Latest Newsletter

No. 635 February 2024 Edited by Andy Simpson

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Tuesday 13th February 2024: The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture

‘A life in sherds‘

In this talk, HADAS President Jacqui Pearce looks back over half a century of developments in the world of ceramic studies in London, focusing particularly on fabric identification, the medieval and later pottery type-series, studies of excavated kiln sites, archaeological biography as seen in major household clearance assemblages, clay pipe studies and the importance of professional and non-professional archaeologists working together, especially through HADAS evening classes over several years.

Tuesday, 12th March 2024: ‘The Battle of Teutoburg Forest AD9; The Massacre of a Roman Army’

A Talk by Robin Densem. Newsletter readers will recall Robin’s excellent article on the battle- and the resultant loss of three legions- in NL631, October 2023.

Tuesday, 9 April 2024: ‘Traders, Bargees, Ferrymen and a Seagull; Life and Work in Roman Pisa’

A talk by Ian Jones, Chairman, Enfield Archaeological Society.

Tuesday, 14 May 2024: ‘London’s Roman Tools‘

A talk by Owen Humphries

Tuesday, 11 June 2024

Annual General Meeting, followed by a lecture by Jacqui Pearce: ‘Clay Pipes‘

Lectures held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.

Buses 82, 125, 143, 326, 382, and 460 pass close by, and it is a five-ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line where the Super Loop SL10 express bus from North Finchley to Harrow also stops.

Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.

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Post-Excavation Work ANDY SIMPSON

Work on identifying and dating the considerable quantity of finds from the 17th October 2023 one day back garden trial excavation in East Finchley organised by Roger Chapman and undertaken by him and Janet Mortimer continues at Avenue House. The official site code HAY23 has been obtained by Bill Bass.

The Sunday team undertaking this work meet most Sundays,10.30 am – 1pm (ish) and visitors are welcome.

The next big Sunday project is likely to be the sorting and reboxing of the sizable ‘West Heath 1 (1970s) and 2’ (1980s) collection of flint finds and archive, long worked on and stored by Myfanwy Stewart, and now nearing publication.

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Advance Notice

Saturday 23rd March, 11 am. – 5.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S Archaeology Conference, Museum of London, Docklands, West India Quary, off Hertsmere Road, London E14 4AL., Tickets available via Eventbrite. Details and how to book on L.A.M.A.S. website. Please visit www.lamas.org.uk 11 am – 1 pm. Morning session – Recent Works; 2 – 5 pm. Afternoon session – The Department of Urban Archaeology (50th Anniversay) and the Department of Greater London Archaeology (40th Anniversary) including 4.30 pm. Top Ceramics from 50 years of Excavation in London. Talk by Jacqui Pearce (HADAS President) 5 pm. The Rose Theatre and the DGLA. Talk by Harvey Sheldon (Former HADAS President).

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DRAINING THE WELSH HARP ANDY SIMPSON

Newsletter readers may remember that back in January/February 2021 the Welsh Harp (Brent) Reservoir, originally constructed 1834-35 to supply water for the Grand Union Canal, was temporarily partly drained to permit inspection of the main dam head wall and associated structures at the Wembley end of the reservoir, revealing the original course of the Silkstream. This was reported in my article ‘Welsh Harp Water Level lowered’ in NL600, March 2021.

Between mid-December 2023 and February2024 the whole reservoir was completely drained to permit essential statutory improvement works by the Canal and River Trust (formerly British Waterways) who manage the reservoir; the land around it is owned by the London boroughs of Barnet and Brent. This was to deal with issues identified during the 2021 inspection. Supported by funds from the Peoples’s Postcode Lottery, work will include repairs to the chains and rods that operate the reservoir’s sluices controlling the water levels in the reservoir and repainting of the Valve House Tower that houses the sluice mechanisms. A major removal of accumulated rubbish and litter is also planned along with wildlife habitat improvements in this 170-acre site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)- over 200 bags of litter being removed by volunteers on 13 January alone; a Victorian knife and ‘old gun’ were also recovered.

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An open day was due to be held at the Welsh Harp on 3 February 2024 to give visitors a chance to see ‘what lies beneath the surface’ and visit the sluice gates and see the drained reservoir bed up close. When full, the reservoir contains over one million cubic metres of water – enough to fill 400 Olympic swimming pools.

Also related are developing plans for work on the West Hendon playing Fields. Barnet Council wants to ‘transform West Hendon Playing Fields into an exciting new park …The new park proposals will include new play areas, recreational spaces, sports facilities, improved infrastructure, and expanded leisure amenities’ Although supposedly intended to enhance local wildlife and biodiversity, whilst inclusively serving the ever increasing population ofWest Hendon/Edgware Road tower blocks with opportunities for physical activity and recreation, it is to be hoped that this does not mean the destruction of the pleasingly semi-wild nature of the area. The most recent public consultation on these plans, originally propped in a 2019 Master plan, closed in December 2023. The following link to an earlier consultation (also now closed) includes a useful map of the area and the proposed changes;

WEMBLEY MATTERS: Respond to Barnet’s plans for West Hendon Playing fields at consultation meeting tomorrow. It is expected that the reservoir will be refilled with water in April 2024.

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COLINDALE STATION REBUILDING ANDY SIMPSON

Helped by Government Levelling Up funding, work to redevelop the Northern Line Edgware Branch’s Colindale station site by Transport for London begins Spring 2024. Before it all changes. I thought I had better record the existing structures, whose demolition and replacement by new structures will in part necessitate closure of the station and the line from Golders Green to Edgware from 2 to 11 April 2024 and similar weekend closures for much of June, followed by a longer closure period in the summer and autumn of 2024 to be announced.

The current entrance hall, opened in December 1962, was originally built as part of a large office development, since demolished. This replaced a temporary structure erected in 1960 in place of the original entrance building, opened on Monday, 18 August 1924 as part of the extension of the then London Electric Railway’s line over the three miles from Hendon Central to Edgware via Colindale and Burnt Oak; work on this had begun in November 1922. This temporary booking hall stood on the plot of land occupied from 1964 by the 28-space car park which has just closed as part of the redevelopment.

The Portland stone Doric colonnade portico frontage and booking hall of the original Georgian style red brick building of 1924, which had been designed by Underground Group architect S.A. Heaps, was completely destroyed by two direct hits by German high explosive bombs including a landmine on the night of 25th September 1940 during the London Blitz, killing 13 people including four RAF Hendon airmen in a train that was entering the station at the time of one explosion; many other people were injured, the adjacent Colindale hospital also being hit. King George VI and Queen Mary visited the following day to inspect the damage, accompanied by the Mayor of Hendon. An initial wooden temporary replacement structure was then erected.

A memorial plaque to the civilians and London Transport staff was unveiled on the station concourse on 25th September 2012, the anniversary of the raid.

The current building will be replaced by a large new entrance hall to be flanked by large multi-story blocks of flats and, for the first time, a lift giving step-free access from the street to platform level. The new structure will have a hybrid timber and steel roof structure, the laminated timber being intended to reference early aeronautical engineering in the area with personalities such as Claude Grahame White.

As well as the upgrades to the tube station, a new residential and commercial development will be built on the old ticket hall and car park site comprising 313 new homes, half of which should be ‘affordable’. For images of the new development see

Colindale and Leyton tube stations set for £43.1 million step-free upgrades (ianvisits.co.uk)

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Some of the historical details above, and much else besides on our local underground lines, can be found online in archive editions of the London Underground Railway Society’s monthly journal:

https://www.lurs.org.uk/historicalarchive.htm

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WHEN IS A CASTLE NOT A CASTLE? JANET MORTIMER

When we talk of castles, we tend to think of them either as magnificent surviving structures like Edinburgh Castle or glorious ruins like Kenilworth Castle. However, Oakham Castle in the county town of Rutland is a complete exception. There is a small amount of the original castle walls which you could easily walk past without noticing and part of the motte survives – but it has to be signposted so you know what it is. However what does survive is the magnificent Great Hall which was built between 1180 and 1190 and is acknowledged as one of the finest examples of domestic Norman architecture in the country.

Inside the Great Hall is a surprise as the place is adorned from floor to ceiling with horseshoes. It has become a custom for visiting dignitaries to commission a decorative horseshoe commemorating their visit, and there are many from the Royal family, including the late Queen and Prince Philip and even Queen Victoria when she was still Duchess of Kent.

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There are conflicting theories about how the horseshoe tradition started but the oldest one dates from 1470. There is even one from Time Team when they dug around the Castle in 2012.

In my view, the best thing about this Castle is that it is still very much at the heart of the community. Not only is it a visitor attraction which you can visit for free most days, but it is also used for weddings, gatherings and parties. And to retain its status as one one of the country’s longest continually used courts, a Crown Court session is held there once every two years. Presumably these days people are not sentenced to a stint in the stocks, which still exist outside the castle in the Buttercross – a type of market cross dating back to the 17th century.

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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

As always, please check with the societies – for example via their websites – before planning to attend in case of any late changes, since not all societies and organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions.

Monday 12th February, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Historic Hendon. Talk by Rhiannon Watkinson. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk for details.

Tuesday 13th February, 6 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Lecture Theatre, G6, Institute of Archaeology, U.C.L, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY. AGM and Presidential Address given by Professor Vanessa Harding on Mapping Medieval London. Also on Zoom. Details on Eventbrite. Booking essential. Please visit Lectures (lamas.org.uk).

Wednesday 14th February, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, NW7 3TB. Please note there is a change to the talk shown in the January Newsletter. It is now a talk on Ayrton House, The Ridgeway – by Honor Barrett, with a brief history of the National Institute for Medical Research Centre, where this now stands. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.

Friday 16th February, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. Talk on Zoom. How London Got Its Walls. Some Stories of Third Century Resurrection Gleaned from Archaeological Discovery – by Dominic Perring (I.o.A). Preceded by a A.G.M. Please book via Eventbrite. Visit City of London Archaeological Society (colas.org.uk).

Friday 16th February, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s new church) Church Lane, Kingsbury. NW9 8RZ. Decolinising Wembley. Talk by Nabil Al-Kianai. Examines the legacy of the 1924 Wembley Exhibition. The echoes of Empire that still resound. Visitors £3. Refreshments available afterwards.

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Tuesday 20th February, 2-3 pm. Eclectic Tours. Headstone Manor Museum, Pinner View, North Harrow, HA2 6PX. What was The London Aerodrome? Talk by Lisa Lu. Explains more about the London Aerodrome before it became RAF Hendon, cost £2.50. Please book on Tuesday Talk: Tuesday Talk: What was the London Aerodrome? – Headstone Manor Museum.

Also, Saturday 24th February, 1-3pm. Discovering Colindale and Its Role in Early Aviation. Colindale (or Hendon as it was known back then) was synonymous with flying. Learn about early Aviation and other factories and important institutions in the area. This is a tour and costs £15. For more information and to book got to WALKS & TALKS (Eclectic Tours – Walking Tours – London, England (eclectic-tours.com)).

Saturday 24th February, 9.30 am – 5 pm. Current Archaeology Live 2024. U.C.L Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way (off Russell Square), London WC1H 0AL. Wide range of expert speakers sharing latest Archaeological finds and research. Also Archaeology Fair and Photography competition from Current World Archaeology. Also the Current Archaeology awards will be announced at 5 pm. Tickets on sale at standard price of £60. To book please visit Current Archaeology Live! 2024 – Current Archaeology or call 0208 819 5580. The keynote speech will be Behind The Scenes of The Team – 30 Years in the Media Limelight given by Dr John Gater. The Fair has lots of stalls with travel companies, booksellers and other Archaeological organisations.

Thanks to our other contributors this month; Eric Morgan; Janet Mortimer.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman: Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS
(020 8440 4350) e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary: Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer: Roger Chapman 50 Summerlee Ave, London N” 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec.: Jim Nelhams 61, Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS
(020 8449 7076) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website at: www.hadas.org.uk

Join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 634 JANUARY 2024 Edited by Jim Nelhams

Happy New Year to all our readers.

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and events

Lectures are normally face-to-face though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/coffee available for purchase after each talk.

Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.

Sunday 21st January 2024 – Afternoon Tea at Avenue House, 2:30 – 5:30pm

The size of the room limits us to 30 people and we are approaching that number. If you have not registered and wish to come, please phone Jim Nelhams on 020 8449 7076 or email membership@hadas.org.uk.

Tuesday February 13th 2024: The Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture

A life in sherds

In this talk, Jacqui Pearce looks back over half a century of developments in the world of ceramic studies in London, focusing particularly on fabric identification, the medieval and later pottery type-series, studies of excavated kiln sites, archaeological biography as seen in major household clearance assemblages, clay pipe studies and the importance of professional and non-professional archaeologists working together, especially through HADAS evening classes over several years.

Tuesday March 12th 2024

Robin Densem – ‘The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest AD9: The massacre of a Roman army’

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Tuesday April 9th 2024

Ian Jones – ‘Traders, Bargees, Ferrymen and a Seagull; Life and Work in Roman Pisa’

Tuesday 14th May 2024 – to be advised

Tuesday 11th June 2024 – Annual General Meeting + lecture

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HADAS wins Quiz Jim Nelhams

The Finchley Society has been running a quiz evening at Avenue House each November. Society members Peter Pickering and Stewart Wild were joined by Peter’s son Martin and Jo & Jim Nelhams to enter a HADAS team. Tables were strictly limited to 6 people, though our team started with only four since Stewart had been held up by train problems returning from Kingston upon Thames. All other tables had the full complement. Sue Loveday and Eric Morgan were also in another team.

The quiz started with a music round, always a bad subject for HADAS, but Martin proved our saviour and after that round, surprisingly we were in the lead, a position we never lost.At the end of the evening HADAS triumphed with a lead of four and a half points.

Ancient women were better hunters than men Stewart Wild

When it comes to hunting, the prehistoric fairer sex has the upper hand, according to two studies. Women have a metabolism better suited to endurance, according to Dr Cara Obocock, director of the Human Energetics Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.
Oestrogen and adiponectin are both present in women at higher levels and provide physical advantages over men. Women’s wider hips, a physiological study found, are also an advantage. A second study examined archaeological evidence of bones and found that women often suffered war wounds associated with hunting.

The studies were published in American Anthropologist.
SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 28 November 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild

Florence Nightingale Museum Jim Nelhams

A museum slightly off the beaten track, this is located at 2 Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7EW at St Thomas Hospital. It is just to the west of the south side of Westminster Bridge, opposite the Houses of Parliament.

Normal opening hours are 10am to 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday. Adult admission costs £12 and can be booked online. Nearest underground station is Westminster. Did you know Florence Nightingale was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society? That she owned over 60 cats throughout her life and had a pet owl called Athena. Do you know why she was called Florence?

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Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing, was one of our greatest Victorians and a female icon in her own lifetime. She is still an inspiration to nurses around the globe.

Visit the museum to celebrate the life of this trailblazing woman; discover all about her affluent childhood, how she fought against her parents’ wishes to become a nurse, her work during the Crimean War and how she campaigned for better healthcare for ordinary people. See the actual lamp she carried which earned her the nickname The Lady with The Lamp, meet her pet owl and see her medicine chest.

Nightingale also played a significant part in the design of the rebuilt St Thomas Hospital.

You can still visit an exhibition demonstrating how Nightingale’s leadership and campaigning skills still inspire women today, ‘Nightingale in 200 Objects, People & Places’. And if you’re taking children to the museum, don’t forget to pick up a copy of our Family Trail. More information on florence-nightingale.co.uk.

Iron Age coin find adds king to British history Stewart Wild

A new king has been added to British history after a tiny coin found in a Hampshire field sold for more than £20,000 at auction. Dating from around 50 BC and smaller than a fingernail, the gold quarter stater coin is stamped with the name Esunertos, a previously unrecorded Iron Age ruler.

The find by hobbyist Lewis Fudge has been described by experts as “one of the outstanding discoveries of recent decades.” The coin was dug up by the construction worker in a farmer’s field in the Test Valley in March this year after he was given permission to use his metal detector.

Mr Fudge said: “I am over the moon. If it were not for people in the auction room, I would have jumped around. The collectors I spoke to are gobsmacked.”

The coin bears the ruler’s name and dates to the beginning of written language appearing in the British Isles.

SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 19 October 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild

Digging For Britain 2024 (Enfield Archaeology) Melvyn Dresner

The new series of Digging For Britain, featuring the 2023 summer dig on the site Elsyng Tudor Palace in Forty Hall, will be broadcast on BBC2 and will be available on BBC iPlayer beginning Tuesday 2nd January at 8pm. The episode featuring the EAS dig is slated for broadcast on January 9th at 8pm. The 2023 dig was an excellent year for Tudor archaeology, and EAS are very pleased to be able to share their discoveries with a wider than usual audience.

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During this year’s search for the inner gatehouse of Henry VIII’s palace, the dig discovered several new Tudor structures and, after filming ended, evidence for what EAS currently think may be a substantial cellar.

EAS will be back at Forty Hall in 2024 to continue the gatehouse hunt, and hopefully explore the hidden depths of Henry’s cellars!

