medieval bronze cooking pots and skillets. Bronze cooking pots with three legs come in all sizes; skillets are usually saucepan-size with
long handles, sometimes with names and dates cast into the handle. Peter’s friend is looking particularly for information concerning the foundries, as some of these pots appear to have similar marks to those found on local church hells. Any information would he appreciated to Peter Keeley, 9 Parkside, Mill Hill, NW7 211 : 0181-959 2864 (evenings).

SITE WATCHING with Bill Bass
In 1990 and 92 HADAS excavated 19-29 Barnet High Street This site is now being fully developed. Whilst the foundations were being dug a substantial “well”-type structure appeared which would have been behind Guyscliffe House, a now demolished Victorian building. The feature was 230cm diameter, made with frogged bricks laid in English bond fashion and double brick wide. Its inner face was completely mortared. A depth of approximately 3 metres was visible, beginning 1 metre below the present (car park) surface. Although described as a “well”, it could have been a sump of some kind or a cistern.
HADAS members have been watching tree planting at Mill Hill Park (between Dawes Lane and A41). The holes did not reveal any obvious archaeology but this area was once a Victorian rubbish dump, so several sherds of 19th century and later date pottery were found.
Last month when mentioning closure of the Passmore Edwards Museum, 1 also referred to Harlow Museum. To put the record straight, Harlow Museum is still open for business.

CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM
The current exhibition Synagogue in a Suburb illustrates the history of the Jewish community in Hendon and includes personal memorabilia as well as religious artefacts. On show until 15 January; but note, closed on Monday 2 January.

Book review
Barnet, Edgware, Hadley & Totteridge by Pamela Taylor and Joanna Corden was published on 9 December by Phillimore, price £12.95. It completes the trilogy of pictorial histories covering the Borough, (Finchley & Friern Barnet was published in 1992 and Hendon, Childs Hill, Golders Green and Mill Hill in 1993).
This volume covers the north part of the Borough and as with it companion volumes, is prefaced by an excellent, although necessarily brief, introduction to the history of the area. There are 162 illustrations selected from Barnet Libraries’ own collection, together with material from Barnet Museum, Enfield’s Local History Unit and a number of other individuals and institutions. Dates range from a manorial map of Edgware dated 1597 to a photograph taken in 1994 of the old Regal Cinema in New Barnet. Some pictures of East Barnet, New Barnet, New Southgate and Osidge are included but by keeping to the present Borough boundaries, the authors have had to exclude much interesting material from the “wrong” side of the Edgware Road and in the Cockfosters area.
I did find the arrangement of material rather confusing (dodging from Barnet to Edgware and back) but this was more than compensated for by the quality of the reproductions and the excellent captions. Besides – it kept me alert from beginning to end! Copies are for sale in all Barnet Libraries, at Church Farmhouse Museum and from Archives and Local Studies in Egerton Gardens. The earlier volumes are also still available.

A NEW FREE LEAFLET Museums on the Northern Line is a pocket-size guide
produced by London Museum Service supported by London Underground’s Northern Line. Lists 19 museums all within easy reach of the tube, giving opening times and brief details of material on show. Copies from all libraries and museums in the Borough.

Issue No 285 DECEMBER 1994 Edited by Reva Brown

DIARY
Tuesday, 6 December: Christmas dinner at “The Old Bank of England” – a Grade 1 listed building -opened as a hostelry in August this year. This date is full, BUT, as anticipated, we have a large overflow for the New Year dinner.
Tuesday, 3 January: New Year dinner. We have booked this second date, but have a few places
left. Late applications would be welcome. Price £23.00, includes coach out and return, a tour of the Temple Church opposite before the meal, dinner including a glass of wine (further drinks available at the bar) and a free raffle. If you would like to join us, please send a cheque for £23.00 (or £22.00 without transport) to Dorothy Newbury, 55 Sunningfields Road, Hendon NW4 0181 203 0950.
Our 1995 lecture and outing programme is well under way. Full details will follow later.
The LECTURE VENUE is changing for 1995, starting in February.

REPORT OF THE CITY WALK ON 29 OCTOBER Richard Nichols
It is remarkable what Londoners born and bred do not know about their own city, which is one of the joys of discovering more about it under the expert guidance of Mary O’Connell. Those members who attended this walk certainly found out some interesting items. Firstly, the pub at the corner of Cowcross Street and Turnmill Street, which has the pawnbroker’s sign of the three brass balls outside, as well as its pub sign. This is a reminder of an occasion when the Prince Regent ran out of cash when gambling nearby, and knocked up the publican to lend him five pounds, leaving his gold watch as surety. An equerry redeemed it the next morning.
The next stop was Clerkenwell Green with the former Sessions House on one side and the house where Lenin lodged on the other. This is now a museum to display his writings and other memorabilia. We looked in at the Clerken Well, which is still bubbling up ‘fresh’ water as it has for hundreds of years.
The highlight of the afternoon’s visit was the House of Correction. We entered the precincts through a doorway labelled ‘Girls’ Cookery’, or some such title, but the secret was soon revealed by the turnkey dressed in period costume of the mid-19th century. He first led us across what was later the boys’ playground to show us a 20 foot wall, which surrounded the former prison exercise yard. The former boys’ toilet had the most unusual memorial to be found in any convenience – a plaque
commemorating the attempt by Michael Barrett, a Fenian, to blow a hole through the wall and allow some of his fellow Fenians in gaol to escape. He rolled a large barrel filled with explosives up against the wall, but then realised that he hadn’t a match. He saw a young lad having a quiet smoke nearby, so asked him for a light. He then lit the fuse and retired to a safe distance. The explosion blew a hole in the wall, demolished a row of houses and injured the young lad. He lived until 1937, earning his living by selling matches, but Barrett was caught, tried and sentenced at the Old Bailey, and was the last person publicly hanged at Newgate.
This set the scene for our exploration of the former House of Correction, with its many passageways, cells, baths etc., all hidden since 1876, when it was flattened, and the Hugh Myddelton School built above it. The cells and passageways were used as air raid shelters during 1939-1945, but as the
warder informed us, there was only a two-foot layer of soil above those thinking they were safe from harm.
The original House of Correction was built in 1616, and underwent many changes during its existence. Once can read some of the records of those detained there, and their manner of incarceration. At one time, several were in one cell, but in Victorian times, they were in single cells and wearing hoods to prevent them knowing who their fellow prisoners were, or speaking to them.
It was a remarkable experience and well worth another visit.

NOVEMBER LECTURE: THE HOXNE HOARD Sheila Woodward
“Bootyful! Eric finds £10m Booty” screamed the Sun headline on what was allegedly the first occasion it had featured archaeology on its front page. Of course, the newly-found hoard had not then been valued and when it was, it achieved a mere eighth of the Sun’s estimate. But it deserved that sensational headline. What a find!
Using rather more measured tones than the Sun, Catherine Johns of the British Museum nevertheless conveyed the excitement created by the discovery and examination of this hoard. As a late-Roman treasure-hoard from East Anglia, it is not unique, but its apparent completeness and the opportunity for careful excavation enhance its importance. The sheer volume of some items is staggering: 15,000 (yes, thousand) coins, 29 pieces of jewellery, and 78 silver spoons, nearly doubling the total number of late-Roman silver spoons known from Britain.
It was on 16 November, 1992 that Eric Lawes, searching with his metal detector for a farmer friend’s lost hammer in a field at Hoxne, Suffolk, came upon the hoard. Most finders of gold and silver “go mad” and dig frantically on and on, destroying archaeological evidence wholesale. Mr Lawes kept his cool. He gathered up the first handful of coins, covered the site, and went home to lunch to think about it. He notified the farmer, and together they notified the landowners, the Suffolk County Council. The Council has its own archaeological tern, and the following day, the hoard was completely excavated. Speed was essential because of press coverage, so many items were lifted en bloc, detailed excavation and recording being completed by the British Museum.
This detailed work, made possible by Mr Lawes’ honesty and good sense, has produced fascinating information about the packing of the valuables. A large wooden box, 60 by 40 by 30 cms with iron fittings, contained smaller boxes, decorated with bone inlay and tiny silver padlocks, very modern in appearance. This was no panic-packing; items were wrapped in cloth, with hay used as packing between vessels. Perhaps a wealthy family, moving to another residence for a spell, stowed its valuables underground during its absence.
Most of the items in the hoard are beautiful as well as valuable, as Ms Johns’ excellent slides illustrated. The silver bust of a Roman Empress is a pepperpot with an ingenious rotating disc on the base to allow the pot to be filled and the pepper sprinkled. There are three more pepperpots in the hoard of similar construction. a 15 cms long prancing silver tigress with inlaid niello stripes is a handle from a large vase. Two tiny silver vases have raised leafy designs. The splendid array of spoons and ladles includes matching sets. The ladles with their deep round bowls and gracefully-wrought handles decorated with engraved scrolls are particularly satisfying. Some of the spoons are delightfully adorned with gilded dolphins and other sea creatures. A set of ten spoons engraved with the name Aurelius Ursicinus will enable research to be undertaken into the ownership of the hoard. The use of the Chi-Rho monogram and the monogram cross indicate Christian worship.
Personal belongings include silver toilet utensils and some very covetable jewellery. Of the 19 gold bracelets, the matching pair worked in reposse with hunting scenes were my favourite, but others of grooved and corrugated sheet-gold or fine pierced-work in geometric or foliate patterns are most attractive. One pierced-work bracelet incorporates in its design the message “Utere Felix Domina Juliane” (use this happily, Lady Juliana). The necklaces of fine chain have animal-head or monogram-cross terminals, but their pendants were not buried with them. The longest and most elaborate chain would have been worn as a body-harness, a fashion illustrated by clay statuettes of the period. It is a very rare find. The 3 finger-rings in the hoard had their glass or gem-stones removed before burial.
The coins (565 gold, 14,191 silver and 24 bronze) include two siliquae of the usurper Constantine Ill which can be dated to 407-8 AD, so the hoard was buried after that date. Much work remains to be done on the coins. and indeed, on other items in the hoard. Such work cannot be rushed nor can it be undertaken while the material remains on display. (It can currently be seen at Ipswich Museum.) We may have to resign ourselves to losing sight of it for a period. When it reappears, fully cleaned and restored, and properly displayed, our appreciation will be the keener, thanks to Ms Johns’ lively, informative and thoroughly enjoyable lecture.

BOOK REVIEWS
THE DIARIES OF ROBERT HOOKE: The Leonardo of London 1635-1703 by Richard Nichols, published by The Book Guild Ltd, Lewes, £15.00
Richard Nichols’ celebration of the life of Robert Hooke is the result of years of study of the man’s diaries and painstaking background research. The result is a long-overdue recognition of a fascinating man. Without the publication of these diaries, Hooke might only be known for his classic illustration of the structure of a snowflake which was used on a postage stamp, and his picture of a flea used by London Transport in a campaign against fare-dodgers! His unique contributions to scientific development are all around us today; the universal joint, kitchen scales and the iris diaphragm in cameras – to name but a few.
A friend and colleague of Pepys and Wren, over the years Hooke embarked on an astonishing diversity of ingenious experiments, ranging from brick-making to blood transfusion; from meteorology to medicine. These simple experiments led directly to many of the scientific advances of this period. Not only did Hooke directly inspire many of Isaac Newton’s scientific breakthroughs, but he also devised the means by which Christopher Wren could build the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. Richard Nichols’ book, with its striking reproductions of Hooke’s own illustrations and carefully selected diary extracts is a vivid evocation of domestic, social and scientific life in 17th century England.
Signed copies of the book are available direct from the author: 29 Maxwelton Avenue, Mill Hill, London NW7 3NB

The Westminster Corridor: The Anglo-Saxon story of Westminster Abbey and its lands in Middlesex by David Sullivan, published by Historical Publications, £17.00 Malcolm Stokes
As a visitor to Burgh House over the years, I have been aware that there have been among the permanent exhibits, items from the HADAS West Heath dig and a display about mediaeval Hampstead by David Sullivan. He has now published his findings, not only for Hampstead, but the whole corridor, in a well-presented book of 191 pages with 18 plates and 16 maps in colour, drawn by the author, and these alone provide a new and rich resource for those interested in the history of the area before the Norman Conquest and after. Indeed, the author pledges another volume cover another 350 years to the end of the 14th century. As the corridor includes Hampstead, Hendon, the West End, Westminster, Holborn, Soho, Covent Garden, the Strand, Pimlico, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Paddington, the author presents himself with a challenging task.
It is the maps which first attract the reader, and these are based on the earliest known sources whether charter or parish boundaries, estate maps or the Victoria County History of Middlesex. These have limitations and the author makes clear to the reader where there are deficiencies in records or unreliable claims from earlier local historians. The author states that he aims to present a straightforward story in the main text and at the same time provides ‘detailed supporting footnotes, with appropriate explanations of issues, points of evidence and details of the sources relied on’ He succeeds in this twofold aim. While many do not like footnotes, I find them most valuable as they not only indicate the strength, or weakness, of specific points, but allow one to follow up references when wanting to pursue one’s own interest in a particular period or place. The first chapter deals with the settlement of Germanic tribes in Middlesex. This is a difficult subject and may lead to some critical examination. However, the author invites a dialogue and provides the opportunity to think and question in an area where few to tread. For example, earlier eminent local historians, such as Madge in 1939, have suggested that the church estates formed a continuous belt around London as deliberate policy by the king. These theories were offered to be questioned then, and are re-examined. It is in the questioning and thought that we are able to increase our awareness and knowledge of this challenging period. Similarly, the often repeated references in our local histories to the forest of Middlesex, so often taken for granted, are here questioned and re-examined.
In a chapter entitled Earth, Wood and Water, the author looks at the geology of the area, the evidence (where it exists) for woodland, and the streams. He traces the courses of the Holeboume or Fleet, the Tyburn and Westbourne and how they were exploited. The administration of the County of Middlesex is considered with an examination of the shire and hundred courts. Then the foundation of the Abbey with its charters, and the question of their being described as forgeries is re-examined.
The use of the Abbey’s Middlesex estates as a source of income as well as their boundaries are described before focussing on Hendon, of which Hampstead then formed a part. The questioning continues with the possible Saxon settlement of Bleccanham, which with Codahhlaw, appears to be ‘lost’ in Hendon.
The authors central interest in Hampstead leads to a re-examination of its charters which have been well publicised over the years in Park’s Topography of Hampstead in 1814 and Barratt’s Annals of Hampstead (1912). The charter boundaries of Hampstead have provided generations of Hampstead historians food for thought and rightly so. David Sullivan is pressing HADAS and English Heritage to investigate the ditch along the boundary of Kenwood and across the Heath and to attempt to date it to these early documents, as the ditch is referred to not only in the Anglo-Saxon charter of AD 986, granting Hampstead to Westminster Abbey, but again on 6 February, 1227, when the estate, now occupied by Kenwood and beyond, was granted to Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate. Then it was described as ‘wood and heath enclosed on all sides with a ditch in the parish of St Pancras of “Kentisseton”, next the park of the Lord Bishop of London’. Traces of the ditch bounding the park may be seen outside the toilets at the stable block marked by parish boundary stones; two placed in the ditch which has since filled so that only their tops may be seen by English Heritage dog dirt bins. The author develops the story after the Conquest with the early mediaeval history of Hampstead, its demesne farm and land use, and then extends the area to include the whole corridor. The appendices, bibliography and index provide a good working tool for anyone wishing to research the area before the 14th century, and if that is your interest, this is an essential read.

TEMPLES OF SOUTHERN INDIA Peter Pickering
We have just returned from a trip to South-eastern India, led by Richard Blurton of the British
Museum, to see the amazing temples there. The architecture of Hindu temples is very strange to •••
Western eyes. The towers (gopuras) over the entrances to the temple complexes are much the
tallest constructions, those to inner enclosures being smaller than the outer ones; the vimana over the central shrine is lower still, though golden in the richest temples. Walls and pillars are covered with sculpture, sometimes painted with colours that seem garish when new, though they quickly fade in the sun and the monsoon rains. The iconography was very unfamiliar to start with (even though we had read some of the books suggested to us, and had visited the Hindu exhibition in the British Museum earlier in the year), but we came to recognise some of the main deities and the various manifestations of Shiva and of Vishnu, whether on buildings or on the beautiful bronzes in the museums of Madras and Tanjore.
The monuments in the area we visited start with the Pallava period in the 7th century AD, and reach their apogee in the 10th and 11th centuries under the Cholas, whose empire extended as far as Indonesia. Later came the Vijayanagaras, under whom the decoration really exploded, and the Nayaks. Temples are, however, still being built, and are very much in use – one vast pilgrimage centre we visited gets 40.00 a day – and even those which are preserved as ancient monuments often have a few Brahmins to tend the central shrine. Not all temples are grand. There are many naive village shrines, and simple stones striped rd and white mark sacred spots.
We did not see much secular architecture – South India had few maharajas. Most interesting was the palace at Tanjore which housed the library of a ruler at the beginning of the last century, who was very pro-Western and a patron of learning. There, in Dickensian circumstances, were Sanskrit pandits working on palm-leaf manuscripts; it was gratifying to see that they had a microfilm machine to help with their editions. Madras itself has many good buildings of the British period, including various churches like St Martin’s-in-the-Fields. Since you as, it was very hot; we enjoyed the food and did not get ill; and you Cannot catch the plague from reading something written by a person who has been to India.
PASSMORE EDWARDS MUSEUM AND HARLOW MUSEUM Bill Bass
For those members who were thinking of visiting the Passmore Edwards Museum and Harlow Museum in the near future, think again. Passmore Edwards closed (ironically) on National Archaeology Day (10th September). The Victorian building (leaky roof and all) and its collections now have a very uncertain future. Some of the archaeological displays will go to the Museum of London, the rest of it, together with their natural and local history collection, may be bought up by other boroughs. The museum’s archaeological section will now have to become a fully independent, self-financing unit, now known as the Newham Museum Service. It is hoped that they can carry on important work, including various excavations of Bronze/Iron Age brushwood trackways at Beckton, Rainham and Barking (see Newsletter 277), Neolithic sites and the St Mary’s Abbey site (founded 1135) at Stratford Langthorne, which has recently produced many burials, thought to be of monks.
It’s a great shame that a body of important research material (pottery etc) is to be split up, also that Passmore Edwards used to be one of the few units to involve volunteers – this had died the death as well.

Mystery Vault
Members of HADAS and Barnet Museum inspected a ‘vault’ at Monken Hadley Church. It had probably been rebuilt in the Victorian era as part of a heating system. Although this room was known, three were four graveslabs which had gone unobserved because they were reused for the vault ceiling, another was seen near to the bottom of a wall and may have been the original floor level. These were all duly recorded by members of the museum, some having evidence for brass attachments.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS IN THE NORTHERN AREA Bill Bass
English Heritage have indicated the following sites may be of possible archaeological interest: Hillcrest, Totteridge Village, N20 – near to medieval area
Church Farm, Church Hill Road, East Barnet – near medieval church
162 High Street, Barnet – near to medieval town
Other sites which may be of interest include 10-12 Tapster Street, Barnet and St Martha’s School, Camlet Way, Hadley.
The owner of Pymlico House on Hadley Green, Barnet has asked us to investigate a small mound in his back garden. The main building dates from c1740 and incorporates remains of an earlier structure. A resistance survey will be the first priority, then, depending on the results, perhaps a small excavation.

MORE MEMBER NEWS Vikki O’Connor
As part of the recent Barnet Libraries Week, Mary O’Connell gave a slide-talk at Osidge Library on London Oddities, conducting an armchair tour of the familiar sights – Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square, Lambeth, Westminster, the Tower of London, and (of course!) Clerkenwell. Mary’s ‘oddities’ included the man who used to walk Oxford Street denouncing protein, a Pearly Queen whose mother posed for an inn sign at the Lambeth Walk public house, and Dennis, the wandering cat who belongs to the Dean of St Paul’s. On a local note, Henry Croft, who first had the idea for Pearly Kings and Queens costumes, has a memorial at East Finchley. As for the rest of the talk, it was packed with facts which would make a superb London Quiz – any offers?

LECTURES – CHANGE OF VENUE
For a long time now, the Committee has been considering the high cost of hiring the Hendon Library lecture room. The charge has risen again, with a possible further increase in April. It is a splendid venue, but regrettably the cost forces us to try an alternative. We have booked the Stephens Room at Avenue House, Finchley for our February, March and April lectures, and we will see if it is a viable change.
The hire cost for one lecture at Hendon library is over £50.00 – the hire cost for three lectures at Avenue House will be £57.00. This figure includes a 40% concession reduction, available because of the nature of our society. For some reason, this concession is not applicable to Hendon library hire, though both venues are administered by Barnet Council.
We already rent the small garden room at Avenue House for our library and archives, which absorbs the whole of our fundraising effort at the minimart, plus a further few hundred pounds from subscriptions. The total garden room rent and service charge at present is approximately £1,600 per year. If any member knows of a suitable empty room/rooms or church, shop, industrial, school, social or domestic premises at a lower rent, will they please let us know?

THE SECOND WORLD WAR: SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS IN 1995 IN BARNET AND HENDON Liz Holliday
To mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War next year, Church Farmhouse Museum and Bamet Museum plan to hold special exhibitions to show how local people lived during the war years. The exhibitions will not be “celebrating” the War in any way – the aim is to show the impact it had on everyday life in the home and garden, at work and school, on travel and entertainment. Both museums will be showing material from their own collections, but if you have anything tucked away – photographs, ration books, cutlery, crockery, posters, booklets, packets, tins, etc – and would be prepared to lend them for display, please contact John Heathfield at Barnet Museum (0181 440 8066) or Gerrard Roots at Church Farmhouse Museum (0180 203 0130).

12th LOCAL HISTORY CONFERENCE, 1995
The theme is Families: People – great and small. The venue is the Winston Churchill Hall, Ruislip. The date is 25 February, 1995. And the tickets cost £4.00. Send a s.a.e to Geoff Saul, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 2EN (I don’t have more details of the address – he’ll be in the phone book, no doubt (ed) and make the cheques payable to “Rickmansworth Historical Society”.
HAMTUNSCIR Andree Price-Davies
Further to the deritavation of hamtun, “A Natural History of Britain” by M.J. Fleure and M. Davies states that ‘Groups of Anglo-Saxon families often gave their chief’s name to their cluster of farmsteads, its fields and pastureland.” The authors also state that “Ingham and later -ington – “the homestead of the people of” are common names of Anglo-Saxon settlements. Ham went out of use in later centuries. … The commonest Anglo-Saxon suffix came to be -ton. It is possible that – and -ham were used by kinship groups who immigrated together and that -ton was used to describe the neighbourhood unit of less closely related families as settlement expanded and the population increased.” In view of this explanation, that -ham is the family or related group and that -ton is the groups of such families, could the modern derivation of hamtun be “hometown”?

Comments

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 1st November

Lecture: “The Hoxne Hoard and others: late treasures from Britain” by Dr Catherine Johns (curator in the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British antiquities at the British Museum) who will indicate the relationship of the Hoxne finds with earlier Roman discoveries. This will be an excellent conclusion to our 1994 lecture season. Lecture at Hendon Library, The Burroughs, 8.00 pm for 8.15 pm.

