Past Newsletters

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No. 644 NOVEMBER 2024 Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

The November 2024 lecture see below, will be in person, face-to-face, only, in the Avenue House Drawing Room.17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, 7.45 for 8pm. Buses 13, 125, 143, 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. We also on the new SuperLoop Bus, SL10. Tea/Coffee/biscuits will be available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 12th November 2024 by Peter Masters. Research Fellow Cranfield University ‘Battle of Barnet 1471 – Where is the battlefield? New thoughts, research and surveys’

This talk will look at the history, archaeology and present thoughts on the Battle of Barnet. The recent research has revisited the documentary evidence suggesting a different interpretation of how the battle was fought. It has led to looking at the landscape in a new way supported by a research fund that involved the participation of volunteers within the community.

Tuesday 11th February 2025 by Nick Peacey on The Highgate Wood kiln’s site. See article starting p.2

Important notice about lecture slides: We have been advised that due to copyright reasons it will not be possible to take photographs during HADAS lectures taking place in Avenue House. Copyright regulations permit the use of visual material during lectures but does not extend to allowing copies to be made of lecturers’ slides. This also ensures there is no distraction for the speaker and audience members.

Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings
The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue are generally held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30 am. HADAS members are welcome to attend – if this is of interest, please contact the Secretary to ensure the session will be taking place as occasionally these are cancelled.

HADAS Christmas Party Sunday the 1st of December 2024
We will be holding the HADAS Christmas party in the Salon at Avenue House from 2.30 pm on Sunday 1st December 2024. There will be a selection of seasonal food available as a finger buffet, and a quiz, raffle and cash bar. The price will be kept at the same as for last year at £20 per person. Booking forms have been sent out to members who are welcome to bring guests.
Hurry -there are only a few places left!

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HIGHGATE WOOD – ROMAN POTTERY KILN Michael Hacker

This year’s Heritage Day in Highgate Wood saw the official opening of a new display devoted to the Roman pottery site found in the wood in the 1960’s. The display includes the newly restored remains of one of the best-preserved Roman pottery kilns found in London, now believed to be the only Roman pottery kiln on display in England. The Heritage Day events featured the successful firing of a replica Roman pottery kiln packed with pots made from clay dug in the wood.

Back in 1962 Tony Brown had observed a surface scatter of Roman pottery sherds in Highgate Wood. A series of summer excavations between 1966 and 1978, led by Tony Brown and Harvey Sheldon, revealed evidence of a significant Roman pottery production site. It was active for over 100 years between AD 50 and AD 160. It produced a range of cooking and fine tableware for the London market. The range includes a distinctive poppy-head beaker form with geometric, dotted barbotine decoration. Highgate ware has been found widely distributed at numerous sites in the London area. A full report of the excavations was published by Archaeopress in 2018. (1)

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(1) Brown A. E. and Sheldon H. E. (2018) The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78, Archaeopress (https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781784919788)

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The excavations identified the remains of ten kilns. One of them, kiln 2, was particularly well preserved. After it had been recorded it was lifted and exhibited first in the Horniman Museum, then in Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham. Unfortunately, around 1997, Bruce Castle found itself short of space and put the 21 pieces of the kiln in store. It lay there for nearly 30 years. Under the leadership of Nick Peacey and Harvey Sheldon, a voluntary community group, the Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln, (FOHRK), has now succeeded in having the remains of the kiln conserved and reassembled. FOHRK, with the aid of Lottery funding, worked in partnership with the City of London Corporation, owners of the Wood and Bruce Castle Museum, owner of the kiln. The kiln forms the central feature of the display in what will be, once the space is extended to accommodate buggies and wheelchairs, a substantial Visitor Centre. (https://www.highgateromankiln.org.uk/).

To coincide with the opening of the kiln display, FOHRK and the partnership (named Firing London’s Imagination) organised, the construction and firing of a replica Roman kiln, under the direction of Graham Taylor of Potted History (https://potted-history.co.uk/).

The construction of the kiln involved excavating a trench for the stoke hole and heating chamber. The excavated material, together with clay from the wood was used to build a wattle and daub superstructure for the kiln. The wattle reinforcement used hazel stakes and wands from the wood.

One identifying feature of the Roman pottery made in Highgate Wood is that it contains tiny glittering flecks of mica. The solid geology of the Northern Heights of London is an upper member of the London Clay Formation, known as the Claygate Member. This is a silty, micaceous clay. Whilst is had been assumed that the potters used locally sourced clay, the Claygate Formation is highly variable, some parts contain a large proportion of silt and sand and are not suitable for pottery production. The exact location of the clay used by the Roman potters had not been identified. However, geological input from HADAS member Peter Collins enabled a seam of clay to be identified that was considered suitable for pottery production.

A pit was machine excavated in the wood to obtain clay from this seam. This aim was to use this clay to make pots to be fired in the replica kiln. As the pit was close to the Roman pottery manufacturing site HADAS mounted an archaeological watching brief (Site Code: HI 024). In the event, nothing of any archaeological significance was observed.

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A local craft pottery (Turning Earth), under the guidance of Shem Morgan, used the clay from the pit to make a range of different forms of pot. (https://www.turningearth.org/n6). These were fired in the replica kiln as part of the Heritage Day activities. As hornbeam charcoal was one of the types of charcoal found in the excavated Roman kilns, hornbeam logs, harvested from the wood were used to fire the kiln. A maximum temperature of 915 degrees Celsius was reached after nearly ten hours of stoking. Virtually all of the nearly 300 pots in the kiln were fully fired, with very few breakages.

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Unfortunately, Peter Collins died in August. He was not able to witness the events that confirmed that the seam of clay he had helped to locate was suitable for pottery manufacture and that it was probably the source of the clay used by the Roman potters. Peter had been an enthusiastic member of Jacqui Pearce’s finds class over many years. The course focussed on pottery finds from archaeological sites in London. Peter developed a particular interest in the Roman pottery manufacturing site in Highgate Wood and the geological and topographical factors influencing pottery production in North London in general. He was the lead author of a research paper on this topic, published by the London Geodiversity Partnership in 2018. (2)

Kiln 2 can be seen in the Visitor Centre in the centre of Highgate Wood. The replica kiln is located on the edge of the playing field adjacent to the Centre.

Highgate Wood is 12 minutes’ walk from Highgate tube station (Northern Line – High Barnet branch). Buses 43 and 134 stop on Muswell Hill Road on the edge of the wood. The wood is open every day from 07.30 to dusk.

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(1) Brown A. E. and Sheldon H. E. (2018) The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78, Archaeopress (https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781784919788)
(2] Collins C. and Hacker M (2018) Highgate Wood Roman Pottery Kilns: Geological and Topographical factors influencing the location, London Geodiversity Partnership. (https://londongeopartnership.org.uk/reportsandresearch/#highgate)

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An Archaeologist’s View of Orkney and Shetland Jean Bayne and Jennifer Taylor

SHETLAND
After an overnight ferry journey of twelve and a half hours from Aberdeen, we docked at Lerwick in Shetland. Our first visit with our knowledgeable guide, Peter Yeomans, was to the island of Mousa. It has a broch, an Iron Age stone tower which stand 13m high with a base diameter of 15m: the finest surviving example in Scotland. Brochs are peculiar to Scotland and 500 have been counted of which 141 are on Shetland. They are a distinctive shape and have inner and outer walls which allow for the construction of a staircase and upper chambers. They were built for defensive purposes as well as prestige.

Jarlshof was our next stop. Near the sea on the southern headland, it covers about 3 acres with settlements spanning 6,000 years of uninterrupted occupation from the Neolithic to the 1600s. It had ideal conditions: a good harbour, fresh water, fertile land for grazing animals and an abundance of stone for building. Moreover, the sea provided opportunities for fishing and trade. However, coastal erosion has destroyed some of the archaeology, including half of a broch. The remaining evidence was hidden by a sealed mound of sand until the 1890s when it was uncovered by storms. Since then, there have been excavations in the 1890s, 1930s and the 1950s.

Evidence for Neolithic habitation, Bronze Age settlements, Iron Age buildings, Norse and Medieval occupation have all been found, making Jarlshof an iconic and significant site. Only vestiges remain of a very early residential settlement in 2500 BC plus some pottery fragments extracted from a series of middens. The Bronze Age from 2000 BC is marked by an enclosure with stone walls around it. The houses within have a central hearth with small cells radiating from it. A smithy was added to one of the houses in 800 BC. Various artefacts such as a quern, stone tools and bone fragments have been found. A complicating factor is that later houses are often built on top of, or inside, earlier ones.

Iron Age people built similar but more spacious housing with stone entrance passages ad souterrains (underground stores). In the second and third centuries a new structure was introduced at Jarlshof: the Wheelhouse. These were houses where the roof was supported by radial piers of stone arranged like the spokes of a wheel. It is an internal structure and there were parts of 4 such houses found on the site. About this time textile production was occurring as spindles and weaving tools were discovered.

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Also, evidence of an increasing range of animal husbandry including pigs, ponies, and dogs. Fishing and hunting were evident too and decorative articles like beads and pendants made from soapstone. Slate was also in use.

Viking raids began in Scotland around 800 AD. By the end of the 9th century a Norse dwelling appeared on Jarlshof: the long house. It was a long, low structure with a small kitchen with a hearth and oven and a separate main living area. It therefore had inner as well as outer walls. The settlement did not develop substantially but remained basically a farmhouse with a few buildings around it. Over the following centuries more houses were built and byres and outbuildings added. Fishing and pottery became increasingly important. It seems to have been a peaceful, sophisticated community blessed with a variety of resources and wide-ranging technologies and trade routes with opportunities for imports.

In the 13th century, a new type of farmhouse appeared, consistent with architectural developments in Norway itself. Shetland was part of Norway till 1469 when the King of Norway’s daughter married the King of Scotland and Shetland was her dowry. Thus, until then the inhabitants of the island had close links with Norway. The houses were modified as the climate became less hospitable and food more scarce. Large kilns which also acted as storehouses were added. Around 1500, the buildings were abandoned.

The last visit on Shetland was to St Ninian’s island. A beautiful place accessed by a sandy causeway with sea on both sides; seals were seen basking in the sunlight nearby. We went up a steep hill to the remains of an ancient chapel perched on the hillside overlooking the bay. Christianity came to Shetland in the 6th century. The chapel had been built onto a Neolithic structure as evidence was found under the floor. Also under the floor was treasure. A box of silverware, including brooches and bowls was discovered by a schoolboy in 1958. No doubt it had been hidden from potential Viking raiders and never reclaimed.

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That evening we sailed for Orkney. I was captivated by Shetland: for me, it was a magical island of gentle, undulating hills dotted with white houses and framed by lovely beaches. We only had one cool rainy day. Seemingly Shetland has the sunniest summers in the UK and relatively low rainfall then too !

ORKNEY
Our first day in Orkney took us a few centuries ahead to the 20th century, driving round Scapa Flow where wrecks from the German High Seas Fleet we scuttled at the end of World War I. Seven of the 52 ships remain in the Flow and they were joined in 1939 by HMS Royal Oak, sunk by German torpedoes. A German submarine had crept into Scapa Flow, between the blockships which were meant to have made the Sound impassible to enemy vessels. Churchill ordered barriers to be built across all but one opening to the natural harbour.

Italian prisoners of war were camped nearby and created a chapel out of two Nissan huts which was decorated by one who was also a talented artist, Domenico Chiocchette.

We then moved onto Kirkwall where the centuries got confused again, visiting the magnificent 12th century St Magnus Cathedral and contemporary Bishop’s Palace. Rumour had it that the bones of local saint St. Magnus were thought to be lost but were found again behind a modest stone in the south aisle.

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And then it was back again to Neolithic times as many of the artefacts from local excavations are held in the Orkney Museum just across the cathedral square.

Shetland may have given us balmy weather, but a real storm of rain and wind blew up on the last day when we went to visit some of the most remarkable Neolithic sites on Orkney. Starting with Skara Brae, first discovered in 1850, and a UNESCO heritage site which was first occupied in 2900 BC and abandoned around 2600 B.C. and may well have been larger, but the houses were built to a similar pattern and celebrated for having stone furniture still in place.

The real highlight of our visit was to the Neolithic sites in Stenness and Brodgar. Surveys have shown a monumental complex existed, centred around the Ness of Brodgar where building may have begun as early as 3500 BC.

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Two sets of standing stones, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness bookend the area we visited and are assumed to have been areas of ritual worship. The chambered cairn at Maeshowe was built before 2700 BC. but was raided by Vikings in the 12th century, leaving behind a large collection of runic inscriptions (said to be the largest in one place in the world).

Two areas of likely occupation have been excavated in the area – Barnhouse, barely 0.5km to the south-east of the Ness of Brodgar, and the Ness itself. Barnhouse, discovered in 1984, had been badly damaged by centuries of ploughing. As a result, only the reconstructed lower courses of the structures are visible today – a ring of separate houses around a central space with construction and contents similar to those at Skara Brae. However, it was an important discovery because it demonstrated that the isthmus of Brodgar was not solely a ritual area. The village was abandoned around 2875 BC, maybe because of rising water levels in the Loch of Harray.

Our final visit was to the Ness of Brodgar and was to have been a real highlight with Nick Hall, the Director of the dig showing us around personally after the digging was finished for the day and other visitors had gone home. Unfortunately, although the rain had abated, the strength of the wind was such that we found it almost impossible to hear him as he enthusiastically took us around an extensive area of open excavations.

What we did find out from him in a more sheltered spot was that the Ness was first identified as a major archaeological site in 2002 when the farmer ploughed up a large unusually notched and rebated stone and the first trench was opened in April 2003. This was later than the UNESCO award or World Heritage Site for the other sites in Orkney and has meant that one of his most onerous tasks as Site Director is to raise the money to keep the work going. He is also very aware that the dig is revealing many layers of occupation, and the more they are unearthing, the more they are aware of the danger of damaging earlier remains. So, a difficult decision has been made to close the site for the future in the hope that better technology will be available in 20 years’ time to identify lower layers. We were therefore some of

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the last visitors to the open dig (we were there in July) and it has now been covered and closed (at the time of writing in August).

However, Nick has plenty of work to do in the next twenty years. Living in the farmhouse on site, he will be writing up his finds for a long time yet.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Eric Morgan

Note: Not all Societies or Organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Saturday 2nd November, 10.30 am. – 4.30 pm. Geologists Association. Festival of Geology. Please note that the venue has now been changed to The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. W1J 0BG. NOT at UCL. this time as shown in October Newsletter. See www.geologistsassociation.org.uk.

Friday 8th November, 7 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, corner of Ferme Park Road/Weston Park, London, N8 7EL. Charles Roach Smith. Talk by Dr. Michael Rhodes. For further details please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.

Saturday 16th November, 11 am. – 5.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Local History Society Conference. Wilberforce Room, London Museum Docklands, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, London E14 4AL. Fashion, Clothing and Textiles in London’s History. Including presentations of publications awards for 2023. Afternoon refreshments to be provided. Tickets standard price £17.50 or £20 on the day if available (cash only). For further details please visit www.lamas.org.uk.

Friday 15th November, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London, EC3R 7NB. Talk also on zoom, on 81 Newgate Street, The Former GPO site, revisited. Talk by Kathy Davidson (P.C.A). Book via Eventbrite, visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out link details to its members. Visitors – £3 payable at the church.

Thursday 21st November, 8 pm. Historical Association – Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London, NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). The Revolting French – France since 1789. Talk by Professor Pam Pilbeam who investigates the impact of the revolution on the French from 1789 to its centenary in 1889. Hopefully, also on Zoom. Please e-mail Mandy Caller on mandycaller@gmail.com or telephone 07818 063594 for details of link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £3). Refreshments available afterwards.

Wednesday 27th November, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, the Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London, N20 0NL. The Fire of London. Talk by Peter Mansi. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk. Non-members pay £2. Bar available.

Saturday 30th November, 10 am. – 4pm. Amateur Geological Society North London Mineral, Gem and Fossil Show. Trinity Church, 15 Nether Street, London, N12 7NN (opposite Finchley Arts Depot, Near Tally Ho Pub). Refreshments available. Admission £2. For details www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Tuesday 10th December, 6.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Also on Zoom. Book on Eventbrite via website www.lamas.org.uk/lectures/html non-members £2.50. The Southwark Deep Shelter from Tube Line to Nuclear Armageddon. Possibly the largest civilian air-raid shelter constructed during WW2 using disused tube tunnels under Borough High Street – examines the development, planning and use of the shelter during the war and proposals for its post-war use as a nuclear shelter and its fate. Talk by Dr. Chris Constable, Borough Archaeologist, London Borough of Southwark.

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Tuesday 10th December, 8 pm. Historical Association. North London Branch. Jubilee Hall, Address as for E.A.S. Friday 8th November. Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth. Talk by Professor Anne Curry. Non-members £2 payable at the door.

Tuesday 10th December, 8 pm. Amateur Geological Society. Talk on Zoom. The Thames Through time. The history of an ice-age river. Talk given by Ian Mercer (Essex Rock and Mineral Society). By digging into the landscape around the County of Essex shows evidence in the land and even in church walls. For details of link please visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Friday 13th December, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. On zoom. Medieval Pottery. Talk by Jacqui Pearce (HADAS President). Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details and link.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Michael Hacker, Eric Morgan, Jean Bayne and Jennifer Taylor.

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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair  Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
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. 643 OCTOBER 2024 Edited by Robin Densem

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming lectures and Events

Forthcoming HADAS Lectures:

The October and November 2024 lectures, see below, are to be held in person, face-to-face, only, in the Avenue House Drawing Room.17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits will be available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 8th October 2024. Wendy Morrison (Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership) ‘Beacons of the Past Hillforts Project’.
Beacons of the Past was an exciting 4.5 year National Lottery funded project designed to conserve and discover more about the hillforts of the Chilterns landscape. It accomplished a great deal more than this and laid the foundation for a new archaeological focus for the National Landscape. Dr Wendy Morrison will report on the final years of the project, and what comes next for archaeology in the Chilterns environs.

Tuesday 12th November 2024. Peter Masters, Research Fellow Cranfield University –
‘The Battle of Barnet – new thoughts, research and surveys’

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. 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 Christmas Party Sunday the 1st of December 2024
We will be holding the HADAS members-only Christmas party in the Salon at Avenue House from 2.30 pm on Sunday 1st December 2024. There will be a selection of seasonal food available as a finger buffet, and a quiz, raffle and cash bar. The price will be kept at the same as for last year at £20 pp. Further information and booking forms (for use by members only) will be sent out soon so please keep the date for now.

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Other societies’ events Eric Morgan with Sue Loveday.

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

Wednesday 9th October, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. The Early Years of Newspaper Printing. Talk by Martin Bourn. Please visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk.

Friday 18th October, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. The Man Behind the Poster. Lord Kitchener – Life and career of a great, but controversial soldier and politician. Talk by Mick Dobson. Visitors £3. Refreshments.

Wednesday 23rd October, 7 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, Corner of Weston Park/Ferme Park Road, London. N8 7EL. T.P. Bennett and the Hillcrest Estate, Highgate. An important post-war housing development by Hornsey Borough Council. Talk by Ray Rogers – for further details please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.