(Melvyn also notes that he may not make the final edit, but you might spot his trowel – now there’s a challenge!)

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Dinosaur relic found in island castle grounds Stewart Wild

A dinosaur footprint spotted by a National Trust ranger out on a run could be from an iguanodon dating back up to 157 million years, experts believe.

Sophie Giles stumbled across the print as she jogged in the grounds of Brownsea Castle on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset. It was probably made when the area was covered in tropical forests and swamps and had become easier to see after it filled with water during a rain shower.

The National Trust believes the find is the rear footprint of an iguanodon – a bulky three-toed herbivore that grew up to 36ft long and lived between 93 and 157 million years ago.
Dr Martin Munt, curator of the Dinosaur Isle Museum in Sandown, Isle of Wight, said the print of the hind foot was “comparable to those found on Purbeck, where the stone would have originated.”

He added: “It is certainly what we call a tridactyl footprint, of the date we are talking about; it could have been made by an iguanodontian or related dinosaur.”

SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 16 November 2023, item redacted by Stewart Wild

Draining the Welsh Harp Jim Nelhams

The Welsh Harp is currently being drained by the Canal and River Trust so that repairs can be made to the infrastructure. At the same time, rubbish is being removed and the fish are being netted and rehoused at other Trust locations. On completion, fish will be re-introduced.

There is an open day on Saturday 3rd February from 10-3 but tickets are sold out. Maybe more will be made available. At least one HADAS member has successfully booked, so a report should appear in later newsletters. The date is just too late for the February issue.

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OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Eric Morgan

NOT ALL SOCIETIES OR ORGANISATIONS HAVE RETURNED TO PRE-COVID CONDITIONS. PLEASE CHECK WITH THEM BEFORE PLANNING TO ATTEND.

Wednesday 10th January, 8pm. Hornsey Historical Society. The Old School House, 136 Tottenham Lane (Corner of Rokesly Avenue). London. N8 7EL. London’s Squares and Gardens. Talk by Peter Mathers. Also on Zoom. Please note attendance in person is limited. Please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk/events first and for link.

Friday 19th January, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (Behind St. Andrew’s new church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London NW9 8RZ. Mercy Ships, Talk by Norbert Jannson on the work of the organisation bringing much needed Healthcare to sub-Saharan Africa. Visitors £3. Refreshments available in the interval.

Wednesday 24th January, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. My Family History. Talk by Colin Barratt (Friern Barnet Local History Society). Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme. Non-members £2. Bar to be available.

Thursday 1st February, 5-6pm. Society of Antiquaries. Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE. Also on Zoom. Analysing Myth and Material –Charles 1st’s Knitted Waistcoat. Talk by Beatrice Behlen and Doctor Jane Malcolm-Davies. Lecture is free, but a donation is welcome. Details and bookings through the SAL website www.sal.org.uk/events.

Sunday 4th February, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. Meet at Burgh House, New End Square, London. NW3 1LT. History of the Heath Ponds. Guided walk let by Marc Hutchinson (Chair). Lasts approx. 2 hours. Donation accepted of £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or email hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.heathandhampstead.org.uk.

Friday 9th February, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. The Southsea Coastal Defence Scheme. Future Proofing Against Sea-Level Rise. Talk by Holly Rodgers. Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details. Non-members £1.50 at the door.

Wednesday 14th February, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. The Elegant Explorer, Fortnum and Masons and the Far Flung Traveller. Talk by Andrea Tanner. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.

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Wednesday 14th February, 6 pm. Gresham College. Talk on Zoom – Dragons – A History by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk. Please see Dragons: A History | Gresham College. Free. Talk to answer the difference between Eastern and Western Dragons – if the Western attitude to Dragons has changed in the modern era and if Christianity gave rise to a different idea of what a Dragon should be.

Wednesday 14th February, 8 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Venue and link same as Wednesday 10th January with same restrictions. Talk also on Zoom. Churchill and the Loss of Everest at the Foot of Crouch Hill. By Tom Barclay Matchett will explore the path that brought the future war leader to Crouch End and the woman (Elizabeth Ann Everest) who shaped the man.

Thursday 15h February, 8 pm. Historical Association – Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London NW11 6YD (off of Finchley Road, Temple Fortune) From Enslavement to Chivalry. The Conduct of War in the Middle Ages. Talk by Professor John Gillingham (L.S.E.). Hopefully, also on Zoom. Please email Gulse Koca (Chair) on kocagulse@gmail.com or telephone 07453 283090 for details of link and how to pay. (There may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments will be available afterwards.

Wednesday 28th February, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. Venue as Wednesday 24th January. The First World War in The Air. Speaker to be arranged. Non-members £2. Website as before for details.

Thursday 29th February, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 18 East End Road, N3 3QE. The Skies Above Finchley- A Vertical Journey. Talk by Donald Lyven. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in the interval.

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With thanks to the contributors: Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams & Stewart Wild
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS
(020 8440 4350), email: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488), email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet, EN5 5HS
(020 8449 7076), email: membership@hadas.org.uk

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

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No. 633 December 2023 Edited by Don Cooper

After what is proving to be a difficult year with conflicts everywhere, we
would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas
and Healthy, Happy, Prosperous and PEACEFUL 2024.

HADAS Diary -Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Without a lecture in December or January, we have arranged an afternoon tea to welcome the New Year and for you to meet up with other members. It would be lovely to see everybody and of course, friends and partners too.  Sunday, 21st January,2024.  2.30pm to 5.30pm. Avenue House, 17 East End Road, N3 3QE.   £20 per person includes Finger Buffet (and tea/coffee) – Good company, cash bar – Raffle – Quiz.  Booking details on separate sheet / attachment sent with newsletter.

Tuesday, 13^th February 2024. TBA

March 12^th March 2024 The Battle of Teutoburg Forest AD 9: The Massacre of a Roman
Army.  A Talk by Robin Densem

Tuesday, 9^th April 2024 Traders, Bargees, Ferrymen and a Seagull; Life and Work in Roman Pisa.  A talk by Ian Jones, Chairman Enfield Archaeological Society

Tuesday, 14^th May 2024 Roman London’s tools, a talk by Owen Humphreys. 

The Minoan Double Axe by David Willoughby

There are many unanswered questions about the Minoans who dominated the Aegean, from their bases in Crete in the early Bronze Age. This is in part due to the fact that the writings they have left us in their Linear A script remain undeciphered. Some burning questions are : What are their origins? What language did they speak? What were their religious beliefs and practices and what was the significance of the double axe symbol (Labrys) which is commonly associated with Minoan sites?

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Excavations commenced in 1934 on the Arkalochori cave (which had collapsed in antiquity). This cave is located on the western edge of the Minoa Pediada plain, west of the Lasithi plateau on Crete. It is believed to be a sacred cave associated with the Minoan Palace of Galatas (Rethemiotakis, 1999).

The excavations revealed hundreds of bronze double axes, twenty-five gold ones and seven silver ones. The axes included the second-millennium bronze ‘Arkalochori axe’ with its unusual undeciphered script showing some similarities to Linear A. Also discovered was a hoard of bronze swords and a small altar (Blegen, 1935). Pottery sherds in the cave enabled the deposits in the cave to be dated from the late third millennium BCE to around 1500 BCE (LM II). Similar bronze double axes have been found at the Diktian (Psychro) sacred cave among other gifts or offerings such as miniature vessels and figures of humans and animals (Preziosi & Hitchcock, 1999) and the finds in both caves indicate the axes were deposited as votive offerings. Bronze double axes have also been found in tombs (Evans, 1914).

The double axe has been discovered in many Minoan contexts. It often appears as mason marks, for
example in palatial pillar crypts on the pillar itself. Bronze double axes have been found embedded in stalactites in caves and frescoes show double axes embedded in column capitals. It has been suggested that these pillar crypts may mimic sacred caves with the pillar being a baetyl (sacred stone) representing an aniconic cult statue (Preziosi & Hitchcock, 1999). Double axes appear on sealings (e.g. on a MMII B cretule sealing from Phaistos) and panels on the LMIII A Sarcophagus from Haghia Triada apparently depict burial ceremonies and with two double headed axes mounted on stepped bases between which is a container, into which women are pouring offerings (Preziosi & Hitchcock, 1999). Also depicted on the sarcophagus is a scene showing bull sacrifice.

The double axe features in several other Bronze Age cultures where it is often associated with the storm or thunder god e.g., the Hurrian god Teshup (adopted by the Hittites and Luwians as Tarhun) who is associated with the bull as a sacred animal https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tarhun.

In classical times the Greek god Zeus uses the double axe to invoke a storm (Nilsson, 1967) and the
Diktian cave was the centre of the worship of Zeus with a hymn to the god having been found in
excavations at Palakastro www.explorecrete.com/mythology/dictaean-zeus-hymn.html. Evidence in

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Linear A tablets may indicate that a ‘Diktaian master’ was a Minoan precursor to classical Diktaian Zeus (Valerio, 2007).

Plutarch states that the Lydian word for double axe was ‘labrys’ (Plutarch) and many (including Arthur Evans) have suggested that the word ‘Labyrinth’ means ‘place of the double axes’ (The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2012) but this cannot be proved (Beekes).

The double axe appears to have had great significance to the Minoans and it can be postulated that perhaps that it and even the bull iconography (including the horns of consecration) are associated with an important deity in the Minoan religious pantheon, the storm god, who later became equated with Zeus. There is however, no proven iconography depicting the god himself to support this and indeed double axes are usually associated with female figures, perhaps representing priestesses.

Bibliography
Beekes, R.S.P. Greek Etymological dictionary, 819.
Blegen, E. P. (1935). News items from Athens. American Journal of Archaeology 39, 134.
Evans, A. (1914). The ‘Tomb of the Double Axes’ and Associated Group, and the Pillar Rooms and Ritual Vessels of the ‘Little Palace’ at Knossos. Archaeologia, 65, 1-94.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tarhun (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com
Nilsson, M. (1967). Die Geschichte der griechischen Religion (Vol. I). Munich: Beck Verlag.
Plutarch. (n.d.). Greek Questions, 45, 2.302a.
Preziosi, D, & Hitchcock, L.A. (1999). Aegean Art and Architecture. Oxford University Press.
Rethemiotakis. (1999). To neo minoiko Anaktoroston Galata Pediados kai to ‘Iero Spilaio’ Arkalochoriou.
A. Karetsou, ed. Krites Thalassodromoi, 99-111.
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.). (2012). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Valerio, M. (2007). ‘Diktaian Master’: A Minoan Predecessor of Diktaian Zeus. Kadmos – Zeitschrift für
vor- und frühgriechische Epigraphik, 3-14.
www.explorecrete.com/mythology/dictaean-zeus-hymn.html (n.d.). Retrieved from
www.explorecrete.com

Vikings in Greenland July 2023 by Don Cooper

In early July 2023 Liz and I visited Greenland on a cruise ship as part of a holiday that included Iceland and Greenland. What attracted us to the trip was to see the physical remains of the settlement of Greenland by the Vikings.

According to the Norse sagas Eric the Red byname of Erik Thorvasson was exiled from Iceland, possibly having been found guilty of manslaughter in circa AD 980. He sailed to Greenland, where he explored the coastline and claimed certain regions as his property. He then returned to Iceland to persuade people to join him in establishing a settlement in Greenland. The Icelandic sagas say that 25 ships left Iceland with him in AD 985, and that only 14 of them arrived safely in Greenland. Radiocarbon dating of the remains at the first settlement at what is now called Qassiarsuk have approximately confirmed this timeline, yielding a date of about AD 1000. There are five areas in South-West Greenland with known early Viking remains in and among more modern sheep farms. The areas contain well-preserved landscapes with ruins of farmsteads from the period AD 985-1450. These five settlements were acknowledged collectively as a World Heritage Site in 2017.

Qassiarsuk grew from about 500 to a maximum of 3000 settlers between c.AD 1000 and AD 1450. As Christianity spread through Europe, replacing the old gods, churches began to be built across the region.

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One such church was at Hvalsey built c. 1300 AD, the remains of which are still standing. See my photos below.

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There is a continuing mystery as to why the settlement failed. There are many theories. In all likelihood it is a combination of them. The last document securely dated records the marriage of Sigrid Bjornsdottir and Thorstein Olafsson on Sunday 16th September 1408 in Hvalsey church. Is it relevant that Greenland came under Denmark in AD 1380 when the Norwegian kingdom came under the Danish crown? The settlement was completely abandoned by c:1450. The main theories are:

1. Climate change – The exceptionally cold weather of the so called “Little Ice Age” made farming life unsustainable. The North Atlantic became more stormy and according to the website
   What really happened to Greenland’s vikings? | [Visit Greenland!] the last ship returned from Greenland to Norway in AD 1410.
2. Plague – the Black Death devastated Norway with up to 60% of the population dying of it and
   although the plague didn’t reached Greenland, trade with Norway was seriously curtailed and the provision of bishops and priests to support the church in Greenland ceased as all the bishops and most of the priests in Norway died of the plague.
3. Ivory from Walrus tusks: This theory is propounded by Tim Folger in the Smithsonian Magazine in
   March 2017 (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-greenland-vikingsvanished180962119/#:~:text=The%20Vikings%20established%20two%20outposts,north%2C%20called%26vanished180962119/#:~:0the%20Western%20Settlement.) The gist of the article is that the reason the Vikings settled in Greenland was not just farming, but harvesting walrus ivory, which was valuable, as this was before elephant ivory reached the European market and collapsed the price.
4. Innuits – The Innuits arrived in Northern Greenland c: AD 1200 and gradually extended southward
   to the small Western Viking settlement. Did they fight with the Vikings or intermingle peacefully? The only reference according to the website, Greenland – The Official Tourism Site | Visit Greenland! is of a “clerical steward who visited the settlement around 1350 and wrote that the Inuit had taken over the entire Western settlement, but frustratingly did not elaborate on this.”

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It is clear that both parties shared the same resources, so the possibility of conflict exists. Whichever theory you support it still remains a mystery as to why the Vikings vanished from Greenland in the 1400s.

The Worshipful Company of Leather Sellers in Barnet by David Willoughby

A little while ago I had an article published in the HADAS newsletter that referenced a cast iron boundary marker at the bottom of Barnet Hill, near the site of the now demolished Old Red Lion pub. This marker is very worn but close examination reveals a coat of arms of two creatures supporting a shield. I postulated at the time that this might represent the royal coat of arms featuring a lion rampant and a unicorn rampant, with the shield surmounted by a helmet and a crest of a crown surmounted by a lion.

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I conjectured that this marker might be associated with the improvement of the road from Whetstone to Barnet by the Whetstone and Highgate Turnpike Trust in 1823.

In a recent online forum this particular boundary marker was discussed and one of the participants was sure that the coat of arms represented that of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers. Their coat of arms features a roebuck rampant and a ram rampant supporting a shield with a demi roebuck crest above the shield. The rational of thinking it was related to the Leathersellers is that they own a lot of historic freehold in Barnet, including the almshouses at Leathersellers Close and of Barnet Odeon (Everyman), the BP garage and possibly, still the freehold of the new houses by the grass verge where the marker is located and which are on the site of the Old Red Lion pub.

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This is a very credible and more likely explanation and looking closely at the coat of arms on the enhanced photograph, it does resemble that of the Leathersellers, in particular, the shape of the motto at the bottom. It is a shame though, that the boundary marker is too worn to be a hundred percent sure about the identification.

Other Societies’ Events by Eric Morgan

Not all societies / organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check before attending.

Tuesday 9th January, 6.30 pm. LAMAS. Venue T.B.A. Also on Zoom. Buy Tickets via Eventbrite. Non-members £2.50. Life, Death and Worship at H.M. Tower of London. Talk by Alfred R.J. Hawkins (Assistant Curator of Historic Buildings) will discuss the History and Archaeology of The Chapel Royal and Royal Peculiar of St. Peter Ad Vincula (Parish Church of The Tower) and include a chronology of the development of the building. The Archaeological excavations (2019) and subsequent analysis of skeletal remains exhumed. For details and link please visit www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.

Tuesday 9th January, 8pm. Amateur Geological Society. Talk on Zoom. Essex Rocks – Geology Beneath the Landscape. By Ian and Ros Mercer (Essex Rock and Mineral Society) on the deep history of Essex from 500 million years ago to the current ice age and the continuing geological processes and planning for the future. For further details and link please visit www.amgeosco.wordpress.com.

Wednesday 10th January, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, NW7 3TB. The Festival of Britain. A talk by David Bunell. www.millhill-hs.org.uk.

Friday 12th January, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Talk on Zoom. A virtual Tour of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. By Jane Sidell (MOLA). Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details and link.

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Thursday 18th January, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. The Destruction of Eton’s Chalcot Estate. By Peter Darley (Camden Railway History Society). It resulted from a V1 Flying Bomb that landed nearby. Talk will explore the origins of the estate and the aftermath in terms of planning and reconstruction. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details and link.

