Past Newsletters

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

Number 491 February 2012 Edited by 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 21st February 2012 (please note change of date from the usual format;

the February lecture is on the THIRD Tuesday to avoid clashing with a Valentine’s Day event at Avenue House)

The Medieval Cellars of Winchelsea. Lecture by Richard Comotto.

Richard Comotto of the Winchelsea Archaeological Society will be speaking about the historic Cinque Port town of Winchelsea and its medieval cellars. Winchelsea in fact has more medieval cellars than anywhere else in the country other than perhaps Southampton and Norwich. They are a remnant of the town’s involvement in the wine trade with Gascony before the Hundred Years War. Winchelsea also uniquely retains the layout of the medieval planned town founded in 1288 by Edward I.

Richard will be talking about the origins of Winchelsea, its medieval history, including the wine trade, and the archaeology of the town. The Winchelsea Archaeological Society was set up to do geophysical research in and around the town. Despite its historical significance, surprisingly little archaeology has been done on the medieval town and none on the port.

Tuesday 13th March 2012 – It’s all in the bones. Lecture by Jelena Bekvalac (Curator of Human Osteology – Museum of London).

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.

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)

Errata and Mea Culpa Mary Rawitzer

The Editor of your last Newsletter must apologise for ennobling Dr Ann Saunders, the January Lecturer, to Dame, though she should surely be, if it were in my gift. And I inadvertently left Jo Nelhams off the contributor’s list for her great summary of Nathalie Cohen’s November talk on The Thames Discovery Programme.

A couple of notes via Stewart Wild;

For those of you who are interested in geophysics “Revealing The Buried Past” by Chris Gaffney and John Gater. These two gentlemen are often seen on Time Team with a bewildering array of technical kit. This book explains the different types of equipment available to the archaeologist, how it works and the sort of results that can be expected. Available from Amazon for £12.59

New discoveries in the cave at Hohle Fels (cave paintings in Germany).

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/11/2011/archaeologists-find -ice-age-painting-in-central-europe and http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20111109-38751.html

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER – POST-EXCAVATION NOTES AND REPORT FOR THE WHITE SWAN SITE, GOLDERS GREEN ROAD.

Andy Simpson

The Sunday morning gang at Avenue House are, even now, making surprise discoveries amongst the Ted Sammes archive. Back in October 2011 we were delighted to come across finds material for one of several HADAS digs from along Golders Green Road. The White Swan pub site at 239-241 Golders Green Road, Hendon was situated on the western side of Golders Green Road, a quarter of a mile south-east of the junction with the North Circular Road and just north of Highfield Avenue; the pub still has a ‘mounting stone’ just outside it adjacent to the now-heavily trimmed large tree on the forecourt visible in Edwardian photographs, and this was shown on the 1954 OS Map, along with a milestone formerly showing six miles from London. Eighteenth century maps show the line of the originally medieval Hampstead Road, now Golders Green Road, established on its present NW-SE line in the nineteenth century, as a wide strip of land or unmetalled track passing through the original undeveloped manorial wastes of Hendon Manor.

Apart from a small originally medieval Hamlet in the Temple Fortune area (shown on John Roques map of 1756), before the coming of the tube railway in 1907, almost the only development at Golders Green was a ribbon of a few eighteenth century cottages and eighteenth and early nineteenth century villas and smallholdings in spacious grounds strung out along the Golders Green Road, such as South Lodge standing almost opposite the White Swan. The shops of Russell Parade latterly lay directly opposite; the present day White Swan pub, serving Hungarian food (and two hand-pumps dispensing London Pride!), and with a large and pleasant rear garden, is still extant immediately adjacent to the location of the actual excavation, at 243 Golders Green Road. Behind its modified frontage erected 1913-14 is Golders Green’s only surviving eighteenth century building, with later renovations. The Field Book for the Cook map of 1796 lists Mr Jereboam Clark as occupant of the ‘Swan public house, with stable, yard, and garden; a piece of ground in front, not enclosed, and a large tree by the six mile stone’

For present-day photo of the pub frontage and list of past licensees from 1826, see

http://deadpubs.co.uk/Middlesex/Hendon/WhiteSwan.shtml

On the opposite side of the Inn (once a Bass Ales establishment, and once called plain ‘The Swan’) on a site now occupied by a block of flats once stood the mid-19th century Highfield, originally a girl’s school, and later the HQ of the Worker’s Union, demolished in 1931 along with the weatherboarded two-story Grove Farm Dairy which stood between it and the pub.

This stretch of road has been well covered by HADAS excavations, with medieval material found at the Woodlands dig (TQ 2410 8850) in 1968 and 1975/76, as described below, and also 700ft/213m north of the White Swan at the Old Forge site on the opposite side of the road at 296 Golders Green Road (TQ 2414 8837) in 1991, where medieval pottery and a possible continuation of the road feature found at Woodlands was located. This was the site of Suckling’s Forge, destroyed by a V2 rocket in January 1945, and of the later Suckling’s Garage. This site, along with that of the adjacent Edwardian rebuilt Prince Albert Inn (latterly a Harvester Inn) demolished c.1993, still lies empty and awaiting redevelopment.

(Below) Rear of White Swan, November 2011, with oldest section on right.

The Excavation

This excavation, immediately adjacent to the White Swan pub itself on its southern side, was reported in HADAS Newsletters 63 (p.1) and 64 (p.4), May/June 1976. The excavation (NGR TQ 2420 8830, Barnet SMR ref 081976) began on the weekend of 10th/11th April 1976, and continued until 23 May 1976, being directed by Jeremy Clynes, assisted by Percy Reboul and others.

Located on the site of a fairly large (1890s or Edwardian) weatherboarded two-story building at No.241 (originally a house, with single-story shop of similar construction and steeply pitched roof at No. 239 jutting out from the front of the main house) demolished a few years previously, (again shown on the 1954 OS Map). Weatherboarding was common locally – also seen in the former Clerk’s House in Church Terrace, Hendon for instance.

At one time the shop was occupied by S.J. Lester, Boot Maker and Repairer. In 2011 the site of 239-241 was occupied by a shop and new development of flats on the actual corner of the site with Highfield Avenue.

Three trenches were opened prior to redevelopment work.

The dig was described as being ‘disappointing’ in HADAS NL 64, with no evidence of occupation, either features or structures, or of either the Roman road sought (Viatores Route 167, previously possibly located at Copthall Fields, Mill Hill) or the pebble-metalled medieval road or embankment and associated Hertfordshire greywares (adding to previously found Surrey and West Kent Wares of 14th-15th century date) found by HADAS at No. 1 Woodlands a quarter of a mile to the north at the junction with the north Circular Road in 1968 and again by Alex Jeakins’ HADAS team in 1975-76, and also reported in HADAS Newsletter No. 63 along with the White Swan excavation. (The Woodlands 1975/6 site archive and finds are still held in the HADAS archive, and may repay further study with the advances in pottery studies over the past 30 years)

No site maps or context records etc. appear to survive, although there is a folder with a few map extracts in covering the immediate area. The three trenches were dug down to natural, with the only recorded finds being from the topsoil – broken glass (mostly beer bottles), pipe stems and what was thought at the time to be nineteenth/twentieth century pottery.

Four site photographs on HADAS record cards (including that reproduced below- Jeremy Clynes on left, Percy Reboul on right) show a shallow trench being dug right alongside the pavement on the line of the former building frontage, which lay closer to the road than the adjacent pub which was set back from the road. The previously levelled site itself was long and covered the whole of the former building plot.

The Finds

The surviving finds are mainly unremarkable and much what you would expect from the environs of a site going back to the eighteenth century; they now include only two fragments of glass, one green vessel fragment and one of clear, thin window glass; There is also a small sherd of modern glazed earthenware, plus a tiny (13 grammes) fragment of micacious tile and a probable sheep’s tooth. However, closer examination of the pottery and clay pipe fragments in particular have provided one or two surprises.

The main finds. From left; Early Surrey Ware, Red Borderware, Tin-Glazed Ware Orton and Pearce style H (TGW H), German and English stonewares, and clay pipes (clockwise from top left; Types AO20; AO21; AO27 (two), AO18 and AO19)

The main finds. From left; Early Surrey Ware, Red Borderware, Tin-Glazed Ware Orton and Pearce style H (TGW H), German and English stonewares, and clay pipes (clockwise from top left; Types AO20; AO21; AO27 (two), AO18 and AO19)

The Pottery

Somehow overlooked at the time was the fact that one pottery sherd is most emphatically medieval; it is a rim sherd (38g) of hand made Early Surrey Ware (ESUR, c. 1050 – 1150) probably from the Surrey/Hampshire border, kindly confirmed by Jacqui Pearce as being from a large cooking pot (Form code CP) One sherd of residual ‘background’ medieval pottery does not of course a settlement make, and it could have originated from manuring of fields or similar.

Also present is a flower-patterned rim sherd of eighteenth English Tin-Glazed earthenware with pale blue glaze and dark blue decoration (TGW H) (otherwise known as Delftware) probably from a bowl or plate, with a broad date range of 1680-1800, plus a small body sherd from a second vessel of the same fabric, and another rather battered rim sherd (13g), this time of very-large diameter Surrey-Hampshire border redware (RBOR) with a rather wide date range of c.1550 to 1900.

Stonewares are represented by four sherds (of two or three separate vessels, two of them co-joining and including a handle base) of English Stoneware (ENGS) of c.1700-1900 and a single sherd of German stoneware, possibly a tankard-hardly surprising given the location adjacent to a pub.

The Clay Pipes

In addition to forty fragments of stem and five unidentifiable broken pieces of bowl, ( but no mouthpieces) the three fairly complete identifiable clay pipe bowls, along with three more consisting of stem and heel/spur but very little bowl, give an approximate date range of 1660- 1820, of Atkinson and Oswald types AO18 (1660-1680), AO19 (1690 – 1710), AO20 (1680 – 1710), AO21 (1680-1710) and AO27 (1780-1820), one of the two examples of the latter having the makers initials ‘PC’ on its heel.

Three other examples with this mark (as yet to be identified) were found on the HADAS Church Terrace excavation in 1973/74 (report forthcoming). This is the only pipe fragment with an identifiable maker’s mark, though a second AO27 type could be read as IE (or F) on the spur, the I being more certain than the E/F.

The close grouping of dates perhaps a little before or after 1700 is of interest, and could be contemporary with the Tin-Glazed ware sherds mentioned above.

I am grateful to Jacqui Pearce for checking the pipes for me.

In conclusion, it is clear that even the smallest finds group can contain some interesting material and a surprise or two. I hope to make similar studies of some other small finds groups from 1970s HADAS digs and watching briefs in due course, starting with the Fuller St excavation off Church Lane in Hendon in late 1974, which also has a sherd of previously unreported residual medieval pottery.

Bibliography

Barnet Libraries Archives and Local studies Department Bygone Hendon

Howkins, F c.1923 The Story of Golders Green and its Remarkable Development

Jeakins, A 1976 The Woodlands Dig HADAS Newsletter 63 May 1976

Petrie, H 2005 Hendon & Golders Green Past

Simpson, A 1991 A HADAS dig at Golders Green HADAS Newsletter 247, Oct 1991

Smith, C (Ed) n.d Hendon As It Was Vol. Two

Smith, C.R and Hall, J.P (Comps) 1979 The story of Golders Green

Smith C n.d Golders Green As It Was

Isle of Wight (Day 2) Jim Nelhams

For most people, no visit to the Island would be complete without exploring Osborne House and its grounds. After visiting the Glass Works and our ride on the railway (see December 2011), to find our coach waiting for us, we made our way to St Mildred’s Church, en route for Osborne House.

St Mildred’s Church, Whippingham. Micky Watkins

Prince Albert designed this church and it is an eclectic mix of Romanesque and Gothic that only a Victorian could design, or fully appreciate. The solid square tower with Romanesque arches has a thin Gothic central spire and four small spires, one at each corner. This strange mixture of styles continues throughout.

Victoria used to enter the church through a special doorway leading into the Royal Pew. Here, sheltered from the congregation she sat on a royal blue chair, her retinue around her. Edward VII ordered pews to be fitted, but kept his mother’s chair. One wall has a large plaque which is a memorial to Prince Albert.

Opposite the Royal Pew, in the South Transept, is the Battenburg Chapel, with a huge marble sarcophagus containing the bodies of Prince Henry of Battenburg and his wife Beatrice, Queen Victoria’s longest surviving daughter. The family changed the name to Mountbatten in 1917 owing to the widespread anti Bosch feelings during the war. The bronze statue in the Chapel was made by Princess Louise, who also designed the font; the tapestry carpet and stools were made by Princess Beatrice and other court ladies and the small lace hassock was made by Queen Victoria. Other members of the Mountbatten family are commemorated, but Lord Mountbatten, who was killed by an IRA bomb, was buried at Romsey Abbey near Broadlands. On the south wall of the Chapel is a crucifix in memory of Tsar Nicholas of Russia and his wife, Alexandra, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and their five children who were all shot in 1918 in the Russian Revolution.

I found that the most beautiful feature of the church was the white marble reredos representing the Last Supper, a gift from Edward VII and other members of the Royal family in memory of Queen Victoria.

The original church was Anglo-Saxon, but the only remaining feature is the carving in the west wall of the porch. It was replaced by a Norman church which lasted until 1804 when it was demolished and rebuilt by John Nash. So the Nash church only lasted 50 years until Prince Albert pulled it down and erected his new church. What would St Mildred think of all these changes? She was a grand-daughter of King Aethelbert and an abbess of Minster-in-Thanet and might be disappointed to find so much about these new royals and so little about herself in her church.

OSBORNE HOUSE Tessa Smith

I have spent many happy holidays as a child with bucket and spade on the Isle of Wight but none at so splendid a seaside home as that at which Queen Victoria spent hers with her husband Prince Albert and their large family.

I arrived at Osborne House entrance by horse and trap driven by two smart bowler-hatted young grooms, via the short Ridgeway Carriage. The drive was edged with myrtle, laurel and dolphin-topped gas lamps – a fine flourish to the start of my visit.

Built in 1846 by William Cubitt, the house was designed in Italianate style by Prince Albert in conjunction with the builder; Albert chose this spot as the view reminded him of the Bay of Naples. The central block, (the Pavilion) houses the family’s private apartments, the whole building is built of brick rendered with cement, coloured to imitate warm Bath stone. Above the Grand Corridor wing the arcade of Venetian windows is light and airy.

The Long Corridor houses classical sculpture and sea paintings, “Naval Review at Spithead” and “Shipwreck of the Eurydice at Sandown Bay 1878” and leads to the main house. The Council Room is elaborately decorated with heavily embossed gold-coloured ceiling and it was in this room that the Privy Council ministers met. It was also used for dancing, charades and visiting entertainers, Dame Nellie Melba, Dame Clara Butt, Henry Irvine and Ellen Terry all performed there. Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his telephone in this room and it was later installed here.

I had hardly begun to explore downstairs when I was offered the lift to the first floor by the friendly and helpful staff. My thoughts went to the elderly Queen Victoria who in her latter days had a lift installed. It was hand operated by an attendant in the basement who responded to a bell, it must have been quite a squash with crinolines, bustles and even Queen Victoria’s “Rolling seat”.

The first floor was the main family living area, housing bedrooms, dressing – and writing- rooms, (his and hers), all with splendid views over the terraces towards the sea.

Prince Albert’s bathroom has a plumbed-in copper bathtub – very, very deep with a heavy lid-a bit scary-and a shower and WC hidden as a wardrobe, Albert was keen to include up-to-date plumbing, heating and lighting. His dressing and writing room held his favourite early Renaissance paintings, a washstand and writing table. This room leads directly in to Queen Victoria’s large sitting room, which has marvellous views, here she and Albert shared a double mahogany desk where they worked on the dispatch boxes, the Queen wrote her journal, Albert sorted his photographic records, or they played the piano. The two elder children often took their supper here. The Queen’s bedroom seemed to me rather sombre with sad and mournful paintings. Beside the bed stands a little cushioned stool, and nearby a wardrobe with full-length mirror opened to reveal a bath, shower and W.C. She died in this room in January 1901.

On the first floor landing is the Page’s Alcove where a page of the back stairs was always in attendance, and a collection of mementos belonging to the aptly named George Waite, page to the Queen for more than 50 years, is on show.

Huffing and puffing after climbing 27 stairs to the nursery I caught up with other HADAS members admiring the nursery furniture, the table with chairs individually named (no squabbling), the royal cradles, and Noah’s ark. The children stayed in the nursery suite until they were 6 years old. A display of marble sculptures of baby hands and feet seems ghostly and macabre and very Victorian. On the walls are framed photographs that show how the present royal families of Europe are descended from Victoria and Albert’s 9 children.

The main staircase has a wonderful sweeping mahogany banister – how tempting to all those children.

A small, rather gloomy and uncomfortable-looking room – the horn room –contains furniture made from stag’s antlers; even the candelabra, pictures, and chairs are framed with antlers. On the wall hangs the famous painting by Landseer –“Sorrow” – showing the widowed Queen seated on her pony reading a dispatch. John Brown is standing close by in attendance with head bowed. This fuelled speculation and gossip about their relationship.

In contrast to the horn room, the dining room, drawing room and billiard room, are gloriously golden and richly decorated with elaborate ceilings and doors opening onto the terraces. The dining room table was set for a festive Christmas and huge paintings of family groups hang on the walls giving the impression that the room is alive with family. The drawing room is most opulent with huge mirrors and chandeliers, the piano is decorated with porcelain plaques painted as Old Italian masters, here Victoria and Albert played duets together. It was also in this room that Queen Victoria lay in state after her death.

Finally, the unexpected magnificence of the Durbar room, a high, light and atmospheric hall with mysterious music and aroma. The wonderful coffered ceiling is highly decorated with carvings and plasterwork, and the hugely ornate peacock chimneypiece sets the background to a display commemorating Queen Victoria’s golden and diamond jubilees. Address caskets containing loyal greetings are set in exquisite models coated in silver, of palaces, cannons and elephants, wonderful examples of Indian craftsmanship.

Following her death, the house was given to the state, and in 1903 part of the estate became a junior officer training college. During World War 1 it was used as an officers’ convalescent home. Now it is partly opened to the public and stage managed by English Heritage.

The Swiss Cottage, Osborne House, Isle of Wight Vicki Baldwin

The foundation stone of the Swiss Cottage was laid by the children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1853 in the grounds of Osborne House. In appearance the grandest play house imaginable, it was intended by Prince Albert to be the locus of the children’s practical education.