Thursday 24th October, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society meeting at Avenue House, lecture on The Soane Museum by Jonty Stern. Please note that the date of 31st October shown in the September Newsletter has been brought forward.

Saturday 2nd November, 10.30 am. – 4.30 pm. Geologists’ Association Festival of Geology. U.C.L. North and South Cloisters, Gower Street, London. WC1E 6BT. Free. Lots of stalls from Geological Societies from all over the country including The Amateur Geological Society selling Jewellery, Gems, Fossils, Rocks, Minerals, Books, Maps etc. For further details please visit Festival of Geology | Geologists’ Association (geologistsassociation.org.uk).

Sunday 3rd November, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. The Hidden Heath: Signs of the Heath’s Past. Meet at Kenwood Walled Garden (off Hampstead Lane) London, N6. Guided walk led by Michael Hammerson (Highgate Society and Archaeologist). It lasts approximately 2 hours. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or email hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.heathandhampstead.org.uk.

Wednesday 13th November, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society. Address as for 9th October 2024. Putting on a show, Mill Hill Musical Theatre Company. Talk by Grant Graves and Clare Shar.

Friday 15th November, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. Address as for 18th October 2024. Cricklewood Tales. Mayor of Brent, Tariq Dorgues, on a history of his time in the borough. Visitors £3.

Monday 18th November, 8 pm. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Bruce Castle, Old and New. Talk by Deborah Hedgecock sharing old stories & new discoveries found during the current building conservation project at Tottenham’s magnificent Grade I Listed and former 16th century Manor House. Please visit https://enfieldsociety.org.uk/about-our-talks/.

Wednesday 20th November, 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall. Bottom of Neasden Lane (Around the corner from the Magistrates’ Court) London. NW10 2DZ. Archaeology, Myths and Legends. Talk by Signe Hoffos (C.O.L.A.S). For further details please visit www.willesdenlocal-history.co.uk.

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The Serpent Column: Images from Delphi and Constantinople/Istanbul. Robin Densem.

The bronze column (Figure 1) of three snakes twisting around each other survives to a height of 5.35m in Constantinople, having been originally erected at and dedicated to the religious sanctuary at Delphi (Figure 7) where it stood outside and close to the east end of the Temple of Apollo there (Figure 6) from BC 478 to AD 324.

The column was hollow cast in bronze taken from weapons and armour lost by the Persians who were defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, stopping the Persian invasion. The column may originally have had 31 coils reflecting the 31 Greek city states named in an inscription incised onto the monument (Figure 3) that records the sources of Greek soldiers who fought at the battle. The Serpent Column had three bronze serpent heads (Figure 2) and is described in classical written sources, and it is clear that the heads had been surmounted by a gold tripod supporting a gold bowl or cauldron. The gold elements were taken and melted down by the Phocians in 355 BC and were used to pay their mercenaries. The Phocians left the column standing with its three bronze heads.

The Serpent Column with its three heads was taken from Delphi and brought to the Hippodrome in c. AD 324 by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great to decorate the existing Hippodrome that he renovated. He had selected the ancient city of Byzantium to serve as the new capital of the Roman Empire, and the city was renamed Nova Roma, or ‘New Rome’. On 11 May 330, it was renamed Constantinople and dedicated to him.

Earlier, in 203. the Emperor Septimius Severus had rebuilt Byzantium and expanded its walls, endowing it with a hippodrome, an arena for chariot races and other entertainment.
It is estimated that the Hippodrome of Constantine was about 450 m (1,476 ft) long and 130 m (427 ft) wide. The carceres (starting gates) stood at the north-east end; and the sphendone (curved tribune of the U-shaped structure, the lower part of which still survives) stood at the south-west end. The spina (the middle barrier of the racecourse) was adorned with various monuments, including the Serpent Column which still stands in its position on the site of the spina. The stands were capable of holding 100,000 spectators.

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Excavations have uncovered numerous water channels, and traces of lead piping were also found underneath the Serpent Column and the nearby Masonry Obelisk in the Hippodrome, indicating both monuments once served as fountains. It was probably its use as a fountain that saved it from being melted down or looted by the crusaders in 1204 – as was done to other bronzes in the Hippodrome.1

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1 https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/serpent-column accessed 25.07.2024

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Schoolboy finds Roman relic in country park.

A teenage boy has found a Roman relic from 2,000 years before he was born.

Amateur schoolboy archaeologist Edward Whitby, 17, found the Roman horse bridle while out on an excavation in a park at Greenfield Valley, north Wales. He was digging on the remains of a newly-discovered settlement at the 70-acre country park when he made the discovery.
Edward said: “It was amazing. I was cleaning back and from under the mud a glint of green caught my eye. That was when we realised it was an Iron Age horse mount.”

The 2,000 years old artifact was found within the remains of a newly discovered settlement that likely belonged to the Iron Age Deceangli tribe but continued into the Roman period.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 25 August 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Stewart Wild, Eric Morgan and Sue Loveday
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
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. 642 September 2024 Edited by Sandra Claggett

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. Buses 13, 125, 143, 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. We also on the new SuperLoop Bus, SL10. Tea/Coffee/biscuits are available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 10th September (please note change of talk)
West Heath II Lectures and book launch

It is planned that the lecture will consist of the following aspects.

An introduction and the origin of the book production, what HADAS do with the finds, the Mesolithic landscape in London and what the London Archaeology Archive Research Centre (LAARC) do when they receive the finds.

There will also be wine and nibbles provided for this event.

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Tuesday 8th October 2024
Beacon of the Past, Hillforts Project
Dr Wendy Morrison, Manager, Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP)

Tuesday the 12th of November 2024 tbc

HADAS Christmas Party Sunday the 1st of December 2024

We will be holding the HADAS Christmas party in the Salon at Avenue House from 2.30 pm. There will be a selection of seasonal food available as a finger buffet and a quiz. The price will be kept at the same as for last year at £20 pp. Further information and booking forms will be sent out soon so please keep the date for now.

HADAS Involvement

If you would like to be more involved with the society please consider the following:

Would you like to help with activities, events or excavations. If so please contact the email address for the Chair chairman@hadas.org.uk stating what you are interested in and/or have previous experience in:

HADAS Newsletter Editors
Any members who would like to be added to the monthly HADAS Editor rota can you please contact Sue Willetts on sue.willetts@london.ac.uk or susanwilletts64@gmail.com

HADAS Auditor
Our previous auditor, unfortunately, has had to retire so if you are an auditor or feel that you can recommend someone for HADAS which is a registered charity please let us know.

Festival of Archaeology July 2024 – some talks now on YouTube by Sue Willetts

This is Archaeology: Roots in Time – Shaping Woodland for the Future with Nina O’Hare

Discover how the award-winning Roots in Time project combines heritage, community, and sustainability. Dive into the fascinating Iron Age and Roman archaeology uncovered during geophysical surveys in Worcestershire and the community project that followed. Watch here: This is Archaeology: Roots in Time – shaping woodland for the future (youtube.com)

The Baths Conceal So Many Secret Joys – The Uncovering Roman Carlisle Project
This talk explores the impact of the Uncovering Roman Carlisle community project particularly the experiences of the volunteers who enabled it to happen, the artefacts they discovered and object biographies they helped create. Watch here: This is Archaeology: The Baths Conceal So Many Secret Joys – The Uncovering Roman Carlisle Project (youtube.com)

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The Neolithic Studies Group (NSG) weekend trip an overview by Sandra Claggett

This year’s NSG weekend was to the region of North and East Yorkshire. It started with an evening of lectures discussing the Swale-Ure archaeological landscape. Although it might not be thought of first as an area rich in archaeology within a 24 mile area among other sites are 12 henges, three curses and a timber circle. Below is a brief overview of some of the highlights. Further reading information is provided following this article for those who would like more detail.

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Another highlight included being given permission to enter all three Thornborough Henges which for the first time are united in ownership now belonging to Historic England. These Henges are in varying states of preservation.

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Rudston is special in having perhaps 5 cursuses in a small area. The most extant is cursus A which is 2.7km long with an external width of between 60-80m. It is possible that these were all built in the fourth century BC as other cursus monuments in Britain. Also that they would have had internal ditches and external banks. The purpose of these cursuses is considered to be ritual and as processional routes. (Loveday and Brophy 2015).

Further information
Brophy, K (2015) Reading between the lines: the Neolithic cursus monuments of Scotland. Routledge
Loveday, R (2006) Inscribed across the landscape: the cursus enigma. Tempus
Manby, TG, King, A & Vyner, BE (2003), ‘The Neolithic and Bronze Ages: a Time of Early Agriculture’, in Manby, TG, Moorhouse, S & Ottaway, P, The Archaeology of Yorkshire. An assessment at the beginning of the 21st century. Yorkshire Archaeological Society Occasional Paper No. 3. Leeds, 35-116.

Websites
Devil’s Arrows – Boroughbridge Town Council

Thornborough Henges Gifted to the Nation | Historic England

OPS22 Hopscotch Pottery Report 25.2.2024 by Melvyn Dresner
Continuation of this Report mentioned in the August HADAS Newsletter

Repeat of the Overview and new information on Context 001

This site produced pottery from the 14th century into 20th century. We can define four context by pottery finds. Context 001 dating to 18th and 19th century, with material into the late 20th century. Context 002 is late 16th century into 18th century, based on clay pipes could be 1660 to 1670. Context 003 dates to 14th or 16th century. The earliest date is 1340 to 1350 and could extend into later into the 16th century. Context 005 has a very small assemblage of three sherds, may not call it an assemblage, however, the overlap date of the three pottery types is 1340 to 1350, similar to context 003.

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The date range of all the pottery in this context is 1560 to 1900. The sample size of recovered material maybe too small to determine the statistical significance. There were 115 sherds recovered from this context, representing 77 vessels, pottery weighs 1360 grams, plus 1433 grams of sanitary ware.

We could identify two possible terminus post quem dates, of 1780 (TPW and TGW H) and 1820 (YELL SLIP), with latest date of 1900 being more open than suggested by the date ranges below. This context though below top soil includes plastics that can dated to the 1980s, Baby Gonzo, Muppet character from 1984 onwards.

Pottery Types identified in this context
PMR 1560 – 1900
TGW H 1680 – 1800
ENGS 1700 – 1900
BBAS 1770 – 1900
TPW 1780 – 1900
REFW 1805 – 1900
TPW2 1807 – 1900
YELL 1820 – 1900
YELL SLIP 1820 – 1900

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English Stoneware, ENGS, bottle

Transfer printed refined whiteware

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Note: Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul often depicted with butterfly wings.

Refined whiteware, REFW, egg cup

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Ceramic building material, including sanitary ware, bathroom related markings “Made in England” and “Standard” indicate post 1900

All pottery identified in Context 001 is British made, mainly in London. The other bulk material from this context includes plastics; light bulb and electrical components; as well as children’s bicycle parts (bicycle bell and pedals); Baby Gonzo – a plastic toy; and wall tiles made by Pilkington, who begun making tiles from 1893
(source: Pilkington’s – Salford Museum & Art Gallery )

Baby Gonzo, muppet character, first TV appearance in 1984, in the The Muppets Take Manhattan, probably a toy give away from fast food store, McDonalds. (source: Baby Gonzo | Muppet Wiki | Fandom)

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Contributors
Thanks to this month’s contributors Eric Morgan, Sue Loveday, Sue Willetts and Melvyn Dresner

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS

Not All Societies or Organisations have returned to Pre-Covid Conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Friday 20th September, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London, EC3R 7NB. Talk also on Zoom. The Secret Micro-Archaeological World of Pollen and Other Pesky Palynomorphs: Recent work in London. By Dr. Jane Wheeler (P.C.A). Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk Hadas may send out link details to its members. Visitors £3 at the Church.

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Saturday 21st September. Society for Medieval Archaeology. British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG. Artefacts, Landscapes and Collaborative Research Conference. Hosted jointly with The Portable Antiquities Scheme. Keynote lectures on Medieval Ritual Objects in the Landscape. Given by Roberta Gilchrist on Mapping Meaningful Deposition. Also on Daily Life, Disaster and Discovery: small metal finds from the drowned land in the Netherlands given by Anne Marieke Willemsen with other speakers covering a wide range of subjects, site and regions. Tickets cost £20 for members of The Society for Medieval Archaeology and £45 for non-members. For details and booking please visit www.medievalarchaeology.co.uk/events/conferences.

Friday 11th October, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Newgate Street Excavations. Talk by Kathy Davidson. Please visit www.enfarch.soc.org For further details. Non Members £1.50. Refreshments 7 pm.

Monday 14th October, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet. EN5 4BW. The Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade – What’s Barnet Got to Do with It? Talk by Dennis Bird (Barnet L.H.S.) Please visit www.barnetmuseum.com.

Thursday 17th October. 8pm. Historical Association-Hampstead and NW London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London, NW11 6YD. (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Spies and British Prime Ministers. Talk by Professor Richard Aldrich. Hopefully also on zoom. Please email Mandy Caller on mandycaller@gmail.com or telephone 07818 063594 for details of link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments available afterwards.

Friday 18th October, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. Address as for 20th September 2024. Also on Zoom. Merchants, Fishermen, Ferrymen, Bargees and a Seagull on Life and Work in Roman Pisa. Talk by Ian Jones (E.A.S.Chair). Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk, HADAS my send out link details to its members. Visitors £3 at the Church.

Thursday 31st October, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, London. N3 3QE. The Soane Museum. Jean Scott Memorial Lecture given by Jonty Stern (Finchley Society and Guide on its Antiquities Furniture, Sculptures, Architectural Models and Paintings. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in the interval.

Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP

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(07449 978121) email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, 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 at: www.hadas.org.uk –
join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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https://salfordmuseum.com/exhibition/pilkingtons/

No. 641 August 2024 Edited by Melvyn Dresner

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. Buses 13, 125, 143, 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. We also on the new SuperLoop Bus, SL1. Tea/Coffee/biscuits are available for purchase after the talk.

Sunday 1st September, 11.30-16.30 Heritage Sunday Day at Avenue House, with HADAS stall, face painting and colleagues from other societies, photos from last year:

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Tuesday 10th September (please note change of talk) West Heath II book launch

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Beacon of the Past, Hillforts Project

Dr Wendy Morrison, Manager, Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP) This talk has been moved from September due to unforeseen circumstances.

The Newt Peter Pickering

The Newt is a privately-owned estate near Castle Cary in Somerset. Bought by a billionaire in 2013 It has been open to the public since 2019. There are impressive gardens, a boutique hotel, a farm shop, a herd of deer and a sanctuary for red squirrels. Well worth a visit.

“Yes,” HADAS members will say, “but we’re an archaeological society; why advertise this to us?” Because the estate, when acquired, included some remains of a Roman villa (known as the Hadspen villa), discovered and partially dug in the early nineteenth century. Since its acquisition it has been fully excavated and a modern museum built on part of it (the bath suite is visible under the glass floor). That would itself justify the visit, but a quarter of a mile away a replica villa has been constructed, a “reasonable evocation of its ancient predecessor” called ‘Villa Ventorum’ (villa of the winds). All this was what a group from the Roman Society (including several HADAS members) went to see on 27th April (a regrettably cold but thankfully dry day). We had an introductory talk from the resident archaeologist (the work has been undertaken by Oxford Archaeology and Wessex Archaeology), and then explored independently.

Photograph used with permission from Newt | The Newt in Somerset

The professionalism of the whole enterprise was very impressive; there has been no skimping of expense – and no public funding, and the minimum necessary adaptations to meet twenty-first century planning rules, building regulations, and accessibility requirements. There are several ventures like this in continental Europe (I remember particularly Carnuntum in Austria), but there are few in Britain, where reconstruction tends to be frowned upon as Disneyfication (parsimony may be relevant, too).

Real buildings evolve over time, but a replica has to be anchored to a particular epoch. The date chosen for the Villa Ventorum was A D 351, during the reign of Magnentius “a time when optimism was still possible but fears for the future were growing stronger”. The plan of the reconstruction was based on that of the excavated original, with the same orientation; where evidence from the original was lacking, as it often was,

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it often was, parallels were taken from other excavations in Britain and elsewhere, from illustrations in ancient mosaics and wall paintings, and from the Roman architectural writer, Vitruvius. Similarly, the design of the villa’s garden, the paintings on its walls, and the woodwork, soft furnishings and board games inside, were all based on evidence from throughout the empire. The verisimilitude extended to the toilets, and in the courtyard there was a bar where food and drink as authentic as possible was obtainable, and there a demonstration of the making of pottery. One room in the villa had a number of virtual reality headsets, where at the risk of disorientation life in the villa, including rats, was evoked. The images below show two rooms in the re-created villa and are used with permission from another attendee, the fiction author Jacquie Rogers.

Claigmar Vineyard in Finchley: Commercial Grape Growing in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Part 3 (1) Dudley Miles

Kay died of heart failure at the age of 56 on 22 August 1909. The value of his estate was only £40, perhaps because he passed his property to his widow before he died. His obituary in the Hendon & Finchley Times states that he had a weak heart, and had had to live a quiet life for several months, but his death was unexpected. The Barnet Press, on the other hand wrote that he had been far from well for a long time, and his death was not unexpected. (2) The Gardeners’ Chronicle in its obituary regretted the death of ‘a well-known and highly esteemed nurseryman’. It went on

‘Mr Kay long ago achieved a wide reputation as a successful cultivator of grapes for market, his produce being among the finest ever sent to Covent Garden. He was one of the first to take up the cultivation of the Canon Hall variety of Muscat, to the growing of which he devoted special attention. In addition to grapes he grew tomatoes and cucumbers on a large scale for market, and his keen insight into what is required by the public was shown in his selecting the Comet variety of tomato for his stock’. (3)

His funeral was attended by long-serving staff who had been with him for between twelve and thirty years, led by the general manager, Thomas Allen, and more than sixty employees followed his coffin to his grave in St Marylebone Cemetery in East Finchley. (4) He left a wife and four children, and the 1911 census shows that his widow Jane Kay had no occupation, Peter Crichton Kay, 1889-1954, was a bank

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(1) This article was first published in the February 2024 issue of The Local Historian. It was a shortened version due to the journal’s size limitations. The full article will be printed in the HADAS newsletter in instalments over the next few months. I should like to thank Hugh Petrie, Barnet Council Heritage Development Officer, for his assistance.
(2) England and Wales Probate Calendars, 1858-1995, Will and Probate Grant, Peter E Kay; Hendon & Finchley Times, 27 August 1909, p. 6; The Barnet Press, 26 August 1909, p. 5
(3) The Gardener’s Chronicle, 28 August 1909, p. 160
(4) Ibid

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clerk, Walter Glassford Kay, 1892-1988, was an articled clerk to a chartered accountant, while Joan Margaret Kay, born 1890, and Elizabeth Dorothy Kay, born 1895, were students. (5)

By the 1910s, the profitability of the business had declined, but it continued to trade, run by his old friends and associates. (6) The entry for the company in the Stock Exchange Year-Book of 1921 stated that it had paid dividends on preference shares up to 1911, so it must have stopped paying on ordinary shares, but it always paid the interest due on its £42,500 mortgage debentures, and they were paid off by 1924. (7) The Ordnance Survey map of 1920 shows Claigmar Vineyard occupying the same area as in 1911, and this is supported by an aerial photograph in 1921. (8)

In 1920s, P. E. Kay Ltd gradually sold its land, mainly for house building, perhaps partly to finance repayment of the debentures. (9) On 2 November 1920, the company auctioned:

’67 greenhouses, each 170ft by 26ft, having a total length of 11,500ft, and containing 342,000 superficial feet of glass (24 by 18 and 24 by 16 size, and 21oz.), 51,000ft of 4in. hot water piping, 32 boilers, brick walls containing 300,000 bricks, erection of large brick tank house, 15,000-gallon tank, two engines and pumps, 12,000ft. of 1½, 3 and 6 inch cold water pipes, 200 standards and taps, and 31 feed cisterns.’