Thursday 18th January, 8.00 pm. Historical Association. Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Masada. Talk by John Levy. Hopefully, also on Zoom. Please email Gulse Koca (Chair) on kocagulse@gmail.com or telephone 07453 283090 for details of the zoom link and how to pay (There may be a voluntary charge of £5) Refreshments available afterwards.

Friday 19th January, 7.00 pm. C.O.L.A.S Talk on zoom. The Enderby Bark Shield. By Dr Sophia Adam (from the British Museum). A new and rare find from the Iron Age. Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out the link details to its members.

Thursday 25th January, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, N3 3QE. Battle of Barnet. Talk by Paul Baker (Barnet Local History Society) for further details. Visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Incl. refreshments.

Thanks to our contributors, Don Cooper, Eric Morgan, David Willoughby.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper, 59 Potters Road, Barnet, EN5 5HS
(020 8440 4350) e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams 61 Potters Road Barnet EN5 5HS
(020 8449 7076) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk

Web site: www.hadas.org.uk

No. 632                                    November 2023                                  Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please).

Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.

Tuesday 14th November 2023
Dr Kris Lockyear, (University College London). Mapping Verulamium.

The Verulamium survey started in 2013 as part of a one-year AHRC Community Heritage Development award to Kris for the project Sensing the late Iron Age and Roman Past: geophysics and the landscape of Hertfordshire.   The Verulamium survey is uncovering significant information about private and public buildings, aqueducts and streets. 

Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings

The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue are held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30am. The sessions are open to all HADAS members and are both important and convivial. It is advisable to check with the committee committee-discuss@hadas.org.uk that the session will be held before you travel, as just occasionally a session is cancelled.

Committee responsibilities: recent changes

Jim Nelhams has taken over the role of Membership Secretary, vacant since the death of Steve Brunning.  The Committee are very grateful to him for taking on this important task for HADAS. Don Cooper had been filling the role on a temporary basis and thanks are due to him for stepping into the breach.

Jim will no longer be the overall Newsletter Editor which will be taken on by Sue Willetts. However, this is an interim solution and if this role appeals to any member, please get in touch to express your interest and learn more about what’s involved.   For those unfamiliar with the process, there is a list of 12 editors to compile each monthly newsletter. We have a few slots available so please get in touch with Sue Willetts for more information. sue.willetts@london.ac.uk

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Sunday Morning Sort                                                                                      Andy Simpson

The Avenue House Sunday morning team recently took the opportunity to have a deep sort and tidy of the HADAS excavation tools and equipment.

As many of you know, (and have used) we have a good supply of essential items including wheelbarrows, mattocks, shovels, spades, pick axes, vintage ex-military trenching tools, buckets, ranging poles, hand shovels, brushes various, trowels, hammers, mallets, chisels, measuring tapes, kneeling mats, sieves, pot washing bowls, finds trays, ground sheets, and all sorts of other useful tools and items.

All of these were checked, cleaned where necessary and sorted by type and put back into the swept-out corridor cupboard. A few tattier items went to that great excavation in the sky.

In addition to the basement archive/working room, we have access to a rear storage room for larger tools such as shovels and wheelbarrows, and some boxed finds, and a corridor cupboard for smaller items. Hopefully there will be future opportunities to get them dirty again out in the field…

Clan chief’s coin hoard unearthed at Glencoe                                            Stewart Wild

A hoard of coins that may have belonged to a Highland clan chief who was murdered in the Glencoe Massacre in 1692 has been discovered under a fireplace during a recent archaeological dig. The 17th-century coins included international currency and were hidden beneath the remains of a grand stone fireplace at a site believed to have been a hunting lodge or feasting hall.

The site was associated with Alasdair Ruadh “MacIain” MacDonald of Glencoe, clan chief from 1646–1692, who was a victim of the Glencoe Massacre along with members of his family. The MacDonalds took part in the first Jacobite uprising of 1689 and were targeted in retribution with 82 clan members slaughtered on 13 February 1692, including MacIain and his wife.

Artefacts discovered during the University of Glasgow dig in August included European pottery and silver and bronze coins dating from the 1500s to 1680s. Currency from the reigns of Elizabeth I, James VI and I, Charles I, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and Charles II – as well as France and the Spanish Netherlands and Papal States – was found.

Other finds included musket and fowling shot, a gun flint and powder measure, as well as pottery from England, Germany and the Netherlands.

Archaeological student Lucy Ankers, who found the hoard, said: “As a first experience of a dig, Glencoe was amazing. I wasn’t expecting such an exciting find as one of my firsts. I don’t think I will ever beat the feeling of seeing the coins peeking out of the dirt.”  The Glencoe Massacre happened during the Jacobite bid to restore a Catholic king to the throne, backed by the MacDonalds, who supported King James VII of Scotland and II of England after he fled to France

In late January 1692, 120 men from the Earl of Argyll’s Regiment of Foot arrived in Glencoe from Invergarry, led by Robert Campbell of Glenlyon. Historians speculated that the coins may have been buried on the morning of the Massacre two weeks later.

Dr Michael Given, co-director of the University of Glasgow’s archaeological project in Glencoe, said: “These exciting finds give us a rare glimpse of a single, dramatic event. Here’s what seems an ordinary rural house, but it has a grand fireplace, impressive floor slabs, and exotic pottery imported from the Netherlands and Germany.

“And they’ve gathered up an amazing collection of coins in a little pot and buried them under the fireplace.” SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 9 October 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild.

Historic England Releases Aerial Investigation and Mapping Data on Open Data Hub                                                                 Information from CBA October online newsletter

In 2021 Historic England released the Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer, which provides free online access to over 30 years’ worth of Aerial Investigation and Mapping projects carried out or funded by Historic England. Since then, in order to make its data more accessible to more people, Historic England, with the support of the Historic England Archive, has now made all the project data available to download through the Open Data Hub. https://opendata-histoticengland,hub.arcgis.com/.

Other Societies’ Events       Eric Morgan

Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Saturday 4^th November, 10.30 am. – 4.30 pm.  Geologists’ Association Festival of Geology. University College London. North and South Cloisters, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT.  Free. Stalls from Geological Societies from all over the country, including The Amateur Geological Society – selling Jewellery, Gems, Fossils, Rocks, Minerals, Books, Maps, etc.

Saturday 11^th November, 1.00 pm. – 3.00 pm.  Eclectic Tours. North-West London Series:  Discovering Colindale and its Role in Early Aviation. Colindale – or Hendon, as it was known back then – was synonymous with flying.  Learn about early aviation and other factories and important institutions of the area.  This is for Remembrance Day.  This tour costs £15.00. For more information and to book, please go to:  https://eclectic-tours.com/.

Sunday 3^rd December.  Barnet Xmas Fayre. Stalls and performers in Barnet High Street, The Spires, The College (Wood Street), The Bull Centre and Wesley Hall (Xmas Café also) and Food stalls on the College Forecourt and music in the street. Details not yet listed on www.barnetarts.uk.

Thursday 7^th December, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, Holborn Library, 32-38, Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PA.  Free for members of Camden History Society. Hopefully will also be on Zoom. History of Birkbeck College. Title of lecture. Nurseries of Disaffection: Birkbeck and educating working people: an illustrated talk by Joanna Bourke.  www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details including membership rates.

Friday 8^th December, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane / Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. The Petroglyph Survey by Anna Nicola. Visitors welcome £1.50. Visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.

Tuesday 12^th December, 8pm. Amateur Geological Society.Talk on Zoom. Cornish Lithium Exploration. by Zoe Richardson.  For details and link please visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

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Tuesday 12^th December, 6.30 pm. LAMAS. Lecture Theatre, The Gallery, Alan Baxter Associates, Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL. Hybrid Meeting, so also on Zoom. Buy tickets via Eventbrite.  Non-members £2.50. The Failure of London – The Long Fourth Century.  Talk by Professor Dominic Perring (Institute of Archaeology / UCL).  Cycles of Urban Investment, followed by periods of disrepair and redundancy echoed London’s changing importance to the provincial administration.  When, how and why did this important bastion of Roman power change, characterised as ‘Decline and Fall’.  For further details please visit www.lamas.org,uk.

Wednesday 13^th December, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. Fine Cell Work: Needlework in Prisons by Sarah Citroen.
Visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk for further details.

Wednesday 13^th December, 8 pm. Hornsey Historical Society.  Talk on Zoom, Free for HHS Members.
A Very British Art Form: The Story of Pantomime by Malcolm Jones. Visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk for further details / membership rates.

With many thanks to this month’s contributors:  Eric Morgan, Andy Simpson, Stuart Wild,

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Secretary Jim Nelhams, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley,
London N3 3QE (020 8449 7076) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk

We are pleased to have filled the vacancy of membership secretary but please address any correspondence such as change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to: 

HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Website at:   www.hadas.org.uk– join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 631 OCTOBER 2023 Edited by Robin Densem

Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings

The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue House are held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30am. The sessions are open to all HADAS members and are both important and convivial. I think it would be wise to check with the committee (committee-discuss@hadas.org.uk ) that the session will be held before you travel, as just occasionally a session is cancelled.

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and events

We are pleased we are resuming lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/coffee available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please).

Tuesday 10th October 2023. Melvyn Dresner: Elsyng Palace – a digger’s view.

Tuesday 14th November 2023. Kris Lockyer (University College London): Mapping Verulamium.

A selection of other societies’ events – selected from information kindly provided by Eric Morgan

NOT ALL SOCIETIES OR ORGANISATIONS HAVE RETURNED TO PRE-COVID CONDITIONS. PLEASE CHECK WITH THEM BEFORE PLANNING TO ATTEND.

Wednesday 11th October, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society/Trinity Church, 100 The Broadway, NW7 3TB. Talk on Grahame White and The London Aerodrome. By David Keen (Ex- RAF Museum). Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk

Tuesday 24th October, 1-2 pm. London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, EC1R 0HB. A Day in a London Life 1623. Talk. Also on Zoom. Free. Booking Essential. On Shakespeare’s Achievements making him one of Jacobean London’s most famous sons. But what was life everyday like for him and his contemporaries? Please visit London Metropolitan Archives – City of London.

Sunday 5th November, 2.30 pm. Heath and Hampstead Society., Laughter in Landscape. Meet at Old Bull and Bush, North End Way, NW3 7HE. Guided Walk led by Lester Hillman (Tour Guide) About Comedy, Humour in Science, Film, Music, Local Links to Actors, Writers, Theatre and The Landscape. Lasts approx. 2 hours. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or email hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit The Heath & Hampstead Society – Fighting to preserve the wild and natural state of the Heath (heathandhampstead.org.uk)

Tuesday 7th November, 6 pm. Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn EC1N 2HH. Pilgrimages, Pandemics and The Past. Talk by Tom Holland. Also on line. Ticket Required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk. Please see Pilgrimages, Pandemics and the Past | Gresham College. FREE. Joint with Royal Historical Society. Will explore how tracing ancient routes on foot and experiencing travel as people did in age before trains and cars can offer insights into the past. Will also draw on experience of reading Chaucer and undertaking pilgrimage during and after the pandemic.

Wednesday 8th November, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. (address as 11th October) History of Highgate Cemetery. Simon Edwards.

Wednesday 8th November, 6 pm. Gresham College, Were there Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe? Talk by Ronald Hutton, view on line. Please see www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/pagan-goddesses Free. Considers a set of superhuman female figures found in Medieval and early modern European cultures. Mother nature the roving nocturnal lady often called Herodias, The British Fairy Queen and the Gaelic Calleach.

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Wednesday 8th November, 8 pm Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on Zoom, Charles Roach Smith by Dr Michael Rhodes. Please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk for further details.

Friday 10th November, 7.30 pm Enfield Archaeological Society – Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/Jnc Chase side, Enfield EN2 0AJ Towards a Geoarchaeology of London. Talk by Jason Stewart. Please visit www.enfacrchsoc.org for further details.

Monday 13th November, 3 pm Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St John Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, CNR High Street/Wood Street, EN5 4BW. David Livingstone and Hadley Green – Out of Africa. Talk by John Hall.

Thursday 16th November, 8 pm. Historical Association – Hampstead and NW London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). 1942 Britain at the Brink. Talk by Taylor Downing. Argues that Britain’s darkest hour was 1942 when British people faced the prospect of defeat, when a string of Military disasters engulfed Britain in rapid succession. Also shows how unpopular Churchill became, using mass observation archive new material. Hopefully also on zoom, please email Gulse Koca (Chair) on kocagulse@gmail.com or telephone 07453 283090 for details of zoom link and how to pay (There may be a voluntary charge of £5) Refreshments afterwards. Please note change of chair. These details also apply on the talk on 19th October, shown in the Hadas September Newsletter.

Friday 17th November, 7.30. pm Wembley History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s new church) Church Lane, Kingsbury NW9 Bombed Churches of the City of London. Talk by Signe Hoffos.

Saturday 18th November, 10.30 am – 6 pm. Lamas Local History Conference. Museum of London Docklands, West India Quay, off Hertsmere road, E4 4AL. The London Menagerie – Animals in London History. Tickets are £15 (£17.50 after 1st November or £20 on the day, subject to availability) For more info, including the full programme and to book, please visit www.lamas.org.uk/conferences/20.local-history.html.

Wednesday 22nd November, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. London’s Parks and Gardens. Talk by Diane Burstein (Tour Guide) Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 0208 368 8314 for up to date details (David Berguer, Chair) Non-member £2. Bar available.

Saturday 25th November, 10 am – 4 pm. Amateur Geological Society North London Mineral Gem and Fossil Show. Trinity Church, 15 Nether Street, N12 7NN (Nr North Finchley Arts Depot, Near the Tally Ho Pub) Large Hall with Jewellery, Gems. Fossils, Rocks, Minerals, Books, Maps and refreshments. Admission £2. For details visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Thursday 30th November, 7.15 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephen’s) House, 17 East End Road, London N3 3QE. Quiz Supper with Andy Savage as Question Master. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk.

Iceman Otzi is not the rugged warrior we had believed Stewart Wild

OTZI the Iceman was probably bald with dark skin – not too dissimilar to his desiccated state, scientists have said. The natural mummy, which dates from 5,300 years ago, was found in the Ötztal Alps at the border with Austria and Italy in September 1991, and is Europe’s oldest mummified human.
The current reconstruction of Otzi in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano suggests that he had light eyes, a shaggy head of hair, a beard and the lightish skin of an Alpine climate. But genetic analysis suggests he had a predisposition for male pattern baldness, with dark eyes and dark skin.
“It was previously thought that the mummy’s skin had darkened during its preservation in the ice, but presumably what we see now is actually Otzi’s original skin colour,” said Albert Zink, the study co-author.

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Prof Johannes Krause, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany, added: “The
genome analysis revealed phenotypic traits such as high skin pigmentation, dark eye colour and male pattern baldness. It is remarkable how the reconstruction is biased by our own preconception of a Stone Age human.”

The new analysis, published in the journal Cell Genomics, also changes Otzi’s ancestry. Genetic profiling
in 2012 suggested that he had descended from a mix of native hunter-gatherers, migrating farmers from
Anatolia and Steppe herders. But the new results find no link to the Steppe herders, with scientists
discovering that modern DNA had accidentally become mixed up with the original samples.
(SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild).

Reconstruction of Ötzi mummy as shown in Prehistory Museum of Quinson, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence,
France (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otzi-Quinson.jpg accessed 19th September 2023)

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HADAS Open Day Jim Nelhams

As advertised in previous newsletters, HADAS held an Open Day at Avenue House on Saturday 16th September.

Considerable thought and planning had gone into this event, spearheaded by Bill Bass and other members of the Sunday Morning group, with assistance from members of the Avenue House staff.

The Stephens Museum near the café was opened up for our use, and display boards, which attracted much interest, showed part of our history, including our digs. Also in the museum were some activities for children courtesy of Janet Mortimer, Sue Loveday and Sue Willetts. The tables were occupied for large parts of the day by interested children and their parents. Outside, children could also get their face painted for a small charge.

Visitors during the day included Martin Russell, His Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London and the Lord-Lieutenant’s Representative for Barnet, and Barnet Councillor Philip Cohen, the council nominee to the Council for British Archaeology. We signed up five new members including Councillor Cohen.

Out in the grounds, on the area of the old pond (now no longer), Don Cooper led a team demonstrating the use of our resistivity equipment.

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We were also joined by members of the Finchley Society and Barnet Medieval Festival, both groups having tables of displays.

Reaction from members of the public was very positive, with some expressing surprise that, apart from the face painting, there were no charges.

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The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest AD9: The massacre of a Roman army Robin Densem

Introduction
Following centuries as a republic, Rome and its dominions was ruled as an empire by the adopted son of Julius Caesar, Augustus, as its first emperor, from 27 BC to his death in AD 14. After a Roman defeat of the banks of the River Rhine in 16 BC when the Roman governor of Gaul, Marcus Lollius, was defeated by a German raiding party which captured a legionary standard, Augustus turned his attention to the evidently dangerous north. Not satisfied with the Rhine as a frontier, he decided to advance into Germany to move the frontier 800km north-eastwards from the Rhine to the River Elbe.