Tuesday 6th December

Christmas Dinner at “The Old Bank of England”. This is a recently opened Fuller’s hostelry in Fleet Street which was previously the site of two earlier pubs, and one of the earliest buildings in Fleet Street. Before our meal we will visit the Temple Church opposite. The original church was built in 1185 by the Order of the Knights Templers on their return from the Crusades, and is said to have been modelled on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Details and application form enclosed.

HIDDEN FEATURE UNCOVERED AT BARNET CHURCH

In September, this year, HADAS was asked to observe building works at St John the Baptist, Chipping Barnet (TQ 24559645). The church was first referred to in 1361 (given WI- for works at the chapel) , it was rebuilt 1420, in 1875 the structure was enlarged. “At a cost of £14,000 the architect, Butterfield, did the job so thoroughly that little remains of the original church”. In this year’s works, a doorway was to be inserted through the east wall of the 15th century (north) aisle
leading into a more recent brick built privy-cum-storage area. Initial appearances of the wall were of

dressed flint outside with plaster rendering inside. When this internal plaster was removed, a dressed sandstone architectural feature was revealed. This stonework was recessed to a depth of 23cm, a skim (5mm) of plaster covering the rear of the recess, the whole having been later infilled with brick, chalk and stone rubble. Surrounding areas of the wall were also of a flint/brick mortared rubble with slight variations as indicated on the drawing. The intact bricks had shallow frogs and were late Victorian/modern in date although a brick of the Arkley type, early 19th century, was noticed in the spoil. A stone lintel seen behind the sill of the present (?Victorian) window may further indicate the presence of a similar early feature. Unfortunately, due to previous rebuilds and repairs it is difficult to give an exact date to the stonework. If it is contemporary with the surrounding brick rubble then it is likely to be post-medieval. However, if it is associated with the more consistent flint/chalk mortared wall it may be a survival from the 1 5th century. Site watching was carried out by Bill Bass, Arthur Till and Roy Walker. Thanks are given to Adrian Bream, builder; Jenny Renfrey & Robin Marsden, churchwardens; and to Barnet Museum.

MINIMART

The sun shone on this year’s extravaganza, attracting over 130 paying public, plus HADAS members. This despite a large looking German shepherd dog which had been left at the front door for safe-keeping! Dorothy reports on another successful day:

I was hopelessly behind in minimart preparations this year and had the feeling we were not going to do so well financially – but in those last two weeks several members rallied round, frantically sorting and pricing the sudden avalanche of contributions of all kinds which threatened to fill every room in my house. Members assisted Alex Jeakins to erect rails and tables beforehand and they and many others lugged the boxes into the hall. A total of 54 members helped in so many ways on the day (too many to name) and I think the rest of the Society owes them a big thank you for raising the magnificent sum of f 1,164 clear profit. We took f790 on the day, the rest was an accumulation of income from our monthly sales and wants slips, bead stringing, prior minimart sales, car boot sales and donations.

And of course, all this would not have been possible without the jam-making and baking by members and their attendance at the sale itself.

Some members ask what happens to the stuff we have over. Well, in the past John Enderby and others have ventured into the realms of car boot sales and now Gill Baker, Gwen and Tessa are carrying that on. Another member gathers surplus warm clothing for dispatch to Poland and gives us a donation in return. Other surplus goes to Father de Mello in Hackney who runs a charity shop for the needy. So rest assured, nothing is wasted.

Further donations have been gratefully received from Myfanwy Stewart, Shirley Korn and Mrs Banham who were unable to attend the minimart.

Dorothy Newbury also deserves the thanks of the Society for generously organising this event and motivating the helpers.

MEMBERS’ NEWS

· Andy Simpson made a brief appearance on the local BBC 6.30 pm news programme on 29th September. He had attended the penultimate day of operation on the Central Line branch between Epping and Ongar and was asked by the film crew for his comments on the closure.

· Brian McCarthy was lucky enough to dig with Martin Biddle at St Albans Abbey during the summer.

· And another examination success: Malcolm Stokes has passed his first year, prehistory, for the certificate of Field Archaeology.

· Richard Nichols, NADAS member and Secretary of the Mill Hill Historical Society, has written an interesting new book entitled “The Diaries of Robert Hooke, the Leonardo of London, 1635 – 1703. A short review is on page 4.

· Miss M. E. Johns, has kindly donated a much-appreciated set of Journals of the Society for Medieval Archaeology covering the years 1961-1992, fully indexed from 1957-1991. These volumes will be a very useful means of research for Society members and complement our sets of other journals such as the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, London Archaeologist and the LAMAS Transactions.

CHURCH FARM HOUSE MUSEUM, POST EXCAVATION

As mentioned in the post-interim report it was suggested that a contour plan of the whole of the garden area would help in establishing movement and landscaping of the extent of the surviving old (medieval) land surface. It has been no surprise then to find that a few members of the HADAS excavation team have been carrying out a contour survey in the Museum’s garden. This is being done by laying out a grid, taking readings with a dumpy level at 1m intervals, these readings (hundreds of them) are reduced onto a plan. Now the fun and games begin – some poor soul has to work out by mathematical calculation, each level to produce a given contour. This heroic devotion to duty has already enabled us to see some subtle changes in the landscape not noticeable by eye.

We are also using this exercise as training for when we have to tackle the Anglo-Saxon boundary ditch on Hampstead Heath. Unfortunately, as we are restricted to using just one level , it has not been possible to call for volunteers – four being a suitable team size.

In a process known as arm-twisting we are now trying to get this business computerised by a member who knows about these things, so that we can spend more time in the pub, sorry, the field.

SPECIAL DISCOUNTS AT THE HADAS BOOKSHOP

The Society has a well-stocked (too well-stocked!) bookshop containing several titles of relevance to the archaeology and history of the area which are sure to be of interest to new members especially as they also provide a background to work undertaken by HADAS. Not-so-new members may wish to replace their old dog-eared copies or treat a friend or neighbour to a “localised” Christmas present such as “A Place in Time” or “The West Heath Report”!

A Place in Time

£4.50

The Blue Plaques of Barnet

£ 0.50

Chroniclers of the Battle of Barnet

£0.50

Those Were the Days

£ 1.00

Victorian Jubilees

£0.50

Pinning Down the Past

£ 1.50

GO Years of Local History

£1.50

While stocks last, a set of the above seven titles can be purchased
at the discounted price of £8.00, a saving of £2.00.

West Heath Report

£ 7.00

Barnet in Old Photographs

£7.99

Georgian Hadley

£ 5.00

SHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY: The following are earlier editions, which might have been revised, but nonetheless are suitable for reference purposes and ideal as an introduction to archaeology for the younger reader. Later Stone Implements (f 1.50); Flint Implements of the Old Stone Age (L1.50); Romano-British Mosaics (f1.95); Barrows in England and Wales (f1.95); Bronze Age Metalwork (f1.95); Archaeology of Gardens (f1.95); Animal Remains in Archaeology (L1.95); Wood in Archaeology (L1.95); Roman Military Tombstones (f1.95); Egyptian Mummies (f2.50).

These books will be on sale at our monthly meetings or can be purchased by arrangement with Victor Jones (087-458 6780), Alan Lawson (087-458 3827) or Roy Walker (081-367 7350).

if you are friendly with your local bookshop owner or manager, it will be very helpful to the Society if you could suggest that our books are stocked in the local history section. Please contact one of the above who will be pleased to let you have some samples, if needed, and provide details of the terms of sale.

“THE WESTMINSTER CORRIDOR” by DAVID SULLIVAN

David’s book has now been published and will be reviewed fully in the next Newsletter. Published at £17.00 by Historical Publications, this 190 page volume with 16 pages of hand-drawn colour maps examines the development of what was to become Westminster Abbey and looks closely at the charters and boundaries of the Abbey’s estates. Of interest to HADAS will be references to the Anglo-Saxon boundary ditch on Hampstead Heath which we will be surveying and which was brought to our attention by David through his researches for the book. Hendon and Hampstead have their own chapters in this Anglo Saxon history. A second volume taking the story on to AD 1400 is currently being researched.

“THE DIARIES OF ROBERT HOOKE, THE LEONARDO OF LONDON 1635 – 1703” by RICHARD NICHOLS Without the publication of these diaries Hooke might only be known for his classic illustration of the structure of a snowflake which was used on a postage stamp, and his picture of a flea used by London Transport in a campaign against fare-dodgers! However, his unique contributions to scientific development are all around us today: the universal joint, kitchen scales and the iris diaphragm in cameras – to name but a few. A friend and colleague of Pepys and Wren, over the years Hooke embarked on an astonishing diversity of ingenious experiments, ranging from brick making to blood transfusion; from meteorology to medicine. These simple experiments led directly to many of the scientific advances of this period. Not only did Hooke directly inspire many of Isaac Newton’s scientific breakthroughs, but he also devised the means by which Christopher Wren could build the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Richard Nichol’s book with its striking reproductions of Hooke’s own illustrations and carefully selected diary extracts is a vivid evocation of domestic, social and scientific life in 17th century England.

Signed copies of this 184 page hardback are obtainable from the author at 29 Maxwelton Avenue, Mill Hill, London, NW7 3NB, price £15.00.

THE PROPOSED REGISTER OF HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS

As members may have seen in the media, English Heritage have drawn up a provisional register of 56 battle sites to improve awareness and conservation. This may have been prompted when a dual carriageway was driven through, near to the Northamptonshire site at Naseby (1 645) in 1989.

The role of the register is for information purposes only, setting out maps which identify the most visually sensitive areas and making clear the extent of current public access, also to highlight features for understanding the battle. Text includes the location and description of sites, sources and interpretation of the battle, guidelines for conservation.

HADAS has received a consultation draft of the Battle of Barnet entry to the register, this gives a useful summary of the various accounts of the conflict ranging from contemporary chronicles (1471), to Frederick Charles Cass, Rector of Monken Hadley (LAMAS Transactions 1882), and more recently P W Hammond – The Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury (1990).

The present and past topography is discussed with a suggestion that public access could be improved with the provision of a ‘trail’ and interpretive boards at suitable viewpoints eg the public footpath on Old Ford Golf Course. Barnet battlefield is still open to interpretation, the exact location is not clearly known, the number of dead and where they were buried is open to question. So it is important that the site is kept well intact, protected by Green Belt (hopefully).

“The Chroniclers of the Battle of Barnet” is available from the HADAS bookshop, price f 0.50p. see above.

THE SEARCH FOR ST ALBAN

Martin Biddle has renewed his effort to find the original shrine of St Albans (see Current Archaeology 130 and Newsletter 274). After excavating beneath the Shrine of St Albans and a site 50m south of the present cathedral nave in previous years to no avail, he has this year been digging close to the south wall of the nave. Several impressive fragments of the conventual building attached to the abbey church have been uncovered. These include the north-east angle of a `cellarium’ discovered a decade ago and now known to cover some 4,000 sq. ft. with a vaulted roof found collapsed on the floor and decorated tiles from an upper floor scattered over the remains. Part of the pillared hall for receiving guests has also been found.

Unfortunately, no sign of either Saxon or earlier buildings has appeared, nor have the densely clustered burials that might indicate a desire to be buried close to the martyr’s tomb.

“There is no evidence that either a Roman or Saxon church stood here, nor is one likely to have been located under the present nave of the abbey.” He said. “When Paul of Caen, the first post-Conquest abbot, rebuilt the church between 1077 and 1088, he seems to have done so on a green-field site”. (Abridged from a report in The Times)

ST ALBANS MUSEUM SERVICE Bill Bass

As part of the 1994 National Archaeology Day, the field archaeology section had an open day at their premises in lnkerman Road, St Albans. Upstairs they had displays and exhibitions of current work with staff on hand to show people around. Featured sites included the Celtic Warrior Tomb at Folly Lane and a Roman cremation cemetery from Harpenden. Visitors were allowed to inspect and handle various finds such as pottery, bone, etc. Downstairs there was a tour of the storage area where finds and so forth are kept on a rotatary cabinet/shelfing system. And then back to the main department where children were reassembling vessels (broken flower pots) and doing unspeakable things in the environmental section.

SEPTEMBER OUTING – HAMPSHIRE HIGHLIGHTS Sheila Woodward

Hampshire teems with places of interest and associated “famous names”. This outing concentrated on just a few – but what a splendid few! The first, our coffee stop, was Selborne, known to all nature lovers as the home of Gilbert White, 18th century author of “The Natural History of Selborne”. In 1801 it had a population of 762; by 1901 it was 7,915. Despite such growth it still has considerable charm and the National Trust cares for its adjacent countryside. Our stop was brief but we caught a glimpse of “The Wakes”, the house in which White lived for almost 70 years. It is now a museum.

En route to Alton we passed Chawton where Jane Austen lived and wrote, and Alresford immortalised by Miss Mitford’s “Our Village” and now the terminus of the Watercress Line steam railway. Alton itself is a sturdy little town with a history of occupation stretching back into prehistory. It still seems to be thriving and has not yet been completely ruined by its modern development. It is fortunate in having two excellent museums. The Allen Gallery where we began our tour is housed in 15th and 18th century buildings with an enchanting little garden where delicate sculptures of flora and fauna mingle with trees and flowers. Inside is a fine collection of pottery, paintings and silver, including ceramics ranging from a fragile porcelain teapot-cover from China to stout white salt glazeware from Germany and a good display of English tin-glazed tiles. A temporary and very entertaining exhibition featured the vagaries of beachwear during the last 100 years.

Our guide, Nicholas Riall, gave us a brief introduction to Alton: prehistoric settlements in the surrounding countryside, its heyday as a Roman town (it was probably Vindomis mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary), its re-emergence as the late Saxon market centre of Neatham (= cattlemarket), and the growth of prosperous medieval Alton, many buildings of which survive. This “Story of Alton” is admirably displayed in the Curtis Museum. Never a large town, Alton was always important as a centre of communication as its mansio and coaching inns indicate, and as a market town for Roman pottery (the Alice Holt kilns were nearby) and later for locally produced paper and beer. All this and more is covered by the Museum exhibition. the loveliest exhibit is the magnificent Saxon Alton buckle, comparable to the British Museum’s Taplow buckle. The Gallery of Childhood is delightful but there is a poignant reminder of Alton’s most famous child, 8 years old Sweet Fanny Adams, hideously murdered in 1867. With no time to do justice to the fine church of St Lawrence (Saxon font and unique Norman carvings) we sped onwards to Old Winchester Hill where Dr Peter Reynolds was waiting to give us one of his lively talks and lead us on a very wet walk round this impressive promontory fort. Views of the Isle of Wight were invisible, though the enveloping mist produced a suitably sinister prehistoric atmosphere. But Dr Reynolds will have no truck with theories of tribal warfare. Peaceful farming and harmonious relationships typify his Iron Age! The newly-sited Butser Ancient farm in Bascombe Copse continues Dr Reynolds experiments in Iron Age agriculture and animal husbandry, familiar from the old site. Old breeds of animals and fowl are kept; early types of cereals and legumes are grown, as is woad. Various types of Iron Age structures have been built and there are areas for corn grinding, pottery-making, metalworking, spinning and weaving. It is all as fascinating as ever.

Our last stop was in Petersfield where we all enjoyed tea and scones at “Fanny Anny’s” and where the more-resilient fitted in a tour of St Peter’s Church with its great Norman chancel arch. A truly splendid day, thanks to the organisation of Bill Bass and Vikki O’Connor. And congratulations and special thanks for the magnificent programme – guide – a great help in compiling this report!

TRANSLATION OF HAMPSHIRE: In the Hampshire outing programme, Vikki mentioned that according to John Barton’s “Visitors’ Guide to Hampshire”, the county was first referred to by name in 757 as “Hamtunscir” (shire of Hamtun). She asked if any member could offer any further translation.

Audree Price-Davies writes that in Anglo-Saxon “Hamtun” could mean a Chief’s town or area. Audree also wrote to the Archives assistant (R.G. Watts) at Hampshire County Council who replied: “According to ‘The Place Names of Hampshire’ by Richard Coates (Batsford, 1989), the Old English term ‘ham’ is a habitative term meaning ‘an inhabited place’, whilst ‘tun’ originally denoted ‘fence’ or ‘enclosure’, but developed to the meaning ‘enclosure round a house’. It is, however, difficult to distinguish ‘ham’ from Ihamm’ which was a topographical term denoting ‘an enclosed plot’. According to Coates, ‘Fareham’ derived from `Fearnham’ or `Fernham’, in Old English ‘bracken estate’. ‘Alton’ derived from ‘Auueltona’ or ‘Awelton’, in Old English ‘Spring Farm’.”

We seem to be left with an “enclosed inhabited place” either one or more dwellings.

It was good to see a turnout of over 50 members for the first of HADAS’s lecture evenings; Daphne Lorimer (Vice President) gladly chaired the proceedings.

As well as giving the vote of thanks, Peter Pickering also sends this report.

The 1994/5 lecture season began on October 4th with a personal view of excavating in Egypt by Dr Patricia Spencer, the Secretary of the Egypt Exploration Society. She is currently excavating a site in the Delta called Tel El Balamun, having previously been working at El Ashmuneim in Middle Egypt. At El Balamun the excavation, on behalf of the British Museum, is concentrating on a temple complex of the 25th and 30th dynasties, searching successfully for foundation deposits amid fluctuations of the water table. Finds made include a small plaque inscribed in incompetent hieroglyphs; the techniques of the ancients were not always perfect!

Dr Spencer’s lecture was entitled ‘Excavating in Egypt”, not Excavations in Egypt”. She ranged widely on her theme. She showed truly delightful slides of 19th century excavations with hordes of native labourers being supervised by the archaeologist standing on a little mound, like Napoleon on a field of battle; another slide of the same period showed an archaeologist making his home in an unexcavated tomb near the one he was excavating. Slides showing modern excavations and the home of today’s archaeologist were more striking in their resemblance to the past than in the differences, though the ratio of labourers to professionals is now lower, and there are more women among both groups actively working rather than reclining gracefully.

Relations between archaeologists and the locals now seem much closer than they were, and wedding parties provide a diversion from scraping, brushing and photographing for all. Not that Egyptology started in the 19th century; we were reminded of the interest that some later ancient Egyptians took in their early past, and of the tales they told Greek and Roman visitors, who were as struck by the grandeur of the pyramids as we are today.

Dr Spencer took a balanced view of the present state of the monuments in Egypt, accepting that modernisation, particularly of agriculture, which is so necessary for improving the lot of those who now live in Egypt, will damage monuments, and that recording is essential as the water table rises.

THE MANSHEAD ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, DUNSTABLE Vikki O’Connor

On the overcast afternoon of Saturday 30th September, four HADAS members and Andrew and Wendy Selkirk took advantage of an invitation, circulated by Andrew, from the Manshead Archaeological Society of Dunstable to attend the opening of the Les Matthews Archaeology Centre. We were welcomed by Committee Member Joan Schneider, then joined a small party of their members in a walk on Dunstable Downs, led by Renny Hudspith. He explained that the Manshead group were formed in 1951 by local people in response to threats to sites from chalk quarrying and new housing estates, taking their name from the Manshead Hundred. Renny and Ron Fowler (their President) then pointed out the quarry, Roman villa and Matte & Bailey at Totternhoe and many other features on the misty horizon, which disappeared and reappeared as the rain clouds drifted across the Downs (thankfully passing us by).

We walked to Five Knolls, a group of seven bell & bowl barrows. It took a few minutes to work out ‘Five Knolls’, seven barrows, but nine in total! Numbers 2, 3 & 4 are bell barrows, joined by a ditch to form a `triple barrow’. There have been unrecorded excavations of numbers 3 and 4, but numbers 3 has been dug on two further occasions in 1850 and 1922 – empty grave cists and secondary cremations are recorded. R E M (Sir Mortimer) Wheeler was one of the site directors on the 1926-9 excavation of barrow number 5 by the University College Society. This revealed a late neolithic primary burial – now displayed at Luton museum; secondary cremations; and 98 other burials – thought to be gallows ‘victims’. Barrows 6 & 7 are possible pond barrows. Two further barrows numbers 8 and 9 lay within 200m of Five Knolls, on the present golf course, and were partially excavated in 1887 shortly before their destruction. Each comprised an empty central grave and 6/7 satellite graves. Beaker pottery was found in number 8.

On our way back, the Visitor Centre on the Downs with historical and natural history displays (and tea stall) was especially opened for us. We had to hurry back to Dunstable for the official opening of the Matthews Centre – named after the group’s late founder, Les Matthews. Andrew Selkirk, (a Manshead Vice-President), made a speech to the Mayor, officials, Society members and visitors who had gathered in the street, all warily eying the heavens – but the rain still held off. Andrew cut the tape and all trooped inside for refreshments and a tour of the Centre. Manshead have purchased their own premises – a two storey house which they used to rent from the council – largely thanks to a bequest from the late Les Matthews. The upstairs rooms are used for finds processing, storage, meetings, and the inevitable

administration work. Downstairs is used for larger meetings and exhibitions. The society has undertaken an impressive range of projects, including systematically fieldwalking the area around Dunstable. They regularly publish their work in the Manshead Journal, and meet two or three times a week. If we find ourselves with a lull in HADAS activities, we have an open invitation to contact Manshead and join them fieldwalking. We enjoyed the archaeology, but the welcome we received from this society made it an afternoon to remember!

A note of interest: Whilst admiring the photographic display, we met John Hyde-Trutch who repairs

and restores timber frame buildings, and who works at the Chiltern Open Air Museum, whose buildings range from an Edwardian Public Convenience to an iron Age House. Athough their season runs from March to October, there is a Victorian Christmas Celebration on 3-4th December 7 0.30am – 3pm, with Father Christmas in the Toll House, carols, hand bells, nativity play, mulled wine, roast chestnuts etc. Their full address is: Chiltern Open Air Museum, Newland Park, Gorelands Lane, Chalfont St Giles, Bucks, HP8 4AD. Information telehone line: 0494 872163.

OLDEST ENGLISH WHEEL, BRITAIN’S OLDEST PLOUGH AND A NEW METHOD OF PRESERVATION

Dr Francis Pryor and his team at Bronze Age Flag Fen, Cambridgeshire, have unearthed the earliest prehistoric wheel ever found in England. The wheel, made of alder, is 800mm in diameter, 65mm thick and held together with two oak rivets. It is 3,300 years old, predating the Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire, spoked-wheel by some 400 years.

