Newsletter No. 156: February, 1984

FIRST LINKS WITH AVIATION    by BILL Firth

At the end of September 1983 the Borough Planning Department

produced its sixth topic study, as part of the preparation of a Borough Development Plan. This study was entitled Public Utilities and Protective Services, and a copy of it was sent to HADAS for comment (as had been done with several earlier topic studies).

After careful perusal it was evident that the only section requiring comment from us was that which concerned the Army and the RAF. this gave the news that the RAF is likely to move out of Hendon completely in 1987; and the Ministry of Defence is then expected to dispose of RAF Hendon with the exception of the RAF Museum and the married quarters.

We are pleased to report that, as a result of representations from HADAS, the Borough Planning Officer is applying for the listing of the office building and control tower built by Claude Grahame White in 1916. These are adjacent to the contemporary hangar which is already listed (see Newsletter 112, June 1880).

The offices are the main prestige building built during World War by Grahame White, and the control tower is believed to be the earliest example extant. In the offices, on the first floor, is the room used by Grahame White; the CGW monogram over the fireplace still remains. We hope that efforts to list this historic building are successful.

Following demand from another (and aviation-minded) society it is hoped to be able to arrange a further visit to RAF Hendon this summer. It would help the planning if any HADAS members who would like to come would let me know on 455 7164.

ASPECTS OF CONSERVATION

As this Newsletter goes to press, the Borough of Barnet is about to host a reception at the Town Hall for representatives of conservation groups in the Borough, to which HADAS has been invited.

The proceedings are to be enlivened by displays of the work of some of the groups, and HADAS was asked to plan a small display. Our panel will show photographs and drawings illustrating some of our activities, under four main headings – field-walking, surveying, digging and recording.

We thank the Council for its initiative, hope the party will go well and look forward to seeing a cross-section of conservation in Barnet.

FOLLOW-UP TO HADLEY

Some soil samples from the 1983 dig at Hadley Wood have been taken by Richard Hubbard for examination by his North-east London Polytechnic students.

If any HADAS members are interested in taking part in this exercise, Mr Hubbard would be happy to make arrangements for them to do so. Please give Brian Wrigley a ring on 959 5982 if you would like to help.

MORE ABOUT PEOPLE

First, a bulletin on our most notable invalid – DOROTHY NEWBURY. Dorothy became ill – as a report in the last Newsletter indicated – soon after she had organised our Christmas outing to Whitbreads. It turned out to be a severe attack of shingles always a most painful complaint and one which ‘hangs on’ wretchedly.

Dorothy has been out of circulation now for over a month, but she reports that she is at last able to get on with a little reading and other work (the main force of the attack was in her head and eyes) pro­vided she doesn’t keep at it for too long. The HADAS January meeting sent her a special ‘get well soon’ wish, and we know that every Newsletter reader will want to join in that.

Now pleasant piece of news. PHILIP VENNING, a keen HADAS digger and researcher (you’ll recall he directed the dig behind the Old Bull in the spring of 1982) tells us that in early March he takes up the post of Secretary to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Hopefully this may mean that we shall see more of him, too – because he will be centred in London again (he lives in Highgate and also has a cottage near Bath, which has been his Main home recently).

The SPAB, he says was founded by William Morris, who “was horrified by much of the restoration undertaken by the Victorians;” the Society is planning to extend its activities in the near future. We hope to hear more of that later from Phillip and meantime send him HADAS’s congratulations and best wishes for success in his new job.

JAN MARSH, author of the article which follows, on local links with the Pre-Raphaelites, is not a HADAS member but she is the daughter of one. Knowing how much research her mother, NELL PENNY, does for our Documentary Group, Jan was kind enough, when she came across these Hendon and Finchley references while researching her next book, to take note of them and to write this article for the Newsletter – which we much welcome and appreciate. (Her first book, incidentally, was published last year – Back to the Land, a study of ‘the pastoral impulse in Victorian England.’

PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTING IN FINCHLEY AND HENDON

by JAN MARSH.

In the autumn of 1854 Dante Gabriel Rossetti began work on a new oil painting, entitled Found. It depicted a young countryman who, bringing a calf to market- in a cart, finds his former sweetheart on the city streets, now a fallen woman.

He had immense trouble with the picture, working at it on and off for many years and leaving it still unfinished at his death in 1882. The part of the story that took place in Finchley, however, came at the beginning. After he, had completed the brick wall against which the woman cowers, he sought out a suitable calf, turning for help to his friend and fellow painter, Ford Madox Brown.

Brown was then living in Church End, Finchley, at No 1 Grove Villas, on what is now Regents Park Road, between Gravel Hill and Hendon Lane. The building has gone but stood in a row of villas – Albion Villas, Grove Cottages, Grove Villas – similar to the present Nos 289 and 291, near the larger Grove Lodge. At the back was a yard and garden, and beyond that a field where Christs College was soon to be built.

The house had a parlour, a kitchen and two bedrooms and contained, at this date, Brown, his pregnant wife Emma and their 5-year-old daughter Catherine or Katty. They were extremely hard up and frequently in debt. Brown was painting a small oval view of The Brent at Hendon, with the figure of a woman reading on the far, tree-shaded bank. This was begun on Sept. 1, when Brown recorded in his Diary (with characteristic spelling):

“…… out by ¼ to 8 to examine the river Brent at Hendon, a

mere brooklet running in most dainty sinuosity under over­shadowing oaks and all manner of leafgrass. Many beauties and hard to chuse amongst ..”

The following day he selected his spot and worked from 9.30 to 1.30, returning home for dinner. In the afternoon he worked at another local landscape, Carrying Corn, which was a harvest picture containing ‘corn shocks in long perspective, farm, hayricks and steeple seen between them.’ This picture, like The Brent at Hendon, is now in the Tate Gallery; it doesn’t have much topographical detail, but it may be possible to identify the weatherboarded farm, which must have been within a few minutes’ walk of Church End.

Apart from a brief brush with that summer’s cholera epidemic, which attacked the new servant girl, Brown worked hard at these two -paintings, generally visiting the Brent in the mornings and the cornfield in the afternoons. Typical entries in his Diary read as follows:

(11 September) “… to work at the Brent by 11 am. Emma and the child brought me my dinner there at 2 – in a little basket. Hot hashed mutton and potatoes in a basin, cold rice pudding & a little bottle of rum & water, beer being bad for cholera. Very delightful & very

great appetite. ‘Set to work again by ½ past 2 till ½      past 6.”

(12 September) “… to the Brent by ½         past ten worked till        ¼ to

2. After dinner from 3 to 6 at the cornfield picture.”

In the evenings he worked at a third picture, a charcoal drawing of ‘Beauty before she became acquainted with the Beast,’ for which a kitten was required. ‘Emma & I went out after dark & stole one yesterday,’ Brown recorded, but a few days later he changed his mind: ‘Scraped out puss & put in one with a more satisfactory miaow.’

On September 26 he wrote in his Diary:

“To the Brent by 10 worked till 1 – finished the landscape part as much as I can do to it from nature – went to see the river as far as Decoy farm, found none of it so beautiful as I had painted ­- home to lunch after a splendid walk in a broiling sun. Afternoon to the cornfield – dinner at 6.”

He carried on working in the cornfield during October, painting in the background and foreground, and commenting:

“It would seem that very small trees in the distance are very difficult objects to paint or else I am not suited to this sort of work for I can make nothing of the small screen of trees though I  have pottered over sufficient time to have painted a large landscape…”

On October 4 he began the field of root vegetables – sometimes called

turnips and sometimes swedes – in the foreground, the fine weather broke, and money troubles became pressing. Two days later he ‘wasted about an hour and a half under an umbrella at the swedes – rain drove me off …’ at home he prepared all his valuables, including six teaspoons, for a visit to the pawnbroker in town the following day, where he raised £11 and then called on Rossetti, who asked him to try to find a white calf and cart.

Brown knew the Finchley farmers and their work force. Carrying Corn was nearing completion, and on October 13 he wrote:

“to the field for the last time thank goodness. I am sick of it, I have now only to work at home at it to put it a little in harmony. A labourer came and looked and stuttering fearfully expressed ad­miration which ended in his supposing he could not beg half a pint of beer, one whom I used to look upon as a respectable man …”

Brown gave him twopence ‘and scorn;’ he felt close to beggary himself.

Within a few days he had arranged with Bruce Johnson of the Manor Farm in East End Road for the use of a calf and a cart. Rossetti came to stay at Grove Villas on October 31 and the first night kept his host up to 2 an talking about poetry. The next day they went to approve the calf and the following afternoon Rossetti started work. It was, he reported to a friend, ‘fine clear weather, though cold;’ He obliged to paint even when it rained, even though “the calf would be like a hearth-rug after half an hour,” because the farmer refused to accept payment for the use of his property, ‘as he insists on being goodnatured.’ As for the calf,

“he kicks and fights all the time he remains tied up, which is five or six hours daily, and the view of life induced at his early age by experience in art appears to be so melancholy that he punctually attempts suicide by hanging himself at 3½ daily pm. At these times I have to cut him down and then shake him up and lick him like blazes …”

Brown remarked that Gabriel was getting on very slowly, painting the calf ‘hair by hair.’ At the beginning of December he reported no percept­ible progress and complained of the cost of accommodating his friend: ‘all the time he wearing my great coat which I want & a pair of my breeches, besides food & an unlimited supply of turpentine.’ By December 17 the strain had become acute, with Emma Brown eight and a half months pregnant and the arrival of Lucy, Brown’s elder daughter by his first marriage and her cousin Elizabeth for the winter holiday. Brown confessed his exasperation to his Diary:

“This morning, Gabriel not yet having done his cart & talking quite freely about several days yet, having been here since the first Novr, & not seeming to notice any hints, moreover the two children being here & one stupid girl insufficient for so much work Emma being within a week or two of her confinement & he having had his bed made on the floor in the parlour one week now & not getting up till eleven & moreover making himself infernally disagreeable moreover my finances being reduced to £2.12 which must last till January 20, I told him delicately he must go …”

One marvels at the forbearance implied in that ‘delicately’; Brown suggested Rossetti might travel out each day to the farm from his rooms near Blackfriars Bridge, but Rossetti rejected this as too expensive. Brown commented ‘He thinks nothing of putting us to trouble or expense so he is gone for the present.’ And Manor Farm’s calf and cart were as finished as they would ever be.

Brown’s own paintings were not sold until June 1855, when The Brent

at Hendon brought in £10 and Carrying Corn £12. The following month he
began another landscape. On July 21 he recorded:

“although all around one is lovely how little of it will work up into a picture …. How despairing it is to view the loveliness of nature towards sunset & know the impossibility of imitating it, at least in a satisfactory manner as one could do would it only remain still long enough         …What wonderful effects I have seen
this eveng in the hayfields, the warmth of the uncut grass, greeny greyness of the unmade hay in furrows or tufts, with lovely violet shadows and long shades of the trees thrown athwart all & melting away one tint into another imperceptibly & one moment more & cloud passes & all the magic is gone. Begin tomorrow morning all is changed, the hay & the reapers are gone most likely, the sun too or if not it is in quite the opposite quarter & all that was  loveliest is all that is tamest now, alas!”

On July 27 he and Emma went for an evening. walk and ‘saw in twilight what appeared a very lovely bit of scenery with the full moon behind it just risen, and this he determined to paint. It was on land belonging to Lord Tenterden of Hendon Place, and the finished painting, The hayfield, shows a field sloping away towards a line of trees marking a stream, with other meadows rising to the skyline, just below which is a white building that may be a gentleman’s residence. In the field hay- making is in progress, with a farm cart and smocked figures and an artist sitting with his paintbox, palette and sunshade observing the scene. Because it is a late summer evening with sunset and full moon, giving the scene a particular light, Brown referred to this painting as his ‘Moon Piece.’ It is also now in the Tate Gallery.