Here they learnt to grow food in the vegetable garden, cook and prepare meals in the kitchen, and entertain their parents in the dining room. Queen Victoria had a small writing desk in the dining room where she was able to continue working when visiting.

All the furnishings in the Swiss Cottage are scaled to suit children and the garden tools were marked with the owner’s rank and initials. A miniature shop: “Spratt, Grocer to Her Majesty”, complete in every detail, is one of the many fascinating objects on display.

Nearby is the miniature Victoria Fort and accompanying Albert Barracks, with earthworks, redoubts and buildings that the children helped to construct as a birthday surprise for Queen Victoria.

The children were also encouraged to build natural history collections which soon outgrew the space available in the Swiss Cottage. A museum was built to house the collections in 1862 and has the original cases built for the specimens although the contents were rearranged in 1916. Mementos from foreign visits were added to the museum.

In spite of the changes necessary to enable the public to visit, the Swiss Cottage somehow manages to retain the impression of its original owners, and it is not difficult to imagine them intent upon their various tasks and duties as they learnt about the running of an ‘ordinary’ household.

Isle of Wight – Wednesday Jim Nelhams

Wednesday was always going to be our riskiest day. Two boat crossings of the Solent in a small ferryboat. Hurst Castle with little shelter, and on our return to the island, an open top bus trip to the Needles Batteries. The only other way to get to the batteries is a mile long walk from Alum Bay. And when we awoke, it was raining.

The Needles is not the flattest part of the island, but the bus trip was a circular route, with commentary. The choices this allowed meant that while most people opted to visit the batteries. some stayed in Yarmouth, some stayed on the bus for the whole round trip back to Yarmouth, while Ken Carter and Micky Watkins stopped at Dimbola Lodge. Ken Carter’s note on Dimbola Lodge was published in the January newsletter..

Fortunately everybody made it back to Yarmouth to find our Galleon.

Hurst Castle Beverley Perkins

As we drove west from Sandown through an increasingly hilly landscape, the remnants of the previous night’s rain cleared and blue skies welcomed us to Yarmouth. There we boarded a specially chartered boat to cross the ¾ mile of water that separates the Isle of Wight from the tip of the narrow shingle spit on which Hurst Castle is built – the narrowest point of the Solent.

The low castle with its huge Victorian wing extensions looks impressively defensive, looming threateningly over the Solent. The Tudor castle at its core, constructed between 1540 and 1544, was one of a chain of fortresses built by Henry VIII to defend the vulnerable South coast from the feared Spanish or French invasion.

A display in the tower shows how the designs of Henrician castles varied according to the defensive needs of their sites, ranging from simple circular shapes to towers with up to six bastions. Hurst Castle was built as a 12-sided central tower encircled by a courtyard and a curtain wall, with three semi-circular gun bastions to the North East, North West and South so that it could withstand assaults from both land and sea.

Circular holes on either side of the gateway show that it originally had a drawbridge spanning a moat. Inside the gateway are slots for the portcullis. When completed, the castle had 71 gun positions in six tiers, though it is unlikely that it was ever equipped with so many weapons.

The ground and first floors of the 12-sided, two-storey tower were probably the living quarters of the garrison. The first floor had a defensive function, as its windows were above the level of the curtain wall so that small guns could be fired through them. Three doors in the first floor, now blocked, led to timber bridges across to the bastions. A cupboard off the staircase to the roof contained boxes of ammunition within easy reach of the gun crews. The roof offers splendid views over the south coast, the Solent and the Isle of Wight, including Fort Albert opposite, built in the 1850s, which has been partially converted to a block of very expensive flats.

The North West bastion, which covered the landward side and the gateway, was the most solidly built. The ground floor room had four gun embrasures, though one of these is now covered by the 1860s wing and the others have been narrowed. One still has its Tudor smoke vent which let out the clouds of noxious smoke produced by the guns. A doorway in the first floor leads to the portcullis chamber over the main gateway where the portcullis, weights and chains can still be seen. At the bottom of the steps to the basement is the entrance to a caponier – one of three built in 1852, it is a low, barrel-vaulted building protruding out to the north east with rifle slots on both sides covering the approaches to the castle. According to Wikipedia, the name ‘caponier’ originates – somewhat inappropriately – from the French for chicken-house!

The North curtain wall contains a chamber with a cartridge hoist. The circular vaulted basement is lined with recesses for stacking powder barrels. Lamp chambers in the central brick pier allowed the magazine to be lit without taking lamps directly into it. The North East and South bastions followed a similar pattern but have been partially masked by the 1860s wings.

Even after the threat of invasion had passed, the castle continued to be garrisoned. During the Civil War it was occupied by Parliamentary forces and Charles I was briefly imprisoned there in December 1648 on his way from Carisbrooke Castle to his trial in London. In the 1700s it became a jail for Popish prisoners. By 1793, when Britain went to war with France, it had become very dilapidated. It was repaired and equipped with eighteen 9-pdr guns. In 1803 more substantial repairs were made, the interior of the tower was gutted and a strong brick vault was inserted to support six 24-pdr guns on the roof. The basement was also vaulted and strengthened to protect the magazine. Doorways and windows were altered and the central spiral staircase linking the floors and the basement was replaced by a massive central brick pier. The remains of fireplaces several feet above the current floor level show that floor levels too were changed. However, the castle was not after all needed for defence and in 1809 became a hospital for soldiers wounded in Spain. Further strengthening was undertaken in the 1850s and new batteries were added.

By the start of the 1860s England once again feared invasion and the existing batteries were considered inadequate to protect the approaches to Southampton and Portsmouth Dockyard. They were therefore replaced by the massive East and West wing batteries, built out from the sides of the North East and North West bastions. These wings held a total of 30 guns of varying calibres. So many guns were needed because the casemates limited the angle of fire and the new steam warships moved faster than the old sailing vessels.

Each gun was protected by a massive granite-fronted casemate lined inside with a thick wrought iron shield. Two 12.5-inch 38-ton guns, salvaged from the sea below the Needles Old Battery, are on display in two of the alcoves. They fired shells weighing 820 lbs. with a range of 3½ miles. Twelve men were needed to load and move each gun. Woven rope mantles, hung in front of the metal shields, acted as flash screens, absorbing the metal splinters in case of a direct hit. The rear of the casemates provided accommodation for the garrison. Hoists raised the shells from the basement to the level of the guns through openings of various shapes and sizes.

Further guns were added to Hurst’s defence in 1893 and again during the First World War, when two Defence Electric Searchlights were also installed to light up the Needles passage. During the Second World War the castle was garrisoned by the 129 Coastal Battery Royal Artillery. One casemate became the garrison theatre, which still has its painted backdrop of a charming Restoration scene – apparently the only wartime backdrop which survives. How nice to know that during those dark days the garrison was allowed the relief of some light entertainment.

At the end of this fascinating visit we re-embarked, enjoying splendid views of the Solent and the coast as we sailed back to Yarmouth.

LONDON ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARCHIVE AND RESEARCH CENTRE

IDENTIFYING AND RECORDING CLAY TOBACCO PIPES

Tutor: Jacqui Pearce, BA FSA MIFA Saturday 17 March 2012 or Saturday 21 April 2012

The LAARC holds thousands of clay tobacco pipes, representing dozens of London makers and enabling us to trace the evolution of this commonplace artefact from before 1600 until after 1850. We are currently creating a new reference collection, initially comprising over 500 individual pipes, which will be completed in March 2012 and used for the first time during these two study days.

There will be a strong emphasis on practical activities, handling and studying the original artefacts, and so we are restricting the number of participants on each day to just 12. The sessions will include:

• Introduction and overview of tobacco pipes in London, c. 1600-1850

• Makers and makers’ marks

• Decorated pipes

• Archaeological assemblages: pipes in association with other artefacts

• Recording pipes individually and in groups

Course cost: £60, including: All tutorial expenses and access to on-line resourcesfollowing the course, Tea/coffee (morning and afternoon, and Lunch

To book, please contact the Museum of London Box Office (tel: 020 7001 9844)

• To discuss the content of the course, please contact

(Preferably by e-mail) Francis Grew (fgrew@museumoflondon.org.uk;

Telephone 020 7566 9317) or Jacqui Pearce

(jpearce@museumoflondon.org.uk; telephone: 020 7566 9325)

About the Archive and Research Centre: www.museumoflondon.org.uk/laarc

The Friends of Avenue House are running this event:

Talk on the Livery Companies of London. Wednesday 29th February 2012 @7.30pm

City of London expert Yasha Beresiner introduces the ancient and fascinating livery companies of London. Cash bar, hot drinks and cake. £7.50. To book for above event at Avenue House: telephone 8346-7812, or contact the Friends via info@friendsofavenuehouse.org.

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Friday 3rd February 10.30am-12noon Friends of Barnet Borough Libraries South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10 Myths & Legends on the Battle of Barnet Talk by Hugh Petrie (Barnet Archivist) Tea/Coffee and Biscuits 50p.

Wednesday 8th February 2.30-4pm Mill Hill Historical Society Wilberforce Centre, St Paul’s Church, The Ridgeway NW7 1QU The Thames Barge Talk by Tony Earle

Monday 13th February 3pm Barnet & District Local History Society Church House, Wood St, Barnet (opposite Museum) Agincourt Talk by Prof. Anne Curry.

Tuesday 14th February, 8pm Amateur Geological Society The Parlour, St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Ave, N3 (off Hendon Lane) A Geological Map Puzzle Talk by Chris Darmon.

Wednesday 22nd February 7.45pm Friern Barnet & District Local History Society St John’s Church Hall (Next to Whetstone Police Station) Friern Barnet Lane, N20 The Arts Depot Talk by Keith Martin, Cost £2 Refreshments 7.45pm and after.

Thursday 23rd February 2.30-4pm Finchley Society Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road N3 3QE Tales of Tunnels & Tubes – The London Underground Talk by Brenda Cole Non-members £2.

Tuesday 28th February 6.15pm LAMAS Clare Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall EC2Y 5HN Reconstructing Nonsuch; Evidence, Elevations and a Model Presidential Address by Prof. Martin Biddle, Preceded by A.G.M. Refreshments from 5.30pm.

No.490 January 2012 Editor: Mary Rawitzer

HADAS DIARY

Lecture 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 10th January 2012 – The Merchant Taylors’ Great Feast, 1607. Lecture by Ann Saunders.

Dame Ann Saunders MBE FSA is a former HADAS President and a widely honoured historian and researcher on many aspects of London’s history. Her many publications include co-authorship of The History of the Merchant Taylors’ Company, covering 700 years of one of the “great twelve” livery companies.

Tuesday 21st February 2012 – The Medieval Cellars of Winchelsea. Lecture by Richard Comotto.

Tuesday 13th March 2012 – It’s all in the bones. Lecture by Jelena Bekvalac (Curator of Human

Osteology – Museum of London).

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.

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)

Addendum to last month’s finds report from Hendon School Don Cooper

Following last month’s report on the finds from Hendon School (HDS06) in 2010 and 2011 (HADAS newsletter no. 489), I received back from the Museum of London seven sherds which had been given to them to identify and analyse. Their report identifies them as much-abraded Roman pottery sherds. They came from Trench A1, Context 2 of the 2011 excavation. Six are Oxford ware (OXID, dated AD50-400) and one is in a Brockley Hill fabric (BHWS, dated AD50–160). They are too abraded for their original forms to be identified. The Museum of London’s conclusion is that they are plough-soil scatter.

Inter alia I also received a very helpful e-mail from Pamela Taylor editor, of “A Place in Time”, the HADAS publication, which I failed to mention (mea culpa). Pamela points out that “Westminster Abbey obtained the whole of what became Hendon (an amalgamation of grants) during the mid-10th century and kept it pretty much intact up to the Reformation” rather than my suggestion of “ownership of the land by monasteries”. She also makes the point that Hendon was not part of the Danelaw, quoting in support the comment in The Place-Names of Hertfordshire (English Place-Name Society XV, 1932), page 26, that despite the name Dacorum, aka Daneis or Danish Hundred, which lies just north of Hendon, “The complete absence of any Danish place-name elements or personal names in the nomenclature of the Hundred shows that there can never have been any regular settlement here, even on a small scale”.

I am happy to accept both these comments.

Taylor, Pamela, ed. 1989, A Place in Time. London: Hendon and District Archaeological Society.

HADAS Anniversary – Mugs

At the recent HADAS party, attendees were given a ceramic mug suitably inscribed commemorating the HADAS 50th Anniversary. These mugs will now be available to all members at £3.50 each at the next HADAS lecture. So don’t forget to pick up your mug!!

Jim & Jo Nelhams, Hon. Treasurer & Secretary,
display 50th anniversary cake suitably decorated with trowels

Harvey Sheldon (President) & Don Cooper (Chairman) about to start digging in!!

Jim & Jo Nelhams, Hon. Treasurer & Secretary,

display 50th anniversary cake suitably decorated with trowels

Harvey Sheldon (President) & Don Cooper (Chairman) about to start digging in!!

Sunday Sunday Sunday Andrew Coulson (and others’ comments)

The highly enjoyable 50th Birthday Buffet on December 4th, superbly organized as ever, left one HADAS member with a lot of questions and an outbreak of (blank?) verse and then led your this month’s Editor down some obscure byways of HADAS’s history:

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Sundays come in various types. There are
remembrance days, memorial days, victory days and
days that live in infamy. Some of these days
are Sundays. Our day, Hadasday, was a Sunday.
Whether it was the right Sunday is open to
question. Whether it should have been a Sunday at all
is a still larger question. A one in three
hundred and sixty five chance of being right for the day; a
one in fifty two for Sundays. But can anyone
prove this? Possibly not. But at least we think we
have the year. The buff mugs in the Garden Room
commemorate the 25th year of the society and
are dated.

In 1961 a man of Hendon, Themistocles
Constantinides, founded an archaeological society to prove
or disprove the Saxon origins of Hendon. His
English is very good but what is a man with a name like
that doing in North London? A refugee perhaps or
perhaps the child of refugees. And why the interest
in North London. We don’t know. He must have had
a lot of personal weight because the society took
off and kept rolling. It still does.

And what’s this about the Saxon origins of Hendon?
The Oxford dictionary of English place names has two
entries, one dated 975 the other 1086. “Heandun”
and “Handone” meaning “the place at the high hill”. All he
had to do was look it up in the County Histories of
the day. But he didn’t: he wanted origins and to find those
he was going to have to dig in to a past 500 years
earlier. And to do that he was going to need an
archaeological society.

Hence us. But did he ever get what he wanted? We
do fine parties: last Sunday was a fine party. Lots of food,
carols extemporised by Mrs Baldwin, the Hon
Secretary on the washboards: a great time was had by all. But
what of our mission? Fifty years is surely enough
time to produce some results but we hear only silence. This
is more than mission creep, this is mission
stampede. Something must be done.

Reading this it became obvious that even some of our more long-standing members had never read – or had forgotten – the HADAS publication “A Place in Time”, edited by Pamela Taylor. This publicly confirmed the truth of Mr Constantinides’s hypothesis of the Saxon origins of Hendon and the value of the work done by HADAS, the organization which he (among others) founded, in showing this to be true. Sheer serendipity: Andrew was given a copy of the publication by a friend after writing his “Report” and while this Newsletter was still being prepared, and learnt much!.

But there is another question still: It’s difficult to find clear information about Mr Constantinides, his other interests, his work and world. I believe, but have failed to confirm it in the time available, that, rather than coming as refugees, his family was part of that mercantile Greek diaspora which traded very successfully in Mediterranean products, tobacco, dried fruit, etc., and settled in London in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. In our Newsletter archive there is almost nothing personal about him apart from John Enderby’s obituary of Ted Sammes (Newsletter 333, 1998) with a recollection of their enthusiastic days studying:

“I first met Ted in 1960 when, along with Brigid Grafton Green and Mr. Constantinides, he attended Professor Zeuner’ s archaeology lectures at the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute. Ted quickly proved himself to be an outstanding student whose well-researched written work shamed the others. I immediately struck up a rap­port with him and, as a comparative newcomer to the area, found him to be a fund of knowledge on Middlesex and Hendon in particular. It was Ted who persuaded Mr Constan (as he was always known) to found HADAS in 1961…”

Might the 50th anniversary be the right time for a project to gather facts and memories on and about our founder members?

Interesting conferences and courses for the New Year, and a refreshing walk too

– Thames Shipbuilding and Thames-built Ships Saturday 18th February 2012

The Docklands History Group is hosting its fifth Symposium, to be held at the Museum of London Docklands. The day promises to be a first rate event, which will appeal to a very wide range of interests. For more information see the Group’s website: www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk

– The Long View: Place and Prehistory in the Thames Valley Saturday 25 February 2012

This one-day conference will be held at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly. It concludes the conferences in the Prehistoric Society’s Thames Valley series with a look at the long-term histories of particular places or parts of the valley. It’s aim will be to explore the differing trajectories of settlement, land-use and ritual activity in different localities from the Mesolithic onwards, including the contrast between places which were intensively used during virtually every period, and those which were used more sporadically or less intensively at certain times. Price: £35 (£20 student), including coffee (lunch not provided, available locally).

– Study Days: The Writings of Ancient Egypt and Fighting Pharaohs: Warfare in Ancient Egypt

Joyce Filer BA, Dip. Arch, MSc (formerly Curator of Human & Animal Remains, Dept. Ancient Egypt & Sudan, British Museum, London) has organized two study days, on Saturday 18 February and Saturday 31 March 2012, both from11 am to 5 pm. The first course looks at the information obtainable form the writings of ancient Egypt. Joyce says the beautiful hieroglyphic inscriptions on tomb walls and the astonishing amount of papyrus documents discovered are justly famous, but perhaps less well-known is what these written sources cover: an absolutely amazing range of subjects from laundry lists and love poems to last wills and testaments.

The second study day will highlight Egypt’s approach to its many military campaigns. The ancient Egyptians left a huge amount of artistic, biological and textual sources giving information about their combatant activities: who they fought, why they fought and where these events took place. It will examine many aspects of military life in ancient Egypt, including weapons, tools & equipment, different types of military activity, war injuries & medical treatment, and the life of the ancient Egyptian soldier. A specially designed study display will give participants the opportunity to examine source materials and test their skills of analysis.