From the Neolithic henge monument at Pict’s Knowe, near Dumfries. comes another wooden object – a perfectly preserved ard. This simple plough, provisionally dated to between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, is the first wooden artifact to have been found in the ditch of a henge anywhere in Britain. Preservation of organic deposits was ensured by the waterlogged deposits which yielded perfectly preserved leaves, turves, seeds and fragments of wood. Chips cut from large timbers indicated wood-working had taken place on site and examples of wickerwork hurdles with associated postholes showed that areas of the monument had been screened perhaps to preserve the secrecy of the rituals that took place there. The ard, which has yet to be

radiocarbon dated, is believed to be earlier than other British or north European examples. Lack of wear shows that it was never used and it may have been taken to the henge specifically for deposition. Finally, as a timely aid to the above discoveries comes news of a wood-drying process from the University of St Andrews which is claimed to be an advance on the usual method which involves impregnating wooden objects with polyethyleneglycol (PEG). The new process, “supercritical drying”, requires the replacement of the water in the wood with methanol. The artifact is then placed in a chamber with carbon dioxide in the form of dry ice which when warmed becomes a supercritical fluid and dissolves out the methanol. The wood is not subjected to drying stresses under this treatment nor are associated metal components adversely affected as they would be by the use of PEG.

AUSTRALOPITHICUS RAMIDENS1S – THE MISSING LINK? Roy Walker

The discovery of the fossilised bones of one of Man’s ancestors was widely reported in the press in September usually with the cliche “missing link” somewhere in the headlines. This expression is so dated and imprecise that it detracts from the facts. For instance, the Evening Standard on 21st September has the headline “Ape to man: 4m-year-old missing link is discovered”. The article starts “What may be the `missing link’ between man and the apes has been discovered…” But when you read on it says “the scientists themselves stop just short of claiming the discovery of the missing link probably because the scientific world is already saying that this is just one creature in the long process of evolution.” So why do journalists insist on calling it the “missing link”? Let’s give the newspaper the benefit of the doubt, after all “scientists stop just short of claiming the discovery of the missing link”. However, the same item further on quotes one scientist as saying “this is not the missing link because there is no such thing….really, if you are going to make claims about the missing link, you need a whole population, not just an individual or two”. It appears the only link missing is that between the headline and the reported story.

FURTHER DIARY DATES

Museum of London, Friday lunchtime lectures, 1.10 pm – 1.50 pm

Reports on new findings from current excavations in London. 11th November: The Rose and Globe theatres

1 8th November: London’s prehistoric environment 25th November: East London Roman cemeteries

2nd December: The Jubilee Line extension – recent investigations

9th December: Archaeology at Albion Place, Clerkenwell 16th December: Recent finds research from MoLAS

Exhibition of Glass and Ceramics from the site of Henry Great Palace of Nonsuch.

At Jonathan Horne, 66c Kensington Church Street, London, W8 4BY

10.00 am – 5.30 pm, admission free. Exhibition ends on 20th December.

Essex Archaeological Symposium

To be held at Southend-on-Sea Central Library, Saturday 5th November, 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Talks on the latest excavations and archaeological research in Essex. Tickets at f4.50 and further details from Pamela Greenwood, Newham Museum Service, Archaeology and Local History Centre, 31 Stock Street, Plaistow, London, E13 08X, telephone 081-472 4785.

Exhibitions at the British Museum

Until 21st January, 1995 (room 69A): Money under the Microscope: the application to numismatics.

This joint exhibition between the Department of Coins & Medals and Scientific Research shows how the earliest coins were made, the ingenious methods used by forgers ancient and modern, and how coins can tell us about early metal production.

Until 30th November (room 338): 16th century Chinese Porcelain, a small display of superb pieces.

LAMAS Local History Conference

“London’s Poor 1700 to 1900” Museum of London lecture theatre, Saturday 19th November at 10.00 am. See last Newsletter for details.

SCOLA Seminar

“The Prehistory of London” Saturday/Sunday 28-29th January, 1995 at the Museum of London. Further details available from Patricia Wilkinson, 081-472 4785

Training with the Compton Bassett Area Research Project

The summer courses run under the auspices of the Research Project have been publicised in previous newsletters. Andrew Reynolds, the Field Survey Director, has now sent details of the following two-day practical courses in archaeology being carried out in Wiltshire this winter. The team now has use of a disused dairy so there will be some haven from the elements.

10-11 December, 1994: An introduction to landscape archaeology.

14-15 January, 1995: Elementary archaeological surveying.

11-12 February,1995: Recording an archaeological site.

11-12 March, 1995: Archaeological illustration.

Further details from Archaeological Resources, Compton Bassett Area Research Project, The Old Dairy, Street Farm, Compton Bassett, Wiltshire, SN7 I 8SW (telephone 07249 760433).

Issue No. 283 OCTOBER 1994 EDITED by Micky COHEN

DIARY

Tuesday, 4th October Lecture : “Excavating in Egypt” by Dr Patricia Spencer.

Dr Spencer has been secretary of the Egypt Exploration Society since 1983. She has excavated with the British Museum at El – Ashmunein and Tel El – Balamun. In fact she has been excavating in Egypt for two months this year, so we can look forward to some first-hand knowledge of the subject.

Saturday, 8th October MINIM ART : Please phone if you can help unload Please phone if you can bake I Please phone if you can help man a stall ! Above all – PLEASE COME ! Telephone : 203 – 0950

Saturday, 29th October CITY WALK with Mary O’Connell. Details and application form enclosed.

Tuesday, 1st November Lecture : ” The Hoxne Hoard and others : Late Treasures from Britain ” by Dr Catherine Johns.

Saturday, 19th November LAMAS CONFERENCE at MUSEUM of LONDON – 29th

Local History Conference on the theme “London Poor – 1700 to 1900”. Lectures from 10 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. will include “Care of the Infant Poor in 18 C London”; “Victorian Poor Law”; “The Labouring Poor”; and “The London Rookeries in the 19 C”.

Tickets at 1.3.50 each can be obtained from Local History Conference, C/- 31 Lynton Road, Harrow. HA2 9NJ. Please enclose s.a.e. for reply and make cheques out to London and Middlesex Archaeological Society. Early application is advised; there is no guarantee that tickets will be available on the day.

Friday, and December Lecture at 1.10 p.m. “Development of Thorney Island and the Roman Settlement beneath Southwark” by Mike Hutchinson,at the Museum of London. Mr Hutchinson is the Archaeology Projects Manager at the Museum, concerned with London’s ‘New’ Archaeology, for example excavation at station sites prior to construction of the Jubilee Line Extension.

Tuesday, 6th December CHRISTMAS DINNER Venue to be announced a.s.a.p.

Regrettably, we have been unable to make arrangements yet for this event – everywhere is so expensive. We are currently trying the Canonbury Academy or Brentford Steam Museum.

N.B. HADAS LECTURES are held at Hendon Library, The Burroughs, Hendon. NW4, at 8 p.m. for 8.30 p.m. start.

A THOUGHT…. How about Ireland for next year’s week away ? ? ?

Our appeal for a member to take on the job of lecture organiser from Dorothy Newbury has been resolved.June forges has very kindly offered to take over from January 1995.

MEMBERS’ NEWS EXAMINATION SUCCESSES –

Bill Bass has passed his third year (Post Roman) for the Certificate in Field Archeology,

Roy Walker has also passed the third year for the Field Archaeology Certificate.

Jean Bayne has passed her second year (Roman) for the Field Archaeological Certificate.

Daphne Lorimer (one of our Vice-Presidents) We are delighted to hear that Daphne is coming down from her home in Orkney in October and will be at the Minimart to help Sheila on the cake stall. So get baking everyone, so that there is plenty for them to sell Daphne is looking forward to seeing as many old friends as possible.

Andrew and Joan Pares are both unwell just now and they are sorry to have missed all our functions this year. They hope to be fit and well in 1995.

Daisy Hill, also a Vice-President and founder member, and one of our early Newsletter Editors, writes from Chesterfield, where she now lives, to say how much she looks forward to our Newsletter every month.

Both Mr Pares and. Mrs Hill have kindly sent donations for the Minimart, as neither can attend.

Derek. Batten Our news travels far and wide. Derek, who talked to us once about his excavating in America, sent one of our Newsletters to a friend in the Dept. of Anthropology at California State University. He spotted the name of Bill. Bass, who, with Vikki, organised our Butser trip. He wanted to know if it was the same Bill Bass who was his ‘mentor and teacher from Tennessee’. Unfortunately not or is our Bill hiding something
from us?

AND ANOTHER LONDON LECTURE

Ann Saunders will be giving one of a series of lectures at the Linnean Society, Burlington House, to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Committee for Surveying the Memorials of Greater London. Her talk, at 6.30 p.m. on Monday, 17th October, will be entitled “London in Prints and Drawings : the Work of Antiquarians and Artists”. Tickets at Z5 each from the Survey of London, Newland House, 37 Berners Street, London. W1P 4BP; enclose s.a.e. Cheques payable to Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.

NEWS from ENGLISH HERITAGE from STEWART J. WILD

Many members know of my interest in research activities connected with public houses, but they may not be aware that I am as interested in the pub itself as in the beer it sells.

A new booklet has recently been published by English Heritage, entitled “PUBS -Understanding Listing”, and it is available free of charge from English Herit­age, 23 Savile Row, London W1X lAB. Telephone: 071 – 973 – 3000.

Local pubs are often part of social history, and very few remain in their original state. As the booklet explains, anyone can ask English Heritage to consider a building for official listing for architectural or historic importance, and that could be a mews pub or an Edwardian ‘gin palace’ as well as a castle or a mansion.

The booklet is well written and deals with the development of licensed premises from the early days of alehouses and taverns. I feel sure that even members who don’t share my research interests will find it interesting.

HADAS- Five days in the Isle of Man
August 9th-13th 1994

Day 1, by Tessa Smith

Another first for HADAS, all due to Dorothy Newbury’s flair and organisational skills.

A group of 28 of us flew off to the Isle of man, landing safely at Ronaldsway Airport, adjacent to, or maybe even on top of a rectangular Neolithic homestead site, which was discovered whilst lengthening the airport runway during the last war.

We met our guide, Les Quilliam. Affable, knowledgeable and handsome, with eyes as blue as the Manx blue tartan etc etc etc. Our driver, Ken, whisked us away to the excellent award-winning Manx Museum in Douglas, where we were very impressed with the well presented and wide range of displays: The archaeological gallery— the runes, the ogham. The Celtic, the Viking– What./ No Roman? The fishing, farming, mining. The costumes— military & peasant. The horse drawn tram. The exhibition of wartime internee craftsmanship “Living behind the wire”. Best of all, for me, was a Viking burial of the ‘pagan lady’ found at Peel castle in a Christian burial, but with grave goods– a cooking spit, scissors, a sewing kit and a wonderful set of polished beads.

Like Manx magic- we were transported to Braaid stone circle- a tranquil setting of sheep on a hillside with a trickle of water. Here we were introduced to the name Gerhard Bersu, a talented German internee during the last war who was able to carry out meticulous excavations on the island. This stone circle had previously been identified as a Megalithic site and the stones then erected into a vertical position to fit the theory. Gerhard Bersu noticed the alignment of the stones which suggested to him that of a Viking boat-shaped long-house. This was later confirmed. Makes you think!

One minute we were speeding over the fairy bridge saying hello to the fairies for good luck “cre’n aght to shill”, the next we were clicking our cameras at Braddon Church, capturing (for the AGM?) Celtic slab stones and Norse wheel crosses, Manx chain patterns and the Cholera stone.

At last we arrived at pretty Port Erin and a friendly welcome to our hotel- a place where time has stood still (circa 1950!). The seafront harbour has slipped slowly below the sea to become a hazard to shipping. By evening, the fairy (whoops! you must’nt say that ‘F’ word in the Isle of Man) lights of the bay shine out like the magic of the pagan lady’s beads.

Finally we negotiated the mysterious and intricate warren that was the staircase system in the hotel, and did battle with the plumbing. And so we slept in anticipation of tomorrow.

This was only day one.

Day 2. by Audree Price-Davies

Small islands reveal their history through their archaeological sites and their progression in time can be traced. Large countries have a more complicated and diffuse history. The Isle of Man shows this continuity.

The Meyall Circle has chambers arranged in a circle and each pair of compartments is approached from outside by a passage, built with two orthostats on each side. Sherds of Neolithic pottery were found here. The plan on which it is constructed came from the Mediterranean, along the western trade routes which existed during Neolithic and Bronze Age times. Such a structure exists in the shaft graves at Mycenae.

At Chapel Hill, worked flints indicate Mesolithic and Neolithic occupation, cremation burials and crouched inhumations appearing to be of Bronze Age date. A small cist with the capstone missing is seen at the surface. Postholes indicate Iron Age occupation and the entrance is marked by two pairs of massive postholes at the NE corner of the enclosure. At the eastern end, a pagan Viking boat burial was uncovered beneath a low cairn of stones. The richly adorned body of a Viking was found in the boat, together with that of a woman. She had been sacrificed along with his horse and other livestock- ox, sheep, pig, cat & dog. The grave goods included bridle mounts, four enamel discs, three buckles and strap ends, some of silver gilt. These show the wide trade contacts of the. Vikings since they indicate links with workshops in Scandinavia, Ireland and England, and also Central and Southern Europe. At the western end of this Chapel Hill enclosure are the foundation walls of a 10th or 11th century keeill. This small Celtic chapel dedicated to St. Michael is probably on the site of an earlier pre-viking keeill.

In beautiful sunshine we ate our lunch at the Sound, looking towards the bird sanctuary island of the Calf of Man, with the seagulls approaching and alighting near us for peices of bread and the sound of sea and birds in complete harmony.

Castle Rushen, in Castletown existed in Norse times and was extended in the period after the Vikings, when England and Scotland fought for control of the Isle of Man. The English finally won and installed Sir John Stanley as Governor. During the Stanley regime the castle with its garrison was the main centre of the island’s administration, and James, 7th Earl of Derby lived in it for several years, constructing Derby House within it’s walls in 1644. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the keep was used as a prison. At the present time, the castle is used for holding the fortnightly courts and new governors are installed there. Essentially the castle is a showplace- as the various rooms are explained by wall charts and sometimes furnished to illustrate the different periods. The prison with torture cells, a mediaeval banqueting room, with a page holding a peacock, a Restoration banqueting room, with be-wigged gentlemen in gilt embroidered frock coats and the audience room of the seventh Earl of Derby, a room richly hung with silk and velvet, makes this castle a living experience.

On St. Michaels Isle, near Castletown, also known as Fort Isle, a fort was built by Henry V111 in 1540 as part of the defences around Britain. It was repaired in 1645 by the Earl of Derby and this date is carved above the door. A small stone house has been built inside the fort. There are a large quantity of cannons from various parts of the Isle of Man, and the sea swirls wildly around the little islet. Nearer to the mainland is a keeill of the 11th century surrounded by an earthwork, which probably indicates earlier settlement. On the headlands facing each other are two Norse promontory forts, one is called Hango broogh. A broogh is the brink or brow of a hill in Manx Gaelic, and this was a place of execution.

Cregneash is a village folk museum of a crofting community, with houses which have exhibitionsof spinning and weaving. Harry Kelly’s house is kept as it was and the present ‘inhabitant’ in Manx dress of the 19th century invited us to taste the soda bread which she had just made on a griddle over the open hearth peat fire. There is a working farm here, a smithy and a wood turners shed. We needed more time here and were loath to leave the area.

We had reached the present day in our time journey, as we drove back to the hotel at Port

Erin.

Day 3, by Enid Hill

We drove north from Port Erin along a high moorland road with spectacular views over the island and sea until we decended via hairpin bends to Tynwald Hill. This has been used as an assembly place since the time of the of the mediaeval Norse Kingdom of Man and the Isles, and from this has come the present government of the island. The Tynwald or Parliament consists of 24 Keys (or members) now elected by universal suffrage for 5 years, a Legislative Council or upper house, and government officials, selected by the 24 Keys. It meets in Douglas, but used to meet in various places, and on July 5th, it meets on Tynwald Hill with much pomp. The members proceed from the local church to the four-tiered hill where the Governor, various officials and the Keys sit whilst new laws are read out in Manx and English according to ancient custom before they can become law. This has been happening for over a thousand years and the Tynwald has the longest continuous history of any legislature.

The other major visit of the day was to St. Patrick’s Isle off the town of Peel where there are remains of St. Germain’s Cathedral and Peel Castle. The Island was the birthplace of Christianity about 450 A.D., but a recent archaeological dig has found mesolithic flints, a pre-historic settlement of about 250 B.C., Viking burials of the 8th century, and fortification from the 11th-19th century. Many of the finds are in the Manx museum in Douglas, including a reconstruction of the ‘Lady of Peel’s’ grave and the Sitric Silkbeard hoard of coins minted about 1030 A.D.

Exhausted after these two visits we spent the rest of the day looking at Odin’s Raven, a reconstructed Viking Longship, which was sailed from Norway to the Isle of Man to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the Tynwald, and moving on to a church— Kirk Michael, where a large collection of carved stone cross-slabs of the Norse period (10th-11th Century) found in the Parish is now preserved in the church. Covered in interlacing decoration with animals, people, dragons and some with Runic inscriptions on the sides, they are a magnificent collection.

Day 4, by Marjorie Searle

Friday, starting with Manx kippers for breakfast, was a perfect ending to a memorable week. One did not have to be a passionate archaeologist to respond imaginatively to the evidence of human life from neolithic cairn, Norse and Celtic crosses and the 19th century industrial achievement to the ice cream sucking tourists of today. In a few hours, our bumpy coach covered the miles and the centuries:

passing along the sea-front at Douglas, we saw the evidence of late Victorian and early Edwardian prosperity in the hotels and boarding houses, while outside Lonan Old Church, now used only once a week in summer, we stood by one of the oldest celtic crosses, leaning tipsily under the trees.

Then on to Laxey, the site of the great Victorian engineering achievment, the huge water mill built in 1854 to pump water from the lead mines below, it’s red painted wheel now a landmark and tourist attraction. The short walk into the entrance passage to the mine was disappointing, but did give us an inkling of the price paid by the miners for our past industrial prosperity. Those of us who climbed the many steps to the top platform and looked down on the heads of our lunching companions below found the effort worthwhile. Also at Laxey, we were fascinated by the skill and concentration of the weaver in the shop attached to the woollen mill founded by John Ruskin, and several of our party bought handwoven garments there.

How lucky we were that the glorious weather enabled us to take the electric train, another Victorian achievement, to the 2,036′ summit of slaty Snaefell. Very windy, and several of us were bowled over attempting the short climb from outside the hotel to the summit, where even the hardiest did not want to linger. Down again, this time to see the so called King Orry’s grave, the neolithic long cairn site which was probably split in two by the modern road.

The last major visit was to Kirk Maughold, its great churchyard overlooking the sea and its history passing through the centuries – Norse, Celtic and early Christian times, containing the sites of no less than four tiny early Christian Churches. Generations have been buried here, and what was the sad story of the 19th century family whose memorial records eight children who died in childhood? Gloomy thoughts on mortality were banished by the excellent supper we had, within sight of the sea, at the Sartfield Farm Cafe, followed by the drive in the warm evening light back “home”. A memorable day.

Day 5, by Dr. Paul O’Flynn

Saturday morning started with breakfast and the loading of the trusty old bus that had carried us all over the Isle of Man. Dorothy barked instructions at the stragglers (some with hangovers) who did not move along in a well ordered fashion. The coach departed with our luggage, and we set off on foot to the Port Erin Steam Railway Museum.

At the museum I was particularly pleased to see a royal coach with a magnificent chair inside reserved for the Surgeon!! You dont get that on B.R., in fact you don’t get trains at present (note for posterity- strike action by signal workers).

As we took our places on the steam train in our reserved carriages one member realised she had left part of her in Port Erin- namely her teeth. Not quite the same as leaving your “heart in San Francisco”! The train pulled out precicely on time at 10.15 (another novel railway experience) and we started our majestic journey to Castletown. Upon our arrival, we were again met by our guide Leslie Quilliam who pointed out some of the high spots of the town and alluded to some possible skeletons in his own ancestral cupboard relating to the extra-marital activities of one Captain Quilliam, who had served under Admiral Nelson.

Time was left over for optional tours of the Nautical museum or to watch the preparations in the port for the tin bath racing. Seeing all the baths gathering for competition explained why there were so few in the hotel.

Lunches were taken at various locations around Castletown where we could reflect upon what we had seen in the past few days: The stone circles, the neolithic chambered cairn, the great water pump, Tynwald, the impressive mediaeval castle and Chapel Hill. The Manx museum had given us a wonderful preview of what was to come archaeologically. However, nothing had prepared us for the nocturnal “goings on”:-

Young prowlers were spotted in the hotel, apparently looking for young women, it must have been dark! (sorry ladies). It was later discovered that the hotel bar had been broken into and money was missing.

Next morning HADAS members gathered to discuss the nights events. Two ladies in our group on the top floor regaled us with tales of knocks on their doors by polite young men at 3.00am!! Another member, kept awake by what she had presumed to be an all night rave, passed the top of the stairwell on her circuitous way to the nearest watercloset. On looking down, she observed the front door of the hotel open and a group of youngsters milling about in the hallway. Added to this was the mystery of the toilet seat. Dorothy and Enid shared their own private ‘out office’ on the ground floor. During their nocturnal calls of nature, both found the lavatory seat lifted on each visit- could this be a clue? (I think this was a time and motion study). Alas, the combined talents of would be Marples & Poirots were unable to secure a satisfactory conclusion. Only one member of the hotel staff slept on the premises, and he heard nothing. The mystery deepened, and the task of solving it now lies with the Isle of Man police.

Hadas members also distinguished themselves in other extra-curricular activities. I believe that we were the first HADAS team to enter a pub quiz ‘nite’. If we had only known Indonesia had such a large population, and if only our answer about germs had been accepted, then victory could have been ours. Other activities included bar football and pool. There was not much success in either.

Then homeward by Manx Air and coach. There had been many things to wonder about and be thankful for on this HADAS expedition; our driver Ken, our guide Leslie, both Manxmen born and bred, but most of all our leader Dorothy Newbury. Without Dorothy the entire project could not and would not have been conceived. Thank you Dorothy.

P:S: The author wishes to express his deep regret at any offence or embarrassment caused by this article. All persons are ficticious and bear no resemblance to anyone- unless you know differently…

further reading:

Our guide Leslie Quilliam has phoned to say that the excellent book ‘Manx Crosses’ by Kermode is now in print again- hardback £54, paperback £42. Prices during October £36 & £28 respectively.

Obtainable from the Manx Museum, Douglas.

