Past Newsletters

No. 500 November 2012 Edited by Jim Nelhams

Editorial

Newsletter 500: another milestone in our history. Our monthly newsletters are one of the benefits of membership of our group. Although HADAS was founded in 1961, the first newsletter did not appear until October 1969. Through the early years, publication was occasional, so only now have we reached our 500. It’s still a chance to dig up some of our past, while including reports on recent activity. As usual, we start, as we should, by looking forward.

HADAS DIARY 2012 – 2013

All Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8.00 pm,
with coffee /tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members welcome (£1.00). Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central Station (Northern line) is a short walk away.

Tuesday 13 November: Archaeological Discoveries in Southwark. Lecture by Peter Moore, Pre- Construct Archaeology (PCA).

Peter has been working in archaeology for 32 years and in the commercial archaeological sector for the last 25, as a site supervisor for 3 years and as a project manager for 21 years. Before join- ing PCA in 1995 he concentrated on managing projects in northeast London and southwest Essex, and since then he has been responsible for undertaking projects across southeast England and on a national basis. He has been a director of PCA since 1998. He writes –

“The lecture I will give will consist of the recent findings PCA have made around Bermondsey Square (Roman, Saxon and Medieval) and Elephant & Castle (which will be ongoing – Medieval to 19th century graveyard) and that PCA have made together with the Oxford Unit on the Thameslink projects at Borough Market, Borough High Street and London Bridge (Roman to Post-Medieval).”

Sunday 2 December: Christmas Party at Avenue House, 12 noon – 4.30 pm (approx.) A buffet lunch. Price £22 to include some drink. Your chance to meet or catch up with friends and colleagues. A booking form is with this newsletter. Please return this by 15th November as we need to book the right amount of food and drink.

Tuesday 8 January: The Reign of Akhenaten: Revolution or Evolution? Lecture by Lucia Gahlin (who has kindly stepped in to replace Nathalie Andrews).

Tuesday 12 February: From Longboat to Warrior: the evolution of the wooden ship. Lecture by Eliott Wragg, Thames Discovery Programme.

Tuesday 12 March: The Railway Heritage Trust – Lecture by Andy Savage.

Tuesday 9 April: Nautical Archaeology – past, present and future. Lecture by Mark Beattie-Edwards, Programme Director, Nautical Archaeology Society.

Future Outings
We are looking at possible hotels in the Buxton area for our long outing next year. More information

when available. The new Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth was due to open this November, but the date has now changed to “early in 2013”. It certainly should be open next summer, so we plan a visit to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard at some stage.

Extracts from our Old Newsletters

From Newsletter 100 (June 1979)

The first news was that although we now have a small room at Avenue House where we keep books and records and 3 or 4 people can work, we are still without, and still desperately need, a real head- quarters. If any member can suggest how HADAS might obtain the use of a large room, with some means of lighting and warmth, available at weekends as well as during the week, will they please, without hesitation, let any member of the Committee know about it? The room needs to be big enough to take 20/25 members at a processing session; and HADAS would have to be the sole occupant, so that the room could be locked when not in use and work in progress left undisturbed.
(Perhaps at Church Farmhouse… Ed.)

From Newsletter 200 (October 1987): A Greater Architect than Wren?

Some authorities claim he was, but Henry Yevely, master mason, is a name of little popular recognition. HADAS member Ann Saunders is aiming to end some of that neglect, with an exhibition on Yeveley at the Church of St Magnus-the-Martyr, Lower Thames Street beside London Bridge, from October 12-18.

Henry Yeveley, writes Dr Saunders, was responsible for raising the walls of Westminster Hall to support the magnificent hammerbeam roof, for continuing the nave of Westminster Abbey, for work on Canterbury Cathedral and at the Tower of London, and for much else besides. The exhibition attempts to illustrate his more important achievements and to give some idea of the religious and social life of the 14th century.

Events associated with the exhibition are an illustrated talk of The Dress of Working Londoners in the Time of Henry Yeveley, by Helen McCarthy (October 13, 1.05pm) followed by a short recital of medieval music; a slide lecture on Yeveley by John Harvey (October 14, 7pm); readings from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (October 15, 12.50pm); a lecture for schools on medieval London by Dr Saunders (October 15, 2.30pm). All are in the church.

From Newsletter 300 (March 1996)

Percy Reboul, another long-standing member, is reported in an extract from a Plastics Industry Journal: The Greater London Industrial Archaeological Society (GLIAS) heard an entertaining history of “The Material with a Thousand Uses”. The history of Bakelite was presented by Percy Reboul, who is Chairman of the Plastics Historical Society. The golden age of Bakelite radios and telephones has now passed, bringing the closure of the 26-acre Tyseley plant in Birmingham, operated by BXL for whom Percy worked. The thrust of the lecture, which stimulated considerable interest among the GLIAS members, was firmly in the past. Percy’s gift for bringing this to life and his unfailing enthusiasm for
the subject were clearly on display. (Percy gave the same lecture to the Finchley Society on 29 February.)

From Newsletter 400 (July 2004): Congratulations to Dorothy by Denis Ross

Congratulations to our Vice-President Dorothy Newbury, who has been awarded an MBE for services to Archaeology in North London. This is a very well-deserved honour as Dorothy has devoted herself to HADAS for many years, during which time she has raised large sums of money for the Society, organised outings and newsletters, served on the committee and pursued the Society’s interests in many other ways.

Memories from Andrew Selkirk

Last year, we asked members to let us have their memories. A number were included in the November 2011 newsletter. Here is an extract from notes penned (or keyboarded?) by Andrew Selkirk. –

I first met HADAS across the fence at the West Heath excavations. We lived the other side of Hampstead Heath, a good 40 minutes’ walk away, but one Sunday we decided to walk over and see if we could find the excavations we had heard were taking place. With some difficulty we found the dig. We talked politely across the fence and when they heard we were archaeologists, we were invited in and shown round the dig and the finds.

I went along to some of their meetings and they seemed a friendly lot, but then several years later, I was suddenly invited to be their Chairman. I was very flattered but I did not really feel suitable. They pressed me and so in a moment of weakness, I was accepted and was chairman for 18 very happy years.

I soon found out that the society had been run by three very formidable ladies. The first was Brigid Grafton Green who was the secretary and Newsletter editor, and was in many ways the great driving force. She had originally read English and Logic at Oxford, and then took an extramural diploma in archaeology. By profession, she was a journalist. She wrote several books about local affairs, a History of the Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Milk for the Millions, an account of College Farm, built as a showcase for the Express Dairies in 1883.

Then there was Daphne Lorimer who ran the West Heath excavation. Daphne was originally trained as a radiographer. Having brought up her family, Daphne took up archaeology and took the London course that specialised in animal bones. She became an animal bones specialist and in great demand for producing reports on the subject.

The third was Dorothy Newbury. She and her husband Jack ran and still run a printing factory in the heart of Hendon. Dorothy made two major contributions, firstly by masterminding the Newsletter after Brigid, and printing it, but most of all by running the “Minimart” every October – the highlight of the social year. Financially, this was very successful, usually making a profit over £1000 – keeping the society afloat and enabling a certain amount of luxury.

The other major character at HADAS was Ted Sammes. Ted was born and brought up in the borough and there was little he did not know about Hendon. He worked in the milling industry and knew all about the various types of wheat. He never married and to some extent treated HADAS as his family. He maintained a flat in Hendon even when his business took him down to Maidenhead where he joined the local archaeological society. On his death, we discovered that he had left the residue of his estate jointly to HADAS and Maidenhead Archaeological Society.

News of Mary O’Connell Stewart Wild

Older members will remember Mary O’Connell, a member for many years, who gave us fascinating illustrated talks on many subjects, especially London’s hidden gems and historical oddities. As a quali- fied Blue Badge guide, she also led guided walks for HADAS outings in and around Clerkenwell, an area of which her knowledge was encyclopaedic.

Some years ago, after she was widowed, she moved from Colindale down to Taunton in Somerset in order to be nearer her daughter Susan, and we lost touch with her.

At the end of September Stewart Wild heard from Susan to the effect that Mary has been living comfortably in a retirement home in Bristol for the last four years, but that recently, now in her 86th year, her health has sadly deteriorated and her memory has almost gone. Stewart has Susan’s address in Bristol and will keep in touch with her.

New Courses at City Lit

The City Lit, has begun offering non-accredited courses in Archaeology and plan to expand this provision very shortly. New courses for the Winter and Spring terms are as follows:

– Archaeology: Key archaeological sites of Great Britain

Explore archaeological case studies from the Stone Age to the recent British Past. Dates: Tuesday 10.30-12.30, 8th January-13th March. Course code: HAY02

– Archaeology in London

Explore the archaeology and history of London through class-based sessions and fieldtrips Dates: Tuesday 10.30-12.30, 9th April-18th June. Course code: HAY03

For further information visit the City Lit website or phone Humanities on 020 7492 2652.

From the Iron Age to World War II – Outing to St Albans on 30 September 2012

For our last outing of the year, with Stewart Wild but not, sadly, his co-organiser June Porges, who passed away at the beginning of September (see October newsletter), we were blessed with fine weather and a very comfortable coach from Hearn’s.

Iron Age Mysteries revealed by Don Cooper

We met up with our guide for the day, local historian and archaeologist Roger Miles, in what appeared to be a suburban estate a mile and a bit (2km) north of St Albans (Verulamium). What is here we wondered? Roger led us down a narrow path between two semi-detached houses and after fifty yards or so we came upon an amazing sight. A huge ditch some 24 feet (8m) deep, 90 feet (28m) wide, and, we were to learn, over three-quarters of a mile (1½ km) long. It runs in more or less a straight line for this distance.

It is called Beech Bottom Dyke. As we walked along a short section of it, Roger described it and pointed out some of its features. It is a man-made, late Iron Age (50BC – 50AD) earthwork with the spoil piled up on both sides to give it more substance. It runs northeast–southwest and is cut into the clay and gravel of a dry valley. A Roman coin hoard was found at a depth of over 4m when Sir Mortimer Wheeler was excavating in the area, indicating that it was partly filled in when the hoard was deposited.

In the Iron Age the area was in the territory of the Catuvellauni, a powerful Celtic tribe. What was its purpose? It could be a boundary ditch, but why did it only encompass that particular area? It could be defensive, but then the “enemy” could have gone around it. It could be to indicate status and power, but who does it impress? There is a similar ditch (date and size) nearby at Wheathampstead, but its function there seems to be to defend a settlement. Maybe we will never know what it was for!

In 1461 the Yorkists utilised Beech Bottom Dyke in setting up their defences against a Lancastrian attack, although the attack never came from that direction! In the 1860s it was used as a rifle range to train local volunteers in preparation for a French invasion. A bank was put across it and targets set on the bank. The maximum range was 600 yards. The bank had to be straightened slightly to accommodate the rifle range. Presumably they used the dyke so that passers-by were less likely to be hit by stray bullets.

Nowadays Beech Bottom Dyke is a Scheduled Ancient Monument managed by English Heritage. Our thanks are due to Roger for showing us this “hidden treasure”.

The Wars of the Roses

A short walk brought us to a nearby grassy area where we were treated to a short but excellent talk by Peter Burley about the Wars of the Roses and the two Battles of St Albans (1455 and 1461). What made it special was that we were on the site of the battlefield itself, although you would never know by looking at the suburban landscape today. Peter is an authority on this period of history and co-author of the best-selling book The Battles of St Albans. His talk expertly put events into context, leading up to the more celebrated Battle of Barnet a few years later.

Kingsbury Manor & Verulamium Museum Tessa Smith is impressed

We were welcomed to Kingsbury Manor farmhouse and ancient tithe barn by owners Jill and Adam Singer. The huge timber-framed medieval barn was built in the late fourteenth century as a monastic grange, dendrochronology having shown that the massive timbers were felled in 1374. Roger Miles was again with us as our expert guide.

A hipped porch entrance at the side leads into a lofty and cathedral-like interior which has a main nave with tie-beam braces and only one side aisle, the other having been removed. The barn had major restoration in 2009 by specialist craftsmen – it took 70,000 hand-made pegs to attach the roof tiles. The supporting walls contain Roman brick from a previous Roman building and apotropaic marks, seventeenth-century anti-witch or good-luck graffiti.

Some HADAS members took great interest in the engine of the Aston Martin sports car in the farmyard, whilst others stroked the owners’ friendly Irish wolfhound, before we looked at the exterior of the manor house itself. The house is built over the Roman road to Colchester, which passes underneath what is now the dining room, and set beside the river Ver by the watermill. The farmhouse itself is a conglomeration of centuries of building and additions, and in the garden are large pieces of Hertfordshire puddingstone.

On the other side of the millpond lies Kingsbury water mill – originally the Abbot’s malt mill – where visitors can view the restored and working wheel; the old grinding machinery remains in place, while upstairs a small museum has a selection of milling machinery and farming implements on show. Part of the mill is now the Waffle House restaurant.

Fishpool Street has several medieval buildings, some with overhanging jetties. It is believed to owe its name to fishponds which provided a livelihood for the Saxon residents of Kingsbury. There are several old public houses, three of them timber-framed listed buildings – all of them were open for business but sadly St Michael’s Church was not.

After lunch we met Simon West, the District Archaeologist, at Verulamium Museum which has some of the finest Roman mosaics and wall plasters outside the Mediterranean. He gave us an excellent talk about the Roman finds from Turners Hall Farm in Wheathampstead (HADAS had visited the dig some years ago, excavated from 2002–2006), appropriately in the room where the finds are exhibited.

Turners Hall Farm was a late Iron Age to late Roman farmstead with villa nearby, of high status, a municipium, for which the Celtic elite were incorporated into the Roman State. The original finds of cremated bones and buried artefacts were made by a metal detectorist, the second by archaeologists.

It is known from DNA tests that the bones were from females, and of royalty by the quality of the finds: finest imported ware, glass flagons, a rare strainer bowl with an infusion of artemesia found inside, two silver brooches, three knives and 35 arrowheads as well as a pellet mould for coin manufacturing.

After playing games of Roman noughts and crosses, with touch screens and pull-out drawers of artefacts, we were off to visit the twentieth century at the Mosquito Museum.

Aeroplane Heaven Andy Simpson approves

Final visit of this pleasant and rewarding day out was to the volunteer-run de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre (www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk) at Salisbury Hall where the famous Mosquito aircraft design team was established in secret just prior to World War II. Some, including the author of this note, will remember this as the Mosquito Aircraft Museum, nestling in its rural location just off the M25, adjacent to the moated Salisbury Hall manor house, which is in private occupation.

This is the oldest dedicated aircraft museum in the UK, opened to the public on 15 May 1959 with just one hangar and one initial complete aircraft – the prototype de Havilland Mosquito of 1940, the fast and amazingly versatile ‘Wooden Wonder’ – which remains there today, albeit totally stripped down and dismantled and undergoing long-term deep conservation and restoration. It had survived the late 1940s and 50s in storage though at one time ordered to be burnt as scrap – sleight of hand by a handful of enthusiasts ensured its survival.

The Museum is now home to no fewer than three Mosquitos – including a wartime FB Mk VI fighter- bomber composite restoration – the fuselage rescued from a Dutch technical college and the wings from an Israeli kibbutz, and being worked on by a sizeable group of volunteers during our visit – and a postwar B Mk 35 bomber (and later target-tug) variant, withdrawn along with the last of the RAF’s Mosquitos in 1963, and star of the not-terribly-good 1968 feature film Mosquito Squadron, a sort-of- sequel to the immortal 633 Squadron.

There are two hangars on site, outbuildings housing supporting displays and a small shop, and a number of aircraft and airliner fuselages and nose sections on external display, including the fuselage of a rare de Havilland Comet 1 jet airliner. As mentioned by Ralph Steiner, our friendly and knowledgeable volunteer site guide, there are hopes of building a new hangar to get these precious items under cover.

It is noticeable that many of the aircraft are open for public access, including the Horsa troop-carrying glider section as used in the D-Day landings and the Arnhem and Rhine crossing operations in 1944/45. The well-known de Havilland Moth family of inter-war light aircraft is well represented, plus post-war ‘Heavy Metal’ such as the formidable Sea Vixen Fleet Air Arm carrier fighter, whose cockpit is also open to view – the viewing platform giving a good view of the external displays.

Inside the hangars, related displays include models and crash-site recovery items. There is also a small café area which provided HADAS with a welcome caffeine fix! Ralph was enthusiastic enough to continue to talk to us after the Museum’s normal closing time, for which we thanked him warmly.

Brunel Lecture Jim Nelhams

Robert Hulse is the Director of the Brunel Tunnel Museum in Rotherhithe. Having seen him lecture before, I could not resist attending the Mill Hill Historical Society meeting on 10th October.

Robert does not use any computer aids in his lecture. Instead, he hands rounds picture cards illustrating his subject and by doing so, involves all of his audience all of the time. No chance to sleep through this one. He is also an expert in his subject, always talking without notes.