In August he had another annoying visit from Rossetti, this time in company with Lizzie Siddall, whom Rossetti later married and who was friendly with Emma. They came to stay for two days and on August 14 Brown went with them ‘in a phaeton to see Totteridge & with Rossetti’s assist­ance got through much money.’ The next day Emma and Lizzie went into town early, before Rossetti came in from the Queen’s Head, the inn just south of Grove Villas, where he was staying, Lizzie having one bedroom in the house and the four Browns the other. Rossetti was angry at their departure and Brown sent him off with the servant girl and baby Oliver to meet the women in town.

He was peacefully working when the girl came back with a message to join the others at Blackfriars and then go on to the theatre. When Brown arrived they had already left and, finding that they had gone to Astleys, which was more of a circus than a theatre, Brown spent the evening in a coffee shop. At the end of the performance, however, they were nowhere to be seen and Brown returned to Blackfriars to find Lizzie in bed there, Gabriel sleeping elsewhere and Emma having gone to stay with her mother in St Pancras. In a poor temper, Brown found a cheap lodging for the night and rose at 7.30 next morning ‘not having closed my eyes.’ Such were the tribulations of Rossetti’s friendship.

The house at Grove Villas was proving too small to accommodate the growing Brown family and the servant required to help Emma with the housework and childcare, and at quarter day in September 1855 they left Finchley for No 13 (now 56) Fortess Terrace in Kentish Town, a good deal loss rural despite the dairy farm on Primrose Hill and Lord Mansfield’s estate at Kenwood. The Hayfield was not finished at the time of the move and in October Brown spent two days at the Queen’s Head in order to com­plete the background. On-December 1 he was at Cumberland Market near Euston, selecting a haycart and during the rest of the month he painted in the figures, the horses, the artist’s equipment, the moon and various other details. He then went ‘carefully over all the part I painted in at Hendon from nature,’ darkened the hayfield and finally completed it early in January. At the end of the month his dealer White rejected the picture: ‘he said the hay was pink’ and it was not until August that the painting bound a buyer.

This was the young William Morris, who was introduced by Rossetti and induced to pay £40 for the little hayfield. So Rossetti rep id some of his debt to the Browns.

SOURCES

The Diary of Ford Madox Brown, ed. Virginia Surtees, Yale University Press, London, 1981

Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti,.ed. 0 Doughty and J R Wahl, Oxford, 1965, vol 1

The three paintings by Ford Madox Brown (The Brent at Hendon, Carrying Corn-and The Hayfield.) are in the Tate Gallery, from whose Publications Dept. black and white photographs are available at £1.05 each. The Tate is holding a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition from March-May this year, and the three pictures will be on,show.

Rossetti’s unfinished picture Found is in the Delaware Art Museum, but an early version with only the wall, woman’s head and calf – which may well be the actual panel which was carried to the farmyard in East End Road – is in Carlisle Museum and Art Gallery.*

APPENDIX

Two other interesting excerpts from Brown’s Diary:

l October 1854: “a long walk over the fields from ‘Five Bells’ by the Spaniards to Hampstead, bought flannel for babycloathes, paid bills, then to Hendon, where ditto …”

19 October 1855 (after meeting H C Shenton, engraver). “Find that he lives at Hendon & is great friends with the old rascally vicar there whom we nicknamed Judas from his iiniquitus looks and conduct especially towards cats** … walked home from Camden Station …”

*shortly before Christmas 1854 Rossetti wrote to Brown asking him to arrange for the carrier to collect his painting equipment – case, paint­box and easel – from Johnson’s farm and look after them until Rossetti was able to return to Finchley to finish painting the wheel of the cart and the pony’s legs and ears,’ which he estimated would take him a day. These items remain unpainted in the Carlisle panel and Rossetti never went back to Finchley to paint.

** this was the notorious, litigious and long-lived Rev. Theodore Williams.

AS OTHERS SEE US?

HADAS has been at the receiving end of several unexpected bouquets

recently, and we thought members might like to know about them. .

First, issue No 4 of the Newsletter of the British Association for Local History picked up the news of our successful October Minimart, offered its congratulations on the outcome and suggested this was an encouraging example for other BALH groups to follow.

Then in November’ there was a letter in The Times from the editor of Current Archaeology, Andrew Selkirk (who also-happens to be a member of HADAS) arising out of the plan to abolish the GLC. He didn’t mention our Society by name, but he did refer in course of his letter to the fact that ‘in Tory-controlled Barnet … there is an exceptionally strong and active archaeological society, which carries out all the necessary rescue archaeology at no expense to the ratepayers. Indeed, they recent­ly even carried out a major excavation on Hampstead Heath …’

Finally, in the January issue of the Camden History Society news­letter, Cherry Lavell (who is on the staff of the Council for British Archaeology, although on this occasion she was not writing as such) had this to say: ‘Barnet is indeed very lucky in having one of the best archaeological societies in the whole country – HADAS, the Hendon & District Archaeological Society. They do indeed carry out excavations and other work to professional standards, and put on better exhibitions than many professionals manage.’

It’s bad form, we know, to blow one’s own trumpet – but isn’t it lovely when. someone else, blows it for you?

HOUSING  ANGLO-SAXON STYLE       JEAN SNELLING reports on

the HADAS January lecture

‘Richard Darrah, warden of the site of West Stow, in West Suffolk, recognised that HADAS plans its third visit to his Anglo-Saxon village this summer. His lecture therefore concentrated on experience in recon­struction and on building methods of the mid-Saxon period.

The settlement flourished from about 400-650 AD, being dated by its Lackford and Ipswich pottery. Beginning small, it grew to three or four homesteads for extended families and their farm stock; then it shrank and was abandoned. The cemetery contains about 100 inhabitants in total. Excavations from 1965-73 revealed traces of about 80 buildings over 5 acres, and since then the reconstruction of several specimen buildings by original methods has been in progress.

Two types of structure are found: sunken-floored buildings (SFBs) in the majority, and ‘halls’ (up to six). The halls were grouped with 5 or 6 SFBs each, to make the farmsteads of the site’s heyday.

West Stow has yielded many potsherds, loomweights, animal bones and small metal objects; but its building remains consist only of the stains of postholes in the sandy soil, the floorpits, clay hearths and charcoal and daub from SFBs which burnt down. Analysis of charcoal has shown residues of split oak planks (floorboards and wall cladding), ash poles and hazel rods (rafters and roofing support for thatch). The stains give the size and depth of postholes. These meagre signs are the basis for reconstruction.

One SFB reconstruction shows the older Sutton Courtney “wigwam” model, with low eaves and floor limited to the sunken area. But experiment at West Stow indicates that occupied floor-pits, unlined, would have eroded, while the originals did not erode; it is therefore believed that floors were boarded over and that buildings were often larger than their sunken area. Some deeper pits were wood lined; the unlined shallow pits probably kept floorboards and wall planks drier than solid earth would do, and received mud, dust and small objects falling between the floorboards. The frame of the SFB rested on end-posts, and simple wall plates and pro­bably floor plates are assumed. Pegged rafters would stretch from ridge pole to wall plates. Simple lap and tenon joints were known. Wall plank cladding may have had tongue and groove fitting or daub sealing. A clay hearth could overlap the solid ground inside the building, alongside the pit. With much variety of shape and function, the SFBs could have made very serviceable houses, workshops, stores and stocksheds.

The halls were modest, not above 30ft long with 6-in square posts. One now reconstructed has 40 posts at 2ft intervals, sunk 1-2ft deep. Medieval ploughing removed all floors and surface debris, so the (level)

flooring is unknown (wood, sand, clay?), but burnt central areas suggest hearths. In reconstruction, it is assumed that tie beams must have supported roofs to prevent walls from spreading. Now the tie beams and wall plates are first fitted together on the ground, almost as high medieval timber framing would have been. Wall cladding and roofing present the same questions as with SFBs, and there is no telling if halls were gabled or hipped. Nor is there any indication of how the families used the halls, or what kind of gatherings or activities took place there.

Mr Darrah referred throughout to Saxon tools and to the wood supply. Reconstruction indicates that the axe, spoon-drill and wedge would mainly

be used. The efficient Saxon axe of 3-4 lbs was iron-bladed and steel‑
edged. Axe–felled oaks while green will split easily for beams and planks, through wedges driven in with a wooden beetle. The Saxon builders needed quantities of tall oak trees, long ash poles, straight hazel rods, and straight reeds for thatching. The old West Stow sources are not known. How much were they consciously managed? Grazing animals must be excluded for timber and poles to grow long and straight; regular cropping is the most efficient method. Did the Saxons really know about coppicing, or did they chance on certain features of it?

This fascinating lecture stood well on its own, and also made the prospect of a visit to West Stow next summer irresistible.

EARLY METALURGY                 CAMILLA RAAB has kindly abstracted the following from World Archaeology, 15.(2), October 1983, pp, 211-17:

Craddock, P T, Curjar, L K and Hegde, K T M, Zinc Production  in  Medieval

India. Zinc was made and used at a much earlier date in the East than in Europe. A preliminary survey has been made of the extensive remains of the ancient zinc mines and smelting remains at Zawar, Rajasthan. From the survey and the preliminary investigation some attempt is made to reconstruct the original process.

Zawar is one of the sites mentioned last April in Paul Craddock’s lecture to the Society on early metallurgy,

TRIPE – A LA HADAS                                        by Brigid Grafton Green

Some unexpected questions occasionally land on my desk. A surprising one a few weeks ago came from a local historian in Bolton, Lancashire. She wanted to know if I could offer any help on the history of tripe. Anyone who asks that sort of question of such an inveterate newspaper reader as myself might expect a fairly ripe answer – but luckily my correspondent went on to explain that it was the tripe-trade she was interested in; and particularly why ‘the buying and selling of tripe was such a part of the Northern way of life.’

I couldn’t help much about Northern tripe unfortunately – but these facts about tripe in general did turn up.

In the Vision of Piers Plowman (William Langland, mid-14th c) the ‘doctour’ is said to have eaten tripe, which he called ‘wombe-cloutes:’

‘He eet many sondry metes,

Mortrews and puddynges,       (‘mortrews’ = soups)
Wombe-cloutes and wilde brawen,

And eggs, y-fryed with grece.’

in 1662, on October 24, Samuel Pepys recorded that he ‘dined upon a most excellent dish of tripes of my own directing, covered with mustard, as I have heretofore seen them done at.my Lord Crewe’s, of which I made a great meal.  Two years later, on April 9, 1664, Pepys again mentions ‘at noon home to dinner of tripes.’

Hannah Glasse, in her Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy (first published 1747), has rocipes for fried tripe, tripe a la Kilkenny (which is tripe and onions: described as ‘a favourite Irish dish’) and a receipt for -preserving tripe to go to the East Indies. This last is done in a pickle of spring water, fine clear salt (‘common salt will spoil it’), white wine vinegar, rosemary and allspice. The tripe and the pickle are put into a 4-gallon cask, which should be fastened down by a cooper and not opened in the Indies until you are ready to dress it.