ISSUE NO. 282 – SEPTEMBER 1994 Edited by Helen Gordon

DIARY

Tuesday 4 October –

Saturday 8 October –

Saturday 29 October –
Tuesday 1 November –

Outing to Alton, Old Winchester Hill and New Butser Excavating in Egypt Lecture by Patricia Spencer MINIMART see below

City Walk wi

The Hoxne Hoard and Others: Late Treasures from Britain Lecture by Dr Catherine Johns

THE MINIMART IS CREEPING UP ON US …S0…

Turn out your cupboards: pass on your white elephants: start cooking
and contact Dorothy to arrange for collection

STUDYING THIS WINTER? Birkbeck College’s Extra-Mural Programme 94/95 contains details

of more courses than ever before. Here are a few within reach of HADAS5 members:-

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY (Advanced class) Monday 3 October, 7.45pm – 9.45pm

lecturer: Denis Smith, PhD, CEng, Barnet WEA, Ewan Hall, Wood St, Barnet. ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SEA Tuesday 27 September 7.30pm – 9.30 pm

lecturer: B D Adams BA MPhil Elstree, Borehamwood & Radlett WEA, Borehamwood Community Centre, Allum Lane, Elstree

SOCIAL & HISTORICAL DEVEL IN ANCIENT EGYPT Tuesday 27 September 7.15 – 9.15 lecturer: Bill Manley BA, Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute

THE PEN & THE SWORD: the age of Alexander Wednesday 21 September 10 – 12

lecturer: Janet Corran MA, Watford WEA, The Stable Room, Rudolph Rd, Bushey

(advanced class)

20 YEARS BACK – NOSTALGIA 70th Anniversary of the Edgware line from Dorothy Newbury

Newsletter No.43 September 1974

SEMI-DETACHED SUBURBIA Report by Celia Gould

On August 17 a small but dedicated HADAS band, led by Alec Jeakins, met to trace the growth of suburban Edgware over the last half century. Despite the arrival of a single-track GNR line from Finsbury Park in 1867 (long since disused) and trams from Cricklewood in 1904, major development in Edgware can really be dated to the opening of the extension of the Northern Line tube from Golders Green, exactly 50 years ago – in August, 1924. Between 1921-31 the population rose from 1576 to 17500.

If one man could truly lay claim to have been the “architect” of present-day Edgware, it is George Cross, an ambitious young estate agent who sensed that the area was ripe for development as early as 1910. Expansion quickened dramatically with the arrival of the tube. In 1926 ross, in conjunction with architect A J Butcher, developed 85 acres of the Canons Park Estate, where houses, expensive for their day, ranged from £1500 to £3500 We looked too at Cross’s “Premier Parade” of shops, dating from 1924; and at the Edgware Manor Estate, also developed by Cross in the 1920s .This year, in continuance of its celebrations of 150 years in existence, the R.A.I. picked Canterbury as the centre for its 140th Summer Meeting. Accomodated in Christchurch College, we were close enough to be able to wander into the city in the little spare time available. It ran from Monday July 11th, with an extra, a visit to Faversham, on the Saturday.

It was in some ways unfortunate that the Monday, spent walking round Canterbury, was one of the hottest of the season. We looked at a minimum of 9 sites had a reception in the evening at the Woolstore, followed by a lecture in the Cathedral! The day’s highlight for me was the talk on stone carving and the application of lime water to stabilise stone surfaces.

Tuesday saw us out and about, firstly in Fordwich Town Hall and then on to Reculver. I have never seen this dull, windswept site so warm and sunny! After lunch, taken in Salmeston Grange, we literally boiled in Ramsgate Harbour, but cooled off in Pugin’s St, Augustine’s Abbey and the Grange. These were both built with Pugin’s own money. As a contrast Richborough Roman Castle was stark, open and very warm, the best place being inside the little museum with its Roman finds.

Wednesday found us out and about in the Dover area, with a late visit to Hellfire Corner and an Evening Reception in the cool of the keep of Dover Casstle.

Thursday found us in Sandwich where the police took the coaches away for a safety check, Nice to know that they do check, but why pick on us, with our tight schedule?

HADAS members will remember going to Barfreston church some years ago; well, the south side has been given a lime water treatment and now looks much brighter.

Friday was for me a day in Romney Marshes, starting with a ride on the Romny/Hythe railway. We saw a very good collection of farm implements in the Barn at Brook. In the evening we all dressed forthe reception and dinner at Kings School in Canterbury.

Next day I joined a smaller party to walk round Faversham.

What did I find most interesting? Well, perhaps the Roman Museum, in process of being re-vamped where a mosaic pavement and some walls have been retained in situ.

About 140 people and so many sites to choose from, I can only mention a few! Next year Worcester will be the venue.

MEMBERS NEWS – a happy report this time from Dorothy

Tamara Baker, who with Julius has been a regular on outings and at lectures, has had a bad patch in hospital. But following a serious operation she is back home again and fighting fit.

NEW MEMBERS – by the way, we’ve been told that a Society outing can be something of an ordeal for new members. Those who have been in HADAS for some time may have forgotten how unnerving it is to face a coach-load of strange people who all seem to know each other and none of whom know you.

Next time you notice someone looking lost – or lonely, or nervous – on a HADAS outing, it would be a kindness to chat to them or help them feel at home.

APHRODITE’S ISLE Audree Price-Davies

The two significant features which run through the history and archaeology of Cyprus are copper and Aphrodite. Copper ensures the economic wealth of Cyprus and Aphrodite is the spiritual embodiment.

The word Cyprus comes from the Roman word for copper. Even as early as 3000 BC copper was being exploited, and from 2500-1050 BC it was more vigorously exploited. Religious leaders had control over the copper industry and this continued up to the classical

period. In Kition (Larnaca) the copper workshops were close to the Astarte temple, and remained in use from 600 BC until 450 BC. In the Hellenistic period 325-58 BC Cyprus came under the Ptolemies of Egypt and trade in copper with Egypt and the Greek world was very important. This was a period of wealth for Cyprus.

Aphrodite was reputed to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione, who was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, the sea-nymph – or of Air and Earth. She stepped out of the sea and Homer wrote of her:-

‘I will sing of stately Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful

Whose dominion is the walled cities of all sea-set Cyprus’

Aphrodite was the goddess of love and fertility and from the earliest times shrines were built to her which became places of pilgrimage. Flowers and fruit were the temple gifts and doves were sacrificed only once a year, A sanctuary uncovered at Enkomi was constructed with ashlar blocks with a propylaeum and cella and in the centre a stone pillar – an element incorporated from Mycenaean religion. It is at Paphos that the main sanctuary of Aphrodite was found since the birthplace of Aphrodite (Petra tou Romiou) is 25 kilometres east of Paphos and it is in this beautiful spot that Aphrodite the goddess of love and beauty is reputed to have risen from the waves. The sanctuary of Aphrodite at Kouklia village, Palaia Paphos, was a major religious centre during the whole of the first millenium BC and a celebrated place of pilgrimage. The ruins go back to the 12th century BC but the sanctuary was a place of cult and pilgrimage of the ancient world until the 4th century AD.

At the festival of Aphrodite and her lover Adonis, pilgrims landed from all parts of the ancient world and took the processional way to Paphos through groves whose lushness symbolised the fruitfulness of the goddess. The village of Yeroscipos, near to Paphos keeps this memory in its name, which means “holy garden”, and many streams still flow through here into the valley and then the sea.

Pygmalion fell in love with Aphrodite and because she did not return his love. he made an ivory image of her and laid it in his bed, praying to her for pity. Aphrodite, entering into this image brought it to life as Galatea and she bore him a son Paphus and a daughter Metharme. Pygmalian’s grand-son Cinyras, son of Paphus, founded the city of Paphos and built a famous temple to Aphrodite there.

Paphos itself, has within it or near it, a representative section of almost all the archaeological sites by means of which the history of Cyprus can be traced. Fourteen stone-age communities are known in Cyprus, along the north coast or in the short river valleys that descend from the Troodos mountains to the south. The communities huddle together on slopes or on tops of hills, and the lower parts of the round buildings are often of stone and have additions of stones and skins. The small interiors have hearths for cooking and heating, benches and windows but in many cases the area is further restricted by large and occasionally painted piers to support an upper floor beneath the beehive roof. In winter, the heat would gather at that higher level for sleeping and for curing stored venison. Kirokhitla, to the south of Paphos is such a centre. A few pottery vessels exist, but they preferred stone vessels. It would seem that the earliest Cypriot society was a well organised complex structure primarily engaged in farming, hunting and herding, rather than hunter-gatherers.

In all settlements the dead were buried just under the floors in crouched positions and there was a provision for offerings so presumably a form of ancestor worship existed. There is evidence of skull trepination, to relieve cranial pressure or possibly to prevent the return of the spirit.

Trade with Mycenae existed in the 15th, 15th and 14th centuries, but it is after the disruption of Mycenian society in the 13th century that the people left their homes and travelled eastwards. They were joined by other bands known as “peoples of the sea”. They visited Cyprus and may have settled there, Yhry brought their customs with them and influenced the development of Cyprus, After 1100 BC Cyprus became predominantly Greek-speaking as the Mycenaean settlers merged with the natives as at Enkomi, where there are Typical Mycenaean tombs with a rectangular chamber and a dromos, unlike the shaft and chamber tomb of the Cypriots.

In the Archaic period 750-475 BC the shrine to Astarte – the Phoenician equivalent to Aphrodite at Kition (Larnaca) became very important, but there was also a shrine to Aphrodite at nearby Tammassos. Egypt took over control of the island in 569 BC.

The Tombs of the Kings on the coast south of Paphos cover a wide area containing underground tombs carved out of solid rock, and dating to the 4th century BC. They are mainly decorated with Doric pillars. Wide sloping entrances of stone from ground level give access for horses and chariots which were probably buried with the dead after being killed. The rectangular tombs have small side chambers and in some cases the main area has an arched entrance. Whether kings were buried here or not the magnificence of the tombs gives the locality its name.

In Kato Paphos, near the harbour, a small Odeon of the 2nd century AD has been uncovered. It was entirely built of well-hewn limestone blocks and is now regularly used for musical and theatrical performances. In the same area of Roman remains the mosaics of the House of Dionysus, the House of Theseus and the House of Aion are of an exceptional quality. These amazing floors of 3rd century AD noblemen’s villas are among the finest in the Eastern Mediterranean. They mostly depict scenes from Greek mythology and are beautifully executed.

The Byzantine period with its monasteries and churches is well represented, as are also the crusader castles. Richard the Lionheart was married in Limmasol to Berengaria of Navarre and she was crowned Queen of England here. The Franks, Venetians and Ottoman Turks left their mark, but that is another chapter.

The archaeological sites in Cyprus are situated in areas of outstanding beauty as in the Troodos Mountains where the churches and monasteries have wall paintings and icons of exceptional style and form. The Akamas peninsula, 48 kilometres north of Paphos is a nature area where 22 different kinds of wild orchid exist and nature trails are marked throughout the area. Aphrodite is reputed to have bathed in a pool of a grotto shaded by a fig tree in this area and this has become a tourist attraction.

The work of excavation is evident everywhere and new sites are constantly being uncovered. Unfortunately, this is not so in the northern area Turkey has declared a “Northern
Republic of Cyprus”, but this is unrecognised by any state except Turkey. For this reason no state will undertake to fund archaeological excavation in North Cyprus and the buildings there deteriorate and crumble.

Bignor Surveyed by Bil

During July two members of HADAS attended a surveying course at Signor Roman Villa. This well known Sussex site was visited by HADAS in June ’93 (Newsletter 269) and is still being excavated by the Institute of Archaeology’s Field Unit; this work included the South Corridor and south east corner of the Court-yard.

A sample of tile-fall within the corridor was lifted but unfortunately yielded no dating evidence for the final phase of occupation of this part of the villa. Trial excavation beneath the floor level of the corridor revealed a large number of features and deposits and the on-going analyses of these discoveries will provide additional information about the early development of the villa.

A major discovery at Bignor in 1993 resulted from the first phase of a soil resistivity survey of the villa farmyard (or stockyard) This work, which was undertaken as a research and teaching exercise by Dr Tony Clark, examined a 40m strip In the western part of the farmyard. The survey data indicates a long building of at least three rooms running roughly north-south. Its dimensions are similar to the nearby east-west orientated building 66-68 recorded by Samuel Lyons in the early l9thc. It is possible that these two structures may be parts of the same scheme involving building along two sides of a yard with a wall defining its south-western edge. Traces of such a wall were detected by the resistivity survey. A circular anomaly in the yard may be a well – if so, this is the first to be located at Bignor.

This year the stock/farmyard is being looked at with three trenches on the E/W/S sides. Wall footings were indeed uncovered, along with possible pits, ditches and post-holes which are currently being excavated.

A total of eight people took part on the five day Archaeological Surveying course, which concentrated mostly on the practical aspects, eg use of tapes, triangulation, offsets, dumpy levels and theodolite. A bowl-barrow on Bignor Hill was used to teach the basics of contour surveying; nearby is a very well preserved section of Stane Street Roman road. A hi-tech alternative to the theodolite is EDM (Electronic Distance Measurement); this is at present rarely used in archaeology due to the high cost of the equipment. It fires out an infra-red beam which is reflected back by a prism; the machine then computes the distance, height and any angles.

Bignor also runs excavation training courses, and as members who have dug/visited the site know, it is in a very scenic area and would be a pleasant way to spend a week or so.

HERITAGE and HURRICANES reported by Bill Bass

An archaeological evaluation at the former Battle of Britain aerodrome at Hawkinge, near Folkestone, Kent has uncovered extensive traces of much earlier activity from beneath the runways. The oldest find from the site is part of a 5,000 year old polished flint axehead; a multitude of pits, post-holes and ditches were also found, showing the aerodrome to have been originally the home of farmers from the Iron-age, Roman and Medieval periods. In one pit a large Early Iron Age and tip (primitive plough tip) made of iron was found. Further to the north a Roman cremation burial was uncovered below the runway.

Despite war-time activity including enemy bombing, two of the four Roman pots buried with the cremation had survived whole. During the work a number of somewhat sinister metallic objects were also located which fortunately all proved to be harmless practice bombs.

(from the UCL Field Archaeology Unit newsletter)

Boundary Ditch, East heath, Hampstead By Brian Wrigely

This interesting project has, regrettably, only been fleetingly mentioned in the Newsletter whilst the Excavation Working Party has had its attention concentrated on our excavations last year and early this. We have now however prepared a research design and submitted it to a number of interested authorities and bodies. In this we describe the history and importance of the site.

The ditch runs along the lie of an ancient land-boundary, which is still marked by (more recent) parish boundary-stones. The land-boundary which the ditch follows can be dated with certainty to the period 959-975AD, The ditch can be dated with certainty to a date before 1226-7AD, and may well be as old as the boundary itself.

A forthcoming book, “The Westminster Corridor” by David Sullivan QC (a leaflet about which was enclosed with a recent Newsletter) identifies this boundary as exactly conforming to the “bounds” described (in Anglo-Saxon) within CIO Latin charters of Westminster Abbey. The boundary separated one of the Abbey’s endowment estates, at Hampstead, from the estate of Tottenhall held by the Canon of St Pauls; and either then or later it also formed the old parish boundary between the parishes of Hampstead and St Pancras.

The Anglo-Saxon “bounds” refer to two places on the line of the ditch, at each of which there was at least a single settlement in or before the tenth century. The location of one of these settlements (“the wood-clearing, or ?farm, of Beggar”) can be identified fairly closely; the other, (“the wic or dwelling of Deomod”) is more difficult to place, but if found, might be more productive of habitation evidence.

Our suggested investigations include landscape surveying to record the surviving features and their state, including boundary markers, possibly some contour plans, resistivity testing backed up by auguring, with eventually possible limited excavation if survey suggests a suitable place. We are of course anxious not to duplicate research which may
have already been done by other bodies or individuals, and indeed our enquiries have already yielded some useful sources. Thus we would like to assemble as much ‘desk-top’ evidence as possible in time to plan surveying fieldwork later this year. I would be delighted to hear from any members interested in taking part.

WEEKEND COURSES IN OXFORD Liz Holliday writes:-

I have received details of weekend courses from the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education to be held at Rewley House, Wellington Square, Oxford.

They include:-

November 19-20 December 9-11, February 10-12 1995 February 25-26

March 3-5

April 7-9

EARLY PREHISTORIC POTTERY

MEGALITHS: A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

CRUSADING IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

READING THE LANDSCAPE

MINOANS AND MYCENAEANS

THE MAKING OF THE SHIRES – LATER ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
PLANNING PERMISSIONS

It seems to be a time of development for some of our churches in our borough Three applications for planning permission have arrived recently:-

ST MARY MAGDALENE CHURCH, Holders Hill Rd

Propose to demolish existing buildings and to redevelop for residential purposes at a density of 80 habitable rooms per acre – Parochial Church Council, Hendon.

WATCH TOWER HOUSE, The Ridgeway, NW7

demolition of existing buildings and redevelopment with 3 and 4 storey buildings for institutional use – International Bible Students Association.

LAND ADJACENT TO BITTACY COTTAGE, The Ridgeway, NW7

proposal to redevelop to provide a single storey building for use as a place of worship -Mill Hill Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses

ENGLISH HERITAGE has written to us to earmark the following applications – all warranting further consideration:-

48 HIGH STREET, EDGWARE – within the medieval village of Edgware beside the Roman Road Land adjoining Edgware Rd/The Hyde/Silk stream

RAMSEY Close NW9 – Close to the find spot of Bronze Age burial in MOTE MOUNT – Nan Clark’s Lane, NW7 – an ancient earth-work

It is also noted that 1 BROCKLEY HILL Edgware propose a side extension – close to the find spot of a Roman burial at Pipers Green Lane.

ANY SIGNS OF ACTIVITY please contact Tessa Smith on 081 958 9159, or any committee member

THE HADAS EXHIBTION Bill Bass reports

On Saturday 16th July the HADAS Exibition was shown at the Cricklewood Community Forum at St Peter’s Church Hall, Cricklewood Lane; the idea being to show our work to parts of the borough where we have not been active recently, and perhaps attract more members. Several hobbies and interests were present, as diverse as photography to ballet dancing (I signed up several diggers for lessons!) Thanks to members who helped out on the day.

BURGH HOUSE TO BE TAKEN OVER BY MACDONALDS

This announcement in the Ham and High struck horror in the hearts of countless Hampstead citizens I am informed by Christopher Wade, the Curator. He is still receiving commiserations from sympathisers and there have been so many letters and phonecalls, that a leaflet had to be printed to put the record straight and to draw attention to the date of issue of the newspaper.

The key clue came in the name of the Hungarian architect who was to refit Burgh House to cope with the demand for burghers. He was called Rapol Rifo.

EXHIBITION at Burgh House until Oct.2, Wednesday to Sunday 12 –

A centenary of picture postcards. This is the period over which picture post cards took off, starting when there were six postal deliveries per day – providing plenty of scope for messages such as “see you for tea”.

A MAD GARDEN PARTY? Gerard Roots

On 25th July Church Farmhouse Museum awoke from its enforced hibernation (due to roof renovations) with the Exhibition LEWIS CARROLL IN WONDERLAND . With true Looking Glass logic, the Official Opening – by Barnet’s Mayor, and founder and Life President of the Lewis Carroll Society, Ellis Hillman – took place a week later, and was a great success. Carrollians from as far away as Japan mingled with Barnet Councillors, anarchists, television actors and the Friends of the Museum in Church Farm’s Garden (which looked fairly spruce, thanks in no small part to the attentions of horticulturally minded HADAS members in the previous week). Jam tarts were – inevitably – served.

Over a thousand visitors have now seen the Exhibition, which is based on a vast private collection of international significance. Similar material will not be seen again until the major commemorative Exhibitions are held here and abroad, planned for the Centenary of Carroll’s death, in 1998; so I do urge HADAS members to see the show, perhaps combining their viewing with their visit to the Minimart on 8th October.

LEWIS CARROLL a pioneer photographer Liz Holliday writes

He bought his first camera in 1856. To celebrate Carroll’s contribution to photography,

John Cass, a professional photographer, will be demonstrating the techniques of Victorian photography from 2.30-4.30 on Saturday 10 September and Saturday 24 September. John is very knowledgeable and his demonstrations will fascinate anyone interested in how Victorian photographers struggled with what was then a difficult and messy process to produce such evocative records of people and events.

From 2.30-4.30 on Saturday 17 September, Phillipa Rudge will be revealing some secrets of Victorian (and Wonderland!) cookery.

BOOK REVIEW:- THE MAN IN THE ICE – by Konrad Spindler, leader of the scientific investigation, publ.Weidenfeld & Nicolson,1994 translated from the German.

See Peter Pickering’s report of Antiquity’s article in the last Newsletter.

This is a book for the general public, but at the same time it carries a great deal of information about this extraordinary man, whose frozen body remained intact for 5,200 years in a depression under a glacier, until recent hot summers melted the glacier sufficiently to release him from his dying position, half standing, half leaning over a rock. . But the release, aided by hair dryers and a pneumatic drill, went on over 4 days, and at 3,210 m. altitude was dogged by stormy weather, freezing temperatures and snow – dodgy for helicopters. During these 4 days while the body was alternately partially melted by the September sun, and re-frozen by night, the equipment and clothing of the man was torn by the wind or trampled by numerous visitors.

The excitement built up as gradually the uniqueness of the case became realised. And also the legal complications – was he on the Italian or Austrian side of the frontier? Who was responsible for rescuing him? Had a crime been committed? Who did he belong to? And then the media! As the archaeological-historical importance of this man, equipped with the requirements for long distance travel in the stone age, developed, the proceedings were pestered by the legitimate curiosity of the multi-media.

This blow by blow account of the whole enterprise makes fascinating reading (and a study of international cooperation!) and provides factual detail of the finds and 30 pages of glossary, list of participents, bibliography and index.

ISSUE NO. 281 – AUGUST 1994 Edited by Anne Lawson

DIARY

Tuesday – Saturday 9-13 August – ISLE OF MAN. Our group is full up and we have a waiting list, but further names can be added if you wish: ring 081-203 0950.

Saturday 3 September – OUTING TO NEW BUTSER SITE, OLD WINCHESTER HILL AND ALTON with Bill Bass and Vikki O’Connor (details and application form enclosed).

Tuesday 4 October – EXCAVATING IN EGYPT Lecture by Patricia Spencer Saturday 8 October MINIMART

Saturday 29 October – City Walk with Mary O’Connell

Tuesday 1 November – The Hoxne Hoard and Others: Late Treasures from Britain. Lecture by Dr Catherine Johns.

Dorothy Newbury has organised our lectures for the past 15 years or so and the time has come when the job must be passed on to “Someone Else”. This is something that can be done entirely by phone or letter, and we already have a few names of possible speakers in hand. Will volunteers please phone 203 0950.

LEWIS CARROLL IN WONDERLAND

Church Farmhouse Museum, Greyhound Hill, NW4 (203 0130) 25 July – 25 October 1994

The exhibition celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Lewis Carroll Society, which was founded by Ellis Hillman – now fortuitously Mayor of Barnet. It is based on one of the three main private collections

of Carroll material, and includes early editions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, as well as examples of his other works; original photographs and letters; sequels to, and -parodies of, his children’s books; translations; and a wide selection of material from the Carroll ‘industry’ – from sweets to sheet music.

A programme of associated events will be held at the Museum and at branch libraries in the Borough.

Mon – Thurs 10 am – 5 pm. Friday – closed. .Saturday 10 am – 1 om, 2 pm – 5.30 pm. Sunday 2 pm – 5.30 pm. Admission free.

I write to thank Roy Walker for his thorough and thoughtful review of my recent book on Whetstone and Finchley. I am pleased that he spotted one of the two mistakes in the final version.

