Past Newsletters

NEWSLETTER 135 May 1982
HADAS DIARY

Tuesday May 11 – HADAS Annual General Meeting at Central Library, The Burroughs, NW4, Coffee 8 p.m.; meeting 8.30; slide show afterwards.

Thursday May 13 – Documentary Group Meeting 8 p.m., 21 Village Road N.3. (New members of the Group welcome: please let Isobel McPherson know if you intend to come).

Saturday June 12 – HADAS OUTING to King’s Lynn.
Saturday July 10 – HADAS OUTING to Canterbury.

For the Birthday Year some of the most popular outings of the last 21 years are being repeated.

OTHER EVENTS

Saturday May 22 – Herts. Archaeological Council Annual Conference at Campus West Theatre, Welwyn Garden City 10.30-5.00. Price £1.50 at the door. Subjects ­Current Archaeological Research in Hertfordshire,and Urbanisation.

Wednesday May 5,12,19,26 at 1.10 p.m. at the London Museum – lectures on Sylvia Pankhurst, Goldsmiths at Work in the 18th Century, Rococo Silver, Hall-marking of gold, silver and platinum.

Thursday May 6,13,20,27 – Museum Workshop at 1,10pm at the Museum.- Subjects:-The Photographic Archive, Preserving our Textile Heritage, Health and Sickness in 16th-17th Century London,

Friday May 7,14, 21 at 1.10pm in Museum – Lectures re Sir Christopher Wren, Subjects – London and the Great Fire, The Rebuilding of the City, and Oxford, Gresham College and the Royal Society 1654-1723.

DAVE KING sends us this note:

The Institute of Archaeology (31-34 Gordon Square) is, after many years, enrolling members. The new membership scheme started in January, 1982,. The annual subscription is £5; it offers these advantages:

1 A free copy of the Institute’s Annual Report.

2 A copy of the list of forthcoming meetings on classical and archaeological subjects. Published three times a year, at the start of each university term.

3 The chance of buying the Institute’s Bulletin and Occasional Publications at 20% discount.

4 Use of the Institute’s library for reference purposes.

There is a separate library subscription for those who wish to borrow books, but “only bona fide reseach students, with an academic referee, are likely to be allowed to borrow books.”

Professor Evans, Director of the Institute, is “very enthusiastic” about members

of local societies taking out Institute membership.

The position regarding the library – which might be the greatest inducement to HADAS members – is more complicated than it seems. Anybody may use the Institute Library, though the librarians reserve the right to refuse permission if it is very crowded.. Institute members would be subject to this condition like anyone else, but it is considered “highly unlikely” that a member would be turned away on Saturdays or in the evenings.

ADDITIONS TO THE STATUTORY LIST

The Borough Planning Officer kindly provides, the following details of recent additions to the List of Buildings of Architectural and Historic Interest:

Crown Public House and 3 lamp standards in front, Cricklewood Broadway, NW2..

151 High Street, Chipping Barnet

Church- House, The Ridgeway, NW7

Nos. 1264-70 (even) High Road, Whetstone

164 East End Road, N3

All are of considerable interest, and HADAS is happy to know that they have been given some protection.

The mention of the lamp standards in front of the Crown is interesting. When it was announced six or seven years ago that the Statutory List for the Borough was to be updated, HADAS recommended the inclusion in the new List of certain items of street furniture – a category which hitherto had not appeared on the Borough List. The updating has not yet been published, although we understand that it has been completed. The lamp standards, we hope, presage the inclusion in it of other items of historic street furniture.

They are described in the Historic Buildings Schedule. like this:

“Early 20th C. Circular tapered granite plinths and cast-iron shafts, whose bases are urn -shaped and supported by four winged iron dragons linked by garlands through their jaws. Above the urn a ball swathed in acanthus leaves supports a tapering quadrangular section leading to a square necking. The lampholder heads have been removed.”Text Box: The group of houses in Whetstone include the one which Mary Allaway recorded: her drawings of it were published in Newsletter No.131. At the time she recording we were told that the group might be listed: it is most encouraging to know that it has been. The official Schedule describes the buildings basically as “mid 16th C. timber-framed, re-fronted in brick during the 18th C”..

Church House at Mill Hill is also part of a group, and is of red brick with a tiled roof, dated 18th C.