Dorothy Hartley (whose book Food in England, published 1954, is a most glorious rag-bag, into which it’s impossible to put a thumb without  pulling ‘out a plum) says ‘Tripe Normandy seems to have come over with the Conqueror; usually medievally made in autumn, we now make it when we can obtain the necessary ham trimmings:’

Those snippets suggest that, in addition to having a long history, in earlier times tripe was eaten as much in the south – not to mention Ireland – as the north. Pepys, after all, was a Londoner and Hannah Glasse, although her family came from Hexham, was London-born and married a London lawyer.

SITES F0R WATCHING

Applications for planning permission are being considered by the Borough of Barnet for the following sites which,- if the applications are approved, may be of some archaeological interest:

Land rear of Campbell Croft, Edgware      detached house

Glebe Court, Parson St, NW4                    detached bungalow

15 Elm Gardens, N2                                   2 semi-detached houses

“Ridge Cottage, Arkley Drive, Barnet Rd   detached bungalow

land adj. Arkley House, Barnet Road                   5 detached houscs

Should you notice possible building activity on any of those sites, please let Elizabeth Sanderson know on 950 3106.

HADAS DIARY

Tues Feb 7. Church End Hendon Excavations, 1973-k.

 We are pretty sure this is an evening no one will want to      miss and

that most of you will have already red-lettered it in your diaries – because it will be one of’ our own Vice-Presidents, TED SAMMES talking about one of our own digs, which he directed, just south of Hendon parish Church. It’s the dig which finally proved, beyond all doubt, that Hendon was, and is, a Saxon foundation.

This lecture will be the first of the occasional Constantinides Memorial lectures in honour of our founder, Themistocles Constantinides. It was suggested at the 1983 AGM that such an event should be initiated, and we reported in last July’s Newsletter that the Committee had decided to ro ahead with the idea. It is highly appropriate that Ted – one of our founder members, who knew ‘Mr Constans,’ should be the first Constan­tinides lecturer, and that the first subject should be the one dearest to ‘Mr. Constans’ heart, which prompted him to found an archaeological society for what he hoped for most of all was to prove that Tendon was Saxon.

Ted, in fact, went one better – he took the Church End site, on the corner of Greyhound Hill and Church End, where the Meritage Old

People’s Club now stands, back to a Roman presence by unearthing a small cache of Roman pottery; and we haven’t told you the half of it – there was fine medieval and Tudor material and a gorgeous 18th c rubbish pit which was-George Ingram’s pride and joy…. You’d better come along and hear all about it: it’s too good a story to miss.

The remainder of the winter programme is:

Tues. March 6 25 Years Excavation in Wiltshire John Musty

Tues.  April 3, Underwater Archaeology in the Holy Land     Alexander Flinder
Tues. May 15 Annual General Meeting

Meetings are at Hendon Library, The Burroughs, NW4, coffee 8 pm, lecture starts 8.30.

CORRECTION TO THE HADAS PROGRAMME CARD. We regret that an extra ‘2′ has crept into one of the dates in the Programme Card which accompanied your January,Newsletter. The first lecture of next winter should be:

Tuesday, October 2nd – Orkney – Isbister

“The Tomb’ of the Eagles”      John Hedges

Would members please alter October 22 to October 2.

DO YOU ENJOY THE NEWSLETTER? IF SO, PLEASE HELP!

One of HADAS’s largest financial headaches is the Newsletter. Not the editorial side, of course, that’s done for love; but the nuts-and­ bolts bit – the reproduction (text and illustrations) and the distribution.

Paper costs keep rising, and postage is unbelievable today when you look back to what it was even a few years ago. Our faithful duplicator, so lovingly tended by Rene Frauchiger, is getting long in the tooth and needs periodic (sometimes expensive) maintenance: and we know it can’t last forever.

That’s why we reported, in the December Newsletter, the Committee’s decision to set up a small working party to consider, so far as the Newsletter is concerned, ways and means.

Now we would like to call on any help that members can offer. We know many of you have experience in the Communications field -whether it be in schools, advertising, newspapers, publishing or whatever. If you have any ideas for ways we could improve and/or cheapen the production/distribution side of the Newsletter, be they old or new, experimental or well-tried, please get onto me on 346-5078 and tell me. I’ll be delighted to hear from you. JUNE PORGES

HAPPENINGS VARIOUS

The Museum of London has its usual full programme of lectures, films, displays and workshops between now and Easter. Three archaeological lectures in February are;

Feb 3 Recent excavations in Southwark: Calvert’s Buildings

David Beard & George Dennis

Feb 10 Recent excavations in Southwark: Winchester Palace

Derek Seeley & Brian Yule

Feb 17 Recent excavations in West London         Jon Cotton

Three talks under the general heading ‘London’s Burning,’ on great

fires which have devastated the City, also sound interesting:

Wed  Feb 22 Boudicca’s Revolt                                     Hugh Chapman

Thur  Feb 23 The ‘London Blitz                                     Geoff Toms

Fri Feb 24 The fire of London 1666                     Rosemary Weinstein

Another-event at the Museum will be the annual LAMAS Archaeological Conference on Sat. March 17. As yet we have no further details about times, speakers, etc, but you may like to note the date in your diary.

Tony Rook, who spoke to HADAS last November about prehistory and Roman Hertfordshire, sends these details of two linked Greek study tours which he is organising from Apr 10-23 next. The full fortnight (both

tours) costs £560, plus £10.50 insurance; or you can take the Cretan tour only (Apr, 10-17) for £378; or the Peloponnese tour only (Apr-for 16-23) (both plus insurance).’ Further details and itineraries from Tony Rook, 23 Mill Lane, Welwyn, Herts AL6 9EU.

The Jorvik Viking Centre at York opens on April 14 next. It has called ‘the most exciting tourism project ever seen in Britain’ and also ‘a permanent cultural asset to the region and the world.’

It ‘will be in two parts. Below ground the 9th. c Viking town, with streets, workshops and houses, has been reconstructed on the Coppergate site on which it was dug in the 1970s. There will also be ‘the whole sequence of archaeological discovery and interpretation as it was on the

site during excavation.’  At ground level, in the artefacts hall, will
be the finds from the site – leather goods, amber, cloth, pottery and wooden cups and bowls, made by coopers who gave their name to ‘Coppergate.’

HADAS members who were on our York weekend in 1976, when we had a private view of the Coppergate dig, will find the new museum particularly interesting.  It will be open, year round seven days a week, from 9 am-7 between April and the end of October; and 9 am – 5.30 the rest of the year.

MARY ALLAWAY reports on her research into

CHURCH FARM, EAST BARNET

Looking around the trim Council buildings at Church Farm today it is difficult to imagine that somewhere a farmyard once existed here.

In 1817 a house and barn are shown on this site, owned by John Bacon, who may well have lived elsewhere as he owned many parcels of land in­cluding a sizeable farm in East Barnet.*

By 1841 Church Farm was owned by Sir Simon Houghton-Clarke and was occupied by Joshua and Martha East, both aged 25 with 3 Small children and 4 servants. By this time farm buildings had been built on three sides of a yard south of the barn and the farm house appears to have been enlarged or re-built (see maps at end of this Newsletter).

In 1859 ‘a committee of gentlemen bought 48 acres of the estate (of the former Church Hill House) and converted it into a farm for the train­ing of destitute boy.’** A Crimean War veteran, Lt Col W J Gillum, was the first Superintendant. He built a house on adjoining land, Trevor Park, for his own occupation.

The Boys Home Farm continued from 1860-1938, when the buildings were taken over by East Barnet Council and the Home moved to another county, taking with it its records which regrettably have not been traced. The Council ran a primary school in part of the premises.

On two sides of a forecourt stands a neo-Georgian building of 1926 with a clock-tower at the angle. It has a fine panelled assembly hall, rooms like large classrooms and concrete stairways. The east wing once adjoined, at an oblique angle, the old farmhouse which had undergone two further extensions by 1898,, It was destroyed by fire in.1938, some of the slate floor being visible until recently.

‘On the opposite side of the courtyard is a range of buildings identi­fied, from an old drawing reproduced in the Barnet Press, as the Playroom (1881). This was originally a separate barnlike building connected at a later date by a gabled extension to the schoolhouse of 1868, which way damaged by fire (but later repaired) soon after the burning of the farm­house wing. Each building probably reflects a rise in the numbers at the farm. Certainly in 1868 the adjacent Parish church of St Mary the Virgin had a south aisle added, equal in width to the nave, to accommodate the boys; and the chancel was extended.

The Schoolroom (not to be confused with the Schoolhouse), with its bell tower, was built in 1876 on the site of an earlier farm building. A grim reminder of the ’39 war is the heavy double entrance doors, forming an air-lock for gas decontamination for the ARP who occupied the building at that time.

To the NW is another asphalt court in front of the Water Tower, built just before the turn of the century. Beside it is the entrance to the pool which lies behind. The ground floor and wings of the Water Tower contained workshops for the Boys Farm Home, and in war time the Fire Service hung their hoses on the first floor and slid through a hatchway to the ground. It is said that water was pumped from a well under the tower to the tank on top. Another possible well is the place marked ‘W’ on the 1870 map.

Between the Water Tower and Schoolroom stand two buildings, the larger said to have been the milking shed and the smaller (next to the Schoolroom) the bottling plant. To the north of this forecourt is a curious building, now converted into two houses, which was an isolation hospital. The attic is still continuous across both houses.

We discovered photographs in Barnet Museum which really gave a

picture of the farmyard, haybarn, pigsties, cowsheds and stables – as
they were in 1936.. Perhaps most interesting was the roof of the large tithe barn, demolished In 1938, and the roof of a one storey building, now gone, which adjoined the south wing of the Water Tower; The line of its gable can still be seen on the wall. It made way for two lines of changing-rooms, shown on the 1950 map; the modern roofed-in pool, with all amenities, explains their disappearance.

Another picture in the Barnet Press shows a field with cows and horses grazing where the 1926 building-now stands. The site of the farm­yard now lies partly under Burlington Rise and partly under the rear yard – now a patchwork of set-ts gravel, strips of concrete and weeds. The field from which the farmyard photos were taken is now completely built over, although most of the south field where cows and horses grazed still remains..

The history of Church Farm is being researched by Gillian Gear of Barnet Museum and we look forward to a future publication.

*Can this John Bacon be a connection of the John Bacon who leased the ancient manor house and the remains of the friary of Friern Barnet from

St Pauls from the 1780s to his death in 1816? His son was John (William)

**Victoria County History.     (See HADAS Newsletter 34, Dec 1973)

NEWSLETTER N0. 151                                                                                                                                           September 1983

AUTUMN PROGRAMME

The new season of lectures begins next month at Hendon Library, The Burroughs,  NW4. Coffee at 8 .00 p.m.; lectures begin at 8.30 p.m.

Tuesday, October 4th:  Bronze Age Rock Carving in South Scandinavia             Dr.John Coles

Tuesday November 1st: ‘Britons and Romans in Hertfordshire   Tony Rook

For new members, buses 183 and 143 pass the door. The Library is 10 minutes walk from Hendon Central Underground Station and only a few minutes’ walk from the 113 (Edgware) bus and 240 and 125 (Quadrant, Hendon) bus. There are two free car parks opposite the Library. Members may bring a guest to one lecture, but guests who wish to attend further lectures should be invited to join the Society. Will old members please welcome new ones and make them feel at home. New members PLEASE make themselves known.

MINIMART

Saturday, October 15th 11.30 a.m. – 3.00 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church House (top of Greyhound Hill, Hendon, and opposite Church Farm House Museum)

Tessa Smith and her team will once again be serving excellent Ploughman’s Lunches, coffees and^–.teas. We hope all our members will come and make it a social as well as a money-making event. There will be a Secretary’s corner and a Society Publications stand. Come and chat about the Society’s activities and find out if you can help the various groups Roman, Documentary, Research, Site-watching Industrial Archaeology in the Borough etc.