The auctioneers claimed that it was ‘the largest auction sale of greenhouses and piping ever held’. (10) Both of Peter Edmund’s sons became directors at around this time.(11) A sale of greenhouses and buildings in 1922 was withdrawn as they had been acquired by Thomas Allen, the general manager who had led the staff at Kay’s funeral. He was a director of the company for a short period in the early 1920s, and he now took over part of the nursery on his own account. (12) Another sale took place shortly afterwards. (13)
Two areas were sold to Finchley Urban District Council. In the early 1920s the company rented ten acres between Squires Lane and Long Lane Pasture to the Pointalls and District Allotment Society Limited. In 1924 the site was offered to the Council, which took it up as suitable compensation for land it was losing to Middlesex County Council for construction of the North Circular Road. In 1925 Middlesex County Council purchased the land, to be jointly controlled by the two councils. It has been used as allotments ever since, and was known until the 1960s as Kay’s Field or Kay’s Land. (14) In 1923 the Council purchased the reservoir and adjoining land, and the site was used for the electricity, fire brigade and highways

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(5) Jane Kay, Claigmar, 1911 Census
(6) Rees James’s status may have declined in this period. In the 1901 census he gave his profession as an accountant working for a bank; in 1911 he was a counting house clerk in a drapery warehouse.
(7) Stock Exchange Year-Book, entries for P. E. Kay Limited
(8) Ordnance Survey, 26 inches to a mile, Mid Finchley 1911 and 1920. See copies below of the 1920 map and the aerial photograph.
(9) The company paid £1,000 a year into a sinking fund to pay off the debentures, but this would not have raised an adequate sum (Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8).
(10) Hendon & Finchley Times, 15 October 1920, p. 2. “Superficial feet” is presumably an error for superficial square feet, the area of the roof. On average, it was one fifth higher than the ground covered (Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, p. 269).
(11) Stock Exchange Year-book, 1921, entry for P. E. Kay Limited
(12) Hendon & Finchley Times, 17 November 1922, p. 2; Stock Exchange Year-book, 1921-1923, entries for P. E. Kay Limited
(13) Daily Telegraph, 9 December 1922, p. 15
(14) Housing and Town Planning Committee’s Report, 3 March 1924, p. 910, in BH, FUDC, 1923-1924, p. 1856; Housing and Town Planning Committee’s Report, 2 February 1925, in ibid, 1924-1925, p. 1386; Council Minutes, c. April 1925, p. 933, in ibid, p. 1852; General Purposes Committee, c. July 1925, p. 389, in ibid, 1925-1926, p. 802; Allotments and Food Production Committee’s Report, 28 November 1963, p. 607, in BH, Finchley Borough Minutes (FBM) 1963-1964, p. 717; Bartholomew’s Reference Atlas of Greater London, 13th ed., Edinburgh, 1968, p. 33. The Pointalls and District Allotment Society Limited was registered as an Industrial and Provident Society in 1921.

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departments. The area is now the gated premises of Pentland Brands Limited between Squires Lane and Strathmore Gardens, and the reservoir is now Lakeside Nature Reserve. (15)

Further sales of greenhouses and equipment took place in 1925 and 1926. (16)The company’s acquisition of a telephone number in the mid-1920s shows that it was still then trading, and it was last listed in directories in 1929. What was probably the final sale was held in the same year. (17) P. E. Kay Limited is not recorded thereafter until 8 September 1949, when it went into members’ voluntary winding-up, a procedure to close down a solvent company. Peter Crichton Kay was chairman and Walter Glassford Kay, who was a Chartered Accountant, was appointed liquidator. The report of the liquidator to the members was presented at a meeting on 6 March 1952. (18)

Kay’s other nursery business, Mill Hill Vineyard, Limited, was incorporated on 14 December 1903 with Claigmar as the Registered Office. The directors were Kay, Rees James and Alex James Monro, who was the secretary of P. E. Kay Limited and probably a relative of Kay’s wholesaler George Monro. (19)

Debentures were issued to Kay for £5,000, part of a series to secure £10,000, secured on land at Mill Hill which was the property of the company, and formerly part of the Dollis Brook Farm Estate. (20) Little is known of the company, but its activities must have included flower production as in 1911 the National Chrysanthemum Society awarded a first class certificate to Kay’s sister for the vineyard’s new variety of the flower. (21) The vineyard was listed in Kelly’s Directories between 1910 and 1934, and was located on Holders Hill Road, north of Hendon Cemetery, on land which is now the east end of Devonshire Road. The land was developed for housing in the mid and late 1930s. (22) The company was wound up by members’ voluntary liquidation in 1940, with Walter Glassford Kay as both chairman and liquidator. (23)

Jane Kay outlived her husband by almost forty years. Her will, dated 1927, bequeaths her leasehold house and nursery known as Claigmar to Peter Crichton Kay, subject to him paying off any mortgage on the house and nursery charged at the date of her death. She may have sold or given it to him and leased it back. The nursery mentioned in the will probably consisted of older greenhouses which had been Peter Kay’s personal property. She was still listed in directories at Claigmar in 1939, but later moved to Harpenden and died in a Tunbridge Wells nursing home on 28 December 1948. The gross value of her estate was £5,332 12s 4d. (24)

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(15) Council Minutes, c. December 1923, p. 685, in BH, FUDC, 1923-1924, p. 1378; Electricity Committee’s Report, 11 February 1925, p. 795, in BH, FUDC, 1924-1925, p. 1505; Finance Committee’s Report, 12 September 1934, p. 591, in BH, FBM 1933-1934, p. 632; Janet Hewlett et al. (1997), Nature Conservation in Barnet. London Ecology Unit. p. 94. The lake can be seen from a track behind Strathmore Gardens.
(16) Gardeners’ Chronicle, 31 October 1925, p. ii; Hendon & Finchley Times, 22 October 1926, p. 12
(17) Stock Exchange Year-Book, 1926 and 1927, entries for P. E. Kay Limited; Kelly’s Directory of Finchley and Friern Barnet, 1929, p. 107; Hendon & Finchley Times, 29 November 1929, p. 12
(18) The London Gazette, 16 September 1949, p. 4449; ibid, 29 January 1952, p. 598
(19) Gardeners’ Chronicle, 2 January 1904, p. 15; Financial Times, 21 December 1903, p. 4. The company is sometimes shown as Mill Hill Vineyards Limited. A. J. Monro was the manager of the Nurserymen’s, Market Gardeners’ and General Hailstorm Insurance Company Limited (Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, pp. 268-269).
(20) Financial Times, 2 February 1904, p. 7
(21) Gardening Illustrated, 23 December 1911, pp. 747-748 (Gardening Illustrated for Town & Country – Google Books)
(22) Post Office Directory of the Six Home Counties, Part 1, Kelly & Co, 1910, Middlesex section, p. 224; Ibid, 1912, p. 238; Ibid, 1926, p. 218; Ibid, 1933, p. 198; Kelly’s Directory of Hendon, Golders Green, Mill Hill etc, 1934, p. 146. Holders Hill Road was called Dollis until around 1921. The site is last mentioned in a successful application for a six-month extension from September 1934 for the use of a temporary building, near the entrance to Mill Hill Vineyard, as a shop (Buildings and Town Planning Committee, Hendon Borough Council, 15 October 1934, in BH, Hendon BC, vol. 52, p. 470).
(23) The London Gazette, 7 April 1939, p. 2364; ibid, 5 December 1939, p. 8126
(24) Kelly’s Directory of Finchley and Friern Barnet, 1939, p. 302; Will of Jane Campbell Kay dated 19 August 1927 and probate grant 28 December 1948. In 1905, greenhouses owned by Peter Kay were rated at £246 and those owned by P. E. Kay Limited at £2094 (Hendon & Finchley Times, 8 September 1905, p. 5). In 1927 Jane Kay unsuccessfully asked for a reduction in the rates on the greenhouses (Finance Committee’s Report, 11 May 1927, pp. 98-99, in BH, FUDC, 1927-1928, pp. 228-29).

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Claigmar Vineyard is little known today, but it has its memorials. Local roads are called Claigmar Gardens, Vines Avenue, Vineyard Grove and Nursery Avenue after it, and the newsletter of the Finchley Horticultural Society is named Grapevine after the vineyard. (25)

Peter Crichton Kay and cut flower production

Directories for 1910 and 1912 listed an additional business in Oakfield Road as Peter Crichton Kay, fruit grower, (26) which he must have been running part time as he was then a bank clerk. He served with the Middlesex Regiment in the First World War between 1914 and 1919. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was awarded the D.S.O. and M.C. (27) In 1921 he was living with his mother, who is shown as head of the household on the census form, his sister Elizabeth and a servant at Claigmar. He is listed as an employer of a business in the same road, with an illegible occupation, perhaps ‘market gardener’ changed to ‘fruit grower – tomatoes’. (28) In the same year he married Marjorie Goodyear. (29)

Peter Crichton Kay became an authority on the production of cut flowers in vast quantities for market. He was managing director of W. E. Wallace and Son Limited and Lowe & Shawyer Limited, which was described in an obituary of George Shawyer as ‘without doubt, the largest cut flower producing concern in the world’. (30) Kay was president of the British Flower Industry Association and a member of the National Farmers Union Council. He was awarded his own Victoria Medal of Honour in 1951. He died in 1954 and Kay Cliffs Nature Reserve at East Runton was donated to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust in his memory. (31)

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(25) The FHS Grapevine, Finchley Horticultural Society, Spring 2011 (FHS-Grapevine-Spring-2011.pdf (finchleyhs.org))
(26) Post Office Directory of the Six Home Counties, Kelly & Co, Part 1, 1910, p. 153; Ibid, p. 1912, p. 163
(27) Debrett’s Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage, 1931, p. 1782. See also Local Lynx, issue 104, October & November 2015, WWI supplement, p. i (Local Lynx No.104 October/November 2015 by Robert Metcalfe – Issuu)
(28) Jane Kay, Claigmar, 1921 census
(29) Debrett’s Peerage, p. 1782
(30) The Directory of Directors, entries for Peter Crichton Kay in volumes between 1927 and 1954; Florists Exchange and Horticultural Trade World, vol. 101, 1943, p. 11; The Times, 15 October 1954, p. 11
(31) Ray Desmond (1994). Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists Including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers, CRC Press. p. 393; N.F.U. Yearbook, 1955, p. 95; Kay Cliffs Nature Reserve, Norfolk Wildlife Trust. (Home | Norfolk Wildlife Trust) See also obituary, Middlesex Advertiser and County Gazette, 22 October 1954, p. 3

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APPENDIX 1

Directors of P. E. Kay Limited and Mill Hill Vineyard Limited.

The Companies House records of both companies were destroyed when the companies were dissolved, and no information on directorships of P. E. Kay Limited is available between 1889 and 1904. The years below are when directorships are listed, and in some cases may be based on information for the previous year. (32)

Name	P. E. Kay Limited	Mill Hill Vineyard Limited
Peter Edmund Kay	1889-1906	1903-
Margaret Kay	1889-
Jane Campbell Kay	1889-
Rees James	1904*–1927*	1903-
Alex James Monro		1903-
Richard Cobley	1904*-1919
George Monro	1907-1927*
Charles Cole	1908-1920
Thomas Allen	1921-1923
Peter Crichton Kay†	From 1921	1921-1938
Walter Glassford Kay†	From 1921	Probably from 1921

* Rees James and Richard Cobley were first recorded as directors of P. E. Kay Limited in 1904 and almost certainly acted from an earlier date. The end date for Rees James’s and George Monro’s directorships is the last year that the company is listed in the Stock Exchange Year-Book, not necessarily when they ceased to act.

† Information on P. C. and W. G. Kay’s directorships is limited, but they were both recorded in the Stock Exchange Year-Book as directors of P. E. Kay Limited from 1921. P. C. Kay is listed in the Directory of Directors from 1921, and he is recorded as a director of Mill Hill Vineyard Limited between 1921 and 1938.

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(32) Stock Exchange Year-Book, listings for P. E Kay Limited between 1904 and 1927; Directory of Directors, listings for P. C. Kay from 1921 and W. G. Kay between 1928 and 1930; Financial Times, 19 March 1889, p. 4; Gardeners’ Chronicle, 2 January 1904, p. 15

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APPENDIX 2

P. E. Kay Limited in the Stock Exchange Year-Book (33)

The company was listed in the Stock Exchange Year-Book between 1904 and 1927. Throughout the period it had an issued capital of £10,000 in £10 ordinary shares and £20,000 in 6% cumulative preference shares of £100, which had priority over capital as well as dividends. The entry for 1921 records that dividends on preference shares had been paid up to 31 March 1911, the 1922 entry to 31 March 1912, the 1923 entry to 31 March 1913, and in 1926 to 31 March 1914. Shares of both classes had equal voting rights and directors had to have £50 in either class of share. The company had to have between three and seven directors.

There were 425 £100 5% mortgage debentures (4% until 24 June 1903) and interest was always fully paid. They were redeemable on 1 January 1923. The 1922 entry shows the debentures reduced to £8,500 and the 1924 entry to zero.
The only entry to show accounting information is that for 1926, which gives very brief details of accounts for the year to 31 March 1925. The company then had a bank loan of £3,275 and a general reserve of £2,347.

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(33) Stock Exchange Year-Book, listings for P. E Kay Limited between 1904 and 1927; prospectus for the sale of shares and debentures, Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8. The prospectus gives details of the dates and purposes of share and debenture issues.

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OPS22 Hopscotch Pottery Report Melvyn Dresner

Overview
This site produced pottery from the 14th century into 20th century. We can define four contexts by pottery finds. Context 001 dating to 18th and 19th century, with material into the late 20th century. Context 002 is late 16th century into 18th century, based on clay pipes could be 1660 to 1670. Context 003 dates to 14th or 16th century. The earliest date is 1340 to 1350 and could extend into later into the 16th century. Context 005 has a very small assemblage of three sherds, may not call it an assemblage, however, the overlap date of the three pottery types is 1340 to 1350, similar to context 003.

Context 001 is just below topsoil, so most likely context to have been disturbed in recent times. Pottery found here is 18th and 19th century, fabrics including post medieval redware (PMR), refined white earthenware (REFW), London tin glaze ware with pale blue glaze and dark decoration (TGW H), English brown salted-glazed stoneware (ENGS), black basalt ware (BBAS) refined whiteware under glazed transfer printed (TPW), and yellow ware with slip decoration (YELL SLIP).

Most forms are identifiable, though some finds are defined as miscellaneous. The refined white ware includes a range of forms though mugs and cups predominate with plates and bowls, and one lid and frags of an egg cup. Decorated banding is the most common decoration, one with gold banding. The post medieval redware is mainly flower pot, with a bowl frag as well. The English stoneware include two bottles, and one flagon. One bottle labelled, “Holgate and Co, London”, and flagon, we can see part of the name, “Barnet”. The yellow ware includes slipware decorated in Mocha style. The transfer printed ware sherds are either bowls, dishes or mugs. Decoration includes a woman with a guitar (on a bowl), pagoda plus stamp of crown (miscellaneous) and a dish with floral/ foliage pattern, and mug with floral

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decoration. We cannot identify the form of the London tin glaze ware recovered. The entire assemblage is domestic in nature, mainly related to dining and drinking, and gardening.

Photos of Context 1:

Cleaning and recording bulk finds:

To be continued…..

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Eric Morgan

Not all societies or organisations have returned to pre-COVID conditions, please check with them before planning to attend.

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Thursday 8th August, 7pm. Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London, N3 3QE. Guided Tour of the main house and its gardens including the Bothy Garden. Tickets £13.50 including glass of wine. For booking, please visit www.stephenshouseandgardens.com

Also Tuesday – Thursday throughout August, 10 am. – 3 pm. Stephens’ Collection. Find out more about the history of the Estate and Charles ‘Inky’ Stephens.

Tuesday 13th August, 7.45 pm. Amateur Geological Society, Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6, East End Road, Corner Stanhope Avenue, London N3 3LX. (Almost opposite Avenue House). Members Evening. Talks by members of the society with a theme of Fossils in Flint. For further details please visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com

Monday 9th September, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Another Walk in the Park – More of London’s Green Treasures. Talk by John Lynch. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.com

Friday 13th September, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Whitechapel Excavations. Talk by Dougie Killock. Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details. Non-members £1.50. Refreshments available form 7 pm.

Saturday 14th – Sunday 22nd September. Open House London. Free entry to London’s best buildings not normally always open to the public. For full details please visit www.openhouse.org.uk or https://open-city.org.uk including Saturday 14th and Saturday 21st September, 10 am. – 4 pm. St. Pancras Waterpoint, St Pancras Cruising Club, St. Pancras Yacht Basin, Camley Street, London, N1C 4PN. Telephone number 0844 502 2805. Historic Victorian Water Tower, close to St. Pancras lock on the Regents Canal. Guided Tours every hour. Must be pre-booked on www.st.pancrascc.co.ukand click on Waterpoint. Also open on Saturday 17th August, 10 am. – 4 pm.

Thursday 19th September, 5 pm. Enfield Society, address as for Friday 13th September, E.A.S. The New Blue Plaques of Enfield. Talk by Simon Warren. Preceded by A.G.M. Please see www.enfieldsociety.org.uk for details.

Thursday 19th September, 8 pm. Historical Association. Hampstead and N.W. London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way, London. NW11 6YD (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Jan Smuts v Nelson Mandela – who was the greater Statesman? Talk by Dr. Anne Samson. Explores the similarities and difference between them and how they came to be remembered on London’s political square almost 50 years apart. Hopefully, also on Zoom. Please email Mandy Caller on mandycaller@gmail.com or telephone 07818 063594 for details of link and how to pay (there may be a voluntary charge of £5) Refreshments to be available afterwards.

Friday 20th September, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 9RZ. ‘The Jewel of Wembley.’ Talk by Philip Grant on The Burma Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition, 1924. Visitors £3.