We have been interested for several years in 151 High Street, Barnet, for which at the moment there is an application for demolition. The exterior does not look much, but the Schedule describes the building as c, 1700, with a room on the ground floor with wainscoting “of simple 17th C. type with panels of even size, and similar paneling, painted, on the first floor room above and a corner fireplace with a simple chimney piece of the period.” HADAS has, in fact, written to ask the owners if we may record the building, should permission to demolish be given.

HADAS CONFERENCE Report by Sheila Woodward

HADAS members always turn out in force for the Conference of London Archaeologists held each spring at the Museum of London. This year they had a very special reason for attending. The first speaker was our own Daphne Lorimer, talking about our West Heath dig. In the brief space of her allotted 20 minutes Daphne gave the Conference a clear exposition of the nature of the site, the method and scope of the excavation and its ancillary research projects, and an initial assessment and interpretation of the results. The range and quality of flint tools from the site is impressive, and projects such as the analysis of flint-density and the conjoining of cores have added to our knowledge of the manufacturing of such tools. Other work undertaken by HADAS members has included experiments to establish the degree of heat required to produce colour changes in burnt stone, the analysis of charcoal remains from the site, and the study of the pollen profile for the area. Daphne illustrated her talk with some excellent slides, and on display in the Education Department of the Museum was a collection of some of the best of the West Heath finds, beautifully displayed and guaranteed to bring joy to any flint-lover’s heart.

The rest of the morning was devoted to a selection of mini-reports on recent excavations, and research in the London area. One of the liveliest was given by Gustav Milne, who, in his own inimitable style, updated his earlier reports on the Roman waterfront. He even made a tentative claim to have found, in an apparent “return” of an otherwise continuous line of quays, the first fragment of positive evidence for the siting of the Roman London Bridge on the line of Fish Street Hill.

In the afternoon session, entitled “Environment and Man” Philip Armitage resented at interesting study of the Evolution of British cattle from prehistoric to modern times, and Jennifer Hillam talked about the use of tree-ring dating in recent London excavations. Finally, Peter Reynolds, Director of the Butser Ancient Farm Project, expressed some forceful and provocative views on the efficiency of Bronze Age and Iron Age agriculture and the sophistication and affluence of those societies. His message was clear: don’t be fooled by Roman propaganda about conquering the barbarians and improving their standard of living. The prehistorians in the audience applauded loudly!

PREHISTORIC BURIAL RITES IN BRITAIN – PROFESSOR GRIMES
REPORT BY HELEN GORDON

The Presidential Address was a pleasure to hear, Professor Grimes gave us an” expert and exciting survey of prehistoric burials and the information they provide about the central role of death in the life and religion of the people. In the course of the evening he raised many questions: What were those people doing when they shoved their contemporaries’ bones into these tombs? Why did they select and position certain bones, and tuck little ones into nooks and crannies, and were they trying to keep the bones safe from the living world, or the living world safe from the world of the dead when they sometimes made the entrances so small that the skeletal remains could hardly be got through the holes? What were the ritual functions implied by the architecture, and why did they sometimes continue to use an architectural feature when apparently its function had fallen into disuse? What kind of people were selected to be (partially) preserved in this way?

Professor Grimes demonstrated the nature of these problems by illustrations of burials mainly in Wales and the west of Britain, dating from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age. Little is known of the Paleolithic or Mesolithic customs in Britain, apart from them “Red Lady of Paviland” (thought to have been a Romano-Briton when first excavated by William Buckland in 1823, but later C14-dated at 16,000 BC; her red-ochred bones are actually those of a young man of 22), and undated skeletons in caves which may have been Mesolithic But with the advent of the Neolithic farmers who spread across Europe from the east from 8,000 B.C. onwards and reached the extreme west about 4,000 BC, chambered tombs appeared in many parts of Britain.

It is unfortunate that most prehistoric tombs were rifled by tomb robbers, or excavated before modern methods were known, and often the contents were lost, But accumulated evidence, confirmed by the few untouched tombs such as Stanhill, shows that they were in fact osstaries, usually containing partial. remains of numbers of individuals of both sexes and any age. They remained in use over periods as long as .1000 years, and the bones were often selected and arranged; usually only the last. individual to be inserted appeared to be intact.