There will be a Home-Made Stall – cakes, jams, pickles and sweets. Will anyone who can supply anything for the ‘eats’ stall, including fruit, vegetables or groceries, please contact Brigid Grafton Green on Te1.455 9040.

For the other stalls –

Small Bric-a-Brac – unwanted gifts

Toiletries, stationery – jewellery – toys

Household linens

Good as new men’s, women’s and children’s clothing

Please ring Christine Arnott (455 2751) or Dorothy Newbury (203 0950). You have six weeks to turn out anything saleable. If you like, bring it to the October lecture and we will collect from there.

-2,

LOCAL HISTORY CONFERENCE

The London and Middlesex Archaeological Society’s Local History Conference this autumn – always a very lively occasion – will take place on Saturday, November 19 at the Museum of London.

For the first time the conference will be all day instead of just in the afternoon. It will start at 11.30 and end about 5.30. The theme is London and Military Conflict – running in time from the Civil War of the 17 century up to London in the Blitz of 1940-41.

Tickets (which include afternoon tea) cost £2 and can be obtained from Mr. H. E. Robins, 3 Cameron House, Highland Road, Bromley, Kent, Please include a SAE.

ALL ABOUT PEOPLE…

…the HADAS coachload which enjoyed the August outing (see Mary O’Connell’s report below)  all delighted to welcome again two HADAS stalwarts who have been a bit under the weather lately – Mrs. Banham and Mrs. Mason, now both recovered and back to joining in the Society’s activities.

Good news too that GEORGE INGRAM continues his recovery. He reports that, aided by magnifiers, he can read printed pages„ but he still has to solve the problem of writing, and of reading handwritten notes.

George tells us that another HADAS member of long standing, FREDA WILKINSON, hopes to have her eye operation (like George, she has for some time been wrestling with the difficulities of deteriorating sight) towards the end of August. We all wish her very well.

Sympathy and good wishes are also in order for one of our younger members, MARION NEWBURY, who succumbed, early last month, to chicken pox – which, if you don’t get rid of it in childhood, can be a most painful and unpleasant illness. By the time you read this we hope Marion will be well on the road to recovery.

Finally, news from quite a different front. Congratulations to two HADAS members, JEAN SNELLING and LYNN HARVEY, who this summer successfully completed the three years of the London University external Certificate in Field Archaeology at, Barnet College, both passing their final year exams with Merit.

AUGUST OUTING                                                   Report by Mary O’Connell

Perfect weather, Dorothy’s varied and well-planned programme and Colin’s calm and efficient driving combined to produce a day of sheer enjoyment for the coach load of HADAS voyagers on Saturday August 13th.

Sweets and leaflets had just had time to circulate when we pulled into the 815 acre site of Rothampstead Experimental Farm. Founded in 1843 by agricultural reformer, John Lawes, it is famous world-wide and its scientific experiments into soil and grain improvements draw 3000 visitors a year.

Flints turned up on a previously wooded corner of Broadbalk field in 1937 caused the Director, Sir John Russell, to call in the St.Alban’s and Hertfordshire Archaeological Society. They uncovered a walled area approximately 100′ x 100′ with two cremation burials within it (100 – 125 AD) and a central altar or shrine (similar to the Romano-Celtic temple excavated (1934) at Verulamium four miles to the south.). The few remaining pottery fragments were viewed before we continued through the Hertfordshire countryside to Ashwell. Here refreshments were served by the village ladies and the small but delightful museum was explored. Lying close to, the Icknield Way, Ashwell had been an important market town held by the Abbot., of Westminster from 930 AD until the Dissolution, (traces of his manor house were found under the present rectory).The town paid tithes and dues to Westminster (just as Hendon did) and consequently became staunchly Protestant when the monks’ hold was loosened.

The office used by the Abbot’s steward for the collection of taxes, monitoring of trade and storing of grain and wool later became known as the Town House. In 1930 a restoration fund started by two school boys saw the opening of the house as a local museum with a varied and un-stuffy collection ranging from a bushel-and-“strike” (a strip of wood for levelling off a measure) to a mummified black rat – the carrier of the plague which was to reduce Ashwell’s importance and leave the population at 2,000 – as it is today.

Next a 15th century double lichgate led us to St.Mary’s Church where  the rector greeted us first with information about their annual post-Easter music festival and of. Sunday teas and evensong, to which all visitors were welcome. He went on to describe his church. Built 1250-1350 it has survived as a “whole” and is remarkably light. The clerestory windows, off-set for economy, contain medallions of salvaged mediaeval glass. The great east window was originally

a memorial to Becket (a bill for it can been in Westminster Abbey). The amount of graffiti on the pillars and walls is unique. There are quotations, comments on plaque and storm and drawings – the finest being a detailed scratching of the first St.Paul’s Cathedral.

In recent years the church has been adorned with banners and a crowned madonna alta-tapestry for the Lady chapel made by skilled weaver, Mr. Percy Sheldrake, who retired to Ashwell to live as a hermit. Also a set of paintings of the Virgin of Ashwell was contributed by a badly crippled local artist. You can sense that the church and the village are permeated by a feeling of corporate purpose and pride. There are so many well preserved historic buildings and the mill has been restored to working order.

There are also natural springs in the chalk producing on average 1 1/3rd million gallons of water per day, never warmer than 52^°. These are the source of the Cam which joins the Ouse at Ely and flows into the Wash (65 miles away). Rare flat worms, half an inch long, survivors of the Ice Age, are to be found here – apparently!

I am sure that I am not alone in my resolve to revisit Ashwell to study this pretty friendly village at leisure.

Back on the coach, Dorothy’s commentary now guided us through the fenland.

past: Sandy – a 7 acre roman enclosure and now HQ of R.S.P.B.

Tempsford – scene of a Danish battle

Sawtry – whose unfrocked priest was burned at Smithfield in 1401 as a follower of Wykeliffe.

Norman Cross – which marks a Napoleonic POW camp

Elton Hall – where Henry VIII’s signed prayer book and bible are to be found and  Oundle – the public school for 600 boys

And so to Ashton where Brian Dix in charge of the excavation, conducted us round the site which is a section of a small Roman town by the River Nene.

Since 1960 field-walking and aerial photography have shown street grids and properties. Opened up in 1971 and worked by amateurs and summer-school trainees, buildings of an industrial nature were revealed. The timber frame buildings of 50AD became two storey dwellings on a masonry base with evidence of hearths and iron-working. Thatch and tiles have been found also deep wells and lead tanks. Occupation lasted till late 14th century. The streets had been re-surfaced and repaired nine times and levelled on either side to boundary ditches. The cambered layering exactly resembled the cross-section illustration found in so many school text-books.

Ashton could well have started as a military supply camp placed at a strategic river crossing, or to control traffic on deep water.

Mr. Dix reckons that the selected trenching should be completed by October this year, before the by-pass is built. As a final, poignant link with the past he led us to where some past inhabitants lay bonily exposed in their shallow, stone-lined graves.

A short drive took us on to Godmanchester where the WI provided “the cup that cheers”. The Mayor came in to welcome us to the town exhibition and Paddy promptly initiated his worship into the advantages of starting a town-trail: found the church rather dank and devoid of informative literature, but on such a summer evening the Chinese bridge, the waterside dwellings and the scone–scoffing aquatic flotilla provided a picturesque finale to our day.

SITES TO WATCH

During the last month or so the following proposals have appeared on the planning application lists of the London Borough of Barnet. Should the applications be approved, the sites might have some archaeological interest, so we would greatly appreciate a tip-off if any member passing one of these sites notices any development activity. Please ring Elizabeth Sanderson (950 3106) and let her know:

Convent of St. Mary at the Cross, Hale Lane,                                                                    Outline application to erect

Edgware                                                                                                                         houses and flats

Old Red Lion, Underhill, Barnet                                                                                              Front/side extensions to building

879 High Road, N12                                                                                                                         Warehousing

195 Edgwarebury Lane                                                                                                            Side, front, rear extensions

23 Parsons Crescent, Edgware                                                                                          ditto

63 Edgwarebury Lane                                                                                                     Front/side extensions

100 Edgwarebury Lane                                                                                                  Rear/front extensions

13 Westview Gardens, Elstree Surplus land at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls School, Barnet Site of Waterfall Sports Club, Pymmes Green. Road, N11 St.Mary’s Abbey, The Ridgeway, NW7		Side/Rear extensions 7 houses/ ancillary works Outline applications to build maisonettes Amended plan for new 2/3 storey block.

HADLEY WOOD DIG

Work continues at Hadley Wood during the weekends and it is hoped to open up a new trench to continue the section. All members a welcome – please telephone Brian Wrigley (959 5982) or Victor Jones (458 6180) to confirm times and obtain directions.

REMINDER…SUBSCRIPTIONS…REMINDER

Some subscriptions are still outstanding and should be paid as soon as possible please to Membership Secretary, Phyllis Fletcher,  27 Decoy Avenue, NW11 OES.

**

MORE WORK FOR THE WINTER

Last month we mentioned some of the courses available for students next winter –particularly post-Diploma and Diploma and Certificate courses. This month you may like a rundown on some WEA and similar courses in or near our Borough.

In Totteridge at Owens Adult Education Centre, 20 Chandos Avenue, N20, on Fridays from September 30th at 10.00 a.m. Western Archaeology – The Greeks. Lecturer -Tony Rook BSc.

At Haverstock School, Haverstock Hill, NW3, Tuesdays from Septembei 27th at

7 p.m. Archaeology tf the Later Roman Empire. A.C.King BA.

At Elstree Community Centre, Allum Lane, Elstree, Tuesdays from September 27th 7.30? p.m. Roman Britain. A.R.Wilmot, MA.

In Golders Green, 27 Rotherwick Road, NW11, Thursdays starting September 22nd

8 p.m. Medieval Archaeology. Miss J. Mattingly, BA.

At Southgate, United Reform Church premises, Fox Lane, N13, Wednesdays starting September 21st, 10.00 a.m. Greek Archaeology. Miss F. Cameron, MA.

At Edgware Friends Meeting , Rectory Lane, Mondays from September 26th, 10.30 a.m. Gardens through the Ages (from Tudor to Gertrude Jekyll). Lona Price, a National Trust Lecturer on gardens.

At Mill Hill, Union Church small hall, The Broadway, NW7, Tuesdays from September 27th, 10.30 a.m. London, the History and the Art (1509-1901). Cornelia Murray Philipson,

Newsletter 132                      February 1982
HADAS DIARY

Tues Feb 2^nd excavations on Guernsey. Lecture by Dr Ian Kinnes at Hendon Library. Coffee 8 p.m., Lecture 8.30.

This is our second attempt at the lecture scheduled for Nov 3rd last year which had to be cancelled owing to an accident to our speaker. Dr Kinnes is Assistant Keeper of the Dept. of Prehistoric and Romans – British Antiquities at the British Museum. He will be well known to many members as a lecturer at their Extramural Diploma classes. His subject will be the Neolithic excavation cn Guernsey which he began in 1979 and completed last year.

Tues Mar 2^nd         Frozen Tombs of Siberia. Lecture by Kenneth Whitehorn

Tues Apr 6^th      Prehistoric Burial rites in Britain. Lecture by Professor Grimes. Admission by ticket

Tues Apr 24^th       21^st Birthday Party further details in this issue

Sat  Feb 13^th  at 10a.m. Roman Group. An outing is planned to the Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham, to view a Roman kiln, lifted from Highgate Wood. Please phone Tessa Smith (958 9159) if you wish to come along and for further details, including car pick-up points.