Robert detailed the history of the tunnel under the Thames, a project started by Marc Brunel and taken over by his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, from its beginning in 1825 to the present day. The tunnel was completed in 1843 after overcoming engineering and financial problems. But finances continued to be a problem and in 1865, it was sold to the East London Railway Company. The first steam train ran through in 1869, and later the line became part of the underground system, running from Shoreditch to New Cross. More recently the line was extended in the north to Highbury & Islington,

and in the south to West Croydon. Plans are underway to join this to Clapham Junction, completing a circuit around London.

Why was Brunel’s tunnel important, so much so that it has been declared an Industrial World Heritage site? It was the first tunnel completed which went under water, and used techniques developed by Marc Brunel which are still in use today. Previous tunnels used the “cut and cover” technique and had to be close to the surface – impossible under water. His ideas have allowed the building of metro systems in cities across the world, as well as the Channel Tunnel and other underwater tunnels. Today, they are being used for Crossrail.

To start the digging, Brunel built the world’s first drilling “caisson”, a large circular brick construction which was sunk into the ground, and from which the tunnelling commenced. Until recently, the trains ran through the bottom of this, but in 2011, Balfour Beatty built a false concrete floor, creating a large circular space above the tracks and allowing public access for the first time in over 140 years. The Museum, which is next door to the tunnel in the old pumping house, now regularly promotes musical events there.

As the talk progressed, Robert’s abilities as a salesman became more apparent. The Museum does need income, and a selection of Brunel Tunnel branded goods were available for sale at the end. And what a queue there was – a clear recognition of the success of the talk.

IRONBRIDGE DAY 2 Jim Nelhams

The Ironbridge Gorge is a one of the first group of seven sites in the UK to have been designated as a World Heritage site in 1986. This designation imposes a duty on local organisations. The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is a charity founded in 1967 and is responsible for 36 scheduled monuments and listed buildings. It also runs 10 separate museums, each with a different function, and scattered geographically throughout the area. A single “group passport” gave us access to all of these though we did not plan to visit them all.

First an introduction to the area, and what better place to start than the river.

The Magnificent Severn Tessa Smith

We were all looking forward to our river trip today and there below the quayside lay our boat peacefully moored.

Sadly not a coracle or a trow – but a dear little river cruiser – Hafren – named after a mythical princess after whom the river Severn was named and who according to legend was drowned in its dark and swirling waters – a bit daunting. Nevertheless…… with a blast of Handel’s Water Music we were off downstream towards the Iron Bridge on the seemingly calm and serene river, today running rather fast and strong.

The sides of the gorge were deep and overgrown with dense green foliage. We glided on past ghosts of long ago, men and horses dragging heavy loads down the scarred zigzag tracks from the quarries above. Only our imaginations could supply the cacophony of noise, the thumping of machinery and crunch of cart wheels. Now all was peaceful and silent and green.

We have had a lot of rain recently and today the water was running at 18-22 mph, very fast – usually it would have been only 10 mph – and it was 14 inches above normal level, so we were relieved to know that there is no Severn bore today; in fact no bore gets upstream from Gloucester. However it gets very cold in the gorge and the young cruiser man told us that in 2010 on Xmas Day the river was frozen over completely from the rapids at Bedlam all the way to Ironbridge.

We cruised on past the edges of the villages, the remains of the Teddy Bear factory and little museum – until the iconic view of the Iron Bridge itself came into view – cameras clicked at every angle as the boat eased slowly round.

It was here that Matthew Webb learned to swim, close to the Iron Bridge, a most dangerous part of the river where currents and changes of depth make unpredictable hazards. He later became the first man to swim the English Channel. Luckily no HADAS members fell overboard as we made our way back upstream.

Sadly during the last few years there has been much bank erosion – the river has not been dredged and the edges not maintained – branches have fallen in and banks washed away – this is killing wildlife – this year a kingfisher lost its nest 3 times – first the eggs were lost then the next brood of young were lost, lastly the third lot of eggs washed away. Have fish in the river been affected? The River Severn is one of the best rivers in UK for barbel, pike,roach and chub.

Finally we were back – we had sailed the Magnificent Severn and not one of us was seasick

Museum of the Gorge Jo Nelhams

The Ironbridge Gorge as it is known today is midway between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury. This is the area that was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. In 1834 the Coalbrookdale Company built the gothic warehouse, which is now called the Severn Warehouse. This is now the Museum of the Gorge.

As you enter the museum, there is an intricate model of the Gorge as it was in 1796 which was known then as Coalbrookdale. It depicts the location of the industries developed as well as the sources of raw materials of coal, iron, clay and limestone and the River Severn as the source of water for power.

There are many illustrations showing the mines, ironworks, bricks and tile works and other associated manufacturing industries, as well as the revolutionary ‘Hay Inclined Plane’ designed to transport canal boats between the different levels of canals.

A short informative film shows the 10 museums which now occupy the sites along the valley, some of which are working museums. The film gives an overview of the diversity of products that used to be made in the Gorge.

The most visible survivor is the Ironbridge. Little is known about the actual construction of the bridge. It was designed by an architect from Shrewsbury, Thomas Farnholls Pritchard (1723-77). Pritchard did not live to see the bridge completed. Construction began in late 1777 and in 1778 the foundationsTrust and stone abutments were built. The cast iron ribs were erected across the river in 1779. Abraham Darby III was responsible for the construction, but it is not known in which foundry the bridge was cast and how Darby secured the necessary quantity of iron.

The Jackfield Tile Museum Audrey Hooson

The village of Jackfield was once the centre of the world tile making industry. Many famous companies were situated there, or close by, exploiting the excellent clay supply, availability of fuel and long range transport. ‘Broseley’ roofing tiles were made on a large scale. In the 1890’s when production was at its height, it is estimated that that the ‘Broseley’ district produced three-quarters of a million tiles each week. Decorative wall and floor tiles of various types were made by Maw & Co., the Hargreaves, Craven Dunnill Co. Ltd., (later just Craven Dunnill) and many smaller concerns.

The Iron Bridge Gorge Museum Trust bought the remains of Craven Dunnill’s 1874 factory in 1983 and started a project of restoration and development that was finally completed in 2007. The site now contains the unique tile museum, education workshops and facilities for tenant manufacturers and designers. It also has the remaining bases of two large kilns that show the extent of the originals.

The entrance to the museum has a mosaic floor and tiled staircase, leading to a restoration of the original Trade Showroom, Board Room and offices. Panels of different tiles have been fitted to the walls and an original tile cabinet, from Maw & Co’s showroom, installed. Upstairs was the Drawing Office or Design Studio, a high-ceilinged room with two huge Gothic windows to provide maximum light. Until WWI there were Artist and Design classes at the ‘Coalbrookdale Literary and Scientific Institution’. Students were able to enter competitions run by the ‘South Kensington School of Art’ (later part of the V & A). In 1870 Hargreaves, Craven Dunnill Co. Ltd. set up a profit-sharing scheme for all employees; from July to December 1870 it provided a bonus of 5%. Unfortunately the scheme had to be abandoned in the 1930’s, due to the trade recession.

The tiles displayed in the museum are not solely from the Jackfield area. The themes in this room were Style versus Subject Matter, The Aesthetic Movement, Persian and Moorish Designs and Gothic Revival Encaustic Tiles. There were sets of ‘Story Tiles’ showing nursery rhymes, Aesop’s fables and The Seasons. The original examples from William De Morgan and Morris & Company made it obvious that both Maw & Company and Craven Dunnill copied and adapted their designs.

The main section of the museum contained an impressive series of room sets. These use rescued or replicated tiles to show how ubiquitous their use was during the Victorian Era and later. Displayed were Covent Garden Underground station, with Maw’s tiles, a butcher’s shop with a panel of cows and sheep in a meadow and a frieze of vegetative swags and roundels containing pig’s heads. Tiles from the museum collection created an imitation Church of England memorial chapel using encaustic tiles from several locations.

Between the 1890’s and 1930’s many children’s wards in hospitals were decorated with tile panels. By the 1960’s and 70’s these colourful scenes had gone out of fashion. Fortunately many were saved by

the museum. The examples on display, ‘The Maypole’ and ‘ All the Fun of the Fair’, designed by Haydn Jensen, were removed from the Bernard Baron children’s ward at the Middlesex Hospital, London in 1988.

The final room explained the manufacturing technicalities of various floor and wall tiles. With diagrams, videos and material samples for the body of the tile, colouring and decoration. There was also a mould store from the Maw & Co., & Craven Dunnill Collection. These can still be used for replacement and restoration projects.

In London examples from this area can be seen in the V & A, the Marianne North Gallery at Kew, The Royal Academy, Harrods food hall and many churches.

Coalport China Museum Liz Gapp

Having visited the Jackfield Tile Museum, we arrived at the Coalport China Museum, located in works established in the 1790s and closed in 1926, when all work was transferred to Stoke. The entrance is via the shop, which leads straight in to a large display of china dating from the 18th century onwards. A very unusual part of the display shows the evolution of teacup shapes from 1795 to 1925, using half cup relief profiles, with recordings that can be listened to on headphones to explain this.

From here we went to the Demonstration Workshop, where there are a series of techniques on show, starting with the way in which clay is used to throw pots. These are known as ‘jigger’, used to produce flatware (e.g. plates), and ‘jolly’, used to produce hollowware (e.g. cups). The proportions of ingredients used for Coalport’s standard bone china recipe were shown in three glass jars, viz 50% animal bone, 25% Cornish stone, 25% china clay from Cornwall.

The next part of the display here shows the use of moulds and slip casting (used for casting enclosed hollow shapes like teapots), followed by the moulds used for flower making (in clay). Then displayed is the traditional underglaze technique, which was usually in a single colour, alongside modern on- glaze technique, which were multi-coloured. Transfer printing and glaze dipping were also shown.

Several of us were able to talk to a knowledgeable lady who was doing onglaze decoration. She explained that the colours for underglaze decoration were more muted, and there were fewer of them. Also they changed colour with firing, so required some knowledgeable imagination when applying them. They were more durable than the onglaze decoration which, being applied over the glaze, meant they were not dishwasher-proof. However, the onglaze colours were more varied and brighter. She also explained the varying firing temperatures; 800 C, used for glazing transfer prints, up to 1200 C, used for bone china and saggars. The higher the temperature, the more durable the end product, but if the glaze was fired to the higher temperature it would melt the transfer underneath. Saggars have to be strong as they are the containers that contain the unfired ceramics when they are put in the kilns for firing, and are used repeatedly. Also explained was that the length of firing was due to the need to raise the temperature gradually to that required so as not to stress the materials used and cause them to break.

We then moved on to another building, an original bottle oven kiln that had been set up with a cut away mock-up of the way in which the kiln would have been organised for a firing, showing the arrangement of the saggars with the ceramics in them. There is an audio-visual display with a mock-up of the firing, with roaring noise from the fire and flames. Also shown are the access points where sample pots would have been retrieved to test whether they were fired sufficiently or not.

There were several other buildings including a workshop where individual ceramicists work, a saggar makers’ workshop, and another old bottle oven kiln building with a wonderful, well labelled, set of

display cases in the middle. In another area of the building there is a collection of Caughley pottery which concentrated on blue and white pottery and dates from 1750 until around 1799.

This was a fascinating visit, which left plenty to see for a future visit, after which some people went on to visit the Tar Tunnel, whilst the rest of us returned to Ironbridge.

The Tar Tunnel Stewart Wild

After our visit to the Coalport China Museum, a lot of us walked along the canal towpath to the bottom of the Hay Inclined Plane and the adjacent road bridge. Managing to resist for a moment the attractions of a tearoom and ice-cream parlour, we descended some steps, entered what appeared to be the house next door and found ourselves in the entrance to the extraordinary Tar Tunnel. A nice lady checked that we had tickets and gave us hard hats – another piece of ‘elf & safety’ regulations introduced since my last visit!

It all goes back to 1787, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when mining in the area was in its heyday. The plan was to connect the canal alongside the River Severn to the lower galleries of the coal mines below Blists Hill, where there is now a lovely open-air museum that we would visit on our final day.

Miners blasted and lined with brick a horizontal tunnel straight into the hill, proceeding for around 3,000ft. As they did so, they noticed naturally occurring bitumen oozing from a layer of sandstone through the walls. Further in, they encountered a gushing spring of the black stuff, which effectively brought digging to an end and turned the owners’ attention to the commercial possibilities of bitumen production.

Ships at the time were made of wood and large quantities of bitumen were needed to caulk the wooden decks and tar the ropes for weatherproofing. Smaller amounts were apparently also bottled and sold as a remedy for rheumatism and other ailments. It is not recorded how profitable the enterprise was, but demand would have dropped as ships were increasingly made of iron and engines replaced sails

Visitors today can walk about 300ft into the tunnel until they reach an iron gate; only tall people are likely to bang their heads. Small amounts of oozing bitumen are clearly visible on the walls. A couple of old coal trucks stand rusting on one side and the tunnel is electrically lit. Display boards at the entrance explain some of the history; there’s nothing like it anywhere else in Britain.

After the failure of the tunnel as a method of bringing coal direct to the canal boats, engineers constructed an inclined-plane railway nearby – basically a pair of railway tracks up the hillside at an angle of around thirty-five degrees. But more of that later as on our last day, we were able to see the tracks from the top of the hill.

The China Museum’s bottle kiln adjacent to the canal

Another view of the impressive 4-story high bottle kiln

Covent Garden Tube Station as many of us remember it – transported to the Tile Museum

Site Watching by HADAS at St John the Baptist churchyard, Chipping Barnet in 2012

Bill Bass & Don Cooper

During the period March to June 2012 work was undertaken to landscape and remodel the churchyard environment. The work was instigated by Barnet Council and carried out by contractors – Blakedown Landscapes (SE) Ltd.

Location

The church is located in the London Borough of Barnet at OS grid ref TQ24514/96476. The

churchyard is west of St John the Baptist church, bounded by High Street (A1000) to the north and Wood Street (A411) to the south. Church Passage runs north to south on the western boundary of the site. A benchmark on the church is at 129.57m od. The archaeological site code is CPA12.

Background

In 1199, the Abbot of St Albans obtained a charter from King John to establish a market at Barnet.

Excavations from Barnet High Street (to the south of the church) and west along Wood Street have recovered pottery and occupation from the mid-12th century. A church was on the site by approx 1250; this was rebuilt in the mid-15th century, with an extensive rebuild in the 1872-1875 period.

Some of the area to the west of Church Passage was owned by bricklayers in the 1700s and by the 1800s shops were being developed in Church Passage especially near the High Street. The Hyde Institute was built along the Passage in 1904.

The Works

It was thought that the present churchyard layout had become a bit untidy and tired, needing a revamp with better accessibility. The recent work included the removal of the boundary “Holly bush Hedge” which aligned with what was iron-paling fencing set in stone setts (the iron fencing probably removed during the war). These stone setts were also removed. Groundworks were dug for the foundations of new hard-standing, steps, benches and paths. Also reworked was the paving surrounding the War Memorial.

Site Watching and Archaeology

Members of HADAS attended the site several times a week during the March to June period of the

works. The main objective was site-watching the boundary hedge removal, the groundworks, which were mainly confined to a narrow trench approx 0.30m wide x 0.40m deep along the side of Church Passage, with more superficial work for the foundation of new paths across the site and adjacent flowerbeds. The spoilheaps from various earthworks were also checked. As the churchyard is still consecrated ground the collection of human bone disturbed by the works was seen as a priority.

As the churchyard has been much remodelled and landscaped in the past, e.g. gravestones moved, a new western church entrance created, the War Memorial moved at some point from the east end of the church to the churchyard, this meant that no features were noted, thus all the finds were treated as being from a single topsoil context.

Finds

HUMAN BONE

71 pieces of bone were collected from across the churchyard, all were disarticulated being re-deposited and scattered over the site. However, most came from the middle section of the site adjacent to the Memorial Garden and along the western hedge line. Susan Trackman produced a report ‘Human Bone Report on disarticulated bones found in 2012’. The report details the bone types found from various parts of the skeleton including skull, mandible, humerus, ulna, ribs, vertebra, femur, fibula, tibia and metacarpals. The fragmentary and random nature of the small sample made it very difficult to ascertain any meaningful results for age, diet, lifestyle, occupation, sex, stature, disease etc. The mandible displayed signs of disease: ” … this woman suffered from severe dental disease – all right mandibular teeth were lost well before death. Remodelling of the bone over the tooth sockets is almost complete”.. Despite the difficulties, the report contains detailed measurement and assessment of all the human bone found. The full report lies with the archive.

ANIMAL BONE

5 pieces of unidentified animal bone were found, 3 jaw teeth, 1 rib, 1 shaft/joint.