Saturday 21st September, 11 am – 3.30 pm. Southwark Roman Day. Southwark Heritage Centre, 147, Walworth Road, London. SE17 1RW. Morning will allow people to see Roman material from the Southwark Collection and material excavated by some of the archaeological companies who work regularly in the Borough. In the afternoon there will be 3 talks about the Roman archaeology of Southwark, Roman roads, burial grounds, and settlement, mostly focused on Landmark Court. On Tuesday 17th and Thursday 19th September Chris Constable will lead walks through the Roman town. More information and booking for the walks are available on Southwark Presents at www.southwark.gov.uk/events-culture-and-heritage

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Wednesday 25th September, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middx Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London, N20 0NL. Holborn ‘Hidden Gems.’ Talk by Jerry Stern. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk Non-members £2. Bar to be available.

Thursday 26th September, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East end Road, London. N3 3QE. Finchley and Hendon – 2,000 years of Archaeology in 45 minutes. Talk by Jacqui Pearce (HADAS President) on specialism in Medieval and later ceramics. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments available in the interval.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Peter Pickering, Melvyn Dresner, Sue Loveday, Susan Willetts, Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan

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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
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 Avenue, 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 at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 640 July 2024 Edited by Melvyn Dresner

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. Buses 13, 125, 143, 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. We also on the new SuperLoop Bus, SL10. Tea/Coffee/biscuits are available for purchase after the talk.

Sunday 1st September, 11.30-16.30 Heritage Sunday Day at Avenue House, with HADAS stall, face painting and colleagues from other societies

Tuesday 10 September 2024

Dr Wendy Morrison, Manager, Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP) Beacon of the Past, Hillforts Project

The 2024/2025 programme to be confirmed

AGM and New Chairman

After more than 20 years leading HADAS as Chairman, Don Cooper stands down, he will continue on the committee. Sandra Claggett was elected as new chairman and agreed unanimously by members at the AGM (Annual General Meeting) on 11th June, more about Sandra below. There were 31 members present. Stewart Wild retired as society’s independent examiner of the accounts. Therefore, big thank you to both Don and Stewart for many years supporting the work of the society.

Peter Pickering thanked Don for his years as chairman (see Newsletter 389, August 2003, for Don’s election) Peter explained how there been seven chairmen of HADAS since its foundation in 1961, from Saxon to Mesolithic to Current Archaeology and for Don, it had been the era of Bird Pots, due to his work on this form of pottery in early noughties. Don’s work on ceramic bird nesting pots found at a dig at Church Farm, Greyhound Hill, Hendon, was on largest assemblage ever found in London, revealing an early appetite for sparrows.

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Sheila Woodward, Frances Radford and Micky Watkins were made life members, see Newsletter (No. 637 April 2024) for article celebrating Shelia’s 100th birthday, and work with HADAS.

Jacqui Pearce and Andrew Selkirk continue as our President and Vice President, respectively, Peter Pickering as Vice Chairman, Janet Mortimer as Honorary Secretary, Roger Chapman as Treasurer and Jim Nelhams as Honorary Membership Secretary. Other committee members were re-elected as follows: Bill Bass, Don Cooper, Robin Densem, Melvyn Dresner, Susan Loveday Eric Morgan, Jo Nelhams, Susan Willetts and David Willoughby. New members of the committee can be co-opted between AGMs.

Below, Don and Sandra at AGM on 11th June 2024 and right, Don receiving presentation from Jacqui.

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Sandra Claggett after a career working in Government re-trained in Archaeology at university first at Birkbeck as evening classes and then obtaining her Master’s at UCL. Archaeology has been a lifelong interest and she has been lucky in the past to excavate at various locations such as The Ness of Brodgar, the Palaeolithic caves of Gibraltar and Greek archaeology sites including the Bronze Age site of Keros and Daskalio where she was site manager.

She has been a member of HADAS for about 10 years she previously successfully ran the Birkbeck Archaeology Society as President for 3 years while studying there. During this time a range of activities and lectures were arranged such as visiting MoLA to look at skeletal remains to archaeological illustration. Also lectures concerning the Black Death to the Ark before Noah and the Stonehenge environment. And such activities as going behind the scenes at the British Museum. She is looking forward to supporting HADAS as your Chairman.

The AGM was followed by a lecture by Jackie Pearce on the wonderful world of clay tobacco pipes. We got to see a wonderful array of clay pipes held in Museum of London collection and in the archive. Jackie took us through the types of decorations and markings. This took us back to the earliest Elizabethan and Stuart pipes and to Jamestown in Virginia. We also heard about “gine” presses, “gine” from engine.

Bronze Age settlement dug up in garden Stewart Wild

A retired geologist says he has discovered remnants of a lost Bronze Age settlement in his back garden after learning to identify artefacts by watching television’s Time Team. Dr Andrew Beckly has amassed more than 2,500 artefacts, including blades and axes, after a chance find beneath his lawn in Wellington, Somerset. It all started when he turned up an arrowhead while sifting earth. He said he found it not long after he finished rewatching the popular Channel 4 history programme. He credited the show with helping him to quickly identify the arrowhead.

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He said: “Finding the arrowhead was the starting point. I went to my wife and said ‘guess what I’ve found’ – she didn’t have a clue; it shot the history of the area back by 4,000 years.”

Dr Beckly was not sure if his arrowhead was a hunter’s ‘stray shot’ or evidence of something much bigger, so he expanded his search to nearby fields where he unearthed evidence which could challenge historians’ assumptions about life in Bronze Age Britain.

He said: “I decided to go back to basics. I got a couple of books on prehistoric flint work and gained an outline knowledge. But, primarily, I let the artefacts teach me. What I have discovered is repeat examples of things here which don’t appear in the textbooks. My gut feeling is this would have been a great location for prehistoric hunter-gatherers.

“I have heard frustrations expressed that it is commonly thought prehistory took place in the east of the country… the Southwest is pretty much ignored. But it would have been warm and the Channel was only a river at this time, so it would have been easy to come across from the Continent.

“The alternate view is that we had an Atlantic province rather than just the eastern province,” he said. “It shifts the balance away from everything being in the east.”

Referencing the work of archaeologist and Time Team star Francis Pryor, Dr Beckly said that he had “good reason” to think the Wellington hillside would have been “the perfect place” for our ancestors, in part because what is now the M5 would have made an attractive route for migrating animals. The site could now be examined by Heritage England which would carry out an assessment of the collection.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 25 April 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

Golden Hind Janet Mortimer

I recently went on a guided tour of the Golden Hind, the replica of Sir Francis Drake’s ship located near London Bridge. The guide was very informative, telling us the circumstances of Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe as he fled the pursuing Spanish after he had stolen their treasure. She showed us around the ship which was surprisingly small considering it started off with 80 people on board and the voyage lasted nearly three years. Some interesting facts that I learned are:-

Knots – The reason a ship’s speed is measured in knots was that they used a rope, knotted at measured intervals, with a wooden board called a chip log which was thrown over the side and the amount of knots that passed through the sailors’ hands would be counted whilst being timed by an hour glass.

Powder monkeys – the ceiling of the gun deck was very low, and indeed even the shortest of our visiting group had to stoop to go down there. In Drake’s day, children were employed to transport the gunpowder to the cannons, often in small kegs as they were able to scurry around quickly without stooping. They would clutch a couple of kegs to their chest and looked like little monkeys, hence the name given to them. At that time children as young as five years old were allowed to work – a fact not met with enthusiasm by my four year old granddaughter!

Biscuit – The ship’s biscuit was part of a sailor’s main diet. Made from flour and water, this was extremely hard and had to be soaked in warm liquid before it could be eaten. To break bits off, the sailors would use their elbow. This is the reason that the sign for biscuit in both British Sign Language and Makaton is tapping your elbow. All in all a very interesting visit and one I would highly recommend.

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Claigmar Vineyard in Finchley: Commercial Grape Growing in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Part 2 (1) Dudley Miles

In 1850, Peter Kay married a farmer’s daughter, Mary Ann Aedy. (2) In 1851 they were living in Ballards Lane with their newly born daughter, also called Mary Ann. His younger brother John, a gardener born in Scotland, was a member of the household. (3) In 1852 John married Mary Ann’s sister, Susannah or Susan. Peter Edmund Kay was born on 6 May 1853, but his mother died in childbirth. (4) Peter Kay died in August 1862, and his son was left an orphan at the age of nine. Kay’s Nursery was taken over by his uncle John. (5) He died in 1864, and the nursery was managed until the mid-1870s by trustees appointed to act until his children came of age, perhaps because Susannah was suffering from mental illness. (6) The nursery was probably run by Mr G. Osborne, who was awarded several prizes at horticultural shows in the late 1860s and early 1870s for Kay’s Nursery grapes. (7)

Susannah appears to have taken over running the Ballards Lane nursery when the trust expired. It was listed in directories from 1878 to 1889 as Peter and Susan Kay, apart from some directories which showed it in the late 1880s as Mrs Kay’s Nursery. (8) Peter Edmund inherited (or acquired) the freehold, and when Susannah died in 1889 he let it out. In 1898 he advertised it for sale by auction as Ballards Lane Nursery, one and a half acres with two cottages, fourteen greenhouses and trade buildings. (9)

Peter Edmund Kay and Claigmar Vineyard. (10)

After his father’s death, Peter Edmund Kay worked in a ducal vinery, almost certainly the one in the Duke of Buccleuch’s Dalkeith Palace Gardens in Dalkeith, Midlothian. He then became an apprentice of James.

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(1) This article was first published in the February 2024 issue of The Local Historian. It was a shortened version due to the journal’s size limitations. The full article will be printed in the HADAS newsletter in instalments over the next few months. I should like to thank Hugh Petrie, Barnet Council Heritage Development Officer, for his assistance. (2) Marriage of Mary Ann Aedy to Peter Kay, 12 February 1850
(3) Peter Kay, Ballards Lane, 1851 Census
(4) London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932, marriage of Susannah Aedy to John Kay, 30 December 1852; Births and Baptisms, St Mary Finchley, Peter Edmund Kay, 6 May 1853; Church of England Deaths and Burials, St Mary Finchley, Mary Ann Kay buried 13 May 1853
(5) Probate Registry, will and grant of Peter Kay, died 5 August 1862
(6) The 1861 census shows John living with his brother in Ballards Lane, while Susannah was a visitor to her mother and their children Nancy and Margaret Kay were boarders with Mary Ann Coffey. John’s will dated 1864 provided for Coffey to live in his house and take charge of his wife and children. His executors included Robert Kay, a Kenwood gardener, and Charles Plowman, a builder who in 1882 submitted plans for (and most likely built) a detached house for Peter Edmund Kay which was to be his home, called Claigmar, for the rest of his life. The nursery was listed in directories for the ten years after John’s death as ‘trustees of John Kay’ (Peter Kay, Ballards Lane, Finchley, 1861 census; Mary Coffee (sic), Finchley, 1861 Census, Susannah Kay, Finchley, 1861 Census; Probate Registry, will and grant of John Kay, died 9 May 1864; Post Office Directory of the Six Home Counties, Middlesex, Kelly & Co, 1866, p. 553; Post Office Directory of the Six Home Counties, Part 1, Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Kelly & Co, 1870, p. 640; Ibid, 1874, p. 649; Barnet Press, 7 January 1882, p. 5).
(7) The Times, 11 September 1867, p. 8; Morning Post, 26 August 1868, p. 6; Ibid, 7 July 1870, p. 7
(8) Post Office Directory of the Six Home Counties, Part 1, Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Kelly & Co, 1878, p. 709; Ibid, 1882, p. 865; Kelly’s Directory of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex, 1886, p. 923; The Barnet, Finchley, Hendon, & District Directory for 1886-1887, Hutchings & Crowsley, p. 97; Kelly’s Directory of Barnet, Finchley, Hendon & District, 1887 and 1888, p. 93; Ibid, 1889-90, p. 77
(9) Susanna Kay in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915, 1889; Hendon & Finchley Times, 29 April 1898, p. 3
(10) The principal sources on the Claigmar Vineyard are: Peter Kay, ‘Grape Culture in its Commercial Aspect’, Paper read to the Horticultural Club on 5 May, The Garden, 30 May 1896, vol. 49, pp. 397-400; Peter E. Kay V.M.H., ‘Saving and Using the Rain’, read 25 September 1900, Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, 1900-1901, new series, vol. 25, pp. 146-54; (The Garden – Google Books) ‘Through American Eyes, Peter E. Kay’s, London’, The American Florist, 28 December 1895, pp. 554, 555, 556; ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley’, pp. 370-72; Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, pp. 274-78; advertisement for share offer in P. E. Kay Limited, Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8.

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Sweet, who had himself been an apprentice of Peter Kay, and who commenced trading in the year of Kay’s death. At the time of the 1871 census Peter Edmund Kay was in Dalkeith, probably on a return visit to the ducal vinery. (11) He moved back to Finchley soon afterwards and started up in business in 1872 at the age of nineteen. (12) His unmarried aunt, Margaret Kay, leased a parcel of land in Finchley for 30 years from 25 March 1873 at a rent of £22.10 per annum, with a covenant to build greenhouses. (13) She was almost certainly acting on Peter’s behalf as she is not known to have played any role in the business, and as he was below the age of majority he could not sign a lease in his own name. He is listed as a gardener and florist in Long Lane in 1878. (14)

The Duke of Buccleuch’s vinery in Dalkeith Palace Gardens circa 1860. Peter Edmund Kay worked there in 1871, and probably in the early to mid-1860s after the death of his father. (Photo by George Washington Wilson in an album arranged by Prince Albert between 1860 and 1861, https://www.rct.uk/collection/2320131/vinery-dalkeith-palace-gardens).

James Sweet V.M.H trained Peter Edmund Kay. (Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, new series, vol. 26, 1901-1902, p. xix). Sweet developed an improved method of greenhouse construction, with much larger panes of glass, reducing the cost of both construction and repair (Bear, ‘Flower and Fruit Farming in England II’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Third Series, vol. 9, 1898, pp 512-50 at 530).

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(11) Kay, ‘Grape Culture in its Commercial Aspect’, pp. 397-398; ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley’, p. 370; Peter E. Kay, Dalkeith, 1871 Census. The census shows him as a gardener, age 17, lodging in Croft Street, Dalkeith. He stated that he trained in a noted ducal vinery before his apprenticeship in a commercial vinery. This apprenticeship cannot have after his time in Dalkeith in 1871 as he started his own business the following year, and it is likely that he made a return visit in that year.
(12) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8
(13) De Burgh Family, Cooper Family Leases, London Metropolitan Archives, ACC/1386/0822, p. 68. (Report (lma.gov.uk). The lessee is described as ‘Margaret Kay of Fife, North Britain, spinster’.
(14) Post Office Directory of the Six Home Counties, Part 1, Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Kelly & Co, 1878, p. 709

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In 1881, he was living in Gresfield Villas, Long Lane, with Margaret Kay and a sixteen year old servant girl. (15) His business was so successful that in 1882 he was able to have a detached house in Oakfield Road built for him, and this became his home, called Claigmar, for the rest of his life. (16) In Kelly’s Directory for 1886 he is listed as a florist in Oakfield Road. (17) The earliest known use of the name Claigmar Vineyard is dated 1887 in A list of the governors and benefactors of the Royal Scottish Hospital for the relief of poor aged, infirm, and unfortunate natives of Scotland, resident in the metropolis and neighbourhood. (18) He maintained his connections with Scotland all his life and had bankers and solicitors in Edinburgh as well as London. (19) He probably visited Scotland on numerous occasions. On 7 September 1887 he married Jane (or Jeanie) Campbell Glassford, who was born in Greenock in 1854. Their first two children were born in 1889 and 1890, and the 1891 census records their home address as Claigmar, Oakfield Road. The family had two Scottish-born servants. (20) The census also records that Kay’s Aunt Margaret, and sister, Mary Ann, were living together in Finchley with a servant. They are described as ‘living on own means’, probably provided by Peter Edmund when he married. (21) In 1894, Mary Ann married an accountant called Rees James. (22)

In the 1880s, Kay became a member of the horticultural establishment. Archibald Barron was the most respected horticulturist in the late nineteenth century and in the preface to the 1887 edition of Vines and Vine Culture, Kay was one of those he thanked for their assistance. (23) Kay was a member of the committee of The Market Gardeners, Nurserymen, and Farmers’ Association, and in 1895 he was one of the incorporation directors and shareholders of The Nurserymen’s, Market Gardeners’ and General Hailstorm Insurance Corporation Ltd. (24) He was awarded medals for his grapes at horticultural shows in Britain, France and Germany, (25) and he gave papers to the Horticultural Club and the Royal Horticultural Society. (26) In 1897, the Society inaugurated its highest award, the Victoria Medal of Honour (V.M.H.) for ‘British horticulturists deserving of special honour by the Society’, and Kay was one of the sixty initial recipients. (27) In 1900, he became a member of the committee of the Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund, (28) and in 1902 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. (29) Locally, he was president of the Finchley Horticultural Society

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(15) Peter Edmund Kay, Gresfield Villas, 1881 Census. Margaret Kay is shown as Kay’s unmarried aunt, aged 57, born in Scotland. She is listed as a housekeeper, but this has been crossed through.
(16) Barnet Press, 7 January 1882, p. 5. ‘The Works Committee [of Finchley Local Board] recommended that plans submitted by Mr C. Plowman for a detached house, in Oakfield-road, Long-lane, for Mr P. E. Kay, be approved.’
(17) Kelly’s Directory of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex, 1886, p. 923
(18) A list of the governors and benefactors of the Royal Scottish Hospital for the relief of poor aged, infirm, and unfortunate natives of Scotland, resident in the metropolis and neighbourhood, Royal Scottish Hospital, 1903, p. 129. This records that in 1887 Kay, Peter E., Claigmar Vineyard, Church End, Finchley, N,, contributed one guinea.
(19) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8
(20) Morning Post, 12 September 1887, p. 1; Peter Edmund Kay, Claigmar, Finchley, 1891 Census. A rare insight into Kay’s private life is that he was fined 10 shillings plus costs in 1897 for allowing a dog to run free unmuzzled (Finchley Press, 28 August 1897, p. 3).
(21) Margaret Kay, Manor Villa, Station Road, Finchley, 1891 Census
(22) Marriage Record of Mary Ann Kay. Rees James is sometimes shown as Reese James.
(23) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, preface to the second edition, 1887; ‘The Judges at the International Horticultural Exhibition’, p. 212. Barron was the superintendent of the Royal Horticultural Society gardens and a V.M.H.
(24) The Gardeners’ Chronicle, 2 January 1892, p, 9; Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, series 3, vol. 30, 28 March 1895, p. 265 (Gardeners’ Chronicle – Google Books). The General Hailstorm Insurance Corporation was founded on the initiative of James Sweet (Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, new series, vol. 26, 1901-1902, p. xix).
(25) Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 12 September 1889, vol. 19, p. 230 (Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening – Google Books); The Garden, 3 September 1892, vol. 42, p. 219 (The Garden – Google Books); Revue Horticole, vol. 61, 1889, p. 475 (Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening – Google Books); Journal de la Société Nationale d’horticulture de France, 1887, p. 765; Jardins de France, 1890, p. 47; Wiener Illustrirte Garten-Zeitung, January 1890, vol. 15, p. 47 (Journal de la Société nationale d’horticulture de France – Google Books).
(26) Kay, ‘Grape Culture in its Commercial Aspect’, pp. 397-400; Kay, ‘Saving and Using the Rain’, pp. 146-54
(27) Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, new series, vol. 21, 1897-1898, p. 3 (;new ser.:v.21 (1897-1898) – Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London – Biodiversity Heritage Library (biodiversitylibrary.org)); ‘RHS People Awards’, Royal Horticultural Society website (RHS People Awards / RHS Gardening). The number of V.M.H. holders at any one time is limited to the number of years of Queen Victoria’s reign, 60 when it was inaugurated and 63 since her death.
(28) Gardeners’ Chronicle, Series 3, vol 27, 24 February 1900, p. 126 (ser.3:v.27 (1900) – The Gardeners’ chronicle – Biodiversity Heritage Library (biodiversitylibrary.org)). Kay resigned in 1904 (The Garden, 20 February 1904, p. 141 (v.65 1904 – The Garden – Biodiversity Heritage Library (biodiversitylibrary.org))).
(29) Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, new series, vol. 27, 1902-1903, p. ii (new ser.:v.27 (1902-1903) – Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London – Biodiversity Heritage Library (biodiversitylibrary.org)).