Thurs Feb 18^th at 8p.m. Documentary Group meeting at 33 Denman Drive NW11.

Anyone who would like to join the group will be welcome, but please let Nell Penny (458 1689) know if you intend to come.

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS….

…. who have joined HADAS since we last published a “welcoming” notice back last August:

Mr and Mrs Arnold and Daniel, Stanmore; Susan Baker, N10; Robert Bard, Elstree; Howard Bowdler, Mill Hill; Brian Cobb, Garden Suburb; Nina Feldman, Hampstead; Naomi Ford, Kilburn; Mr and Mrs Gilson, Whetstone;

Mr & Mrs Gregory, New Southgate; Steve Herman, NW1; H N Hesp, Finchley; Mrs Jacques, Garden Suburb; Louise Kenton, NW6; David Lightowler, Hendon; Peter Lucas, Golders Green; Dorothy. Rothstein, Hendon; Tessa Speare, Mill Hill; Nina Turnsek, Finchley, Mrs Tyler, Garden Suburb; Dominic Ward, Hendon; M D Webber, Archway; Stewart Wild, Finchley.

We are also happy to have added two more schools to the corporate membership: Holloway School, at which HADAS member Aubrey Hodes teaches and leads an archaeological group; and St James’ School, Grahame Park, where long-standing HADAS member Mary O’Connell is a teacher.

TWENTY-ONE THIS YEAR

Although we propose celebrating our 21st birthday all through 1982 (after all, you can’t have too much of a good thing) one highspot will undoubtedly be next April, the anniversary month. The founding meeting took place on April 19, 1961, and subsequently the inauguration Of the Society was back-dated

by the first Committee to April 1 of that year.

Our President, Professor Grimes, has as. you know kindly accepted an invitation to deliver the April lecture. To avoid any risk of exceeding the permitted number atterding on April 6th, and our having to turn members away, we have decided to issue tickets for this lecture. These will be obtainable at the February and March lectures, or on application to Dorothy Newbury, 55 Sunningfields Road, Hendon N.W.4.

On  Saturday, April 24th our birthday party will be held at St Jude’s Church Hall; Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb. It will be attended by the Mayor of Barnet, HADAS Vice-President Mrs Rosa Freedman. The time has now come to let you into some of the secrets of this exciting event.

The evening will consist of a buffet party, during which varied enter­tainment will be offered. Tickets will cost £7.50 including wine. Many members have already enquired anxiously how soon they will be on sale, so possibly they may go like hot cakes. They will be available from February 2nd before the lecture, or on application, with remittance, to Dorothy Newbury 55 Sunningfields Road N.W.4 and will be allocated on a “first come, first served” basis. There is, alas, a limit to the number who can be fitted into the hall and the party will have to be restricted to members only.

The Mayor will arrive at 7 pm and other guests are asked to be there bet­ween 6.30 – 6.45. The buffet is to be an historical one and we hope that members will adapt their dress to meet the same time-scale as the recipes which will be served. This ranges from the time of the Emperor Tiberius (14­ – 37 AD) to the start of the First World War (bustles and all that). We are, by the way, extremely^–sorry that we are not offering any prehistoric dishes in the buffet: but the problems of cooking a soup by throwing in heated pot­boilers or making a stew in a sheepskin stretched between four poles has proved difficult to achieve in Hampstead Garden Suburb – even for the talented Corps of HADAS Cooks.

What we are trying to say is: don’t come dressed as usual. Be ingenious and add to the gaiety of the occasion be wearing something different, preferably historical – or even just a funny hat. How about sporting a wimple or a snood, a helmet or a stove-pipe? Or you could do worse than just toss your toga or tunic into the washing machine and turn up in Roman style again. However you choose to come, there will be a warm – and, we hope, delicious- welcome.

TESTING THE WATERS AT BARNET: Pt. II

In the December Newsletter we published a report on HADA’s visit to Barnet physic well. On that occasion TED SAMMES took samples of the well-water for analysis: below is his report.

All spring and well waters contain dissolved mineral matter to some extent. This has been obtained from the “rocks” through which the water has travelled from the land surface to the interior and back to the surface.

The water of Barnet Physic Well is no exception. The analysis of the sample taken on 6 November 1981 showed the water to have the following composition in milligrams per litre.

Magnesium sulphate                                                         1250 (Epsom Salts)

Calcium sulphate                                                                 480

Calcium carbonate                                                               300

Sodium chloride                                                                  180

Sodium sulphate                                                                    50           (Glaubers Salts)

Potassium sulphite                                                                 40

Total dissolved solids                                                        2508

Total hardness                                                                   1665

Temporary hardness due to calcium carbonate                 305
Acidity pH 8.2 alkaline

Our Bacteriologist concluded that due to slight faecal contamination the water would not be classed as satisfactory for drinking without chlorination. I was first down the steps and took the samples into sterile bottles before the rest of the party descended. The conclusion is not surprising, since the water was very still (we visited in a dry period) and its level only about 10-12 feet below the present land surface. In such conditions contamination could easily have crept in.

Jane Butler in HADAS Newsletter No 48*, February 1975, reported an analysis made by Dr Trinder in 1812 (I have converted his results, given in grains per gallon, to milligrams per litre, by multiplying by 14.28).

Magnesium sulphate                                                          1370

Calcium sulphate                                                                 343

Calcium carbonate                                                               228

Magnesium chloride                                                            171

Extractive matter                                                                 100

(I assume this last item is material he could not identify)

For the first three chemicals the two analyses show surprising agreement. Taking the major constituent, Epsom Salts, the dose range in the British Pharmacopoiea is 5 to 15 grams. To obtain the minimum dose one would need to drink in the region of 4 litres (7 pints)!

Pepys visited Barnet on 11 July 1664 and recorded what he drank:-

“Thence I and Will to see the Wells, half a mile off, and there I drank three

glasses and walked and came back and drunk two more; the woman would have had –

me drink three more but I could not, and so we rode home,”. If his glasses

were pint ones it makes a lot of sense.

The craze for well waters started in the 17th century and continued into the early 19th century to be killed off by the craze for sea-bathing.

In fact the date quoted for Dr Trinders analysis in HADAS Newsletter 48 was 1912; but in Newsletter 51 Jane Butler corrected this to 1812. Tunbridge Wells was discovered in 1606 by the then ailing Lord North who recognised in the water a similarity to that which he had seen at Spa in the Low Countries some years previously. Barnet was discovered in 1650 and was advertised in the Perfect Diurnal of 5 June 1652. Pepys second visit was on 11 August 1667 when he afterwards went to the Red Lion.

There were other wells in our vicinity at Hampstead, which was chalybeate (iron bearing). Kilburn was partly so and other wells have been noted at Cuffley, Welwyn, Totteridge, Muswell Hill, Islington and Sadlers Wells. As time progressed these became amusement parks with a well/spring and many died out.

That famous traveller Celia Fiennes, visited Barnet, but finding the well full of leaves and the water coming up dirty when drawn, did not drink.

Barnet survived until 1840 when it was demolished only to be resurrected in the early 20th century as a curiosity!

For further,reading:

Wise B.                                                         Bulletin of the Barnet & District

Local History Society. Nov. 1976,

Addison W.                                                 English Spas. Batsford 1951.

Potter G.                                                       Hampstead Wells., pub. 1904.

Reprinted Camden History Society 1978.

For anyone curious enough to search out the site of the Kilburn Well its site is within the angle formed by Kilburn High Road and Belsize Road. In 1947 there was still a stone tablet let into the wall recording this fact.

My thanks are due to the Directors of Weston Research Laboratories Ltd for permission to carry out this work.

SAXON AND NORMAN LONDON

Ann Saunders reports on the January Lecture:

In an outstandingly interesting and informative lecture, John Clark, author of the Museum_: of London’s excellent booklet, Saxon and Norman London, gave us an account of the history of the city between the fifth and the thirteenth centuries – a period which he said, he felt to be the most intriguing in all London’s past. He began by describing Britain after the Roman withdrawal of troops in 410 A.D. Left undefended the Anglo-Saxons began to arrive, first as invaders and then as settlers. At its best, theirs was an Iron Age civilisation they shunned towns, preferring to live in the countryside. Roman London, which may well have been experiencing a recession as early as the second half of the fourth century, despite its new and elaborate river wall, fell into decay. With its twin purposes of government and trade both in abeyance, it must have become a ghost town with a population of near-squatters living within the walls which no longer encircled anything worth protecting. The progressive dilapidation of the Roman house excavated at Billingsgate demonstrated that London decay was gradual and that there was no sudden, violent catastrophe.

By the eighth century, there had been a resurgence. The Venerable Bede, writing about 730 A.D., described the city as ‘the mart of many nations’; by the third quarter of the ninth century, Alfred the Great had halted the Viking invasions; he proceeded to put the walls of London in good repair. Officials, such as the port-reeve, later known as the sheriff, and the aldermen, made an appearance; city life was regulated by the folk-moot and the busting. The contingent from London acquitted itself well at the battle of Hastings and the Londoners were able to drive their own bargain with William the Conqueror. By the 1140s, their descendants were beginning to assert their right to elect a mayor and to form themselves in­to a self-governing commune, a right that was confirmed by King John shortly before he was constrained to sign Magna Carta. The City Seal was struck, showing St. Paul with drawn sword against a background of imposing buildings.

Mr Clark then described how the medieval city adopted a noble origin for itself; – Geoffrey of Monmouth’s version of its foundation by the much travelled Brutus as New Troy. He concluded, more realistically with William FitzStephen’s proud description of the city which he knew and loved and which had nurtured Thomas a Becket; a city with good government, fine buildings, energetic apprentices skating on the ice-covered marsh beyond Moorgate, and an excellent ‘take-away restaurant’ beside the river, should its citizens need to deal with unexpected guests; a city of which it could truly be said that it spreads its fame wider, sends its wealth and wares further, and lifts its head higher than all others.

POSTER COMPETITION FOR JUNIOR MEMBERS   A note from BRYAN HACKETT, our Junior representative

As 1982 is the 21st anniversary of the foundation of HADAS, we hope to involve as many members as possible in the celebrations. School members (4 schools are corporate members of HADAS) have been asked to take part in a poster competition to produce a poster on an archaeological or historical theme. The title chosen is ‘Scenes from History,” and artists can choose to illustrate any period either in prehistoric or historic times, from early cave-dwellers down to a scene from industrial archaeology of the turn of this century.

Individual Junior (under-18) members are also eligible to enter the competition and this is a cordial invitation to them to do so.

The rules are:

1.     Posters should be either double crown (20″ x 30″ or crown size (15″ x 20″).

2.     They can be the work of a group of students in a school or of an individual artist.

.3.        Each school can submit several entries if it wishes individual Junior members of HADAS may submit up to three designs each.

4.     Entries should reach Mrs Grafton Green by March 31, 1982.

As regards School members, HADAS will provide a prize, worth £10, for the school from which the winning entry comes. As regards Junior members, there will be a small prize if a Junior member wins.

A selection of entries will, it is hoped, be on show at the 21st Birthday party on April 24, 1982, which will be attended by the Mayor of Barnet_t Mrs Rosa Freedman. It is also hoped to show entries at the AGM in Hendon Library on May 11, 1982.

If any problems or difficulties arise in connection with the competitIon please contact the Hon. Secretary.