Both study days will be held at Hughes-Parry Hall (Garden Halls), 19-26 Cartwright Gardens, London, WC1H 9EF. Applications to Joyce Filer, Accountability, 4 Lowndes Court, London, W1F 7HE (cost £40 each), or more information from study.egypt@virginmedia.com

– Course: Life in Roman London Starting January 12th, Thursdays 10.30-12.30

Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution (HLSI) is running this course on Daily Life in Roman London, using archaeological evidence to examine the 350-year history of Roman London, tutored by John Shepherd. The Spring term starts on January 12th 2012.

Few people lived in the area of the modern city before the Romans arrived and the earliest Roman town was probably more like a frontier town, but the consequences of the Boudiccan revolt in AD60-61 were to change all this. From that date onwards the Roman city of London began to flourish. This course will examine London’s buildings and people, how it was organised and the crafts and trades that were carried out. London’s fortunes changed over the centuries and the course will chart its course to the fifth century and its abandonment. For more information: phone 020 8340 7434 or e-mail admin@hlsi.net (website: www.hlsi.net).

– “An exploration of Sulloniacis: Hendon Central to Stanmore” Walk, 28th January 2012

Jane Rosoux, a well-known walks organiser is leading this Hampstead Ramblers walk. Starting at Hendon Central Station at 09.30 prompt, it is an 18.1 mile walk finishing at Stanmore Station.

A good description of the walk and its relationship to our area’s Roman period can be found at http://www.hampsteadramblers.org.uk/self-guided-walks/10-other-self-guided-walks/28-romano-british-estate-of-sulloniacis.html. It should perhaps be pointed out that the historical part of this description covers a period of which very many aspects remain obscure – in both framework and detail – and perhaps it presents a rather more concrete picture than picking up on the many uncertainties would have done!

Contact Hampstead Ramblers for more details at http://www.hampsteadramblers.org.uk/contacts.html The walk is described as strenuous!!

The Thames Discovery Programme November 8th Lecture Natalie Cohen

By Jo Nelhams

Without the River Thames there would be no London as water is the vital ingredient for human settlement. The Thames rises in the Cotswold Hills at Thames Head – a dispute over the source of the River, between Thames Head and Seven Springs, was decided by Act of Parliament in 1937 and Thames Head won. The river then flows through a variety of water meadows, farmland, cuts a deep gap through chalkland at Goring, through various historic places and towns, before flowing out through the Thames estuary to the North Sea.

Many changes, especially through human activity, have modelled the Thames to how we perceive it today. The Victorian Embankment designed by the great engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette to improve the disposal of waste through sewers, has restricted the width, as has the construction of the docks. This narrowing has increased the flow, which in turn has led to accelerated erosion.

The Thames is an extensive resource for river studies and the Thames Explorer Trust has encouraged schools for many years to come to the river for various forms of study. Instigated in 2008, the Thames Discovery Programme was launched in October of that year. It involved training many volunteers to form the Foreshore Recording and Observation Groups or FROGS. The foreshore was walked from Richmond to Greenwich by a group of professional archaeologists. The Thames foreshore is the longest archaeological site in London. Twenty survey zones were selected, based on various criteria such as quality of features exposed, severity of erosion, accessibility and geographical location. These twenty survey zones will be only a sample for long term study as it is not possible to monitor the whole of the foreshore. Information concerning these sites can be found on the Thames Discovery website:

(www.thamesdiscovery.org/riverpedia/key­­‑­sites-index).

Between 2008 and 2011 many features not previously recorded have emerged and been recorded. These include: London’s earliest prehistoric structure which is a Mesolithic site at Vauxhall

A number of Saxon fishtraps showing different types of fish trap construction

A jetty structure at Greenwich possibly medieval

Fragments of vessels including part identified as HMS Wellington(1852) at Charlton

The launch site of Brunel’s SS Great Eastern at Millwall.

It is important to record and photograph these discoveries, as features and structures are being eroded and some have been lost and are no longer evident. The vital monitoring work of the Thames Discovery Programme has shown that some features are still partially visible, but others now only survive in paper records and photographs.

The Thames Discovery Programme was funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which ceased at the end of September 2011, but the good news is that the work will continue as a core team have new contracts with MoLA (Museum of London Archaeology). The vital work of the FROG volunteers will need to continue as well. The work and discoveries so far have revealed a fascinating insight into activities along the River Thames in days gone by. This has shown how human occupation has used the Thames over centuries to aid its survival. The Thames indeed holds many stories and maybe secrets, and is still a great source for enhancing our knowledge today.

Our thanks go to Natalie Cohen for a very informative and entertaining lecture and we shall look forward to hearing of future developments from the Thames Discovery Programme.

Isle of Wight (Wednesday, Day 2 – part of part 2) Jim Nelhams

Wednesday was always going to be our riskiest day. Two boat crossings of the Solent in a small ferryboat. Hurst Castle with little shelter and, on our return to the island, an open-top bus trip to the Needles Batteries. The only other way to get to the batteries is a mile long walk from Alum Bay. And when we awoke, it was raining.

The Needles is not the flattest part of the island, but the bus trip was a circular route, with commentary.

The choices this allowed meant that while most people opted to visit the batteries, some stayed in Yarmouth, some stayed on the bus for the whole round trip back to Yarmouth, while Ken Carter and Micky Watkins stopped at Dimbola Lodge. Where? Ken’s report will explain that.

Fortunately everybody made it back to Yarmouth to find our Galleon.

Dimbola Lodge Ken Carter

Where did the life paths of these people cross – Julia Margaret Cameron, Jimi Hendrix and Virginia Woolf? It’s like a question on ‘Round Britain Quiz’.

Julia Margaret Cameron lived in Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater Bay, Isle of.Wight, from 1860 to 1875. For her 48th birthday in 1863 her daughter gave her a large plate camera. She hoped the gift would give her mother a new interest while Mr. Cameron (aged 68) was overseas, attending to business affairs in Ceylon. The present was a spectacular success. Briskly, her mother descended on an old chicken hut in the garden and turned it into a studio. She started photographing anyone she could persuade to sit for her – local children, friends’ children, neighbouring fishermen (Dimbola Lodge had originally been a cluster of fishermen’s cottages), her near neighbour & friend Lord Tennyson and distinguished visitors such as Robert Browning, Charles Darwin, G. F. Watts and his young wife, Ellen Terry. Since Julia Margaret Cameron claimed copyright for each of her photos, we have a record of the thousand or so she took during just 12 years of strenuous, excited activity. These photos are deliberate works of art. She chose individual, revealing backdrops for her sitters; she excelled in catching character-indicating aspects; she ruffled children’s hair so that they didn’t have the glazed expressions of stuffed dummies; she created many a naturalistic, posed illustration (such as for ‘Idylls of the King’). She aimed for a poetic realism. I was amazed at the life and blood freshness of her photo of Robert Browning – ready to answer me had I spoken to him. What a record, then! – a remarkable photographer … an ‘amateur’, in the finest sense … a Victorian woman of great distinction.

The statue of Jimi Hendrix stands in the front garden of Dimbola Lodge – almost 2/3 life-size, blackish against the light green lawn. He played his last concert just down the road, in 1970. Some 600,000 were at the festival, larger than the number at Woodstock that year. 19 days later, Jimi Hendrix was dead. Dimbola Lodge hosts memorabilia of the early festivals, holds exhibitions connected with rock and rock stars, together with posters & images of the I.o.W. Festivals since 2002.

Virginia Woolf was a great niece of Julia Margaret Cameron. Her sole surviving play, ‘Freshwater’, written for her friends, figures her great aunt and her associates cavorting in Dimbola Lodge. It is occasionally revived. One such – two decades ago – was at Offstage, Chalk Farm, in which the part of Ellen Terry was ‘deliciously taken’ by one Sarah Carter, my daughter.

Were these from the Battle of Barnet? By Don Cooper

David Dunk was at school at Cromer Road in the late 1950s. He and his family were living at 5 East Barnet Road. His father unearthed the items below in their back garden together with a lot of animal bones, his father thought were horse bones. David took the items into school to show them, but unfortunately they then went missing (it is possible somebody may have them, it would be great if they turned up – contact me at the address below.). Here is a drawing made by David (excellent! if I may say so) for me so that I could publish them. I look forward to receiving HADAS member’s views.

News of other events by Eric Morgan

Thursday 5th January 8pm: Pinner Local History Society, Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Park, Pinner. Talk by Terry Jenkins: “Sir Ernest Lemon: The Railwayman who equipped the RAF for war”. Visitors £2.

Monday 9th January 3pm: Barnet & District Local History Society, Church House, Wood St, Barnet. Talk by Pamela Wright: “The Life and Times of Octavia Hill

Wednesday, 11th January 2.30-4pm: Mill Hill Historical Society, Wilberforce Centre, St Paul’s Church, The Ridgeway, NW7 1QU. Talk by Wing-Commander Erica Ferguson: “The History of Bentley Priory: WW2 Bomber Command.

Wednesday 11th January 7.45pm: Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, corner Ferme Park Rd/Weston Park. Talk by Janet Owen: “Images from the North Middlesex Photographic Society” Visitors £2. Refreshments, sales & info.

Saturday 14th January 2-4pm: Museum of London, London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Walk “Walking the Roman Wall”. Book in advance, £10 (concs £8) 020 7001 9844 or thro’ www.museumoflondon.org .

Tuesday, 17th January 6.30pm: LAMAS, Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Talk by Julian Hill (MoLA) ” Mapping Roman London: from site context to town plan”. Refreshments 6pm. Please note this lecture is on Tuesday, not Thursday as in December’s Newsletter

Wednesday, 18th January .7.45pm: Edmonton Hundred Historical Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield. Talk by Graham Dalling “Architectural Photography”. Visitors £1

Thursday, 19th January 8pm: Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, as above. Talk by Dave Cockle “The History of Enfield’s Railways, Part 1. Lea Valley, Southbury Loop, Enfield Town”.

Friday, 20th January 7pm: COLAS, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3. “Talk by Lyn Blackmore (MoLA) “Londinium to Lundenwic: Saxon London & its Region” £2.

Tuesday, 24th January 6pm: Gresham College at Museum of London, as above: Talk by Richard J Evans “Empire: from Conquest to Control”. Free.

Thursday, 26th January 6pm: Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, EC1N 2HH: Talk by Dr Patrick Wallis & Dr Christopher Minns (LSE) “Apprenticeship in Early Modern London: Economic origins & destinations of apprentices in 16th & 17th centuries. Free.

It has come around again, imagine! Where did the year go? Anyway, it is that time again when we wish all our members and their families a happy holiday season and, of course, a healthy, happy and prosperous 2012.

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.

Sunday 4th December 2011 – HADAS Christmas Party

Tuesday 10th January 2012 – The Merchant Taylors’ Great Feast, 1607. Lecture by Ann Saunders.

Tuesday 21th February 2012 – The Medieval Cellars of Winchelsea. Lecture by Richard Comotto.

PLEASE NOTE: Change of Date for this February lecture.

Tuesday 13th March 2012 – It’s all in the bones. Lecture by Jelena Bekvalac (Curator of Human

Osteology – Museum of London).

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.

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)

Below is a “Customer’s” view of the first day of our excavation at Harrow-on-the-Hill (see last month’s newsletter)

ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE GREEN, HARROW ON THE HILL

12TH & 13TH AUGUST 2011 by Judith Mills

It began on Thursday with bore holes. Don Cooper, a trained archaeologist passionate about community archaeology, made 6 bore holes on The Green on Harrow on the Hill. We had seen pictures of possible concrete under The Gantry and the bore holes revealed sandy soil. Relief all around and the dig could start. This was the first part of The Gantry project. There has been very little archaeology on the Hill despite its long history. As the Gantry on The Green has been a feature for at least 325 years we thought it would be a good idea. Also we could look at the footings of the 19C base in preparation for the removal of the 1980s structure and its replacement, with one that is more in keeping with previous ones.Five other amateur archaeologists from HADAS (Hendon and District Archaeological Society) joined Don on Friday: Sarah, a PhD Archaeology student, Vicky, Jim, Guy the Major and Bill. Have to say they may have not been Time Team but they looked like them.

The process was as follows: unload Don’s car of axes, trowels, buckets, baskets, tool box, measuring tape, string, plastic fencing for overnight protection, blue plastic sheets for the turf and the spoil, i.e. the soil you dig out of the trench. Then the trench was measured and marked with string. It extended 3 metres from under The Gantry towards the tree. The turf was cut carefully, removed and laid out in order on one of the blue sheets. When two people were working on this or any task, the other four were hawkeyed and chatting ‘this looks like sand’ ‘perhaps levelling the ground at some stage’ ‘what’s that’ ‘at least it’s not clay’. Clay is dreaded for Archaeology in London. Once you reach it you meet the geology which means no more evidence of human activity.

The trench appeared when the grass disappeared and the work begins after kneepads, gloves and sun screen are donned. Worms, caterpillars and earwigs are put in soil buckets for a sleepover. There is a ritual of breaking the soil with a fierce tool and then gently scraping the earth with a flat trowel, all the time keeping to the line of the string. Bits of clay pipe are found. Clay pipes were given free with pints of beer until the 1930s, a custom from the 1600s. A shard of Victorian pottery, beautifully embossed, was seen. Sarah had the knowledge to explain how it was made and fired to people who passed by and showed interest. Lin, a local volunteer, was sifting through the spoil heap and found a button. It had a copper back and a glass top made from glass rods moulded together to form a rose. We had a number of visitors with their own memories or stories. The Kings Head allegedly had cellars that went under The Green and also had its own well.

Archaeologists are observant and enquire. What looked like an ordinary stone to me, had marks of being worked on and the ensuing discussion surmised it could be a weight. There is a photo of the Green in the 1930s with a goat. We found one of its teeth. Other finds were a piece of Tudor pottery (maybe),Victorian earthenware, shards of pots, long nails (could be from a previous gantry), old glass which has bubbles in it and then ‘the pipe’. We had been assured by all the services there was nothing under The Green. What was it? Pictures from the display in Stephen Woodward’s, the local estate agents, gave the answer. Jim detected small remnants of the gas lamp on the Green and the pipe was in line with it! Care was taken with it and then, the fear became a reality. London clay at 10 inches! It was 4.00pm first day, just like Time Team. A rethink and a new plan for the morning!

Judith Mills

Snippets of Archaeological News

Oldest Briton?

Scientists re-examining a fragment of jawbone with three teeth that was found in the 1920s in Kent’s Cavern near Torquay have established that it is much older than previously thought. The team from Oxford University say that it is between 41,000 and 44,000 years old and is the earliest known human “part” in Western Europe. The Times 3rd November 2011

Worcestershire coin hoard

A metal detectorist found a Roman coin hoard at Bredon Hill, near Evesham in June 2011. The hoard consisted of 3784 coins with 16 Roman emperors represented. Worcestershire archaeology service has subsequently found evidence of a Roman settlement at the site. The coins are now being conserved at the British Museum. Redditch Advertiser 22nd October 2011

Early Bronze Age cist excavated on Dartmoor

An early Bronze Age burial cist containing cremated bones and material dating back 4,000 years has been excavated on Dartmoor (Devon, England). Archaeologists uncovered items from the site on Whitehorse Hill including a woven bag or basket and amber beads. Dartmoor National Park Authority said the discovery could be one of the most important archaeological finds in 100 years.

Archeo News, 15th November 2011.

Viking’s Sat-Nav?

Scientists say that a crystal called Iceland spar could have helped Norsemen to navigate to within one degree hundreds of years before compasses reached Europe by enabling them to detect the sun’s position. Iceland spar, a transparent form of calcite common in Scandinavia, is sensitive to polarisation, the way sunlight is scattered by the atmosphere. The crystal could have been used as a “sunstone” to pinpoint the sun in a cloudy sky. The Times 2nd November 2011.

The finds report on the Hendon School Excavations in 2010 & 2011 by Don Cooper

address: Hendon School,
Golders Rise,
Hendon

NW4 2HP

Site Code: HDS06 Grid reference 523675.129E 189026.785N and height above sea level 59.850m. The centre of the combined trenches was 13m due east of the grid reference point.

This report covers the finds from two Hendon School excavations as both took place in the same area.

Figure 1 This is a Google Earth image of the Hendon School playing field looking almost due north. The white/yellow rectangle represents the 2011 dig and the black/blue one 2010. The 2010 area would be under the 2011 area. The view is not to scale.

The 2010 dig took place from 28th June to 2nd July and a preliminary report was produced. It was published in the HADAS Newsletter No. 473 in August 2010 and can be read on the HADAS website. In summary, it was a very successful dig with respect to demonstrating practical archaeological skills to the pupils. However, as is often the case, the natural surface was not reached due to the constraints of time. On the last day a sondage (a small trench within a trench) was excavated which, in this instance, was used to assess where the natural, i.e. London Clay, occurred. Imagine our surprise when 117 sherds of early medieval pottery sherds (bits of pot) turned up. The sondage was only 2 metres by half a metre and either we had struck lucky or there was more to find. We determined to come back the next year.

So in June 2011 (17th to 25th) we returned to Hendon School, to the same place as far as it was possible to identify because, unfortunately, in the intervening year building contractors, who were building the new 6th Form building, had been using the area to park their huge trucks, track-laying vehicles and diggers and, in addition, the hedge which we had used as a marker since it ran parallel to the side of the 2010 trench, had been grubbed out! We also had an erroneous measurement from the 2010 excavation. A preliminary report of the 2011 dig was published in the HADAS Newsletter No. 485 in August 2011 and is also on the website.

More trials and tribulations of the 2011 dig were brought about by the fact that we had 260 pupils to cater for. The trench, which was opened by the on-site building contractors using a digger, was 6 metres by 6 metres which was intended to encompass the 2010 trench. However, in order to have some chance of managing that many pupils an area of 3 metres by 6 metres of the western end of the trench (i.e. half of it!) was dedicated to the pupils and did not go down very far as the same area was more or less reprocessed with each new group of pupils. When there was time, we dug the eastern end as far as we could. This somewhat unsatisfactory outcome nevertheless revealed more medieval pottery sherds.

What did we find?

2010 report

The trench was three metres by two metres (see blue area in fig.1) and in terms of depth is divided into a series of contexts, features and sondage as follows:

Context 1: the de-turfing layer about 6cm deep

The context was mostly detritus from the playing field – sweet papers, broken pens and pencils, bits of metal (nails & modern coins), building material (brick, tile and slate) and a few small sherds of pottery (three pieces of English Tin-glazed ware). Except for the pottery, all the finds from context 1 were discarded. The modern coins were added to the coffee fund.