POTTERY

119 sherds were recovered consisting of:

Medieval
SHER 1170-1300 x 1

Post- med
BORDY 1550-1700 x 2

PMBL 1580-1700 x 1

PMR 1580-1900 x 14

RBOR 1550-1900 x 4

PMFR 1580-1900 x 4

CHPO 1580-1900 x 1

STSL 1660-1870 x 2

ENGS 1700-1900 x 10

TPW 1780-1900 x 73

TGW SPNG 1780-1900 x 2

MOCH 1780-1900 x 5

CLAY PIPE

1 x Mouth piece 60 x Stems

Pipe bowls
Decorations
1 x AO21 1680-1710, Spur marks: Decoration

1 x AO28 1700-1770, Spur marks: Decoration: –

3 x AO27 1780-1820, Spur marks: Sun Decoration: Wheatsheaf

3 x AO28 1820-1860, Spur marks: KS WT Decoration: Oaks/Leaves

1 x AO29 1840-1880, Spur marks: Decoration Wheatsheaf

7 x AO30 1850-1910, Spur marks: Decoration: Wheatsheaf

1 x AO31 1850-1910, Spur marks: R Decoration: –

7 x AO33 Post 1840, Spur marks: WT TTY, Sun Decoration: Oaks/Leaves

1 x Calabash Early 20th C, Decoration: White metal rim

2 x Unknown

COINS

1854 Napoleon III, 10 Centimes, worn

1860 George III, ½ Penny, very worn/degraded 1971 2p

1985 2p

1994 2p

2005 2p

CBM

5 x sherds of peg tile

1 x fragment of roof slate

1 x sherd of inscribed sherd of decorated chimney pot

1 x sample brick (railing stone foundation) 280mm long, 120mm wide, 50mm deep, very shallow frog.

GLASS

13 x bottle glass, 1 x complete small bottle, 2 x window glass

METAL

1 x coffin handle, 1 x knife blade, 2 x shoe sole reinforcements, 4 x nails (all metal heavily corroded).

Conclusion

The pottery broadly dates from the late 16th century to late 19th century and consists mainly of the common post-medieval wares e.g. Borderwares (BORDY), Mochawares (MOCH), Redwares (PMR), English stonewares (ENGS) and Transfer Printed Wares (TPW), consisting mostly of plates, cups and bowls. One sherd of medieval pottery was noted.

The clay-pipe dates from the late 17th century to early 20th century some with spur-marks and decoration. So far the spur-marks have not been matched with makers from the London region, but as Barnet was a major coaching stop the pipes could have come from a wide ranging area. One fragment of the AO33 type bowls was partially stamped HIGH……. which may be ‘Highgate’ an area in north London known to have had clay pipe manufacturers.

The finds are essentially random samples from an unstratified context, they were found in the groundworks or the spoilheaps associated with the work adjacent to Church Passage. They would represent casual loss e.g. coins & clay-pipe, along Church Passage, a busy thoroughfare today as it would have been years ago. The pottery, glass, building materials etc would represent domestic rubbish dumping in the area with some of the iron items from coffin furniture.

Acknowledgments

Ben Garrett, Adrian Barnden and James Fitzgerald for Blakedown Landscapes (SE) Ltd.

Megan Hallett & Caroline Bragg for Barnet Council

St John the Baptist: Church Warden Nigel Baker and Rector Canon Hall Speers Sue Trackman for the bone report.

Kim Stabler, English Heritage.

English Heritage At Risk Register Jim Nelhams

English Heritage (EH) maintains a list of areas and structures that it considers to be “at risk”. The EH website states: “The Heritage at Risk programme provides a dynamic picture of the health of England’s built heritage. It also provides advice on how best to save those sites most at risk of being lost forever.”

English Heritage is committed to reducing the overall number of sites at risk of loss as a result of neglect, decay and inappropriate development. How this will be achieved is set out in the Heritage at Risk Strategy.

Every year EH publishes a list of those sites most at risk of being lost. The latest list was published in October and includes the following within the London Borough of Barnet. At this time, the list does not include Church Farmhouse – something we need to keep under review.

The items/areas currently listed are: Brockley Hill site
College Farm, Finchley including the main building, dairy and silo.

At Avenue House, The Bothy and the concrete Water Tower. Two tombs in the churchyard at St Mary’s Hendon.
The monument to Major John Cartwright at St Mary’s Finchley. The Physic Well in Barnet.
Colindale Hospital administrative block.

With limited resources, English Heritage can not easily monitor all listed items but rely on knowledgeable observers, such as HADAS members, to warn them if things deteriorate.

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Sunday 25th November to Monday 3rd December. Barnet Borough Arts Council. The Spires (Outside Waitrose) Barnet. Paintings and Drawings & What’s On info (incl. HADAS).

Saturday 1st December, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Museum of London: George Peabody – East End to the City. Walk through 150 years of his history, from the earliest estate to the seat of his financial successes and his statue next to the Royal Exchange. Cost £10 (concs. £8, Friends £7). Book online at www.museumoflondon.org.uk/events or call 020 7001 9844. (HADAS’s October lecture was on George Peabody.)

Sunday 2nd December, 10:30 a.m. Heath and Hampstead Society. The Hidden Heath. Meet at the Gazebo near the old kitchen garden, east of Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, N6.
Walk led by Michael Hammerson (Highgate Society), archaeologist & HADAS member. Cost £3.

Sunday 2nd December, from noon. Barnet High Street Christmas Fair. Music, dance, stalls in the High Street, theatre in The Bull, crafts fairs in Church House and exhibitions at Barnet Museum.

Tuesday 4th December, 6:30 p.m. LAMAS – Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. “There is nothing like dissecting to give you an appetite” – doctors and nurses in Dickens. Kevin Brown. £2. (Refreshments at 6:00)

Thursday 6th December, 7:30 p.m. London Canal Museum, New Wharf Road, Kings Cross, N1 9RT. “The Chesterfield Canal, Past, Present and Future.” Geraint Coles. £4 (concs. £2.50).

Thursday 6th December, 8:00 p.m. Pinner Local History Society. Village Hall, Chapel Lane, Pinner. “George Arliss, our first Oscar winner?” Talk by Barbara Lanning. Visitors, £2.

Other Societies’ Events (continued)
Monday 10th December, 7:45 p.m. West Wessex Archaeology Group (WEAG). School Hall, Woodford County High School, High Road, Woodford Green, IG8 9LA. “Domestic Finance in Roman
Britain”. Talk by Amelia Dowler.

Wednesday 12th December, 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, The Broadway, Mill Hill, NW7. “Elstree – Britain’s Hollywood”. Talk by Bob Redman.

Tuesday 11th December, 2 – 3 p.m. Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow, HA2 6PX. “Dicken’s Christmas”. Talk by Colin Oakes. £2.

Tuesday 11th December, 7:45 p.m. Amateur Geological Society, The Parlour, St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Avenue, Finchley, N3 1BD. “A Burgess Shale type Biota from the Cambrian of Australia”. Talk by Dr Greg Edgecombe (Natural History Museum).

Wednesday 12th December, 7:45 p.m. Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, corner of Ferme Park Road/Weston Park, N8 9PX. “The History of Lord’s Cricket Ground.” Talk by Stephen Green. Visitors £2. Refreshments.

Thursday 13th December, 7:30 p.m. Camden History Society. Burgh House, New End Square, NW3 1LT. “Celebrating Christmas in Medieval London.” Talk by Caroline Barron. £1. Wine and mince pies from 7:00 p.m.

Friday 14th December 2:00 – 2:30 p.m. and 3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Museum of London, EC2Y 5HN. “Roman Fort Visit.” Tour of the remains of the Western Gate of London’s military fort, located beneath the streets next to the Museum. Free, but tickets allocated on arrival.

Friday 21st December, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Museum of London (as above). “Archaeology Close Up”. Drop in on monthly object handling sessions with members of the Museum’s Archaeological Collections Department. Free.

No. 498 SEPTEMBER 2012 Edited by Graham Javes

HADAS DIARY 2012-2013

Sunday 30 September: Outing to St Albans and environs, with June Porges and Stewart Wild. The cost is £25 all-inclusive, which is lower than last year’s visit to Chatham. We have done our best to design an attractive day out, catering to a wide range of interests. From the Iron Age to the Romans and the Saxons, and from the Middle Ages to the Second World War, we cover a lot of ground in one day! Do join us. A booking form was enclosed with the August Newsletter.

Tuesday 9 October: The Life and Legacy of George Peabody – Lecture by Christine Wagg

Tuesday 13 November: Archaeological Discoveries in Southwark – Lecture by Peter Moore, Pre-Construct Archaeology.

Sunday 2 December: Christmas Party at Avenue House, 12 noon – 4.30 pm (approx.) A buffet lunch. Details in next month’s Newsletter.

Tuesday 8 January: The Reign of Akhenaten: Revolution or Evolution? by Nathalie Andrews

Tuesday 12 February: From Longboat to Warrior: the evolution of the wooden ship. Lecture by Eliott Wragg, Thames Discovery Programme.

Tuesday 12 March: The Railway Heritage Trust – Lecture by Andy Savage.

All Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8.00 pm, with coffee /tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members welcome (£1.00). Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central Station (Northern line) is a short walk away.

Finds in Focus – now fully booked.

Finds in Focus, the HADAS course on post-excavation analysis, held on Wednesdays at Avenue House, will start again on 26th September. Please note that this course is now fully subscribed. The course will again be tutored by Jacqui Pearce, BA FSA M IfA.

Membership Renewals

A number of members have not yet renewed their subscription, which became due on 1st April. If this applies to you a letter with a renewal form is enclosed with this newsletter. If you do not receive a letter but have not yet posted your cheque, please get in touch with me by 1 st October. Stephen Brunning, Membership Secretary.

Field School and Excavation at Hendon School, 11th – 16th June 2012 by Don Cooper

This excavation is run in conjunction with University College London, Institute of Archaeology (IoA). It is amazing to think that this year HADAS returned to Hendon School for the seventh time– doesn’t time fly! The main objective remains to give the young pupils at the school, boys and girls from years 7 and 8, an opportunity to experience practical archaeology in the field. Sarah D hanj al , a PhD student at the IoA, and I met the pupils for an afternoon at the end of May to explain to them what we were doing, to give them an introduction to archaeology, and a description and history of the site. We also told them of the requirements for taking part in the dig – letters of permission from their parents, proof of tetanus injections, a health and safety briefing, and we gave them a recommendation on the type of clothes and boots they should wear. There were about 25 pupils. Following this meeting Sarah prepared a comprehensive booklet for each pupil. Quoting from the booklet, here is an example of the programme:

Day 1 – Archaeological Finds – we will look at the things we have found before, to work out what they are and what we might find this year. We will also look at how we look after what we find.

Archaeological Recording 1 – we’ll be working on photography and using surveying techniques to record our trench.

Day 2 – Archaeological recording 2 – We’ll be working on plan and section drawing. To these tasks, excavating, finds washing and finds marking must be added.

This one week intensive field school in practical archaeology has been developed over the last seven years, and enabled a large number of young pupils from the school to experience, however fleetingly, what field archaeologists do. It was very heartening this year to have a pupil who took part in one of the first field schools return to help to supervise the school, before herself starting an archaeology degree at UCL.

What of the Archaeology?

Site Code: HDS06. This year the context numbers were preceded by “2012” to distinguish them from previous years. The nearest fixed grid reference was 523675.129E 189026.785N. The centre of the only trench was 8 metres north-west of the grid reference and 61.08 metres above sea level. The trench was sited at the north-east corner of Hendon School playing field (Fig.1). This was in the general area of the trenches from the 2010 and 2011 excavations. The main reason trenches were sited here originally was so as not to interfere with the sports arena, as the school’s sports day usually occurred around the same time as the excavations. However, after the discovery of over 100 pieces of early medieval pottery sherd in 2010, and a similar number in 2011, a return to broadly the same area was considered appropriate. In the event a 4 metre by 2 metre trench was opened to the north -west of the previous year’s trench. As has become a familiar pattern, the de-turfing layer and the context below the grass was full of the detritus of a school playing field – sweet wrappers, broken biros, bits of glass and low denomination coins. As a sign of the times there was one computer flash drive – the artefact of the future? The main context was a thick layer of disturbed soil, which included a slight gravel spread, and had a mix of clay pipe, glass (green and white bottle glass), and pottery sherds dating anywhere from 12th century to the 20th century.

The area had been used for garden allotments during the Second World War and had been well and truly “chewed up”. Unfortunately the June weather intervened (I’m sure you remember the rain!) and so again we were thwarted in fully completing the excavation.Nevertheless the undisturbed layer immediately above the natural London clay contained over 50 sherds of early medieval pottery. These are currently being analysed and it is hoped that the 2010, 2011 and 2012 collection of early medieval pottery sherds can be brought together and reported on in the near future. Although we are no nearer to having a satisfactory theory as to why all these early medieval pottery sherds we found accumulated in this particular area, the fact that they are mostly abraded, and that we haven’t found evidence of structures is leaning towards the idea that they represent hill wash from the hamlet that existed where Brent Street and Bell Lane meet. However, one of the alternative theories, that these sherds are the detritus from along the side of a very old lane that crossed Mutton Bridge on its way to Hampstead/London cannot be fully discounted. Perhaps we will never know!

Thanks are due to all the people who made the practical archaeology field school and excavation possible, particularly Sarah Dhanjal, Gabe Moshenska, Lewis Hopper, Jenny Murphy from UCL, Angie Holmes, Jim Nelhams, Vicki Baldwin, Bill Bass and Sigrid Padel from HA DAS and student Emma Densem, as well as Jill Hickman from Hendon School.

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Friends of Avenue House lecture, 13th September 2012, 7.30pm, in the Drawing Room. From Finchley to the Mansion House, Sir Michael Bear will speak on his year in office as Lord Mayor of London.

Cost: £7.50, which includes a glass of wine and nibbles on the terrace afterwards. The first drink is free on presentation of ticket. Cash bar. All proceeds towards the upkeep of Avenue House Estate. To book ‘9: 020 8346 7812, or email: info@friendsofavenuehouse.org

A NEW LOCAL PLAN FOR BARNET Peter Pickering

The last Unitary Development Plan (UDP) for Barnet was adopted in May 2006. Virtually at once, the Council started work on its replacement, which in accordance with legislation passed in 2004, was to be called the Local Development Framework (LDF). The main documents in this are the Core Strategy (CS) and Development Management Policies (DM P),

which together form the Local Plan. In July this year Barnet’s Cabinet approved, for submission to the full Council for formal adoption on September 11th, the CS and DMP. These will then be of the highest importance, taking over from the UDP as the basis for all planning decisions taken by the Council.

I was actively involved on behalf of the Finchley Society and of HADAS in the lengthy process of preparing these documents, up to an Examination-in-Public before an Inspector in December 2011 last year. Though they are less than satisfactory in several other respects (tall buildings and flat conversions, for instance), as far as the heritage and archaeology are concerned I am happy with them. Here is Policy DM06 “Barnet’s Heritage and Conservation”:-

a. All heritage assets will be protected in line with their significance. All development will have regard to the local historic context.
b. Development proposals must preserve or enhance the character and appearance of 16 Conservation Areas in Barnet.

c. Proposals involving or affecting Barnet’s heritage assets … should demonstrate the following:

● the significance of the heritage asset

●the impact of the proposal on the significance of the heritage asset

●the impact of the proposal on the setting of the heritage asset

● how the significance and/or setting of a heritage asset can be better revealed ●the opportunities to mitigate or adapt to climate change

● how the benefits outweigh any harm caused to the heritage asset

d There will be a presumption in favour of retaining all 1,600 locally listed buildings in Barnet and any buildings which makes a positive contribution to the character or appearance of the 16 conservation areas.

e. Archaeological remains will be protected in particular in the 19 identified Local Areas of Special Archaeological Significance and elsewhere in Barnet. Any development that may affect archaeological remains will need to demonstrate the likely impact upon the remains and the proposed mitigation to reduce that impact.

Whether these admirable policies will always be maintained against pressure from developers or other priorities of the Council’s own, remains to be seen. But as long as the Council is prepared to hold to them, their being enshrined in a Local Plan means an Inspector is very much more likely to turn appeals down, despite the Government’s national presumption in favour of “sustainable development”.

Trent Park Open House – Stephen Brunning

On 28th July I had the opportunity to visit Trent Park mansion as part of their Open House events. The Grade II listed country house stands in the grounds of Middlesex University. The university is being relocated later this year and the grounds are to be put up for sale.

In 1778 a small villa was commissioned by Sir Richard Jebb. The walls of the original house can still be seen inside the existing building, complete with doorway and alcoves either side. John Cumming, a Russian merchant bought the estate’s leasehold in 1815 and added two wings, a basement and attic. In 1908 the lease was acquired by Sir Edward Sassoon, MP for Hythe who had married into the wealthy Rothschild family. In 1912 the lease passed to Sir Phillip Sassoon on the death of his father. Sir Philip also became the MP for Hythe, was an

art collector and cousin to wartime poet Siegfried Sassoon. During the First World War he was aide-de-camp to Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig. In 1926 began a five year programme of redesign internally and externally. This is the Trent Park we see today.