Ancient sources tell us about the Roman attempts to conquer Germany and about the three or four day long battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9 when the Germans massacred a Roman army of three legions and nine auxiliary units, a force of perhaps 20,000 men, or more, led by Publius Quinctilius Varus (Varus). Augustus was so distraught after the loss of the three legions that the Roman writer Suetonius says Augustus often wailed, “Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!” Augustus had had a total of around 30 legions, each of about 5,000 men, accompanied by auxiliary units of 500 and others of 1,000 men which doubled the total size of his forces. The armies of auxiliaries and legionaries were to defend the Roman empire and to conduct offensive operations, so the loss of three legions and nine auxiliary units was a disaster considering the extent of the Roman empire and the length of its borders. After the battle, called by the Roman the Clades Variana, the Varian Disaster, the Augustus abandoned attempts to conquer Germany. Adrian Murdoch’s 2008 title for his book ‘Rome’s Greatest Defeat: Massacre in the Teutoburg Forest’ gives a flavour of a modern, perhaps overstated, view of the very serious extent of the Roman disaster. (It could be argued that Hannibal’s victory of the Romans in 216 BC at the battle of Cannae was a greater defeat for the Romans who lost more men then.)

Ancient Latin sources for the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest include the Roman History, written by Velleius Paterculus who lived c. 19 BC – c. AD 31; Strabo’s Geography that he wrote in c. AD 20; Tacitus’s Annals (c. AD 120); and Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars (c. AD 121). Dio Cassius was a later writer who wrote his Roman History in Greek in the years AD 211-233. None of the ancient sources are exactly contemporaneous with the battle, and all relied on earlier sources, including official records. Excitingly, archaeology has revealed the actual battle site and many artifacts, and offers a correlation, confirmation and amplification of the account from the well-known ancient written sources.

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The text below on the historical background and description of the battle is from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_campaigns_in_Germania_(12_BC_%E2%80%93_AD_16)#Campaigns_of_Tiberius,_Ahenobarbus_and_Vinicius accessed 7th January 2023.
Campaigns before the Clades Variana (the Varian Disaster): Campaigns of Drusus (the elder, 36 BC – 9 BC)
Nero Claudius Drusus (Drusus the Elder), an experienced general and stepson of Augustus, was made governor of Gaul in 13 BC. The following year saw an uprising in Gaul – a response to the Roman census and taxation policy set in place by Augustus. For most of the following year he conducted reconnaissance and dealt with supply and communications. He also had several forts built along the Rhine, including Argentoratum (Strasburg, France), Moguntiacum (Mainz, Germany), and Castra Vetera (Xanten, Germany).
Drusus first saw action following an incursion by the Sicambri and the Usipetes from Germany into Gaul, which he repelled before launching a retaliatory attack across the Rhine. This marked the beginning of Rome’s 28 years of campaigns across the lower Rhine.

He crossed the Rhine with his army and invaded the land of the Usipetes. He then marched north against the Sicambri and pillaged their lands. Travelling down the Rhine and landing in what is now the Netherlands, he conquered the Frisians, who thereafter served in his army as allies. Then, he attacked the Chauci, who lived in northwestern Germany in what is now Lower Saxony. Around winter, he recrossed the Rhine, and returned to Rome.

The following spring, Drusus (the Elder) began his second campaign across the Rhine. He first subdued the Usipetes, and then marched east to the Visurgis (Weser River). Then, he passed through the territory of the Cherusci, whose territory stretched from the Ems to the Elbe, and pushed as far east as the Weser. This was the furthest east into northern Europe that a Roman general had ever travelled, a feat which won him much renown. Between depleted supplies and the coming winter, he decided to march back to friendly territory. On the return trip, Drusus’ legions were nearly destroyed at Arbalo by Cherusci warriors taking advantage of the terrain to harass them.

Drusus was made consul for the following year, and it was voted that the doors to the Temple of Janus be closed, a sign the empire was at peace. However, peace didn’t last, for in the spring of 10 BC, he once again campaigned across the Rhine and spent the majority of the year attacking the Chatti. In his third campaign, he conquered the Chatti and other German tribes, and then returned to Rome, as he had done before at the end of the campaign season.

In 9 BC, he began his fourth campaign, this time as consul. Despite bad omens, Drusus again attacked the Chatti and advanced as far as the territory of the Suebi, in the words of Cassius Dio, “conquering with difficulty the territory traversed and defeating the forces that attacked him only after considerable bloodshed.” Afterwards, he once again attacked the Cherusci, and followed the retreating Cherusci

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across the Weser River, and advanced as far as the Elbe, “pillaging everything in his way”, as Cassius Dio puts it. Ovid states that Drusus extended Rome’s dominion to new lands that had only been discovered recently. On his way back to the Rhine, Drusus fell from his horse and was badly wounded. His injury became seriously infected, and after thirty days, Drusus died from the disease, most likely gangrene.
When Augustus learned Drusus was sick, he sent Tiberius to quickly go to him. Ovid states Tiberius was at the city of Pavia at the time, and when he had learned of his brother’s condition, he rode to be at his dying brother’s side. He arrived in time, but it wasn’t long before Drusus drew his last breath.

Campaigns before the Clades Variana (the Varian Disaster): Campaigns of Tiberius, Ahenobarbus and Vinicius

After Drusus’ death, Tiberius was given command of the Rhine’s forces and waged two campaigns within Germania over the course of 8 and 7 BC. He marched his army between the Rhine and the Elbe, and met little resistance except from the Sicambri. Tiberius came close to exterminating the Sicambri, and had those who survived transported to the Roman side of the Rhine, where they could be watched more closely. Velleius Paterculus portrays Germany as essentially conquered, and Cassiodorus writing in the 6th century AD asserts that all Germans living between the Elbe and the Rhine had submitted to Roman power. However, the military situation in Germany was very different from what was suggested by imperial propaganda.

Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was appointed as the commander in Germany by Augustus in 6 BC, and three years later, in 3 BC, he reached and crossed the Elbe with his army. Under his command causeways were constructed across the bogs somewhere in the region between the Ems and the Rhine, called pontes longi. The next year, conflicts between the Rome and the Cherusci flared up. While the elite members of one faction sought stronger ties with Roman leaders, the Cherusci as a whole would continue to resist for the next twenty years. Although Ahenobarbus had marched to the Elbe and directed the construction of infrastructure in the region east of the Rhine, he did not do well against the Cherusci warrior bands, who he tried to handle like Tiberius had the Sicambri. Augustus recalled Ahenobarbus to Rome in 2 BC and replaced him with a more seasoned military commander, Marcus Vinicius.

Between 2 BC and AD 4, Vinicius commanded the five legions stationed in Germany. At around the time of his appointment, many of the Germanic tribes arose in what the historian Velleius Paterculus calls the “vast war”. However, no account of this war exists. Vinicius must have performed well, for he was awarded the ornamenta triumphalia on his return to Rome.

Again in AD 4, Augustus sent Tiberius to the Rhine frontier as the commander in Germany. He campaigned in northern Germany for the next two years. During the first year, he conquered the Canninefati, the Attuarii, the Bructeri, and subdued the Cherusci. Soon thereafter, he declared the Cherusci “friends of the Roman people.” In AD 5, he campaigned against the Chauci, and then coordinated an attack into the heart of Germany both overland and by river. The Roman fleet and legions met on the Elbe, whereupon Tiberius departed from the Elbe to march back westward at the end of the summer without stationing occupying forces at this eastern position. This accomplished a demonstration to his troops, to Rome, and to the German peoples that his army could move largely unopposed through Germany, but like Drusus, he did nothing to hold territory. Tiberius’ forces were attacked by German troops on the way west back to the Rhine, but successfully defended themselves.

The elite of the Cherusci tribe came to be special friends of Rome after Tiberius’s campaigns of AD 5. In the preceding years, a power struggle had resulted in the alliance of one party with Rome. In this tribe was a ruling lineage that played a critical role in forging this friendship between the Cherusci and Rome. Belonging to this elite clan, was the young Arminius, who was around twenty-two at the time. Membership in this clan gave him special favour with Rome. Tiberius lent support to this ruling clan to gain control over the Cherusci, and he granted the tribe a free status among the German peoples. To keep an eye on the Cherusci, Tiberius had a winter base built on the River Lippe.

It was Roman opinion that by AD 6 the German tribes had largely been pacified, if not conquered. Only the Marcomanni, under king Maroboduus, remained to be subdued. Rome planned a massive pincer attack

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against them involving 12 legions from Germania, Illyricum, and Rhaetia, but when word of an uprising in Illyricum arrived the attack was called off and concluded peace with Maroboduus, recognizing him as king.

Part of the Roman strategy was to resettle troublesome tribal peoples, to move them to locations where Rome could keep better tabs on them and away from their regular allies. Tiberius resettled the Sicambri, who had caused particular problems for Drusus, in a new site west of the Rhine, where they could be watched more closely.

Campaign of Varus: Prelude
Although it was assumed that the proto-province of Germania Magna, east of the Rhine, had been pacified, and Rome had begun integrating the region into the empire, there was a risk of rebellion during the military subjugation of a province. Following Tiberius’s departure to Illyricum, Augustus appointed Publius Quinctilius Varus to the German command, as he was an experienced officer, but he was not the great military leader a serious threat would warrant. Varus imposed civic changes on the Germans, including a tax – what Augustus expected any governor of a subdued province to do. However, the Germanic tribes began rallying around a new leader, Arminius of the Cherusci. Arminius, who Rome considered an ally, and who had fought in the Roman army before. He accompanied Varus who was in Germania with the three Roman legions XVII, XVIII, and XIX to finish the conquest of Germania.

Not much is known of the campaign of AD 9 until the return trip to the Rhine, when Varus left with his legions from their camp on the Weser in Germany. On their way back to Castra Vetera, Xanten, on the Rhine Varus received reports from Arminius that there was a small uprising west of Varus’s Roman camp in Germany. The Romans were on the way back to the Rhine anyway, and the small revolt would only be a small detour – about two days away. Varus departed to deal with the revolt believing that Arminius would ride ahead to garner the support of his tribesmen for the Roman cause. In reality, Arminius was actually preparing an ambush. Varus took no extra precautions on the march to quell the uprising, as he was expecting no trouble.

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Victory of Arminius
Arminius’ revolt came during the Pannonian revolt, at a time when the majority of Rome’s legions were tied down in Illyricum. Varus only had three legions, which were isolated in the heart of Germany. Scouts were sent ahead of Roman forces as the column approached Kalkriese. Scouts were local Germans as they would have had knowledge of the terrain, and so would had to have been a part of Arminius’ ploy. Indeed, they reported that the path ahead was safe. Historians Wells and Abdale say that the scouts likely alerted the Germans to the advancing column, giving them time to get into position.

The Roman column followed the road going north until it began to wrap around a hill. The hill was to the west of the road and was wooded. There was boggy terrain all around the hill, woodland to the east, and a swamp to the north (out of sight of the Roman column until they reached the bend taking the road southwest around the hill’s northeastern point). Roman forces continued along the sloshy sandbank at the base of the hill until the front of the column was attacked. They heard loud shouting and spears began falling on them from the woody slope to their left. Spears then began falling from the woods to their right and the front fell into disorder from panic. The surrounded soldiers were unable to defend themselves because they were marching in close formation and the terrain was too muddy for them to move effectively.

Within ten minutes, word reached the middle of the column where Varus was. Communication was hampered by the column being packed densely in the narrow road. Not knowing the full extent of the attack, Varus ordered his forces to advance forward to reinforce his forces at the front. This pushed the soldiers at the front further into the enemy, and thousands of German warriors began to pour out of the woods to attack up close. The soldiers at the middle and rear of the column began to flee in all directions, but most of them were caught in the bog or killed. Varus realized the severity of his situation and killed himself with his sword. A few Romans survived and made their way back to the winter quarters at Xanten by staying hidden and carefully travelling through the forests. Roman officers were gorily tortured and killed, and some captured Roman soldiers were kept alive as slaves of the Germans.

It is a rare achievement to locate the actual site of an early battle, and credit is to be given to Tony Clunn for his great achievement. The locations of the Roman victory under Suetonius Paulinus over Boudica in AD 60/61 in Britain, and the Roman victory under Agricola over the Caledonians, in Scotland, in AD 84, for instance, have yet to be found, archaeologically.

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Discovery of the Battlefield (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Clunn accessed 9.02,2023)
John Anthony Spencer Clunn MBE (10 May 1946 – 3 August 2014) was a major in the British Army, and an amateur archaeologist who discovered the main site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest at Kalkriese Hill. Clunn searched for Roman coins with a metal detector as a hobby. In 1987, when he was attached to the Royal Tank Regiment in Osnabrück, he asked Wolfgang Schlüter, at the time the archaeologist for the District of Osnabrück, where he should look. He was advised to search 20 km north of the city, where Roman coins had previously been found, though none for 18 years.

Schlüter’s recommendation was based upon a study of maps and the 19th-century historian Theodor Mommsen’s proposal that the Kalkriese area was a likely location of the battle which took place in AD 9. On his first two days, in July 1987 Clunn found 105 Roman coins from the reign of Augustus (27BC – AD 14)2, mostly in excellent condition. No coins found at the site post-date AD 9. In 1988 he also discovered Roman sling shots at three locations in the vicinity of Kalkriese, the first indisputable evidence of Roman military activity there. Previously there had been many conflicting theories about the location of the battle, and scholars had searched for it without success for 600 years.

Archaeological Evidence

On the basis of Clunn’s findings, Schlüter began a comprehensive excavation of the site in 1989, later led by Susanne Wilbers-Rost. The finds are now displayed at the Varusschlacht (Varus Battle) Museum and Park Kalkriese, opened in 2002. Clunn went on to investigate the entire area around Kalkriese. The coins he discovered have made it possible to reconstruct the route taken by the Roman legionaries under Varus and to determine where they were ambushed and massacred. In Clunn’s opinion, the march route corresponds exactly to the environment described by Dio Cassius.

The archaeologists have found remains of Roman swords and daggers, parts of javelins and spears, arrowheads, slingstones, fragments of helmets, nails of soldiers’ sandals, belts, hooks of chain mail and fragments of armour plate. Other finds were less military in character, but may have belonged to soldiers nevertheless: locks, keys, razors, a scale, weights, chisels, hammers, pickaxes, buckets, finger rings. A doctor may have owned surgical instruments; seal boxes and a stylus may have been among the

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possessions of a scribe; and a cook must have carried cauldrons, casseroles, spoons, and amphoras. Finally, jewellery, hairpins, and a disk brooch suggest the presence of women. Overall, archaeological investigations at Kalkriese have unearthed more than 7,000 artifacts, and various archaeological excavations have been ongoing there since the site was discovered by Tony Clunn in 1987-88.

Excavations show the Germans had constructed a rampart or embankment at their ambush site from which to fight the Romans. The rampart presenting as a zigzag-ging structure c. 400 m long from east to west, between two creeks. It is no longer visible above ground level due to layers of soil. Excavation work showed that the wall was erected using sod, sand, and in parts limestone. Initially, the wall measured circa 3 m in width and almost 2m in height. Today, the remaining structure is 0.3 m in height due to the levelling of the rampart and erosion, and a slight 15m wide rising can be detected. At least parts of the wall were bolstered by a wooden parapet. (Rost, Achim and Wilbers-Rost, Susanne, 2019,‘Archaeology of Kalkriese’ in Smith, C (ed) Encyclopaedia of Global Archaeology https://www.academia.edu/67689095/Archaeology_of_Kalkriese?auto=download&email_work_card=download-paper accessed 3rd January 2023).

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Some sources
• Livius.org ‘Teutoburg Forest (9 CE)’ https://www.livius.org/articles/battle/teutoburg-forest-9-ce/kalkriese/ accessed 9th February 2023
• Rost, Achim and Wilbers-Rost, Susanne 2011 ‘Weapons at the Battlefield of Kalkriese’, Gladius 30:117-136 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270078400_Weapons_at_the_battlefield_of_Kalkriese accessed 4th January 2023
• Rost, Achim and Wilbers-Rost, Susanne, 2019,‘Archaeology of Kalkriese’ in Smith, C (ed) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology https://www.academia.edu/67689095/Archaeology_of_Kalkriese?auto=download&email_work_card=download-paper accessed 3rd January 2023
• Tacitus Annals, Book 1, chapters 55-71 https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/Annals/1D*.html accessed 7th January 2022
• Wikipedia ‘Battle of the Teutoburg Forest’ Battle of the Teutoburg Forest – Wikipedia accessed 9th February 2023
• Wikipedia ‘Roman campaigns in Germania (12 BC – AD 16)’https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_campaigns_in_Germania_(12_BC_%E2%80%93_AD_16)#Campaigns_of_Tiberius,_Ahenobarbus_and_Vinicius accessed 7th January 2023.
• Wilbers-Rost, Susanne, 2009 ‘Research on the Varus Battle in and around Kalkriese’, Archaeologie Online https://www.archaeologie-online.de/artikel/2009/thema-varusschlacht/forschungen-zur-varusschlacht-in-und-um-kalkriese/ accessed 4th January 2023
• Wilbers-Rost, Susanne; Großkopf,Birgit and Rot, Achim, 2012 The Ancient Battlefield at Kalkriese https://www.jstor.org/stable/26240377#metadata_info_tab_contents accessed 4th January 2023

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With thanks to the contributors: Sue Loveday, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams & Stewart Wild
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350),
email: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec. Vacancy

Website: www.hadas.org.uk

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No. 630 September 2023 Edited by Paul Jackson

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)

Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.