The architecture of the tombs, though based on the same general design,shows considerable diversity. The tomb Tinkinswood demonstrates the normal wedge-shaped mound with the concave facade and forecourt, but the capstone is immense and weighs 70 tons, and the entrance is at the side. It is possible that the front walls had been covered with earth; in some cases even cap-stones may have been covered so that the location of the chamber was secret. On the other hand some portal stones have been so carefully chosen that it is improbable that they were covered. Entrances were sometimes blocked so as to be unrecognisable not only from the outside but also from the inside, and some entrances were made very small by placing stones at an angle, or cutting “port-holes” in blocking stones. Sometimes a large stone blocked the entrance which could be moved to re-open the chamber; this can be seen at Pentre Ifan where the central stone in the portal stands short of the cap-stone. But in another case the central stone, though free of the cap-stone, was itself so blocked with packing stones that the whole structure would have collapsed if it has been moved; change of use had not brought change to the traditional method of construction. These variations give the impression of a need to separate the living from the dead,

Earthen long-barrows, which usually contain some form of timber ossiary, bear a resemblance in their overall pattern to the stone-built tombs. The two types show regional distribution, though they co-exist in some areas, and some were combined in different phases. Earth barrows sometimes had stone platforms for exposure, and it is thought that the bones were brought in one operation.

With the onset of the bronze age in the second millenium BC, a new circular form of burial mound appeared. The mound varied in size up to 80 ft, in

diameter, and the primary burial was usually in the centre,sometimes in a pit, or on the land surface, or in a kist; additional burials might be inserted at the same time or later. The barrow might be defined by stone rings, or ditches. Standing stones can mark a burial site, and when excavated other stones may be revealed in some ritual position; in one example a large number of small stones set on edge accompanied a crowded pit burial.

Professor Grimes with his excellent slides then demonstrated a richness in variety on the basic theme too complex to be described here in detail, and he pointed out that over all there appears to be a continuity of purpose; an area of interment remains in some way special, or sacred, even though the sepulchral monument may be changed or augmented over an immense period of time, across cultural boundaries, as indicated by a possibly Christian extended burial near a barrow, and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery near six round barrows and a long barrow.

If this is Professor Grimes’ first address to HADAS since he became our President, it is to be hoped that he will allow his Presidential duties to become a little more onerous, and that it will be less than 17 years before we hear him again.

A TRIAL TRENCH IN THE GARDEN OF 14 CEDARS CLOSE, HENDON NW4
REPORT BY PERCY. REBOUL ON THE DIG OF APRIL-OCTOBER 1980

1. Introduction

In April 1980 the Hon. Secretary of HADAS was contacted by Mr. Michael Miller, owner of 14 Cedars Close, Hendon NW4. He stated that, during the course of excavating a 60 cm. wide trench on the lawn of his back garden, to take new land drains, an “old wall” had appeared and he would like it investigated. A cursory examination, showed the structure to be of potential interest, and digging started immediately following agreement with Mr. Miller.

For a number of reasons it was decided to limit the investigation to a trial trench. The wall was adjacent to a valuable cherry tree whose root system intermingled with the structure; the garden contained cultivated flowerbeds and recently-planted saplings which could not be disturbed; there would have been some problems with locating a large spoil heap and the owner was anxious to complete the land drainage system as soon as possible. The decision was there­fore taken to dig two small trial trenches, one north and one south of the brick wall which had been discovered. The final (and unusually asymmetrical) configuration of the trench was the result of the above factors. (See Excavation Plan, fig.1).

2. Documentary Research

The Site, The Cedars Close area has always been recognised by HADAS as of potential archaeological interest, evidenced by the “Abbot’s Bower” blue plaque, commemorating “the country seat of successive Abbots of Westminster,” erected although the precise position of the medieval manor house is unknown) at the junction of Cedars Close and Parson Street,*

At the time this Report is published, the plaque has vanished. The Borough Planning Officer assumes that it has been stolen. He is investigating the possibility of replacing it. In brief, this interest centres mainly around:

(a) The first manor house, timber-built in 1325/6 as a country retreat for the Abbots of Westminster

(b) The rebuilding of the original house around 1550 by the Herbert Family

(c) The final re-build in the 1720s when it was known as Hendon Place. The first Baron Tenterden, Land Chief Justice, bought the estate in the early 19th C., renaming the house Tenterden Hall