His article raises the question of audience – just who is the book aimed at? I decided a reading age of about 81/2 and an attention span of about 20 seconds or should I have said “approximately a third of a minute?”

I found two aspects of writing the book particularly interesting, one is which words actually to use and the other is how to spell them. Thank you, Roy. JOHN HEATHFIELD

THAT SAXON PIN AGAIN Ted Sammes

In connection with the Maidenhead Heritage Centre, two of us on its Committee went on a “museum crawl” to see how others were managing in the Oxford/Bucks area.

In the Abingdon Museum T. espied a Saxon double-headed pin with in turned spiral head. This one is slightly smaller than the one from Church Terrace, Hendon, found in 1972/73. It had come from Saxon layers in Abingdon – I am trying to get more details.

A drawing of Hendon’s pin can be seen in “Pinning Down the Past”, page 10, published by HADAS in 1986.

From Christopher Eve, the Local History Librarian

NAN CLARK – REVEALING THE PAST OF A GHOSTLY LOCAL LEGEND

.Many of the residents of Hendon and Hill know of the legend of

Nan Clark – that her ghost still appears at midnight beneath a full moon to haunt the lane on Highwood Hill which bears her name. Some of the locals at the “Rising Sun” have even seen her appear in the old 17th century Pub. During the last war a sentry at Moat Mount called out the guard because he saw a woman walking down the lane and across the fields. The guard surrounded the area and moved in, but found nothing. Then in 1950, a group of ghosthunters led a midnight vigil at the lane in the hope of seeing the ghost. The story, reported in the “Hendon & Finchley Times” of November 24, 1950 said that no contact was made; although a Mrs. Beales, not to be outdone reported a “strong contact” and felt that “there was definitely something there.”

So who was Nan (or Ann Clark? Parish records are scanty, but it appears that she was a licensee of “The Three Crowns Inn” which once stood at the corner of Nan Clark’s Lane. In 1698 she was granted a renewal of her victualler’s licence and, in 1700, there is a record of her petition to licence an alehouse.

At that time all ?arishioners who could ?ay were assessed for contributions to the parish poor rate; records of which were kept by the local churchwardens. Careful study of these accounts reveals the following entries:

1703 –

paid

13 months for Clark’s two children,

£10

8s.

1704 –

paid

8 months for Clark’s two children,

£ 6
8s.

gave

with one Clark’s girls apprentice,

£ 5

1705 –

expended in having Eliz. Clark to London, paid for nursing Mary Clark 39 weeks,

£ 3

7s. 18s.

1706 –

paid

for ,putting Mary Clark apprentice,

£ 5

5s.

From these entries it appears that Nan Clark was the mother of two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, who waseen 1703 and 1706 were receiving support from t1:-Elizabethhere is one conclusion which we might draw -that their Mother was dead by 1703, yet parish records state that she was not buried until July 7, 1708. Where was she during those five missing years:

further back, the parish records state that Vary Clark was baptised at St Mary’s, Hendon on July 1 1694. E1izabeth was baptised at St Andrew’s, Totteridge two years earlier. Mary is described as the daughter of Edward Clark, so it is probably that he is Nan’s husband. In addition, the records state that in 1685 Edward Clark, in being assessed for the poor rate, is described as a victualler, a strong link with Nan. Edward was the younger son of William Clark,a wealthy and respected member of the community and parish churchwarden. He died in 1696, his estate passing to the elder son, also called William. In 1690 the records show that there was a petition for the suppression of Edward’s licence as victualler. Could it be for some reason, that he was resented by the community and perhaps his father, because he had married Nan?

One last entry of interest is to be found in the records of the Sessions of the Peace at the Old Bailey. The case concerned was heard on October 2, 1702 and the names at the beginning of the entry include Elizabeth, Mary and William Clark. We can conclude that this was the hearing at which the two children were out into care. William Clark is probably referred to here as their guardian – he was, after all, their uncle.

What became of Edward and Nan Clark? Why is her spirit not at rest but still walks the lanes of Mill Hill Village where she once lived all those centuries ago?

SPECKLED HEN, THE MAYOR OF OCK STREET & POOH STICKS ROY WALKER

Last year when we were excavating at Church Farm, the Greyhound Inn held a beer festival which introduced one or two of us to a strong beer called “Old Speckled Hen” which was brewed at Abingdon. So, when the outing to Abingdon and Dorchester-on-Thames was announced there was an immediate vote in our household in favour of going. The two Mickys, Cohen and Watkins, must have had the same interest because the morning started in Abingdon with refreshments in an old brewery, albeit one belonging to the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary, originally founded in AD 670 but rebuilt in the 12th century. All that now remains after 1538 is the Checker used as the Abbey’s accounting centre, the Checker Hall which has now been converted into an Elizabethan theatre and the Long Gallery with evidence of partitioning for use as accommodation in the late 15th century. These first floor rooms which had once been used as a brewery were above a lower hall and undercroft. The Main Gateway has also survived. Our introduction to the archaeology of Abingdon came from Tim Allen of the local unit who warned us that all the excavated remains had now been built over, the work of his unit having been very much of a rescue nature in advance of redevelopment. All archaeological periods are represented from the Iron Age onwards.

We were only able to catch a glimpse of the beauty of this town with its medieval houses as we progressed between the churches of St Nicholas and St Helens ably guided by members of the local archaeological society. The Mayor of Ock Street was being elected that day – an unofficial office dating back to 1700. Morris Men were dancing outside the public houses in Ock Street!

After lunch, the coach took us towards Dorchester-on-Thames (hereinafter called Dorchester) through “Three Men in a Boat” country. We stopped at Wittenham Clumps, two beech hills known locally as Mother Dunch’s Buttocks. David Miles, Director of the Oxford Archaeological Unit greeted us at the Clumps where he set the prehistoric scene for us atop one of the hills. We were at a spot which dominated the route to London, at the junction of the Thames Valley and the Vale of the White Horse. There had been much excavation on the valley floor where lakes now filled the gravel extraction pits. Gravel extraction and the Dorchester bypass had contributed both to the need for urgent rescue archaeology as well as to the destruction of much of this area’s Neolithic heritage. To the north of us was the Big Rings Henge, discovered in 1930, adjacent to the Dorchester Cursus; further north still was Mount Farm with Bronze Age burials and evidence of trackways within an extensive field system; at Bishop’s Court, north west of Dorchester were found Anglo Saxon inhumations as well as a two-headed late Saxon bronze ornament adopted as the logo for the Oxford Archaeological Unit below.

We left for the neighbouring buttock – Castle Hill – a univallate hillfort which has yet to be excavated although field walking has revealed Iron Age pottery. An Iron Age settlement however was excavated just to the south of the fort. Dorchester importantly lay on the boundary of three tribal groups, the Dobunni, Catuvellauni and the Atrebates. We were shown our next destination, the late Iron Age oppidum, Dyke Hills, lying one mile away across the Thames. This would be reached by a leisurely stroll through the woods, across the bridge where Christopher Robin played Pooh Sticks, and over several stiles. The weather was ideal for the walk, the stiles were easily crossed and several pooh sticks were purchased at the bridge (proceeds to the RNLI).

We rested at the oppidum while David outlined its history and the problem of obtaining permission to investigate the area further. The enclosure covers 114 acres with a double bank to the north and east, the south and west boundaries have vanished but are traceable. Cropmarks show the interior to contain circular houses aligned to internal roads. As the River Thames lies to the south and the River Thame to the west, it is likely that this was a traditional river crossing site. Even today, as then, the Thames often flows between the ramparts creating a moat. Anglo Saxon burials excavated within the oppidum area had early Saxon grave goods including a bronze buckle of c5th century similar to those found in continental military contexts. Other female burials also had brooches of north German origin, a sign that the Dorchester Roman garrison by AD 430 – 450 had many German settlers, perhaps foederati. Signs of 5th century settlement in and around the town of Dorchester have been recorded. Earlier excavation by Colonel Lane-Fox (later General Pitt-Rivers) had highlighted the familiar problem of cultivation destroying archaeology which led to the passing of Ancient Monuments legislation. We entered Dorchester where very little of its Roman history survives. It was probably a Roman customs post controlling river traffic to London as evidenced by a now-lost altar found in 1731, set up by Marcus Varius Severus a 2nd/3rd century “beneficiarius consularis”, a toll collector.

In AD 635, according to Bede, Bishop Birinus was sent to Britain to convert the natives. King Oswald of Northumbria visited Cynegils, King of the Gewisse (West Saxons) in order to marry his daughter. Birinus converted Cynegils and was granted land in Dorchester to establish his cathedral church. He died and was buried in Dorchester but his relics were later moved to Winchester. A shrine was erected in Dorchester Abbey in the 14th century but was destroyed in 1536. We visited the Abbey church conveniently situated next to the tea rooms. Unique to the church is a Tree of Jesse window with sculpted tracery forming the trunk and branches of the tree and the figures of Christ, David etc provided within the 14th century stained glass window. Of interest was the lead font of c1170 and a memorial of a knight, recumbent but drawing his sword. Dating from c1280, it is claimed that this dynamic sculpture influenced Henry Moore. The town itself provided many delights with its collection of medieval buildings, timber framed from local timber supplies, now depleted. The George Hotel, dating from the late 15th century, has a galleried range at the rear; the White Hart replaced the wattle and daub infill between its windows with brick nogging in 1691; the Bull Inn with its jettied upper storey. We started the outing at a medieval brewery and finished on a very similar theme!

Many thanks to Micky Cohen and Micky Watkins for such a delightful day which managed to combine many periods of archaeology, good weather, an excellent stroll through the English countryside and the perfect guides for the sites. The “Old Speckled Hen” was a bonus!

EXCAVATION OF THE WHITE HORSE AND HILL FORT AT UFFINGTON

HADAS members who went on the Abingdon/Dorchester trip will remember David Miles, Head of the Oxford Archaeological Unit,who conducted us from Wittenham Clumps to Dorchester, and gave us an excellent talk on the iron age sites. He suggested that some of our members would enjoy visting the Unit’s excavation of the White Horse and Hill Fort at Uffington. Trenches will be open between 14th and 20th August, and the archaeologists will welcome visitors on Sunday as well as during the week. This is an excellent opportunity to visit a site of great importance in a beautful part of England.

MEMBERS’ NEWS

MISS SHELDON, a member affectionately known as Shemmie, left London a few years ago to live in Yorkshire. She is still in touch with Renata Feldmeier, and although she is now in her eighties, she says she is still making peg-bags and oven cloths for charity as well as the mending jobs for which she was so well known in the Suburb. She says how much she always enjoyed the HADAS activities and wishes to be remembered to us all.

Outing to Richborough Castle and Archbishop’s Palace, Maidstone

After a late start and unfortunately without Tessa who was not well enough to join us, we set off on the M25 and over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge to catch our first sight of distinctive Kentish oasthouses.

Our first stop was at The Friars, Aylesford, a Carmelite retreat and conference centre which provided welcome refreshment in its restored tithe barn.

On our way to Richborough we stopped to see Kit’s Coty (misnamed by the locals who had mistaken it for the remains of a house). The burial chamber is sited alongside Kent County Council’s Centenary Walk in a field full of beautiful poppies with wide views out to the surrounding chalk downland. The stones formed a burial chamber at the eastern end of a Neolithic long barrow circa 2000 B.C. which was originally an earth mound some 180 feet long. Now the stones are unfortunately only covered with ancient and modern graffiti.

We then made our way to Richborough through the orchards of Kent, past Canterbury’s city walls, through the very pretty village of Wingham, past “Pick Your Own” in full swing and on to the flat salt marshes at Richborough. There we were met by Dr. Tom Blagg who gave us a very interesting talk and guided tour of Richborough Castle.

Richborough Castle is a very difficult site to take in all at once because of the complicated chronology. There was some evidence of use during the Iron Age and then in A.D.43 it was the site of the Claudian invasion of Britain and became a supply base from A.D.43 to A.D.85. It thereafter became a Saxon shore fort and eventually was used by the Saxons until falling into disuse with many of the dressing stones of the walls carted away by locals over the centuries to incorporate in their own buildings.

The site was chosen by the Romans to launch their invasion of Britain because it was easily reached from the coast of France and could cope with the landing of the invasion fleet of some 500-600 ships. At that time the site had a natural defence and water route in the water channel (since silted up) adjoining it which flowed eventually into the Medway.

What now remains on the site are part of the walls, the interior and exterior mounds and ditches, the foundations of the monument, the remains of a bath house and the remains of a Saxon church including its font. There is very little evidence of Roman buildings within the site which leads archaeologists to conclude that any buildings were made of wood and/or the site was used as a temporary camp and the soldiers bivouacked under canvas.

The monument was in the form of a triumphal arch and could possibly have been erected to commemorate the invasion of Britain. The monument was indeed of monumental size. The foundation pit measured some 38m by 24.5m and was some 10m deep. It was the only Roman building in Britain known to have been dressed with Carrara marble (the same as that used by Michelangelo).

It is believed that the site was used by the Romans up until the beginning of the fifth century (evidenced by the fact that amongst the very many coins found on the site were coins issued under Theodosius).

The coach was strangely quiet on the way to the Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone with nearly all the group fast asleep.

The medieval Palace was built by Bishop Courtney when Maidstone was a five day journey from London. The medieval cattle market adjoins the Palace and is at the present time still used both as a cattle and general market.

We were shown round the Sir Garrard Tyrwhit Drake Carriage Museum in what were the stable buildings by our guide, Daphne Bailey, who gave us a very entertaining tour. There were carriages of every size and shape and the passengers were catered for from birth to death for the carriages included both a christening sedan and a hearse.

Hearing the actual history of each of the carriages certainly added to our enjoyment. And to add an even more personal touch, the museum attendant was descended from the man who made the decorative tassels of the carriage interiors. This tassel maker made a very good marriage to a princess of the Russian royal family. of her family of three daughters and three sons, only her daughters survived adulthood, her three sons having died young of the royal disease of haemophilia.

Our guide, Florence Lee, then conducted us on a whistle atop tour of the Palace itself which is now a combination of a very well mot out and interesting museum and function rooms. As a wedding party was going an in the function rooms our tour of the Palace was necessarily curtailed and it was a moot point as to whether Hadas got in the way of the wedding party or vice versa!

After a very good tea provided by two stalwart ladies All Saints Church we were given a tour of the church itself by a church warden. The church is the parish church of Maidstone and was founded as a collegiate church in 1395 by Archbishop Courtenay whose tomb is in the Church. Or is it – he is apparently also buried in Canterbury Cathedral. What a shame it was all too long ago for genetic fingerprinting to give us the definitive answer.

The church also contains a memorial to the family of George Washington. The coat of arms of the family depicted on the memorial includes stars and stripes and it is said that this is where the stars and stripes of the American flag originated.

Our tour of the church completed a very full and enjoyable day (as we have come to expect with Hadas outings). our thanks to Sheila and Tessa for organising a lovely outing and to Sheila for so ably coping on her own. Our commiserations to Tessa for missing a very nice day and we hope she is soon well again.

IRENE GAVORRE

HADAS member Jack Goldenfeld reminds us that he is running his course “Glimpses of the oast – an Introduction to Archaeology” for two centres this year: West Herts College, at Rickmansworth, and Stanmore College, Stanmore. The course is designed to describe and explain the science of archaeology, to develop.) an awareness of the past and the recog­nition of its effects on the world today. As well as dealing with
archaeological theory, the course study archaeological site
examples of all periods and from all five continents. T t consists of ten evening meetings per term, commencing 21st September for West

Herts and 29th September for Stanmore.

Details from Jack at n923 285225 or West Hertsat 0923 255533 or Stanmore at 081-954 9481.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS IN THE NORTHERN AREA BILL BASS

The following sites have been noted in the development applications list and may be of archaeological interest:

75 High Street. Barnet. English Heritage have now recommended an archaeological watching brief at this site.

38 Barnet Gate Lane, Arkley. The proposed demolition of an existing house, and the building of a four bedroom detached house and double garage here, has led English

Heritage to ask for further consideration of the planning application, following a preliminary archaeological appraisal of the site. “Barnet Gate was the site of a

manorial court in the medieval period, and the settlement there may have originated in the Anglo-Saxon period” (HADAS: A Place in Time p59).

ISSUE NO 280

Edited by Peter Pickering JULY 1994

DIARY

Saturday 9 July

OUTING TO RICHBOROUGH AND BISHOP’S PALACE, MAIDSTONE
– With Tessa Smith and Sheila Woodward
(Details and application form enclosed)

Saturday 16 July

CRICKLEWOOD COMMUNITY FORUM, 10.00am – 4.00pm

St Peter’s Church Hall, Cricklewood Lane. HADAS and other local societies will be represented

Tuesday-Saturday ISLE OF MAN

9-13 August Our group is full up and we have 3 members on the

waiting list, but further names can be added if you wish ring 081-203 0950

Saturday 3 September OUTING TO NEW BUTSER SITE, OLD WINCHESTER HILL & ALTON – With Bill Bass and Vikki O’Connor

Tuesday 4 October EXCAVATING IN EGYPT

Lecture by Dr Patricia Spencer

Saturday 8 October MINIMART

CORRECTION Peter Pickering

At the end of last month’s Newsletter Micky Watkins gave my telephone number as 081-455 2807. I know that is what has appeared in some lists, but it is wrong. My telephone number is 081-445 2807.

MEMBERS’ NEWS

Daphne Lorimer, It is with sadness that we report that Daphne’s husband, Ian, died very suddenly at the end of May, only a few days before they were both due to go to America for the wedding of their son. Members who spent that happy week in Orkney in 1978 will remember their opening their lovely house to us for lunch; they organised our whole memorable week there.

VISIT TO COUTTS BANK Peter Keeley

At 2.15 on May 18th we met at Charing Cross under the replica Eleanor Cross. With Mary wearing her official guide badge and her Freeman of the

City brooch we felt we could go anywhere! First we toured the area south of the Strand, The Strand is a very ancient roadway between the Tower and Westminster and being above the floodplain was “a good address”,

In Villiers Street was the Keeper’s Office for the old Hungerford Suspension Bridge; Brunel used the chains from this for the Clifton Suspension Bridge, when Sir John Hawkshaw built the new bridge in to Charing Cross Station in 1864 at the cost of £18,000 or £131 per foot.

Down some steps into the Embankment Gardens is the Watergate where in 1862 the Duke of Buckingham could step into his boat, but is now high and dry. 1868 was the year of the “Great stink” and Sir Joseph Bazalgette incorporated the new low level sewage system into the Thames Embankment,

We went into Buckingham Street, Duke Street, now John Adam Street, past the RSA and soon we had built up the name George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Robert Street reminded us that four Scots took a lease on three acres here and redeveloped them; some lovely houses still remain in Adam Street,

Then we went past Carting Lane to the Savoy, the first hotel to have electric lights and lifts, and the Savoy Theatre where Mary gave us a song to remind us of its connection with Gilbert and Sullivan, Under Shell Mex House we learnt that as it had the largest clock-face in London it used to be called “Big Benzine”, A plaque on the wall of the Institute of Electrical Engineers recorded that the BBC started here before moving to Portland Place. Behind the bronze statue of Faraday was a foundation stone of massive size recording that Queen Victoria “had laid it with her own hand in 1886”, We hoped she had had some help,

Then round the corner and dominated by the Savoy Hotel was a little Chapel, and Churchyard surrounded by cobbled streets. The Savoy Chapel dating back to 1245 was destroyed by fire in 1864. The present replica Tudor Chapel has a beautiful panelled and painted ceiling. It is used and financed by the Queen and you can attend services and maybe rub shoulders with royalty, The cobbled streets were probably laid by John Moslem who bought the quarries in the Channel Islands about this time to pave the streets of London. Over the wall as we left the Churchyard we could just see the tombstone of Thomas Sutton who died in 1839 at the age of 101.

Going down the Strand to Coutts we observed the traffic going into the Savoy on the wrong side of the road, a throw back from the horse drawn cabs which could not turn in the street, and Zimbabwe House with defaced Epstein sculptures at high level,

The Frederick Gibberd and Partners Coutts building opened in 1978 after 20 years of planning hassle is an interesting and effective building. It is dated by the enormous steel bridge beams which hold the roof structure but the garden atrium and circulation space give a modern feel to the offices. The history of the Bank involves more Scots; John Campbell was a goldsmith banker who moved from Edinburgh to the Strand in 1692; the Coutts became involved in 1751, Thomas Coutts’ first shop is recreated to show how a goldsmith banker operated, in cramped dark beamed conditions, A banker dealt with all the affairs of a customer, not just finance, and Thomas Coutts had some important friends, notably George III,

Two dioramas gave us an idea of what banking with a family firm was like through the ages. In the boardroom is wonderful Chinese wallpaper given to Thomas Coutts in 1794 by the first ambassador to China, It had been installed at 59 The Strand and moved in 1904 to this site and involved a major conservation exercise to install it in the present room,

Coutts became part of the National Provincial and Union Bank in 1920 and is now part of the National Westminster but retains the character of a personal bank with a Coutts as its Chairman, Sir David Money-Coutts, KCVO.

Many thanks to Mary O’Connell and Barbara Peters, the Coutts, archivist for an excellent tour.

A CAMERA’S EYE VIEW OF WHETSTONE AND NORTH FINCHLEY Roy Walker

The latest addition to the “Britain in Old Photographs” series is John Heathfield’s compilation “Around Whetstone and North Finchley”, published in June this year by Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, price £7.99, This is available from all good bookshops but if purchased direct from Barnet Museum (where John is the curator) all the profit is retained by the Museum. The photographs are from the Percy Reboul collection but acknowledgement is given to HADAS member Arthur Till for his contribution showing demolition scenes in the Brunswick Park area,

Presenting the history of an area by way of old photographs must be very limiting, For a start, none go back further than 1839, The Society for Photographing Relics of Old London, founded in 1875, may have set the precedent for other like-minded groups or individuals but photography was a rich man’s hobby and the resulting collection may be somewhat selective. There is also the problem of how best to use the archive to show how our present day surroundings are the product of changes over the last 150 years, which must surely be one aim of such publications,

In this new selection, a brief history of the area introduces the photographs, which date mainly from the turn of the century, Houses, private and public, are well represented, Transport and recreation, education and the workplace are all encompassed by this illustrated history, John’s captions provide not only details of the subject but make

observations about the photographs themselves, You only need to be reminded once of curiosity towards the camera to continue to notice blatant posing, such as the portly policeman outside the Torrington Arms, Individuals are featured, the Vicar of All Saints, Father Henry Miles, and his verger Bill Thatcher; Joseph Baxendale of Pickfords; Mr Pitson, the schoolmaster dismissed in 1896 for drunkenness and incompetence; and the schoolboys and girls themselves. There are even two generations of brick-laying Rebouls

Progressing through the book, which is sectioned into five localities, you can build up a picture of life in what were originally village communities. Cattle in 1900 walk the High Road passing the Blue Anchor, now Payless D.I.Y, Atora Beef suet really did use oxen to pull delivery carts (but only for publicity) and in 1895 a smallholder uses a donkey cart to carry his greengrocery along Nether Street, Photographs of the Whetstone crossroad and the High Street allow a sight of the Whetstone House in its pre Studio Cole existence and there are close-ups of a diamond mullion from the interior and the well (Victorian cistern) in the rear yard, excavated by HADAS. Mr Lawson is shown in his timberyard in 1936 adjacent to a photograph of the Merit Cycle and Motor works, which had previously occupied part of Lawson’s site. There was another cycle shop in the High Road and the Black Bull advertises “cyclists and clubs catered for”. Other photographs, in passing, reinforce the importance of cycling earlier this century, It is intriguing to look at the history of various sites. The Finchley Roller Skating Rink (1910) rapidly became a cinema, then a lorry depot and finally the Metropolitan Police Garage; the present Torrington Arms is the third on that site and the Priory, an early 18th century, crenellated building, was pulled down in 1939 to build Friern Barnet Town Hall. Of personal interest, as it is where I live, were the half dozen or so photographs of the Russell Lane area including a drawing of Gallants Farm and details of the oldest cottages still standing in the Lane.