Tuesday 12th September 2023
Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum. The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project. Mike helped to coordinate ‘The Barnet battlefield project’ on behalf of Barnet Museum which mostly took place 2015-2018. The aim was to locate more precisely the battle area using a large-scale metal-detecting survey by Huddersfield University (a method used successfully at Bosworth), digs by community archaeologists and volunteers processing finds in the museum. One of the digs was on the possible site of the Chantry Chapel (built to commemorate the dead) in Wrotham Park. This was led by Cotswold Archaeology with HADAS taking part in supplying some diggers and tools. Mike will inform us of the results and of any future work.

SATURDAY 16th SEPTEMBER at Avenue House,10am –4pm. HADAS OPEN DAY. See August newsletter for details. Please come.

Tuesday 10th October 2023
Melvyn  Dresner.  Elsyng Palace: a digger’s view – see also article on page 3 of this issue

Tuesday 14th November 2023
Kris Lockyear, (University College London). Mapping Verulamium

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NEW HADAS TEMPORARY EXHIBITION Andy Simpson

On 9th August, with the kind permission and co-operation of Barnet Borough Heritage Development Officer, Hugh Petrie, members of HADAS attended Hendon Town Hall to install our new temporary display in the ’Heritage Barnet’ area of the foyer there.

The Sunday morning team have spent the last month or two preparing this new display, its exhibits and captions, and most of them were able to attend to fill up ‘their’ cases.
We have included, in the Roman corner, material from the Pipers Green Lane cremation burial from the foot of Brockley Hill and the Moxom Collection found at its summit; also items from more recent excavations at Hendon School and even Avenue House grounds. There are items from the 1960s excavations at Church End Farm Hendon, the former Church Farm Museum in the 1990s, and the Burroughs Gardens, Fuller Street /Chequers Pub areas of Hendon in the

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1970s. A selection of HADAS publications are included and also there are new format HADAS membership forms to collect.

With thanks to the set-up team mostly seen in the picture below – (left to right) Hugh Petrie, Bill Bass, Andy Simpson, Melvyn Dresner, Peter Nicholson and Janet Mortimer – plus Tim Curtis (not pictured).

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Do go along to Hendon Town Hall and view our new exhibition! It will hopefully be available to view until Christmas.

Elsyng Palace Dig 2023: a digger`s view Melvyn Dresner

Enfield Archaeological Society (EAS) has been digging at Elysng Palace since the 1960s and especially since 2004. This summer’s dig’s research aim was to locate the inner gatehouse and to identify the relationship between the moat features dug in 2022 and other buildings found on site in previous years, in particular the northern range.

Elysng Palace was a 15th century royal palace that was owned by Tudor monarchs. Prior to that there is evidence of medieval occupation. For the Tudor palace, we have substantial structural features, as well as rubble across the site.

This year revealed walls in situ, both internal walls and structures such as turrets or towers. As the palace is a scheduled monument, the archaeological design brief has been agreed with Dr Jane Sidell, Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Historic England.

BBC Digging for Britain with Dr Alice Roberts will feature the dig early in 2024. Alice, as well as a being a TV presenter, is Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.

To find out more about the 2023 dig, you can read the daily blog on the EAS website: https://www.enfarchsoc.org/

For the October’s HADAS lecture, he will provide a digger’s insight into this year’s dig.

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Now you can order Elysng: Enfield’s Lost Palace Revealed by Neil and Jon Pinchbeck from EAS: https://www.enfarchsoc.org/publications/

Romans built more in South-West than was once thought Stewart Wild

The Romans built more towns and roads in the South-West than archaeologists have thought, research has found. Experts at the University of Exeter discovered a Roman road network spanning Devon and Cornwall as well as a grid system of streets in North Tawton, Devon, suggesting its importance as a settlement.

Dr Joao Fonte, who led the research alongside Dr Christopher Smart, both specialists in landscape archaeology and the heritage of the Roman Empire, said that the findings suggested that the South-West was more ‘Romanised’ than previously thought. “We understand that the roads were probably constructed by animal-drawn wheeled vehicles, avoiding flooded areas as much as possible,” he added.

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After the conquest of Britain, Dr Fonte said, the entire network of roads would have been in use and the discovery “confirms that the South-West – Devon and Cornwall – were no different from other, more Romanised regions. The Roman influence was profound.”

In North Tawton, the Romans may have been interested in the area’s mining resources, he said, while its location in the middle of the region could have been useful in linking the site to ships and other resources. There was evidence of a grid system of streets and signs of the region’s first known amphitheatre, enclosed by both a rampart and a ditch, meaning that while it might not have been a full Roman city such as Londinium or Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum), it was a town of some importance.

The researchers used laser scans collected as part of the Environment Agency’s national LiDAR programme to identify sections of road west of the previously understood boundary. Among the insights is that, far from Exeter being the main nerve centre, it was North Tawton that supported vital connections with tidal estuaries north and south of Bodmin and Dartmoor.
“Despite more than seventy years of scholarship, published maps of the Roman road network in southern Britain have remained largely unchanged and all are consistent in showing that west of Exeter there was little solid evidence for a system of long-distance roads,” Dr Smart said.

SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 8 August 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild

The following information has been taken from Heritage Alliance Sue Willetts

Campaign to Boost Free Bus Travel This Summer

The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched a campaign to encourage more older people to make use of their free bus passes to get a ‘culture fix’ and rediscover local attractions. The campaign aims to improve wellbeing amongst older and disabled people as well as promote more sustainable forms of travel and grow the economy.

See more about the Take the Bus campaign at https://communitynews.network/2023/07/25/watch-take-the-bus-campaign/.

British Archaeologists Call for Stronger Protections for Archaeology Sites

Archaeologists and palaeontologists across the country have warned that an important site in the Cotswolds where well-preserved ice-age mammoths have been discovered could be cut off to British researchers. The landowners have requested finds be returned and there are concerns that objects are being exported to the UAE, with archaeologists highlighting the lack of legislation in place to prevent this. Read more at –
https://www.theheritagealliance.org.uk/blog/heritage-sector-calls-for-all-political-parties-to-put-the-past-at-the-heart-of-their-plans-for-the-future/

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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

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Sunday 10th September. 2pm. COLAS, Old St. Pancras Churchyard. Dying to get in. Visit with Lester Hillman leading a guided walk with an archaeological perspective on this ancient burial ground. The visit offers a chance to see the Grade II* listed church which has Roman fabric and has just completed works of repair and redecoration. Meet 1.50 pm at Old St. Pancras Church, Pancras Road, NW1 1UL, in park. Churchyard is immediately behind St. Pancras International Station.

Wednesday 13th September 8pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on Zoom. Venice and the British by Martin Heard. Email hornseyhistoricalchairman@gmail.com for link or visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk

Friday 15th September. 7.30 pm. Wembley Historical Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall, (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. Dan Dare. Pilot of the future. Talk by Lester Hillman (see COLAS above). Looking back nearly 75 years, The Eagle comic of the 1950’s was remarkably prescient. Lester explains the history and London links along with its insightful writing, images, clear predictions and some surprises. Visitors £3. Refreshments in the interval.

Thursday 21st September 8pm. Enfield Society. A history of Enfield Chase at Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane / Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Talk by Martin Paine, preceded by AGM.
The first of two talks that aim to bring to life the medieval and renaissance worlds of Enfield Chase, drawing on an array of sources including hunting treatises, literature, maps, and archival records. Martin aims to demonstrate why an understanding of Enfield Chase is essential to understanding the history of Enfield, including the grand houses, palaces and lodges that were once so prominent in the local landscape. Martin’s second talk will take place on Monday 16th October at 8pm.

Thursday 25th September 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. 50 years of Fitzrovia News by Nick Bailey, Sue Blundell and Linus Rees (Editors). On the origins of the paper and later development, illustrating some of the leading themes and stories and in the contribution of community newsletters to recording and disseminating local history. Visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.

Tuesday 3rd October. 1-2pm Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BE, also on Zoom. Duke Alexander and his Sarcophagi. Talk by Prof. Aidan Dodson.
Also Wednesday 4th October. 5 pm. British Archaeological Association at the Society of Antiquaries. Reconstructing Bury St. Edmund’s Abbey. Talk by Dr. Steven Brindle (E.H.) Tea.
Also Thursday 5th October 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. Forging iron from the sky. Talk by Ian Thackray.
Also Thursday 12th October. 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries, Also on Zoom. The wood that built London. Chris Schüler.
Also Thursday 19th October, 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. Mills Whip Projects-London’s Civil War defences: Rewriting history. Talk by Mike Hutchinson and Peter Milne. Also on Zoom.
Also Thursday 26th October, 5-6 pm Society of Antiquaries. Also on Zoom. The Athenaeum Club. Talk by Michael Wheeler.

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Lectures are free but donations are welcome. Details and bookings through the website www.sal.org.uk/events.

Monday 9th October, 3 pm. Barnet Museum & Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High Street, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Enfield Chase: the making of a man-made landscape. Talk by John Leatherdale. Free to members. Visitors – £2.

Wednesday 11th October. 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk on Zoom. Artists, refugees & spies in Belsize in the 1930s by Averil Nottage. Including the Mall Studios (off Parkhill Rd), home to Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and critic Herbert Read and the iconic modernist block of Lawn Road Flats which welcomed many exiles including communist political refugees from Germany & Austria, some who set up British spy networks. www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details.

Wednesday 11th October. 8 pm Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on Zoom. Picturing the past and the present. Email hornseyhistoricalchairman@gmail.com for details or www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.

Friday 13th October. 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Roman road to a dual carriageway – archaeological consultancy on the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project. Talk by David Lakin. Visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.

Monday 16th October 8 pm Enfield Society. Enfield Chase continued. See 21st Sept entry.
Martin Paine explores the rich history of the local area and the visible legacy of the Chase today.

Wednesday 18th October. 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 (round corner from Magistrates’ Court). Willesden’s post-war prefab-homes. Talk by Philip Grant (Brent Archives) may also be on Zoom. www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
If not a member, buy a ticket £3, for details www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.

Thursday 19th October, 8 pm Historical Association: Hampstead and N.W. London branch. Fellowship House, 136a Willifield Way, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune) The Mayans and Aztecs. Talk by Ian Mursell, hopefully also on Zoom. Email Jeremy Berkoff (Chair) jeremyberkoff@mack.com or telephone 01793 229521 for details of Zoom link and how to pay. There may be a voluntary charge of £5. Refreshments afterwards.

Friday 20th October, 7pm COLAS. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, EC3R 7NB Human remains from the River Thames. Talk by Dr. Nichola Arthur (Natural History Museum) A Palaeopathologist examines the who, how and why of human bones from the Thames and its deposit. Also on Zoom. Book via Eventbrite. www.colas.org.uk HADAS may send out the link to its members.

Friday 20th October. 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society, St. Andrew’s Church Hall, (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. The archaeology of the Thames foreshore. Talk by Dr. Will Rathouse (Senior Community Archaeologist for the Thames Discovery Programme hosted by MOLA) Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.

Wednesday 25th October. 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. Westminster at war: How the Luftwaffe destroyed the House of Commons. Talk by Barry Hall. Visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme or phone 020 8368 8814 for up-to-date details (David Berguer, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.

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Thursday 26th October. 7.30 pm Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, N3 3QE. Spymaster: the man who saved MI6. Talk by Dr Helen Fry about Thomas Joseph Kendrick, one of the most senior spymasters of the British Secret Intelligence Service in the 20th Century. Further details www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Andy Simpson, Stewart Wild, Sue Willetts.
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Sec Vacancy

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While we have no Membership Secretary

for the present, please address any correspondence such as change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:

HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 629 August 2023 Edited by Jim Nelhams

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)

Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.

Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum
The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project

Tuesday 10th October 2023 Lecture to be arranged

Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear
Mapping Verulamium

Saturday 16th September, 10am – 4pm
HADAS “Open Day” at Avenue House
See poster below

Subscriptions by Cheque

The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:

HADAS
C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE
If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address, please let us know.

Future Newsletters

HADAS nearly did not have a newsletter this month. At the deadline given in last month’s newsletter, only one article had been received which would have given us 4 pages after including the list of Other Societies’ Events. Postage and printing would still have cost the same amounts if we used four pages.

This is your newsletter and you can help to keep it going by submitting items of interest. Even half a page helps. We could also do with another couple of editors – which involves assembling submitted items – not writing them – unless you want to. Contact jim_nelhams@hotmail.com if you can help in any way, or for more information.
Thank you.

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No Dinosaurs were hurt in the making of this poster, if you want to help let us know. Its archaeology not paleontology. We know you know. ****************************************************************

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The City Wall at Vine Street Janet Mortimer

Underneath a coffee shop a short walk from Tower Hill Station is one of the newest chances to see more of the London Roman City Wall. This little publicised and hard to find site opened in May of this year and is a fascinating glimpse of the wall built 2,000 years ago. The large section of wall, complete with bastion reminds us how durable the structures built by the Romans were, especially contrasted with the nearby very modern “Shard” and “Cheesegrater” buildings.

Items that were found during the excavations are displayed in a very pleasing manner in cabinets ranging from the oldest finds to the newest. The captions are interesting and informative, with comments such as wondering what the Romans would say if they could see us getting excited over their rubbish – and wondering what archaeologists of the future will make of our own rubbish!

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Although not large, a visit to this attraction is well worth it, especially as it is free (although you need to pre-book). There are other outside sections of the Roman Wall that you can visit whilst you are in the area, and you can even hold hands with Trajan!

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The Tower Hill Sundial Jim Nelhams

Just up the stairs from the statue of Trajan to the south of Tower Hill Station is a large sundial. Around its edge are pictures reflecting the history of London from AD43. Look especially at “The Peasants’ Revolt”. In one corner in the cload, there is a familiar lady waving her handbag!!!

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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN
(Part 6 the finds – Animal Bones, by Geraldine Missig.)
Site code OPS22

‘Hopscotch’, a shop located at 88 High Street, Barnet, hosted in its backyard an exploratory trench which produced 88 animal bone fragments of which 67 weighing 1394g were identified to species and anatomical part. Unfortunately, 20 fragments weighing 107g lacked the sufficient distinguishing features for identification. Of the 20 fragments, ten were sheep size, eight were cattle size and two were unidentified bird. In addition to the bone group, 18 oyster shell fragments, weighing 94g were retrieved.

Method
The bone fragments were identified by reference to the bone collection at Birkbeck, University of London and recorded for HADAS on an Excel spreadsheet noting species, anatomical part, side, state of fusion (following Schmid 1972), proportion of bone present, weight, and any modification such as dog or rodent gnawing, charring or butchery.

Cohen & Sarjeantson’s manual for the identification of birds (1996), was used to verify the identity of the bones of domestic fowl and woodpigeon from (001).

Apart from a deciduous fourth premolar and distal metatarsal, both of which were identified as sheep, there were no other diagnostic fragments among the caprine elements to distinguish between sheep and goat, which below will be referred to as sheep. (Boessneck 1969).

Mandible wear stages followed Grant’s illustrations of tooth wear stages (1982) with Payne’s suggested age attribution for eruption/wear state (1973) for sheep/goat.

All measurements were made by vernier callipers according to the von den Driesch guidelines.
Each identified specimen was counted (NISP) and where two fragments joined, they were counted as one. All oyster fragments were counted NISP but their minimum number (MNI) was established by the presence of more than 50% of its hinge on the left valve, the more numerous side present.

Assemblage
This small bone group was assembled from three presently undated contexts to which the bone contents of the trench had been allocated. (001) comprised 31 bone fragments, (002) only had 16 and (003) slightly more at 20. Together they contained an assortment of species.

Sheep were the most numerous having 27 fragments, cattle next with 18 fragments, pig followed with nine, bird with eight, rabbit with three and horse and dog each with one. Oyster fragments numbered 18.

Apart from (002) where sheep and cattle were equally frequent, sheep was the more numerous group in the other two contexts. The cattle fragments slightly increased in number through the contexts from (001) to (003) while the pig fragments moved the other way, fragment numbers decreasing from (001) to (003).

Although the three most numerous species contained some domestic refuse; cattle with its meatier sections of rib (in all contexts but much more frequently in (003)), pig with a solitary limb shaft (003), and sheep with the largest number of meaty shafts (001) (003), a few of the meatier rib sections (001) (003), and a lumbar vertebrae (001) (commonly recognised as a loin lamb chop bone), it was butchery waste which was more dominant.