(d) The demolition of Tenterden Hall in 1934 to make way for the present Cedars Close

3. Evidence from Maps

Concurrent with the opening of the trial trench, HADAS members Dave King and Edward Sammes investigated evidence from OS, tithe and estate maps, —Dave King examined:

25″ OS maps dated 1863, 1904 and 1956

Tithe map of 1836

Estate map of 1796

His conclusion, making due allowance for the differing scale of the maps and overlaying/superimposing against the most recent large-scale OS map, was that the find was probably the north section of the walled kitchen garden of Hendon Place as outlined in the 25″ OS map of 1863. More specifically, it appeared to be a greenhouse or glass structure built against the garden wall.

Further evidence for a greenhouse structure was confirmed in the 1836 tithe map provided information on earlier forms of cultivation. The tithe book of 1836 describes plot 928 as “a walled garden” and plot 929 as “melon ground, gardeners’ cottages, sheds, etc. Based on nothing more than its romantic imagery, the site was promptly christened “the melon house”.

3. Evidence from Excavation
The South Trench

This trench, the first to be dug, was south of the brick structure. The north face of the trench was the structure itself and the south face was the land drain trench excavated (west to east) by the builders.

The removal of 20 cm of topsoil, which included the existing lawn, revealed that the brick structure was 80 cm wide – substantial and mode from excellent bricks very well built and pointed. A 10 cm thick concrete raft had been constructed running from the rebated edge of the south face of the brickwork in. a southerly direction (see Section J, fig.1). The extent of this raft or its use is not known. It was probably constructed c. 1934 as part of site levelling. operations – possibly to remove the danger of subsidence. An interesting feature was clay land drains placed on top of the concrete raft subsequently covered with the 20 cm of top soil. With the breaking through of the concrete raft, the springing of a well-built brick arch was quickly revealed. The section drawing shows details of this feature and another adjacent arch. Natural clay was found at a depth of 180 cm. The brickwork throughout was in excellent condition and of high quality workman­ship, its structure having been covered with an ash like backfill. There was no stratification.

Small finds in the South trench included:.

(a) Substantial quantities of mid to late 19th c. glazed pottery, the sherds being mostly small. The best piece was a complete base of a Spode teacup but as the infill was probably brought from another ­site and dumped, these finds are of no value for dating.

(b) Quantities of oyster shells

(c) Various metal objects such as a pair of large iron gate hinges, hand-made nails .and part of a scythe blade.

(d) Late 19th c. clay. ipe bowl and various pieces of stem.

Two features; apart from the brickwork itself, are worthy of note. The first was the brick drain at the base of the wall and running parallel, to it (see Section J). This comprised brick sides. and capping but no tile for the base ­natural clay was used to run the water away. The second was a modern-looking 9″ diam. brown glazed-ware sewer pipe running vertically from 20. cm down from topsoil to the brick drain mentioned above. This pipe was presumably installed c. 1933/4 to drain the new topsoil used in levelling the site prior to building (see Fig. 1 Section Y) It may also indicate that the ash-like backfilling south of the wall was also dumped in 1933/4 as part of levelling operations.

The North Trench

This provided nearly all the evidence for our conclusions. Its north face was some 2 m from what today is the back wall of the Millers’ garden – this was probably originally the north wall of the kitchen garden. Its south face was the north side of the brick. structure.

At 40 cm down a clearly defined “destruction layer” appeared (Fig. I, Section J). This was 20 cm thick and comprised burnt wood, charcoal, quantities of broken glass panes, terracotta earthenware gardening pots of various dimensions, metal glazing clips, putty fragments, lead strips and a long shanked screw-eye of the type used in greenhouses to secure the wires along which climbing plants such as vines are trained.

Some surprise was felt when, just below this layer, a second arched wall was found. (Fig.1 Section X). The structure was much less substantial than that uncovered in the south trench, and its workmanship was inferior. It was also earlier and may well have been associated with the growing of exotic fruits before the popularisation of the greenhouse in mid-Victorian times. No dating evidence was found, however, and this must remain speculation.