Sir Philip’s monogram appears everywhere: on the walls, over doors and on the fireplace. Most were gilded in gold leaf. There are finely decorative pillars in the house. They do not support the ceiling and are therefore purely ornamental. In the 1920’s a terrace was built on the side of the sloping gardens, to entertain during the lavish parties held there. This terrace is now out of bounds due to subsidence since no foundations were dug.

The guests at Trent Park enjoyed a level of service that was second to none. There was golf, tennis and swimming in the grounds that had earlier been landscaped by Humphrey Repton Dyed flowers matched the curtains in each bedroom, ladies received an orchid before dinner, and the gentlemen would find a carnation and cocktails on their dressing table ( Leiva & Ali, 2012) . Famous celebrity guests included Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, T E Lawrence, Edward and Wallis Simpson. Our tour guide Oliver explained that T E Lawrence liked to sign the visitor’s book under a pseudonym. Indeed on the day I was there Lawrence, Edward and Mrs Simpson had returned (in reality, actors in period costume).

Winston Churchill was known for his landscape paintings. He also did a number of interior scenes, at least two of which were painted in the “blue room” at Trent Park. Churchill loved the peace and tranquillity at Trent, away from the hustle and bustle of politics in London.

Sir Philip Sassoon died in June 1939, and his ashes were scattered over the estate from a plane of 601 squadron (County of London, Auxiliary Air Force) of which he was Hon. Air Commodore. The valuable furniture was given to his sister’s estate at Houghton Hall, Norfolk.

During the Second World War Trent Park became a POW camp and Interrogation Centre for captured high ranking German Officers. When the war ended the Ministry of Education set up a training college for teachers of Art, Drama, and later, Handicrafts. In 1974 Trent Park College became part of Middlesex Polytechnic, and Middlesex University in 1992.

Bibliography

Leiva, Oliver & Ali, Aadam (eds.) 2012. Trent Park Open House guide. I have uploaded 22 photographs taken during the afternoon:

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THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MOST ANCIENT EGYPT – Tutor: Scott McCracken. This course, arranged by the Mill Hill Archaeological Study Society, will examine the development of one of the world’s oldest civilisations, from its formative stage to the end of the Old Kingdom. The Predynastic Period saw a settled agricultural land with towns along the banks of the Nile. These settlements grew into a civilisation with one of the earliest writing systems and a complex set of religious beliefs. The course will consider why a civilisation began here and look at settlement pattern, religion, burial practice, social and political organisation, and architecture.

The course will be on Fridays from 10:00 – 12:00pm, at The Eversfield Centre, 11 Eversfield Gardens, Mill Hill, and will run for 22 weeks beginning 28 September, at a cost of £130. Enrolment will be at the first meeting. If new to the society, please contact the Secretary, Peter Nicholson, ‘M 020 8359 4757 or see the website: http://www.mhass.co.uk

LONDON AND MIDDLESEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (LAMAS)

LAMAS Local History Workshop

LOCAL HISTORY IN SCHOOLS – THE LOCAL HISTORIAN’S ROLE Wednesday 17 October 2012, 2.00 — 5.00pm, Museum of London, Clore Learning Centre. This workshop is intended for members of local history societies, librarians and museum workers, and others who visit schools or explore historical and archaeological sites with

young children and would like to exchange ideas and enhance their skills. Case studies from local history societies will be presented as examples of what has been achieved and what was successful.

The cost of the workshop is £10. For more information please contact Eileen Bowlt at c.bowlt@tiscali.co.uk, ‘M 01895 638060. To reserve a place please send £10 with your contact details (email, phone and address) to LAMAS Local History Workshop, 9 Umfreville Road, London, N4 1 RY.

LAMAS LOCAL HISTORY CONFERENCE

SATURDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2012: 10:00 — 5:00pm Weston Theatre, Museum of London A CAPITAL WAY TO GO: DEATH IN LONDON THROUGH THE AGES

St Brides’ s: Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief, Jelena Bekvalac, Curator Human Osteology, Museum of London
‘I will have a stone to lye a pone me’: Memory and Commemoration in Medieval London, Christian Steer, Royal Holloway, University of London
Presentation of Publications Awards by Prof Martin Biddle, President of LAMAS

Lunch (bring your own food & drink to consume in the lunch space in the Clore Learning Centre, or purchase from the Museum of London cafés or restaurant.
Mortality in London 1550-1800, Peter Razzel l, Historical Demographer

The Gruesome History of Body Snatching, Robert Stephenson, Guide in the City of London and at Kensal Green Cemetery
Afternoon break

From Here to Eternity: Victorian Developments in the Disposal of the Dead, John Clarke, Head of Library Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Consultant Historian to Brookwood Cemetery
The Last Word: Epitaphs and Obituaries, Brent Elliott, Historian, Royal Horticultural Society
Cost: Early-bird tickets purchased before 31 October: £10; after 31 October: £15. Tickets may be purchased on the LAMAS website (http://www.lamas.org.uk/localhistory2012.html) with payment by PayPal, or by post to Pat Clark, 22 Malpas Drive, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 1 DQ, enclosing a cheque and SAE. Further details are available on the website, where an application form may be downloaded.

Other Societies’ events, compiled by Eric Morgan

Sun 9 Sept. Muswell Hill Festival. Cherry Tree Wood, East Finchley (off High Road, N2). Hornsey Historical Society will have a stand . Lots of community stalls + Donkey Derby.
Sat 15 – Sun 16 Sept. R.A.F. Museum. Grahame Park Way, NW9 5QW. Battle of Britain weekend. 1 0am – 6pm. Last admission 5.30pm
Sun 16 Sept 12-5.30 Queens Park Festival. Harvist Rd, NW6. Willesden Green Local History Society will have a stand.
T ues 18 Sept.. 2-3pm Harrow Museum. Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow ‘From Wealdstone Station to Greenhill.’ Talk by Peter Scott. £3.00
Wed 19 Sept 7.30 pm Willesden Local History Society. St.Mungo’s Centre, 115 Pound Lane (opp. Bus Garage) NW10 2HU. ‘My Neasden of the 1950’s’ Talk by David Unwin.
Wed 19 Sept 8.00 pm Islington Archaeology & History Society. Islington Town Hall, Upper St, N1. ‘The Day Parliament burnt down’ (October 1884) Talk by Caroline Shenton
T hurs 20 Sept 7.30 pm Camden History Society, Camden Study Centre, 2nd Floor, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Rd, WC1 8PA, ‘The restoration of St.Pancras Station and the Midland Grand Hotel’, talk by Robert Thorne.
Mon 23 – Mon 30 Sept. Barnet Borough Arts Council. The Spires (opp. Waitrose) High St. Barnet. Paintings, prints, photographs & What’s on information, incl. HADAS
Wed 26 Sept 7.45pm Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. St. John’s Church Hall. Friern Barnet Lane, N20. ‘The Temple’ Talk by John Neal. Visitors £2.00 Refreshments
Sat 29 Sept. 10.30 – 4pm. Metroline Willesden Bus Garage. Pound Lane, High Road, NW 6 2JY. Centenary Open Day. Vehicle displays, sales stands and Heritage vehicles running on special services. Admission by programme on the day.
Thurs 4 Oct. 6.30pm Childs Hill Library, 320 Cricklewood Lane, NW2 2QE, ‘Scarp’, talk by Nick Papadimitriou on his new book on the 17-mile North Middx/ South Herts escarpment known as Scarp.

Mon 8 Oct. 3.00pm, Barnet Museum & Local History Society, Church House, Wood St. Barnet, ‘Edith Cavell – an Extraordinary Woman’, by Lucy Johnston.
Fri 12 Oct. 8.00pm Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield EN2 0AJ. ‘Post-Medieval Archaeology in London’, by Jacqui Pearce. Visitors £1, refreshments from 7.30pm.
Sat 13 Oct. 10.30am – 3.30pm, London Omnibus Traction Society, Harrow Leisure Centre, Christchurch Ave, Wealdstone (nr. Harrow & Wealdstone Stn). ‘Autumn Transport Spectacular’. About 60 stands, incl. North London Transport Society.
Wed 17 Oct. 8.00pm, Edmonton Hundred Historical Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. ‘Tales from an Heir Hunter: Tracing Beneficiaries’, by Alan Lamprell.

Thurs 18 Oct. 7.30pm, Camden History Society, Burgh House, New End Square, NW3 1LT. ‘A Hampstead Coterie: the Carrs and Lushingtons’, by David Taylor.
Thurs 18 Oct, 8.00pm, Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall (address above) ‘Historic Buildings and Monuments in Enfield at Risk’, by Tony Dey.
Fri. 19 Oct. 7.00pm. COLAS, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3. ‘London’s Food Plant Remains’, by Karen Stewart, MOLA. Visitor £2
Sat 20 Oct. 10.00- 11.00am, Hendon Library, The Burroughs. ‘Barnet’s First Black People’, by Hugh Petrie, archivist. Part of Black History Month. Followed by various other talks.
Wed 24 Oct. 7.45pm, Friern Barnet & District LHS. St John’s Church Hall (next to police station) Friern Barnet Lane, N20. ‘Dig for Victory’, by Russell Bowes. Visitors £2.
Thurs 25 Oct, 8.00pm, Finchley Society, at Avenue House in Drawing Room, ‘Discussion’, TBA, see next Newsletter or www.finchleysociety.org.uk
Sat. 27 Oct. 10.00 — 4.30pm, Edmonton Hundred Historical Soc. Jubilee Hall, DAY CONFERENCE, TBA. Check www.edmontonhundred.org.uk for details.
Tues 30 Oct. 6.30-7.30, Osidge Library, Brunswick Park Rd, N11 1 EY, ‘Individuals in Communities, Black People in Barnet before 1940’, by Hugh Petrie, archivist.

Thanks to all who supplied copy: Stephen Brunning, Don Cooper, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Peter Nicholson, Peter Pickering and Sue W illetts.

No.495 JUNE 2012 Edited by Micky Watkins

Annual General Meeting – Tuesday, June 12th 2012 at 8pm
We hope many members will take this chance to come to the HADAS AGM and express their views and volunteer to help organize outings and events.

After the AGM there will be:
Reports and pictures of HADAS activities through the year and Stewart Wild’s adventures called “North Korea – nothing is quite as it seems”

Come and support your Society

HADAS DIARY

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE and start promptly at 8.00 pm with coffee /tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members welcome (£1.00) Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central Station (Northern line) is a short walk away.

Sunday 26th – Thursday 30th August Summer Trip to Ironbridge.

Sunday 30th September – Day outing to the St Albans area with Stewart and June.
More details next month
Tues 9th October – The Life and legacy of George Peabody. Lecture by Christine Wagg.

Tues 13th November – Archaeological Discoveries in Southwark.
Lecture by Peter Moore, Pre-Construct Archaeology.
Sun 2nd December– Christmas Party at Avenue House, 12 noon – 4.30pm (approx).

Conservation Techniques in Stone Masonry Stephen Critchley
Report of HADAS Talk (10.4.2012) by Celia Gould & Paul Wernick

Stephen Critchley served a formal apprenticeship as a stonemason, comprised of five years training followed by two further years ‘improving’, starting in the 1970s – the last days of traditional apprenticeships – and finishing in time for the 1980s building boom. Today he has a company based in London and the Cotswolds.
Stephen treated his audience to a master craftsman’s view of the history and current state of a trade which has existed for millennia, illustrated not with pictures but by the tools of his trade – mallets, chisels and a hammer. He also included the occasional story from the front line (the stoneface?) casting doubt on the opinions of ‘experts’ who may have read – and written – much on the topic of stonework but have probably never put chisel to stone. We asked questions and Stephen answered in an honest, down-to-earth manner. So here we present not a report of what he said in the order that he said it, but a thematic summary of what we learned during a most enjoyable evening.

Continuity in the Work of the Stonemason from Ancient Times

The designs of tools used by a stonemason have actually changed little for millennia. Stephen showed us a mallet based on drawings of an ancient Egyptian mallet, while modern plumb bobs and rollers are much the same as the Roman/Mesopotamian versions. The old skills of squaring and cutting are still taught and used. Modern materials may have replaced older ones – nylon instead of wood for mallets, hard tips on chisels – but overall, very little has changed in hand carving. Much of the modern stonemason’s terminology comes from Anglo-Norman, such as ‘quoin’ and ‘chamfer’.
Workmen’s books exist from medieval times with measurements and ratios using the Roman data of Vitruvius. The golden mean is still used when carving facial features. Old ideas on the effect of foreshortening on sculptures to be installed high up on buildings still work, as applied by Stephen when renewing faces on the Cirencester Corn Hall.
Stephen noted one curious effect of this continuity – that it can be impossible to date a piece of stonework with certainty based on the style and tool work. Renaissance sculptors knew that burying carvings in the right ground for a time could ‘antique’ their work very effectively. Modern masons can replace earlier work using the same or equivalent techniques to achieve results which look very much like the original.
His experience tells us that you cannot date buildings from looking at the stonework. You can, though, sometimes tell from tool marks on buildings where they have been finished – English masons use chisels, while French and German workers use axes.
The use of stone has changed over time. Local material was cheap in mediaeval times, and a landowner could get his workmen to dig it out from anywhere on his property, so there was no need to economise on it. Gothic architects realised that they could reduce the amount of stone in these previously over-engineered buildings to let in more light and yet still achieve structural integrity, although this did involve some trial and error – Beauvais cathedral fell down twice! Some of the distinguishing ‘structural’ features of these buildings have surprisingly turned out not to be needed now; Stephen noted that flying buttresses can without any problem be replaced leaving a gap where they ought to be holding and supporting the walls!

The Modern Trade or Craft

In recent times training has leant towards heritage conservation training for craftsmen (maybe six months in college and a two day SPAB course) tending to downplay the basic hand skills that Stephen believes underlie the expertise of the true stonemason. The pendulum is swinging back now, and he teaches his apprentices the same hand/tool and hand/eye co-ordination and how to square a block that he learnt himself, but the old skills are still taught less than they used to be.
Modern techniques have also made their presence felt. Computer-controlled machinery can cut blocks to size much more quickly than handwork. However, it takes 1½ day to set up the computerised cutter and, whilst new-build can take advantage of this technology, for small jobs an individual can still complete the task faster – and these small jobs at which humans excel are typical of conservation work!
One comparatively recent change is that 25% of apprentice stonemasons are now women. They tend to concentrate on the fine carving work, not because of any discrimination but because they lack the upper body strength needed for moving the heavy blocks of stone around.
Stephen’s company takes on a wide variety of work to help the industry to survive, ranging from Cotswold village stone windows to cathedral screens. They are not conservators or heritage workers, but craftsmen turning their hand to whatever needs to be done just as their predecessors did. On a more positive note, he has recently been approached to provide an iconostasis for a Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

Conservation Work

Working on stonework from different periods raises varying challenges. There is often a need to correct subsidence in buildings constructed without foundations. The beautiful Georgian buildings in Bath’s crescents were jerry-built, with much of the stonework only half the thickness (2” instead of 4”) needed to keep out the damp. The fixings of the heavy wrought iron balconies in Cheltenham have proved insufficiently strong to take their weight. Even Norman work was sometimes of poor quality. Stephen noted that he regards himself as an architectural carver/sculptor, who can copy a design accurately, but not as the artist who creates that original design.
Another particular issue is the use of unsuitable materials whose pernicious effects only emerge long after the work has been carried out. Cement renders over stonework can do untold damage. The Victorians’ habit of fastening stone blocks and facings with iron clamps has also caused problems. Although these clamps were covered with lead, in many cases the lead has proved to be too thin to prevent rusting, and the corrosion-swollen clamps have split or even shattered the stone. Unfortunately less corrosion-prone phosphor-bronze and gunmetal were not used because of cost, as Stephen found out when he worked on replacing rusted clamps with replacements made from these materials – they had to be signed out from the store individually! Nowadays, English Heritage and heritage conservation architects have stopped the use of inferior fixings, so future generations will be saved from at least one element of skimped work. Stephen has also come across an example of an earlier attempt to resolve the rusting problem. When working in the Palm House at Kew Gardens, he found two very large batteries probably intended to prevent iron corrosion. The batteries had long since become exhausted and deteriorated – and the iron had rusted!
Inferior or poorly-weathering stone also causes problems. Gothic churches built from Headington stone (from near Oxford) have suffered, as this limestone shares some of the layering characteristics of sandstone, and the finished stone face tends to fall off. Wheatley Park School was originally a folly castle which collapsed because of the quality of the stone used, and had to be rebuilt.
Attitudes to conservation work have changed over time. When Stephen started, a handful of lime could be added to modern mortar ‘to keep the surveyor happy’, but now authentic materials are insisted on throughout. This has resulted in the occasional farcical situation. For instance, a balustrade at Stoneleigh had originally been carved from stone from a family-owned quarry whose stone, with a clay matrix, dissolved over time as water ran over it. The client’s insistence that the same stone be used for Stephen’s replacement work means that the same issue will probably arise at some future date. Replacement lime plaster was reinforced with yak’s hair after the modern local equivalents were felt not to be sufficiently authentic, although Stephen believes that the original hair was taken from whatever could be found – probably the local goats.
Even more oddly, Stephen was told to use only local clay to make temporary ‘birds’ nests’ to keep grout in place as it was poured – birds’ nests which were removed and discarded as the work was finished. Stoneleigh is an interesting example of a site whose development over time resulted in the presence of different styles of architecture with, for example, an 11th and 14th century gatehouse, Victorian stables, a Repton balustrade and the Rennie-designed Charlesworthy Bridge. This last was an amazing design, set out with no knowledge that it would work; a void has now been filled with lightweight concrete because of modern concerns, but this was in Stephen’s opinion unnecessary.
Stephen’s practice-based conclusion is that you need to give and take in maintaining heritage, and in dealing with the organisations overseeing this work. In many cases it is impossible to replace stone with the ‘same’ material. Quarries have been worked out or closed, so, for example, Oxford colleges now use Bath stone to replace worn-out work, although the new material is actually more durable than the now-unobtainable original. Gloucester Cathedral uses French stone for repairs; formerly any stone was used, which was certainly unsatisfactory.
Stephen also referred to the well-known controversy when French stone was used at the British Museum instead of the original Portland stone. He said that ‘everyone’ knew what was happening, but the desire to finish the job on time and within budget directed the decision to use French stone.
Some old work cannot be matched perfectly with replacement stone, even if the location of the original material can be identified. Stone taken from the same quarry 20 feet away from the original block may look very different, and some materials will change in ways that only time can replicate, such as the staining of clunch ashlar at Woburn Abbey as embedded iron pyrites nodules rust. The improvement in the atmosphere has also resulted in a change in materials suitable for replacement of old stone. English Heritage used to approve the use of Indiana limestone to match aged Portland stone which had become grey through the pre-smokeless days, and before buildings were washed.