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Cattle contained large roughly chopped fragments of lumbar and thoracic vertebral fragments (002) while there was one of the latter from sheep in (003). All three species were represented by butchered fragments of the less meaty chopped ribs (all three contexts) as well as the awkward articular ends of shafts or blades (all three contexts), the latter inadvertently suggesting in their absence what people were actually eating.

The presence of the cranial elements, maxillary and mandibular parts of sheep (all three contexts) and cattle (001), as well as the skull fragments of pig (002) and sheep (003), and cattle extremities (002) (003), all normally slaughter waste, raise the possibility that the local butchers of that period undertook more intensive duties towards the preparation of an animal carcass for consumption.

OPS22 also contains an entire cattle metacarpal (003) and similarly that of a horse (002). The metacarpal is a lower leg bone covered in little meat but in a large animal its length, smooth line and strength made it a useful resource in bone working. However, both metacarpals display several small knife nicks normally associated with the skinning of an animal. The length of a complete fused metacarpal can be used in established equations to calculate an estimate of the withers heights of a bone’s owner.

The greater length of the (003) cattle metacarpal (von den Driesch) is 19.04cm which if multiplied by 6.03, a multiplier introduced by Matolcsi (1970), which is not reliant on gender distinction, produced an estimated withers height for the animal of 1.15m. Comparing this figure, as (003) is presently undated, with today’s average withers height of between 1.37-1.5 for Angus or Holstein Friesian cattle, suggests that the (003) animal was quite small.

The maximum lateral length, 22.14cm, of the horse metacarpal (von den Driesch) multiplied by 6.41 (the factor following Kiesewalter (1888) and described by Chroszcz et al. (2014)) gives an estimate of withers height as 142cm or 14hands. This short estimated withers height places the animal near the borderline territory between a large pony and a small horse, but just misses the 14.3 hands high needed to be classified as a small horse.

The eight bird bones recovered came only from (001). Apart from any of the myriad reasons why bird bones did not land up in the earth of a particular back yard, a bird needs to have light bones to be able to fly. They are thus more fragile and vulnerable to destruction than the bones of other animals. Following the butchery evidence below, (001) may be the latest in time of the three contexts, another possible reason why bird was not found in the other contexts.

The bird fragments consisted of the bones of seven domestic fowl and one wood pigeon. Domestic fowl is represented by the classic food bones, the upper thigh bone and the bones of the meatier part of the wing, suggesting domestic refuse. Judging from the numbers of the same bones of the same side they would represent two birds.

The wood pigeon’s ulna, one of the bones from the meatier part of the wing, could have been in the yard as a consequence of a natural event. However, as it occurs in association with the group of domestic fowl bones and a chopped rabbit bone, mentioned below, it may suggest the exploitation at that time of local fauna in the sourcing of food.

A few rabbit bones, two pelves and a chopped thigh bone, were present in (001) and (002). The thigh bone also displays a small knife nick at the distal end, often the result of skinning. The bones’ presence supports the suggestion that local animals were used for food and, depending on the dates to be established for these contexts, practices continuing over some time.

Oyster shells appear in (001) and (002), predominantly in (002). Although breakage has occurred in (002) there were six left hand, the rounder side, remnants with more than 50% of their hinges present in the group which indicate that there were at least 6 oysters in the group.

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Several of the valves exhibited marks suggestive of interference at the side or near the hinge area but the fragmentation is too extensive to be certain.

The hinge of the oyster shell in (001) appears to be that of a right valve, the shallower side. Interference near the hinge and a few knife marks visible on the interior surface of the shell suggest that it had been used for food.

Condition
Eighty five percent of the bone group was in average condition displaying only moderate erosion after their spell in the ground. Damage to the bone by the gnawing of rats or dogs, surface splitting, flaking or thinning contributed in varying degrees to a poor or severe state in the condition of the remaining 15%.

Rat or dog gnawing was observed in 21% of the bone assemblage but rat gnawing unusually only occurred in (001) while dog gnawing appeared equally only in (002) and (003). It may be that (002) and (003) came from a different time and source and had been buried more quickly than (001).

The surface of the majority of the oysters, largely found in (002), was extremely friable. The right valve of the more robust less fragmented but only oyster fragment in (001) displayed a single hole on the exterior of its valve made by a sponge or predatory marine gastropod trying to attach to its shell.

Charring
There was no evidence of charring on any of the fragments.

Butchery
Fifty four percent of the bone fragments showed signs of butchery. This amount rises to 69% if the horse, dog and bird bones were removed from the equation as customarily they are not butchered, as they are not in this assemblage.

The rates of butchery increase in OPS22 as the contexts numbers move from (001) to (003) but the greatest difference between the contexts is that it is only in (001) that saw marks appear. Sawing as a method of butchery only became a common practice in the 19th century suggesting a possible more recent date for (001) than the other two contexts.

The crumbly and fragmented condition of the oyster fragments in (002) obscured any marks though there may have been some possible interference at the sides or near the hinges. Interference near the hinge area of the sturdier oyster fragment in (001) was more visible, as were the few knife marks on its interior.

Age Evidence
There is some evidence of a number of young animals in this assemblage.

Birds will display their youth by having long bones with soft ends which have not yet hardened. In OPS22, many of the bones of domestic fowl which have complete endings are soft, indicating immature birds.

There are a group of young animals in OPS22, mainly sheep and pigs, whose full growth had not been completed before death so the ends of their limb bones had not yet attached to their shafts and hardened. The general age of an animal at which this fusion for each bone occurs is known, which helps to furnish an approximate age at death should the animal die before a bone’s fusion is achieved.

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In (001) there are four, two pigs and two sheep, whose unfused shaft ends of bones indicate that all these animals were less than 3.5 years old when they had been butchered. Additionally the unfused end of another young pig bone showed it was slaughtered at less than one year, while in (003) a young pig’s unfused shaft end marked its death at around two years old.

In (002) there is a mandible of a young sheep whose tooth eruption and wear point to its slaughter at around six months old.

There are no cattle teeth in OPS22 to assess age by means of the stage of tooth eruption or patterns of tooth wear. Additionally the cattle bones in the group which are fused are those which complete the fusion process early in life, around one or two years, leaving too great an age range to be useful. At the other end of the spectrum there is a chopped unfused thoracic vertebra which fuses between 7 and 9 years.

However, there is one cattle bone fragment from (002), in two pieces, whose proximal articular end is in the process of firmly attaching to its shaft but hasn’t fully completed it as the line between the shaft and the attaching epiphysis is still visible. The age for the fusion of the proximal end of this bone, the humerus, is thought to be around 3.5 to 4 years old, placing the age of this animal at death at around the 4 year mark, an age at which the animal would have achieved its full growth.

Barring illness or accident, dairy or draught cattle have a longer lifespan than 4 years, which points to this animal in (002) having been raised for meat production as were the above other young sheep and pigs from (001), (002) and (003).

There are also a few cases of disposal, for no apparent reason, of the very young who had not been involved in the preparation and supply of meat. Single limb bones of a neonatal dog and pig, and that of a slightly older sheep appeared in (001) and (002).

Conclusion
The anatomical parts recovered suggest that the assemblage has been derived from a variety of activities. That the fragments have been disposed of in the same area suggests the proximal nature of these different sources.

(001) is notable as it is more numerous than the other contexts, containing not only the largest amount of pig fragments in the group but also the largest presence of young animals and birds in the assemblage. It is also the only context which displays sawn bone and rat gnawing.
Domestic refuse appears to be represented by the partial remains of at least six oysters, the meatier parts of the rabbit, domestic fowl and cattle ribs, and the occasional limb bone of sheep and pig.

Butchery waste is more common, consisting of sheep, cattle and pig’s unwanted awkward articular ends of long bones, pelves, less meaty parts of ribs and the vertebral fragments of the two most numerous species. The youth of the animals slaughtered enhances the quality of the meat supplied which in turn suggests the prosperity of the nearby community or part thereof.
Cranial elements from cattle, sheep and pig, including mandibular, maxillary and occipital skull fragments and extremities suggest slaughter waste or possibly the earlier involvement of the butcher at that time in the processing of animal carcasses for consumption.

A semi circular cut on a cattle humerus from (002) implies nearby casual bone working activity. Knife nicks on a rabbit’s femur (001) and on cattle (003) and horse (002) metacarpals suggest the local skinning of animals.

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An intact horse lower leg bone from (002) and one from cattle in (003), as well as unfused limb bones of a neonatal puppy (001) and piglet and a slightly older sheep (002) possibly reflect the yard’s proximity to a well used road and might suggest it was a recognised place for the disposal of unwanted animal bone.

When dating is available and assigned to contexts (001) to (003), the information uncovered by the animal bone assemblage will contribute to a greater understanding of High Barnet’s local patterns of meat supply and consumption in their time frame. As OPS22’s bone group is not large, its value will be amplified with the excavation of further nearby sites.

Bibliography

‘Aberdeen Angus Cattle’, https://attwellfarmpark.co.uk/explore/animals/aberdeen-angus-cattle.. Accessed 28/07/22.

Boessneck. 1969, ‘Osteological differences between sheep (Ovis aries Linne) and goat
(Capra hircusLinne)’, in Brothwell, D. and Higgs, E.S. (eds.), Science in Archaeology, 2nd edn, London: Thames & Hudson.

Chroszcz, A. & Janeczek, M. & Pasicka, E. & Kleckowska-Nawrot, J. 2014, ‘Height at the withers estimation in horses based on the internal dimension of cranial cavity’, Folia morphologica, 73, 143-148. 10.5603/FM.2014.0021.

Cohen, A. & Serjeantson, D. 1996, A Manual for the Identification of Bird Bones from Archaeological Sites, London: Archetype.

Driesch, A. von den 1976, A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Bull. 1.

Grant, A. 1982, ‘The use of tooth as a guide to the age of domestic animals’, in Wilson,
B., Greigson, C. & Payne, S. (eds) 1982, Aging and Sexing Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites, Oxford: BAR Brit. Ser. 109.

‘Holstein Friesian Cattle Dimensions & Drawings’, Accessed 28/07/22. https://www.dimensions.com/element/holstein-friesian-cattle.

Matolcsi, J. 1970, ‘Historische Erforschung der Kopergrosse des Rindes augrund von
ungarischem Knochenmaterial; Zeitschrift fur Tierzuchtung und
Zuchtungsbiologie, 87, 89-137

‘Measuring the Height & Weight of Horses’, https://allpony.com/learn/measure-horses/. Accessed 09/08/22.

Payne, S. 1973, ‘Kill-off patterns in sheep and goats: the mandibles from Asvan Kale’, Anatolian Stud. 23, 281-303.

Schmid, E. 1972, An Atlas of Animal Bones for the Prehistorians, Archaeologists and Quaternary Geologists, Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Winder, J.M., 2011, Oyster Shells from Archaeological Sites: a brief illustrated guide to basic processing, 23-24, 28.

natureinfocus.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/oystershellmethodsmanualversion1.pdf 23rdJuly2022.

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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.

Sunday 6th August. Eclectic Tours. NW London Series. – Colindale and its role in early Aviation. Colindale or Hendon as it was known back then, was synonymous with flying. Learn about early aviation and other factories and important institutions of the area. For tour info. and to book please go to Eclectic Tours – Walking Tours – London, England (eclectic-tours.com).

Saturday 19th August. Barnet Physic Well. Cnr. Well Approach/Pepy’s Cres.,Barnet, EN5 3DY. Open Day.

Also Sunday 27th August. Exploring Kingsbury and Places we call Home. In the 1930’s Kingsbury developed as part of Metroland , while typical of many suburbs with mock-Tudor houses, Kingsbury holds some surprises. For tour info. and to book please go to Eclectic Tours – Walking Tours – London, England (eclectic-tours.com).

Sunday 3rd September, 11am-5pm. Angel Canal Festival. Regent’s Canal, City Road Basin ,Islington,N1 8GJ. Lots of stalls including London Canal Museum. Also boat trips, craft stalls, food and live music. For more info, please visit www.canalrivertrust/events.

Wednesday 6th-Sunday to 17th September. Open House London. Free entry to London’s best buildings not normally always open to the public. For full detail. please visit https://open-city.org.uk

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Sunday 10th September. Avenue House. The Private World of Spike Milligan. An opportunity to take a look at Spike’s unseen archive guided by his daughter Jane Miliigan. Small groups. Multiple slots. Booking essential. Tickets £10. Please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com.

Monday 11th September, 3pm.Barnet Museum and Local History Society.St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner of High St./Wood St., Barnet, EN5 4BW. A Walk in the Park-London’s Green Treasures. Talk by John Lynch. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

Friday 15th September, 7.30pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. London’s Waterfront, 1666-1800 and London’s Involvement with Slavery. Talk by John Scofield .Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.

Saturday 16th September 10am – 4pm. HADAS OPEN DAY at Avenue House. See Page 2 of this newsletter.

Sunday 17th September, 12-5pm . Queens Park Festival. Off Chevening Road or Harvist Road.,NW6. Lots of stalls incl.Willesden Local History.

Wednesday 20th September, 7.30pm. Willesden Local History Society. St.Mary’s Church Hall, bottom of Neasden Lane, NW10 2TS (round corner from Magistrates’ Court). Shopping in Kilburn High Road. Talk. May also be on zoom. If not a member, buy a ticket (£3). For details .please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.

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Friday 22nd September,7pm. COLAS. St.Olave’s Church, Hart Street , EC3R 7NB. Lord Elgin and the Parthenon sculptures at the British Museum. Speaker TBA. Hopefully also on zoom.Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out the link details to its members to book.

Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th September. Clitterhouse Farm Project. 10th Anniversary Weekend. 102,Clitterhouse Crescent,NW2 1DN. For details, please e-mail paulette@clitterhouse.com or visit www.ouryard.org.

Wednesday 27ih September, 7.45pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL. Alexandra Palace Theatre. Talk by Nigel Wilmott. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme,or phone 020 8368 8314 for up-to-date details. (David Berguer, Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.

Thursday 28th September, 7.30pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue, House, 17,East End Rd.,N3 3QE. Amy,wonderful Amy. Talk by David Keen (RAF Mus.) Will tell the life story of Amy Johnson and make use of the magic lantern slides and script which she used during fund-raising tours following her pioneering solo Australia flight. For further details, please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Geraldine Missig. Eric Morgan, Janet Mortimer, Jim Nelhams
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Secretary Vacancy

While we have no Membership Secretary

for the present, please address any change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:

HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 628 July 2023 Edited by Melvyn Dresner

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)

Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.

Tuesday 12th September 2023 Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum
The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project

Tuesday 10th October 2023 Lecture to be arranged

Tuesday 14th November 2023 Kris Lockyear
Mapping Verulamium

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Saturday 16th September HADAS “Open Day” at Avenue House
See poster below

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Subscriptions by Cheque

The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:

HADAS
C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE

If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address, please let us know.

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No Dinosaurs were hurt in the making of this poster, if you want to help let us know. It’s archaeology not paleontology. We know you know.

*************************************************************************

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Welcome to new President of HADAS, thank you to Harvey Sheldon

At this year’s AGM, we said farewell to our President, Harvey Sheldon, and welcomed Jacqui Pearce as our new President.

Harvey has been our President for over twenty years, he has been involved in London archaeology since the early 1960s. He was Field Officer for the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Committee from 1972 until 1975, then Head of the Department of Greater London Archaeology in the Museum of London from its establishment in 1975 until 1991. He was part-time tutor in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies University of London, and later, in the Faculty of Continuing Education, Birkbeck, University of London. From the late 1990s until 2010 he had responsibilities for the faculty’s archaeological field programme and for the direction of its MA in Field Archaeology, where many HADAS members participated.

Jacqui has led and tutored HADAS members on our finds course for more than 15 years, including work on sites dug by HADAS members in Southwark with Birkbeck and Harvey. Jacqui is a Senior Finds Specialist with MOLA and an internationally renowned expert in medieval and later ceramics, glass and clay tobacco pipes. She has wide ranging experience of medieval and later pottery and has been involved in the establishment and maintenance of the MOLA Fabric Reference Collection, the main pottery type-series for the London area. In addition, she has developed a detailed recording system for clay pipes in line with national guidelines and that was instrumental in the establishment of the Museum of London’s Clay Tobacco Pipe Makers’ Marks website. Jacqui is the author of numerous major papers and books, including four parts of an extensive Type-series of London Medieval Pottery, the latest of which covers shelly-sandy wares and greywares. She was Joint Editor of Post-Medieval Archaeology from 2009-2014 and is a committee member of the English Ceramic Circle, and Trustee of the National Clay Tobacco Pipe Archive. She is a frequent public speaker, leads workshops, and teaches evening classes in archaeological finds work and publication. In 2011 she was awarded the Ralph Merrifield Prize for Services to London Archaeology.
She was President of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology from 2017 to 2021 and is currently Vice President. She is also Co-Editor of English Ceramic Circle Transactions.

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Jacqui at the HADAS finds group.

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AGM Lecture

After tea, coffee and biscuits, our new President, Jacqui Pearce, took us through the top archaeological ceramics from 50 years of digs in London. Starting from the Department of Urban Archaeology in 1974 up to her work today with Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).