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and the Finchley Dahlia Society, and treasurer of the Finchley Chrysanthemum Society. He almost always declined positions in organizations outside the horticultural sphere. (30)

Kay had a cheerful disposition and he declared: ‘The occupation of a vine grower is one of the most pleasant that can be undertaken; it is full of ever-changing interest.’ (31) In 1892 he was one of the judges at the International Horticultural Exhibition at Earls Court, and in a description of the judges in The Gardening World, he is described as:

a genial, kind hearted man, in whom the gardening charities, and numerous other charitable objects have a constant and generous supporter. Mr Kay is a man of wide renown as a grower of fruit, and especially of grapes, for market. He is indeed one of the magnates of the business, standing second to few in the extent of his cultivation, and second to none in the quality of it. He is perhaps the largest grower of the Canon Hall Muscat in the world, and certainly he can never have been surpassed in his success with this shy-setting but otherwise noble grape. Mr Kay’s vineyard is a thing to see and dream of. (32)

In 1895 a group of American horticulturalists visited Claigmar Vineyard, and on their return to the United States they gave an account in the American Florist of their visit to Kay, who was described as ‘easily first’ among specialists in growing grapes under glass. He then had twelve greenhouses for grapes, each 400 feet long by 36 wide. Each house contained about 10,000 bunches, averaging about 1 to 1½ pounds per bunch. The visitors observed: ‘It is a grand and bewildering sight to stand at the end of one of these large houses and see the great clusters of grapes all about, and as one looks a distance along, the leaves seem to fade away and all is grapes.’ Canon Hall Muscat fetched high prices, but had a limited sale, and he also grew the cheaper Black Alicante and Gros Colman on a large scale. The houses were fumigated by sulphur and warmed by a network of water pipes heated to as high a temperature as possible. He had 43 greenhouses 150 feet long by 14 wide for cucumbers. After their tour, the American party spent the evening with Kay, described as ‘a most genial gentleman’, and his ‘charming wife’. (33) Kay grew Comet tomatoes, which he brought from Scotland in the early 1890s, and his own strain of cucumbers. (34)
Bear observed:

The most important of the Metropolitan districts in relation to hot-house fruit production are those situated north of London, and the notes of visits to some of the largest glass-house nurseries could not begin more appropriately than with those relating to the great undertaking founded and carried on by Mr Peter Kay, at Finchley. Mr Kay has long been noted as one of the best grape-growers in the country, his success with the Canon Hall variety, a difficult one to grow to perfection, being unequalled. (35)

Bear stated that up to 1899, Kay spent £50,000 on greenhouses alone. The area covered by glass was 19½ acres and the total occupied by the nursery was 34 acres. The greenhouses devoted to grapes were described by Bear as “great structures, which good judges have declared the finest block of vineries in the world”. (36)

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(30) Hendon & Finchley Times, 28 December 1894, p. 6; Ibid, 20 October 1899, p. 4; Ibid, 27 August 1909, p. 6; Finchley Press, 10 September 1898, p. 7
(31) ‘Grape Culture in its Commercial Aspect’, p. 400
(32) ‘The Judges at the International Horticultural Exhibition’, p. 212
(33) ‘Through American Eyes’, pp. 554, 555, 556. See also The Gardening World, 9 July 1898, p. 713, which has a photograph of Kay’s ‘famous Canon Hall Muscat house’.
(34) ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley’, p. 371
(35) Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, p. 274
(36) Ibid. pp. 274-75. On Kay’s greenhouses, see also Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 4th ed., 1900, p. 99.

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Barron commented that a good soil was an important factor in the success of a vineyard, and he observed: ‘One of the most successful cultivators, Mr Kay, of Finchley, is favoured with the finest of soil—a somewhat heavy yellow loam, which is used unsparingly mixed with bones, Thomson’s vine manure etc’. (37) Obtaining sufficient water was expensive, and Kay was known for having developed an effective system for storing and using rainwater. In the late 1890s he built a two-acre reservoir to store rainwater falling on the greenhouses. It had a capacity of five million gallons of water, which was pumped to the top of water towers, and then flowed down to water the fruit, saving a water rate of more than £700 a year. (38) Rainwater was better for vines as it was soft, unlike the cold and very hard water supplied by the water company. In 1900, he read a paper on the storage and use of rainwater to the Royal Horticultural Society. (39)

The vineyard expanded rapidly. In 1904 Kay stated that the area covered by greenhouses (including those for tomatoes and cucumbers) had increased from 1.8 acres at incorporation in 1889 to 18 acres. (40) The Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1894 shows it extending a quarter of a mile from the Great Northern Railway line (now the Northern line) nearly to Long Lane, and on both sides of Oakfield Road. A 1911 OS map shows it occupying most of the land from Dukes Avenue to what is now the North Circular. (41)
Kay’s grape production increased from 10 tons in 1889 to 100 tons per annum in 1903. He was one of the major producers, although well below the 400 tons a year Messrs Rochford expected when their vines reached full maturity. In the early 1900s, Kay produced an average of 100 tons of tomatoes and 20,000 dozens of cucumbers a year. The fruit all had a first grade ‘Mark’, and was well known in all the markets of England and Scotland. (42) All produce since his start in business in 1872 had been sent to the leading Covent Garden importer and wholesaler, George Monro, a V.M.H. and Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. (43) Kay may have taken advantage of the rising value of land by buying and selling property. In the late 1890s he owned around thirty acres in Finchley apart from the nursery, and in 1898, he auctioned five blocks of building land with frontages totalling 1367 feet on Long Lane and Squires Lane, and a freehold estate of fifteen and a half acres close to Finchley Station (now Finchley Central). (44) However, he may have purchased the land originally with the intention of expanding the vineyard further.

On 14 March 1889 Claigmar Vineyard was incorporated as P. E. Kay, Limited. (45) The inaugural directors were Kay, his wife and his aunt. (46) In 1904, the earliest date after incorporation when the directors are recorded, they were Kay, his brother-in-law Rees James and Richard Cobley, a fruit grower who lived in Waltham Cross. A valuers’ report of the company in 1901 stated that there were ‘145 vineries, cucumber and tomato houses, with the heating apparatus and fittings, water tower and other trade buildings, two reservoirs with water mains, pumps, service pipes and fittings, vines and vine borders, tomatoes and hanging fruit, horses, vans, carts, utensils in trade and other items’. The total length of the greenhouses was 5.2 miles, with 25.5 miles of 4-inch hot water piping and 84 boilers. The total area was 29 acres, two-thirds held freehold

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(37) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 3rd ed., p. 91
(38) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8; Finchley Press, 24 September 1898, p. 2; Ibid, 16 November 1901, p. 8; R. Lewis Castle, Book of Market Gardening, London 1906, p. 41
(39) Kay, ‘Saving and Using the Rain’, pp. 146-54
(40) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8. The figures are given as: ‘from 80,000 square feet to 805,000 square feet, or from 2½ acres to 28 acres’. The figures for acreage have been corrected as they are obviously too high as the result of conversion errors.
(41) Ordnance Survey, 26 inches to a mile, Mid Finchley 1894 and 1911. Directories list another market grower in Oakfield Road, and this probably occupied a small part of the area shown on the map as Claigmar Vineyard.
(42) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8; Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 4th ed., p. 94
(43) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8; ‘Packing Australian Fruit’, The Garden, vol. 43, 17 June 1893, p. 508; Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, New Series, vol. 21, 1897, pp. 578-79 (v.43 1893 – The Garden – Biodiversity Heritage Library (biodiversitylibrary.org).
(44) Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, p. 274; Hendon & Finchley Times, 29 April 1898, p. 3
(45) The Stock Exchange Year-Book, 1904, entry for P. E. Kay Limited. The name was shown in a variety of ways in directories such as Peter E. Kay Limited and Peter Edmund Kay Limited. The trading name was sometimes shown as Claigmar, Claigmar Vinery and Claigmar Vineries.
(46) Financial Times, 19 March 1889, p. 4

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and one-third leasehold, with leases expired in 1977. The ground rent was £155 per annum until 1911 and £200 per annum for the rest of the term. The location close to Finchley Railway Station made the land prospectively valuable for a suburban housing estate. The company was valued at £65,243, equivalent to £6.4 million at 2023 prices. (47) A newspaper report of a rating appeal by Kay in 1906 gives a total acreage of 29.5 acres, including 16 acres of greenhouses, 10.5 acres of waste land, the reservoir and an engine works. The number of greenhouses had increased since 1901 to 151 with a length of 5.4 miles. (48) Kay was the largest ratepayer in the district. (49)

Kay claimed that, apart from pineapples, fruit grown under glass in England was superior in quality to foreign produce and did not suffer from foreign competition to the same degree as other industries. He argued that cheap imported grapes had probably prevented a greater fall in prices by encouraging consumers to consume the fruit, and thus giving them a taste for the superior English produce (50) He seems to have been more optimistic about the prospects of the industry than other growers, and in the 1890s he had continued to expand, with almost a quarter of his greenhouses erected in 1898. (51) Vines had been planted by 1903 to increase annual production from 100 to 150 tons. His expenditure on developing the property was very high. In addition to the £50,000 spent on erecting greenhouses, the water management works were very expensive. He also launched a new company in 1903, Mill Hill Vineyard Limited. The costs of these investments seem to have strained his finances, and in 1904 he offered to sell part of his holdings in the company. An advertisement for the offer in the Financial Times stated that it was made to repay Kay for personal obligations he had entered into in order to develop the property. The issued capital was 1000 £10 ordinary shares, which had never paid a dividend of less than 7% per annum, and 200 6% preference shares of £100. There were also 425 5% £100 mortgage debentures. Under an agreement with the company, he was required to retain four-fifths of the ordinary shares, and he now offered to sell to the public all his other holdings, 82 preference shares and 355 mortgage debentures, all at par. The offer statement included an accountants’ certificate stating that the average profit in the last three years had been £5,675. This was £2,350 after preference share dividends and debenture interest. (52) The Statist, a financial weekly, was critical, commenting that a three-year average profit was inadequate financial information, and described the offer as ‘too speculative for the ordinary investor’.53 It is not known whether it was accepted. Kay would have retained control as the shares had equal voting rights, and he would still have held 800 shares out of the total of 1200.
Kay became involved in personal difficulties in the years before his death in 1909, but the details are unclear. According to an obituary: ‘A few years ago, through a technicality, Mr Kay’s affairs became somewhat involved, and this has been a source of great worry to him.’54 He seems to have withdrawn from public life after 1905. In earlier years, he was regularly listed in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural
_____________________________________________________

(47) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8; Bank of England inflation calculator. There was only one reservoir so the mention of two of them is an error.
(48) ‘Finchley Greenhouses’, Finchley Press, 27 January 1906, p. 10. In 1902, Kay granted Finchley Council access to an electricity works through a road in the Claigmar site for a nominal rent, but in 1905 he demanded that the Council remove electricity cables laid along the road because of the nuisance caused by smoke from burning coal. (Meeting of Finchley Urban District Council Electricity Committee, 26 July 1905, in Barnet History https://open.barnet.gov.uk/download/2rpm1/l3y/Finchley_Urban_District_Council_1904_June-1905_November.pdf (BH), Finchley Urban District Council (FUDC), June 1904-November 1905, pp. 414-22).
(49) Hendon & Finchley Times, 27 August 1909, p. 6
(50) ‘Grape Culture in its Commercial Aspect’, p. 398
(51) Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, p. 274
(52) Financial Times, 29 January 1904, p. 8; Ibid, 21 December 1903, p. 4
(53) The Statist, 30 January 1904, p. 211
(54) Hendon & Finchley Times, 27 August 1909, p. 6

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Society as a judge and contributor to prize funds at horticultural exhibitions, and his last appearance was in that year as a judge at the Society’s Annual Exhibition of British-Grown Fruit. (55) He was able to get the assessment of the greenhouses for rates reduced in 1906, (56) but he ceased to be a director of P. E. Kay Limited in 1906 or 1907, and was replaced by George Monro. (57) By this time, the company’s financial reputation seems to have declined. In 1908, six £100 mortgage debentures were offered for sale by auction, but they were unsold, and they were offered again at a 25% discount. (58) In the same year, the case of Scott v. P. E. Kay Limited was scheduled for a hearing with witnesses in the Chancery Division of the High Court. (59) No details of the case are known. To be continued…..

And finally…

Following recent publication of the Phase II of the excavation of the Mesolithic site on West Heath, Hampstead, the final excavation between 1984 and 1986. The HADAS finds team are re-bagging and re-boxing the finds so the physical archive is protected to current standard:

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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.

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(55) Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, New Series, vol. 30, 1906, pp. 113-14
(56) Hendon & Finchley Times, 8 September 1905, p. 5; Finchley Press, 27 January 1906, p. 10
(57) Stock Exchange Year-Book, entries for P. E. Kay Limited for 1906 and 1907
(58) Finchley Press, 8 May 1908, p. 6; Ibid, 31 July 1908, p. 6
(59) The Law Times, 11 January 1908, p. 253; The Solicitors’ Journal and Weekly Reporter, 11 January 1908, p. 180

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Sunday 7th July, 2 pm. – Remembering WW1 and WW2. Guided walk. Learn about the Jewish soldiers who lost their lives in the wars.
Tuesday 20th August, 6.30 pm. Women of Willesden. Celebrate significant Jewish women who helped change history through their Philanthropy, Scientific and Business achievements. For info and booking please visit www.willesdenjewishcemetery.org.uk or 0208 459 6107
Sunday 7 July, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. Constable and Hampstead. Walk led by Suzanne Grundy. Lasts approximately 2 hours. Meet at Spaniard’s End (By Flower Stall) and Cattle Trough near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, London NW3 7JJ. Ends at St. John’s Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, London. NW3 6UU. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or email hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.heathandhampstead.org.
Sunday 7 July, 12-5 pm. Hampstead Summer Festival Fair in Heath Street. Over 100 stalls of craft, food and drink. Music. Free.
Sunday 7 July to Sunday 21 July. Enfield Archaeological Society. Elsyng Palace Excavation in the grounds of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield. EN2 9HA. Dig to visit www.enfarchsoc.org/dig. There is an OPEN DAY 11 am. – 4 pm. on Sunday 13 July for members of the public. COLAS will also be visiting.
Monday 8 July 7.30 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. What Medieval Women Wore. Talk by Kathleen Alston-Cole. See www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.
Tuesday 9 July, 7 pm. Camden History Society. St John’s Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, London NW3 6UU. AGM. Followed by the History and Social Role of the Camden New Journal. Talk by Dan Carrier. Wine and soft drinks 6.30 pm – 7 pm. Visit http://www.camdenhistorysociety.org.
Tuesday 9 July, 7.45 pm. Amateur Geological Society. Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6 East End Road/Corner of Stanhope Avenue, London N3 3LX. (almost opposite Avenue House). Geophysical Surveying in Africa. Talk by Roger May. Full details on www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.
Tuesday 9th July, 11 am. Kingsbury Library. Kingsbury Road, London NW9 9HE. Day Out at Wembley Park, 100 Years Ago. Talk by Philip Grant (Wembley History Society). On a tour of the British Empire Empire Exhibition in 1924 from a guidebook. Refreshments to be provided.
Thursday 11th July, 2 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, (corner of Ferme Park Road/Weston Park) N8 9BX. Will also be on Zoom. Annual General Meeting. For details please visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk.
Saturday 13 July to Sunday 28 July. CBA Festival of Archaeology. For more info about events visit https://www.archaeologyuk.org/festival.html.
Monday 15th July, 8 pm. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane, Junction Chase side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. From Monoux and Morris to Beer and Bacon Jam. Talk by Joanna Moncrieff. Please visit www.enfieldsociety.org.uk.
Thursday 18th July, 6.30 pm. Willesden Green Library. Willesden High Road/corner Brondesbury Park, London NW10 2SF. The Willesden Green Library Story. Talk by Philip Grant to discover how the original Victorian public library came about.
Friday 19 July, 7 pm. COLAS. Address as for 21 June. Also on Zoom, 81, Newgate Street – The Former G.P.O site re-visited. Talk by Kathy Davidson, Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA). Please book via Eventbrite. See www.colas.org.uk.
Friday 19 July, 7 pm. Wembley History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. Tripping Up Everest. Talk by Lester Hillman in the Centenary Year of Mallory’s Expedition. Visitors £3. Refreshments available.
Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July. London Canal Museum. 12-13 New Wharf Road, Kings Cross, London N1 9RT. Ice Heritage Weekend. Celebrates all things ice and the history of the building. Part of The Festival of Archaeology including boat trips, Victorian ice cream making demonstrations and on

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Sunday a rare chance to descend into the historic underground ice well. Please visit www.canalmuseum.org.uk. Normal museum entry charges.
Saturday 27 July. Colas at Greenwich Park. CBA Festival of Archaeology Event. By General Wolfe Statue celebrating the Greenwich Park restored Project, see www.archeologyuk.org/festival.html.
Saturday 27th July, 11 am. Enfield Town. A circular walk including a guided tour of St. Andrew’s Church., led by Sue Grayson Ford. for details please visit www.enfieldsociety.org.uk.
Tuesday 6th August, 11 am. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, address as for 15th July. Palmers Green. Talk by Adrian Day on a tour of Palmers Green, an Edwardian suburb.
Tuesday 13th August, 7.45 pm. Amateur Geological Society, Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6, East End Road, Corner Stanhope Avenue, London N3 3LX. (Almost opposite Avenue House). Members Evening. with a theme of Fossils in Flint. Further info: www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Sandra Claggett, Stewart Wild, Janet Mortimer, Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan

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Hendon and District Archaeological Society

Chairman Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
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 Avenue, 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 at: www.hadas.org.uk – join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.

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No. 639 June 2024 Edited by Dudley Miles

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. Buses 13, 125, 143, 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. Tea/Coffee/biscuits are available for purchase after the talk.

STOP PRESS

We have been advised that that Barnet Medieval Festival scheduled for 8th/9th June has been postponed because of unsafe ground conditions. It is hoped to reschedule for later in the year

Tuesday 11 June 2024

HADAS Annual General Meeting.