The Mason’s Mark

Stephen gave us a very interesting insight into the subject of masons’ marks. These have been around since at least Norman times, and the tradition continues now. They are typically handed down (given to a mason, not chosen) from grandfather to grandson – for the son might still be working in the same team! You can trace teams moving from job to job by seeing them taking their marks with them; an example is Woburn Abbey, where the team carried out the work in stages which can be traced through the marks.
He emphasised that the marks tend to be simple; something that can be put into a stone block with a few taps of the tool. The point of masons’ marks was to show what a craftsman had done when he was paid by the day – and what was needed was a mark that could be made rapidly. Stephen contrasted this with some ‘masons’ marks’ found by experts, with curves and scrolls, that would simply have taken too long for a mason paid by the piece to carve.

A Few Local Examples of Stephen’s Work

Within or close to the HADAS area Stephen has worked on the Polish War Memorial and Kensal Green cemetery – interesting because of the variety of different types of stone. In Highgate cemetery he removed trees from the catacombs and put right damage to stone shattered by iron.

Green spaces in Barnet Don Cooper

There is a very good website called www.londongardensonline.org.uk. This site gives details of all the open spaces in each London Borough. It is well worth having a look.

Church Farmhouse Museum Dr Ann Saunders

A very pertinent letter written by Ann Saunders, a past HADAS President, was published in the Hampstead & Highgate Express (19th April 2012) and she has allowed us to reprint it:

Education minister Michael Gove has just released an unexpected £2.7 million to help school children explore their local history. The plans include the creation of “heritage brokers” to work with cluster of schools and help incorporate nearby historic sites into their lessons.

The borough of Barnet includes one of the finest ancient hilltop sites in the country: Greyhound Hill in Hendon. On it there is a superb Norman church, a public house, whose origins date back to the 17th century, and a 1660s farmhouse’ open to the public until last year as Church Farmhouse Museum.

Church Farm was purchased by Hendon Council in 1944 and, in an enlightened act, they opened it as a museum in 1955. The museum specialised in the local and social history of Barnet borough and gave special consideration to the needs of local children of all ages.

A particular delight was a Teddy Bear Trail. Searching for teddies hidden among unfamiliar objects from the past in the 19th century period rooms gave very young children a gentle introduction to the fascinating story of how our homes have developed over time.

Now Barnet Council has closed the museum and put the building up for sale. Interest may be shown but a buyer will be hard to come by since the Grade II* listing of the house renders it extremely difficult to alter or develop.

The people of Barnet, especially children, are losing a rare opportunity to connect with their area’s rich and important rural past. Barnet Council must be aware of what they are destroying. Do they care?

Basil Leverton

Basil, a HADAS member for many years, died earlier this year. He was born in 1924 and his work was with the well-known family funeral director business. His hobby was the carving of horn handles for walking sticks, and he became a senior member of the Worshipful Company of Horners. He was chairman of a local Rotary Club and was elected a borough councillor for Hendon. Dr Ann Saunders attended the funeral.

The Fuller Street excavation 1974: Part 2 By Andy Simpson
(continued from May 2012 Newsletter)

The Pottery
Thanks as ever to Jacqui Pearce for her assistance in identifying this material, all of which is unstratified.

The sole piece of medieval pottery was a heavily abraded base sherd of South Herts Greyware (SHER) dated 1170-1350.

There was also a single body sherd of Surrey/Hampshire border whiteware with green glaze (BORD G) drinking jug, dated 1550-1700, and a similarly small-sized and possibly contemporary body sherd of Early Post-Medieval London-area Redware (PMRE) of c.1480-1600.

The only other material recovered was Victorian or modern in date; perhaps a relic of someone’s front parlour was a neck and body fragment of Chinese porcelain vase with a peony design (CHPOBW, 1580-1900). There is also a sherd of cheap transfer-printed Japanese cup (JAPO, 1660-1900), two sherds of English Stoneware (ENGS), a fragment of relief-moulded brown-glazed hunting jug, and two sherds of TPW4 serving dish, and a large fragment of possibly 1920s brown-glazed mug.

The largest piece is a large, thick-walled post-medieval redware (PMR) large-diameter bowl, with finger-impression handle scar.

Clay Pipe
The clay pipe finds are very limited, and none have any trace of a maker’s mark. There are four short lengths of stem, one nipple-ended mouthpiece, and one bowl fragment, probably a pony’s hoof design (Decoration code HOOF) of probable late Victorian date. With the possible exception of two stem fragments which look thicker and earlier, these are all roughly Victorian in date, and are somewhat abraded.

Glass
There is one fragment, complete with glass stopper, of R White Lemonade carbonated drink, probably Lemonade, bottle.

Building Material
A few fragments of field drain pipe and roofing tile samples (together referred to as CBM) remain in the surviving site archive. These consist of one length of red earthenware drain pipe, broken into two pieces, with a total length of 268mm, diameter (irregular) of 60mm and a bore of 40mm. there are also two fragments of large red Pantile nibbed roofing tile, maximum length 363mm.

There is also one metal item, a section of copper-ally eyepiece for a ‘Bring-‘em-Near’ style telescope, with section of wire soldered across the gall at the front.

The finds and paper archive are all held by HADAS.

Other Excavations in the vicinity
This would seem a good occasion to mention several nearby excavations, if only for their negative evidence:

It should be noted that the 1969 trial trenches by HADAS in the rear of Peacock’s Yard and Mount Pleasant, Church End immediately south of Church Terrace (NGR TQ 22950 98480) found pottery indicating occupation no earlier than the late 19th century, none of which seems to survive in the HADAS archive.

HADAS site watching at the PDSA building at Church Terrace (TQ22980 89500) on 5th November 1993 showed only modern concrete, soil and drain disturbance above natural clay in a 45cm wide trench at the rear of the building, with no finds.
A watching brief on building work for extension of the Garden Hospital at 45-60 Sunny Gardens Road in October 1992 (NGR TQ 23420 89500) found only topsoil and London clay, with no finds (HADAS Newsletter 261, December 1992). Similarly, an evaluation by Thames Valley Archaeological Services just to the west at 15-17 Sunningfields Road, Hendon, in September 1995 (TQ22960 89720, site code SSR95) found no features or finds of archaeological significance. PCA undertook an evaluation at 13 Sunningfields Road (NGR 22950 89650, Site code SFZ06).

A further trial excavation in Sunny Gardens Road in March 2006, which included a front garden trench, also found no archaeological evidence (personal communication, D. Cooper)

SELECTION OF FULLER ST FINDS

Clockwise from top left with 20p coin as scale (see text for full explanations of pottery codes used): Hunting Jug; SHER cooking pot; BORD G/PMRE jug fragments; JAPO cup rim sherd; TPW4 dish rim; ENGS (two sherds); second TPW4 dish rim; Clay pipe fragments, including pony’s hoof bowl; R. White mineral water bottle; CHPOBW vase.

Bibliography
Petrie, H Hendon & Golders Green Past Historical Publications 2005
Smith, C (Ed) Hendon As It Was vol. Two

Other Societies Events Eric Morgan

Fri 1st June 10.30am-12 noon, Friends of Barnet Libraries, South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane N10 The Battle of Britain, talk with coffee.

Sat 2nd June 2pm, Holding Your Ground – How to campaign to save your favourite green space, South Friern Library.

Weekends from Sat 2nd June till Sun 1st July, High Barnet Summer Festival: for details please see www.barnetresidentsassociation.org.uk
Other Societies Events (continued)

Sun 3rd June 3-5pm, The Bothy Garden Open, Avenue House, East End Rd N3 3QE. Free.

Mon 4th – Wed 27th June Hendon Library, The Burroughs NW4 4BQ Tiaras & Tea Towels – A Royal Celebration to mark the Diamond Jubilee, Display of many artefacts associated with coronations, royal weddings and jubilees from Queen Victoria to Elizabeth.

Wed 6th June 5.30pm, Institute of Archaeology/British Museum Medieval Seminar, IOA, UCL,
31-34 Gordon Sq., WC1 0PY, Rome of the Pilgrims: The City in the C7& C8. Talk by Alan Thacker.

Thurs 7th June 5.15pm, Institute of Historical Research Seminars in Medieval and Tudor London History. Please check www.history.ac.uk/events/seminars

Mon 11th June, Barnet and District Local History Society, Church House, Wood St., Barnet (opp. Museum) Ice Wells for a Metropolis, London’s Ice Trade, Talk by Malcolm Tucker.

Wed 13th June 7.45pm,Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, corner Ferme Park Rd/Weston Park N8. Capability Brown, Father of English Landscape Gardening, Talk by Russell Bowes. Visitors £2.

Fri 15th June 7pm, COLAS St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3, Drapers’ Gardens: The Continuing Post Excavation Process of a Deeply Stratified Urban Site. Talk by Neil Hawkins (PCA). Visitors £2.

Sat 16th June 12.30-5.30pm, Highgate Summer Festival. Pond Square,N6. Lots of stalls.

Sun 24 June 12-6pm, East Finchley Festival, Cherry Tree Wood N2 (opp. Station).

Wed 27th June 7.45pm, Friern Barnet Local History Society, St John’s Church Hall, Friern Barnet Lane N20, Ally Pally Prison Camp, Talk by Maggie Butt. Visitors £2.

Thurs 28th June 8pm, Finchley Society AGM, Followed by Wine and Cheese. Avenue House, East End Rd. Display of items from the Society Archive.

Fri 29th June 10am. Proms at St Jude’s Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb NW11. Guided Walk through woods, gardens, ancient farmland. Meet at Whitestone Pond Flagstaff. Pre-book on www.promsatstjudes.org.uk

Sat 30th June – Sun 1st July, ‘Housewarming’ Weekend of Events to Celebrate the Reopening of Forty Hall, Forty Hall, Enfield.

No. 494 MAY 2012 Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY — Forthcoming Lectures and Events

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Fi nchley, N3 3QE and start promptly at 8.00 pm with coffee /tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members welcome (£1.00) Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central Station (Northern line) is a short walk away.
Tuesday 8th May 2012. – Bumps, Bombs and Birds: the history and archaeology of RSPB reserves. Lecture by Robin Standring who is Reserves Archaeologist at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) covering their reserves network, some 150,000 hectares of wild and beautiful countryside spread the length and breadth of the UK. With a background in field archaeology and a life-long interest in conservation, Robin is the first full time archaeologist employed by the RSPB, joining in 2009 with grant assistance from English Heritage.
There are some 200 RSPB nature reserves, and whilst these are known to be rich in wildlife, it is less well known that there are also many thousands of archaeological sites and features. Key highlights of the collection include almost 200 Scheduled Ancient monuments and one of the best collections of both prehistoric and military archaeology of any single land manager. Robin’s work has focused on ensuring the sympathetic management of these sites as well as making them more accessible and interpreted for visitors. The RSPB is also engaged in ambitious programmes of wetland and heathland habitat restoration and he is trialing methods to ensure that minimum impacts are made upon archaeological remains.
Thurs. 10th May Quiz at Avenue House
Tues 12th June 2012 – Annual General Meeting at Avenue House.

Sun 26th — Thur 30th August 2012 – Summer trip to Ironbridge.

Tues 9th October 2012 – The Life and Legacy of George Peabody. Lecture by Christine Wagg Tues 13th November 2012 – Archaeological discoveries in Southwark. Lecture by Peter Moore, Pre-Construct Archaeology (PCA)
Sun 2nd December 2012 — Christmas Party at Avenue House from 12 noon – 4.30 (approx) LAMAS 49th Annual Conference: Museum of London — 24th Mar 2012.
Andy Simpson. An excellent and informative conference, as always … and very well attended.

Morning Session: Recent Work

Guy Thompson from PCA in his talk entitled ‘An immense and exceedingly commodious goods station’ to quote a contemporary source, examined the archaeology of the Great Northern Railway goods yard at York Way, King’s Cross, dating to 1850-51, with its former mass of sidings industrial character and surviving buildings, tracks and wagon turntables, currently in part being restored for use as part of a University campus. Features studied since 2007, as the pace of redevelopment of the area increased, included subterranean stables.

Malcolm McKenzie from MoLA described the fascinating archaeology of the northern-side Thames waterfront at Three Quays House, Lower Thames Street, west of the Tower of London. Demolition of a long-derelict post-war office block involved the hand excavation of some 40 pile shafts each some 2m square over a ten-month period. Extensive and well-preserved remains of a second-third century Roman timber quay were found, with some

massive timbers surviving, some of them re-used architectural timbers of first century date; plus a huge deposit of unabraded Central Gaulish Samian, clearly deposited as a single (unknown) event, and in two or three shaft bases, the very denuded footings of the third century masonry riverside wall.

A medieval phase of medieval timber quay, south of the Roman quayside line, included more well-preserved timbers; some of them re-used boat timbers and sections of boat, hardly surprising since in medieval times this area was known for its shipbuilding. Contemporary with this was a huge quantity of metal-detected small finds, including buckles and pilgrim badges.

Joanna Taylor’s talk ‘The Thameslink Project in North Southwark: Recent work’ covered the detailed Network-Rail funded work by Oxford Archaeology/Pre-Construct Archaeology in advance of extensive redevelopment of the area. Work on the new Thameslink Borough viaduct has given further insights into building complexes in Roman Southwark, an area of islands and marshes/mudflats amidst the Thames in Roman times. The well-known Wheatsheaf pub site continued work by MoLA, with four metres of good quality archaeological deposits in the back yard/garden of the pub, eighteenth-century brick pub features and with finds-rich medieval cesspits cutting the Roman levels which included truncated masonry foundations.

A nearby site – Bedale St – involved the demolition of three properties (which will be rebuilt after completion of the viaduct) which sealed two metres of deposits – medieval soils and virtually no Roman levels remaining. The major feature was a large seven metre-wide ditch with evidence of a wooden fence that had collapsed into it. This feature was undated, but was post late-Roman and predates the 12th / 13th century. Perhaps this is a late Saxon ditch defining the Saxon Southwark bridgehead settlement.

Further work at 11-15 Borough High St (on the corner of London Bridge St) had high archaeological potential, being adjacent to the Roman road to the northern Southwark island. Modern basements had left islands of good archaeology, including a Roman masonry building with flooring intact and traces of underfloor heating and post-Roman robber cuts. The new building was redesigned to preserve as much as possible in the centre of the site. It is being interpreted as a bathhouse; its exact function is unknown, but it included a 5.75m diameter circular room and limescale accumulations on the floor, supporting this interpretation. Also found were substantial medieval stone foundations interpreted as part of St Thomas’s hospital. For more details see: http://www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk/news/news items/view/106

John Shepherd in his talk ‘The Temple of Mithras 1954-2012: There and back again’ looked at recent work on the moving, further excavation, and re-interpretation of the famous Temple of M ithras, shortly to be moved back much closer to its original find spot and reconstructed in a much more sympathetic and architecturally correct manner than its crazy-paving floored open-air incarnation of the last 40 years in Queen Victoria St. The new indoors display will form a major part of the new development of the site, with dedicated entrance, interpretative area above to include the original and more recent excavation and general archaeology of the area, and temple display below in an enclosed space to reflect the feel of the temple when first built.