About 140 cm down two drains (at different levels and lines of direction) of’ good workmanship were uncovered; One was built entirely of brick, the other being brick and tile. These fed into a well-built brick culvert (plan view and section D Fig. l). The drains were constructed from hand-made bricks measuring 8½”x 3½” x 2½” with all courses bonded in lime mortar. Both were capped in unmortared bricks laid horizontally. Their junction with the culvert was of fine workmanship.

The brick culvert was exceptionally well-built. It came in from the west side of the trench and bent 900 into the direction of north (Fig. 1, Sections D & J). The brickwork, together with that of the feeder drains mentioned above, was similar to that of the arched wall found in the south trench and may be assumed to be contemporary. The culvert was covered by a substantial layer of large brick rubble, including conglomerates of several bricks. Of particular interest was the finding of several Tudor bricks among this random layer, which may possibly indicate that the builders had used bricks found on the site as a backfill or soak-away.Is this perhaps our first albeit speculative, evidence of the Tudor manor house at Hendon?

Several bricks were removed from the rounded top of the culvert to reveal the structure inside. A substantial deposit of silt, about 20 cm thick, lay on the base of the culvert. Sieving revealed nothing more than a few animal bones, small pieces of flat glass and more small sherds of 19th c. glazed pottery. The opportunity was taken to “rod” along the length of the culvert. It stopped at 2 m in a northerly direction, the rods almost certainly striking the garden all mentioned earlier.

Rodding in the westerly direction was inconclusive in the sense that at 20 m we ran out of rods, so it may well be of very substantial length. Possibly the drain originally ran from the house for what purpose we do not know, except that it was certainly not for sewage or foul water. It may have been part of the drainage for the small lakes abutting Parson Street (shown on the 1862 Estate map, Fig.2). The most obvious use, however, was as part of the drainage of the building which stood above them.

Small Finds from the North Trench

The finds discovered in the destruct layer have already been described above. Small quantities of mid to late l9th C. glazed pottery sherds were found adjacent to the brick drains, otherwise nothing of significance.

The most magnificent find, however, occurred at a depth of 37 cm — a cast iron pierced grill measuring 1178 x 457 mm. The grill, similar in type to those seen today in greenhouses where, typically, they are used to cover floor gulleys housing the heating pipes, was inscribed with the name “J. Weeks, Chelsea.” This firm was one of the most illustrious companies employed in greenhouse building. They started business in 1808 and finished in the 1960s, and are referred to in all the catalogues and treatises on the subject of “hothouse engineering.”

Manufacturers of horticultural buildings flourished in the period 1860-1880. Weeks & Co. were a leading London manufacturer located at Kings Road, Chelsea. They had a long tradition of supplying glasshouses and had a “winter garden” next to their works from which could be provided a complete package deal – iron and wood glazed structures, heating and ventilating equipment and even plants. Horticultural magazines of the time are filled with Weeks’ designs including, for example, glasshouses at Hampton Court and the Winter Garden at Folkestone.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

The limited nature of this trial dig makes it doubly unwise to draw too firm conclusions, but a reasonable hypothesis might be:

(a) Lord Tenterden bought the house in the 19th c. It would be reasonable for him, as a wealthy man, to improve both house and garden. The 1936 tithe map certainly shows a number of interesting features in the Garden complex, and the reference in the tithe books to “melon ground etc.” suggest that his lordship may.well have indulged the current passion for growing exotic fruits and plants; It may well have been at this time that the earlier arched wall-found in the north trench was constructed. Associated would have been the thinner type of glass found in the trenches. It is known that arched walls were used around this time to grow vines, the root systems being trained through the arches and the branches along the walls.

(b) Taxes on glass and building materials were removed in the 1840s. This, together with the impetus given to glasshouse building by the 1851 Crystal Palace, resulted in a golden age of greenhouse cultivation. Apart from the buildings themselves fuel and labour were plentiful and cheap; the middle and upper claases had money to indulge their horticultural interests and fantasies and the use of cast iron to make sophisticated heating systems was developed and marketed with considerable skill. In all of this, however, essential ingredients were plentiful heat, water .and good drainage.

(c) Sometime between 1862-741 as the estate maps reveal, the Tenterden estate was revamped and the large walled kitchen garden shown on the earlier maps was replaced by a substantial greenhouse structure. J. Weeks & Co. of Chelsea, one of the leading “hothouse engineers” was called in to carryout the work. They would certainly have built the glasshouses and associated engineering work, and it is possible too that they constructed the drainage. system comprising brick and tile drains feeding into a main culvert. This would account for the highstandardof work involved.