She explained how important were the pottery finds associated with revetments along the north bank of Thames providing a good basis for securely dating London ceramics found in other parts of London. This is related to direct dating such as dendrochronology and relative dating.

Early pots dated to the period of King Alfred were hand built and shell-tempered ceramic, which continued through Saxo-Norman period. Some wares from Stamford entered London in this period. These were high status pottery, lead glazed earthenware, made in Lincolnshire. Forms included spouted pitchers depicting birds. This type of pottery and the techniques are the earliest example of wheel thrown ware.

The beginning of London-type ware emerges late 11th century and early 12th century, wheel thrown, white slip and glaze, also tripod jugs with white and red. This was influenced by north French whitewares particularly from Rouen, with white slip on redware pot with green glaze. We also had London potters moving to Kingston in this period, and making decorated pots for the London markets, often decorated in flowers. These included zoomorphic forms such as griffins, including forms and decorations copying metal forms. As well as this higher status decorated wares, examples recovered from cesspits (Cannon Street), we also had emergence of south Hertfordshire greyware (SHER), typical forms include cooking pots, also course border ware. Border ware is from Surrey-Hampshire. We had a unique example of a horse head, probably a gaming piece. They also include crude human forms and animals, and face jugs, copying German stoneware. Also higher quality forms such as Edward II, probably made from a mould.

Jacqui took us through the story of ceramic finds in London, into the early modern period, including stone ware linked to trade via the Hanseatic League via money boxes found at the Rose Theatre, and like many things ending in chamber pots.

Pots from MOLA website https://www.mola.org.uk/type-series-medieval-pottery-archaeological-services

Reference: A dated type series of London medieval pottery: Part 5, Shelly-sandy ware and the greyware industries 2010, Lyn Blackmore, Jacqueline Pearce.

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HADAS Excavation at ‘Hopscotch’ 88 High St, Barnet EN5 5SN (Part 5 the finds – Ceramic Building Material, (Tim Curtis and Andy Simpson) Site code OPS22

BRICKWORK
Complete or partial bricks (BRIC) were recovered from three of the five contexts. With the sheer amount of CBM on site, especially red tile fragments, which made removing the top two contexts in particular mainly with mattock and shovel quite hard work, only a limited sample of each type of CBM was recovered. See also the ‘Tudor style’ bricks collected by the site owners in earlier articles.

CONTEXT 001 (The ‘topsoil’ layer)
Included a ‘half brick’ of very dense fabric with no frog; also a single fragment of coarse creamy fabric brick with one smooth face and possibly burnt; and seven miscellaneous fragments of presumed modern red fabric bricks, well fired. There was also a single fragment of vitrified brick in a very dense fabric, with one recessed face.

Below this was context 002, with a single fragment of very rough fabric hand-made brick, with small possible flint inclusions and possible sooting on one face, with a matching broken off corner fragment. There was also an almost complete hand-made glazed brick mortared on the base, possibly reused.

There were no brick fragments recovered from context 003 which contained some medieval pottery.
Context 004 was the footings of a relatively modern brick foundation wall, from which one red fabric brick, 8.5x4x2 inches, was retained as a sample. It had traces of mortar top and bottom from when it formed part of the wall foundation.

The bottom most recorded context, 005, containing some medieval pottery, contained no recognisable brick fragments, only unidentifiable small fragments of Nib or Peg (NIPE) tile.

TILE
The vast majority of CBM recovered from the site was red tile of differing types.
Possibly among the most modern material were the ten fragments, totalling 325 grammes, of grey roofing slate fragments from context 001.

Also relatively modern were the fragments of glazed ceramic wall tile (WALT) (pictured below) from context 001 – 16 fragments of white ribbed ‘Pilkington’ tile, a single fragment of a similar type of white smooth tile, one corner fragment of a brown tile with floral design, and four miscellaneous fragments of white and cream wall tile all typical of kitchen or bathroom use.

Also assumed to be relatively modern is a single fragment of chimney pot, wall thickness a half inch, slightly sooted on both faces, and slightly curved – possibly forming the base of a rim.
A further relatively modern find in context 001 was the single fragment of drainpipe (DRAN), wall thickness a half inch, in surface glazed stoneware.

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A single fragment of DRAN was also found in context 003, possibly of a nine- inch diameter pipe, in a hard fired grey-black fabric.

Also exclusive to context 001 were the fragments of mortar, possibly from a wall surface, with traces of keying on the inner face and whitewash on the outer face, plus brick mortar and two flat slabs of mortar with traces of brick on the underside.

PEG TILE (PEG) All from Context 002 unless otherwise stated.
One particularly fine piece recovered was the top half of a seemingly hand-made tile with three surviving straight edges and two peg holes. It had traces of mortar on the upper and lower faces and a slight curve. Measured 6 ¼ wide and a half inch thick. There was also the top one third of a tile in red fabric with one surviving peg hole and much mortar on both faces, measuring 5 ½ x 6 ½ x ½. inches.

One possible fragment of PEG tile from context 003, being a small corner fragment with possible peg hole, plus one more definite PEG fragment with a single hole. Both were 15mm thick.

NIPE (Nib or Peg tile)
This is the term used for small fragments of tile which due to missing distinctive features cannot be firmly identified as either Peg (PEG) or Nib (NIB) type tiles.

Context 001 included a sample of 17 fragments of NIPE tile with an average thickness of half an inch.

Two red fabric fragments were recovered from context 002, and none from contexts 003 and 004.
Bottom-most excavated context 005, as well as medieval pottery, yielded seven small fragments of unidentified NIP/NIPE/ PEG red tile, all with one very rough face. (Pictured below).

These consisted of two conjoining fragments, with a dark red core and another with a reduced grey core; one notably hard fired fragment, one with an unidentified moulding mark and two large fragments with an edge, noticeable flint inclusions, in a paler fabric than all the others.

CURVED TILE (CURV)
Two fragments from context 002, in a red fabric.

WORKED STONE
Perhaps the most notable item was from context 003 – a small but weighty fragment of worked stone, presumed to be limestone, with one dressed face, weighing 1,011g – the heaviest single fragment recovered from the site (photo below). It could perhaps be part of a window mullion or door surround, and it is tempting to link it to the much-rebuilt Barnet Church just a few yards away to the west.

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Basement Room

Working behind the scenes, HADAS members are getting ready for forthcoming exhibition at Hendon Town Hall, more details to follow. We also working to get ready for the open day on 16th September at Avenue House- see page 2 If you interested in getting involved on the day let us know.

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Barnet Medieval Festival

HADAS at Barnet Medieval Festival on the weekend of 10th-11th June 2023 at Byng Road playing fields.

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Thanks to Bill Bass,, Don Cooper, Melvyn Dresner, Jim & Jo Nelhams, Peter Nicholson, Any Simpson and Ted for giving up so much time attending our stall. A number of other members also visited.
The Festival Website – https://barnetmedievalfestival.org/ contains more information and some short videos.

Events at Avenue House

Avenue House has an interesting list of upcoming events on their website, including the HADAS Open Day. For information, see http://www.stephenshouseandgardens.com/visit.

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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre -Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.

Monday 4th -Friday- 16th July. Society of Antiquaries. Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J OBE. Archaeo-Sexism Display. Can be visited on Open Fridays, on selected Fridays when the building will be open to the public to view and learn about the history, also at UCL from 19th – 24th July.

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Also on Tuesday 4th July,1-2pm.The Archaeo-Sexism Exhibition; Challenging Sexism in Archaeology. Talk by Kayt Hawkins (FSA).

Monday 10th July, 8 pm. Please note change of time. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./Wood Street Barnet, EN5 4BW. Tree dating and what it tells us about the Old Barnet Shop. Talk by Martin Bridges. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

Friday 14th July. William Camden and his World. Full day Conference, For full list of events and to book, please visit www.sal.org.uk/events.

16th July – Enfield Archaeological Society open day ay Elysng Palace dig (10th July to 23rd July) at Forty Hall, Please note that this year’s summer dig in Forty Hall is now fully booked, and they will not be processing further applications for Society membership until the 24th July. Members of the public are of course welcome to drop by and check on our progress, especially on our public open day on Sunday 16th July. https://www.enfarchsoc.org/#news.

The search for the inner gatehouse:

Monday, 17 July 13:00 – 14:00 Willesden Jewish cemetery will deliver a talk at Willesden Green Library, 95, High Road, London, Brent, NW10 2SF, Unveiling the History of Willesden Jewish Cemetery 1873-2023

Monday 17th July 7.15pm. Camden History Society. Hampstead Parish Church. Church Row, NW3 6UU. How our ancestors saw the past. Talk by Gillian Tindall (Vice-president) preceded by AGM. Refreshments 6.45-7.15pm (incl. wine) AGM 7.15pm, Talk 7.45pm.

Saturday 18th July. St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury Open Day. Church Lane, Kingsbury.NW9 7HE.Part of re-kindling St. Andrew’s Church project., funded by Heritage fund. Big fun day. Willesden Local History Society will have a stall here, alongside Wembley History Society. For more details, please visit www.standrewskingsbury.org.uk/rekindling.

Wednesday 19th July 6pm. Willesden Local History Society. Please note change of address address to Cambridge House,12-16, Cambridge Avenue (not Road) Maida Vale, NW6 5BA. It is a grade2

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listed building, constructed to descend into the Victorian Ice Wells 1863, in corrugated iron, as St. James’ Episcopalian Church. It was taken on by the Sea Cadets after WW2 and named Training Ship Bicester. It is owned by Notting Hill Genesis Housing Assocn., currently working on conservation. Will visit the History display and learn about its history and plans for its future.

Sunday 23rd July. London Canal Museum.12-13, New Wharf Road, Kings X, N1 9RT.Ice Sunday. Annual day of ice-related activities including an opportunity to descend into the Victorian ice wells beneath the building. Please visit www.canalmuseum.org.uk/.

Thursday 3rd August, 7pm. Avenue House. Take a peek inside. Guided Tour. A rare opportunity to view the house from top to bottom and learn more of its 139 year history and the life of Henry Stephens. Tickets £8. For more info. and booking please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com.

Saturday 5th August. Kensal Green Cemetery. Harrow Road, Ladbroke Grove, W10 4RA. Sing a Song of Kensal Green. Musical themed guided tour. For more info visit https://kensalgreen.co.uk.

Sunday 6th August 2.30pm. Heath and Hampstead Society. Sandy Heath and the Heath Extension. Meet at Spaniard’s End (by flower stall and cattle trough) near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, NW3 7JJ. Walk led by Lynda Cook. Lasts approx. 2hrs. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.

Tuesday 8th August 7.45pm. Amateur Geological Society. Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6, East End Road/ Stanhope Ave.N3 3LX. (Almost opp. Avenue House) AGS Members’ Evening. 3 mini presentations by AGS members and wine and nibbles. Visitors £5 in advance through Mike Howgate at mailto: mehowgate@hotmail.com.
https://amgeosoc.wordpress.com/meeting-dates/.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Bill Bass, Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan,
Tim Curtis, and Andy Simpson
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Secretary Vacancy

While we have no Membership Secretary

for the present, please address any change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:

HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 627                                               June 2023                                        Edited by Dudley Miles

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Lectures, which are currently not on Zoom, are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE . 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please.)

Buses 13, 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by Avenue House, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 passes close to Finchley Central Station.

Tuesday 13th June 2023

HADAS Annual General Meeting
Followed by Jacqui Pearce –Top pots from 50 years excavation in London

Tuesday 12th September 2023

Mike Noronha, Barnet Museum – The Battle of Barnet Survey and Project

Tuesday 10th October 2023

Lecture to be arranged

Tuesday 14th November 2023

Kris Lockyear – Mapping Verulamium

********************************************************************

Subscriptions by Cheque

The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:

HADAS
C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE

If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address, please let us know.

1

Barnet Medieval Festival

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Barnet Medieval Festival returns on the weekend of 10th-11th June 2023 and we look forward to welcoming you to the fifth Festival at Byng Road playing fields. The Festival will feature re-enactments of the Battles of Barnet 1471 and the Second Battle of St Albans 1461 as well as displays by the gunners, archers and mounted knights. NEW this year will be a medieval fashion show and craft demonstrations for you to enjoy.

HADAS will have a stall on both days. This gives us the chance to meet many members of the public and maybe enrol a few new members. It is great if members can spend a time helping with this. Contact Don Cooper (contact info on back page of newsletter) if you can spend a little time.
If you just visit, there is plenty to see and do for all ages.

The Festival Website – Barnet Medieval Festival – Reenactment of the Battle of Barnet 1471 contains more information and some short videos.

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Seahenge Jim Nelhams

Henge – a prehistoric monument consisting of a circular structure made of wood or stones.

The coastline around The Wash and the Northern coast of Western Norfolk have been marshy and made up of shifting sands. Kings’ Lynn, at the southern end of The Wash, was a busy Hanseatic Port but the entrance to the Great Ouse became silted up and now only smaller ships can reach the port.

In 1998, the shifting sands of Holme beach, some 20 miles north of Kings’ Lynn revealed something extraordinary. Preserved in the sand were the remains of a unique timber circle dating back 4000 years to the Early Bronze age. Although discovered on a modern beach, the circle was originally built on a salt marsh, some distance inland.

The discovery captured the imagination of archaeologists and the general public, and the site soon became known as “Seahenge”. The timbers made a circle some 21 feet in diameter, made up of 55 closely fitting oak poles, some 10 feet in length. In the middle was a large upturned stump. Dendro-dating showed that the timbers were all cut in the spring or early summer of 2049BC.

A decision was made to excavate the timbers, though there was some local opposition. The site was only exposed at low tide so work could only take place for between two and four hours each day and was dependent on the times of the tides. With funds from English Heritage (now Heritage England), the work was undertaken by Norfolk Archaeological Unit.

Seahenge was built by people living and farming near the salt marshes. Up to fifty people may have helped to build the circle, possibly coming together to mark a special occasion, perhaps the death of an important member of the community. It is thought that a body may have been placed on the upturned stump and left open to the elements. Birds and animals would have been allowed to pick the body clean before the bones were removed for burial elsewhere.

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The timbers had been naturally preserved by a layer of thick peat, but began to deteriorate through exposure to the air and the wetting and drying of each tide. As they were extracted, they were sent for preservation to Flag Fen, near Peterborough. Then in 2003, they were transferred to the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth.

While at Flag Fen, the timbers were laser scanned to record the surface details. This showed that the 56 timber pieces came from between 15 and twenty trees. They had been cut and trimmed using up to 50 bronze axes – the circle dates from a time when such implements were thought to be rare and quite new.

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Golders Green Steam II Andy Simpson

Newsletter readers may remember that in the July 2021 issue (No.604) I wrote about the industrial tank locomotive ‘Hastings’ built by Hunslet of Leeds in 1888; my interest arose from its time as a contractor’s locomotive when it was used in the construction of Golder’s Green tube depot circa 1905-1907. Having passed to the Kent and East Sussex Heritage line at Tenterden for preservation in 1964, it steamed again in 2021 for the first time since 1965.

It was a guest loco at the recent Bluebell Railway ‘Branch Line Gala’ weekend and on Friday 21 April 2023 I was able to visit, see and photograph her and enjoy a brake van ride and ‘main line’ run with her. Branch Line Gala Weekend 2023 – Bluebell Railway in Sussex (bluebell-railway.com)

Although a game little engine, an attempted run up the 1 in 60/75 bank from Horsted Keynes to the East Grinstead terminus pulling four coaches weighing some 120 tons proved too much for Hastings and her even smaller helper, a pretty little Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 0-4-0 ‘Pug’ tank familiar to those who built Airfix kits back in the day; they expired just north of West Hoathly tunnel and after a lengthy ‘blow up’ retired winded – but still pulling coaches – back down the bank to Sheffield Park loco shed.

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Lakeside Nature Reserve Dudley Miles

Lakeside Nature Reserve is a hidden gem in the heart of Finchley, between Squires Lane and Strathmore Gardens. Unfortunately, there is no public access, but it can be glimpsed from a track behind Strathmore Gardens.

The lake was constructed as a reservoir by Peter Edmund Kay in the late 1890s to supply water to Claigmar Vineyard. Kay started trading as a market gardener in 1872, and by the end of the century Claigmar Vineyard was a site of almost thirty acres in Church End, out of which some sixteen acres was occupied by 145 greenhouses, producing around 100 tons of table grapes, 100 tons of tomatoes and 20,000 dozens of cucumbers. This meant that the vineyard’s water requirements were enormous, and Kay met them by building a two-acre reservoir. Rain falling on the greenhouses was collected in the reservoir, which held about five million gallons. It was then pumped to the tops of water towers, from which it was distributed to the greenhouses.

The system was built at great cost, but it was able to supply all the water needed by the greenhouses, saving a water rate of more than £700 per annum, equivalent to around £70,000 today. The soft rain water was also better for the crops than the hard and cold water supplied by the water company. Kay was well known for his water management, and in 1900 he read a paper to the Royal Horticultural Society on “Saving and Using the Rain”.