Context 2 with context 3, context 4 (a lens of London Clay) and context 5 (a slight gravel layer) all deemed part of context 2.

This was the main context. It roughly occupied between 6cms and 25cms and was therefore approximately 20cms deep. It was a much disturbed layer with evidence of previous episodes of gardening.

There were lots of finds:

Building material: Brick (794g), Roof tile including peg tiles (878g), Floor tile (157g), Slate (78g), Ceramic drain, red and white (45g).

All discarded except one piece of peg tile, one piece floor tile and three pieces of decorated tile.

Glass: Bottle glass, brown (17 pieces), Bottle glass, green (9 pieces), White bottle glass (45 pieces), Window glass (25pieces). All discarded.

Clay pipe: 54 pieces of stem, 7 pieces of bowl. All retained.

Metal: 37 nails, two horseshoes (one very small), one hook, one part blade and one amorphous lump of iron. Only the horseshoes, lump of metal, and part knife blade were retained.

Animal Bone: It has been a characteristic of all the Hendon School digs that there has been remarkably little animal bone found. In this case, seven very degraded pieces of bone were found and discarded.

Pottery: 48 pieces of pre-1350AD pot sherds weighing 302 g, mostly cooking pots with one bowl fragment; there are five different fabrics from, at least, 20 vessels. Then there is a gap of approximately 100 to 150 years in the pottery sherd date sequence. After which there are 150 sherds (783g) made of medieval fabrics (AD1480 onwards) to modern (AD1900), including Border ware, German stoneware and transfer-printed ware.

Sondage and features 3 and 4: The sondage was at the eastern end of the trench and was two metres by half a metre and approximately 25cm deep. Mid-way across the sondage there was what seemed like a post hole into the London clay natural surface. The top of the post hole was designated feature 3 and the bottom feature 4.

The sondage produced 114 sherds (414g). They consisted of five pieces of Roman pot, 107 pieces of pre-1350AD pot and two small sherds (4g) of 17th century intrusions. The top feature produced 3 sherds of pre-1350AD pot and the bottom feature had 2 unidentified pieces of metal, probably nails. There were no other finds.

2011 report

Trench A1 covers both the black and the white rectangles in Fig.1 (blue/yellow for those receiving this Newsletter by e-mail!). The only trench opened was 6m x 6m with the eastern half of it used to teach practical archaeological excavation skills to the pupils. Due to time constraints the other half was not excavated down to the natural. Some of the trench was on top of the 2010 trench. Fig. 2 gives an indication of where the contexts were.

Figure 2 2011 trench

Context 01 De-turfing by machine. The only finds were the detritus of the playing field. None were retained. This context is not shown on the sketch as it covered the whole trench.

Context 02

The top 25cm of the western half of the trench yielded many finds. This was a very disturbed context with pot sherds whose date sequence ranged from the 11thC to 19thC (168 sherds weighing 1055grms). Most periods were represented except between mid-14thC and early 16thC, a similar pattern to the one we had seen in the 2010 excavation. The pre-/mid-14thC sherds were represented by at least seven different fabrics, but the forms were mostly cooking pots, jugs and jars. As well as the pot sherds there was roof tile (56 pieces, 2 retained), Claypipe (32 stems, one retained which was stamped “J Cole, High St. Hampstead”, and four bowls, one retained), Bottle glass (five pieces, three retained) and window glass (three pieces, none retained). One large piece of slag (281grms) was retained and there was also one piece of glazed tile, one fragment of an ornament; one small medallion, scalloped shaped, all of which were retained. Metal nails (3 iron nails) and two tiny fragments of bone were discarded.

Context 025 (properly a feature) This context was a small irregular patch of gravel in the south-west of the trench. It produced no finds.

Context 028 This context represented a sondage sunk in the middle of the western half of the trench. It was 2metres by half a metre. There were no finds from this, possibly because it was where the 2010 trench had been.

Context 027

The finds from the eastern half the trench which was dedicated as a “pupil” area (Context 027) were as follows: Pottery sherds (51) of which 18 were pre-/mid-14thC and retained, of the other 33, nine were retained. A similar dating sequence gap to that mentioned previously was observed. As well as the pottery there were: 36 clay pipe stems (none retained), three pieces of clay pipe bowl, two with the makers mark “WT” (all retained), 28 pieces of brick and tile (3 peg tile retained), glass (27) mostly green and brown wine bottle sherds (two retained). Metal: 8 nails (one retained).

Context 030 This was an “L” shaped sondage in the north-west corner of the trench 1m east x half a metre south and then extended 1 metre to the south by two-thirds of a metre east and 30cms deep. The natural London clay was reached. The grubbing out of the hedge may well have disturbed this context.

There were 36 sherds of pre-/mid-14thC pot (all retained) with most of it being 12th/13thcC. Brick and tile (18) one retained and one pipe stem retained. There was no glass or bone in this context.

Interpretation

The hamlet at the crossroads of Brent Street and Bell Lane is clearly established by the Survey of Middlesex by John Roque in 1756. According to the History of Middlesex in the Victoria County History (VCH) series, Brent Street was the largest hamlet in Hendon in the 18th century. Brent Street as a hamlet is first mentioned in 1613 (Petrie, 2005, p25). John Norden was living at Hendon House in Brent Street in 1607 as he recorded on his maps. However, it is difficult to go further back, other than noting that we know the ownership of the land was by various monasteries. Brett-James (1932) says that Hendon was at one stage part of the Danelaw. In 1540 the Abbot of Westminster resigned, and Henry VIII created a new bishopric which included Hendon, according the Letters Patent of 1542 (Hopkins1964, p33).

The sherds of Norman pottery found in the excavation at least indicate human presence in the area during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. The gap in the pottery date sequence cannot easily be explained. The Black Death, which wreaked such a terrible toll in the years 1348 to 1350, may well be the explanation as to the area being deserted and not repopulated for a considerable time. According Brett-James (1933, p2):

“We had no exact figures for the ravages of plague in Hendon, but the disappearance of

certain families after 1350 side by side with the persistence of others and the rapid changes

of officials at that time are possible indicators of the mortality caused by the plague.”

No structures have so far been found; the “post hole” in the sondage in 2010 could just as easily be a fence post, as old maps show a fence on roughly the same alignment. The land slopes down from the crossroads of Brent Street and Bell Lane and the finds from the 16thC onwards may well be “hill wash” gradually moving down the slope. On the other hand, Bell Lane is an old road as it leads to the crossing of the Brent at Mutton Bridge, so perhaps there were dwellings along it.

I would like to invite any of our readers, who may have done more research than I, to send me their thoughts and references so that we can gradually refine the story of the area.

It has to be remembered that the main objective of the excavations at Hendon School is to demonstrate practical archaeology to the pupils. In 2010 Sarah Dhanjal produced a first-class 22-page booklet specifically for the school excavations. The booklet highlighted the tasks we try to cover during the excavation.

The tasks included: Health and Safety with special reference to the tools used in practical archaeology as well as behaviour on the site, Drawing, including “drawing our site” using plan and section drawing, There was photography, surveying using the dumpy level, finds processing including pot washing and marking, as well as trowelling in the trench as you can see in the photograph below:

Figure 3: The Learning Process at Hendon School

References:

Baker, T.F.T. ed., 1976. A History of Middlesex vol.5 Oxford: Oxford University Press (VCH series).

Brett-James, Norman. 1932. The Story of Hendon. Hendon:Warden & Co.

Brett-James, Norman,1933. Some extents and surveys of Hendon: In LAMAS transactions Vol.VII, Part I.

Hopkins, John. 1964. A History of Hendon. Published by Hendon Borough Council.

Petrie, Hugh. 2005. Hendon & Golders Green Past. London: Historical Publications Ltd.

The October Lecture Report by Sheila Woodward

“Silchester: the Revelation of an Iron Age and Roman City” by Dr. John Creighton

After many visits during the last 50 years, the site at Silchester is no stranger to HADAS. Nor is Dr. John Creighton: he reminded us that in his student days he joined us briefly on our West Heath dig.

Unlike most Roman towns in England, Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) was totally abandoned when the Romans departed; there has been no rebuilding on the site. Only Caistor St Edmund, which we visited last year, and Wroxeter, which we hope to visit again next year, share this distinction. It means that the original lay-out of the town is intact under its covering of soil and vegetation. That was long ago appreciated and Silchester has been extensively excavated.

Even in the 18th century the site had attracted the attention of antiquarians such as William Stukeley and John Ward and their descriptions and tentative plans have proved valuable to the later researchers. By the 19th century both excavation techniques and mapping had improved dramatically and Dr. Creighton likened Henry McLoughlin’s topographical map of 1850, showing all the massive earthworks visible in Silchester, to a modern OS map. After the area came into the possession of the Duke of Wellington, the Society of Antiquaries was able to organise a full season (May to November) of excavation each year from 1890 to 1908, so producing the first comprehensive survey of a Roman town in this country. It has been reproduced many times in books on Roman Britain. Archaeology as discerned by Pitt Rivers was beginning to take shape. In more recent years the development of Roman Silchester from its Iron Age predecessor has attracted much attention, particularly in the area known as Insula IX, lying north-west of the Forum.

How did the Roman town develop? How was it related to its predecessor? And how and when did that town develop? The sources of information available are now so many and varied and our lecturer whirled through them at such a speed that my notes are woefully inadequate! Aerial photography combined with new excavation has revealed more stone buildings, shops and workplaces, and a large timber building at a diagonal to the street grid. In 1973 George Boon and Colin Williams wrestled with the dating of the earthworks. There were geophysical surveys in 1993 and an English Heritage magnetic survey in 2008, and there have been resistivity surveys and ground penetrating RADAR ones. The Society of Antiquaries plans have been digitised and there has been a new mapping project somewhat troubled, I gather, by livestock challenges, especially from llamas!

Dr. Creighton plans to accumulate data from every possible source and combine all the available information to get an overall view of the town, its predecessors, its history and its surroundings. At present it seems possible that there were Roman incursions in the area well before the AD43 conquest. There are many features which still need explaining. Dr Creighton has set himself a massive task but he is an enthusiast. Further developments in the Silchester saga will be well worth watching.

Isle of Wight (Day 2 – part 1) by Jim Nelhams

For most people, no visit to the Island would be complete without exploring Osborne House and its grounds. But first we went to a local glassworks before a nostalgic trip by rail through the countryside to Wootton, to be met there by Dave in our coach. Not all members share the same interests, and sometimes it is possible to accommodate special requests. In this case, Andy Simpson, with the chance to explore the railways, disappeared as it were in a puff of smoke…. Now read on:

Glory Art Glass www.gloryartglass.com by Lydia Demetris

I looked forward to this visit, as I had often watched glassblowing as a child in my father’s factory, the Hastings and Folkestone Glassworks.

Martin Evans, the owner, began his business 15 years ago after retiring from the armed forces. He gave a very good talk and potted overview of the glass industry. The way he makes his glass, he stated, has little changed since Roman times, and he had, in fact, made replica Roman glassware for Carisbrooke Castle in the past. The business involves both sales of his finished work and demonstrations to schools and parties.

Glory Art Glass premises consists of a ground floor shop divided by a wooden counter into a street entry customer’s retail display area and manufacturing space to the rear. Helpful display boards detailing some glass-manufacturing processes hang in strategic places around the walls. Our group sat in the showroom facing the workroom, on the long benches and chairs that are provided for their group visitors, tourists and school parties. Martin began his presentation with a short history of Glass.

Glass is a simple process made originally from silica sand, soda and lime fused at high temperatures. Many variations have taken place including potash and lead, the latter making the glass easier to work. Silica sand is obtained from numerous sites in the UK. The use of the sand from each site depends on its content. For example the type that Martin uses for his work differs from that used in the manufacture of Plate Glass for shop windows. (Further information can be obtained from the British Geological Society www.bgs.ac.uk) However, Martin buys his ready mixed from Scandinavia together with ground coloured glass in a variety of shades.

Martin began his talk by introducing the beginning of production of glass at around 5000 years ago with simple beads gradually progressing to carved artefacts where glass was treated rather like stone. The big step forward in his opinion, was the introduction, during the Roman Period, of metal blowing tubes leading to the production of all kinds of vases, drinking vessels and jewellery. He then proceeded to show us some of his moulds that glass can be blown into, together with his metal pincers, cutters and tools used to process his stock. Glass windowpanes in Roman times would have been either poured into moulds or blown and then unrolled.

At the rear of the premises an oven with molten glass was heated at a constant temperature of 1100oC, taking four days to achieve this. The oven has to remain constantly fuelled during operation and in a commercial situation this would involve 365 days a year, although Mr Evans now closes it during the winter months, presumably due to trading reasons. In days before gas a constant supply of wood was essential, and we learnt that the Chinese, in the past, were experts at building huge draught ovens on hillsides to maximise heat.

Martin introduced a blow rod into the oven and withdrew a small bulb of glass. I would have expected the rod to be heated prior to this, but I neither saw any evidence that it had taken place nor was in a position to see whether he marvered the glass. He certainly rotated the soft bulb to keep it centred and blew through the tube to form a bubble, introduced the coloured ground glass and briefly replaced it in the oven. He explained how it could be re-dipped after cooling to encapsulate the colour and how this process was used to create his glass vases and other pieces in the showroom. He then used his tools to crimp and pull wings and a beak from the glass and skilfully produce the shape of a bird. The glass, he said was still at a temperature of 3000 oC and he proved how hot it was by touching it with a newspaper, which immediately burst into flames – an instant winner with the schoolchildren of course. The bird, still attached to the rod was placed in an Annealing Oven. The rod was tapped to disengage the bird and the door closed. Glass produced in this way is kept in an Annealing Oven overnight at 500 oC to cool; as if it cooled too quickly it would implode. Martin then took out another bubble of glass and blew it into a huge bubble before bursting it safely into a bucket with a resounding bang that made us all laugh.

Martin then began his final process which involved another glass bulb which he processed into a flower with his crimpers, then twisted the base and curled it to make hand crafted napkin rings. These, he said, together with the small animals, were the basis of his trade and how he was able to stay in business. We then had our buying opportunity!

Martin’s presentation was very enjoyable and gave a very good overview of the old skills of glass blowing to the general public. It is, of course, too huge a subject to discuss in any depth. I think we all thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

RAILWAYS by Andy Simpson

After our thoroughly enjoyable visit to the glass emporium, the group boarded the coach for the short trip to the western outskirts of Sandown where the railway station is situated. This, for me, was obviously the start of a much-anticipated part of the trip.

The story of railways on the Isle of Wight began with the opening of the line from Cowes southwards to Newport in June 1862. The opening of the line from St Lawrence to Ventnor West in June 1900 completed an island-wide system of 55.5 route miles, serving 36 stations. Road competition and declining traffic saw early route closures in 1952, 1953 and 1956. Closure of the Smallbrook Junction (of which more later) to Cowes via Newport (the hub of the system) and Shanklin–Ventnor lines to passengers in February/April 1966 saw the ‘main line’ reduced to the 8.5 miles on the eastern side of the island between Ryde Pier Head southwards to Shanklin, which was operated by Victorian Adams class O2 0-4-4 tank steam engines until 31 December 1966. Tight clearances in the tunnel at Ryde limited the choice of replacement stock. The remaining line was electrified on the third rail system from late 1966.

From 20th March 1967, services on the remaining line were provided by three/four-car sets of 1923-34 built ex- London Transport ‘Standard’ tube stock originally from the Bakerloo/Northern/Piccadilly Lines and later used on the Northern City Line, painted initially in soul-less 1960s/70s BR ‘rail blue’, several cars of which returned to the mainland in 1990 for preservation by the London Transport Museum – some of which remain in store at Acton Depot for future restoration to working order for use in LT’s Heritage fleet. From the autumn of 1989, initially part of ‘Ryde Rail’, they were replaced by shortened two-car sets of ex-Northern line ‘1938 stock’ – on one of the six ‘Class 483’ sets currently in use, which HADAS, filling some normally quiet coaches at that time of the day, took a short run on what now trades as the heavily-subsidised ’Island Line’ (www.island-line.com) from Sandown northwards via the former junction at Brading (of which more later in the week) to Smallbrook Junction just outside Ryde. From 2000, after carrying various liveries since 1989, these sets have all rather fetchingly been repainted into LT red!

Until 26 January 1969, the railway on Ryde Pier was paralleled by the Ryde Pier Tramway, of which the rusting track supports remain – as well as one preserved tram from this line in Newport Bus Museum (see below). HADAS saw another ex-Ryde Pier tram – the horse-drawn ‘Grapes’ car of 1871 – at Hull Streetlife (Transport) Museum on our visit there a few years back.

When we reached Smallbrook Junction, a swift cross-platform transfer was made to a steam-hauled train on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway (www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk) , which operates from there five miles westwards to Wootton along part of the former Newport/Cowes Line; in July 1991 the railway reopened the previously closed line and lifted three miles of track from Havenstreet, from where preserved trains ran to Wootton from April 1971, operated by the Wight Locomotive Society, making this their 40th anniversary year, with various special events. Our eager throng crowded onto our specially reserved coaches, including the one I was on, dating back to 1922 (hauled by former Longmoor Military Railway and Marchwood Military Port 1953-built Hunslet 0-6-0ST WD192 ‘Waggoner) for a one-way trip along the line via Ashey and Havenstreet to Wootton, where the rest of the party moved on via St Mildred’s Church at Whippingham to Osborne House, leaving yours truly with his bargain value £14 ‘Island Liner Rover’ to explore both the preserved and main lines at leisure – which I did, thoroughly!

The preserved line’s engine shed and HQ is at Havenstreet, with plenty of interesting steam (and diesel) engines in the yard, including the sole-surviving ‘O2’ Calbourne, sold by BR for preservation in May 1967, and two well-stocked bookshops to browse! The weather was pleasant and the camera saw plenty of use … after which I re-joined the ‘main line’ at Smallbrook Junction and spent the next five or six hours traversing the line and visiting seven of the eight stations, including the very pleasant heritage and information centre at Brading station (www.bradingstation.com), to catch up on local gossip (much disquiet at IoW council cuts) and have a welcome mug of coffee. Come rush hour, the trains filled with commuters and unusually smartly dressed school children. All trains run VERY punctually through some very pleasant countryside, much like the top few miles of the Central Line towards Epping where one can also travel on a tube train with green fields both sides of the track.