As is well known, the temple was first dug in September/October 1954 on the later site of Bucklersbury House. The temple was built in the 240s AD and converted to a temple for the cult of Bacchus in the fourth century. After public outcry ensured its ‘preservation’ in 1954, the footings of the temple – or rather, as it transpires from recent excavation on the site, most of them – were rather roughly dismantled and stored in roughly the right shape in a bomb-site cellar, quickly becoming disturbed and overgrown. A later move took them to Harrow prior to ‘reconstruction’ on the wrong site and with the wrong orientation. Much original material was lost and replaced with modern concrete, which was carefully removed during the most recent dismantling. Recent excavation on the original site has revealed in-site temple foundations, including mote of a front narthex entrance building, and good organic preservation. Careful plotting of remaining bombed Victorian cellar walls and other features permitted the original site and orientation to be located.

Afternoon Session: Roman Greater London

Isobel Thompson looked at ‘Putting the foundation of Londinium in context – the view from the North’. Looking at the foundation of Londinium based on the Hertfordshire Historic Environment Record (H ER), which indicates over 320 late Iron Age sites in Hertfordshire alone, with plotted settlement/find spots indicating distinct Iron Age styles of pottery divided by a distinct gap formed by the Roding Valley in Essex.

Our old friend (and President) Harvey Sheldon looked at ‘The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Archaeology and Experiment’. Nearby Roman roads included Ermine St through Enfield and the suggested V iatores Route 167 through Mill Hill. Highgate is an ancient wood with oak and hornbeam. Ownership of the site passed to the Bishop of London in the seventh century; prior to that it was owned by the Kings of Essex, and may even have been part of the public land administered by the former Roman authority governing Londinium. In 1886 it passed to the Corporation of London for preservation as public open space following a vigorous campaign by those concerned it would be lost to rapidly spreading Victorian suburban development. There are undated banks and ditches in the wood. A 1960s survey looking for flints found first/second century Roman pottery such as poppy-head decoration beakers as well as Mesolithic flints, with a campaign of digging from 1966.
Kilns, kiln dumps/waster mounds and rough flooring were found, along with a series of ditches; kilns excavated had pedestals, walls and flues; one kiln, now removed and preserved off-site, had a tile-covered flue, this being the last kiln found. Some pots were found near-complete, sometimes reused to support flue arches. Fabric was reduced grey, some with grey slip using clay imported from elsewhere. The site appears to have four production phases and three types of fabric (grey/grog /sandy tempered wares), covering the period 50–160+ AD; there is also a surprising amount – some 354 sherds – of Antonine Samian ware dated 70–140+ AD, just as Brockley Hill yielded pottery other than that produced on site.
Martin Dearne kept the hall amused with a highly entertaining and informative review of Roman Enfield: ‘First Stop North of Londinium’. A major feature at the north end of this site on Ermine St. was a possible Mansio. This small roadside settlement, lying mostly on the western side of Ermine St, has mainly been investigated by the Enfield Archaeological Society, with the first recorded finds during suburban development in 1902: cremation burials at the edge of the settlement. Major study began in the 1960s, with the first proof of actual settlement. Much of the excavation work has been in back gardens, with the settlement site covered by housing and a school. So far, there is nothing of pre-Flavian (70s AD) date other than a ditch, the settlement beginning at the north of the site and expanding southwards from the suggested official Mansio/ Mutatio, with the settlement at its zenith in the second century. There is little evidence of great wealth or prosperity, but some glass from a cremation burial, and occupation continues into the late Roman period, late 4th/early 5th century, with one possible fifth-century military/civil service style belt fitting. The settlement lies in an overall landscape, with burials and possible villa sites to the west, possibly along with a tannery; recent discoveries – naturally found after the reconstruction painting shown at last year’s Roman Enfield exhibition was produced – are two southern E-W boundary ditches parallel to a small stream, perhaps reflecting an attempt to impress and showing civic pride, the ditch later replaced by a bank.
Alistair Douglas of PCA studied ‘The Enigma of Roman Shadwell’, the site lying on a gravel river terrace 1.25km east of Londinium, beyond the eastern cemetery, north of what in Roman times was Wapping Island in the Thames. In the 1970s, a robbed square masonry foundation was excavated, 5m square internally, interpreted at the time as a watch tower or signal station, though as Douglas pointed out, a better location for such would surely have been the high ground at Greenwich; it may actually have been a mausoleum, and is dated to the mid-second century. Finds from this dig indicated a large settlement, with Roman levels preserved by deeper soils on a slope, and clay and timber buildings of third/fourth century date, plus wells and two oven-like structures, and timber-lined tanks, possibly for water management-settling tanks?
All Shadwell sites have East Gaulish Samian – the latest of the Samian wares, produced in the Rhine region, perhaps for a site that was officially sponsored, though not necessarily a military one, reaching its peak in the mid-third century.

A further excavation in 2002 on the former Babe Ruth club site in Highway revealed more clay and timber buildings and a well -preserved apsidal bathhouse measuring 19m x 20m, with not all of it exposed. Facing the Thames, and with 16 rooms, it was the second biggest bathhouse in London after the baths at H uggi n Hill, and was of third century date, remaining in use for a century or more.
This seems to have had a communal use, suggested by remains of snacks including chicken bones, along with a fourth-century gold ear ring and gold bracelet, and also along with, according to the accompanying reconstruction drawings, other typical Roman bathhouse pursuits of carousing and indulgence in more earthy pastimes suggested by the presence of female accoutrements such as hairpins, finger rings and bracelets. In addition to the bathhouse and an associated clay and timber building, there was a boundary ditch and the previously recorded ‘tower’ building. The four sites excavated in the immediate area have yielded 800 coins, suggesting a settlement of roadside settlement/small town size, with good trading links to both Europe and Britannia’s interior via water transport. First/second century Londinium had been a logistics/distribution centre, but by the third/fourth century it was self-sufficient, though with a declining population and long-distance trade decreasing, with trade perhaps moving to the settlements at Old Ford or Shadwell. River levels were dropping, but Shadwell remained a vibrant centre to the mid-fourth century.
Finds in 2010 included a collapsed masonry building, with late Roman coins, and better preservation at the south end of the site, including a further Roman oven and a weathered first-second century altar stone. For general Shadwell background information, see http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Explore-online/Pocket-
histories/roman/roman_london_5.htm

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/historical/research/publication/178005 http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/Publications/pubDetails.htm?pid=31

David Bird looked at ‘Recent Excavations at Ashstead villa and tileworks, Surrey, and their implications’. The villa site was dug, in the manner of the time, in 1929, revealing a villa and separate bathhouse and evidence of tile-making. There are few surviving site notes – one sketch being literally on the back of an envelope – plus some contemporary press report. The site report was published promptly, with more work on the site in the 1960s; amateur excavation of this relatively remote site has recently continued for 13 seasons. There is a nearby three-period earthwork, originally prehistoric, with mid-first century and later Roman recutting. The villa has a floor plan seemingly unique in the Western Empire, but recent work has added a proper phasing plan, indicating that the building is not all one phase, revising the ground plan somewhat with differing phases of masonry. One room was lined with box flue tiles – whose overnight vandalism, even in 1929, prompted closure of the excavation. There may be a separate building of Flavian date. Geophysics has been done to find the ti l ery and two tile kilns have been found, one on top of the other. This may reflect this and other villa estates having an associated industry – tile, pottery, or stone working, or even timber cutting.
London’s Foundations Peter Collins

Recently, a report entitled London’s Foundations has been published by the Mayor of London. It can be seen at (http://www.london.gov.uk/publication/londons-foundations-spg). Although this is a planning document about London’s geology, it may be of interest to HADAS members as it highlights sites of geological interest across London, many of which have archaeological or historical associations.

A number of these geological sites are within the HADAS area or its vicinity, including Avenue House. When you visit there you may not realise you are standing on glacial till or boulder clay brought down by the Anglian ice sheet some 450,000 years ago. In the gardens, especially when the soil is disturbed by gardening works, the tell-tale pebbles of chalk can be seen. Nearby Coldfall Wood has similar features. Others sites in the vicinity include the complex of Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House, which is recommended by the London Geodiversity Partnership (LGP), http://www.londongeopartnership.org.uk/ as a geology site of regional importance (RIGS). Within Kenwood there is an abandoned quarry face, for the Bagshot sand and the hillocks of Sandy Heath are the result of similar exploitation. In the Heath, Claygate, the top-most member of the London clay was ideal for brick making and, in the nineteenth century, its extraction resulted in Viaduct pond.

If you have any comments or ideas on interesting geological sites in the HADA S area please contact me below and we can consider them within the LGP. Mobile: 07718 587739

E-mail: peter@collins-at-queenscres.org.uk

New map of Roman London Sue Willetts

On 17.1.2012, Julian Hill (MoLA) gave a lecture at the Museum of London which covered the background to the mapping of Roman London over the centuries — publicity for the new map: Londinium: a new map and guide to Roman London. The talk provided an overview of the history of recording Roman remains, known or otherwise indicated. The map shows public buildings, houses and defences which are shown superimposed on the modern street plan. Areas north and south of the river are shown, as is an indication of how the water levels and shoreline have changed over time. On the reverse and to the sides of the map is a detailed and well illustrated historical overview including 18 sites to visit with visible remains. There is a great deal of information included on this map including suggestions for further reading. The map costs £6.25 ISBN 978-1- 90786-05-7.

HADAS Finds Class Blog Stephen Brunning

Regular readers of this newsletter will no doubt know that HADAS took over the running of the old Post-Excavation Analysis class from Birkbeck College in September 2009 and renamed it “Looking at Finds”. If you wish to find out what we get up to behind the scenes on Wednesday evenings at Avenue House, check out the new blog at: www.hadasfindsgroup.blogspot.com. Please feel free to register as a follower, and/or post any comments you wish.

Crop marks Montrose Playing fields Bill Sibley

Having lived in close proximity to Montrose Playing fields for 70 years I am curious about the development of ‘crop marks’ over the past 3/4 years sited by the security camera near to the sports pavilion. Two large sunken rectangles approx 8 x 12 metres in size are becoming more apparent each year; they can be seen quite clearly on Google maps, just call up ‘The Greenway NW9 5AU@ this will bring you close enough to the location. The ‘sinks’ are similar to wooden beam wall foundations rotting away as when old tree roots rot away leaving ‘indents in the ground’.

From studying some old maps, I know that the footbridge nearby was built on the site of a ‘Ford’ for crossing the Silk stream that runs through the park on its way to the Welsh Harp and that some structure may have been built there in the past (who knows how early). I have spoken to older residents than I, who lived in the area during the war years and they discount air raid shelters as they were built further out in the playing fields which is where I remember them as a child before they were demolished. I am also aware of the tram shed and rail link from the park to Mill Hill Broadway sidings for bricks and supplies to Lai ngs when the housing in the area was developed in the late 20’s/ early 30’s on the site of the old Shoelands Farm land, but this again was further out in the field. Would this be of interest for further investigation either to HADAS members or any archaeology students living locally?

Spoilheap removed ‘by persons unknown’ –

The Fuller Street excavation 1974 Part 1. by Andy Simpson

(Part 2 will be continued in a future newsletter)

Following on from looking at the White Swan 1976 excavation, the author decided to look at another previously unpublished HADAS excavation, this time in central Hendon from 1974 – in fact, it followed on from the highly successful Church Terrace excavation of 1973-74, and was located only a short distance away to the east, but was much less successful.

The Fuller Street Area

The Church End area of central Hendon once featured a densely-packed area of Victorian terraced houses and workshops running down to Sunny Gardens and up to Church Walk, centred around the now lost or re-routed Prince of Wales Road, Heading Street, and Fuller Street.

As shown on the 1895 Ordnance Survey map (and Godfrey Edition of the 1912 OS map), the Victorian Fuller Street ran north-south off Church Lane (now Church Road), opposite Ravenshurst Avenue (where the south-eastern corner of Fuller Street – at NGR TQ 232 895 – had a shop, 48 Church Road, which acted as an outlet for the Express Dairy, College Farm, Finchley), towards Church Walk. Fuller Street was lined with typical (mainly) two-story, side-passage terraced houses of the time, dated around 1869, which had tiny fenced front ‘gardens’, fronting onto the pavement, and long, narrow back yards. At least until Edwardian times Fuller Street houses shared one toilet and a scullery between every two houses. The western side of the road’s houses began beyond Chad’s Alley which divided them from the backs of shops fronting onto Church Road at the corner, where there was also a traditional three-story corner shop (No. 46 Church Road, latterly ‘Weiner’s’ butchers, still standing in 1976 at NGR TQ 242 894), and backed onto the backyards of similar terraced houses in the parallel Heading Street. On the eastern side, the backyards faced out towards a builder’s yard and Sunny Gardens Road.

Luckily, HA DAS record cards with photos record the street and its environs in 1970-71, prior to total demolition.

The western row of twelve mainly flat-fronted houses on Fuller St, numbered 2-24, ended in two better quality terraced houses, nos. 2 and 4, with two bay windows flanking a shared entrance with portico-effect pillars. They stood adjacent to Chad’s Alley, running westwards through to Heading Street which also ran north-south off Church Road and was lined with a jumble of two-story brick-built former workshops and stables on its southern side. This southern side backed onto the buildings on Church Road. On the opposite side corner of this alley, also on the southern side, behind 46 Church Road, was a brick-built two-story former slaughterhouse, with roof loft, recorded on 11 December 1971.

The brick wall across the end of Fuller street at the Church Walk end, as well as having a gate leading to Richards builder’s yard, also mounted Fuller Street’s own tablet-style memorial to the men who died in two world wars, facing down the street; happily this still survives today, mounted on the gable end of a row of houses facing the present Fuller Street. There had been considerable correspondence between HA DAS and Barnet Council concerning finding a new location for it.

By 11 December 1971 the eastern side of Fuller Street, numbered 1-29, was being demolished; it featured at least one once-elegant three-story house with decorative brick banding (Nos. 3 and 5 Fuller Street, part demolished by 11 December 1971), adjacent to a gated entrance, with room above, leading to a small yard used as industrial premises by Express Dairies, and more two-story terraced accommodation next to this (No.1 Fuller St).

The whole area was demolished during clearances in the early 1970s, with the last family to leave Fuller Street being George David ‘Happy’ Bartlett and his wife Edith, the last of seven generations living there. From 1974 on it was replaced with flats fronting Church Road and modern low-rise housing. The original line of the street was lost; there is still a Fuller Street, but it runs at right angles across the original line of the old Fuller Street from Sunny Gardens Road before curving north to join the line of Sunni ngfields Road.

HADAS’s cache of photographs even includes two of cast-iron road gutter gratings, also taken on 11 December 1971, one made by Wm. Harris, Stratford).

The above photos show, on the left, the west side of Fuller Street (No.s 2-24) in August 1970, not long before demolition. Just visible on the left is the former slaughter house. The right-hand view is of 46 Church Road, at the corner of Fuller Street, still standing in 1976, being passed by an LT Routemaster bus on the 83 route.

The former slaughterhouse at the corner of Fuller St/Chad’s Alley, photographed on 11 December 1971, prior to demolition. Backs of Church Road shop buildings on left.

Also taken 11 December 1971, looking down Chad’s Alley, with the photographer’s back to the former Heading Street. Former slaughterhouse at end of alley on right and, beyond that, the part-demolished 3/5 Fuller Street; HADAS’s Fuller St trial trench ran behind these buildings.

Upper part of No.s 1,3,5 Fuller St, taken 11 December 1971 prior to completion of demolition. Nos 3/5 on right. The Fuller St excavation trench ran behind the site of these buildings three years later. Note distinctive round-headed windows.

close-up of premises seen in previous photo, formerly used by Express Dairies
(11 December 1971)

The re-sited war memorial (seen here in 2012)
The Excavation

This excavation (at approximately NGR ref TQ 23100 89450; Museum of London-issued site code FUL74) followed on immediately from the highly successful Church Terrace dig of 1973/74 a short distance to the west, and preceded total redevelopment of the area of Church End between St Mary’s and Church Road. Directed as ever at that time by Ted Sammes, there was one main trial trench across an area bounded by Church Road to the south, Fuller Street to the west and Sunny Gardens Road to the east, and a smaller trial trench at right angles to this some distance away.