BITS AND BOBS

HADAS member Dr Ann Saunders, who talked to us in November about the history or Marylebone, will be lecturing on, Feb 16 at Bedford College, Regents Park, NW1, on “Marylebone Park 1537 – 1811.” Lecture starts at 5.15, but if you go along a bit earlier you can have a free tea, being served from 4.30 on! HADAS members, Dr. Saunders assures us, will be most welcome.

Many thanks to the, members who kindly responded to the invitation in the December Newsletter to help re-instate Barnet Museum: Alec Gouldsmith, Brigid Grafton Green, Audrey Hooson, Isobel McPherson, Andrew and Joan Pares, and Linda Webb. Their names have been passed to the Curator, Bill Taylor, who asks us to express his thanks and to say he will be in touch with volunteers in the next month or so to give details of when and what, help is needed. Meantime if any other members would like to add their names to the list, please let Brigid Grafton Green know.

In^–the October newsletter we mentioned the special-interest group which Mrs Beatrice Shearer is hoping to form for everyone working on documents concerned with population history in London – parish registers, census records,. manor court records, surveys, etc.

The inaugural meeting of this group will be held on Sat. Feb 6 at the Museum of Landon from 10.30 – 12.30. There is an open invitation to all interested local historians to attend.

Congratulations to HADAS member Andrew Pares who was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours, for political and public service in London. Mr Pares and his wife, Joan, joined the Society seven years ago and have been keen supporters of our lectures and other activities ever since. Mrs Pares is one of the hard-working team which has been processing the West Heath finds. Mr Pares, who still holds many offices in voluntary bodies in the.. Borough, was:Mayor of Barnet in 1976-7, and in that capacity officially opened the HADAS exhibition “Archaeology in Action” at Church Farm House Museum on Feb 19 1977. He was the inspiration and founder-chairman of the Barnet Voluntary Service Council, to which we are affiliated. We rejoice with him in this well-earned honour.

Dear Editor,

The account in the HADAS December. Newsletter of Anthony Salvin and his work was most interesting. Your readers may like to know that Salvin designed ‘two schools in what is now the borough of Haringey. One, St James’, Tetherdown, in Muswell Hill was demolished some years ago, but the other, St Michael’s Primary School, Highgate (1852) can be seen today from North Road. Salvin’s original buildings have been recently converted to a nursery, and infant section, a new junior school having been constructed a little distance away, and the facade including the belfry restored.

Yours sincerely,
JOAN SCHWITZER

Chairman, Hornsey Historical Society.

The Old Schoolhouse,

136 Tottenham Lane,

London N8

The Museum of London’s spring programme contains details of further – interesting “Workshops” on forthcoming Thursdays at 1.10 pm in the Education Department of the Museum, including:

Feb 4             The Work of a Paper Conservator                             John Bayne

11       Palaeolithic Flints from Yiewsley                              David Longden

18        Preserving our Textile Heritage                                 Kay Staniland

25       London Pottery – 1150-1350                                     Alan Vince

Mar 4 “Penny, Cheap & Nasty” – the Ernest King Collection     Christine Johnstone,

 11  Creating an exhibition: London’s Flying Start”                   Colin Manton

18 Animal Remains from London Archaeological Sites  Philip Armitage

25 The Taking of Snuff                                                        Tessa Murdoch

All those in charge of Workshops are members of the Museum staff.

And should you be in the Museum, don’t forget to look in on “London’s Flying Start”, where there is much to interest members in the recent history of our Borough. The exhibition goes on until May 9. Admission charges are adults 60p; children, students and pensioners, 30p.

HOW OLD IS THE MANOR HOUSE

HADAS members, under the leadership of Paddy Musgrove, have been excavating the cellar passage at Manor House, East End Road. A report is being prepared.

EXCAVATIONS AT FINCHLEY 1978-79 Pt.1               Report by Paddy Musgrove

The Background

The Victorian rectory of St. Mary-at-Finchley, Hendon Lane, N3, designed by Anthony Salvin, (1) was demolished in 1973 (2) and replaced by a modern rectory in the western portion of the then extensive gardens. Surface finds made during the rebuilding period included 17th century stoneware and a number of small yellow paving bricks, similar to those found elsewhere in the Borough of Barnet (e.g. at Burroughs Gardens and Church Terrace, Hendon) and thought by the Guildhall Museum to be of 13th/14th century date (3). Some of these were found in isolation; others had been reused, together with bricks of much more recent date, to make a garden path for the Victorian rectory.

When the Rev. T. Reader-White, founder of Christ’s College, was appointed rector in 1848, one of his first acts was to demolish the old rectory, then standing in what is now Rectory Close, and to build his new rectory on land to the north, known as the “Old Orchard” (4). The Tithe Map of 1841 shows the old building was of eccentric plan and abutting onto the boundary of the church­yard directly facing the tower of the church (Fig. 1).

Reader White’s predecessor, Ralph Worsley, whose wife inherited Moss Hall, chose to live in Nether Street rather than in the old rectory (5)  a possible reflection of the age or condition of the building, of which we have various descriptions.

C. O. Banks, in a manuscript “index” held in the Borough of Barnet’s Local History Collection, states that the old rectory was “a whitewashed house that stood facing the west tower of the church”. He further records that “in the spring of 1939 Frank Marcham wanted to sell 2 very fine water colours of the back view of the rectory looking from the corner of the north outside aisle at the west end, It stood in a direct line facing the tower and overlooking the churchyard. The red bricks of the east side of the rectory formed the boundary of the churchyard”. Unfortunately, we are not told the date of Frank Marcham’s pictures, nor do we know where they are today.

The V.C.H. tells us that “the parsonage house, mentioned in 1476, stood near the church and in 1810 was chiefly built of timber, with roofs of slate and tiles”, while Alfred D. Cheney, writing about John Spendlove (Finchley’s own notorious “Rector of Bray”, who died in 1581) records that “the old rectory where he resided (a long, low-ceilinged, thatch-roofed building) stood within the grounds of the present modern (i.e. Victorian – P.M.) edifice, but much nearer the road.” (6)

Although the descriptions vary widely, their references to the positioning of the building are all compatible with its location shown on the 1841 Tithe Map. The odd outline shown in that map could well indicate a building assembled in bits and pieces over a long period and appearing to both Ralph Worsley and Reader White as of such antiquity or decrepitude as to persuade them to live elsewhere.

The relevance of all this to the trial trenches opened by HADAS in the rectory garden in 1978 lies in the fact that our investigations in the “Old Orchard”, reported below, yielded large quantities of dumped building materials which, although of different periods, had all been deposited in the mid-19th century, i.e. around the time of the demolishing of the old rectory and the building of Salvin’s new one.

The Excavation

During April and May of 1978, three small trenches (A, B and C in Figure 1) were opened, Trench A measured 4 metres by 2 metres and B and C were each 2 metres square. Their locations and dimensions were largely dictated by the need to avoid areas soon to be taken over by builders.

St Mary’s church contains a 12th century font (dug up in the rectory grounds (7) sometime last century and subsequently stored variously in the Church belfry, “the back garden of Mr Wells, Ballards Lane, … occupier of Mr Plowman’s House (builder)” (8), and the rectory stables. (9) The church itself is referred to in 1274 (10), but fragments of earlier Norman masonry are built into one wall. The purpose of the excavation was to seek further evidence of this early occupation.

In the event, pottery dating from the 12th century through to the present century was indeed found. The most common finds in all three trenches were, however, fragments of hand-made roofing tiles, bricks and other builders’ rubble including thick painted plaster from lath and plaster walls.

Trench A showed five separate layers of made-up material, but here, despite their substantial content of medieval and other pro-Victorian pottery, the creation of all these layers can be dated by clay pipes and blue-and-white crockery to the 19th century at earliest.

At the north of the site, the natural land surface slopes to the north­west down to the Dollis Brook and here, in trench C, it became clear that, also around the time the Victorian rectory was built_, a substantial “terrace” was created along the slope of the hill, partly for garden landscaping, but also to provide level land around Salvin’s new rectory building.

Figure 2 shows a section of this “terrace” build-up exposed in trench C. The section of field drain shown was in situ. With exterior and interior diameters of 2½ ins. and 1½ ins., the pipe is of a type which came into use about the mid-1840s. (11) his drain (and probably others) would have been needed to prevent surface water being dammed up behind the new raised “terrace”. Also, from the same layer, a clay tobacco pipe made by George Andrews, who was working in Highgate in 1845, helps to establish the approximate earliest date of deposit. In this trench, as in trench A, medieval pottery was found at all levels, as also were objects of 19th century date. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that the “terrace” was built up largely from materials deriving from the demolished early rectory.

For various reasons, including those of safety, it was not possible to excavate trench C to a depth, greater than 2.20 metres, but, as the drawn section shows, the natural clay beneath the “terrace” had been cut away at some period to form a pit or ditch with a very gradually sloping side. Being unable to determine the full extent and shape of the feature, we therefore can only speculate about its purpose. One possibility, however, is that it may have been dug to provide clay for brickmaking. Prior to about 1850, such shallow pits were customary, so as to facilitate the re-establishment of agricultural land. (12)

As trench C lay close to the boundary of the rectory garden, we decided to seek permission to open a trench at a later date in the garden of 33 Church Crescent in the hope of picking up this feature again. (In the spring of 1979 trench D – see Fig. 1 – was opened in Church Crescent and will be reported upon later.)

In the area of trench B we found that recent work by builders had removed all top soil, leaving only 21 cm., of dirty, yellow, gravelly clay on top of the undisturbed natural, but even this contained much rubble, together with oyster shells, post-medieval pottery and a single flint struck flake, one of five flakes of^–probable Mesolithic origin found on the site.

These, together with the chief pottery and other finds, will be described in the second part of this report, which will also deal with the features discovered in trench D.

FOOTNOTES:

1.       Victoria History of the  County of Middlesex, Vol. VI

2.       Finchley Press, 8th June, 1973

3.       HADAS Newsletter, No. 29, July 1973

4.        Tithe Map 1841

5.       Victoria History Middx., VoL VI.

6.       Home Counties Magazine, Vol. III, 1901, p. 288.

7.       Guide displayed in St. Mary’s Church,.

8.       W. Bolton, Home Counties Magazine, Vol. XI, 1909, p. 75; A. Heal, ibid.

9.          Miss D. St. Hill Bourne, Finchley Society Newsletter, June 1972

10.        V. C. H., Middx., Vol VI

11.        Nigel Harvey, Fields Hedges and Ditches

12.        Survey of Bedfordshire;  Brickmaking, a History & Gazetteer; Bedfordshire County Council and Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England)

Newsletter 127: September 1981

 HADAS CALENDAR

 Extended, summer outing season: Saturday, September 26, to Bath and Lacock

As mentioned in the August newsletter, the Bath excavation and Lacock Abbey outing in July was heavily overbooked. Reaction to a re-run has been favourable and the trip IS ON, writes Dorothy Newbury. I hope members will try to make it a full coach. If you would like to join the outing please complete the enclosed application form and send it, with cheque, to me at once.

 Weekend in Wales: September 11 to 13 This is fully booked with a short waiting list – but names can still be taken for last-minute cancellations.

 Autumn Minimart and Get-together: Saturday October 17 at St Mary’s Church Hall, at the top of Greyhound Hill (near Church Farm House

Museum), Hendon, NW4, from 11am to 3pm. Come and have coffee or ploughman’s lunch and meet old friends and new members. 1982 is HADAS’s 21st anniversary year and as there will be special activities to mark it, we have decided to hold our fund-raising market before Christmas instead of next spring. We make an appeal to members for their contributions to our usual stalls:

Cakes, groceries and preserves

Bric-a-brac (not large items)

Good-as-new clothing

Toys and books (not magazines)

Unwanted gifts, holiday mementoes, toilet goods, etc.