PLEASE NOTE EARLY START TIME: 7.30
Your chance to let us know how we are doing and what you would like us to do for you. The meeting will be followed by a talk on Clay Pipes by our President, Jacqui Pearce. Members will receive reports and information about the meeting. Still time for nominations and resolutions.

Tuesday 12 September 2024

Wendy Morrison, Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP)

Beacon of the Past Hillforts Project

Announcement Don Cooper

After many years in gestation, we are proud to announce that the latest book to be produced under the auspices of HADAS has now been published (see cover photo next page). This covers Phase II of the excavation of the Mesolithic site on West Heath, Hampstead, the final excavation between 1984 and 1986.

The book, written by Myfanwy Stewart, tells the story of the second excavation. Myfanwy spent many hours re-analysing all the finds found and reprocessing them into a coherent book. She is to be congratulated that all her hard work has produced this fine volume. A full review will be produced in due course.

Copies of the book will be available to members at lectures and at the AGM.

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Phase 1 was published in 1989 and dealt with the excavation in 1976-1981. (Desmond Collins and Daphne Lorimer (1989). Excavations at the Mesolithic Site on West Heath, Hampstead 1976-1981. Oxford: International Archaeological Reports, British Series 217).

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Claigmar Vineyard in Finchley: Commercial Grape Growing in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Part 1 (1) Dudley Miles

Mr Kay’s vineyard is a thing to see and dream of (2)

Abstract

There were many market gardens in Middlesex in the nineteenth century, one of which was founded by Peter Kay in the 1830s or early 1840s in Ballards Lane in Finchley. His Black Hamburgh vine was often praised by horticulturalists. His son, Peter Edmund Kay, built up a large-scale business in the late nineteenth century called Claigmar Vineyard, producing table grapes, cucumbers and tomatoes in greenhouses, in Church End, Finchley. In 1889 he incorporated the business as P. E. Kay Limited. Between the 1880s and 1900s Kay was one of the most respected horticulturalists in Britain, and he was one of the inaugural recipients of the Royal Horticultural Society’s most prestigious award, the Victoria Medal of Honour (V.M.H.) in 1897. His Canon Hall Muscat grapes were especially admired.

In the 1900s the company’s financial reputation appears to have declined, and according to an obituary Kay had a technical problem with his affairs. He suffered from increasing ill health in his last years and resigned as a director in 1906 or 1907. He died in 1909, aged 56. The business carried on after his death, but it was unable to pay dividends to holders of ordinary shares, and the land was far more valuable for housing. The property was gradually sold off for building in the 1920s. An associated company, Mill Hill Vineyard Limited, carried on until the early 1930s. Kay’s elder son, Peter Crichton Kay, became a leading figure in the large-scale production of cut flowers, and he was awarded his own V.M.H. in 1951.

Introduction

In a survey of fruit production in greenhouses in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1899, William Bear estimated that in the 1860s, commercial greenhouses covered around 100 acres in England, whereas by the end of the century it was around 1,100 acres, of which 350 acres were devoted to table grapes. (3) In the mid-nineteenth century the best grapes sold at Covent Garden were mainly sent by private establishments, but over the next twenty to thirty years a sharp decline in prices and improvements in the quality of grapes produced by commercial growers largely drove out the amateurs. (4) In 1892, Archibald Barron wrote in the third edition of his Vines and Vine Culture, the standard work on grape growing in Britain:

The extraordinary increase in the cultivation of grapes for sale or market purposes, and the rapid development of the trade in this fruit during the past few years, is altogether of a very remarkable character. No other fruit, excepting the tomato, has ever advanced so rapidly into popularity and general use. A few years ago, grapes could only be obtained by the wealthy in small quantities, and at high prices; ________________________

(1) This article was first published in the February 2024 issue of The Local Historian. It was a shortened version due to the journal’s size limitations. The full article will be printed in the HADAS newsletter in instalments over the next few months. I should like to thank Hugh Petrie, Barnet Council Heritage Development Officer, for his assistance.
(2) ‘The Judges at the International Horticultural Exhibition’, The Gardening World, 3 December 1892, p. 212
(3) William E. Bear, ‘Flower and Fruit Farming in England. IV. Fruit Growing under Glass’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Third Series, vol. 10, 1899, pp. 267-313 at 268 and 272. Fruit was taken to include tomatoes and cucumbers.
(4) Archibald Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, Journal of Horticulture, 3rd ed., 1892, p. 90

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Now they form a staple article of commerce, and may be obtained in abundance and at a moderate price in all parts of the country, and at all seasons. (5)

A key factor in the explosive growth in commercial grape growing was the popularity of tomatoes, which could be grown during the two or three years when the vines were becoming established, and thus provide an immediate return on the expense of constructing greenhouses. (6) Barron stated in the second edition of his book in 1887 that total grape production in England was nearly 400 tons, and this was outstripped by the supply from the Channel Islands, which increased from 50 tons in 1876 to over 500 tons in 1886. Most of the supply from both sources was handled by one wholesaler, George Monro of Covent Garden. (7) The largest English producer was Philip Ladds of Bexley Heath, whose crop in 1886 was 30 tons, and Barron listed Peter Edmund Kay of Finchley at the head of the second rank. (8) By the time of Barron’s third edition in 1892, there had been a further dramatic increase in production, and Messrs Rochford of Cheshunt ranked top with vines to produce around 300 tons a year when they became fully mature. (9) Bear estimated English grape production in 1899 at 4,200 tons. (10) After 1900, the supply declined as many vines were rooted up in favour of tomatoes. (11)

Prices of grapes varied greatly depending on their variety and condition, and on the time of year, but in the middle of the nineteenth century growers could get £1 to £1.50 a pound for some varieties. (12) In 1887, Barron commented that average prices had declined 25% to 50% over the last ten years, but commercial growers were not distressed as it was better to sell a ton of grapes at two or three shillings a pound than a few hundred pounds at ten or twenty shillings. (13) In 1899 Kay said that prices had declined by two-thirds over the last ten years. (14) Market gardeners had become pessimistic about the prospects of the hot-house fruit industry. Too many glasshouses were being built, which would push the prices down further. James Sweet of Whetstone, who trained more apprentices than any other nurseryman, observed that most of them had unsuccessfully attempted to build a business and had left the industry. Foreign competition in grapes was becoming a more serious threat, particularly from Belgium, partly due to an increased French tariff on Belgian produce, resulting in a diversion of supply to the London market. Sweet told a story of a young Belgian who had visited his nursery and asked him when the English were going to give up growing grapes for market. When asked why he thought that Belgian growers would drive their English rivals out of business, he said that it was due to their lower labour costs, including the employment of children. (15) Kay said in 1903 that vanloads of good quality grapes sent to Covent Garden fetched an average of 10d a pound. (16)

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(5) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 3rd ed., p. 89; Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 22 September 1892, p. 265
(6) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 3rd ed., p. 89
(7) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 2nd edition, 1887, pp. 88-89. In the second edition Barron states that the totals for the Channel Islands are according to official figures, but in the third edition he specifies that they are for shipments through Southampton (2nd edition, p. 89; 3rd edition, p. 90). Channel Islands production appears to have only increased marginally after 1886. Barron does not give a later total figure, but he says that the quantity handled by Monro increased from 300 tons in 1886 to 350 tons in 1899 (3rd edition, p. 90; 4th edition, p. 99).
(8) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 2nd ed., 1887, pp. 88-89.
(9) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 3rd ed., pp. 89-90
(10) Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, p. 272
(11) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 5th ed., 1912, p. 99. Barron died in 1903 and the 1912 edition was produced by his widow.
(12) ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley Five Miles of Glass. Grape Growing by the Ton. A Chat with Mr P. E. Kay V.M.H.’, The Market Growers’ Gazette, 22 July 1903, pp. 370-72 at 371
(13) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 2nd ed., p. 89
(14) Quoted in Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, p. 277
(15) Bear, ‘Fruit Growing under Glass’, pp. 279-81, 286, 310-11
(16) ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley’, p. 371

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Since the 1820s, market gardens had gradually been pushed further and further from London as land became more valuable for building in each area, (17) and an increase in the late nineteenth century in Finchley from £200 to £1000 an acre had made starting a new commercial nursery in the area uneconomic. Kay said that all the principal growers around London had been well trained by their fathers and had kept up with modern improvements. (18) However, it was an advantage for the leading growers to be close enough to London to send grapes by van (horse cart), because they arrived in better condition than those sent by rail, (19) while rail transport meant increased handling costs. (20)

Peter Kay senior and the Ballards Lane nursery

Peter Kay senior was born in Fifeshire in Scotland in about 1814, the son of John Kay, a general merchant, and probably moved to Finchley in the 1830s. In 1841 he was living in Ballards Lane, Church End, Finchley. In the 1830s or early 1840s he established a market gardening business growing flowers and fruit, where he was joined by his younger brother and business partner, John. (21) The business was probably located from the start on the site which was the freehold property of Peter Kay by the mid-1850s in Ballards Lane, next to the Joiners Arms public house and now occupied by a Tesco supermarket. (22) He was one of the first nurserymen to grow grapes commercially in the northern home counties, and he was awarded prizes for them at horticultural shows. (23) His Black Hamburgh vine, planted in March 1856, achieved a wide fame. It was laid horizontally in a greenhouse, and by 1866 it was 18 feet wide in five main branches and 89 feet long. In 1872, a gardening magazine described it as ‘the noblest vine that we know of within easy reach of London…far before either the Cumberland Lodge or the Hampton Court vines…a far more creditable specimen than any large vine we have ever seen’. Another admirer declared that it was worth a day’s march to inspect it. (24) In 1903, forty years after his death, a correspondent to the Gardeners’ Chronicle observed that much had been written about the late Mr Kay’s vine, which was still producing a full crop of grapes, but that it would soon have to give way to ‘the ubiquitous builder’. (25)

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(17) L. G. Bennett, The Horticultural Industry of Middlesex, University of Reading, Department of Agricultural Economics, 1952, pp. 10-12; Richard Perren, ‘The Marketing of Agricultural Products: Farm Gate to Retail Store’, in E. J. T. Collins ed., The Agrarian History of England and Wales, vol. VII 1850-1914, part II, 2000, Cambridge University Press, pp. 953-98 at 969; ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley’, p. 371
(18) ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley’ p. 371
(19) Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 3rd ed., p. 89
(20) Perren, ‘The Marketing of Agricultural Products’, pp. 968-69
(21) Peter Kay, Ballards Lane, 1841 and 1851 Censuses; Church of England Marriages and Banns, Marriage of Peter Kay to Mary Ann Aedy at St Mary’s, Finchley, 12 February 1850; ‘Kay, Peter, Nursery & Seedsman’, Post Office Directory of the Nine Counties, Kelly & Co, 1845, p. 431; Kay, Peter, ‘nurseryman & florist, Ballards Lane’, Post Office Directory of the Six Home Counties, Kelly & Co, 1855, p. 577; Probate Registry, will and grant of Peter Kay, dated 5 August 1862. In Peter Kay’s will, signed on the day that he died, he stated that the business was a partnership with his brother. He may have only entered the partnership towards the end of his life as the business was always shown in directories, and in prizes at horticultural shows, as Peter Kay, and the freehold property was in his sole name.
(22) ‘Mrs Kay’s Nursery’ (adjacent to the Joiners’ Arms in Ballards Lane in street directory), The Barnet, Finchley, Hendon, & District Directory for 1886-1887, Hutchings & Crowsley, p. 97. Directories before 1855 do not give the locations of businesses. Kay’s nursery is listed in Ballards Lane from 1855, but the precise location in Ballards Lane is not given until 1886. However, the survival of Kay’s Black Hamburgh vine planted in 1856 for over forty years shows that the nursery was in the same location from that time.
(23) ‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley’, p. 370; ‘Crystal Palace Flower Show’, Morning Chronicle, 1 June 1857, p. 6; ‘Flower Show at the Crystal Palace’, The Times, 8 September 1858, p. 9. Other pioneers of commercial grape growing included the father of Messrs Rochford and the father of George Monro of Covent Garden (‘Notable Nurseries: The Claigmar Vineyards at Finchley, p. 370).
(24) The Garden, 10 August 1872, p. 120; John Edlington, Nottinghamshire Guardian, 17 August 1866, p. 10. See also Barron, Vines and Vine Culture, 1st ed., 1883, p. 190.
(25) Gardeners’ Chronicle, 10 January 1903, p. 29

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Ordnance Survey Mid-Finchley maps, 26 inches to a mile, reduced to c. 8 inches to a mile

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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.

Sunday 16 June, 1-4 pm. Coppetts Wood Festival, Coppetts Wood Local Nature Reserve. Entrances in Colney Hatch Lane N11 3HQ and Nursery Approach, off Porters Way N12 0RF. Lots of stalls including Finchley Society, Arts and Crafts, Music, Food and Drink. Free admission.

Tuesday 18 June, 6.30 pm. Eclectic Tours. Colindale Library, Bristol Avenue (Formerly Lanacre Avenue) Grahame Park, London NW9 4BR. Lost Architecture in Colindale. Talk by Lisa Lu. Part of London Festival of Architecture. Free. Register via Colindale Library at colindale.library@barnet.gov.uk.

Friday 21 June, 7 pm. COLAS. St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London EC3R 7NB. Archaeologists on Page, Stage and Screen by Signe Hoffos (Colas). Talk also on Zoom – book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out link details to its members. Visitors £3 at the church.

Saturday 22 to Sunday 30 June, Proms at St. Jude’s Music and Literary Festival. Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London NW11 7AH. Including Talks and Heritage Walks. For full details of everything please visit www.promsatstJudes.org.uk. Each walk must be booked in advance.

Sunday 23 June to Sunday 7 July Hampstead Summer Festival, including Hampstead’s Art Street, colourful canvas murals along the walls of Keats Grove, London. NW3 2RS. Painted by local artists. Sunday 23 June 12-5 pm, Art Fair in Keats House Garden, 10 Keats Grove, London NW3 2RR. Art Marquee, Food and Wine, Craft stalls. Free admission. Please check website on www.hampsteadsummerfestival.com for latest info and ticket links.

Sunday 7 July, 10.30 am. Heath and Hampstead Society. Constable and Hampstead. Walk led by Suzanne Grundy. Lasts approximately 2 hours. Meet at Spaniard’s End (By Flower Stall) and Cattle Trough near Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, London NW3 7JJ. Ends at St. John’s Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, London. NW3 6UU. Donation £5. Please contact Thomas Radice on 07941 528034 or email hhs.walks@gmail.com or visit www.heathandhampstead.org.

Sunday 7 July, 12-5 pm. Hampstead Summer Festival Fair in Heath Street. Over 100 stalls of craft, food and drink. Music. Free.

Sunday 7 July to Sunday 21 July. Enfield Archaeological Society. Elsyng Palace Excavation in the grounds of Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield. EN2 9HA. To join the Dig please contact research@enfarchsoc.org or visit www.enfarchsoc.org/dig. There is an OPEN DAY 11 am. – 4 pm. on Sunday 13 July for members of the public. COLAS will also be visiting.

Monday 8 July 7.30 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. What Medieval Women Wore. Talk by Kathleen Alston-Cole. See www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

Tuesday 9 July, 7 pm. Camden History Society. St John’s Hampstead Parish Church, Church Row, London NW3 6UU. AGM. Followed by the History and Social Role of the Camden New Journal. Talk by Dan Carrier. Wine and soft drinks 6.30 pm – 7 pm. Visit http://www.camdenhistorysociety.org.

Tuesday 9 July, 7.45 pm. Amateur Geological Society. Finchley Baptist Church Hall, 6 East End Road/Corner of Stanhope Avenue, London N3 3LX. (almost opposite Avenue House). Geophysical Surveying in Africa. Talk by Roger May. Full details on www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.

Saturday 13 July to Sunday 28 July. CBA Festival of Archaeology. For more info about events visit https://www.archaeologyuk.org/festival.html.

Friday 19 July, 7 pm. COLAS. Address as for 21 June. Also on Zoom, 81, Newgate Street – The Former G.P.O. site re-visited. Talk by Kathy Davidson, Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA). Please book

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via Eventbrite. See www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out link details to its members. One of the stand out excavations within the City by the Department of Urban Archaeology in the 1970’s. Some recent building extension works have taken place and the PCA team led by the speaker excavated the surviving Medieval and Roman Archaeology. Human Remains were discovered in an unexpected location, plus significant signs of iron working.

Friday 19 July, 7 pm. Wembley History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s New Church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. Tripping Up Everest. Talk by Lester Hillman in the Centenary Year of Mallory’s Expedition. Visitors £3. Refreshments to be available.

Saturday 27 July. Colas at Greenwich Park. CBA Festival of Archaeology Event. By General Wolfe Statue celebrating the Greenwich Park restored Project. For more information see www.archeologyuk.org/festival.html.

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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Don Cooper, Dudley Miles, Eric Morgan

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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 Avenue, London N2 9QP (07855 304488)
email: secretary@hadas.org.uk

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

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

No. 638 May 2024 Edited by Jim Nelhams

SUBSCRIPTIONS fell due on 1st April. The amounts are unchanged from last year – £15 for a full member plus £5 for an additional member at the same address. Full time students pay £6. Standing Order payments have been received. Thank you if you pay by cheque or directly to our bank and have already done so. If you have not yet paid, please do so now.

It saves HADASs money if you pay directly online to our bank account. Our account is Sort Code 40-52-40 Account no. 00083254 in the name of Hendon and District Archaeological Society. Please show the description as “Subs” followed by your surname. If you prefer to pay by cheque or cash, please send your payment to Jim Nelhams at the address shown on the back page of this newsletter.

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.
Buses 13, 125, 143, 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. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 14th May 2024

Owen Humphreys (Finds Specialist at Museum of London Archaeology):

“London’s Roman Tools”

Tuesday 11th June 2024 at 7.30pm

HADAS Annual General Meeting followed by a lecture:

PLEASE NOTE EARLY START TIME of 7.30pm

Your chance to let us know how we are doing and what you would like us to do for you. The meeting will be followed by a talk on “Clay Pipes” by our President, Jacqui Pearce. Members will receive reports and information about the meeting. Still time for nominations and resolutions.

Tuesday 12th September 2024

Wendy Morrison (Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP):

“Beacon of the Past Hillforts Project”

Other Dates for your diary:
VE day celebration at Avenue House on 3rd/5th May 2025
Barnet Medieval Festival 8th/9th June 2024 at Barnet Rugby Football Club, Byng Road, Barnet.
Heritage Day at Avenue House on Sunday, 1st September 2024
RAF Museum – Light & Flight in November 2026 more details later.