My only criticism of this excellent book is that some of the captions could have been longer. In a few cases fuller clarification of locality could have been given. However, although it can be slightly frustrating when

questions raised by the photographs are not answered by the text, it must be remembered that the photographs are the raison d’ etre for the book and should stimulate the mind of the reader. It is not a written history and hopefully any reader who wishes to find out more can do so through the many other local history publications or by simply asking John Heathfield, I intend to, especially about the lower photograph on page 33. John, isn’t this Whetstone High Street?

A HAPPY FAMILY Liz Sagues

In this true story of a Happy Family, the names have been changed – except for the one that really matters, that of Mr and Mrs Baker the Booksellers.

I have a friend with a strong interest in both archaeology and family history, whose father was a distinguished anthropologist. Let’s for the sake of continuing Friendship, call him Simon Devil, Browsing through the latest archaeological booklist from Tony and Rosemary Baker, I came across a reference to an offprint produced for the Devil Club from the 1922 transactions of a county archaeological society, at the other end of the country from the Devils’ current home, Intrigued, I asked Simon if he knew of the Devil Club, “No,” he replied. “I don’t think there were Devils in that part of the country, But it isn’t a common surname. Perhaps there is a connection, Can you order the reprint for me?”

Oops. Too late. The Baker stock tends to vanish quickly, unless you order the instant the list arrives, but Tony Baker was interested, “I haven’t sent off that order yet. I’ll look at the offprint and see if it says anything about the Devil Club.”

Twenty minutes later he phoned back. He’d contacted a leading figure in the county’s archaeological circles (“After 20 years in the business, I know who to ask…”) and produced a stream of information. The Devil Club had been started in the mid-18th century by the Reverend Philip Devil, a keen antiquarian and prolific writer on town and county history, He’d come to the county a few years before from the Channel Islands, anglicising his name from the Huguenot Philippe de Ville, The county archaeological society still commemorated him, in an annual dinner and an annual lecture, and the society’s current president – name and address provided – was “mad about Devil” and had originally been called de Ville, “You’ve found my great, great, great, great, great uncle Phillipe!”

I haven’t yet heard the outcome of the correspondence between Simon and the county archaeological society president, but the incident has reinforced my enthusiasm for the Bakers. Not only are they excellent booksellers (their lists are hugely tempting, and their service prompt and pleasant); they also take a very special interest in their customers, Of course; they come from Lincoln; Tony was at school with me and his father taught me Scripture and Greek – editor)

Any HADAS members who don’t yet buy from them are strongly recommended to make contact. The details are: A,P. and R, Baker Ltd, Booksellers and Publishers, The Leigh House, Church Lane, Wigtown, Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, DG8 9HT. Phone 0988 403348, fax 0988 403443,

FINCHLEY BUS GARAGE Bill Firth

Another industrial landmark in the borough will be disappearing following the closure of Finchley bus garage in Woodberry Grove.

The depot was first opened by the Metropolitan Electric Tramways Company in 1905, was converted for trolley buses by the London Passenger Transport

Board in 1936 and to buses in 1962. The last buses ran from the garage in December 1993 and the site is to be redeveloped,

One interesting aspect of the depot was the installation of a traverser to give access from the entry road to those in the depot, Originally access to the depot roads was by a ‘fantail’ of points from the entry road but in 1929 the points were replaced by a traverser.

The traverser consisted of a length of track, long enough to take a tram, mounted on an electrically powered truck which ran on its own rails in a pit along the length of the depot, The tram ran on to this section of track which could then be ‘traversed’ to any road in the depot.

ARCHIVES AND LOCAL STUDIES CENTRE

HADAS members will be pleased to know that a new temporary Local History Librarian, Christopher Eve, has been appointed, following the departure of Stewart Gillies to the Newspaper Library at Colindale last November. The restricted opening hours which have existed since then have now returned to normal, and the Archives and Local Studies Centre is now open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9.30 am – 5,00 pm, Thursday 9.30 am – 7,30pm, and Saturday 9.30 am -5,00 pm (closed for lunch 1,00- 2,00 pm).

11TH RUISLIP LOCAL HISTORY CONFERENCE – 1995

We have been asked by the organising committee of this conference to see if any of our members would be willing to offer a talk lasting say 20 minutes at this conference, If any member would, would he or she please get in touch with Dr T Hillier of 2 Dunster Close, Harefield, Middlesex UB9 6B5 with a very brief account of content (with dates) and any requirement such as an overhead projector or slides.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS IN THE NORTHERN AREA Bill Bass

The following sites have been noted in the development applications list and may be of archaeological interest:

75 High Street, Barnet

224 High Street, Barnet

17 & 42 Grimsdyke Crescent, Barnet (near to mediaeval kiln site)

An extensive area in Oak Hill Park, East Barnet, adjacent to Church Hill road has been deturfed and excavated for the improvement of water and sewerage facilities. Several members are watching this site, but if anybody sees anything of interest please let us know.

FORTHCOMING EXCAVATION IN THE CITY

The Times reported on 14th Tune that next month, under the direction of Geoffrey Wainwright, work will begin on the site at No 1 Poultry, near the Mansion House, which is famous for the fierce battle between those who wished to save the fine Victorian buildings there and Mr Peter Palumbo. Mr Wainwright is quoted as saying “We expect to find waterlogged Roman and mediaeval deposits to a depth of about 7 metres. There are likely to be the remains of substantial civic buildings with mosaic floors, and high status town houses. Overlying them will be the well preserved remains of mediaeval London, We know that from well documented records”. The developers have allowed the archaeologists 44 weeks to dig and record, and they are also paying £2 million for the excavation; the Times reminds us that since the developers got planning permission before 1990 they are under no obligation to permit or finance excavation.

THE ICEMAN Peter Pickering

The latest number of “Antiquity” carries a fascinating article about the mummified body found in September 1991 in a high snowfield on the Italian-Austrian border, The man has been dated to about 3200 BC by 14 radio-carbon determinations. He was carrying with him artefacts made of 17 different types of wood and plant material, and there are 8 species of animals among the skins etc used in his clothing. He had a bow, arrows, a quiver, a copper axe, two flint knives, a rucksack, a net, and a marble disc on a leather thong; he was wearing a belt which doubled as a pouch for his fire-making equipment and held up a leather loin-cloth and leggings made of

skin; his coat was made of alternating strips of differently coloured deer­skin; he wore an outer cape, conical cap and shoes of calf-skin filled with grass and held in place by an inner string “sock”, There were virtually no traces of food – perhaps he had eaten all he had when he died, Some features are as yet unexplained – his arrows were all unserviceable and his bow unfinished; and he had some freshly broken ribs as well as some healed ones; he seems to have been wearing no textiles. And we can speculate for ever precisely what he was doing so high up the mountains. Perhaps he was a shepherd with a side-line in mending bows and arrows. But one’s reaction must be respect for the skills possessed by people 5000 years ago

Even more recently there have been newspaper reports that DNA tests have demonstrated that the Iceman is not a hoax (never seemed likely), that he was a northern European (not surprising), and that 4% of modern Englishmen are descended from him (isn’t science wonderful?).

ROMAN TOWN NEAR MALDON

Readers may remember the HADAS outing to Great Burstead and to Maldon in Tune 1989. We visited the site of the new Maldon Southern Relief Road where, the Newsletter records, Roman cremations, Samian and grey ware had been found, as well as evidence suggesting a late Iron Age round house. Recent newspaper reports describe excavation near Maldon of the site of a Roman town, including a Romano-British temple overlying an Iron Age religious building. As usual, we are told that there is not enough money or time for excavation of more than 15% of the site

NO.279 JUNE 1994 Edited by Mick, Watkins

DIARY

Saturday 18 June OUTING TO ABINGDON & DORCHESTER-ON-THAMES

– with Micky Cohen and Micky Watkins.

Details and application form enclosed.

Saturday 9 July OUTING TO RICHBOROROUGH AND BISHOP’S PALACE MAIDSTONE

-With Tessa Smith and Sheila Woodward

Tuesday-Saturday ISLE OF MAN

9 – 13 August Our group is full up and we have 3 members on the waiting list, but further

names can be added if you wish: ring 203 0950. Dorothy writes

enthusiastically about this expedition – see page 6.

Saturday 3 September OUTING TO NEW BUTSER SITE, OLD WINCHESTER HILL & ALTON -with Bill Bass and Vikki O’Connor

Saturday 16 July CRICKLEWOOD COMMUNITY FORUM, 10.00am-4.00pm

at St. Peter’s Church Hail, Cricklewood Lane, Local societies and groups will be represented. Volunteers needed to man a possible HADAS stand.

16 April – 26 June BURGH HOUSE, NEW END SQUARE, HAMPSTEAD

“SO NEAR TO HEAVEN”. An exhibition celebrating Hampstead Heath’s history and scenery.

A display of HADAS flint finds is included.

Tuesday 4 October EXCAVATING IN EGYPT

Lecture by Dr Patricia Spencer

Saturday 8 October MINIMART

Saturday 29 October CITY WALK with Mary O’Connell

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. 3 MAY 1994.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

HADAS has had a very successful year carrying out two major excavations. Our first excavation took place in the summer in the elegant surrounding of the garden of the Church Farm Museum. Here evidence for Medieval or indeed post Medieval Hendon was slight though we did uncover part of a Medieval rubbish deposit. Further excavations are needed preferably in the front garden of the Museum if we are to discover the medieval building that surely exists there. Brian Wrigley, who directed the excavation, also lectured about it to the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.

In the winter we then carried out a rescue excavation in the less salubrious area of the former Victoria Maternity Hospital in Wood Street, Barnet. This was in the depths of the winter – December and January! It was our first excavation carried out under PPG 16 (Planning Policy Guidenote No 16) in order to provide clearance of the site for the developers. This we were able to do, in that we failed to find any medieval structures, though we did find a medieval ditch running under the listed Georgian building. A 19-page report on this was prepared by Bill Bass, Roy Walker and Brian Wrigley for the developers and English Heritage within a month of completing the excavation. This is the first PPG 16 excavation carried out by a local society anywhere in London.

Work on post-excavation continued most weekends at Avenue House. The report on the site of the Old Forge in Golders Green Road, excavated in 1991, is now nearly complete and work on Church Farm House is well advanced.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

A technical seminar was held on the 16th May on Church Farm House in preparation for the excavation as a result of which a set of guide notes was prepared.

A full programme of lectures and visits took place throughout the year. The highlight was the weekend visit in September to Chester and Llandudno where the Society visited the Bronze Age Copper Mines.

A highly successful Christmas Dinner was held at University College where the Society viewed Jeremy Bentham. The Minimart was held on 16th October and raised £1,300. The monthly newsletter was published regularly throughout the year.

OFFICERS

The Society is delighted to welcome Will Parnaby as its new Hon. Treasurer.

The time has come to say farewell to our President, Ralph Merrifield, who is retiring after four years in office. Ralph was only our second President, the first President, Professor Grimes having served from our foundation until his death. Ralph Merrifield has been an exemplary model of our new policy of keeping our Presidents for a fixed term of office and we are delighted to have seen so much of him. Following his retirement he will become an honorary member and we hope he will continue to visit us. We welcome as his successor Michael Robbins, the former President of the Society of Antiquaries. He is our leading railway historian and was formerly managing director of the London Underground.

In conclusion can I express my thanks especially to Dorothy Newbury for running the lectures, visits and Minimart so successfully; to Vikki O’Connor for her valiant work as Membership Secretary; and to all my fellow officers, the committee and the members of the Society for all their help and support throughout the year.

RALPH MERRIFIELD told us that he had many regrets in resigning from the office of President, but nowadays, he said, when he gets into a hole to view an excavation he has difficulty in getting out of it! He praised the work of HADAS, the most active of all London societies, and wished us the greatest success for the future.

Andrew Selkirk said that in the eyes of most people Ralph is “Mr Roman London”, and his vote of thanks to Ralph was heartily endorsed by Society members.

MICHAEL ROBBINS was unanimously elected as our new President. ELECTION OF OFFICERS

Our Vice-Presidents were confirmed in office:John Enderby, Miss D.P.Hill, Brian Jarman, Daphne Lorimer, Mary Phillips and Edward Sammes.

Officers were re-elected: Andrew Selkirk as Chairman, Brian Wrigley as Vice-Chairman, Liz Holliday as Hon. Secretary, Will Parnaby as Hon. Treasurer.

A Committee was also elected: Bill Bass, Micky Cohen, Victor Jones, Dorothy Newbury, Vikki O’Connor (previously co-opted), Peter Pickering, Edward Sammes, Andy Simpson, Myfanwy Stewart, Roy Walker, Micky Watkins.

“BARNET BEFORE DOOMSDAY” : FILM SHOW AFTER THE AGM

This film is a surprise and delight for HAAS members. It is a really professional film on the archaeology of our area, made for Channel 4, though never broadcast. The stars are all well known to us: Brigid Grafton Green, Isobel McPherson, Helen Gordon, Paddy Musgrave, Daphne Lorimer, Ted Sammes. Sadly we have lost Brigid, Isobel, and Paddy, but the film brings them to us again and will be treasured by their families and friends. The general geological and archaeological development of the North Thames area is presented by Steve Harman of Channel 4, who uses maps and diagrams to show us how this hilly area on the edge of the Thames basin has some special qualities which made it a desirable residential area for our mesolithic ancestors as well as for the Romans and ourselves. Daphne Lorimer at the West Heath site showed us flints used for arrows and for scrapers, and demonstrated knapping for us. Ted Sammes was at Church End, Hendon, and explained that the high hill and good views made it a desirable settlement for both Romans and Saxons. Brigid Grafton Green showed us a mortarium from Brockley Hill demonstrated how it was used to grind herbs and spices, and actually made up a recipe for a Roman marinade. Isobel Macpherson and Helen Gordon showed the probable courses of Roman roads on maps, and then walked some of them with the camera team. Paddy Musgrave showed how hedges could be dated by the number of species and told us that a hedge in Lyttleton playing field was probably 700 years old. All our ‘stars’ gave really interesting and clear explanations of the finds, there was no nervousness, but a great enthusiasm to communicate.

Our thanks to Tessa who made copies of the film, and to Christopher Newbury who wired up the video and provided us with 2 screens. Another showing may be possible if enough members are interested.

There was a fine display, mounted by Bill Bass, of the work at Church End, Hendon and at the Victoria Maternity Hospital in Barnet, and we had the pleasure of handling the pottery finds.

“RUSTIC WALKING ROUTES IN THE LONDON VICINITY”

Our thanks to Dr Finch for sending us photocopies from this guide book of c. 1900. The cover shows two ladies sensibly dressed with ankle-length skirts and large hats. Despite all this clothing, the ladies could step out, for the walks are 6 to 8 miles long. It would be fun to try one of the walks, guide in hand, for instance, between Hendon and Edgware, down Church Lane take “the gate of a path which passes under two railway arches, and then runs through meadow after meadow for about two miles (skirting the Silk Stream at times), until at length it merges into a traffic road”. (see this guide in Avenue House Library)

MICHAEL ROBBINS C.B.E., our new President, has worked for many years in London Transport. After war service in the Royal Engineers, he re-joined the London Passenger Transport Board and became a member of the London Transport Executive and Managing Director of Railways. But in addition to this important career in transport, he has many publications including “The North London Railway”, “Middlesex Parish Churches”, “The Railway Age” and “History of London Transport”. Amongst his many other offices, he has been President of LAMAS, and of the Society of Antiquaries, and Chairman of the Museum of London. We are delighted that he has accepted the office of President of HADAS.

EXCAVATION NEWS from BRIAN WRIGLEY

Church Farmhouse Site. We are carrying on with the processing of finds, and with the paper-work necessary for the interpretation of the site.

East Heath Boundary Ditch. We would be glad of help from anybody who knows about the topography, geology or vegetation of the area. Or indeed anybody who has done any documentary research on the old boundaries might help us in our survey.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS from VIKKI O’CONNOR

We are pleased to welcome Mr and Mrs H.Burgess to HADAS. They may already be known to some of our members as fellow members of the Finchley Society.

After seven years as a HADAS member, Micaela Graham-Yooll and her husband have moved to Argentina. She sends her best wishes to the Society, adding that they can still be contacted through their London address during the summer.

Most members have now renewed their membership, but as 1st April is now two months past – a quick reminder.

Thank you, John Heathfield, for last month’s note on the East Finchley hog market: there is obviously quite a long story behind this. ( I believe the date of 1860 for “The George” was a misprint and should have read 1660? ).

TED SAMMES SEES THE QUEEN

at the 150 Year Celebration of the Royal Archaeological institute.

“On May 11th the Institute held a reception at St James’ Palace in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen. This event was to a degree informal and I must confess that I enjoyed it very much. It was timed to start at 5.45pm and end at 8pm. Not merely was it a chance to mingle with the other 450 members who were present, but to see the Queen at close quarters with no obvious barriers.

Three reception rooms were used to accommodate us all, the Throne Room, the Entree Room and Queen Anne Room, all on the first floor of the Palace. The Royal pictures, the thickness of the carpets and the general brightness of the decoration all excited interest.

Towards the end of the reception, Andrew Saunders M.A.,F.S.A., the current President of the Society and one of our Vice Presidents, presented the Queen with a bound copy of the latest issue of the Archaeological Journal.

The Queen stayed for two hours. After her departure we were free to wander through other state rooms and the Chapel.

It was an occasion to meet many friends and acquaintances, amongst whom I espied Ralph Merrifield and his wife and five other HADAS members.”

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

DINOSAUR BONES – WHO OWNS THEM?

Two amateur collectors have unearthed bones of a Polacanthus on a beach at Brighstone, Isle of

Wight. One collector gave his finds to the Island’s geology museum, but the other intends to display his share of the finds in his own rival museum. We hope the Polacanthus remains can be re-united!

(Daily Mail April 1994)

SEABED ARCHAEOLOGY

Wrecks, war defences, iron-stone workings and a submerged forest are some of the features that have been discovered below the sea on the coast of Durham and Yorkshire. The North East of England is taking the lead in carrying out an archaeological survey in territorial waters, up to 12

miles out to sea. This is part of a survey of all our territorial waters initiated by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in 1992. One very precious find is a piece of woven wood which is thought to be part of a 7000 year old fish-trap. It was discovered by a local pensioner.

(Weekend Telegraph 7 May)

HEVENINGHAM HALL

Those who went on the HADAS visit with John Enderby some years ago may know that after 1981 the house was ‘modernized’ by an Iraqi businessman – 20 bathrooms, holes punched in plasterwork for light fittings! It is good news that the house has changed hands and is now going to be restored.

FAMILY PLANNING IN GREECE AND ROME

From written sources, such as Aristophanes and Pliny, historians know that women used herbal medicines to stop conception, but until recently the effects were supposed to be more magical and illusory than real. Now scientists are finding that medicines prepared from pennyroyal, pomegranates and date palm do in fact reduce fertility. A teaspoonful of Queen Anne’s Lace seeds in water can work as a `morning-after’ pill. The researchers conclude that “women in antiquity had significant control over their reproductive lives”. HADAS members are advised to try less ancient methods.

(Archaeology 47 as reported in The Times 5 May)

A JAPANESE INVENTION for reducing adverse wind currents caused by high-rise buildings is based on the flying buttress principle of medieval cathedrals.

( Daily Mail 8 April )

500,000 YEARS AGO THEY WERE TALLER THAN US

The oldest human remains ever found in Britain have been dug up in a quarry at Boxgrove, near Chichester. They date from time when homo sapiens were evolving. The bone is a tibia – lower leg bone -and as it is larger than in the average modern man, it is suggested that Sussex Man may have been 6ft 3ins tall!

The discovery was made by Dr Mark Roberts of the Institute of Archaeology, London. Boxgrove is one of the most important paleolithic sites in the world. These early inhabitants were living on the foreshore as the sea was higher then, and lived by gathering shellfish,roots and berries, scavenging and hunting. (Independent 18 May)

21 YEARS BACK – NOSTALGIA from DOROTHY NEWBURY Newsletter No 28. June 1973

The 12th Annual General Meeting

“Mr Jarman also reported the Society’s highest ever membership – 174. He emphasised that our most urgent need, if the Society is to go on from strength to strength, is permanent accommodation where we can store our tools, finds from excavations, archives, etc., and work on our various projects. Mr Edward Sammes, who read the Research Committee’s Report, also emphasised this need.”

21 years on and the problem is the same, only we have 20 times the amount of stuff to store.

Dating – An Unexpected Problem – More Nostalgia

“From time to time the Society receives some curious enquiries. On the whole they are, as you might expect, for an archaeological society, of the earth, earthy. Recently, however, a problem with an almost ethereal quality cropped up.

It came in a letter from an author in Reigate, who is preparing a book on the ghosts of London. “I am told,” he wrote to our Hon.Sec., that there have been reports of a ghost of a nun seen in the Lawrence Street vicinity, near the entrance to St. Joseph’s College. Some accounts refer to a sound of singing. I wonder if you can throw any light on this? A date, perhaps? Our Hon. Sec., – who feels a trifle more at home dating a Roman pot than a spirit – was nonplussed; but Mr Wookey, presiding at the A.G.M., gallantly leapt into the breach. He asked all present at the meeting to produce some more facts about this ghost.

One member promptly came up with what maybe the answer – that this is no nun, but instead the ghost of poor Nan Clark, who left her name behind her in Nan Clark’s Lane, Mill Hill. She was a serving maid who was foully murdered in the Lane; and she is said to walk there of a Midsummer Night.

Should any Newsletter reader be able to pad these facts out further (particularly with the desired date of Nan Clark’s demise); or should anyone be able to offer another contender for this ghostly title, the author in Reigate will doubtless be highly delighted.”

ISLE OF MAN from DOROTHY

The more I delve into the history of the Isle of Man the more interesting it becomes. – Round houses, hill forts, Viking ship burials, megalith tombs, early Christian and Norse carved memorial crosses (200 of them), some in situ and some in the Manx Museum; Civil War forts, Medieval castles, unspoiled village folk museums, and the largest working waterwheel in the world, bringing us up to the 19th century.