Please phone or deliver to Christine Arnott, 455 2751, or Dorothy Newbury, 203 0950.

 Winter programme: Here is advance notice of the pre-Christmas events – full details will be in the October newsletter.

Tuesday October 6 at Hendon Library, The Burroughs, NW4, 8pm for coffee, 8.30pm lecture. The Roman Port of London: Members will have read about, or seen on television, the Museum of London’s excavation in the Pudding Lane area of the City, now extending into Fish Street This is revealing timber structures associated with the revetments and Roman water front. There is a possibility of timber being four, which formed the northern end of the London Bridge of that time. Evidence of Roman warehouses and baths have been unearthed on the Pudding Lane site. Mr Gustav Milne, the site supervisor, is coming to talk to us on this latest Roman London discovery.

 Tuesday November 3 at Hendon Library: Excavations on Guernsey 1979-81 by Dr Ian Kinnes, MA, PhD.

 Tuesday December 8: Dinner at the RAF Museum, Hendon, with previewing of the Battle of Britain exhibition.

 Calling Junior Members: Just a note to remind you that there will be a meeting for junior members at my house on Saturday, September 5, at 2.30pm, writes Bryan Hackett. At this meeting I hope we will be able to discuss what activities we would like to do. Please write to me, or telephone, if you can come. Can you also tell me Whether or not you would like to go on the walk looking for the Roman road in Mill Hill on Sunday, October 4. Please contact me at 31 Temple Fortune Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, NW11 7XL, or telephone 455 9019.

 Research activities: There are meetings this month of two of the research groups, documentary and Roman, to which any interested members are invited. The documentary meeting is at 88 Temple Fortune Lane, NW11, on Thursday September 3, at 8pm. Please phone Brigid Grafton Green (455 9040) beforehand to guarantee there’s enough coffee to go round. The Roman meeting is at 13 Sunningfields Road, NW4′, on Tuesday September 29, at 8pm. There’s no need to phone Helen Gordon (203 1004) beforehand, but anyone contemplating going on the walks on October 4 or October 10 in search of Roman roads would be well advised to. The walks, she warns, are for the dedicated-as the terrain is unlikely to be rewarding.

 EVENTS ELSEWHERE

The current exhibition at Church Farm House Museum, Greyhound Hill, NW4, is titled Mill Hill – Our Village, our Suburb and has been organised in conjunction with the Mill Hill and Hendon Historical Society. It traces the development of Mill Hill from early times to the present day, with emphasis on important buildings and institutions and prominent’ people who have lived in the district.

 HADAS members are invited to a lecture organised by the Anglo-Israel Friendship League of Finchley at Avenue House, East End Road, N3, on Tuesday September 8 at 8pm. The sepaker is Mr Alexander Kinder, chairman of the Nautical Archaeological Society and an eminent under­water archaeologist, and his subject is An Underwater Archaeologist in Israel.

 The University of Leeds is running a weekend course, on September 11 to 13, on New Work on the History of Mining and Ironworking in North East England; The CBA Group 7 (Essex, Herts and Cambs) annual general meeting and conference on Saturday October 3, in Cambridge, has the Stone Age as its central subject; and the ninth York Archeological Weekend, organised by the University of Leeds and the York Archaeological Trust, on November 20-22, has as its subject the Great Cities of Medieval Britain. For more details of any of these, contact this month’s newsletter editor, Liz Sagues, 868 8431.

ARCHAEOLOGY IN WINTER, Part two:There are more courses which may interest members, following on from last month’s listings.

Among local WEA classes are: GOLDERS GREEN: Roman Archaeology (Thursdays, 8pm to 10pm, Unitarian Church Hall, Hoop Lane, NW11, from September 24) and London Life and London Buildings (Mondays, 8pm to 10pm, 44 Rotherwick Road, NW11, from September 21). Fees for 24 lectures £14.50 (pensioners £10.50). More details from Mrs F. Michaelson, 452 8850.

 MILL HILL AND EDGWARE: Geology, a practical approach (Wednesdays, 8pm to 10pm, Mill Hill Public School, The Ridgeway, NW7, from September 30), The Drama and The State in Ancient Greece (Mondays, 8pm to l0pm, Edgware Library, Hale Lane, from September 28) and Regency to Edwardian Houses and Interiors (Tuesdays, 10.30am to 12.30pm, Primary Hall, Union Church, Mill Hill Broadway, from Sep­tember 29). Fees for 24 meetings £15. More details from Peggy Davies, 959 3505.

 THE BARNETS: Local History (Fridays, 8pm, Wimbush House, Westbury Road; N12, from October 2, 12 meetings), London Life and London Buildings (Thursdays, 8pm, South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10, from September 24), The” Beauty of old Churches , Queen Elizabeth’s Girls School, Meadway, Barnet, from September 21), Ancient Egypt – Religion, Gods and Myths (Thursdays, 10am, Assembly Rooms, 1st floor, 321 Colney Hatch Lane, N11, from September 24) and Britain in the Roman Empire (Fridays, 10am, Owens A.E. Centre, by 60 Chandos Avenue, N20, from September 25 – lecturer Tony Rook). Fees for 12 meetings £8.25, 24 meetings £16.50 or £15, reductions in all cases for pensioners. For more details phone Mrs S. Neville (Barnet) 449 6682, Miss E.F. Pearca, (Finchley) 446 2143, or Mr J. White (Friern Barnet) 368 6612.

 HENDON: Nineveh and Babylon in Biblical Times (Wednesdays, 7.30pm’ to 9.30pm, Hendon Library, from 30 September). Pee £15. For more details ring Helen Adam 202 7961.

 The NORTH LONDON POLYTECHNIC is running two short courses, plus a geology workshop, before Christmas. London’s Parks And Gardens is on Wednesdays, 2pm to 4pm, from November 4 to December 9; An Appreciation of the National Parks of England and Wales is also on Wednesdays, 6.30pm to 8.30pm, same dates; and the Geology Workshop, also Wednesdays, 6.30pm to 8.30pm, from October 7 to December 9. Fees for the courses are £10, for the workshop £16. For more information ring the poly’s Department of Geography and Geology, 607 2789.

 The CITY UNIVERSITY is also planning to repeat its two courses on Surveying and Photogrammetry for Archaeologists this autumn. Phone N.E. Lindsey of the Department of Civil Engineering, 253 4399, for more details.

 ROMAN EXHIBITION

Members of the Roman Research Group staged a week-long exhibition last month at Grahame Park comprehensive school’s Centre Point community centre, on the theme of Where did the Romans Live? It attracted a good deal of interest but did not, as its organisers had hoped, bring to light any back-garden finds of Roman material,

Newsletter No. 122 – April 1981

HADAS CALENDAR

April lecture: Tuesday April 7th : Greek Royal Art by Dr. Malcolm Colledge. This will be Dr. Colledge’s third visit to talk to us – the last memorable occasion being in November 1976 when we overflowed the Library to hear his lecture on Pompeii. Many of us will also remember him for his oratory at the Roman Banquet.

Dr. Colledge is a member of the staff at the University of London and has taught Classics at Westfield College for the last 14 years.

On April 7th he is coming to tell us how Greek Royalty threw money around, commissioned buildings and bought Art, partly for their own pleasure and partly for propaganda purposes. He will include some slides on recent finds at VERGINA in what seem to be the Royal Tombs there.

The Annual General Meeting will be on Tuesday May 19th at the Library,

The Burroughs N.W.4. Coffee 8-8.30 p.m. formal meeting 8.30 p.m. After the business part of the  meeting Bill Firth will show some slides of Industrial Archaeology, dealing particularly with the early days of the

Schweppes factory in West Hendon which was recently demolished.

A formal notice calling the AGM is enclosed with this Newsletter.

Subscriptions for the new financial year. Please see enclosed leaflet from the Treasurer, Jeremy Clynes.

MR. MAHER

We have heard with great sadness of the death of Margaret’s husband after a long illness..

PUBLIC LECTURES AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM May – July 1981

A series of seven lectures on Science in the service of archaeology

20 th May Aspects of science applied to the conservation of museum treasures Dr. Ruth Boff.

27^th May Conserving major finds from the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial Nigel Williams

3^rd June Scientific ways of looking at the past: the work of the BM Research Laboratory .Dr Paul Craddock

10^th June The analysis of marbles from the classical world: new discoveries by scientific means. Dr. Susan Walker

17^th June  Bronze disease and other ailments: the practical conservation of metal objects.  Mrs Hannah Lane

24^th June The conservation of masterpieces in glass Mrs. Davison

1^st July      Scientific dating techniques: Carbon 14 and beyond.         Richard Burleigh:

No tickets required:        all on Wednesday at 1.15 p.m.

In life it’s amazing how one thing leads to another. Had I not mis-spent my youth in the Gaumont and Odeon cinemas (not to mention the New Bohemia and the Rex) I would never have developed an interest in the American Wild West, never taken part in the archaeological work done

at Little Big Horn in 1985 and subsequently, and never have seen myself as a very amateur archaeologist. Thus it was in 1997, with a substantial windfall jangling in my pocket, I saw an estate agent’s board advertising “Castle and Moat For Sale”, within two miles of my Northamptonshire home – and I never knew it was there! I had to submit a sealed bid and wondered whether I’d fixed on the right number. The rest, as they say, is history…

The Mount (my castle) covers some 1.72 acres, is sort of triangular in shape and has a very deep (25 feet in places), well-preserved and quite dramatic moat, There is quite a bit of tree cover, particularly around the edges, and it occupies a dominant position on a ridge overlooking the valley of the River Tuve in south Northamptonshire. It was certain- ly used in Norman times as a ringwork. a sort of squashed motte with all the buildings inside the perimeter moat.

How nice, I thought, to do the odd day’s digging on my own castle to while away my declining years. Alas, I had reckoned without English Heritage, as I has bought a Scheduled Ancient Monument and I’m not allowed to go up there and break wind without their consent.I also realised the need for a proper earthwork survey, geophysical investiga­tions and and professional control. All very expensive.

In conjunction with Northamptonshire Heritage a management plan was produced. This is a detailed document which sets out the history and plans for the future, including a report from the local Tree Officer recommending that certain trees be removed because they were a dan­ger to the archaeology, or to persons or property. I sent a copy of the management plan to the village but, of course, no-one really bothered to read it. Then I applied to have twenty of the one hundred and thirty trees removed and the balloon went up! Nasty letters, petitions, protests, a bit in the local newspaper and general bad feeling. This was not helped by the fact that two neighbouring gardens were encroach­ing on my land. More bad feeling, verbal and physical confrontation and worst of all, horrendous lawyers’ bills.

I suppose it was Bridget’s idea and persistence that made me approach Time Team. Nothing much happened but I had another go as a member of the Time Team Club at the same time as they were in touch with the County Archaeologists about a possible location. Two lovely researchers came to look at the site in February, Bridget plied them with home-made soup, bread and cheese. I opened my best bot­tle of Cab. Sauv. and it all happened from then.

April, then October and finally the end of July were suggested as likely dates and I was rewarded with three of the most exciting days of my life. Everyone involved with the project, Tony Robinson, Mick Aston et at could not have been nicer. There are a number of human stories that space does not permit me to recall but I have promised Dorothy to speak at the HADAS meeting in January and to show the professional video that we took of the whole exercise. Incredibly, and because of Time Team’s influence, I made peace with the village and settled my boundary dispute in front. of the cameras. Quite how much will appear in the Time Team fifty-minute programme remains to be seen. At this moment I do not have a date for transmission but I promise that HADAS members will know as soon as I do.