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What is Heritage Barnet? Don Cooper

Heritage Barnet is a loose assembly of Barnet-based societies involved in cultural heritage in the Borough under the chairmanship of Martin Russell MBE, Representative Deputy Lieutenant of Barnet. The inaugural meeting took place at Avenue House (now Stephens House and Gardens) on Friday, 27th January 2023. Its role is “to act as a focal point for existing and new local heritage bodies”. The proposed objectives include:

• To stimulate and extend interest in heritage in all parts of the Borough particularly those which are under-represented in this field.
• To co-ordinate all the various heritage groups.
• To make each other aware of, oversee and record heritage locations, objects and activities under threat and work for their conservation/safety.
• To promote best practice and exchange information free of charge between existing heritage groups. (This could involve both virtual and in-person communication).
• To identify opportunities to promote awareness of heritage throughout the Borough as well as provide a forum for societies to advertise and share their resources and assets.
• To make available to schools a range of resources, particularly relating to local history which now features prominently on the Primary National Curriculum.

In pursuing these objectives, Heritage Barnet:

• will seriously consider the problem of personnel and attraction of volunteers.
• will adopt Stephens House as its home.
• will endeavour to hold meetings in a range of locations around the Borough in order to promote its message.
• will seek to arrange activities, displays and events around the Borough, (some of which could piggy-back on other events including the possibility of a Heritage Week).
• will be apolitical.

Heritage Barnet

• will not be unnecessarily bureaucratic and will not involve subscriptions.
• will not become a membership organisation in its own right.
• will not seek to become a trust or limited company.

The following are some of the members of Heritage Barnet.

• Finchley Society
• Friern Barnet Local History Society
• RAF museum
• Local Family History Society
• Barnet Museum
• Barnet Arts Council
• Barnet Archives
• Stephens House and Gardens
• St Mary’s Hendon
• Local Councillors
• Barnet Medieval Festival

The latest meeting was held on Friday, 19th April 2024 at Avenue House and well attended.

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There were discussions on the fate of Tudor Hall a Grade 11 listed building and one of the oldest buildings in Barnet which is being sold by Barnet College.

The issue of Church Farmhouse, Hendon a Grade 11* listed building one of the most important buildings in the Borough which is being relinquished by Middlesex University and returned to Barnet Council, was discussed. These buildings are important to the heritage and history of Barnet.

It is important that we ensure that our local councilors are aware of the importance of these buildings to make sure the future of the building is secured for the people of Barnet.
Short talks were given by:

Lester Hillman, a local historian on the Battle of Barnet.
Reverend Dr. June Gittoes, Vicar of St Mary’s Hendon on her church and local parishes.

HADAS Archaeological Watching Brief Michael Hacker

Highgate Wood Clay extraction pit
April 2024

Highgate Wood, London N10 3JN
LB Haringey
Grid ref: TQ 23348891
Elevation, 100.43 m OD
Date: 08/04/2024
Site Code: HI024

Background and conclusions

A series of archaeological interventions in Highgate Wood in the 1970s showed that during the 1st and 2nd century AD an important Roman pottery-manufacturing site existed on the site of Highgate Wood. Locally sourced clay was used to build the pottery kilns and to manufacture a wide range of pottery.

In April 2024, the Friends of Highgate Wood Roman Kiln (FoHRK) excavated a small pit in Highgate Wood to extract clay for use in the manufacture of replica pottery. The pit was located close to the site of the Roman pottery,

The Hendon and District Archaeological Society (HADAS) conducted a watching brief during the excavation of the pit. This confirmed that no significant archaeological deposits were present and observed that a seam of clay, suitable for pottery production exited at this location.

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Mary Rose Whistles Jim Nelhams

A previous newsletter contained details of musical instruments discovered aboard the wreck of the Mary Rose. These included two square fiddles, a “tenor Shawm”, three tabor pipes (long wooden pipes) and a drum.

Excavations have continued in the Solent and among other discoveries are four silver whistles. Readers will be familiar with whistles used for relaying orders and indicating the time on ships, much as bugles are used by the army. The shrill notes of whistles would have been audible above gunfire. Three of the whistles were suspended on silver chains, the fourth, the smallest, on a ribbon threaded with gold,

Such whistles are still used today in modern navies, and though more typically made of chrome-plated brass, they are identical to those used by Henry VIII’s men. A well-known use is “piping the side” as visitors of rank are welcomed at the head of the gangway.

Devon has Earth’s oldest fossil forest Stewart Wild

Earth’s oldest fossil forest has been found – and it’s near a Butlin’s.

The fossilised forest, dating from 390 million years ago, has been found in the high sandstone cliffs along the Devon and Somerset coast of southwest England by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Cardiff.

It predates the previously oldest known fossil forest, in New York State, by about four million years. Their findings were reported in the Journal of the Geological Society.

Researchers say that the fossilised trees were found in the Hangman Sandstone Formation near Minehead, on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, near what is now a Butlin’s holiday camp.
Dr Christopher Berry, from Cardiff’s School of Earth and Environmental Studies, said: “It was amazing to see them so near home. It is our first opportunity to look directly at the ecology of this forest, and to evaluate its impact on the sedimentary system.”

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 8 March 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild

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Welsh Harp update

From Barnet Council

With the works nearing completion at the Welsh Harp Brent Reservoir, national waterways charity Canal & River Trust is now allowing the reservoir to once again re-fill with water.

The reservoir repairs and maintenance, supported with funding from the People’s Postcode Lottery, will ensure that the popular green space remains safe and available for residents of Barnet. The works have overhauled the infrastructure that controls the day-to-day water levels in the reservoir.

The reservoir remains open to the public throughout the works, but signs are in place warning visitors not to walk on the reservoir’s drained area and mud for their own safety.

From Canals and Rivers Trust

Project update: 16 April 2024

We’ve now successfully completed a range of critical works at the reservoir. These works include the replacement of the pulley wheels, brackets and chains to both sluice gates which will allow the gates to be safely operated in the future.

We were also able to inspect the dam structure and undertake a range of minor concrete repairs.

The painting works to the Valve Tower to protect the metal structure from future corrosion, is progressing very well. We’ve completed the painting between the -5.5m and -2.0m (below weir crest) levels. We’ll be painting the remaining upper section from a floating pontoon to allow the works to continue as the reservoir refills.

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Exhibition at British Museum Jim Nelhams

Legion – life in the Roman army

From family life on the fort to the brutality of the battlefield, experience Rome’s war machine through the people who knew it best – the soldiers who served in it.
The Roman empire spanned more than a million square miles and owed its existence to its military might. By promising citizenship to those without it, the Roman army – the West’s first modern, professional fighting force – also became an engine for creating citizens, offering a better life for soldiers who survived their service.

Expansive yet deeply personal, this exhibition transports you across the empire, as well as through the life and service of a real Roman soldier, Claudius Terentianus, from enlistment and campaigns to enforcing occupation then finally, in Terentianus’ case, retirement. Objects include letters written on papyri by soldiers from Roman Egypt and the Vindolanda tablets – some of the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. The tablets, from the fort near Hadrian’s wall, reveal first-hand what daily life was like for soldiers and the women, children and enslaved people who accompanied them.

Roman military history perhaps stretches as far back at the sixth century BC but it wasn’t until the first emperor, Augustus (63 BC – AD 14), that soldiering became a career choice. While the rewards of army life were enticing – those in the legions could earn a substantial pension and those entering the auxiliary troops could attain citizenship for themselves and their families – the perils were real. Soldiers were viewed with fear and hostility by civilians – not helped by their casual abuses and extra roles as executioners and enforcers of occupation – and they could meet grim ends off, as well as on, the battlefield. Finds in Britain include the remains of two soldiers probably murdered and clandestinely buried in Canterbury, suggesting local resistance.

What did life in the Roman army look like from a soldier’s perspective? What did their families make of life in the fort? How did the newly-conquered react? Legion explores life in settled military communities from Scotland to the Red Sea through the people who lived it.

Visitors are advised that this exhibition contains human remains. The British Museum is committed to curating human remains with care, respect and dignity. Find out more about human remains at the British Museum.

Admission is by ticket only. The exhibition continues until 23rd June 2024.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan

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

Thursday 16th May, 7 pm. London Archaeologist Lecture Theatre, U.C.L. Institute of Archaeology. 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY. Annual Lecture and AGM. Also on Zoom. AGM will be followed by Annual Lecture – Recent Excavations near Holborn Viaduct and the Unexpected discovery of a Roman Funerary Bed – given by Alex Blanks (MOLA). Please book on www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk. Free.

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Friday 17th May, 7 pm. COLAS, St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London EC3R 7NB. Talk also on Zoom. Excavations at Maritime Academy, Frindsbury – A new Palaeolithic Site – by Letty Increy (U.C.L.). Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out the link details to its members. Visitors £3 at the church.

Saturday 8th June, 12-5 pm. Highgate Festival. Pond Square and South Grove, Highgate Village, London, N6. Lots of stalls including Highgate Society and Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute. Also Crafts, Food, Music.

Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th June, 10.30 am. – 5 pm. Barnet Medieval Festival. Barnet R.F.C. Grounds, End of Byng Road, Barnet, EN5 4NP. Lots of stalls including HADAS, Barnet Museum and L.H.S., Barnet Society, Battlefields Trust. Battle of Barnet Re-enactments. Food and Drink Stalls. For more info please visit www.barnetmedievalfestival.org.

Monday 10th June, 7.30 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society, St. John The Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet. EN5 4BW. The HADAS Barnet Hopscotch Excavation. Talk by Bill Bass (HADAS). Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

Friday 14th June, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Medieval Buildings. Talk by James Wright. Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org. for further details. Non-members £1.50 at the door. Refreshments to be available.

Saturday 22nd June 3 pm. Wembley History Society. Barham Park Library, Harrow Road, Sudbury, HA0 2HB. (Please note different venue and time and day). Wembley’s Air Raid Wardens in WW2. Talk by Philip Grant (Archivist).

Sunday 23rd June, 12-6 pm. East Finchley Festival. Cherry Tree Wood, East Finchley, London. N2 9QH. (Entrance off the High Road, opposite Tube station). Lots of stalls including Finchley Society, Friends of Cherry Tree Wood (Roger Chapman, HADAS). North London U3A. Also crafts, Food, Music.

Wednesday 26th June, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society, North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London. N20 0NL. Holborn and Little Italy. Talk by Diane Burstein (Blue Badge Guide). Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk. Non-members £2. Bar available.

Thursday 27th June, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17 East End Road, London. N3 3QE. Annual General Meeting – For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments in the interval.

Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th June, 12-6 pm. East Barnet Festival. Oak Hill Park, Churchill Road, East Barnet, EN4 8JP. Lots of stalls including craft and food stalls, bar, music, stage, classic cars on Sunday. Please visit www.eastbarnetfestival.co.uk for details.

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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. 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. 637 April 2024 Edited by Sue Willetts

SUBSCRIPTIONS fall due on 1st April. The amounts are unchanged from last year – £15 for a full member plus £5 for an additional member at the same address. Full time students pay a reduced amount of £6. If you pay by standing order, you need do nothing.

It saves HADAS money if you pay directly online to our bank account. Our account is Sort Code 40-52-40 Account no. 00083254 in the name of Hendon and District Archaeological Society. Please show the description as “Subs” followed by your surname.

If you prefer to pay by cheque or cash, please send your payment to Jim Nelhams at the address shown on page 12 of this newsletter.

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.
Buses 13, 125, 143, 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. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after the talk.

Tuesday 9th April 2024

Ian Jones, (Chair of Enfield Archaeological Society)

Traders, Bargees, Ferrymen and a Seagull: Life and Work in Roman Pisa.

Tuesday 14th May 2024

Owen Humphreys (Finds Specialist at the Museum of London Archaeology):

London’s Roman Tools.

Tuesday 11th June 2024

HADAS Annual General Meeting. Followed by a a talk by Jacqui Pearce: Clay Pipes.

Tuesday 12th September 2024

Wendy Morrison (Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership (CHAP):

Beacon of the Past Hillforts Project.

Tuesday 8th October 2024

TBA

Tuesday 12th November 2024

TBA

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Update on the Highgate Roman Kiln Project Eric Morgan

Update from report in HADAS April 2023 newsletter. This is now known as the Firing London’s Imagination. The website has full details. All 21 sections of the Highgate Roman Kiln Project (a C2nd CE Romano-British kiln excavated in Highgate Wood) have been removed from the Wood and the store of Bruce Castle Museum. The careful process of conservation has now begun in the studio of the Natural Building Centre, Conwy, in Wales. In August 2024 a replica of the Highgate Roman Kiln will be built in Highgate Wood. Graham Taylor of Potted History. expert historic kiln builder will lead the programme. The first firing of the kiln is planned for 1st September 2024.

Sheila Woodward Jim Nelhams

• 

• 

Long serving members will remember Sheila Woodward, a member for many years. Sheila, with Tessa Smith, arranged a number of day-outings for Hadas. She also took part in a number of digs including West Heath. A resident of Stanmore, Sheila left Hadas before Covid, having moved because of her health into a home in Edgware.

Sheila was a churchwarden at St Lawrence, Little Stanmore, and a regular guide to visitors to the church, where in the past Handel regularly played the organ. One of our Christmas outings was to the church, where we were entertained by Finchley Chamber Choir singing some Handel anthems.

On March 21st, Sheila reached her one hundredth birthday, celebrated by a small gathering of family and friends. Sheila is well cared for in the home, though she has lost her mobility. Her memory of past activities including HADAS, but not more recent events, is good.

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Aircraft manufacture at Duple Coachworks in Hendon Andy Simpson

At a recent London County Council Tramways Trust meeting, in a break from discussing our funding of various preserved London tram restoration projects, fellow Trustee Dave Jones, whose late father had served in Royal Air Force Bomber Command as a rear gunner in a Handley Page Halifax four-engined heavy bomber during World War Two, kindly brought in a wartime publication that he had recently acquired for me to see, as he knew I would be interested from both an aviation and local history perspective.

In 1925, Duple Bodies and Motors Ltd. moved from Hornsey to a new factory on The Hyde, West Hendon. After delays in completion of the large new factory which meant Duple workers replacing the original contractors in its construction, production began there in 1926. In 1934 the works expanded over the site of the adjoining villa, Cowleaze House and its garden, dating to around 1800. The site eventually covered 12 ½ acres.

Here they constructed single deck motor coach bodies in particular until they ceased operations at the Hyde in 1970 when the Head office there finally closed, having moved most of its operations to Blackpool in 1968 when the actual factory buildings were sold to industrial property developers Messrs. Ronald Lyon Estates (Who, along with their colourful chairman of that name, had a fascinating corporate history themselves…).

Dave Jones points out that as well as motor coaches, Duple had also built a few double deck buses, some goods vehicles, and had a contract with the GPO and built a large number of Post Office Royal Mail and Royal Mail Telephones vans.

The factory site was duly redeveloped into an industrial estate, and later became a new build Sainsbury’s superstore, which opened on 15 February 1994, with all traces of the former factory removed. This will shortly itself be demolished with a new store, scheduled to open later in 2024, incorporated into the lower level of one of the eleven high-rise apartment blocks of up to 28 stories (!) housing 1,309 flats currently being built on the whole site from 2020 as part of the ten-year Silk Park development.

The book itself is a glossy commemorative publication published in August 1945 just before the end of the war and intended for those who had worked on Halifax production, with many photos of the Halifax production process. Other copies do survive, with at least three in the collections of the RAF Museum.

For general technical and historical details of the Halifax, including illustrations, see;

Handley Page Halifax | Classic Warbirds
Handley-Page Halifax (airvectors.net)
Handley Page Halifax – Not Quite a Lancaster – PlaneHistoria

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An excellent aerial view of the whole Duple site can be found here;

EAW043289 ENGLAND (1952). The Duple Coachbuilding Works on Edgware Road, The Hyde, 1952. This image was marked by Aerofilms Ltd for photo editing. | Britain From Above

With a workforce of 1,000, Duple made a significant contribution to wartime bomber aircraft production; As part of the London Aircraft Production Group it produced 750 front fuselage sections (including all of those fitted to the LAPG’s 710 Halifaxes) in their Hendon works; a significant proportion of the 6,118 Halifaxes built, The L,A.P. Group at its peak employed 9,000 people, many of them women.

Serving with the RAF until 17th March 1952, latterly in the meteorological reconnaissance role based in Gibraltar, just four Halifaxes survive in whole or part today in museums in the UK and Canada. As part of the nationwide network of ‘Halifax Group’ sub-contractors – 41 factories in all- the L.A.P. Group consisted of the London Passenger Transport Board’s Aldenham Works (originally built prewar to serve the uncompleted Northern Line extension from Edgware via Brockley Hill to Elstree and where the Halifax sub- assemblies built elsewhere were assembled and tested prior to final test flying and delivery to RAF units from new facilities at the nearby Leavesden airfield, to where the parts were taken by road, the first, B Mk.II Serial No BB189, first flown on 8 December 1941- the day after Pearl Harbour- and delivered to the RAF on 10 January 1942).

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Other companies involved were Park Royal Coach Works Ltd, Acton, The Express Motor and Body Works Ltd, Enfield, Chrysler Motors Ltd, Kew and Duple Bodies and Motors Ltd, Hendon. Established in 1940 under the direction of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, they delivered 450 of the Rolls Royce Merlin powered Halifax Mk. II aircraft and a further 260 of the Bristol Hercules radial powered Mk.III variant.

With the end of the war in sight and production contracts being cut back towards the end of the war, the LAPG delivered its last Halifax, a Mk.III, serial number PN460, on 16 April 1945. She was aptly christened ‘London Pride’ at a special ceremony and gave a seriously low-level flying display to the assembled VIPs as she departed!

On the 26th of November 2006, archaeologists from the Warsaw Uprising Museum in Poland, presented the remains of a Halifax (JP276 “A”) that was found in southern Poland, near the city of Dabrowa Tarnowska. It was shot down on the night of the 4th/5th of August 1944 whilst returning from the “air-drop-action” during the Warsaw uprising. This is particularly significant, as this is the first wreckage of a London Aircraft Production Group built Halifax, including its Park Royal Coachworks built parts, to have been recovered. For further details see: 342-London-Aircraft-Production-Group.pdf (rchs.org.uk).

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Musket balls solve mystery of ‘lost’ Civil War battlefield Stewart Wild

A seven-year search has identified the ‘lost’ site of an English Civil War battlefield, solving one of the conflict’s enduring mysteries. The discovery shows the Battle of Stow in Gloucestershire was fought nearly a mile from where Historic England believed the fighting took place. It follows five archaeological surveys by the Battlefields Trust charity and the re-examination of contemporary accounts of the struggle between Roundheads and Cavaliers. The Trust had long suspected that a stone monument put up by locals in 2002 to commemorate the battle near Stow-on-the-Wold was in the wrong place because of a lack of war relics on the site. Its latest survey by archaeologists and metal detectorists has unearthed dozens of 17th-century musket balls and powder caps from infantry and cavalry weapons in farmland half a mile from the town, proving that the battle was not fought at the site registered by Historic England, says the trust.

Trust research co-ordinator Simon Marsh said: “We’ve told them that this is where we think the battle was fought based on the evidence we’re providing. We recognise that it’s a big change to the current registration.”

The fighting, in March 1646, was the last major battle of the first Civil War between Charles I and Parliament. Roundhead forces caught up with the King’s last remaining army as it tried to link up with Charles thirty miles away in Oxford. The hour-long battle ended with the outnumbered royalist infantry retreating into the centre of Stow where the fighting continued.
One of the main streets “ran red with royalist blood”, according to local legend, before their commander, Lord Jacob Astley, was forced to surrender in the market square. Charles realised that the end was in sight and gave himself up soon afterwards to the Scottish army at Newark, Nottinghamshire, in May 1646.