Most of this came to light in the last war when a famous German archaeologist, Gerhard Bersu, was interned there, having left Germany when Hitler came to power. You couldn’t keep a good archaeologist down and he persuaded the authorities to provide him with 40 diggers from the internment camp. He proceeded to excavate continually, winter and summer, for the rest of the war. (see Current Archaeology No 27 July 1971)

CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM from GERRARD ROOTS

The restoration of the Museum roof continues apace: the old roof has been stripped, the decayed straw removed and the rethatching is now underway. Everything seems on course for our re-opening on 25 July.

Among the many activities going on during closure is the setting up of a schools’ loan collection of Victorian domestic artefacts. The Museum needs to acquire duplicates of its more interesting cooking, cleaning and washing objects for these loan boxes, and I would be very pleased to hear from any HADAS member who might have suitable material. Examples of the kind of things I am looking for are on display at Hendon Library until 25 May.

Gerrard would be very grateful for any help. Please ring 081 203 0130.

HENDON CHURCH FARM HOUSE EXCAVATION 1993

INTERIM REPORT, JUNE 1994

SUMMARY

This site lies on the slope, down to the north west, from Hendon Parish Church which stands on a plateau of higher ground between the valleys of the Dollis Brook/River Brent and the Silk Stream, the higher ground being capped by glacial sands over the London clay. Previous archaeology has shown Saxon and medieval occupation on the plateau near the church, with some pottery evidence of Roman activity. It seems likely that this was the centre of occupation of Hendon as referred to in Domesday.

The site itself is historically documented as having been the back yard of a farm from at least the 17th century, the farmhouse of that date still surviving as Church Farm House museum, a listed building. Documentary evidence indicates that in the 18th century there were buildings over most of the site behind the farmhouse, but these had disappeared before the 19th century OS maps.

It was therefore expected that we should find considerable man-made disturbance to the ground, but in addition to this it was found on excavation that there had been considerable natural soil movement downhill of sandy subsoil from the glacial capping, overlying a previously exposed land surface. This complicates the interpretation of dating from the artefacts found, and makes it important to use care in interpreting artefacts contained in any contexts as being in the same place that they were originally deposited.

With this caution in mind, nonetheless, there are three features found which can confidently be regarded as in their original place:

1. A narrow shallow gully cut into the old land surface, traced over a length of approximately 12 metres;

2. A small pit cut into the old land surface which included four medieval sherds:

3. Section of ditch running north/south filled with burnt material and a large amount of medieval pottery. The trench plan (figure1) shows the extent of the excavations with the positions indicated of the main features found.

The intention was to open up and explore as wide an area as reasonable, taking in the more interesting­ looking contours of the present surface, so as to give a general view and suggest likely matters for further detailed examination. This strategy seems to have worked (or as some might say, we have raised more questions than we have answered!)

Trench 2, in the northern part of the site, is where the landslip was most evident, which is consistent with the general downward slope of the land towards the north west. Figure 2 is a section diagram, (much reduced) of the layers found, showing the quite deep layers interpreted as being the landslip. These layers include numerous artefacts from medieval (c1150) to modern, and are topped by a humic soil above which is a line of bricks appearing to be the remains of an edging to the garden path shown in a mid-19th century OS map, suggesting that the landslip occurred between those dates. The gully and the medieval pit found were cut into the sandy clay layer, the old land surface, below these landslip layers.

Trench 1 showed considerable disturbance of soil rather from human activity than from landslip. The most notable feature was what appears to be a section of medieval ditch running north/south, shown diagrammatically in section in figure 3. The soil below this feature, into which it was partly cut, is of similar description to the old land surface found in trench 2, and it is in this layer that a few Saxo-Norman and Saxon sherds were found.

Trench 3 was started late in the dig and did not get beyond modern disturbance.

MATTERS REQUIRING FURTHER INVESTIGATION

1. Establishing the extent of the surviving old land surface and its slope and conformation.

2. Seeking any more features in the old land surface and their period.

3. Investigating the extent of the surviving medieval ditch and its possible relationship with the Saxon and medieval ditches found in the Church Terrace excavation of 1973/4.

POSSIBLE FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS

Now that our initial wide exploration has given us a better idea of where interesting features may lie below, some further investigations can be suggested of a more limited and less destructive nature.

1. A contour plan of the present surface would be of great help in interpreting the past earth movement found. Figure 4 is a diagram of two contours (83 and 84m OD) which can be approximately placed from measurements of levels already taken, and we should extend this to cover the whole site with measured levels.

2. Resistivity testing in detail in selected areas could pick up:

(a) The continuation and extent of the medieval ditch feature, and

(b) Features in the buried old land surface.

However, we know from experience that on this kind of soil, resistivity results are unlikely to be clear-cut enough to be relied on without the back-up of being tested by probing.

3. Probing by auger could help to confirm (or deny) resistivity results and could also pick up the old buried land surface enabling us to see the extent to which this survives and perhaps to make a contour plan of it.

4. Excavation. Following these investigations we can consider whether the results point to further limited and detailed excavation in selected places.

NEWSLETTER 276 Edited by Liz Sagues MARCH 1994

Di iary

Tuesday, March 1 The Moated Manor Project at Wood Hall

Lecture by Simon Tomson, Excavation Director for North Yorks Council.

This slide-lecture on a current excavation should be of particular interest, as it is it largely within the same period as some of our own excavations. In conjunction with National Power, Simon Tomson and his team are involved in a long-term excavation at Gale Common ash disposal site near Knottingley. Wood Hall was first mentioned in 1328 when it was the property of Queen Isabella, who was known as the she-wolf of France and is thought to have ordered the murder of her husband Edward II in 1327. Bridges across the moat, a very fine gatehouse, and evidence and artifacts of earlier occupation have been found. This is that rare thing, an excavation with no time limit, as it will take up to 20 years to cover the site with the ash from nearby power stations.

Saturday, March 19 LAMAS Conference

At this, the 31st Conference of London Archaeologists, our own Brian Wrigley will be among the speakers in the morning session, on recent archaeological research in the London area. Brian will describe last year’s HADAS dig at Church Farmhouse Museum, Hendon. The afternoon session will be on Roman public building in London. Tickets are £4 from Jon Cotton, Museum of London, London Wall, EC2Y 5HN (071-600 3688 ext 259). HADAS will have an exhibition stand at the Conference.

Tuesday, April 5 Archaeology at St Bride’s Church 1952-1993

Lecture by Gustav Milne.

The church was originally investigated in the 1950s by the late Professor W. F. Grimes, former President of HADAS. Last year, before the replacement of the crypt display, Gustav Milne led a team from University College London to re-examine the standing structure. Some of the results were surprising.

HADAS lectures are held at Hendon Library, The Burroughs, NW4, at 8pm for 8.30pm. Tuesday, May 3 HADAS Annual General Meeting: location to be announced.

Apologies… Apologies… Apologies…

Dorothy Newbury writes:

I hope there were not too many members arriving at the Library on Tuesday February 1 to find it closed. I must admit it was my fault. For 20 years Liz Holliday has nursed me by sending the appli­cation form for the year’s booking on the due date. Liz has been promoted and now, working from Friern Barnet, has no connection with the Hendon bookings, and I failed to send for the form.It was only by chance I phoned the porter at 4pm that day on another matter and was staggered to find we were not booked in. The lecture room was occupied by an exhibition and the Library closed for the evening. Several members rallied round and we phoned as many people as we could think of. The poor lecturer was on the train half­way down from Chester — if he has forgiven us we hope we can arrange an alternative date. I hang my head in shame.

What the papers say…

About old Beirut and new technology

John Schofield, well known to HADAS members for his lectures on London, has been delving into a past rather more distant, as the Independent on Sunday recently reported in a fascinating article on how computer-generated mapping is helping to trace the history of Beirut.

UNESCO provided funding to allow John Shofield to act as an archaeological consultant to the Lebanese as they excavate their civil-war-damaged capital city in an exercise somewhat reminiscent of the digging out of post-Blitz London.

Computer mapping was used in the investiga­tion of the Roman amphitheatre in Guildhall Yard, but the Beirut exercise is on a very much larger scale.

Using as a basis a map of the city drawn by a British naval map-maker in 1841, and underlaying that map with one of the modern city, centuries of history over an area of 160 hectares are being seen on screen. The 1841 map was drawn when Beirut still had two Crusader castles and most of its medi­eval walls, features shown in a near-contemporary sketch of the city’s seashore which also indicates a waterfront apparently constructed of reused Roman columns.

Much earlier structures may also be incorpo­rated into the multi-layer computer imaging, by adding a map — partly conjecture, but still valuable — of Beirut’s Roman remains, drawn following French excavations between the two World Wars.

The Romans’ great port of Berytus was de­stroyed by an earthquake in 551, and finds from that period have already been made in the current ar­chaeological programme, but the high-tech map­ping should help the international team currently at work to uncover more.

The intention is that these should be seen even­tually in the city-centre archaeological park planned as part of Beirut’s reconstruction. A treat in store for adventurous HADAS travellers!

· Rather nearer history concerned The Independent a couple of weeks earlier, when it reported on a survey of dry stone walls in the Lake District. Each valley, the National Trust study concluded, has a “ring garth”, built to divide agricultural land from the rough fellside and thus stop animals grazing on the former. These walls, originally up to five feet high, are thought to date from the 10th-11th centu-

ries. As a result of these findings, the National Trust is to give priority to repairing the ring garths, rather than more recent walls.

· Bizarre news from the Daily Telegraph, of the biggest known dog cemetery in the ancient world, found at Ashkelon in Israel. It dates from the late 5th century BC, and during the 50 years it was in use more than 1,200 dogs (two-thirds of them puppies) were buried there.

“Buried” is the appropriate term — “each car­cass was placed in its own shallow pit, lying on its side, with legs flexed and its tail tucked in around the hindlegs”, the report continues. There were no grave goods, however, (not even bones?) nor any marking of the graves.

Analysis shows that the dogs were not killed, butchered or eaten, and they appear to have died of natural causes. The dig director, Professor Lawrence Stager, of Harvard University, speculates that the dogs were part of a healing cult, common in parts of the Mediterranean and the Near East at the time.

· Dinosaur-mania has provoked a new interest in matters archaeological in the more popular press. The Daily Mail, in particular (thank you, the HADAS member who reads and snips so assiduously), has been particularly enthusiastic.

It has recently reported, for example, on the “Monster that put the bite on Wight”, a 120-million­yea r-old nasty almost as big as a London bus, and has even highlighted, in its property column, homes where there might be the possibility of finding a fossil in the back garden.

Not only dinosaurs, however, attract the Mail’s writers. They have tackled the possible present whereabouts of the gold Schliemann uncovered at Troy, the variety of beers made available to the workers who built the Pyramids, a 5,500-year-old poison arrow “factory” in West Africa, and the ulti­mate treasure-for-tuppence story, of a woman who bought a Pre-dynastic Egyptian pot at a car boot sale.

And one very recent snippet reveals that people in Biblical times suffered just as badly from back­ache as we do today. The evidence comes from the skeletons excavated at a cemetery near Wadi Haifa, Sudan. The bones also showed that the Sudanese of 350BC – 350AD were a long-lived lot, many surviv­ing to the age of 70.

Choosing this illustration to publicise the Church Farmhouse Museum shop as an excellent source of local history publica­tions is purely an exercise of the Editor’s prerogative — I spend many weekends afloat on the Welsh Harp, pictured here in 1870 during the London Swim­ming Club’s Aquatic Festival. The illustration is one of the many in Hendon, Childs Hill, Golders Green and Mill Hill, the splendid compilation by Stewart Gillies and Pamela Taylor of fact and views from the borough’s archives. The book is, of course, on sale in the shop-.

Counting out a republic’s history

The fascinating history of Venice can currently be studied at the British Museum — through the city’s coins.

A small display in the lobby outside the Coins & Medals Department entrance covers a millennium of minting, illustrating the development of the ducat, showing how the Venetians were slow to introduce machine-made coins and incorporating such oddi­ties as coins with fractional values.

Included, too, is a fascinating section on osellas, the coin-medals struck each year by the Doge as gifts to members of the Great Council — they replaced the former presents of wildfowl, by the time of the osellas’ introduction in the 1520s hunted to extinc­tion, and provide a potted history of the Republic, recording events of particular note.

These splendid coins are part of a much larger collection which has been given to the Museum by HADAS member Stella Greenall at the wish of her late husband Philip, who had also belonged to the society. Mr Greenall was well known for his interest in North London trade tokens as well as in the coinage of Venice.

His Venice collection was built up over some 30 years. As a mathematician as well as a numismatist, he enjoyed the elaborate denominations favoured by the Venetians — particularly, says Mrs Greenall, given the numerical conservatism of modern Euro­pean coinage. He was interested, too, in the techniques of minting, in the Venetian Mint — a beautiful and prominent building — itself, and in the coinage of the only Doge who had a full profile portrait of himself on his city’s coinage: when his period of office ended, such personal promotion was stopped.

The British Museum is delighted to receive the gift, and a catalogue combining both the Greenall Gift and its own Venetian material is planned. Venice Preserv’d: the Greenall Gift continues at the British Museum until May 15 .

The doors to Sutton House open at last

Many HADAS members are familiar with Sutton House, the oldest surviving domesticbuilding inEast London and subject of both an outing and a lecture for the society.

Now the good news is that the house, damaged by fire while a major restoration programme was under way, is finally open to the public.

Visitors can see some of the fruits of the ambi­tious partnership between the National Trust and local people, which is turning into an arts and com­munity centre what was once a family home, later became a girls’ boarding school, and later still housed a social services office, then a trades union headquarters and finally squatters. The Young National Trust Theatre is based in the building, there is a café-bar and shop, rooms are available for hire. Historical displays trace the story of the house, built in 1535, and introduce some of the characters associated with it, including its builder, the poor-boy-made-good Sir Ralf Sadleir, and silk merchant Captain John Milward, who added to its decoration.

While some of the past is revealed to visitors through such means as peel-back panels, research continues to unveil more. Meanwhile, a visit is al­ready rewarding.

Sutton House is at 2 Homerton High Street, E9 (081-986 2264). It is open to the public every Wednesday and Sunday from 11.30am to 5.30pm, admission £1.50 (free to National Trust members),

Bill Firth reports that:

At last, there’s action on the Aerodrome

The buildings at Hendon Aerodrome have been suffering from neglect since the RAF left in 1987, and the recession has meant that the site has not been of interest to developers.

Now, one of our local MPs, John Gorst, has taken up the safeguarding of buildings of national interest with the Department of National Heritage during the inquiry of the Parliamentary Select Com­mittee into English Heritage.

As a result the Select Committee recently visited Hendon where they were shown round by Mr Gorst and Dr Michael Fopp, Director of the RAF Museum, and saw the way the buildings are being allowed to deteriorate.

Mr Jocelyn Stevens, Chairman of English Heri­tage, who has given evidence to the committee on the neglect by the Ministry of Defence not only of Hendon but also of our military heritage generally, was also in the party.

There is hope that the site may become part of the neighbouring RAF Museum as an aviation theme park.

Mr Gorst has referred to six years of neglect since the RAF left Hendon, but the historic, listed buildings have been neglected for more than 15 years. When permission was sought to demolish the Grahame-White hangar in 1979 the RAF admit­ted that it was then in a poor state of repair.

This has been brought to Mr Gorst’s attention, but it is a pity that neither our MPs nor English Heritage took any action when we and other inter­ested parties drew their attention to the situation in 1980.

Bill Bass reveals:

The cuts may be mere ruts

Excavations at the Victoria Maternity Hospital, Wood Street, Barnet, were completed on February 12 with final digging and recording of the east-west silted linear feature in trench two.

Previously we’ve been calling this a ditch pos­sibly associated with an earlier alignment of the road, but as the “ditch” in trench one seems to have one “cut” although heavily truncated, the same fea­ture in trench two appears as several “cuts” or pos­sibly “ruts”, perhaps churned up by carts, etc. So a second theory is that it may be a back lane or track behind the 15th century cottages.

We hope to throw some more light on this in the post-excavation stage currently taking place, which will be closely followed by a report. This will enable Oliver & Saunders (site developers) to carry on developing.

The medieval pottery although not large in quantity has produced several interesting examples including a rim and handle sherd from a jug — this has a thumb impressed decoration characteristic of locally-made Herts Grey Ware from Arkley, Elstree and elsewhere. Another sherd may be a “bunghole” from a 15th century cistern of jug form of late Lon­don Ware-type fabric, but this needs confirmation.

These examples appear to fit date-wise with others in the area, eg finds opposite the site (now in Barnet Museum) when it was known as the Victoria Cottage Hospital.

Thanks to all the diggers for braving the ele­ments, and to the Black Horse for letting a muddy rabble warm up in their hostelry.

News in Brief:

· Is there a gremlin working his mischief somewhere? Two mem­bers living in West Hendon failed to receive their copies of the February Newsletter — strange that it should happen twice in the same area. If anyone else, in West Hendon or elsewhere, is not re­ceiving Newsletters, please let Dorothy Newbury (081-203 0950) know, so she can take up the problem with the Post Office.

· The Institute of Field Archae­ologists holds its eighth annual conference on April 13-15, at the University of Bradford. A programme and application form is available from: The Assistant Sec­retary, Institute of Field Archae­ologists, University of Birming­ham, Edgbaston, Birmingham BI5 2TT. Early booking is advised.

· The current display at Church Farmhouse Museum (Until March 27th) is hardly archaeological, but should appeal to any members of theatrical bent. It charts the 50-year-plus stage career of actor Donald Sinden. Some of the items have come from the collection of playbills, photographs and other ephemera stashed away in the loft of his home in Hampstead Gar­den Suburb; other items — such as costumes and paintings—have been loaned by the likes of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

· Something to look forward to: on July 27 the British Museum will open two new galleries de­voted to Europe from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Part of the display will examine the influence on design of the major archaeo­logical discoveries of the late 18th and 19th centuries.

‘The roof, roller-skating and cold baths’

For members who joined in the HADAS visit to St Paul’s last November and enjoyed coffee or lunch at the City of London Youth Hostel, Mary O’Connell has provided further information on the building’s original use —as the Cathedral Choir School. The following is summarised from an article by Paul Ward, of the Guild of the Companions of St Paul, in the City of London Guides Association Newsletter.

Mr Ward traces the history of the school from its medieval foundation, noting that in the years imme­diately before the construction of the Carter Lane school the 16 boys in the choir had attended No 1 Amen Court — a building still in existence — for their education.

The larger school had become necessary when, with the removal of the organ screen in the Cathedral in 1860, a much more numerous choir was required. The new building, designed by Francis Cramer Penrose, went up on land that had formerly been part of the Deanery garden.

He describes the internal arrangements of the school, including its dormitories, lobby where the boys’ mortarboards were hung, carpenter’s shop and fine wood-panelled Prayer Room, but also focusses on what went on outside.

He writes: Ask any old boy of the Choir School during most of its life in Carter Lane what he spe­cially remembers about the School, and the answer would probably be “the roof, roller-skating and cold baths”!

Cold baths every morning, followed by a brisk walk down to the Embankment towards Waterloo Bridge. Roller-skating along Carter Lane after Even­song on Saturday afternoon in the summer, when the cars and carthorses had gone home and that splendid apparatus which we called “Caesar’s chariot” had cleaned up.

“A playground of considerable dimensions on

the roof, wired in, like a bird-cage”, is how “the roof ” was described by another headmaster, the Rev. William Russell. In the summer there was room for cricket nets and in the winter five-a-side football. The school was organised into four forms which would take it in turns to have a period on the roof each day.

Another roof activity was “cradle fives”. A cricket cradle, for catching practice, had been pre­sented to the school during the First World War in recognition of the boys having continued to sing Matins one morning when there was an air raid and one bomb fell only 150 yeards from the Cathedral. This game, rather like five-a-side tennis, was played by throwing and catching the ball, using the cradle instead of a net.

Mr Ward describes, too, the school work de­manded of the boys, the time spent in choir practice — five afternoons a week — and on instrumental music— most boys learned one instrument, some of them two. He lists some famous old boys, including Walter de la Mare, Sir Charles Groves and Jimmy Edwards, and notes that during all or nearly all of the 93 years during which the school was in the Carter Lane building all the boys received board, lodging and education free.

Mary O’Connell adds, for members who have not already tried the Youth Hostel’s refreshments, that it welcomes visitors to good food at reasonable prices.

An invitation to:

Garibaldi… and coffee

The Secretary of the Hampstead and N.W. London Branch of the Historical Association has contacted HADAS to invite our members to their meetings as guests, (if attending, by way of courtesy, one should make a modest donation).

They recently changed venue to Fellowship House, Willifield Way, NW1I. Their next talk, on March 10, will be given by Professor Harry Hearder on the subject of ‘Garibaldi’, commencing at 8pm. Coffee is served after meetings.

If, in the meantime, you would like further information on the Association, please contact: Mrs Joyce Wheatley, 177 Hampstead Way, NW11 7YA, tel: 081-455 2820.

Brigid Grafton Green: memorial delayed

As there is still no definite news of what form the memorial being organised in Hampstead Garden Suburb for Brigid Grafton Green will take, HADAS is concerned that members who contributed towards it should know that their gifts are being kept safely aside.

However, to avoid further time-limit problems on cheques, the society would like to bank these contributions (accounting for them separately, with their intended use clearly identified).

If any members who contributed are unhappy with this arrangement and would like their gifts handled in a different way, could they please contact Dorothy Newbury by the end of March.

This is something for readers to puzzle over for the next month… What is this, and where was it? The answer will be in the April Newsletter. A hint: if you follow the suggestion at the top of page 3, you should find the answer.

News of members

Sadly, this month’s news is of members who are no longer with us.

Mr Alf Mendel, from Hampstead Garden Suburb, had been a member for many, many years. He and Mrs Mendel participated fully in our lectures, meet­ings and minimarts, and they were both with us for the weekend in Chester and Wales in September. Mr Mendel died suddenly while holidaying with his daughter in South Africa in late January. Our sym­pathy goes to Mrs Mendel.

Mr Ferris was a member, with his wife, back in 1978. Their membership lapsed for a while, then after Mrs Ferris died Mr Ferris rejoined and was a regular at lectures and outings. He also was with us for our September weekend. He died suddenly in his doc­tor’s surgery on December 17. He lived with his daughter and our sympathy goes to her.

Planning ahead

The HADAS weekend away:

Once again the Isle of Man is proving difficult to arrange, and expensive — in the region of £250 minimum for five days. Jackie Brooks has been researching the possibilities. School accommoda­tion was located, but mostly in dormitories, and with limited date availability.

Will any member who might still be interested please let Dorothy Newbury know — if there is enough interest, plans will be pursued. Ten passen­gers are needed for cheap rail travel.

Suggestions for an alternative destination will be welcomed. Ideas put forward so far include Cardiff University and South Wales, and Scotland, but others could be investigated.