Exhibition at the British Museum by Don Cooper

The Grayson Perry exhibition at the British Museum “The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman” which runs until the 19th February 2012 (cost £10 for seniors, members free) is proving very popular. The exhibition which is of a unique kind for the British Museum sets modern craftsmanship against old items made by unknown craftsmen from the BM’s eclectic collection.

In the accompanying catalogue (Perry, 2011) Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, he of “The History of the World in 100 Objects”, says “The resulting juxtapositions are something that none of those of us working in the Museum ever would – or could – have brought into being.” And Jacob Bronowski is quoted in the introduction to the catalogue as follows: “The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure at his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better. You see it in his science”.

This is an exciting exhibition which certainly changed my views. If you are going, you need to book in advance as the exhibition is timed entry.

Perry, Grayson, 2011. The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman London: British Museum Press.

News of other events by Eric Morgan

Tuesday, 6th December at 14.00: Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow, HA2 6PX, a talk by Tony Earle on “Thames Barges”. Cost £3.

Wednesday, 7th December at 13.00: Gresham College at the Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, a lecture by Prof. Tim Connell called “The City Livery Companies”. Free.

Monday, 12th December at 18.30: British Library Conference Centre, 96 Euston Road NW1 2DB, a talk Michael Wood called “Royal Manuscripts, the story of a book” The talk is on a manuscript about King Athelstan. Cost £7.50 (£5 for concessions).

Tuesday, 13th December at 18.30: LAMAS at the Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, a lecture by Glynn Davis and Catherine Elliott called “Thomas Layton’s Artificial Curiosities: Oceanic Collections of an ‘Old World Type’”. Free.

Tuesday, 13th December at 20.00: Cuffley Industrial Heritage Society, Northaw Village Hall,

5 Northaw Road West, EN6 4NW a talk by Robert Hulse called “Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s First Project”. Non-members £3.

Wednesday, 14th December at 14.30: Mill Hill Historical Society, Wilberforce Centre, St. Paul’s Church, The Ridgeway, NW7 1QU, a talk by Neil Morley called “Hidden City”.

Wednesday, 14th December at 19.00: Camden History Society, Charlie Ratchford Resource Centre, Belmont Street, NW1 8HF (off Chalk Farm Road opposite The Roundhouse), a talk by Dr. Ann Saunders called “The London Letters (1712-1713) of Samuel Molyneux, later MP”. Wine and mince pies before talk.

Wednesday, 14th December at 19.45: Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, corner Ferme Park Rd. Weston Park N8, a talk by Mark Evison called “Alexandra Park, Past and Present” Visitors £2.

Events for your next year’s diary

Thursday, 17th January 2012 at 18.30: LAMAS at the Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, a lecture by Julian Hill of Museum of London Archaeology called “Mapping Roman London: from Site Context to Town Plan”.

Saturday, 9th April 2012, at the Museum of London: The LAMAS Archaeology Conference. You can apply for tickets online. (Members £8, non-members £10).

There was a slight drizzle on Saturday morning but the weather soon cleared up into another perfect day for “digging”. It was decided to extend the trench westward towards the remains of the pre-1987 gantry. This gantry had been destroyed by the 1987 hurricane and the present crude one erected. After de-turfing, the same pattern as the rest of the trench was revealed with the natural “Bagshot Beds” being reached at approximately 30cm. The list of finds was similar although perhaps more 20^th century than 19^th.

The foundations of the pre-1987 gantry were exposed to about half their length as was the area around half of the wooden end piece. The area was cleaned up and after it was photographed drawn and planned, the whole trench was back-filled with help from members of the Harrow Hill Trust, re-turfed and the excavation completed.

The Harrow Hill Trust has produced a document, “King’s Head Hotel, Gantry Restoration Project 2010”, which is online at:

webjam-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/kings_head_hotel_gantry__2938__.pdf

This describes the project and includes some fascinating photographs. In summary the gantry first appears in a painting by John Inigo Richards in 1770 which shows a gantry with three posts directly into the ground, but once we get to the mid-19^th century the gantry clearly has a rendered (brick?) base with a wooden plank on top and wooden end pieces. The excavation confirms the date of the brick structure as mid-19^th century as nearly all the finds indicate dates around that time. A brick from the bottom of the structure has been dated by the Museum of London to mid to late 19^th century. There was, unfortunately, no obvious evidence from any older structures.

4.      Acknowledgements 

Thanks are due to all the members of the Harrow Hill Trust especially Judith Mills, Anthony Leyland and Ted Allett and to the members of the HADAS digging team Bill Bass, Guy Taylor, Sarah Dhanjal, Jim Nelhams and Vicki Baldwin.

TOURS OF THE LAARC 

The London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre is granting special access the Archive with weekly behind-the-scenes tours. Visitors can walk amongst the 10km of shelving and discover some of the hidden archaeological treasures that have not made it yet into the Museum of London’s galleries. As well as touring the vast store, visitors also have the opportunity to see the area where the objects are cleaned and sorted when they first come out of the ground. Guests will have the chance to handle objects and visit the phenomenal Ceramics and Glass store.

Visits to the Archive take place every Friday and on the first and third Saturday of the month. Tour times: 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.; 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Cost £5 (advance booking required). To book, call the Museum of London Box Office on 020 7001 9844.

CBA in Oxford – Saturday 1 October                                        Emma and David Robinson

We attended the CBA Study Day and AGM.  This successful and enjoyable day was based at the Pitt Rivers Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology (University of Oxford). The programme began with a walking tour of Oxford led by experienced Blue Badge City Guides.  They had been briefed to tell us something of the history and archaeology of the city – rather than to dwell simply on the Oxford Colleges alone.  The questions asked by our lively group took us down all sorts of by-ways of Oxford’s past. Taking the guide’s recommendation we lunched convivially at The Turf – an ancient inn frequented by that well known TV detective Inspector Morse.  Legend has it that the inn got its name because Oxford students used to go there to settle their gambling debts with their turf accountants.

After lunch we heard three diverse presentations on current archaeological work in Oxfordshire.  David Clark of the Oxfordshire Archaeological and Historical Society gave us a fascinating account of some recent listed buildings casework and building recording in the county.  We were particularly interested in his detective work on what he argued to be an early manor house in the village of Horley near Banbury.  David Griffiths then spoke about the East Oxford Project – a community archaeology initiative led by the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education and involving many local history societies, community groups and individuals. This project revealed that the eastern suburbs of Oxford also have a long and fascinating history. The third presentation was given by Dan Poore of Oxford Archaeology and explored some recent work in the City. Through case studies he demonstrated that in the centre of the historic city new developments require careful initial investigations before building work can proceed.

The main focus of the AGM was the CBA’s financial situation.  The challenge here is that the CBA’s core grant of some £300k from the British Academy is to be phased out over the next five years.  CBA President Dr Kate Pretty told us that the Academy now wished to focus on developing countries to help internationalise their research.  The Academy’s decision was not forced by reductions in its own Governmental grants – but was simply a strategic choice in spite of their continuing praise for the high standard of CBA’s work.  This decision has had a great impact on CBA’s work.  CBA Director Mike Heyworth told us that the new strategy was going to focus on expanding the membership base and making the CBA more financially independent. He also stressed that the CBA’s problems nationally merely mirror problems of the heritage sector generally and it was important that heritage organisations, for example,     the National Trust and CBA, work together more collaboratively.

The AGM was followed by a private viewing of the Pitt Rivers collections.  What makes this museum different is that whilst in most ethnographic and archaeological museums the displays are arranged according to geographical or cultural areas, here they are arranged according to type.  Some of our favorites included musical instruments, writing implements and carved bone objects – all demonstrating how different peoples have solved the same problems in very different ways over time. 

The final event of the day was the annual De Cardi lecture.  This was given by Professor Richard Bradley of the University of Reading on “British prehistory since 1948: the CBA’s research policy after sixty years”.  He eloquently explored the initial research priorities set out by the CBA and linked these to the then giants of archaeological practice who drafted it  – including Stuart Piggott and, Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes. The lecture was a masterpiece.

MEMORY CORNER

As noted in the September newsletter, at our party on 7^th August, we invited those present to contribute their memories of HADAS. The newsletter invited further contributions and that opportunity has not closed, so here is your chance to send yours to Jo Nelhams – contact details at the end of the newsletter. A number have been received, three of which are printed below  – with thanks to the writers. 

From Celia Gould

I joined HADAS in September 1971 and participated regularly in activities over the next few years, including a short stint on the committee and editing a couple of issues of the newsletter.

My fondest memories relate to the early sessions of the West Heath Dig. I was a regular digger in glorious hot sunny weather, where endeavours were agreeably punctuated by lunch at the café in Golders Hill Park. Perhaps the most memorable activity was participation in the brief dig at the nearby bog from which soil samples were taken to determine climate and vegetation. I spent a glorious week up to my neck in mud, discarding my clothes and jumping straight into a bath immediately after I returned home each day, I have a few photos to prove the point.

Although no longer resident in the immediate area, I enjoy occasional participation in HADAS events, and was delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Society.

From Joan Wrigley

We were digging on site at Hampstead Heath with Margaret Maher (Site Director) when a policeman on a horse came up to the site fence and said, “I’m looking for a man.” Margaret replied, “Aren’t we all?”

Also on site, I was making tea for the members when a man came up and asked a technical question I was not able to answer. I said I would get an archaeologist to speak to him and that I was only the tea lady. He replied, “I’ll have two cups of tea with milk, one with sugar and one without. I had to tell him that I was only making tea for the diggers.

From Erna and Harold Karton

We celebrate.

Today is a great day. It was about 47 years ago that we moved to Hampstead Garden Suburb and not long after, our friends Mary and Barney Barnett who were members of HADAS  suggested that we join.

We have found the HADAS programme of lectures, outings, digs and training etc fascinating. Although we are not able to participate as much as we would like, the Newsletter keeps us in touch and we look forward to its prompt monthly arrival.

As to memories, we read in the local paper that Dorothy (Newbury) had been given an Honour. She had been unaware of this and was not convinced that the report and accompanying photograph referred to her! Eventually we had a delightful party, with Dorothy wearing her decoration, and everybody was very happy.

HADAS TRIP to ISLE OF WIGHT         Jim Nelhams                        

The previous HADAS excursion to the Isle of Wight had been for one day while staying at Portsmouth, so this trip allowed more latitude in our choice of places to visit. This year we had 38 travellers in the splendid gold coach from Galleon Coaches driven by Dave, our driver last year to Norwich and more recently to Folkestone. Fresh fruit and items for our packed lunches having been loaded, we set off around the borough to collect our passengers, and once this was completed, headed south. First, a comfort stop at Fleet. Then on to Southampton. With no motorway problems, we arrived at the ferry terminal suitably early, allowing us to visit the small Maritime Museum opposite the ferry terminal. Everybody having returned to the coach, we waited to board the ferry, which duly arrived from East Cowes.

But this ferry was not going anywhere. The engine had a fault and was being checked. Occasional puffs of black smoke showed that work was ongoing, but with no positive outcome. Were they electing a Pope, suggested one traveller. We just had to wait an hour for the next available boat.

We had planned on reaching the island to visit the Roman Villa in Newport which closed at 4 p.m. We must be grateful to the people there that they agreed to remain open so that we could visit them, and once we arrived, we were made most welcome and not rushed. Leaving Newport, we headed for our hotel in Sandown.

The Wight Montrene Hotel in Sandown was to be our base for the trip. As befits a seaside holiday hotel, it is close to the beach and shops, making it suitable for an early morning or evening stroll for those who felt the need. The hotel did us proud, with 5 course meals in the evening and musical entertainment, and also provided the pre-ordered sandwiches for our packed lunches. It also provided the first challenge for Dave in getting his 13 metre coach into the narrow entrance. Dave does like a challenge.

The Southampton Maritime Museum                                                       Brian Warren

On reaching Southampton Docks, most of the party crossed the road to visit this small museum. My main interest concerned the permanent exhibition on the sinking of Titanic in 1912. This small exhibition was upstairs, and primarily recorded the people who lived in the neighbourhood of Southampton and their experiences. There were mounted photographs of them and in some cases brief descriptions. Also included was a commentary of their opinions on various aspects of the tragedy.  Other displays of some of the survivors related to their experiences and their subsequent lives. For instance, none of the senior officers subsequently held command of their own ship.

The most senior officer to survive was Second Officer Lightoller who had moved with his family to Netley, Southampton in 1907. When Titanic was sunk, he saw that all the lifeboats on his side of the liner were lowered except one. He attended both inquiries in America and Britain to give evidence. Not mentioned in the exhibition but of previous interest to me was that he later lived at The Cottage, Games Road, Cockfosters, the last house on the right before the entrance to Hadley Wood. He was awarded the DSC in the first World War and later took his own boat to rescue as many troops as he could from Dunkirk.

As there is to be an exhibition at Potters Bar Museum next year to celebrate one hundred years since the sinking of  Titanic, I noted the following facts: –

703 were saved from 2206 people on board

202 were first class

115 were second class

210 crew

100% of the first/second class children

30% of the third class children.

There was a larger exhibition on the origins of the Ordnance Survey, but I only had time to glance at it and did not have time for other items.

The Museum is in the Wool House, which was built in 1417 as a warehouse for the medieval wool trade with Flanders and Italy. It had other uses, including to house prisoners of war, before it was opened as the Southampton Maritime Museum in 1966. (Note – The Museum has now been closed and is being relocated elsewhere in the City, though it will not re-open until April 1912. JN)

Newport Roman Villa                                                                                   Don Cooper

Getting our trip off to a flying start, we went straight from the ferry to a residential part of Newport and there, surrounded by family houses, was the entrance to Newport Roman Villa. We were met by Corina Westwood, the curator, who introduced us to the villa. It was built in the AD 270s, lasted about 50 years, and is a good example of a winged-corridor villa of a type typical in Britain.  The site, which was excavated in 1926 by Percy Stone and Ambrose Sherwin, is well preserved with much of it enclosed by a modern roof, notably the west wing bathhouse.

The bath suite is said to be one of the best preserved in southern Britain with its hypocaust system well displayed. The outline of the villa is marked by the original bases of the walls which were made of local stone (flint, chalk, limestone and greensand) and can be seen almost to their original height. There is also a well-stocked authentic Roman garden maintained by the museum staff. There are good display cases showing the finds from the site.

The education room is fitted out with replica artefacts showing the Roman way of life, especially in cooking, eating and drinking. A remarkable object was the replica glirarium or dormouse fattening pot where dormice (Glis glis) would have been fattened with walnuts and almonds before being eaten. The villa was probably a farmhouse lived in by a Romano-British family growing cereals and keeping livestock. Corina gave us a demonstration of flour-making, grinding local corn using replica Roman quern stones, and there is a reconstructed corn-drier at the entrance to the site highlighting the theme of cereal growing in the area. The small shop sold out of its books and leaflets of the site!

This was a memorable visit to a beautifully displayed Roman Villa. The staff, who were very knowledgeable, accessible and friendly, went out of their way to make our visit a success – our thanks to every one of them. All too soon it was back on the coach and off to our hotel.

Other Societies’ Events                                                                                           Compiled by Eric Morgan

Saturday 5^th November, 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Geologists Association Festival of Geology, University College London, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT. Exhibitions, fossil and mineral displays, stonecraft, books, maps, geological equipment and talks. Also Sunday 6^th, walks and field trips. Further details  – 020 7434 9298; email – geol.assoc@btinternet.com.  Visit www.geologistsassociation.org.uk. Admission free.

Tuesday 8^th November, 2 – 3 p.m. Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow, HA2 6PX. From Queen Victoria to Avatar – The History of 3D. Karen Cochrane. £3.

Tuesday 8^th November, 5:30 p.m. Institute of Archaeology and British Museum Medieval Seminar. Room 612, IOA, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY.Who was buried at Wics? Community and Identity in the 7^th century. Chris Scull

Wednesday 9^th November, 2:30 pm – 4 p.m. Mill Hill Historical Society. Wilberforce Centre, St Paul’s Church, The Ridgeway, NW7 1QU. The History of Money. Talk by Richard Selby.

Wednesday 16^th November, 10:30 a.m. Society of Genealogists 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road London EC1M 7BA Getting the Most from the Society of Genealogists A Lecture with Else Churchill – FREE but advanced booking required – 020 7553 3290.

Wednesday 16^th November, 7:30 p.m. Willesden Local History Society. Scout House, High Road (corner of Strode Road), NW10 2RY. Ken Valentine and the Pillar Boxes. Talk by Margaret Pratt (Gen. Sec.) on his research on Willesden Pillar Boxes and other work.

Wednesday 16^th November, 8 p.m. Islington Archaeological and History Society. Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD.– Toymakers of Islington. Talk by Chris Rule (G.L.I.A.S.)

Friday 18^th November, 8 p.m. Enfield Archeaological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. The Roast Beef of Old England. Talk by Neil Pinchbeck (EAS osteo-archaeologist). Visitors – £1. Refreshments, sales from 7:30 p.m.

Saturday 19^th November, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. LAMAS. Local History Conference. Weston Theatre, Museum of London, London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Sporting London. See September newsletter for full details.

Wednesday 23^rd November, 7:45 p.m. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. St John’s Church Hall, (next to police station), Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0LW.  Leisure and Entertainment in and around Finchley. Yasmine Webb (Barnet Archivist). Cost £2.

Thursday 24^th November, 2:30 p.m. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3 3QE. 40 Years at Kodak. Talk by Tony Earle. Non-members – £2.

Tuesday 29th November, 5:30 p.m. Institute of Archaeology and British Museum Medieval Seminar. Room 612, IOA, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PY. The River Thames in the Middle Ages – Evidence Old and New. John Clark and Natalie Cohen (HADAS November lecturer)

Thursday 1^st December, 7:30 p.m. Friends of Avenue House. Avenue House, East End Road, N3 3QE.

Quiz Supper. £12:50 including food. HADAS usually enters a team. Contact Jim Nelhams (see below) if interested.

Wednesday 19th October 8pm. Islington Archaeology and History Society. Islington Town Hall, Upper Street N1. Islington’s Green Plaque Scheme. Talk by Allie Dillon (Islington Local History Centre). Thursday 20th October 7.30pm. Camden History Society. Charlie Ratchford Centre, Belmont Street NW1 (off Chalk Farm Road opposite Roundhouse). The bricks that built Victorian London. Talk by Peter Hounsell.