It is not the first time that Britain’s battlefield maps have been redrawn. In 2016, a memorial stone at Battle Abbey in East Sussex marking the spot where King Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 was moved 20ft after experts decided it was in the wrong place.

SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 14 January 2024, item edited by Stewart Wild.

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A Roman egg found – during dig at a site called Berryfields in Buckinghamshire.

The site was excavated by Oxford Archaeology. Archaeologists and naturalists have been astonished to find a cache of 1,700-year-old speckled chicken eggs discovered in a Roman pit during a dig in Buckinghamshire. A scan has revealed that one of the eggs contains liquid – thought to be a mix of yolk and albumen. The “Aylesbury egg” is one of four that were found alongside a woven basket, pottery vessels, leather shoes and animal bone in 2010 as a site was being explored ahead of a major development. Unfortunately, three of the eggs broke, producing an unforgettable sulphurous smell, but one was preserved complete.

As Edward Biddulph, the senior project manager at Oxford Archaeology commented this is thought to be the only intact egg from the period in Britain. Dana Goodburn-Brown, an archaeological conservator and materials scientist, suggested they scan it to help decide how best to preserve it. Biddulph said the egg had been deliberately placed in a pit that had been used as a well for malting and brewing – a wet area next to a Roman road.

It may have been the eggs were placed there as a votive offering. The basket found may have contained bread. The egg has been taken to the Natural History Museum in London. Biddulph said it had felt a little daunting riding on the tube and walking around the capital with such an extraordinary and fragile egg in his care.

A tiny hole may be made in the egg to extract the contents and try to find out more about the bird that laid it. Goodburn-Brown said: “The egg ranks as one of the coolest and most challenging archaeological finds to investigate and conserve. Being the temporary caretaker and investigator of this Roman egg counts as one of the major highlights of my 40-year career.”

SOURCE: Guardian 12 February 2024, edited by Sue Willetts.

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Newsletter Editors – appeal for volunteers (also contributors).

Please help your society by offering to be a compiler for one of our monthly newsletters. Contributions are sent to each editor by email not later than the middle of the month. The editor arranges them in a standardised format (4, 8 or 12 pages). This is then forwarded (in Word format) to Sue Willetts – and your job is done!

She creates a pdf copy for the printer, and a version for the webpage.
Jim Nelhams kindly emails the e-newsletter to members. Please send any expressions of interest to Don Cooper (Chair). Details on the back page.

The newsletter does not write itself, nor is the editor expected to write all the contributions. Relevant articles are welcome from all sources.

New Exhibition in Peterborough Museum – Introducing Must Farm, a Bronze Age Settlement. Sue Willetts

The exhibition funded by both Historic England and Peterborough Museum focuses on an introduction to the story of this significant Bronze Age site, dubbed “Britain’s Pompei” – an extraordinary insight into everyday life almost 3,000 years ago. The site is a pile-dwelling settlement in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire.

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The Must Farm settlement is a fascinating discovery, with the site only being occupied for under a year before it was destroyed by a catastrophic fire. The everyday objects found there are remarkable – rarely preserved personal items including textiles – some of the finest produced in Europe at that time.

Pots and jars complete with meals and utensils, and exotic glass beads – some of which were manufactured in the Middle East revealing a sophistication not normally associated with the Bronze Age.

The museum is a 6 minute walk from Peterborough Station. It is open Tuesday to Saturday 10.00 – 16.00 and is Free to visit. Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, Priestgate, Peterborough, PE1 1LF. More information from website – link below.
Introducing Must Farm, a Bronze Age Settlement- Museum & Art Gallery (peterboroughmuseum.org.uk).

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Note: Not all Societies or organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Friday 12th April, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane / Junction Chaseside, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. Fieldwork of the Society/Preceded by the AGM. Talk by Dr. Martin Dearne. Please visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details. Non-members £1.50 at door. Refreshments.

Tuesday 16th April, 2.00-3.00 pm. Eclectic Tours. Headstone Manor Museum, The Granary, Pinner View, North Harrow, HA2 6PX. 100 Years of Proscenium Theatre. Talk by Mark Sutherland. Covers 100 years of history of theatre including highlights from the exhibition on at the museum. £2.50. Please book on www.headstonemanor.org/events/tuesday-talk.

Friday 19th April, 7.00 pm. COLAS, St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London. EC3R 7NB. Talk also on Zoom. Who was Frederick? And Other Stories. Excavations at Frederick’s Place in the City. Results from a multi-phase site on land belonging to the Mercers’ Company – talk by Alison Telfer (MOLA). Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out the link details to its members.

Friday 10th May, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, address as above. Roman and Bronze Age Finds in Walthamstow. Talk by Shane Maher (P.C.A), Website details above. Visitors £1.50.

Monday 13th May, 7.30 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. (Please note later time). St John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street, Wood Street, Barnet EN5 4BW. The De Haviland Air Museum. Talk by Chris Levitt. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk for details.

Tuesday 14th May, 6.30 pm. LAMAS joint with Prehistoric Society – Talk on Zoom. Paleo-London – Thinking about the Ice Age Archaeology and Environments of the Capital. By Dr. Matt Pope. Details on Eventbrite. Booking essential on www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html. Non-members. £2.50.

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Wednesday 15th May, 6.00 pm – 7.30 pm. This year’s UCL Institute of Archaeology Gordon Childe Lecture, to be given by Richard Bradley (Emeritus Professor, University of Reading) Hidden valuables: hidden variables. Hoards and other deposits from Mesolithic to modern times. This in-person event is ticketed, with pre-booking essential. Use the link below. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/events/2024/may/ucl-institute-archaeology-gordon-childe-lecture-2024.

,Wednesday 15th May, 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society., St Mary’s Church Hall, Bottom of Neasden Lane (Around corner from Magistrates Court), NW10 2DZ. The Mercenary River. Talk by Nick Higham on The story of London’s water supply through the centuries. Please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk for further details.

Friday 17th May, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall (behind St. Andrew’s new church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9 8RZ. The Story Behind the Song. Talk by Terry Lomas and Alan Richardson. Give an evening’s entertainment and discover the origins of some old familiar songs. Visitors £3. Refreshments in the interval.

Wednesday 22nd May, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, the Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London. N20 0NL. House of Commons – ‘Stage Sets – Props – Symbols’. Preceded by AGM. Talk by Barry Hall. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk. Non-members. £2. Bar Available.

Thursday 23rd May, 8.00 pm. Heath and Hampstead Society. Rosslyn Hill Chapel, 3, Pilgrims Place, London. NW3 1NG. Hampstead Historical Treasures in the Collections of Camden Studies. Local Archives Centre. 2nd Hunter Davies Lecture given by Tudor Allen (Archives Manager). Tickets available for non-members via Eventbrite for £15. Also on Zoom. E-mail info@heathandhampstead.org.uk for link.

****************************************************************************************************With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Eric Morgan; Jim Nelhams, Andy Simpson. Stewart Wild.

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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. Tresurer 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

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

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No. 636 March 2024 Edited by Deirdre Barrie

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.

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.

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

Tuesday 12th March 2024 – Robin Densem (HADAS) The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest AD9:
The massacre of a Roman Army.

Tuesday 9th April 2024 – Ian Jones, (Chairman of Enfield Archaeological Society) Traders,
Bargees, Ferryman and a Seagull: Life and Work in Roman Pisa

Tuesday 14th May 2024 – Owen Humphreys (Finds Specialist at the Museum of London
Archaeology): London’s Roman Tools.

Tuesday 11th June 2024 – HADAS Annual General Meeting. A talk by Jacqui Pearce: Clay
Pipes.

Tuesday September 12th 2024 – Wendy Morrison (Chilterns Heritage & Archaeology Partnership
(CHAP), Beacon of the Past Hillforts Project.

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The Annual Dorothy Newbury Memorial Lecture
Tuesday February 13th 2024 – Jacqui Pearce: “A Life in Sherds”

Jim Nelhams gave a brief introduction about the life of Dorothy Newbury, who played such a lively and productive part in HADAS for so many years, and who was awarded an MBE for services to HADAS and the community.

In her talk, Jacqui Pearce looked 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

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Her interest in history began very early, when as a child she saw illustrations of prehistoric life by the Czech artist Zdenek Burian. Later she read novels about the Romans by Rosemary Sutcliffe and those about Vikings by Henry Treece.

In 1977 she joined the Museum of London’s Department of Urban Archaeology and has served as Joint Editor of Medieval Ceramics as well as Post Medieval Archaeology. She has published widely and is now a Senior Ceramics Specialist with MOLA. In 2017 she was elected President of the Society for Post Medieval Archaeology.

January Afternoon Tea Jim Nelhams

There being no lecture in January, thirty people, HADAS members and guests, assembled at Avenue House on Sunday 21st January for afternoon tea. Of those, twenty-one had been on our five-day coach trips, which sadly ended after our stay at Aberavon in 2019, so quite a re-union. So nice to meet up with some that we had not seen for some time, especially Micky Watkins, Kevin McSharry and Andrew Selkirk and his wife, Wendy.

A tasty finger-buffet plus tea/coffee was provided by the friendly Avenue House staff, supplemented by delicious cakes baked by our chairman’s wife. In between the chatting, there were two table quizzes compiled by Jim Nelhams to test knowledge and memory.

Many appreciative comments were received in the post and by email, including suggestions that we should organise a similar event in the summer.

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WELSH HARP OPEN DAY VISIT Andy Simpson

On Saturday 3 February 2024 I was able to attend the special Welsh Harp open day, along with friend Neil Weston, whom some readers know. As mentioned in my article in the February newsletter, this was in conjunction with the total draining of the 50 hectares of open water at the Welsh Harp reservoir (reduced from its original 79 hectares over the past 90 years or so by filling in and silting up) necessitated by repairs by the Canal and River Trust to the chains and rods that operate the two automatic sluice gates.

The weather was breezy but kind and there was an excellent turn out with over 600 visitors; We were divided into tightly timed groups and escorted along the top of the 600m/1,968ft long dam, which holds back a million cubic metres of water, and is 9.3m/30ft tall, to get views of the tower and outlet to the River Brent and the feeder to the Regents Canal at Paddington via Neasden and Stonebridge at the Wembley end of the site.

We saw workers retrieving fish – including a huge carp – to be rehomed elsewhere, before the reservoir is restocked with native fish species after refilling, probably in March 2024. There were supporting stalls, film shows, and information displays and plenty of helpful Canal and River Trust Staff and volunteers were on hand to help, along with the essential portaloos and a coffee stall!
Our guide mentioned that the Brent side of the dam is covered in grass with no shrubs permitted. This is because if a patch of grass gets extra verdant it may indicate a water leak!

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Rita Peters, who was a long standing HADAS member, died on 1st December 2023, aged 95. She lived in Hendon Lane, Finchley, but grew up in Kent. She used to go on the summer outings and was a bit of a character. She was also a member of the North London University of the Third Age.

When working, she was an astute business woman who ran a successful ladies’ wear shop in Oxford Street. In retirement, she found time for her interest in art, architecture and archaeology. One of her favourite places was Dulwich Picture Gallery, which she would visit with her art history friends, as well as attending lectures there. In architecture she discovered the U3A Shape of London group, led by a retired architect, giving fascinating talks and taking members on study tours (similar to HADAS Long Weekends). She was Jewish, but not observant, but was fully alert to her traditions and history.

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Current exhibitions in London Stewart Wild

There are two fine exhibitions on at the moment in London that may be of interest to HADAS members.

Legion: Life in the Roman Army, British Museum
Ground Floor Room 30, February 1 to June 23, 2024; 10:00 to 17:00hrs daily (Fridays to 20:30hrs)
www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/legion-life-roman-army

This look-at-life in the world’s pre-eminent fighting force 2,000 years ago is very illuminating. The Roman Empire spanned over a million square miles at its height, held together by military might.
Where did recruits come from? What about citizenship? How big was your unit? How comfortable was your uniform; how effective were your weapons? There’s lots to learn about the Roman invasion and occupation of England. Were the troops paid? Could their families join them in the fort? Pay,

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discipline, health, rules and regulations, entertainment, retirement are all featured. This wide-ranging exhibition is well worth the entrance fee at £22 Monday to Friday (£24 Saturday/Sunday).
Over-60s £11 after 12:00 on Mondays. (Need to book online or call box office on 020 7323 8181).
Members free; accompanied under-16s free (booking required).

Spies, Lies and Deception, Imperial War Museum,
Fifth floor, September 29, 2023 to April 14, 2024; 10:00 to18:00hrs daily. Entrance free.
www.iwm.org.uk/events/spies-lies-and-deception.

Covering principally World War II and the Cold War, and also with items from the Iraq war, this fascinating collection of disguised equipment, gadgets and personal histories of secret agents covers a number of inter-connected rooms on the fifth floor. Lighting is not always as good as it might be, and I found my torch useful. The displays include military intelligence, deception and camouflage in warfare (even docks and airfields were disguised to mislead bombers), secret listening posts, operation Mincemeat, SOE and MI5. See actual clothing and weapons used by spies, watch video presentations and interviews, and learn of the efforts to counter modern terrorism. But it’s clear that however much we rely on modern technology, you can’t beat the basic skills.

HAYES COTTAGE DIG – Site Code HAY23 Janet Mortimer

On 17th October 2023 Roger Chapman and I carried out a mini dig in the front garden of No. 3 Hayes Cottages, East Finchley at the kind invitation of Sue Barker. The cottage dates back to 1813. We know from research prior to a previous dig in East Finchley that the area was the site of a large pig market founded in the late 17th century and the cottage was adjacent to a drove way.

As there were only the two of us and we only had one day to do it, instead of following the rules of a major dig, we went according to the Time Team Big Dig instructions. We measured out a square metre area and dug in ten-centimetre increments. We had intended to go down to a depth of one metre, but due to time constraints and the ever-growing spoil heap that was threatening to envelop Sue’s lovely garden, we managed around half of this. However, we did accumulate a wealth of finds in this small area. The finds were bagged and sent to Avenue House for processing by the Sunday morning team.

First the finds were washed, then recorded on bulk finds sheets. They were then formally recorded, identified and dated before being marked with the site code and context number. The best finds were: –

1. A 303 calibre rifle bullet, which was standard British army issue, possibly from the Home Guard during World War 2

2. An almost intact glass stopper from a sauce bottle.

3. A pottery base sherd with a partial maker’s mark from John Meir & Son, which would have been produced between 1837 – 1897.

4. Part of a clay pipe bowl and stem with a maker’s mark S – L, which was dated between 1780 and 1820.

Other finds were:

Clay pipes – small pieces of bowl and stem, most of which were difficult to date but some were identified as dating back to 1700-1770.

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Glass – Pieces of window glass, milk bottle, Codd bottle (dated 1870-1950), tumbler and green glass medicine bottles.

Pottery – There was a good selection of post med pottery (1580-1900), including yellowware, stoneware, refined whiteware, transfer printed ware, English porcelain (the hand of a figurine), Staffordshire slipware and the oldest was the Frechen stoneware dating from 1550 to 1700.
Ceramic building material – grey slate, brick, glazed tile, mortar, concrete, roof tile (including peg tile) and pantile with hole.

Miscellaneous – There was also coal and clinker, probably from a domestic fireplace, a small amount of animal bone, some corroded iron nails, burnt flint and a few shells, identified as whelk and winkle.

As this was a domestic garden which has obviously been dug many times over the years, and possibly had material imported into it over the last two centuries, we cannot be sure of the context of the finds, but it was nevertheless an interesting and productive dig. The records will be added to the HADAS archive, and the finds will be returned to Sue.

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ROMAN FUNERARY BED DISCOVERED AT HOLBORN Deirdre Barrie

Ongoing excavations by MOLA at a Holborn Viaduct site have uncovered the first complete wooden Roman funerary bed to be discovered in Britain. The bed was dismantled before being put in the grave but may have carried the deceased from his funeral. It is suggested that the site was used as a cemetery during the Roman period AD43-410. The grave would as customary have been next to a Roman road, in this case Watling Street. Other finds include high status jewellery and a lamp decorated with a gladiator.

Excavations at Holborn Viaduct reveal complete Roman funerary bed | MOLA

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Note: Not all Societies or organisations have returned to pre-Covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.

Sunday 7th April, 10.30 am – 5 pm. Avenue House Spring Fair. Finchley Women’s Institute present their first fair. Over 40 stalls, offering an exciting variety of gifts and treats created by local artisans at affordable prices. Free admission. https://www.stephenshouseandgardens.com/

Monday 8th April, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John The Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BW. Swinging London – An Illustrated Timeline of London in the 60’s. Talk by Nick Dobson. Please visit www.barnetmuseum.co.uk for details.

Tuesday 9th April, 6.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Talk on Zoom. Syon Abbey Revisited: Reconstructing Late Medieval England’s Wealthiest Nunnery. By Bob Cowie. Details on Eventbrite. Booking is essential on www.lamas.org.uk/lectures.html.

Wednesday 10th April, 8 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. A Devilish Kind of Courage: Anarchists, Aliens and The Siege of Sidney Street. Talk by Andrew Whitehead. Venue to be arranged. Also on Zoom. Please visit https://hornseyhistorical.org.uk/events/ for link.

Sunday 14th April, Avenue House, Private World of Spike Milligan. Opportunity to take a look at Spike’s unseen archive, guided by his daughter Jane Milligan. Small groups.

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Thursday 18th April, 8 pm. Historical Association – Hampstead and North West London Branch. Fellowship House, 136A, Willifield Way, London, NW11 6YD. (off Finchley Road, Temple Fortune). Justinian. Talk by Dr. Eric Bacton (F.H.A). Hopefully, also on Zoom. Please email Dr. Dudley Miles (HADAS member) on dudleyramiles@googlemail.com or telephone 07469 754075 for details of link and how to pay (There may be a voluntary charge of £5). Refreshments to be available afterwards.

Wednesday 24th April, 6 pm. Gresham College. Talk on Zoom. The Western Magical Tradition. By Ronald Hutton. Ticket required. Register at https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/western-magic. Free. A survey of learned ceremonial magic in Europe throughout history and demonstrates that both of the customary claims made for it by practitioners since the Middle Ages are actually correct and that there is a continuous tradition of it and that it is ultimately derived from Ancient Egypt.

Wednesday 24th April, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, the Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London N20 0NL. Robert Paul Films. Talk by Ian Christie. www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk. Non-members £2. Bar will be available.

Thursday 25th April, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephen’s) House, 17 East End Road, London N3 3QE. The Finchley Society Archives. Talk by Alison Sharpe (Society Archivist). For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk. Non-members £2 at the door. Refreshments available in the interval.

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With many thanks to this month’s other contributors: Eric Morgan; Jim Nelhams, Andrew Selkirk, Andy Simpson, Stewart Wild and 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 N2 9QP (07855 304488)
e-mail; treasure@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. 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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