The Christmas Dinner

Our principal annual social event is also caus­ing problems this year. Prices have risen, with steep charges for rooms, and as much as £5 per person for cutlery and table linen — and those are before the meal is mentioned! Among examples are £480 for the room at Brentford Steam Museum, plus £100 for an engine steaming; £1,000 at the Bank of England; £350 at both the Honorable Artillery Company and Canonbury Academy.

So any suggestions — of places where there is historical or archaeological interest as well as the possibility of eating will be welcomed by Dorothy.

Ideas on both these, please, to Dorothy Newbury on 081-203 0950.

Time to pay up

Subscriptions will be due on April 1. The rates, as last year, are: Adult £8; Second member of same family £2.50; Over 60/Student £5; Institution £8.

A payment slip is enclosed with this Newsletter. Please complete it and send it back to Vikki O’Connor, Hon Membership Secretary, as soon as possible.

No: 275 FEBRUARY 1994 Edited by ANDY SIMPSON

DIARY

Tuesday 1 February Lecture: History and Restoration of the S.S. ‘Great Britain’ –

John Robinson, FMA,

This promises to be a treat for those with interests in industrial or maritime history in particular. Your editor remembers watching on ‘telly’, as a rather awe-struck 10-year-old, the arrival of the ship at Bristol from the Falklands way back in 1970. Both he – and the ship – have changed somewhat since!

Tuesday 1 March Lecture: The Mooted Manor project at Wood Hall – Simon

Tomson, Excavation Director for North Yorks Council.

In conjunction with National Power, he and his team are involved in a long-term excavation at Gale Common Ash Disposal site near Knottingley. Wood Hall was first mentioned in 1328 when it was the property of Queen Isabella who was known as the she-wolf of France and is thought to have ordered the murder of her husband Edward 2nd in 1327. Bridges across the moat, a very fine gatehouse, and evidence and artifacts of earlier occupation have been found. This is an excavation with no time limit – a rare occurrence – as it will take up to 20 years to cover the site with the ash from nearby power-stations where years of coal from the adjoining pits were burnt, This interesting slide-talk is on a current excavation, largely within the same period as some of our own excavations in the Borough of Barnet.

Saturday 19 March 31st Annual LAMAS Conference of London Archaeologists.

11 am – 5.30pm, Museum of London.

The 6 speakers in the morning session will cover recent archaeological research in the London Area, and include our own Brian Wrigley describing last year’s Church Farmhouse Museum, Hendon dig. The afternoon session will be on Roman public building in London. Tickets £4 from Jon Cotton, Museum of London, London Wall, tel; 071-600 3699, ext 259.

Tuesday 5 April Lecture: Archaeology at St Bride’s Church 1952-1993 –

Gustav Milne.

The church was originally investigated in the 50’s by Professor Grimes and in 1993 prior to replacing the crypt display a team from University College, London, led by Gustav Milne re-examined the standing structure with some surprising results.

Lectures are held at Hendon Library, The Burroughs, NW4, starting at 8pm for 8.30pm.

MEMBERS’ NEWS Dorothy Newbury

We note with pride that four of our members – Mary O’Connell, Sheila Woodward, Brian Wrigley and Ted Sammes are all giving talks to various local societies,

PAM TAYLOR

Our thanks to Pam Taylor who has accepted boxes of papers covering George Ingrams’ notes and research on Hendon. She has been through them all and placed them in the Borough Archives. More importantly, she has supplied us with five sheets of the catalogued material which is available for any member wishing to research any of the subjects therein. Copies of the list will be made and deposited with Roy Walker at Avenue House. George was 93 when he died last year and we must also thank his daughter Ruth for passing this material on to us.

(Some news cuttings on the former RAF Hendon, and the RAF Museum on the site, from George’s collection have also been passed to the RAF Museum Archives Section – Ed.)

REVIEWS AND COUNTER-REVIEWS Dear Editor,

Whatever happened to my old friend Ted Sammes over Christmas? His review of the new Philiimore pictorial history of Hendon was positively Scrooge-like in tone! If the ghost of Hendon Past had been a bit more active at Ted’s bedside, he might have wrung an admission from him that the introductory essay is one of the best features of the book„- well-written and scholarly, a rare combination. And it didn’t even get a mention!

Trying to select over 150 photographs for a book, of this kind must be not unlike choosing those 8 records for Desert Island Discs. You ([now before you begin that there is no way that every topic can be covered and it is not difficult, therefore, for critics to suggest ‘omissions’.

I share Ted’s assessment that the boot is ‘good value for money’: where else could you view a splendid old photograph for only 7p or so with a caption, historical essay, hard covers and an attractive dust-wrapper thrown in forftee?

And before you ask.; “No, I don’t have shares in Phillimore.’s Happy New Year to one and all.

Percy Reboul

Ted Sammes replies:

In reply to Percy,

I originally looked at the title of this boot and decided that, like all others in this very comprehensive Phillimore series, its main function was to present the pictures, which it has again done very well. Incidentally, I intended to convey the idea that I did not approve of pictures covering two pages – it ‘decomposes’ the picture to a large extent. I fear my handwriting was at fault as this does not come over clearly. I react the introduction, presumably by the two authors, and I would agree with Percy Rebours comments on its quality. It is of a standard that we would ea ect from a focal history archive Librarian and the Archivist of the same collection. I to not see the tastof a reviewer to be adulating all the time, nor to mention every aspect of a work., Indeed, a reviewer, at the risk, of offending, should try and point the way to improving things in the future. Liz Holliday in the previous newsletter had already given praise in an advertising blurb. I trust this a subject that now can be allowed to rest now be allowed to rest.

MILL HILL – A THOUSAND YEARS OF HISTORY. By Ralph Calder, illustrations by Ian Brown. Published by Angus Hudson Ltd in association with the Mill Hill Historical Society, 1993. Reviewed by Ted Sammes:

This book, the work of a local historian, is more profusely illustrated than was ‘The Story of Mill Hill’ by the late John W Collier. Ralph Calder had the task of completing John Collier’s book after his death, and no doubt this spurred him on to produce another volume, alas in a different format. All areas have a wealth of local history items and this book does not overlap to any significant degree the previous one. Ian Brown’s illustrations are line drawings with colour washes to add interest. Personally, I don’t like this idea but they do stand out, giving ‘punch’ to each subject. The text is also fortified

by a number of sketch maps which are helpful, Regrettably, the only photograph is in colour, but has a heavy red bias.

An all too rare feature in such books is the short list of Mill Hill residents and the listed buildings in Mill Hill. Some difficulty will be experienced by readers trying to link the two together. Indeed, a more comprehensive index would have greatly increased the value of this book. There is also a short list of some Mill Hill societies. One is left wondering why it had to be printed in Singapore? (Cheap labour to keep the costs down presumably – Ed.) Despite these things, it is an accurate book and very easy to read and digest. It is produced in hardback, with an illustrated dust cover and is priced at £12,99 plus postage and packing from Angus Hudson Ltd, Concorde House, Grenville Place, Mill Hill, NW7 3SA,

THE FIRST HUGH CHAPMAN MEMORIAL LECTURE at the Museum of London Dr Ralph Merrifield, Tuesday 11 January

Review by Ted Sammes:

Our President gave the first memorial lecture to members of the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS); Hugh, secretary of the Society of Antiquaries and well known to many of our members, died tragically in an accident whilst walking along Piccadilly.

Ralph took as his subject “Roman metalwork from the Walbrook – Rubbish, Ritual or Redundancy?” (The Walbrook being one of London’s lost – or rather, culverted -rivers. Ed.) Much of the ironwork recovered came from anaerobic dark mud silts and had been well preserved. He also included votive multiple cups of the Roman period whilst pointing out that during the Roman period many Celtic springs and votive wells were places where hoards were deposited, Such was the case in the Walbrook Valley. At some later time in the Roman period the area was changed from a workshop area, and craftsmen moved out but left behind large quantities of nails and other iron objects.

TRANSPORT CORNER Andy Simpson

The impending privatisation of London Transport’s bus operations claimed another victim in early December 1993 with the closure of Finchley Garage. The main reason for the closure was the transfer of the Garage’s lengthy Routemaster operated route 13, North Finchley – Aldwych via Golders Green, to BTS Buses of Borehamstiff, sorry, Borehamwood. The new operator will continue to operate their own Routemasters on the service, but only from Golders Green,

The Garage, situated just off Bollards Lane, North Finchley, opened on 7th June 1905 as a depot of the Metropolitan Electric Tramways Company and provided trams to work in the Barnet/Finchley/Golders Green/Wood Green/Highgate areas. The depot was heavily rebuilt in 1930 to accommodate the new luxury ‘Feltham’ trams, although trolleybuses moved in in August 1936, sharing the depot with a declining number of trams until final conversion to full trolley bus operation of local routes in March 1938. Conversion to motorbus operation, as with the trams, came in two phases, 1961-2, final conversion to motorbuses (Routemasters) coming during the Blizzard of 2nd January 1962, after a short period of joint motorbus/trolleybus operation.

(OK, who’s going to write in and defend Borehamwood?)

A PLACE OF LEARNING … AND OF IRONING Liz Sagues

There’s an image which remains firmly in the mind after HADAS’s January outing. Irons, ordinary household irons, ready at hand to do the job they’re designed for —smoothing out creases. “Will you do my shirts?” asked one waggish member. “Certainly,” replied the subject of the question, “But it will be expensive.”

Understandable, that response, she would have been moonlighting. We weren’t on an industrial archaeology visit to an old-fashioned laundry, but in a building with a much more cerebral purpose. There was some new technology around, but a lot more of the old — including the irons.

The British Library Newspaper Library has been at its spacious site in Colindale since the first decade of the 20th century. As with books, so it is with newspapers— a copy of every one printed in Britain, national or local, paid-for or free, popular or serious, has to be deposited with the British Library. And as with books, the Library wouldn’t dream of throwing any away. On shelf after mile of shelf at Colindale is the evidence of this studious squirrel instinct,

After the introduction from our enthusiastic and well-informed guides Jill and Stewart (recently of Barnet Council’s archives department), we crocodiled down the road to the warehouse where the newspapers (and magazines and other popular periodicals) arrive, some 2,500 different titles, if I correctly remember one among many, many statistics, The technology of the delivery is rather more modern than that before World War One — then, it was by weekly horse and cart from Bloomsbury. (To clear up continuing confusion, a reminder: the British Library split off from its better-known parent, the British Museum, in 1973.)

Class War or The Times, Classical Music or the Barnet Press, they were all there alphabetically on shelves which stretched high above our heads, the upper levels full of older, microfilmed copies carefully wrapped in acid-free packaging for long-term storage,

Back to the main site, and the tour continued to the area where each paper is recorded and dilatory publishers chivvied for missing copies. Then through just a small part of the storage area, from which staff extract the bound volumes or microfilm reels which readers request, an archive of more than three centuries of contemporary events. We were allowed a brief time to browse among titles past: children’s magazines from the 1930s, when young readers clearly coped cheerfully with text more solid than today’s Guardian; journals of public health and confectioners, digests of footwear makers and printers, magazines illustrating cars and caravans long consigned to the scrapyard,

These, and all the other millions of issues of thousands of publications, can be consulted by any adult who can give library staff proof of identity to claim a pass. Opening hours are 10am to 4.45pm, up to four volumes or microfilm reels can be requested at a time (delivery is about half on hour, but you can ask for what you want by phone the previous day to avoid the wait) and photocopies can be ordered. Though there is lots of reading space, it does fill up, Early morning arrival is advised.

But the irons? You’ve noticed, no doubt, the references to microfilming. Newspapers are essentially transitory, fragile things, and microfilming is a way to make them accessible to readers, without destroying the original, as well as providing a source of income from sales of copy reels to other libraries and research institutes, The Library wants the best possible results, and creased and crinkled papers don’t photograph well. Hence the large room of ironing tables, each with its standard Rowenta or Morphy Richards or Hoover, and the irons beside each of the camera positions, for last-minute titivating of the subjects before exposure.

Altogether, that section of the Newspaper Library was almost surreal, from the lady in white gloves checking the exposed film, through the cassette of Bach suites to block out the whirrs and clicks for a camera-operating colleague, to the wall smothered with pin-ups of pussycats as a visual relief from all that small grey print.

The research possibilities of the Library are limitless, and it is an institution Barnet should be proud to house. A place of history reported as it was made, and — for someone who has worked on newspapers for nearly 30 years — a realisation that what is written one week is not, after all, forgotten the next.

VICTORIA MATERNITY HOSPITAL DIG (Wood Street, Barnet) Bill Bass

For our excavation team the labour is continuing at the above site – in spite of cold/rain/wind/snow/ice (ahh!). Weather has stopped play on several occasions but good progress has been made, the wettest December for some time has meant some diggers becoming adept at techniques of marine archaeology!

Work on trench one is nearly complete. Features here include a brick-lined drain and soak-away, a silty ditch deposit, also a pebble floor. Make-up of the ground appears to be mostly modern brick rubble, with sand and gravel. There are no signs of the earlier 15th century cottages as yet. (Le. those shown on old maps.) A start has been made on trench three on the southern boundary. It lies under grass and is rather less disturbed – it may be a garden area with several turf lines and sherds of ‘flowerpot’ visible down to what now appears to be two stepped terraces of clay, the brick fragments found within them indicating it is not natural.

Work on trench two has re-commenced, paying particular attention to the east-west ditch which appears to run beneath the hospital and into trench one. It is hoped to fully excavate this feature with a view to maximising the recovery of finds as well as accurately recording its location in relation to present day Wood Street; hopefully, we may have some evidence of its origin by the time the dig is finished.

The hospital was once a grand Georgian Mansion, fronting fashionable Wood Street and overlooking the Dollis Valley towards Totteridge. It now stands in a sea of compressed demolition rubble, perhaps reminiscent of a war-torn area. Its structure is now gutted and encased with scaffold ready for new work to begin.

All this is in contrast to our summer dig at the Church Farmhouse Museum – warm sunshine, leafy garden, cellar room with lighting and heating – those were the days… Volunteers are welcome at Barnet; if it’s still raining, please bring scuba gear, flippers, sonar-scanning equipment and inflatable dinghy – thanks!

(Since the above was written, work has continued on all three trenches, producing further evidence of extensive recent disturbance to the deposits. In addition to the flowerpots we have found our usual selection of clay pipe fragments and residual medieval sherds. The site was visited one night by ‘persons unknown’, and our shed broken into. Fortunately, nothing was stolen, nor any unnecessary damage inflicted either to our equipment, nor to the site. – Ed.)

CALLING ALL COLLECTORS

The Museum of London’s current Events leaflet invites Londoners to enter their personal collections in The People’s Show 7994, an exhibition to be held at the Museum in June. The theme is local people’s collections, and 48 museums in the UK will be involved. If you are interested in sharing the fruits of your hobby/passion with the world, please contact: Rory O’Connell at the Museum of London on 071-600 3699, before 28 February 1994. (If you DO exhibit, please let the HADAS N/L editor know!)

From ‘THE INDEPENDENT 4.1.94 BIII Bass

A previously unknown Roman port, including 40 stone buildings, has been discovered in Kent, near the banks of the river Swale, north of Faversham. It appears to have functioned as a substantial port from the 1st century AD until well after the Roman period. Of equal importance are the results of research which indicate that the site -or its environs – was still an important port in the Anglo-Saxon period.

The site was located by Paul Wilkinson, a post-grad student, while preparing a thesis on ancient ports in north Kent, Finds so far are: roof tile; fragments of mosaic; hypocaust; tile; glass vessels; coarse and saurian pottery.

Some pieces of evidence suggest the place was of substantial importance in Roman and Anglo-Saxon eras. Firstly, it formed part of a royal estate associated with a rich Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Secondly, new research indicates there may have been an Anglo-Saxon royal tomb in the vicinity under a huge mound. Thirdly, the port – known to the Anglo-Saxons as Cillincg, was chosen in 699 by the Kentish king, Wihtred, as the venue for a meeting of all his nobles. The minutes of the meeting still survive in the form of a royal charter written on vellum in either 699 or the following century,

The site’s continuity of use from Roman port to Anglo-Saxon royal estate and port is extremely rare and is paralleled in the name of Faversham itself. It actually means “metalsmith’s settlement”, the first part being from the Latin ‘faber’ – (metalsmith), the second part being Anglo-Saxon for settlement. Research and excavation will continue into who built it, when and why.

MEANWHILE, IN GREECE Andy Simpson

Also in the news recently was the American Archaeologist who claims to have found traces of one of history’s great naval battles, famous for changing history and for the love affair of the centre of it.

Dr William Murray, leader of the US-Greek team Project Actium, has, by sonar contacts, identified 22 ancient oared warships 150′ down below the surface of the Ionian sea, two miles off the west coast of Greece.

He believes them to be part of the fleet commanded by Mark Antony and his lover Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, defeated at Actium by Octavian Caesar, Julius Caesar’s adopted son, in 31BC. Tradition, repeated by Shakespeare, has it that the defeated lovers committed suicide after the battle, defeat largely being due to Cleopatra. Against Antony’s generals’ wishes she joined his invasion fleet of 500 ships with 60 of her own and when the battle was still in the balance suddenly sailed off with her fleet, A distracted Antony breaking off the engagement and losing over 400 of his ships in the ensuing rout. Dr Murray believes the 22 ships he has found are some of the 60 burnt by the Roman victors.

This summer the team will attempt to find the bow mounted rams of the ships, which they hope to match to sockets built to hold 35 rams from Antony’s warships at the Temple of Apollo of Actium enlarged by Octavian to commemorate his victory, thereby proving the identity of the ships.

“DIGGING IN JORDAN: BRITISH MUSEUM EXCAVATIONS AT TELL ES-SA’IDIYEH”

This exhibition should prove especially interesting to members who attended Ted Sammes’ talk in April 1992, about his visit to Jordan (report in Newsletter 244), He was fortunate in visiting Tell es-Sa’idiyeh two days after Jonathan Tubb had completed an excavation for the British Museum, The site was occupied from the early Bronze Age until c,700BC, The exhibition is in Room 88 (Basement) at the BM until 13 March,

HADAS has just lost one of its most distinguished members through the sad death of Alan Hill. This was extremely sudden. On Thursday 16th December I was him with Enid at the Society of Antiquaries’ Christmas Party, as cheerful as ever. When he returned home he said he felt ill. Enid took him to the Royal Free where he died of a massive heart attack at 5 o’clock next morning, aged 81.

Alan only came to archaeology quite recently. In his professional life he was Managing Director of Heinemann the publishers. He joined Heinemann in 1936, soon after he came down from Cambridge. Heinemann was at the time one of the big publishers of fiction – Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Nevil Shute and J B Priestly, and Alan was put in their most junior department, the Education books. However, Alan was a publisher of genius and, as the fiction side of Heinemann declined, so the education side increased enormously and eventually it was realised that it was the educational side that kept the whole firm afloat and Alan became Group Managing Director.

He also had a very strong influence in foreign publishing, particularly in West Africa where he launched the African Writers Series, – the first time that a British publisher had deigned to publish African writers, and as a result virtually all the leading African writers appeared in the series. He went on to publish books all over the world, not only in the Commonwealth, but also in East Asia, Japan, China and Russia, tramping round the countries, visiting bookshops, sometimes accompanied by Enid.

Since his retirement he has taken up archaeology, spurred on by his wife Enid. They were both active members of HADAS and Alan was also on the Council of the Prehistoric Society as their promotion manager and he had recently been elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. When I last saw him Alan was busy thinking up ways of improving the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. He was one of the great movers and shakers of this world – a superb publisher who had published a series of Regional Archaeologies. He was always pushing for new projects and always in such a way that you felt he was on your side.

In all this he was immensely helped by his wife Enid. They met when he was 16 and she was 14; he was at Wyggeston Grammar School at Leicester and she was at Wyggeston Girls’ School, and when she was 14 and he was 16 they decided to get married. The did not tell anyone – least of all their parents, and it took 10 years before they actually got round to the wedding day. In the meantime Alan had gone up to Jesus College, Cambridge to read History while Enid went to Oxford to read History and obtain a Hockey Blue. They have a daughter and two sons, and numerous grandchildren. Enid herself joined in the publishing business and was for many years manager of the Loeb Classical Library, the classical students’ best friend, where classical texts are published with the Greek or Latin on one side and the English translation on the other.

Alan himself wrote a splendid autobiography “In Pursuit of Publishing”, describing his sometimes surprising part in a big business conglomerate. Coming from a non­conformist background, he had strong socialist principles, which at times seemed at odds with his great entrepreneurial skills. But perhaps as a result of this, and his enormous capacity for fun and enjoyment, he ran a very happy firm and enjoyed a very happy life. In all this, Enid played a vital role, and our sympathies go out to her.

HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND CONSERVATION COMMITTEE OF THE LONDON & MIDDLESEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Peter Pickering

I have since 1978 been a member of this Committee, having joined it as a Committee member of the Finchley Society. Its terms of reference are “to collect information and take action to save historical buildings of value threatened with demolition or alteration, and to preserve the character of historic areas, and to act with other societies in cases for conservation at public inquiries”.

In practice most of the Committee’s work comes from the rule (under DoE circular 8/87) that all applications to demolish or alter listed buildings must be sent by the local planning authority to a number of national societies, of which the Council for British Archaeology is one, and LAMAS is the agent for the CBA in London, All boroughs are supposed to send the Committee notifications of all such applications. In fact, compliance varies amongst boroughs; some seem to send every planning application they receive which affects a listed building, or an unlisted building in a conservation area, in however minor a way, while others seem to send only total demolitions or the most major alterations; Barnet falls into the latter category. Some, of course, may not comply with obligations at all.

For longer than I have been a member, the Committee has been under the chairmanship of Mr Dennis Corble. It aims to have people on it from all over London, usually nominated by local societies, and it keeps contact with societies in areas where it does not actually have a serving member. It meets every six weeks or so, and members may be asked by the Chairman to report on applications in their area and advise the Committee whether to take any action. Members are not however restricted to their own area, and since the Committee has many members of great knowledge and experience, discussions are well-informed and lively, and I have greatly enjoyed them and learnt a lot from them. Fascinating cases during my time have included the Prudential Insurance Building and the London Diorama.

The CBA has at times argued that its constituents should take into account only strictly archaeological aspects of cases, and at other times that objections should always be made to proposals to change historic buildings. But the Committee takes both a wider and a more pragmatic view of its remit, and takes aesthetic and practical matters into account, not objecting to changes that make it likely that a building will have a useful future, even if some of its character is lost in the process. The most recent local case with which the Committee has been concerned is the former RAF Officers’ Mess, to the proposals for which it has objected on the grounds that the new buildings would overwhelm the existing one and that they have a lower standard of design.

(Middlesex University hope to convert the mess and its surrounding five acres into Student Halls of Residence. – Ed.)

MEMBERSHIP NEWS Vikki O’Connor

Only four weeks left of this membership year. A renewal form will be enclosed with your next newsletter. If you had problems with your Standing Order last April, could you double-check with your Bank that they have the correct amount in favour of HADAS at Girobank. Thank you.