The land of Claigmar Vineyard was gradually sold off in the 1920s, mostly for house building, but the reservoir and adjacent land was sold to Finchley Urban District Council in 1923 for the use of the electricity department, and by 1934 it was also providing premises for the highways and fire brigade departments. The site was presumably sold by one of the Council’s successor authorities, as it is now the gated estate of Pentland Brands Limited.

In the 1990s, the reservoir and a small area of woodland around it was designated a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation, called Lakeside Nature Reserve, by the London Borough of Barnet. It is described in the London Ecology Unit’s 1997 publication, Nature Conservation in Barnet, which may now be partly out of date.

The lake has fish, frogs, toads and terrapins, and there are waterfowl such as mallards, tufted ducks, coots, barnacle geese and moorhens. There are small areas of white water lily, and a few plants on the margin such as water mint, fool’s water cress, yellow iris, water-plantain and purple-loosestrife. There is an island which has sycamores and poplars, with dense undergrowth. The belt of trees on the lake margin has white poplar, white willow, alder and sycamore, with an understorey of hawthorn, elder, bramble and ivy, and some patches of comfrey and Michaelmas Daisy.

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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Not all societies and other organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before attending events.

Saturday 10th June, 12-5 pm. Highgate Festival. Pond Square and South Grove, Highgate Village, N6. Lots of stalls including Highgate Society, and Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute. Also, craft and food stalls and music stage.

Sunday 18th June, 12-5 pm. Hampstead Summer Festival. Keats House and Community Library, 10, Keats’ Grove, NW3 2RR. Art Fair. Open exhibition of paintings and sculptures, craft stalls, food and wine bar. Free admission. Held in the gardens. Please check www.hampsteadsummerfestival.com for latest information. Also involved is Hampstead School of Art.

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Tuesday 20th June, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Talk hopefully on Zoom. Untold London: stories from the time-trodden streets. By Dan Carrier. Please visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details. Talk is about his book of walks in the deserted streets of Central London during lockdown to uncover the forgotten stories the heart of the UK capital holds.

Thursday 22nd June-Tuesday 4th July. Hampstead’s Art Street. Canvas murals along the walls of Keats’ Grove, painted by local artists.

Saturday 24th June-Sunday 2nd July. Proms at St. Jude’s Music and Literary Festival, Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, NW11 7AH. For full details www.promsatstjudes.org.uk.
The Festival also includes Heritage Walks. Each walk must be booked in advance via website.

Sunday 2nd July 12-5 pm. Big Fair in Heath Street, Hampstead, NW3. Over 100 stalls including crafts, food and drink. Music stage. Free admission.

Sunday 2nd July, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. Constable and Hampstead. Meet at Spaniard’s End (by flower stall and cattle trough) near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, NW3. Walk led by Suzanne Grundy. Lasts approximately 2 hours. Ends at St. John’s Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, NW3. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.

Sunday 9th-Sunday 23rd July. Enfield Archaeological Society. Elsyng Excavation 2023. At Elsyng Royal Palace in the grounds of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield, EN2. To join the dig please contact Dr Martin Dearne. Email martindearne@talktalk.net or visit www.enfarchsoc.org. This year the society is focussing on the Inner Gatehouse, believed to have medieval origins. Also Sunday 16th July, 11 am-4 pm, Open Day. Includes finds identification, displays and craft activities.

Monday 10th July, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./Wood Street Barnet, EN5 4BW. Tree dating and what it tells us about the Old Barnet Shop. Talk by Martin Bridges. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

Tuesday 11th July, 8 pm. Amateur Geological Society, Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6 East End Road/corner of Stanhope Avenue, N3 3LX (almost opposite Avenue House). Looking at the South Coast from the Isle of Wight westwards along to Devon. Talk by Stephen Krause (AGS). Examining the structures and pictures from the air to understand how the coastline of this attractive and geologically interesting part of the UK was formed. Visitors £2. Refreshments in interval.

Saturday 15th-Sunday 30th July 2023 CBA Festival of Archaeology. For more info. please visit CBA Festival of Archaeology – 15-30 July – Archaeology 2030

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Wednesday 19th July, 6 pm. Willesden Local History Society. Visit to Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Road, NW6 5BA (off Kilburn Park). Meet there for guided tour. For more information. please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.

Friday 21st July, 7 pm. COLAS. Talks hopefully on Zoom. Members’ Night. Talks by members of the society. For details. please visit www.colas.org.uk.

Friday 21st July 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church), Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9. The 1948 Olympics at Wembley. Talk by Philip Grant (WHS). Visitors £3. Refreshments in interval.

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Most groups shut down in mid-July until September.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Andy Simpson
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Secretary Vacancy

While we have no Membership Secretary

for the present, please address any change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:

HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 626 May 2023 Edited by Jim Nelhams

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HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events

We are delighted that lectures are now face-to-face. Lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please)

Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.

Tuesday 9th May 2023 Bill Bass – Hopscotch in High Barnet: a HADAS dig.

Several of us worked on this short but enjoyable ‘backyard’ dig last year, directed by Bill, and the report is being serialised in the newsletter.

Tuesday 13th June 2023 HADAS Annual General Meeting

Followed by a lecture to be arranged.

Saturday 16th September Proposed HADAS “Open Day” at Avenue House
More information to follow.

Subscriptions by Cheque

The annual subscription was due on the 1/4/2023. Members who pay by cheque and have not yet sent their cheque, please address it to:

HADAS
C/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley. London N3 3QE

If you have sent your cheque to Steve Brunning’s old address please let us know.

HADAS Attendance at Lectures Jo Nelhams

The members returned to face-to-face lectures on February 14th 2023: the previous one we had was on 10th March 2020. After nearly three years there were some very “happy to be back” faces especially those unable to link by Zoom.

We had 21 members plus one visitor. In the absence of the Chairman and other officers, our Vice Chairman, Peter Pickering, introduced the speaker, Signe Hoffos who presented a very interesting talk about Bombed Churches in the City.

The lecture in March by Robin Densem was attended by 23 members, an increase of 2 on the previous month, and 4 visitors, a total of 27, a very amusing presentation entitled “A Career in Ruins”.

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Although the April lecture was immediately after Easter Monday, the number of members attending rose to 25 plus 1 visitor, a total of 26. It has been encouraging to see the number of attendees increasing each month. Not all are able to come each month, but so far 30 different members have returned.

Thanks to Bill Bass who led the way with organising the speakers for lectures since the return of meetings.

April lecture Jim Nelhams

The topic for the April lecture delivered by Robert Stephenson was “The Thames, its Myths and Mysteries.
The lecture embodied lots of information about the river.

The river was a source of prosperity to London and helped communications. Its original course was further to the north, but it had been pushed south by the ice sheet in the last ice age. The location of the city was the first place where the river could be crossed with a bridge. The route was quite marshy with lots of islands. The suffix “sea” means an island as in Chelsea and Battersea. Thorney Island, where Westminster Abbey and the Parliament were built, was formed by the dividing of the Tyburn River.
Robert guided us through various historical happenings and archaeological finds.

Although most swans on the river belong to the Crown, the Vintners and the Dyers Livery Companies have some rites, and marked their ownership with nicks to the beaks, one nick for the Dyers and two for the Vintners. These days, the birds are ringed.

Ownership of the river also rested with the Crown until 1350 when the stretch from Southend to Staines was sold to the City of London to raise funds for the crusades. The current owner is the Thames Water Authority.

The river is 215 miles long, the longest in England, draining over 5,000 square miles and dropping 360 feet. It flows through 9 counties at a maximum speed of 9 knots. The maximum tide is 25 feet with an average of 19 feet.

In 1952, Lord Noel-Buxton, a 6’ 3” tall peer, attempted to wade across the Thames close to Westminster Bridge to retrace the path used by Roman Legions. He managed to cross half-way but had forgotten that a deep channel had been dredged in the middle, so he had to swim the rest of the way.

The Hendon Beverley Robert Michel

As a tail-piece to Andy’s excellent article on the Beverley (Newsletter 625), the following came to mind:

Another Hendon connection for the much-lamented XH124 was that it bore a small high-vis orange-coloured plastic ‘zap’ on its nose. This zap was sort of in the shape of a bird, meant to be a falcon at rest, being the centrepiece of the badge of the RAF’s 120 Squadron. The equally lamented RAF Station Hendon was for some time the home of 120 (Hendon) Squadron Air Training Corps, of which I had the (probably) dubious honour of being its longest serving cadet corporal. Anyway it was cadets from this squadron, which last I heard resided in Burnt Oak, who were responsible for affixing the zap to said Beverley – no mean feat given the height of the nose section from the ground. This act took place under cover of darkness sometime in the early-mid 1970s and is not one I have any memory of taking part in……….

NB – ‘Zap’ was (is?) the name given to bits of sticky-back plastic crafted into the shape of emblems of armed service units. Affixing these to all manner of prominent surfaces was all the rage during the 1970s-80s and may still be for all I know.

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Alan Godfrey’s reprint Old Ordnance Survey maps Pamela Taylor

Many HADAS readers will be devotees of Alan’s maps, but for those who haven’t yet discovered them, each one comes as a nifty sheet, folded in the traditional way, with the map on one side and the other
shared between a history (brief when the series started, now up to four panels, some 3,200 words) and either some matching directory pages or, less frequently, part of another map.

Alan started the series in 1981, concentrating on the OS’s 25″ maps in the first three editions, which in most of SE England means one each in the 1860s, 1890s and early 1900s. Since then, he’s also
embarked on the fourth edition, surveyed in the 1930s and the last before the OS changed the sheet lines, and has also made forays into the 1″ and 5′ scales and, thanks to some War Office sources, the
Ruhrgebiet and D-Day landing beaches.

In the early decades Alan was busy scouring record offices and libraries for clean originals that could be transported to Gateshead where they were photographed on a camera the size of a fully-extended MRI scanner. Barnet Local Studies was one of his early discoveries and the borough librarian, David Ruddom, was very happy for his two borough archivists, Joanna Corden and me, to lend the maps and write accompanying notes, and for the libraries to sell the results. Today high-grade scans and the internet mean that Alan usually relies on scans from a single copyright library, much simpler but some of the fun’s been lost.

I left Barnet in 1999 but the link with Alan continued and I’ve now written some 200 sets of notes, mostly for places in and around London but with outliers ranging from Castle Douglas through Louth and Cambridge down to Winchester and Romsey. Both in new places and in those I thought I knew, the maps often provide real historical excitement. I’m by preference a medievalist and some boundaries on a Mortlake map kick-started an article in Anglo-Norman Studies. Better still, boundaries in Kensington Gardens delivered an Alice down a rabbit hole moment and, eventually, a book, Knightsbridge and Hyde (VCH Publication, 2017) which overturned all previous understandings of Knightsbridge.

Closer to home, Alan’s recently sent me to Enfield, Edmonton, Wembley, Kingsbury and also back to Hendon and Golders Green, but this time in the 1936 survey and therefore in massive contrast with the earlier editions. At this rate, though, he won’t be doing any more NW Middlesex maps because the sales are poor. As a matter of pride as well as self-interest would HADAS readers care to help reverse the trend? Roger Chapman explained in this Newsletter how the National Library of Scotland has put its OS maps freely online, and it’s a wonderful resource, but with Alan’s you can look at several side by side (boundaries are good, map edges less so) and the map notes, which also usually list the main sources, are a major bonus.

There’s a very easy website: www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk. The maps are cheap and there are often additional offers. Happy hunting.

Mail Rail Jim Nelhams

As a member of the Letter Box Study Group, I visited the Postal Museum at Mount Pleasant before it moved to expanded premises on the other side of the road although it still has the original space at the back of the Mail Centre, consisting of a shop and the current access to Mail Rail. The main building specialises in postage history.

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Before World War 1, the Post Office planned to build its own underground railway to transport mail between eight postal sorting offices on the north side of the Thames. Approval was given by the Post Office (London) Railway Act, 1913 and work started in 1914. One of the project’s chief engineers was Harley Hugh Dalrymple-Hay who had been involved in the design of the Bakerloo and Northern Lines.
The tunnels were all dug by hand. Following the outbreak of the war, resources became limited and work was suspended in 1917. At one time, water from the River Fleet broke into the tunnel at Mount Pleasant but this was rapidly staunched. As Mount Pleasant is the least deep of the stations, flood doors were installed to isolate any flooding and protect the whole system.

During WW1, the completed tunnels were used to store valuable items from The British Museum, National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy.

Work resumed in 1924 and after fitting out and testing, the service commenced in 1927. From that date, trains ran every day, except one when a bomb hit Mount Pleasant during WW2, until 2003 when rising costs caused the service to stop.

The line runs for six and a half miles from Paddington in the west to Whitechapel in the east joining together eight major sorting offices. The total track length was 22 miles. When the service commenced, this journey took two hours by road: by rail, it could be completed in 35 minutes with a maximum speed around 30 mph.

Trains were unmanned, running on a 24” gauge with electric power from a third rail system. They could travel at up to 35 miles per hour and ran to a strict timetable every four minutes for 22 hours per day, carrying 4 million items of post each day.

When the Postal Museum expanded, work was done to open a section of the railway for passenger rides and were granted right of access by Royal Mail.

Jo and I were fortunate enough through the auspices of Subterranea Britannica to join a special group visit to Mail Rail. This included a trip on the railway – some 15 minutes long around the Mount Pleasant Loop.

Trains are now battery driven. There were some audio-visual displays during the trip. The group also took a conducted walk of about a mile through parts of the system – a service not generally available. Most of the system is still owned by Royal Mail and not generally accessible.

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During the tour, we saw the railway graveyard where old rolling stock is now stored. There is no easy way to remove old trains to the surface.

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The Postal Museum is open each week from Wednesday to Sunday between 10am and 5 pm. Tickets include free entry for a year and one ride on Mail Rail on the day of your first visit. Current cost is £16 if booked online.

We are happy to organise a bus-pass outing for members if there is sufficient interest. Please email jim_nelhams@hotmail.com or call 020 8449 7076 to let us know.

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Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Not all societies or organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Update

Thursday 18th May, 7p.m. London Archaeologist. Please note the venue has now changed to L.S.E., Room 1.09, Marshall Building, Portugal Street, WC2A 2HD. But spaces are limited. Or you can attend on zoom. Please book your free place for either via www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk. as shown in April newsletter.

New Events

Sunday 4th June, 2.30p.m. Heath and Hampstead Society. From Parliament Hill to Highgate; History and Landmarks. Meet at Bandstand, Parliament Fields (off Gordon House Rd. Gospel Oak, NW5). Walk led by Jeska Harrington-Gould. Lasts approx. 2hrs. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or e-mail hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.HeathandHampstead.org.uk.

Wednesday 7th June, 6p.m. Gresham College. How Pagan was Medieval Britain? Talk by Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view online. Please see How Pagan Was Medieval Britain? | Gresham College – free. Will consider figures in seasonal folk rites, carvings in churches, the records of trials for witchcraft and a continuing veneration of natural such as wells. Will also compare Ancient paganism and Medieval Christianity as successive religious systems.

Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th June, 10.30a.m. – 5p.m. Barnet Medieval Festival. Barnet R.F.C. Ground, end of Byng Road, Barnet, EN5. Lots of stalls including HADAS, Barnet Museum, Barnet Society, and Battlefields Trust. Battle of Barnet re-enactments. Also Battle of St. Albans 1461, re-enactments at midday on both days. Food and drink stalls. For more info. Please visit www.barnetmedievalfestival.org.

Monday 12th June 3p.m. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High St./ Wood St., Barnet, EN5 4BW. A window into 1930’s Barnet;Cole collection photographs from glass plates.Talk by Terence Atkins. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

Wednesday 14th June 6p.m. Gresham College. Sir Christopher Wren; Architect and Courtier. Talk by Simon Thurley. Ticket required. Register at www.gresham.ac.uk and view online. Please see Sir Christopher Wren: Architect & Courtier | Gresham College – free. Taking Wren the courtier as it’s starting point, this lecture uses new research to paint his talents and career in a new light.

Wednesday 14th June, 8p.m. Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on zoom. Aspects of Pre-historic Britain; the first people by Graham Harrison. Please e-mail hornseyhistoricalchairman@gmail.com.for link. Also visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.

Sunday 18th June, 12-6p.m. East Finchley Festival. Cherry Tree Wood, East Finchley, N2. (Entrance off High Road opposite Tube Station). Lots of stalls including Finchley Society, Friends of Cherry Tree Wood (with Roger Chapman of HADAS and North London U3A). Also craft, food and beer stalls. Music stage.

Wednesday 28th June, 7.45p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx. Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. R.A.F. Museum. Talk by David Keen. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk and click on programme, or phone 0208 368 8314 for up-to-date details (David Berguer,Chair). Non-members £2. Bar available.

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Thursday 29th June, 7.30p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’ House, 17, East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE. Annual General Meeting. For further details. please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in interval.

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With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Robert Michel, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Jo Nelhams, Pamela Taylor
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk

Membership Secretary Vacancy

While we have no Membership Secretary

for the present, please address any correspondence such as change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:

HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE

Website at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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