Friday 21st October 7pm. COLAS. St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3. A Hidden Landscape Revealed: excavations at Syon. Bob Cowie. (MOLA). £2.

Friday 21st October 7.30pm. Wembley History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury NW9. Some forgotten short films of WW2. Talk by David Hughes. Visitors £2. Refreshments in interval. Tuesday 25th October 10.30am. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction of Chase Side, Enfield. A touch of glass (Historical aerial photography from 1900 onwards) including pictures taken from the Tiger & Puss Moth aircrafts. Gary Lakin.

Tuesday 25th October 2-3pm. Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow. Harrow in the days of Guy Fawkes. Talk by Narinder Mudhar. Cost £3.

Wednesday 26th October 7.45pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. St John’s Church Hall (next to Whetstone Police Station), Friern Barnet Lane N20. The Geology of Friern Barnet. Talk by Stephen Kranse. Non-Members £2.

Thursday 27th October 8pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Rd N3. Finchley Society: Its first 40 years. Jean Scott Memorial Lecture by David Smith (Chairman). Non Members £2.

For the academic year 2011/2012 HADAS is again running its course called LOOKING AT FINDS – A PRACTICAL COURSE IN POST-EXCAVATION STUDIES. The course will tutored by Jacqui Pearce BA FSA MIfA and will be held on Wednesday evenings starting 28 September, from 18.30 – 20.00 hrs at Avenue House. See details below.

Christmas 2011

A date for your diary. HADAS is planning a buffet lunch at Avenue House on Sun 4th Dec. Details later. HADAS DIARY

Tues. 11th Oct. 2011, Silchester: the revelation of an Iron Age and Roman city, Dr John Creighton

(University of Reading).

Tues. 8th Nov. 2011, The Thames Discovery Programme, Nathalie Cohen, (TDP Team Leader)

Sun. 4th Dec. 2011, Christmas Event, buffet, at Avenue House, TBA.

Tues. 10th Jan. 2012, The Merchant Taylors’ Dinner from the 18th-century, Dr Anne Saunders Tues. 14th Feb. 2012, The Medieval Cellars of Winchelsea, Richard Comotto
Tues. 13th March 2012, It’s All in the Bones, Jelena Bekvalac, (curator of human osteology, MOL) Tues. 10th April 2012, Conservation Techniques in Stone Masonry, Stephen Critchley.
Tues. 8th May 2012, Bumps, Bombs and Birds: the history and archaeology of RSPB reserves, Robin Standring, (RSPB Reserves Archaeologist).
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.

LOOKING AT FINDS – A PRACTICAL COURSE IN POST-EXCAVATION STUDIES.

Following on from the success of previous award-winning courses, HADAS will be continuing to explore the treasures hidden in the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC). The aim is to give instruction in identifying, recording and understanding different categories of finds from archaeological excavations in London that, for various reasons, were never fully written up, with a view to publication in a relevant journal. This year we will be starting to look at sites excavated by the Guildhall Museum in the early years after the Second World War and focusing on a wide range of finds, from pottery to clay pipes, glass and building material, examining them in their wider context and so learning more about the people who used and discarded them.

A 22-week course in post-excavation analysis to be held at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley
Wednesday evenings, 6.30–8.30 pm, starting on 28 September 2011.

Course fee: £275 for 22 sessions. To book, contact Don Cooper (020 8440 4350, or email: chairman@hadas.org.uk) or Jacqui Pearce (jacquipearce126@hotmail.com Tel: 020 8203 4506).
Please make cheques payable to HADAS and send to Don Cooper, 59 Potters Road, Barnet, EN5 5HS.

HADAS VISIT TO UPNOR CASTLE AND CHATHAM DOCKYARD, 31 JULY, 2011.

Upnor Castle, by Jean Bayne

Upnor, a tiny, charming village on the Kent coast, has a cobbled main street, weather-boarded houses, old-style shop fronts and an impressive medieval castle. It was described by Stuart as a ‘Tudor des res’ : a hidden gem, in fact, as very few of us had ever heard of it.

Situated on the banks of the River Medway, the castle was built in 1559 at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I in order to protect the fleet when it was moored in the river ‘in ordinary’, or out of commission. The original buildings were less extensive, consisting of the water bastion or platform and a residential block with two towers. Great guns could be mounted on the bastion and on top of the main building. Later, in 1599, the gatehouse, moat and drawbridge were added and the north and south towers were reconstructed and strengthened. Also, a courtyard wall was added to provide defence from the landward side. On the seaward side, a timber palisade and ditch with flankers (fortified positions for firing) were put in place, the bastion raised and a higher parapet added.

Even in 1601 it was not completely finished, but its appearance was much like today. As a visitor, it felt well- preserved and substantial. Moreover, its small rooms, differing levels and twisty stairways gave it a human dimension and scale: it is easy to imagine people living and working there.

In 1623 the garrison consisted of 29 people: a captain, a master gunner, seven gunners and twenty soldiers. Eighteen guns were mounted there, with, surprisingly, 34 longbows. But the castle was in great need of repair and intensive maintenance. It is notable that during the Civil War it was only used as a prison for Royalist officers.

The most significant event for Upnor Castle occurred in its final days as a defensive structure. This was the Dutch raid in the River Medway in 1667. Following a successful sea battle, the English were taken by surprise when the Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway, burning many anchored ships and capturing HMS Royal Charles. The English managed to muster extra guns while the Dutch were at anchor and pounded their ships when they resumed their assault. The Dutch were unable to progress and put out to sea. Upnor Castle had defended well but the burnt out hulks of ships were a humiliation for the English navy. ‘A Dreadful Spectacle’ was John Evelyn’s pronouncement. Pepys concluded that Upnor had lacked munitions rather than bravery: ‘I do not see that Upnor Castle hath received any hurt by them though they played long against it and they themselves shot till they had hardly a gun left upon the carriages, so badly provided they were’.
The incident was the castle’s death knell as a fortress. New defensive structures were hastily constructed along the Medway and Upnor was reduced in importance. In 1668 it became a store for gunpowder shipped from the Tower of London wharf. In 1691, it stored 5,206 barrels and other munitions to supply the navy. The castle was modified to take the increased weight and altered to reflect its new function. For example, the gun platforms on the roof were taken down. In 1718 barracks were built: one of the first ever purpose-built ones, which housed two officers and 64 soldiers. The Magazine continued for many years until it closed in 1827, and by 1840 there was no gunpowder left. It became an Ordnance Laboratory and by 1945 it was officially designated as a museum.

The finest view of the castle is from the river as it clearly shows the shape of the building, with its turreted façade, decorative roundel windows and the triangular water bastion overhanging the river with stumps of an old palisade visible at low tide.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Part 1, by Vicki Baldwin

We arrived at the Visitor Entrance at approximately 11.45am, passing buildings marked ‘PUMPMAKERS’, ‘CAPSTAN MAKERS’, and ‘COAK AND TREE NAIL MAKERS’ and after a short wait ARP Warden Irene boarded our coach to give us a guided tour of the Dockyard.

The River Medway was first used by the Royal Navy in 1547. As it was difficult to navigate, it was considered to be a safe berth for the Navy and a small dockyard was developed. Another important factor was the absence of Teredo navalis, a boring worm that destroyed ships’ hulls. In 1586 The Sunne was the first warship built at Chatham and the Dockyard was busy building, refitting and repairing the ships that would face the Spanish Armada in 1588. The first submarine built there was the C17 in 1907.

The changing needs of the Royal Navy are reflected in the history of the Dockyard until its closure in 1984. The site was then split into three with the smallest and most historic part set aside to become The Historic Dockyard. Not all the buildings are accessible to the public but those that are open house various exhibitions and collections with a connection to the Dockyard and maritime history. No. 1 Smithery, where anchors and chains were forged, now houses exhibitions, some temporary, in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum and The National Maritime Museum. Originally working conditions in the Smithery were so hot in summer that men passed out and so cold in winter that handling the iron could take the skin off the hands. The workers were each allowed 8 pints of strong beer a day.

Across Museum Square and opposite No. 1 Smithery are the boatsheds and covered slips. No.3 Slip (The Big Space) was built in 1838 using timbers from old warships. At the time it was thought to be the largest wide span timber structure in Europe. In 1904, no longer used for ship building, it was filled in and a mezzanine floor added for storing ships’ boats. Its roof is spectacular whether viewed from inside or out (see photo).

Nos. 4, 5, and 6 were constructed mainly from cast iron in 1848, and No.4 houses a collection of lifeboats and No. 6 is leased to railway enthusiasts.

No. 7, built in 1855 from cast and wrought iron, has an early example of a metal trussed roof and was used for building submarines from 1907 until 1966. The last submarine built there was HMS Ocelot which was launched in 1962. Alongside the covered slips are three ships, HMS Gannet, HMS Ocelot herself and HMS Cavalier. HMS Gannet was built in 1878 a Victorian, dual-powered (sail and steam) gunboat. When she was decommissioned in 1895 her boiler and engine were removed, she was renamed HMS President and became a training ship. She was towed to the Hamble where she remained after the school was closed in 1968. In 1987 she was purchased by the Dockyard. The third ship, HMS Cavalier, forms part of a memorial to the destroyers sunk in World War II.

Chatham Dockyard Air raid shelter, by June Porges

In the foyer of the Smithery, we met up with ARP warden Irene, our guide from the earlier bus tour. She led us on a short walk to one of the many air raid shelters on the site and the only one currently open to the public, though another is being cleared.

This shelter is in front of the Officers’ Terrace, a row of 4-storey houses built around 1720. It was used by officers and their families, though others could use it with permission of an officer. It can hold up to 70 people and is about the same size as a Northern Line carriage. The construction is of corrugated iron and is totally covered by earth. Access is by a concrete staircase at right angles to the main area, and with an emergency escape by a vertical ladder at the opposite end. It differs in several ways from the “other ranks” shelters, with a concrete floor, rather than earth, electric light instead of candles, and a telephone. The toilet was a metal bucket behind a curtain.

The dockyard was not seriously bomb damaged during the war, supposedly because the Germans hoped to use it as a safe haven when they invaded.

An alternative option, by Don Cooper

A number of members, having previously visited the dockyard, or just wishing to chill out on a sunny Sunday afternoon, decided to take the 21/2 hour cruise on the Kingswear Castle. The Kingswear Castle is one of the last steam-driven paddle vessels operating in the UK. It was built in 1924 and now offers pleasure cruises on the River Medway and the Thames. We cruised down the Medway, past Upnor Castle and Kingsnorth Power Station with one of the longest jetties in Europe, all the way to Oakham Ness. The sun was shining, there was that lovely coal smell from the engine, the river was full of small boats and interesting sights. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

HADAS 50th Anniversary Party and Wanted —Your Memories! Jo Nelhams

One of the largest HADAS gatherings for some time took place on Sunday August 7th at Avenue House to celebrate 50 years of the society. It was a great pleasure to see some longstanding members who, for various reasons, can no longer attend events on a regular basis.

Besides a very enjoyable spread of food and drink with a lot of talking and laughing, a recording of the very first lecture was heard, given by our founder Themistocles Constantinedes.

We would like to collect HADAS memories for present and future members to enjoy. It would be nice to hear present members’ recollections of any outings or digs, or about former members who are no longer with us. At the party, a number of people penned amusing and interesting memories. If you have anything to offer, please send them to Jo Nelhams (Hon Secretary), at the address at the end of this newsletter.

Local History News from the London and Middlesex Archaeology Society John Hinshelwood

The next LAMAS Local History Workshop is on 15 October, 2011, and will be led by John Hanson author of Getting the Best from the 1911 Census. This is the latest in the series of workshops started in March 2010 to explore how to create a nineteenth-century parish history from the online census reports. The workshops, held twice each year, are provided to motivate and assist individuals from affiliated societies to undertake their own research projects. Details and an application form for the forthcoming workshop are on the LAMAS website (www.lamas.org.uk/) on the Local History Committee pages. Alternatively contact John Hinshelwood (see below) with your name, address and phone number, and email if you have one. John would welcome suggestions for future workshops from individuals or affiliated societies.

The next LAMAS Local History Conference will be on 19 November 2011, with the theme Sporting London covering sport from mediaeval times to the present day. The conference will once again be held at the Museum of London and affiliated societies will be invited to apply for a stall to display and sell their publications. During the conference the winners will be announced of the 2011 LAMAS Local History Publications Awards. The conference programme is available on the website at www.lamas.org.uk, the cost is £8 for LAMAS members, purchased in advance, and £10 for non-members; any unsold tickets will be £10 on the day to everyone. Tickets are available from the website, or by postal application to: The Secretary, LAMAS Local History Committee, c/o 9 Umfreville Road, London, N4 1RY. Contact: johnhinshelwood@btinternet.com
The following article appeared in Hampstead Scientific Society’s newsletter of August 2011. The author is Doug Daniels, who is that Society’s president, a celebrated amateur astronomer and resident of Finchley. As computers continue to impact on archaeology, Stewart Wild thought that the content of this amusing essay would be of interest and relevance to members of HADAS, so he asked Mr Daniels if he would allow his thoughts to be recycled for the HADAS Newsletter. Mr Daniels has kindly agreed.

TO ‘Go To’ or NOT TO ‘Go To’ – THAT IS THE QUESTION, by Doug Daniels

Of course I’m biased. I belong to a generation that inhabited a world long before computers were commonplace. In my heyday there were not even such things as electronic calculators, and ‘windows’ were panes of glass that you looked through. The best calculating aids we had were slide rules and a book of log tables – oh yes, and a set of tables drummed into our brains at the age of six plus, so thoroughly, that if you ask us to multiply 9×8, the answer 72 is delivered instantly without even having to think about it!

Today it seems everything has to have a computer attached to it otherwise it is just not worth considering. Astronomical telescopes are no exception.

I recently spent an interesting yet frustrating few hours with a good friend who had just taken delivery of one of those small computerised ‘Go-To’ telescopes. Apparently it was able to automatically find upwards of 5,000 celestial objects all by itself and was designed to make “finding celestial objects easy for the beginner”. Some mistake surely!

After inserting a handful of batteries, we switched it on. It asked us to enter the date and time; we complied. A message was spelled out on the handset warning of the dangers of looking at the Sun, spelled out at such an incredibly slow speed that I was already beginning to feel my arteries hardening. Why for heavens sake? We have already told the wretched computer the date and that the time is 23.00 hrs UT – if it’s that damn clever it should know that the sun is below the horizon!

It then asks us if we would like ‘a tour of the solar system?’ No we would not – we just want to look at the Moon! It proceeds to do it anyway. Motors hummed, the telescope swung wildly up and down and round and round, finally coming to rest pointing down towards the ground, presumably attempting to home in on the Sun to justify its earlier warning.

After several abortive attempts to encourage it to point to the Moon my patience had run out and I switched it off, unclamped it and pointed it at the Moon manually. But even that was not so easy as the wretched device uses a built-in diagonal and has no finder. I would hate to try to point it at something really faint – you would just have to rely on its computerised functions to do this, and judging by our earlier attempts it could take all night to find the Andromeda Galaxy. OK, perhaps I’m being too quick to judge and it will take some time to become thoroughly acquainted with its little foibles; hopefully before its batteries go flat.

But I still maintain that such a device could lead to enormous frustration for a real beginner. It’s only a 70mm refractor for heavens sake! A simple alt-azimuth mount on a tripod would allow you to point it at the Moon and get an instant result without spending hours reading the instruction manual and then trying to identify certain stars to set its position.

An absolute beginner would probably not be familiar with these stars anyway. Before even attempting to use a ‘Go-To’ telescope it would be better to spend a few months getting acquainted with the night sky with a simply mounted telescope or a good pair of binoculars and a star map.

And while I am having a rant on the subject of unnecessary computers and telescopes, I strongly object to fitting computers to antiques. I recently visited the old Royal Greenwich Observatory and was appalled to discover that they had ‘computerised’ the historic 28-inch refractor. Using this wizard ‘strap-on’ electronic gizmo meant that it only took them about ten minutes to locate the Moon – a task that could have been accomplished manually in about thirty seconds by just squinting through the finder. I thought that computers were supposed to make life easier. Some mistake surely!

It’s the same at Mill Hill Observatory. The 18/24-inch Radcliffe refractor, a magnificent example of Victorian engineering constructed by Sir Howard Grubb, is now draped with cables and electronics and thoroughly ‘computerised’. I’m sorry but I just do not agree with this. I understand that students need to learn how to manage a computerised telescope but attempting to modify an ancient instrument is the wrong route to take.

To see all this electronic paraphernalia attached to the works of traditional makers such as Grubb and Cooke is,
to quote our esteemed heir to the throne: “Like seeing a monstrous carbuncle on the face of an old friend.”

Computers and brass fittings do not blend comfortably. If you must teach on a computerised instrument, and of course today you probably must, use one that is specifically built for that purpose, don’t desecrate the works of historic telescope makers.

OK, rant over. I shall now return to my cave, light a fire by rubbing two sticks together, suck the marrow out of the bones of a woolly rhinoceros and pay tribute to old King Ludd.

The Archaeology of Prehistoric Europe

This course, arranged by the Mill Hill Archaeological Study Society, will introduce the cultures that inhabited Europe from the introduction of metal to the beginnings of history with the arrival of the Greeks and Romans. Tutor: Scott McCracken. Venue: Hartley Hall, Lawrence Room, Flower Lane, NW7. Beginning Friday 30th September, 2011. Time: 10:00 – 12:00 hrs. Cost: £130 for 20 classes. Enrol at the first meeting. If you are new to the society’s meetings please contact the secretary: Peter Nicholson ‘M 020 8959 4757.

Free film screening at the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley, Sunday 18 September

Did you know that the first ever public film screening in Britain happened in Barnet in 1896? Did you also know that two of Britain’s most important film pioneers, Birt Acres and Robert Paul, were working in Barnet in the 1890s and early 1900s?

Whether you’re an authority on film history or know nothing at all, come along to The Phoenix in East Finchley on Sunday 18 September, at 2.00 pm to see a free screening of early 20th Century films showcasing Barnet as the birthplace of British cinema and including the work of Acres, Paul and British & Colonial. The films will be introduced by Phoenix trustee and film historian Gerry Turvey and the screening will be followed by a discussion with Gerry Turvey and fellow film historian Ian Christie.