The only published account is a brief mention in the HADAS Newsletters for August and October 1974 and January 1975. It was intended to grid the site on the weekend of 31 August/1 September 1974, with digging to start on the September 1st. A 24-metre long, one metre wide trial trench was cut north-south across the middle of the site. The trench crossed a concrete yard, which was partly removed to permit hand excavation, which normally occurred on Sundays. Newsletter 47, January 1975, recorded that the Fuller Street dig ‘…has proved unrewarding. Neither the objects found, nor the traces of structures such as a gravelled yard and an early pond, merit further work on the site. It has accordingly been discontinued’. The site plan is annotated (some years after the dig, possibly) as ‘Dig stopped when site huts burnt by ‘Kids’? Actually, the huts were left empty on the site after cessation due to its unrewarding nature; the HADAS Research Committee minutes for June 1975 record the destruction by burning of one of the two huts on site, and the resultant loss of tables and chairs.

The main trench ran along the former backyard/garden line of the eastern row of terraced houses along Fuller Street, from behind No.s 52-54 Church Road; it shows the line of their front wall, with an unexcavated gap and then brick footings and features such as WC drain, tile drain and manhole in the trench, in which five one-metre baulks were left.

Unlike the White Swan excavation previously recorded by this author, some site records do survive – a single site plan, and just one site photograph, in poor condition, showing long-serving HADAS member, the late George Ingram, standing in a narrow trench amidst the scrub, possibly in the small trial trench, with no features visible.

There are a number of mostly dirty, faded and water-damaged ‘context’ cards with rather minimal information – often just a date, grid number and digger’s name. Only a minority have any information on the nature of the contexts within the grid. There are also brief mentions in contemporary HADAS Committee minutes, which mention ‘the trial trench on this site is extremely disappointing. One area of cobble and gravel has been found [at the northern end of the trench – AS] which will be lifted to see if there is anything under it. Finds made so far do not merit extending the dig’ (15 November 1974) and ‘Work ended on December 15th; the Borough Architect’s Department had not felt that back-filling was necessary. They had kindly agreed to the Society’s huts remaining on the site pro tem’ and there was on-going discussion of the problems finding a new site for the Fuller St war memorial. The contemporary HADAS Research Committee minutes provide further detail, including recording removal of the spoilheap ‘by persons unknown’!

The card for grid A3 – the smaller trial trench – indicates it was dug on 27 October and 16 November 1974, with no features recorded. The photo above by Ted Sammes of the late George Ingram may show this trench. Scanned from a damaged print, it is the only known photo of the actual dig.

The main trench appears to be numbered into six grids, recorded sequentially along the trench as D2 to D7 inclusive, with D2 being ‘550cm to edge of [Church?] Road’.

Grid D2, dug 7th and 14th September, is recorded as containing rubble and garden soil at a depth of 24cm; Grid D3, dug 29 September, contained a disturbed brown layer with rubble at a depth of 17cm; D4 dug 20th October contained mixed soil at a depth of 40-45cm and was heavily disturbed; D5 dug 8 December at a depth of up to 91 cm contained the hard core of a former hard standing at 45cm depth and a field drain, and possibly a Bel larmi ne stoneware sherd; D6, as opposed to the usual two record cards per grid, has six, and was dug between 13 September and 8 December 1974 at a depth up to 1.12m, and contained sand and gravel and gravel and rubble at a depth of 88 to 1.12m overlying a burnt layer at 1.12m down, with a layer of laid pebbles at 50cm depth. Grid D7, dug 16 November, yielded at least one sherd of ‘Mocha Ware’, with gravel, rubble and mixed clay from a depth of 50cm down to the top of a sand layer at 95cm.

The site plan shows the ‘pond’ feature in the end three grids (possibly D5-7), the end one cut by a section bottomed at 1.10m. If the site plan grid references follow the cards, grids D2 and 3 contained brick footings, presumably of the recently demolished terraced houses and their outbuildings; Grid D4 angled brick footings and WC drain; Grid D5 pond, manhole and tile drain (as recorded on the cards) and adjacent granite block, Grid D6 the pond and two tile drains (one a probable continuation of that in D5 the other side of the intervening baulk) along with brick footings; and grid 7 the pond. To be continued, with finds information and analysis

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Fri 4th May 10.30 am & 12 noon. Friends of Barnet Libraries, South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10. The nuts and bolts of local history. Talk with coffee.

Sats 5th , 19th & 26th May Trinity in May. Trinity Church Centre. 15 Nether St. N12 7NN. (Near Arts Depot) Arts, Music & Drama. Email art.sample@gmail.com. Also Finchley Art exhibition 12th – 17th May (Tel: 020 8446 0397)

Sat 5th – Mon 7th May Enfield Archaeological Society. Dig at Theobalds Palace, Cedars Park, Cheshunt, Herts. Volunteers needed for dig to west of great garden wall. Contact Mike Dewbrey 01707 870888 (office) for more details.

Tues 8th May – 5.30 pm . Institute of Archaeology, UCL/British Museum Medieval Seminar. Room 612, 31-34 Gordon Sq. WC1H OPY The Roman–Saxon transition: new evidence from excavations at St.Martin’s-in-the-Fields. Alison Telfer.

Sun 13th – Mon 21st May Barnet Borough Arts Council. The Spires, High St, Barnet. (i nc HA DA S)
Tues 15th May 6.30 pm LAMAS, Clore Learning Centre Mus. of London London Wall EC2Y 5HN The Walbrook: its archaeology and history: a water engineer’s view. Stephen Myers. Visitors £2.00
Wed 16th May – 8.00 pm. Islington Archaeology & History Soc. Islington Town Hall, Upper St. N 1 How archaeology transformed the study of Saxon London. Talk by Bob Cowie (MOLA)
Thur 17th May 6 – 8.00 pm. Friends of Barnet Libraries, Hendon Library, The Burroughs, NW4 4BQ Open evening at Local Studies including tour and presentations.
Fri 18th May 6.30 – 9.00 pm. L.A.A.R.C. Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Rd. N1 7ED. The archaeological archive at twilight. Go behind the scenes to view rarely seen finds. Curator-led tours & object handling. Book in advance £6.00, Concs. £5, Friends £4. On 020 7001 9844 or www.museumoflondon.org.uk/events
Fri 18th May – 7.00 pm. COLAS. St.Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3. Recent excavations at Holborn Viaduct. Talk by Dave Saxby (MOLA) £2.00
Fri 18th May – 6.00 pm. Museums at night. Islington Museum, 245 St.John St. EC1 V 4N B. Radical Clerkenwell. A brief political history of Clerkenwell Green. Talk by Ben Smith then: 7.00 pm The Marx Memorial Library. Tour by John Callow. Both events are free.
Tues 22nd May – 7.00 pm. The London Archaeologist. Inst. of Archaeology, UCL. Annual lecture & meeting. The archaeology of a Royal Peculiar: new light on Westminster Abbey and its furnishings. Prof. Warwick. Rodwel l. Preceded at 6.30 pm by a wine reception. Free but please RSVP for the reception. becky.wallower@dial.pipex.com
Sat 26th – Sun 27th May 11 am – 4pm. COLAS at the Tower. Foreshore access & public displays. Part of Festival of British Archaeology. Activities in the open space in front of the Tower including handling finds approx. 11 am – 1.00 pm on Saturday and 11.30 am – 1.30 pm on Sunday. http://www.colas.org.uk/documents/COLAS_FBA2012_A5.pdf . Note change of usual date.
Thanks to: Stephen Brunning, Peter Collins, Eric Morgan, Bill Sibley, Andy Simpson.

HADAS DIARY

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8 pm, with coffee/tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members: £1. Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a short walk away.

Tuesday 13th March 2012 – “It’s all in the Bones – St Bride’s crypt individuals” by Jelena Bekvalac (Curator of Human Osteology – Museum of London). The talk will be about the extraordinary assemblage of 227 individuals’ remains from the 18thand 19th century retained in the crypt of the church, which has kindly granted access and given permission for research. It will provide an insight into the lives and times of the people and some of the diseases/disorders observed in their skeletons, and how this informs us about them as individuals, and collectively about the time in which they lived – richly aided by documentary sources.

Tuesday 10th April 2012 -Conservation Techniques in Stone Masonry. Lecture by Stephen Critchley.

Tuesday 8th May 2012 -Bumps, Bombs and Birds: the history and archaeology of RSPB reserves. Lecture by Robin Standring (RSPB Reserves Archaeologist).

Tuesday 12th June 2012 -Annual General Meeting.

Sunday 26th -Thursday 30th August – Summer trip to Ironbridge

We still have a few places left for this trip. We will be based at the Best Western Valley Hotel, in the Severn Gorge. Although we will visit some of the museums in the immediate area, we have a number of other places to visit including Wroxeter Roman town, church and vineyard, Severn Valley railway, the RAF museum in Cosford and Shrewsbury – which has a large number of Tudor buildings.

Cost as last year is £390 per person in a double room or £450 in a single room. This includes bed, breakfast, packed lunches and evening meals, coach costs and the entry costs for visits. If you wish to join the group for this trip, please contact Jim or Jo Nelhams on 020 8449 7076.

Tuesday 9th October 2012 -The Life and Legacy of George Peabody. Lecture by Christine Wagg.

Tuesday 13th November 2012 – Tuesday 13th November 2012 – Archaeological Discoveries in Southwark. Lecture by Peter Moore (Pre-Construct Archaeology)

Sunday 2nd December 2012 – Following our enjoyable Christmas event at the end of last year, we have again booked Avenue House. The “party” will run from roughly 12:00 to 4:30. More details in due course.

THE MERCHANT TAYLORS’ GREAT FEAST OF 1607 Andrew Coulson

Report on the January lecture

A great feast. An annual event. The election of the Master and Wardens. An opportunity to demonstrate again that the Merchant Taylors are one of the twelve great Livery Companies of the Corporation of London. But this one was rather special.

Wool was the background of English Medieval prosperity and raw wool was exported to Europe. From 1480 the Merchant Taylors, or their predecessors, had gradually usurped the making of clothes from the continent and were doing very well. These distinguished and wealthy City gentlemen could fund the State and did. In the previous reign Queen Elizabeth the First had borrowed £50,000, much of it from the City. The Master of the Merchant Taylors had lent the Crown two tranches of £450 and £730 and the Company was, at that time, well able to lend the State £1000 per annum. And in return all manner of good things came their way. But the Queen died and James the First, frightened of assassination and the plague, spent some years before approaching the City in person.

The Merchant Taylors were one of the great twelve guilds and there were about a hundred lesser ones. Money could be borrowed from all of them. Further, even in their line of trade, they had competition -. the Clothworkers and the Mercers, for example. Inter-guild riots were common and bloodshed was normal. To invite the King to their annual feast ahead of anybody else would be a feather in their cap. But they had to move fast as the Lord Mayor, a Clothworker, had already invited the King to become a Clothworker. The date was June 27th. The invitation from the Master and Wardens was accepted on behalf of the King and of Henry Prince of Wales but the Queen, Ann of Denmark, declined to come. The traditional date for the great feast was the 16th of July. They had three weeks.

The first thing the Master and Wardens did was to advance their election to the 15th of July. This meant that the “ruling clique” which would meet the King would be in power for the next year. They then set about preparing.

The Company’s “New Hall” in Threadneedle Street was adequate accommodation and, despite being bombed during the war, was and is functional, and the medieval kitchens are in use to this day. The only structural change was caused by James I’s unwillingness to eat in public. He ate in a private room with a hole cut in the wall to provide a view of the top table where the Prince of Wales was presiding.

Furniture could be borrowed from the Merchant Taylors’ own resources, and from subsidiary or allied guilds; cutlery and china obtained through similar means and table linen was embroidered under the control of the Beadle’s wife who submitted a bill for £3-14s-4d. But catering staff presented a problem. In fact the Master, Sir John Swinnerton, and four Aldermen “borrowed” the Lord Mayor’s and the Sheriff’s staff of cooks, all thirty-two of them. Someone must have mentioned the need for “all pulling together for the good of the City”.

Provisions seem to have been made the subject of a similar “round robin”. Apparently everybody helped. Prince Henry sent six bucks; beef, mutton and pork arrived in the weights of 21, 41 and 79 stone; fish in proportion along with 17 swans, pheasants, turkeys, quails, peacocks, and 1300 hens eggs. A large portion of Westphalian ham and about 360 lbs of butter. And to eat it off there were 2880 trenchers. Records do not state what quantities of alcohol were provided but 24 chamber pots were available.

The dessert course consisted almost entirely of fruit enlivened by a rarity from the New World –

60 lbs of potatoes.

For entertainment the Master and Wardens had enlisted London’s theatrical community; John Rice, J.Hemmings and the Burbage Company at the Globe were all summoned to provide verses, instrumentals and singing. John Bull, a well known musician, was to accompany the King to his private room playing a tune which has been held to be a forerunner of the modern national anthem. Knowing the sycophantic habits of Stuart monarchy it could be true. As a structural addition the Master and Wardens had secured the pageant ship of 1602. This vessel, covered in light blue Watchet silk, and manned by three singers, was slung from the rafters of the Hall and the crew sang throughout the evening. One particular song was sung three times over to great applause. King James was, apparently, very impressed.

When any monarch wishes to enter the City, he has to be formally received at the gates by the Lord Mayor and then escorted to his destination. The Lord Mayor took his charge to the gates of the Merchant Taylors’ Hall and there had to hand him over to the Master and Wardens. Sadly he was not invited to the function despite having used the City Recorder to plead his case. He just had to wait outside until the King decided to leave.

The present capacity of the Hall is about 200 seated. The best estimate of the number of guests in 1607 is between 300 and 400. At least a quarter would be taken up with the King’s retinue. He had with him 21 Lords, 66 gentlemen – a sort of bodyguard – and three ambassadors and their retinues. Perhaps they were designed to be impressed by the economic might of the City and this part of it in particular. Certainly they discussed what sort of honours they might obtain when the Guild began handing out vellum rolls and packets of gold coin to the more distinguished guests.

The actual accounts of the occasion do not exist. All we have are bills, accounts of things borrowed, and letters. These bear witness to two facts: it was a most splendid occasion and the personality of the Prince of Wales made an indelible impression.

When the King and his retinue returned to Whitehall, the Master and Wardens counted the cost, arranged to return borrowed items, and set up a profit and loss account of influence gained and influence lost. The cost of the affair came to £1601; in modern terms about £100,000, and the present Clerk said, in his opinion they would need £1,000,000 to repeat the process. Apparently it took 100 staff 14 days to clear the Hall. It is not possible to account for influence gained or lost. An analysis of the Company’s fortunes in the near and distant future after mid-summer 1607 might help. But the fact is that the Merchant Taylors are still with us and are still part of the Great Twelve.

NEW INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY HANDBOOK Stewart J. Wild

The CBA is about to publish a substantial new Industrial Archaeology Handbook:

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/books/palmer2012
Edited by Professor Marilyn Palmer, the UK’s first professor of Industrial Archaeology, with contributions from some of the country’s leading specialists in industrial archaeology, this Handbook provides an informative and accessible guide to the industrial remains of the UK.

This book will be essential reading for professionals, academics, students and anyone with an interest in our industrial heritage, giving concise summaries of the history of different industries, together with descriptions of the structures and below-ground remains likely to be encountered.

Info: 304pp, 121 illus incl colour, ISBN 978-1902771922 Due to be published March 2012.

WEMBLEY HISTORY SOCIETY 60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

On Friday 16 March 2012, Wembley History Society will be holding its 60th Anniversary celebration meeting. It was hoped that this would take place in the Town Hall, but the Society’s committee has recently decided to stick with its familiar venue of St Andrew’s Church Hall, Kingsbury.

The programme, from 7pm to 10pm, will include short talks from several speakers, including local history author and former Brent Mayor, Len Snow, as well as refreshments and informal discussion.

Members of local history societies in the area, which may include others formed as a result of a 1951 conference, will be welcome to join the Wembley society’s own members if they wish to. If you do intend to come, please advise Linda Theobald by email to: linda.vt@hotmail.com in good time beforehand to help her plan the catering.

HADAS Finds Class Blog Stephen Brunning

Regular readers of this newsletter will no doubt know that HADAS took over the running of the old Post Excavation Analysis class from Birkbeck College in September 2009 and renamed it “Looking at Finds”.

If you wish to find out about what we get up to behind the scenes on Wednesday evenings at Avenue House, check out the new blog at www.hadasfindsgroup.blogspot.com.

Please feel free to register as a follower, and/or post any comments you wish.

“ARCHAEOLOGY EXPOSED” – LAARC AT THE MUSEUM OF LONDON

As part of the LAARC 10th Anniversary Celebrations, for 10 weeks the Museum of London is featuring “Archaeology Exposed” where they will be doing exactly what it says on the tin – exposing the different aspects of LAARC in all its glory, promoting the excellent work and achievements of its volunteers [some of whom are COLAS members] and sharing the enjoyment that we all get out of archaeology with any and all visitors.