(Readers of the SAGA Magazine will have read about Derek and his cas­tle in the September issue.)

KING ALFRED’S GRAVE

In King Alfred’s day, monastic life was not flourishing, a fact of which he was very aware, having received little formal education himself as a boy, although he had made two journeys to Rome by the age of ten.

After the society’s lecture in October about Archaeology in Winchester, and the search for King Alfred’s grave on the site of Hyde Abbey, I referred to the book “The Life and Times of Alfred the Great” by the late Douglas Woodruff, who gained first class honours in history at New College, Oxford. As we heard in the lecture, Alfred did found New Minster, Hyde Abbey in Winchester and intended it to be a place of learning where learned monks from abroad were to be encouraged to reside, there being a shortage of scholars in Wessex. To quote from Douglas Woodruff:

At the time of Alfred’s death ” the New Minster was not ready and he was buried in the old, and when, a year or two later, the New Minster, soon to be Hyde Abbey, was ready, his body was transferred there, apparently with the full acquiesence of the canons of the Old Minster, because, they said, he troubled them by appearing at night and walking in their cloisters on a way which much alarmed them. At the Reformation, when Hyde Abbey like all other religious houses was suppressed and then despoiled, the tombs of the Saxon kings were not spared. Some of the bones were later gathered into wooded caskets and placed above the chancel in Winchester Cathedral, but all mixed up. There they remain.” I hope this may be of interest to members of HADAS.

Margaret E. Phillips

SPECIAL OFFER TO MEMBERS

Some years ago Bernard H. Oak, a local resident, published a book entitled “A History of Mill Hill in its Environment”, which was sold through local book­shops and libraries at £17.50. Bernard is now able to offer copies to members of HADAS at a special price of £3.00. If you would like a copy please ring Brian Wrigley on 020 8959 5982 and he will arrange for all orders to be delivered to one address for collection.

RECENT PLANNING
APPLICATIONS

58 Gervase Road, Edgware, Middx, HAS OEP for front, rear and side extension;

81 Gervase Road, Edgware, HA8 OEW for rear extension.

Gervase Road joins Thirleby Road where sherds of Roman pottery have been found and this area is close to Hanshaw Drive where HADAS is involved in an excavation.

WANTED: A PROFESSIONAL INDEXER

NEW SOCIETY MUSHROOMS

Welcome to a new local history society in the Borough. John Donovan, who lived in Friern Barnet for thirty years, fulfiled a long-held ambition when he organised the inaugural meeting of The Friern Barnet & District Local History Society at Friern Barnet Town Hall in September. Forty members of the public attended and heard Andrew Mussell talk about the Borough’s Archives and Local Studies collec­tion. With the support of local resident Dr. Oliver Natelson, another keen local history enthusiast, the society has mushroomed and now boasts 95 members. The next meeting will be held at 8.00pm on Wednesday 10 January in Friern Barnet Town Hall when our own John Heathfield will he speaking.

If you would like to join the society or find out more about their aims and objectives contact John Donovan, 19 Cringle Court, Thornton Road. Little Heath, Herts, EN6 IJR or telephone him on 01707 642886

No 356                                                 NOVEMBER 2000                                   EDITOR DAWN ORR

HADAS’ OWN – THE EVER SUCCESSFUL MINIMART  …….. SATURDAY, 14th OCTOBER

“Does anyone know what this is ?”

The annual cry of the MINI MARKETEER rises above the busy hum of chatter and hurried movement. In and out the front door we go, unloading the various elasticated vehicles – we thought there wouldn’t be any, but here they are, and the stalwarts are on parade. Absolute treasures every one!
“Thank goodness it’s not raining :”

“Hullo – haven’t seen you for ages :”

“You need a man (?!) – here – let me help you :”

“When’s the coffee coming round ?”

“Have you had a meringue yet? Best ever this year!”

“Asparagus quiche, please…”

Boxes, bins, bundles – open, unpack, lay out – ah, “there’s the rub…”

An object (not “of art”) emerges from careful layers of wrapping and the cry we heard comes up s “Does anyone … ?” followed shortly by “Is it priced ?” and inevitably “it” lands on the Bric-a-brac tables- a foursome in a row this year and a welcome relief from the log jam.

If I could find my way into the 21st century, I could put this onto a disk (sic!) and just ‘tweak it’ a bit each year, for indeed the formula tried and true works every time – even when effort has been made to cut it down or make it ‘MICRO’.

So – the funds are still rolling in as we go to press – total to date £950

Don’t let’s destroy THE DOME – just put Dorothy in charge of it!

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday, November 14^th HADAS LECTURE ‘Medieval London Bridges – Lost & Found’ by Bruce Watson

Tuesday, November 28^thCHRISTMAS VISIT to GEFFRYE MUSEUM – ‘English Domestic Interiors through the Ages’ followed-by DINNER at PRIDEAUX HOUSE, HACKNEY. (Details and app. form encl.)

Tuesday, January 9^th

HADAS LECTURE An evening with our member DEREK BATTEN sharing the TIME TEAM’S visit to his ‘CASTLE’ at Towcester, prior to its showing on TV.

Tuesday, February 13th     HADAS LECTURE ‘Aspects of Roman Tunisia’ by KADER CHELBI

Note. LECTURES ALL START at 8pm prompt at AVENUE HOUSE, 17 EAST END RD. FINCHLEY N3 3QE followed by question time and coffee. We close promptly at 10 p.m.

The October Lecture – Tuesday 10th October, by Graham Scobie, who is publicity and- communications officer of Winchester City Museum.

Tessa Smith reports:

Several of us who visited Winchester as part of the Isle of Wight weekend last year met the lecturer, who showed us the excavation at Hyde Abbey. We saw how far the Abbey had extended and where the high altar was thought to have been. His lecture was a follow–up to that

visit.

Archaeologists search for body of Alfred the Great in Winchester car park.

The media had, of course, got it wrong again, under the auspices of

Winchester City Museum, Graham Scobie and his team have been on a dig – not for the body of Alfred, and not in the car park, but in a site claimed to be that of Alfred’s grave at Hyde Abbey, in the parish of St. Bartholomew, north of Winchester Cathedral.

The Normans established the Cathedral on the site of King Alfred’s Saxon church, where he was originally buried. At the Dissolution of the monasteries, his body was moved and re-buried near the high altar at the New Abbey at Hyde. Lead tablets had been found on 3 tombs, thought to be those of the King, Ealhswith his wife, and his son, Edward. Today the Gate house or the Abbey remains, as does the parish church of St. Bartholomew.

Five years ago, Graham began a community project to excavate at the Hyde Abbey’s outer court, to try to gain understanding of the origins of the Abbey. The brief was to excavate only to post-medieval levels in an attempt to confirm that it was the site of Alfred’s grave. The community project was not, however, the first dig in this area. In the 18th century the site was bought by the local authority to be converted into a goal during construction of a garden for the governor, large stones were discovered which revealed a stone coffin encased in lead, with a body partly corrupt. Subsequently, more coffins were found and the lead sold for 5 guineas! An 18th century plan of this area identified the sites of the three graves.

In 1866, trenches were excavated on the site, once more looking for evidence of Alfred chalk-lined coffins were uncovered but no human remains. This was the time of Burke and Hare and local animosity towards the excavation caused it to be hurriedly terminated.

In 1906, a local landowner excavated large pits by the high altar,

using prisoners as a labour force. He claimed that this was the area where the 3 coffins had originally been dug up.

Graham’s excavations have uncovered, the foundations of an apsidal east end of a church building, which had re-used earlier stone. The stone shape of a woman laid on her side, with some original paint still visible, is astonishing evidence. The team has also uncovered the 3 pits previously excavated in 1903, in front of the possible site of the high altar. A bone identified as a human hip bone has been dated to 1780. The on-going community dig is intended to give local people ‘hands-on’ archaeological experience, 1,200 people last year, with a maximum of 45 at one time. The local archaeological society was also invited to take part. There are many questions unanswered … Graham foresees 5 more years digging on the site.

RIFLEMAN ALFRED CROOK 1899  – 1917

A soldier of the Great War with no known grave.                          By Myfanwy Stewart

This obituary is based on original letters and documents cherished by his mother until her death, bequeathed to her daughter and then inherited by the writer.

Sarah and George Crook were married at the parish church, New Southgate in 1889. She had signed the register but George had only been able to mark it with a cross, as had one of the witnesses. They were a poor family and between 1891 and 1895 two sons and a daughter had died in infancy. Their son Alfred was born in April, 1899 but his father died young and Sarah married Richard Sindle in 1906. He survived the Salonika campaign and kept his ticket from Salonika to Friern Barnet as a souvenir. They both lived into their eighties.

In 1913, Alfred was working as a delivery boy and a character reference for a new job, written in March 1914, describes him as “civil and obliging”. However, by July 1914, aged only 15, he had enlisted in the army and was in the 6th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. His army Certificate of education shows he was competent in arithmetic (“compound rules and reduction of money, avoirdupois weight and linear measurement, addition and subtraction of vulgar fractions, a simple messing account”), that he was proficient in writing regimental orders from dictation and that he could write a letter.

From the beginning the new recruits were suffering from various ailments and March 1915 Alfred was in an isolation hospital at Winchester for four days with a fever but was soon dispatched to France. In August a severe attack of group B typhoid was diagnosed and the matron of the isolation hospital in Etaples wrote to his mother that he was “very weak and ill” but that he sent his love. The padre, writing on the same day and hoping to reassure Alfred’s mother describes him as “very ill…but wonderfully bright at intervals… and a firm favourite and quite happy and content”. He recovered by the end of September but 28 days of Fever left him with an enlarged spleen and in October he was sent home on the SS hospital ship “Dieppe”, as shown by his kit bag label.

Alfred convalesced at Woodford and by November was back in barracks at Croydon. He was able to go to a friend’s wedding at Christmas but was inevitably sent back to France.

On the 8th July 1916 he qualified as a signaler second class and later in the month (date uncertain) was at the Belgium front. A parcel had been sent by his mother containing clothes. Army shortages are shown by the fact that he thanks her for the jersey but asks her to send another parcel so that can change my underclothes”. In October he was on active service. Only cards were allowed to be sent and his mother received one written on the 4th October. Splattered with mud and almost illegible, it reads “I am going in to the firing line tomorrow night. Will write as soon as possible… am in the best of health. Cheerio, all will meet some day Alf xxx.”

Alfred survived and in April 1917 was back in barracks in Sheerness, Kent. In a letter to his step father he writes “I am just about fed up with France, twice is enough for me”. He reveals that “Mother stopped me from going out again I am glad that she did”. He was optimistic that he would remain in England believing that the news from France was good, that the war could not last much longer and that “I think we have got them beat there”. I-le had served 3 years in the army and described himself as “an old squaddy”. Ominously all leave had been stopped except for special leave.

He had formed a close friendship with a fellow soldier, Will. He always referred to him as “my chum” – and in September 1917 he made the fateful decision to volunteer for another tour of overseas duty to be with him in the same platoon. Alfred was soon back in the trenches but came out on the 301 September only to receive bad news. By a terrible irony, almost immediately after returning to France, Will had been injured in the knee and was subsequently repatriated back to Britain. On October 1st Alfred told his mother “I wish my chum was with me” and that “when you have a chum with you, a good one like Will, it cheers you up”. Sarah Crook had heard that her son