Booking is essential, so call the Box Office to reserve your seat on 020 8444 6789. For more information visit http://www.phoenixcinema.co.uk/education/heritage/from-the-archives/
Follow the Phoenix Storybook featuring people’s memories and thoughts about the cinema: http://www.phoenixcinema.co.uk/education/heritage/phoenix-storybook/
Membership Renewals – Stephen Brunning
A number of members have not renewed their membership subs which became due on 1st April. If this applies to you, a letter with a renewal form on the back is enclosed with this Newsletter. If you do not receive these and have not sent off your cheque yet, please get in touch with me by 1st October. My contact details are above. Thank you.

ERIC MORGAN’S MONTHLY ROUND-UP OF EVENTS

Some early September events were listed in the August Newsletter

Heritage Open Days 2011 will be 8-11 September with many openings: http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/

Sat 10th Sept (Not the 15th as stated in the last Newsletter) Barnet & District LHS coach outing to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Details from Pat Alison: ‘M 01707 85843 or email patron37@sky.com Sat 10th

Sept, 10.00-17.30 ‘Following finds – from site to store’ a meeting on aspects of archaeological finds in memory
of Penny MacConnoran, Weston Theatre, Museum of London. A varied programme of speakers including Jon

Cotton, Marit Gaimster, Francis Grew, Gus Milne, Jacqui Pearce, and others. To register visit Museum of London site: http://www/museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/News/FollowingFinds.htm or telephone booking option. Registration is £10, including tea and coffee.

Mon 12th Sept, 3.00 pm (tea at 2.30 pm), Barnet & District LHS, Church House, Wood St, Barnet, Beatrix Potter, by Pamela Wright.
Tues 13 Sept, 8.00 pm, Amateur Geological Society, The Parlour, St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Ave, N3 Amber, by Dr Chris Duffin (Geological Society & Geologists’ Association).
Wed 14 Sept, 7.45 pm, Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, junction Ferme Park Rd/Weston Park, N8, History of London’s Underground Railway, by Peter McMahan. Visitors £2.
Fri 16 Sept, 8.00 pm, Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, Parson’s Lane, junc. Chase Side, Enfield, Life in the Imperial War Museum, by Steve Turner (IWM) visitors £1, refreshments 7.30 pm.
Sat & Sun 17/18th Sept. London Open House Weekend.

Free access to hundreds of buildings. Details at www.londonopenhouse.org/

including: Bruce Castle, Forty Hall and Markfield Beam Engine, Markfield Rd, Tottenham, N15 (www.mbeam.org/)

Sat. only, Old St Andrews Church, Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9.

Sun only, Myddelton House, Bullsmoor Lane, Enfield, E A Bowles House and Gardens open, 10.00 – 4.00 pm.