A team of volunteers representing the past decade (and beyond) will be taking residence at MOL every Monday, Tuesday & Friday, until 23 Mar from 10 – 4. They’ll be packing material from 1975 General Post Office excavations (GPO75) whilst engaging with visitors in Archaeology Action.

Alongside them on Mondays there is a table focusing on Conservation, on Tuesdays a table displaying human remains and on Fridays a selection of archaeological records. All three will have material connected to GPO75; in particular, Friday’s Records table will be manned by none other than Alan Thompson, former LAARC Records Officer and the actual Site Director of the GPO75 excavations.

To promote the 4 remits of LAARC (Curatorial, Research, Education & Leadership) there will be a table in the foyer manned by staff and volunteers, with a range of goodies including finds, records, an activity box from 2005’s community excavation at Shoreditch Park, and online facilities for Londoners to search for archaeology in their area. There’ll even be a hard hat and tools if young ones (and those young at heart) wish to dress up.

Finally, each day from 3.15 – 4.15 (some days from 11.30 – 12.30 as well) there will be free Hands-On Archaeology sessions in the learning centre enabling ANY visitor to get involved, learning about London’s Archaeological Heritage and how to pack finds alongside volunteers.

Even if you can’t come along, LAARC would really appreciate it if you could spread the word and let others know what they’re doing. If your friends and family have ever wondered what exactly happens at LAARC this is the opportunity for them to find out. Full information about the project can be found at:

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Corporate/Press-media/Press-releases/Celebrate+10+years+with+the+LAARC.htm.

You can follow progress via the blog: http://www.mymuseumoflondon.org.uk/blogs/blog/category/archaeology/archaeology-in-action/

And find our more about events on the MoL events pages: http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Whats-on/Events/eventDetails.htm?eventID=3292 and

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Whats-on/Events/eventDetails.htm?eventID=3293

HADAS TRIP – WEDNESDAY 21 September 2011

Needles Breezer Bus Tour Vicki Baldwin

Following our voyage of discovery to Hurst Castle, our intrepid party embarked upon an excursion by land, namely a round-trip on the open-topped Needles Breezer. This is one of three Island Breezer circular routes linking places of interest and has a running commentary providing information on the route. Most of our party had boarded with the intention of visiting the Old and New Batteries at Needles Park, but Lydia and I had decided to make the 55 minute round-trip so that we could explore Yarmouth.

After leaving Yarmouth, we passed the site of the 1970 Isle of Wight festival where Jimi Hendrix played shortly before his death. It is an apparently empty green fields and I wonder what archaeological evidence survives. There are numerous contemporary accounts and a recent photographic exhibition in Bristol, but what is in the ground? Take away the documentation and what conclusions would be drawn about the site by future archaeologists? The report would probably include the words ‘ritual’, religious’, ‘seasonal campsite’, ‘feasting’.

Passing Afton Apple Park, we arrived at Freshwater Bay. This seems a rather quiet place with a hotel, a café and a lifeboat station, although it is home to one of the oldest churches on the island, All Saints, which was recorded in the Domesday Book. Nearby is Dimbola Lodge, once home to the pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and now a photographic museum. Originally it was two cottages, but Julia Margaret Cameron had a tower built to link them and had the frontage redesigned. One of her subjects, Alfred Lord Tennyson, lived further along the road at Farringford House which is now under-going renovations with a view to reopening as a Tennyson study centre and venue for concerts and poetry readings.

Another notable site is the thatched church dedicated to St. Agnes. Tennyson’s son Hallam donated the land and his wife, Audrey, suggested the dedication. It was consecrated in 1908.

The bus route continued to Needles Park and then to the site of the Needles Batteries. In places the view across Alum Bay is breathtaking, especially if you happen to look down and see the apparently sheer drop down the cliff! The famous multi-coloured sands are visible in the cliff face.

After returning to the Needles Park, the bus now followed an inland route and we could no longer see the sea and coastline. We next passed stops for Totland and Colwell Bay, two popular holiday resorts which are linked by a mile-long promenade. A short while later our journey was completed with our return to Yarmouth.

The Needles Old Battery David Bromley

The Island Breezer Bus is very appropriately named as we were heading for the Needles, the western-most point on the Island and today the windiest. On the way, we dropped two passengers at Dimbola Lodge. Needles Point Light was turned on in 1859 and became computer controlled in 1994.

Our first stop was the Needles Old Battery, sited on the triangular headland and reached over what was a tractable bridge across the defensive ditch, the mechanism for which can still be seen in the Winch Chamber. The ditch now houses a number of buildings that are not open to the public. One of these is the head of a lift shaft, sunk in 1887 and descending to just above sea level. It leads to five emplace-ments on the Solent side that housed searchlights and quick-firing guns to counter fast torpedo boats trying to enter the Western Solent. Also at the bottom is a spring and reservoir to supply some fresh water to the battery.

After the bridge is a tunnel through the outer defensive bank, which houses a number of rooms including the cartridge and shell stores and the guardroom. Through the tunnel the full extent of the fort is ahead: round a central parade ground the red brick structures of the six gun emplacements are sited, 76 meters (250ft) above sea level. Four-faced over the Solent on the northern side, one directly out over the Needles light and a sixth southwest. The latter was built over in 1940 to house the Admiralty Port War Signal Station and is now a warm tea and cake shop – most welcome on a windy day!

The fort was constructed between 1861 and 1863, following the Royal Commission on UK Defences in 1859. It was designed by the Royal Engineers and built by George Smith of Pimlico at a cost of £6,950. The original armament, installed in 1864, was six 7” guns with a range of three miles, but these were replaced in 1873 with 9” rifled muzzle-loaders. These guns were moved from Hurst Castle where they were no longer needed.

On the parade ground can be seen the foundations of the barracks accommodation for the complement of one officer, two NCOs and 21 men. Beneath this were two rainwater tanks holding 10,400 gallons, enough for one month. In the centre of the parade ground is a spiral staircase down to a brick-lined tunnel, built in 1885, which leads out to a point directly above the Needles – a definite photo opportunity. It was converted to an armoured searchlight position between 1898 and 1899.

By 1893 the need for new more powerful guns was apparent and as the chalk headland was too unstable, construction of the New Needles Battery was started. This is sited further inland and higher at 120m (390ft) above sea level. It comprised three emplacements and by 1904 housed three 9.2” breech-loading guns. Once the New Battery was operational the Old Battery was established as a Fire Command Post and the old 9” guns, weighing 12 tons each, were heaved over the cliff into Alum Bay. The Navy recovered four in the 1960s and two are displayed here on replica carriages in their barbets.

Both batteries played a part in both World Wars and were added to and changed a great deal. Both were mothballed at the end of the war and the guns were scrapped in 1954. In 1955

Saunders Roe leased the sites and the area was brought right up to the modern era with the construction of the Highdown Test Site. Here between 1957 and 1971 the Black Knight and Black Arrow rockets were static-tested. The two concrete sites where the rockets were anchored and test-fired out over the sea can be seen.

The whole site was closed in 1971 and the National Trust purchased it in 1975, opening the Old Battery to visitors in 1982 and the New Battery in 2004.

Following this excellent visit, it was time to board the Breezer Bus again and be blown back to Yarmouth.

HADAS TRIP – THURSDAY 22nd September 2011

Isle of Wight Jim Nelhams

Thursday was to cover a wide range of historical dates, including stone age, Roman, a church founded in the thirteenth century, a Norman castle, and then some industrial archaeology. Most of us visited the Isle of Wight Postal Museum, while Andy Simpson elected for what Flanders and Swan would describe as a “Transport of Delight”.

Brading Roman Villa Sheila Woodward

I first visited Brading in 1999 (with HADAS) and I had a vivid memory of its magnificence and its amazing mosaics, Perhaps it was inevitable that a second visit should produce some slight disappointment. The remains of the villa are now completely enclosed by an award winning Exhibition and Visitors’ Centre” – essential for preservation, but I found its design strangely obtrusive. It was sad to have to enter the villa from one side rather instead of via its own “front door” and the small souvenir guide on offer was a poor substitute for a proper up-to-date Guide Book, though producing one while excavation and re-interpretation continue could be problematic. Even the glorious mosaics at a second visit seemed slightly shabbier.

Successor to an Iron Age farm on the site, the first Roman Villa at Brading seems to have been a simple structure which was altered and expanded over the years as the farm prospered. By the mid 3rd century AD it had become a handsome 12-roomed courtyard villa, centre of a thriving farm and extensive trading complex, and home to a wealthy and educated family. But troubles soon followed in the form of pirate raids (the villa was then much closer to the sea), and a disastrous fire in the late 3rd century brought an end to prosperity. Even farming eventually petered out and all traces of the villa sank beneath undergrowth and soil.

The old (1998) guide book gives a dramatic account of its rediscovery in 1880. Captain Thorp, a retired army officer and keen antiquarian, recognised casual finds from the area as Roman and became to probe. He in turn enthused a local farmer, Mr Munro. One evening during the lambing season of Easter 1880, Munro was using an iron bar to make holes for an overnight sheep pen. “In the dimming light, he struck upon the mosaic …. and by 7 o’clock the following morning he and Captain Thorp had uncovered a small portion of the Bacchus pavement.” A charming drawing illustrates this event. Captain Thorp clasping a massively unsuitable (for archaeology) trowel kneels in a trench beside an uncovered portion of the Bacchus mosaic in pristine condition and immediately recognisable. Farmer Munro holds aloft a lantern and looks on admiringly, accompanied by his dog and a flock of rather bemused sheep! The amateur diggers were soon

supplemented by professionals. The local landowners, the Oglanders, gave practical and financial help (the villa is still administered by the Oglander Roman Trust, a registered charity) and by 1885, the excavation had been completed and published,

Of course, by modern standards it seems very inadequate: so much apparent misinterpretation, so much unintended damage and destruction. The site has remained vulnerable, wracked by wind, storm and tide, and severely flooded in 1994. Plough damage over the years was supplemented by the Dig for Victory campaign. Even some attempts at conservation have miscarried: a flood-damaged mosaic floor was relaid on a modern non-organic concrete base which caused efflorescence and further damage to the mosaics.

All is not doom and gloom. Now (we hope) adequately insulated from the weather, excavation of the site has been resumed under the direction of Professor Barry Cunliffe, and re-interpretation of the Victorian dig is underway. Preliminary results are described as exciting and challenging. A huge aisled hall in the villa’s north wing continues to be studied. It probably pre-dates the main house, has a substantial hypocaust and a bath suite was built over a disused well.

Continuity/coincidence between Iron Age and Roman settlement is being exposed. An Iron Age ditch has been identified and it appears to overlie pits which could have been Bronze Age or even earlier. The south wing of the villa, excavated and re-buried in the 1880s, could be re-excavated: its outline is still traceable on the ground. As well as storehouses and stables, it is though to contain the main bath suite.

The twelve main rooms of the villa are all accessible. They (probably) differ slightly in date, considerably in degree of preservation and noticeably in quality of decoration. The function of each room is purely speculative. The most memorable feature of the building remains its mosaics: memorable for their craftsmanship, their variety and their vigour. Those in room 12, largest and grandest of the rooms, are said to be amongst the most impressive in Northern Europe, Some of the themes are popular with mosaicists – e.g. the Four Seasons. Here there are lovely depictions of Spring, her head wreathed in fresh flowers. Summer with long-stemmed poppies in her hair, and Winter, snug in a warm hood but carrying a dead bird. Autumn’s depiction has sadly been lost. Less well known as a theme (in this country) is the astronomer or philosopher equipped with sundial, globe and bowl. In room 3, the Bacchus Mosaic uncovered so dramatically by Captain Thorp shows a much debated cock-headed figure variously interpreted as an obscure Roman or Eastern God or a venator, trainer of gladiators. A gladiator is depicted on the same mosaic. Another popular subject for mosaics is Orpheus, shown here surrounded by the birds and animals he has charmed with his music; they include a monkey. And other mosaics feature water-nymphs and shepherds, so appropriate for a seaside farming community.

There is much to see at Brading Villa apart from the mosaics. The finds on display are many and varied. Huge quern stones, carpentry tools, ploughs, mortaria, loom weights, crucibles and glass slag witness to a busy workforce. Pottery includes some good Samian, local Victis and New Forest ware. There is good metalwork ranging from doorplates and keys to jewellery and the usual collection of coinage. Outside the villa there are glorious views in all directions and you can peer down the old well or wander round the little garden. There is no evidence of a garden here in Roman times but the Romans liked gardens, and it adds another visitor attraction – and neatly rounds off the tour.

Brading Church Simon Williams

Brading Church is important, as it’s one of only four churches in England with a tower open on three sides (pierced by arches); external wooden steps lead to the bell chamber (one inscribed 1594 ER). It also has some of the finest family tombs and monuments on the Island – these are of the Oglander Family.

The Church occupies a very early Christian site, it is said (though without proof) that in the 680’s St.Wilfrid embarked on a mission to convert the heathen Islanders from here. It is known that Wilfrid was Bishop of Ripon (from 634-709); and that he was at the Council of Whitby in 664 (which settled the date of Easter, as in use today).

The Oglander Chapel is named after the Oglander Family, who came to the Island in the wake of William the Conqueror. Sir John’s will (dated 1649) provided for tombs for his father, Sir William, as well as for himself.

There are two Parish Chests of the 1630’s, which have three locks, so that they could only be opened in the presence of the three key-holders: the Vicar and the two churchwardens, to reduce the chance of theft.

Along the north aisle are a fine set of hatchments (large black diamond-shaped wooden boards displaying heraldic coats of arms), these were restored after the fire of 1989. On the back wall of the north aisle, a window is the only remnant of the late 1100’s church. The north aisle was widened and the roof raised to its present position in the 1200’s. The simple windows of the north aisle were likely to have been replaced in the 1400’s. From the south aisle one sees that the roof is higher, and the windows are larger and more ornate. The south aisle was improved in the 1500’s. All the beautiful stained glass is from the 1887 Victorian restoration.

On entering Brading Church we were lucky enough to be greeted with the sweet smell of apples, and freshly-cut flowers for the Harvest Festival.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS ERIC MORGAN

Friday 2nd March 10.30 am – 12 noon, Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries, South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10 The Story of English High Roads – talk by Ollie Natelson (who helped HADAS with resistivity at Friary Park).

Saturday 3rd March 11 am – 12.30pm and 2.-3.30 pm. LAARC, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, N1 7ED John Dwight’s Fulham Pottery. Part of the regular tours held every Friday and first and third Saturdays each month at above times. Book in advance on 020 7001 9844 or on www.museumoflondon.org.uk/events , cost £5.

Monday 5th March 1pm. Gresham College at Museum of London, 150 London Wall EC2Y 5HN. The Lost Hospitals of London: Leprosaria, talk by Prof. Carole Radcliffe (Medieval History). Free.

Wednesday 7th March, 6pm Gresham College at MoLAS Museum of London (as 5th March). On Top of the World, 1830-1914, talk by Simon Thurley. Free. (On English Building).

Monday 12th March, 1pm Gresham College at Museum of London, (as 5th March). London’s Forgotten Children: Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital, talk by Dame Gillian Pugh.

Monday 12th March 3pm Barnet & District Local History Society, Church House, Wood Street, Barnet (opposite the Museum) The Story of the Bow House, talk by Pauline Brown.

Wednesday 14th March 2.30-4pm Mill Hill Historical Society, Wilberforce Centre, St Paul’s Church, The Ridgeway, NW7 1QU An Eyeful of Architecture, National Trust, talk by Mike Watts (preceded by AGM).

Monday 19th March, 1pm, Gresham College at the Museum of London (as 5th March) The Lost Hospitals of London: The Bethlem Hospital, talk by Colin S. Gale (Archivist). Free.

Monday 26th March 1pm, Gresham College at the Museum of London (as 5th March) The Lost Hospitals of London: St. Luke’s. Talk by Prof. Nick Black. Free.

Wednesday 28th March, 1-2 pm, Museum of London, London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Meet the Expert, with Jackie Kelly. Looking at Leatherwear. Free. Talk on Roman and Medieval leather objects in the Museum by the Curator.

Also 1.30-4.30 pm Local History Workshop on Getting the Best from the 1911 Census. Details on LAMAS website www.lamas.co.uk and applications by e-mail on www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

Wednesday 28th March, 7.45 pm Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, St John’s Church Hall (next toWhetstone Police Station) Friern Barnet Lane, N20. History of Gypsies in Barnet, talk by Hugh Petrie (Barnet Archivist). Cost £2. Refreshments 7.45 and after meeting.

Thursday 29th March, 8pm Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3 3QE Business Talk and Discussion by Albert Wright (Director of Small Business Solutions and Millionaire Coaching Academy). There will be tea, coffee and a cash bar, members free. Non-members £10. Pre-book preferred.

Friday 30th March 10.30 am-12 noon, Friends of Barnet Libraries, South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10 The Story of Friern Barnet Town Hall, talk with coffee/tea and biscuits 50p