Wed 28 Sept, 7.45 pm, Friern Barnet & Dist. LHS, St John’s Church Hall, Friern Barnet Lane, N20, The History of the the Travelling Funfair, by Mel Hooper. Visitors £2.
Thurs 29 Sept, 8.00 pm, Finchley Society, Martin School, High Road, East Finchley, N2 (NB change of venue) Slides of Yesteryear and Planning Issues: East Finchley, by Derek Warren. Visitors £2.

~~~~~~

THANKS TO ALL OUR CONTRIBUTORS:

Vicki Baldwin, Jean Bayne, Don Cooper, Doug Daniels, John Hinshelwood, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Jo Nelhams, Peter Nicholson, June Porges and Stewart Wild.

Outings to Chatham and Folkestone

The coach for Chatham on 31st July is full and we have a waiting list. Apologies to those who have been disappointed.

The coach for Folkestone on Wednesday 17th August is filling up, so if you want to go and have not booked yet, please send your form and cheque to Jim Nelhams to secure your place.

HADAS PARTY – SUNDAY 7th August

A reminder of our celebration at Avenue House.

There is no charge for attending, but if you intend to come, and have not yet told us,

We do need to know so that we can order the right amount of food.

Return to Hendon School by Don Cooper

Site code HDS06. Grid reference: 523675.129E 189026.785N height above sea level 59.850 metres.

The Eastings and Northings grid reference was set up by contractors who are building the additional six-form structure in the school grounds. The centre of our trench was 12.91m from the grid reference button.

Members of University of London’s Institute of Archaeology (IoA) and HADAS volunteers returned to Hendon School for another week of excavation from 17th to 25th of June 2011. This was the six year that we have been at Hendon School. Last year, as many of you will recall, we got a surprise on the last day of excavation when, on digging a sondage (a small test pit within the trench) so that we could establish the stratigraphy down to the natural London Clay, we found over a hundred sherds of early medieval Pottery. Although these are still being analysed in order to further pin the fabrics and dates, it was clear that there was probable medieval activity in the area. The plan for 2011 was to revisit the 2010 excavation to see what was going on. However as with the “best laid plans of mice and men” it turned out not to be so simple!

During the year the school had begun building a new sixth-form building complex and although it was at the far end of the site from our excavation, huge lorries were parked near where we wanted to dig and the ground was well and truly churned up. The school had also removed the hedge than ran along the north side of the playing field. This hedge line had been beside three of the previous five digs at the school and we had used it as “fence” protecting the northern side of our trenches. Additionally the school wished to give more pupils experience of practical archaeology so whereas in previous years we had between 25 and 30 volunteer pupils, this year the number was about 260.

Figure 1. Day 1 – Thank goodness we didn’t have to de-turf

As our markers as to where exactly we had dug in 2010 were no longer clear, we decided to open a much larger trench with a view to encompassing the old excavation. The advantage of having builders on site was that they kindly de-turfed a 6 metre by 6 metre trench for us (and also back-filled after we were finished – Hurrah). Despite having a 6m by 6m trench to excavate, we had to divide it in two so as to have an adequate area for the pupils to work in – that half of the trench never reached the natural except for a small E/W section. The half not allocated to the pupils was excavated during the times that there were no pupils on site, with the consequence that the natural London clay was not reached in about 75% of the trench. Nevertheless among the 17th, 18th and 19th c pot sherds, clay pipe, glass, metal and building material (mostly tile and brick) there were, as in the previous year, over 100 sherds of 12th and 13th c pottery, which are currently being analysed.

Although each pupil only had, of necessity, a short time to experience practical archaeology the consensus at the end of the week was that they had enjoyed themselves. Most pupils were able to spend some time troweling in the trench, sieving the soil, pot washing and trying to reconstruct a pot from its sherds as well as learning about health and safety on archaeological sites and the history of Hendon House, the probable home of John Norden the great geographer, in whose gardens we were digging. The final Saturday coincided with the school fete and although a small number of pupils and parents came to see the excavation, it was disappointing that we didn’t attract more sightseers, but the draw of bouncy castles and other rides as well as sweet and cakes stalls proved more popular. A full report of the dig is in preparation and will be published in due course.

As a final act of the excavation a time capsule prepared by the pupils was buried in the trench. Who knows what future generations will think!!

Thanks must go to the school, Tom Janvrin in particular who orchestrated this year’s event, to all the volunteers from both UCL/IoA and HADAS including Angie, Sarah, Gabe, Vicki, Nick, Jim, Alex, Sigrid and Hannah.

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CoLAS LECTURE REPORT May 2011

Exploring a Legionary Fortress; New Excavations at Caerleon and the Late Roman Military in Britain

Dr. Andrew Gardner Lecturer (Archaeology of the Roman Empire)

Institute of Archaeology, UCL London

Report by Andy Simpson

This fascinating lecture covered work done in conjunction with Cardiff University and CADW, Dr. Gardner being co-director alongside a Welsh colleague, Dr Peter Guest. Today, Caerleon/Caerllion is a pleasant small town of some 7,000 inhabitants just outside Newport, on the bank of the tidal River Usk, with the modern town lying over the fortress, of which, happily and unusually, one third of the original area – the western side of the fortress – has lain undeveloped since Roman times. This makes a happy contrast with the heavily built-over legionary fortress sites at Chester and York.

Lying in the territory of the powerful and warlike Silures tribe, from around AD74/75 as the Roman Isca it was home to the 5500-man Legio II Augusta, as part of the 20-30 year Roman campaign to conquer Wales and was occupied into the fourth century. Today, the excavated 6000-seat stone amphitheatre, lengths of fortress wall, and in Prysg Field, a latrine, cook-houses and ovens, and barrack blocks excavated in the 1930s can be seen, along with impressive parts of the massive, 360ft/110m long basilican fortress baths (equal in size to Wells Cathedral) under a modern cover building, along with the Roman Legionary Museum originally established in 1850. Although York became a major Colonia, the Welsh garrisons seem to have diminished in the second century.

With the original turf, clay and timber defences converted to stone in the later first/second century, some rebuilding is attested in third century inscriptions, including the HQ building (principia) and some barrack blocks. By the 290s AD, key buildings at Caerleon appear to have become disused, and the nature of any fourth-century occupation is uncertain, whether civilian or military in nature. By the fourth century, legions had been sub-divided into dedicated Cohorts of around 1000 men. The main areas of extra-mural settlement are to the north-east and south-west, with satellite settlements also to the east with a further suburb across the river Usk. Burial grounds lie on hill slopes south and north of the fortress.

Caerwent Roman town – Venta Silurum – with its well preserved defences and remains of public buildings, lies only nine miles away to the east.

First dug in 1849, Caerleon was again dug in 1908-9 and the barracks and amphitheatre by Mortimer and Tessa Wheeler 1926-28 on behalf of the National Museum of Wales and by V.E. Nash-Williams in the 1950s/60s and the fortress baths 1977-1981. Small-scale rescue digs continued in the 1970s to 1990s, and a major magnetometer survey was undertaken 2006-2009. Research priorities are to investigate the unexcavated ‘blank area’ and evidence for fourth century occupation and everyday life on such military sites and how this connected with the role of the Roman military as an imperial institution.

Summer excavation work has been undertaken on the fortress granaries in ‘Priory Field’, beginning with test pits and geophysical survey in 2007, with these investigations intended to test the state of preservation- Priory Field was pasture land for centuries and previously unexcavated.

Test pits gave some evidence of late Roman occupation, leading to larger trenches being dug in 2008/2010 across a square stone military warehouse/store building with central entrance leading to a range of rooms arranged around a central courtyard, in use from the second to probable late third century and robbed out in the medieval period, as a training exercise for students and also to engage with the public through daily public tours of the excavations. Each room was dug in quadrants to keep a record section.

In 2008 an engraved building inscription was found, probably commemorating the construction of the warehouse by the Century of the Primus Pilus (First Spear – senior centurion in charge of the first cohort of the legion)

Some spectacular finds included Roman military equipment including much of a suit of classic legionary Lorica Segmentata banded Roman armour, lifted in 30 soil blocks from room 2 for conservation at the National Museum of Wales, including iron bands from the torso and possibly shoulders, and copper alloy studs, rivets and buckles formerly on a leather backing for strapping. There were also remains of parade or ceremonial armour, including copper discs and a copper sheet with a relief human head, possibly from another suit or cavalry parade helmet. Also found was a lead tag and shield grip and three fish brooches. After the warehouse went out of use, the entrance was given a new surface, and with the external walls still standing a new structure was built using ‘jerry-built’ unmortared walls within a shell of standing masonry. Some of these new walls later collapsed. Later features included surfaces and walls, with much recycling of material including a sculptural fragment. Abundant fourth-century coinage was found, with some fourth century pottery but little fourth-century metalwork, with some continuing military occupation presumed.

Many fortresses see major changes in the fourth century, with reduced occupation. At Caerleon there is still fourth-century rubbish in the baths complex, indicating continued occupation of the central area, perhaps under ‘care and maintenance’, with the extra mural settlements also still occupied at this time. The II Augustan Legion is later recorded at Richborough, Kent. Perhaps part of it remained as a detachment at Caerleon, or even the third-century fort at Cardiff, so spectacularly ‘restored; in Victorian times. At Wroxeter city and Birdoswald fort up on Hadrian’s Wall, late Roman timber buildings were erected over earlier stone ones.

Medieval Caerleon is evidenced by patterns of rubble suggesting a possible barn, only six inches beneath the modern turf, possibly dating to the fourteenth century when Caerleon, overseen by its castle, was a small farming village, already linked with King Arthur in the popular imagination, being the site of his court according to medieval historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, with the amphitheatre identified by some as being his round table. In the twelfth/thirteenth century substantial Roman building remains were still visible there, including the shell of the baths building.

In the summer 2010 a complex of very large stone buildings was found outside the fort during geophysical survey, and more digging is planned for 2011 to explore these unique buildings, which include a huge courtyard enclosure building, for which there is as yet no dating evidence, but it is thought to be fairly early and possibly related to a port complex on the Usk, since a harbour wall is already known.

There is an informative website with archaeologist’s blog and detailed photographic coverage of recent work at Priory Field, along with Roman Caerleon generally – see www.caerleon.net/history/dig/2010/index.html

An Evening with the Thames Discovery Programme [TDP] at Southwark Cathedral on 6 July. Emma and David Robinson

It was a splendid evening. The venue was superb, the content well focussed and great hospitality was shown by the Southwark Cathedral staff and the TDP. We departed stimulated and much better informed about the history of Southwark, its Cathedral, the work of the TDP and the many other groups who contributed.

The programme was divided into three parts. The central part being a fascinating lecture given by Nathalie Cohen (TDP Team Leader and Southwark Cathedral Archaeologist) and entitled “Priors, Pilgrims, Potters & Pirates: the archaeology of Southwark and its Cathedral”. Before the lecture there was a chance to explore the Cathedral and its precinct and view displays from many groups in the north and south transepts – and also to visit the South Courtyard where the Middlesex and Surrey Archaeology Dowsers were examining the area where the chapel of St Mary Magdalene once stood. After the lecture there was a further opportunity to explore, view the displays and talk with TDP staff and volunteers over a glass of wine in the Cathedral’s Millennium Courtyard.

The evening gave vivid glimpses of the long and fascinating history of Southwark. Notably the Cathedral is the oldest cathedral church building in London – although only a cathedral since 1905, when the Anglican Diocese of Southwark was formed. The Cathedral’s origins however lie in the 13th century as a priory church following the rule of the life of St Augustine of Hippo. For much of its history Southwark has often been called the ‘other London’ over the river. But it is the important bridging point over the Thames which, since at least Roman times, has nurtured Southwark and still defines its identity to this day.

Nathalie Cohen’s lecture brought together many facets of the lives of people who have lived, worked, worshipped or visited Southwark over time. She reminded us that Southwark was the London of many “P”s including: Priors; Pilgrims; Potters; Pirates (seafaring folk); Palaces (and great houses); Playhouses; Pubs and taverns; and, above all, People drawn from many backgrounds. Here, Priors stand for the influence and prosperity of the church (Nathalie gave a fascinating account of the consequences of the rich diet eaten by many monks as evidenced by their diseased bones); Pilgrims stand for pilgrimage routes to diverse and often distant destinations (this is known since returning pilgrims often cast their pilgrim badges into the Thames as a token); Potters stand for this important local industry (as witnessed by the Delft tile kiln in the Cathedral Precinct); Pirates stand for the seafaring folk, trade and commerce (and some colourful personalities); Palaces stand for the great houses of leading courtiers and churchmen which stood here (since it was just over the river from Westminster); Playhouses stand for the London of theatre and entertainment (as witnessed by the Globe Theatre of Shakespeare’s time which has now risen again); Pubs and taverns stand for hospitality and the constant coming of people over the Thames (which has ensured London’s prosperity since at least Roman times); and, finally People stand for the diverse folk associated with Southwark’s past.

Changing theories on the purpose of the roundhouses discovered at Vindolanda Vicki Baldwin

In May this year I once again spent a week as a volunteer excavator at Vindolanda in Northumberland. During my stint I uncovered the remains of a roundhouse underneath the road surface in the north western quadrant of the visible fort walls (Periods VII – X AD213 to AD550+). The roundhouses are thought to belong to the brief Period VI-B (AD208 – AD213). We were actually looking for the walls of the barrack blocks located in the area. A roundhouse was not what we expected to find and on 19th May Justin Blake, deputy director of excavations, tweeted:

“Who’d have believed a Severan roundhouse could have survived the ravages of three different road surfacings during the 3rdC? Super to see it”

The roundhouse also appeared to have a flagged floor. Subsequently the remains of further roundhouses have been uncovered in this area. However, their function has yet to be determined. The latest theory as reported by the BBC on 17th June is that they were built to house refugee farmers from north of Hadrian’s Wall. Prior to that they were reported in 2000 to be accommodation for prisoners of war, hostages or forced labour, although the possibility that they were built for refugees was considered.

While I was digging there this year I was told that someone had suggested that they may have been built by North African troops accompanying Septimus Severus “because they were used to living in round huts” (!!??). I really do not think that notion could be taken seriously even though the layout of the structures (in groups of 10 arranged in 5 pairs) appears to have been planned. What is clear though is that the continuing excavations at Vindolanda mean that theories are constantly being revised and that current knowledge of the fort sequence, its vicus and surroundings is always expanding.

Sequence of Forts at Vindolanda:

http://s9.zetaboards.com/We_Dig_Vindolanda/pages/400years/

Housing for Prisoners:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1352310/Roman-PoW-camp-found-at-Hadrians-Wall.html

Housing for Refugees:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-13798523

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jun/20/hadrians-wall-roman-britain-refugee-camp

Roundhouse further excavated (July):

http://209.85.48.18/7061/121/0/p1020148/IMG_0863.jpg

What’s On Eric Morgan

Tuesday 2nd August, 2-3pm: Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow: Monuments in Middlesex Churches. Talk by Pat Clarke (Pinner Local History Soc. & LAMAS). Cost £3.

Wednesday 3rd August, 6pm: Docklands History Group, Museum in Docklands, No. 1 Warehouse, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, E14, Greenwich Peninsula. Talk by Mary Mills. Donation £2.

Sunday 7th August, from 1pm: HADAS 50th Birthday Party, Avenue House, East End Road, N3

also 3-5pm: The Bothy Garden Open Day, Avenue House Grounds, East End Road, N3

And on 4th September, 3-5pm: The Bothy Garden Party. Small charge

Monday 8th – Friday 12th & Monday 15th – Friday 19th August: Copped Hall Trust Archaeological Project: Field Schools 2011. For details please see June Newsletter or visit www.weag.org.uk or email: pdalton@gmail.com

Tuesday 9th August, 8pm: Amateur Geological Society, The Parlour, St. Margaret’s Church, Victoria Avenue, N3 (off Hendon Lane): Members’ Evening: talks by society members including Chalk Echinoderms: by Len Tapper; J.F. Kirkaldy – a Geologist at War: by Dave Greenwood; a display by John Shaw on Minerals on Stamps.

Tuesday 16th August, 6pm: Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow: William Morris talk by Helen Elletson. Cost £3.

Tuesday 16th August, 6pm: Highgate Wood Information Hut, off Archway Road, N6. Historical Walk. Highgate Society.

Friday 19th August, 12.00-2.00pm: Museum of London, 150 London Wall EC2: Archaeology UP Close. Object handling sessions with members of Archaeological Collections Dept. Also 2.00-2.30pm & 3.00-3.30pm: Roman Fort Visit, tickets allocated on arrival. Both free. Tour remains of the Western Gate, below street level.

Friday 19th August, 7pm: COLAS, St. Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3: New Discoveries in Bronze Age Iran. Talk by Ian Jones (Enfield Archaeological Society). Visitors £2. Light refreshments after.

Saturday 20th August & Sunday 21st August, 12-6pm: Friern Barnet Summer Show, Friary Park, Friern Barnet Lane, N12. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society will have a stand there. Barnet Borough Arts Council will also be in a marquee with paintings, info & What’s On (including HADAS).

Wednesday 24th August, 6.30pm: Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer Stroll. Led by John Finn. Meet at entrance hall of Dalston Junction Station (London Overground) for a walk along Hackney/Stoke Newington edge. Cost £6. Send cheque payable to ‘Islington Archaeology & History Society’ & s.a.e. to: 8, Wynyatt Street, EC1V 7HU (tel: 020 7833 1541). Walk will finish about 8.30pm at Newington Green.

Saturday 27th August, 2.30pm: Enfield Society, Heritage Walk: Edmonton, starting from the car park of Millfield House Arts Centre, off Silver Street N18. A 2½-3 hour linear walk along paths via Pymmes & Craig Parks. Ends with a visit to Church Street Conservation Area. Led by Monica Smith.

Monday 29th August, 11.00am – 6.00pm: Highgate Society, Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, N6.

30th Anniversary Arts & Crafts Fair.

Monday 29th August: Markfield Beam Engine Steam Date, Markfield Road, N15. Tel: 01707 873628; email info@mbeam.org; or check www.mbeam.org for times. (HADAS had a lecture on this in May).

Tuesday 30th August, 2-3pm: Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow: The Life of Dr. Johnson talk by Stephanie Chapman. £3.

Saturday 3rd & Sunday4th September, 10.30am-6pm: Enfield Town Show, Town Park, Cecil Road, Enfield, Middx. The Enfield Society & Enfield Archaeological Society will have stands here. Lots more stalls. Admission £3 (£2 concessions).

Sunday 5th September, 11am-5pm: Angel Canal Festival, Regents Canal, City Road Basin, Islington, N1 (near LAARC). Many stalls, boat trips & rally. London Canal Museum & Islington Archaeology & History Society have stands. Free.

Sunday 5th September, 11am-4pm: Highgate Society Heritage Day Highgate Woods, off Archway Road N6

Advance Notice

Saturday 15th September: Barnet & District Local History Society coach outing to The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. For details please tel. Pat Alison on 01707 858430 or emai

No. 484 July 2011 Edited by Mary Rawitzer

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OUTING TO UPNOR CASTLE AND CHATHAM DOCKYARD:

SUNDAY 31 JULY
The application form for the outing to Chatham’s Historic Dockyard, Upnor Castle, etc, was included with the last Newsletter. For further information or late comers, please contact Jim Nelhams (see the last Newsletter page for his details).

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*OUTING TO FOLKESTONE AND DOVER: WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST*

On the last page of this Newsletter you will find the details and a cut-out booking form for our outing on Wednesday 17th August to the Roman Villa excavation at Folkestone and other interesting places – see pages 2 and 3 for much more information about the fascinating villa site.

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HADAS 50th Birthday Party Don Cooper

HADAS are having a buffet lunch party to celebrate their first 50 years!! The event will take place at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, London N3 3QE, on Sunday 7th August 2011 at 12.30 for 13.00. This will be a great opportunity to catch up with friends and make new ones. As well as a buffet lunch, an exhibition of the items from the Moxon collection, a raffle and a recording of the first lecture by our founder Themistocles Constantinides in 1961 will be part of the proceedings.

If you haven’t already told us you are coming please contact either Jo Nelhams (email secretary@hadas.org.uk or telephone 0208 449 7076) or Don Cooper (email chairman@hadas.org.uk or telephone 0208 440 4350), or write to our addresses on the last page of this Newsletter by the middle of July so that proper catering arrangements can be made.

We very much look forward to seeing you all there.

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NEWSLETTER EDITORS WANTED Mary Rawitzer

At the AGM I managed to collar one new Editor for the Newsletter, but more are needed, most particularly as a reserve. Just once a year, each Editor puts together one Newsletter, using information and reports sent to them and a general format (which will be written down shortly for newcomers!). If you are just thinking about volunteering and want to know more please e-mail or phone (mary.rawitzer@talktalk.net 020 8340 7434).

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EAST WEAR BAY ROMAN VILLA, FOLKESTONE Lydia Demetris

The re-excavation of the East Wear Bay Roman villa, Folkestone Kent CT19 6PU. OS TR240369. Excavation 2010/2011 by Canterbury Archaeological Trust working with Canterbury Christ Church University and the Folkestone People’s History Centre – with reference to the 1924/5 Stuart Winbolt excavation funded by Folkestone District Council.

This is a huge 30-room winged Roman villa, overlaying an earlier simplified dwelling, which can favourably be compared to that at Nenning, Germany, and dates between early 2ndC AD and mid- 4thC. It may have been even more extensive if in fact it had two storeys, as suggested by two slip, possibly stairwell, rooms. It also had a separate 20-room bathhouse. Both were fully excavated by Stuart Winbolt in 1924/5. Winbolt credited his interest in the villa to his conversations with Mr Peden, the octogenarian Assistant Curator of Folkestone Museum, in 1923. There had been some small-scale excavations in the 19thC following recorded finds from 1860, but nothing on the scale of the Winbolt excavation. After discussions, Folkestone District Council funded the two-year digging programme and also provided the labour force and abundant assistance.

Stuart Winbolt must have been excellent at delegation, as his 200-page book complete with black and while plates, drawings etc., and accompanying short notebook, were actually published the year his excavation ended in 1925. On the first page of his book “Roman Folkestone” the very professional plan of the villa is actually the work of the Borough Engineer who also seems to have been instrumental in persuading RAF Manston to take the necessary aerial photographs. Amazingly Winbolt notes that some of the bathhouse walls he uncovered stood at 6 ft. A second reading of his book made me appreciate his knowledge and the thoroughness of his investigations.

I visited the site with my sister on one of the last days of the new excavation, between showers, on a cold October afternoon in 2010. The location is in a beautiful country park on the edge of a sloping cliff, facing south-east across the English Channel towards Cap Gris Nez, the shortest crossing to the continental mainland. I have to admit my bias, of course, as Wear Bay Road was my childhood home. The villa is between the Napoleonic Martello Towers 1, 2 and 3 and below the high cliffs to the north of Capel le Ferne, site of a possible Roman Signal Station.

In Roman times the villa may have stood up to half a mile inland. The grey Gault clay/chalk sandwich is unsuitable for long term building and the cliff edge would have always been crumbing. It is, and was, exposed to the terrible winter storms and huge waves that are part of Folkestone‘s fame. Even Leland was aware of this in the 15thC when he was told by the residents that two whole parishes that they can name had been washed away long before their time – possibly in the early 14th Century’s “biblical storms“, or even earlier. Further damage has been inflicted by the building of the harbour and its arm, to the south, during the early 19thC, preventing the East Cliff receiving the longshore drift of protective shingle making its way round the coast. Since 1925 the distance from the edge has decreased from 30metres to 2½ metres, the collapse taking with it some of the bathhouse and destroying the freshwater fish ponds beneath the cliffs.

The villa fell into disrepair during WW2, as front line defence became the first priority. Dreadful tales of local lads using the mosaic as catapult fodder, and worse, were told to me in my younger days by neighbours who had lived through those years. In 1957, as a very disappointed 8-year old, I watched as the villa disappeared into the earth as council workers reburied it. The site had more use to them as a car park for the local beaches below the cliff. Since then, apart from a small scale excavation of the bathhouse by the county archaeologist in 1989, the remains of the villa have been undisturbed. It was very exciting for me, personally, to visit the new excavation, and see the villa once more unveiled, perhaps for the very last time due to erosion of the Cliff.

Winbolt’s excavation concentrated on the villa and bathhouse identified by the aerial photographs. His finds included a large mosaic room, painted plaster, large ceramic drain pipes, pottery and coins. Perhaps his most important discovery, depending on your own perspective, was the two CL BR tiles datable to between 43AD and 287 AD, evidencing the presence of the Classis Britannica, the Roman navy in Britain, linking to similar finds in Lemosis, Anderida and Boulogne. The Roman artefacts and coins found dated between 100 and 350 AD. There were also Iron Age artefacts and coins, some of tin, dated from 100BC to 50 AD and three Iron Age Burial Urns dating between 1AD aand 50 AD were found beneath the villa.

The new excavation has also gone below the villa and also further to the north, outside the walls. Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) found prehistoric artefacts dating from the Mesolithic. Botanical sieving also took place – unlike in Winbolt’s time when soil was unceremoniously wheel- barrowed over the cliff edge. Significant new discoveries also included an Iron Age drainage ditch with evidence of a possible timber roundhouse, 13 Iron Age coins 150BC-50 AD, plus Dressel 1 amphora. CAT interpret these as indicating wines imported to a high status site and conclude it may have been a Roman client site as at Fishbourne. CAT’s finds also give earlier Iron Age dating then those of Winbolt.

The Villa, famous once, splashed all over The Times in August of 1925, hardly rates a mention in new books on Roman Britain. These new investigations will put it back on the map. This year possibly the very final excavation will commence in July and will focus on uncovering the walls with a further new focus on the courtyard. Those going on the HADAS trip should have a memorable visit.

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING :

SECRETARY’S REPORT AND COMMENTS Jo Nelhams

The Society’s 50th Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday 14th June 2011 at 8pm in Avenue House. The Chairman, Don Cooper, introduced the President, Harvey Sheldon, who chaired the meeting. There were 33 members present and apologies were received from a further 10 members. The Annual Report and Accounts were presented to the meeting. The Treasurer showed that there was a shortfall between the current subscription and the basic costs of running the Society, though it is financially sound due to the legacy left by Ted Sammes. Various points were made as to how to close this gap in income and expenditure and members were asked to submit any suggestions to the Committee for further discussion. The Officers remained unchanged and were duly elected. Nine members of the Committee offered themselves for re-election and were also duly elected.

A reminder of who is who on the elected committee:

Chairman: Don Cooper

Vice- Chairman: Peter Pickering

Hon. Treasurer: Jim Nelhams

Hon. Secretary: Jo Nelhams

Hon. Membership Secretary: Stephen Brunning

Committee: Vicki Baldwin, Bill Bass, Andrew Coulson, Eric Morgan, June

Porges, Mary Rawitzer, Andrew Selkirk, Tim Wilkins, Sue Willetts.

The Chairman explained the circumstances that led to the withdrawal of HADAS from the proposal to be involved with the running of Church Farmhouse Museum. The museum is now closed and its future is unknown. He said HADAS would continue to monitor the situation and endeavour to keep it in the public eye. Harvey Sheldon said that the manner of its closure, and the lack of a local museum in Barnet, equivalent in population to a small town, should and would be taken up by LAMAS (London & Middlesex Archaeological Society) in which he and Don were both involved.

The meeting was followed by a recording of the first lecture given by the founder of HADAS,

Themistocles Constantinides, which was very entertaining and informative and was well received by all who heard it. (For those who missed it, there will be a further chance to hear it at the celebratory party on August 7th).

Some HADAS Members listening intently to the founder’s lecture at the AGM Photo: Stephen Brunning

HADAS LECTURE 10 MAY 2011 Report by Sylvia Javes

The Influence of Effluent

The history of the rescue and restoration of a beam engine used to pump sewage in Tottenham was the subject of a very interesting talk given by Ken Brereton on 10th May.

In the early 19th century, Tottenham was still a small rural village, but by the mid-1840s rapid expansion was causing serious public health problems due to sewage being discharged into local rivers, the Moselle and the Lea. In 1850 the newly formed Local Board of Health set up a public water supply and sewage disposal works. This was at Markfield Road, Page Green. The initial works consisted of a 45hp steam engine to lift the incoming sewage and discharge it into two deposit tanks. The effluent would then flow to the sand filters alongside. On leaving the last filter bed the clear liquor would pass down the effluent race to the River Lea. The site included two workmen’s cottages.

This worked well until 1858 when further population growth left sewage overflowing into the Lea. By 1866 the situation was so bad that Tottenham was accused of causing the deaths of 4,000 people in a cholera epidemic. Some minor improvements, including a new sewer at Hornsey, alleviated some problems, but as the population increased still more in the 1870s things became worse again. Meanwhile in London Bazalgette had built his great system of sewers that took sewage away from the city and discharged it further down the Thames.

In 1885 the Lea was badly polluted, and it was decided that a larger pump and larger settlement tanks must be built. Wood Bros of Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, received the contract to make and build the engine. By January 1886 the engine house was completed and all parts of the engine were on site. On the 12th July 1888 the 100hp engine came into use. The total cost of the engine and foundations was £4722. When running at 16rpm the engine pumped up to 4 million gallons of sewage in a 24 hour period. In 1893 the Lea was declared clean. In 1905, triple expansion Worthington engines were brought in, and the beam engine was relegated to standby duty for storm water pumping.

During the Second World War, the site was still in operation. The land contained a pig farm, which remained until the early 1960s, but in 1964 the site was finally closed, when incoming sewers were diverted elsewhere. The engine house, containing the beam engine, was bricked up. Apart from a small building used for children’s activities, the site became a dumping ground. In 2002 Haringey Council began to landscape the site to turn it into a park. From 2006, with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the engine house was refurbished and volunteers worked on restoring the beam engine, and in 2010 the engine was again in steam, but now using oil, not coal to fire it.

Photo courtesy The Markfield Beam Engine and Museum Reg Charity No. 290486

The Markfield Beam Engine and Museum, at Markfield Road, Tottenham, is open on the second Sunday of each month from 11:00am to 4:00pm. Steaming dates this summer (2011) are on July 24th and August 29th.

BIRKBECK TRAINING DIG AT SYON PARK

In 2010 Birkbeck College excavated an area of land immediately north of the Bridgettine church which now lies beneath the eastern lawns of Syon House. Extensive stone foundations, including parts of the nuns’ cloisters and range of buildings, were discovered to the east and north. A large quantity of 15th and early 16thC painted glass fragments was also found, depicting lettering, architectural images, figures and a representation of the crucifixion. A geophysical survey on the front lawn revealed two further courtyards beyond the front of the house, extending as far as the still-existing “Pepperpot Lodges”. This will be Birkbeck’s focus for its 2011 training digs running from Monday 4th to Friday 8th July and again from Monday 11th to Friday 15th July. Most people looking for a training dig will already be aware of this and the places are usually filled rapidly, but to enquire about possible participation visit contact the course team: certhe.archaeology@bbk.ac.uk or phone 020-7631 6627. Course cost ranges from £225 to £600, depending on concessions.

Sat 30 Jul 2011 and Sun 31st 12:00 – 1.00 and 15:00-16.00 Gladiator Games

GUILDHALL GLADIATORS: JULY 30th & 31st

Briefly noted in a recent Newsletter, a member who saw this some year back recommends it highly although it’s no longer free (adult £15, concession £12, child £10 plus flexible family and group prices):

Step back in time to witness an epic clash of the titans in Guildhall Yard, the site of London’s only Roman amphitheatre. Hear the roar of the crowd and imagine the sand of the arena beneath your feet as fearsome gladiators dramatically reconstruct games once held in ancient Londinium. Experience Roman Londinium; interact with senators, slaves, soldiers, musicians, and surgeons.

The event aims to present a realistic portrayal of combat in the Roman amphitheatre and as such contains of graphic violence and simulated bloodshed – may not be suitable for younger children!

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Eric Morgan

Sat/Sun 2nd/3rd July 12-7pm East Barnet Festival. Oak Hill Park, Church Hill Rd, East Barnet. Lots of community stalls, including Barnet Arts CCL.

Sun 3rd July 3-5pm Bothy Garden Open Day Avenue House grounds, East End Rd. N3 3QE.

Thurs 5th July 2-3pm Streams & Walks in Harrow. Harrow Museum, Headstone Manor, Pinner View, North Harrow. Talk by Dr Freddie Hicks (Stanmore & Harrow Hist. Soc.) £3.

Sat/Sun 9th/10th July Pentland & Finchley Festival Victoria Park, N3.

Tues 12th July 8pm A History of the Earth in 9,400 Objects: The collection of Dr John Woodward (1665-1728). Amat. Geol. Soc. St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Ave N3. Talk, D Pemberton (Sedgewick Mus.).

Fri 15th July 12-2pm Archaeology Up Close: handling session with members Museum of London London Wall. EC2. 2-2.30 or 3-3.30 Roman Fort Visit. Both free.

Fri 15th July 7-9pm Elizabethan London: Guided Walk. COLAS. Led by John Gibson (City of London guide). Start outside Royal Exchange nr. Bank Station EC3.

Tues 19th July 2-3pm Confessions of a Curator Harrow Museum Talk, Jason Finch (Manager). £3.

Thurs 21st July 7.30 English Heritage Listing in Camden Camden History Society Burgh House New End, NW3. Talk by Emily Gee.

Sat 16th-Sun. 31st July Festival of British Archaeology Handle finds, visit Thames foreshore, etc. See full events listing and details: festival.britarch.ac.uk

Wed 20th July 7.30pm Visit St Mungo’s, Pound Lane, NW10 Willesden Local History Society. Meet entrance opposite bus garage. Led by David Rose.

Tues 26th July 10.30am St Andrew’s Church and its Personalities Talk by Janet McQueen Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, junction Chase Side, Enfield.

Wed 27th July 3-4pm Meet the Expert Museum of London Ian Blair, MOLA. Free.

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With thanks to contributors: Steve Brunning, Don Cooper, Lydia Demetris, Sylvia Javes, Eric Morgan, Jo Nelhams

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