(d) The 1914-18 war, with shortage of fuel and manpower, would have been in part at least responsible for the decline of the complex. Between then and 1933/4, with the added problem of severe economic depression plus more sophisticated methods of importing exotic fruits, the greenhouses would have fallen into disuse and disrepair. They were finally demolished around 1934, together with the big house itself, to make way for Cedars Close. At the time of demolition, Tenterden Hall was a boys preparatory school.

All the evidence points to a greenhouse complex of some kind. One question however arises: why would the walls be of such massive dimensions? At 80 cm thick they would have supported the manor house itself!

A metal detector was run over the area west of the trenches along the presumed route of the culvert. There were several substantial readings and it could be that parts of the boiler system or more cast iron grills are just beneath the surface.

Newsletter 134: April, 1982 Birthday Number

HADAS DIARY

Tues Apr 6. A 4-star occasion for HADAS – a Presidential address, on Prehistoric Burial Rites in Britain, by Professor Grimes, to get our 21st birthday celebrations off to a flying-start. We’re celebrating throughout 1982, but April is actual anniversary month. The lecture is already a sell-out: we have issued tickets for the number of places available, and all tickets have gone.

Professor Grimes has been our President since 1965, but he has lectured to us only once before, and that as long ago as December, 1964. Until his retirement (strictly a working retirement, we understand) in the mid-1970s from the Directorship of the Institute of Archaeology in .Gordon Square and the Chair of Archaeology at London University, he was an active director of many excavations in London (particularly memorable were the Cripplegate Fort and the site of the Temple of Mithras) was Hon. Director of Excavations for the Roman and Medieval London Excavation Council from 1947 onwards, and has held a number of the top jobs in archaeology, including Director of the London Museum (for “over 10 years), Hon. Treasurer of the Council for British Archaeology and membership of the Ancient Monuments Boards and Royal Commissions of both England and Wales.

Sat Apr 25 Another red-letter date: when our birthday party takes place, at 6.30 for 6.45, at St Judes Church Hall, Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb (see end of this diary for further details).

Wed Apr 28. Roman Group meeting at 8 pm at 94 Hillside Gardens, Edgware. New members of the group will be welcome, but please ring Tessa Smith (958 5159) first to let her know you intend coming.

Tues May 11. HADAS Annual General Meeting at Central Library, The Burroughs, NW4. Coffee 8.pm; meeting 8.30; slide show afterwards. Our senior Vice-President, Mr Eric Wookey, has kindly agreed to take the Chair.

In the last Newsletter we suggested that you should get your tickets for the 21st birthday party by March 3. We didn’t mean to indicate that you would not be able to get a ticket after that date! There are still a few tickets left, and we notice that several people who are going to help “on the night” haven’t yet got round to providing themselves with the wherewithal to do so! If you are one of the forgetful ones, will you give Dorothy Newbury a ring when you read this (on 203 0950) and make sure that you can get in?

MORE ABOUT THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

We are delighted to say that our Vice-Presidents will he turning up in force for this event.

The Mayor of Barnet, Mrs Rosa Freedman, will of course take pride of place, as she is our chief guest of honour; but she’will be well supported by four of our other five’Vice-Presidents. Only one, Sir Maurice Laing, will be absent – he, alas, is away at a conference.

Eric Wookey is entering into the spirit of the thing, planning to come in historical garb; Daisy Hill, who was Hon. Secretary of HADAS from 1965-70, tells us she is “so very happy to accept your invitation to see all my old friends.” The Bishop of Edmonton, the- Rt Rev “Bill” Westwoodl is coming with his wife and says “the evening looks most excit­ing and we’re genuinely anxious to be with you;” while:Andrew Saunders, Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, who used to live in our Borough, is returning specially from his now home in Hertford. We shall be greatly honoured to have them all with us.

Other special guests will include the Borough Librarian and his wife4 Mr and Mrs David Ruddom; our West Heath Director, Desmond Collins, and his wife Ann, who are coming up from Devon; Mr and Mrs Gerry Isaaman (he’s the Editor of the Ham and High and she was Hon.-Treasurer of HADAS in the late ’60s/early 70s); and the Editor of the Hendon Times, Dennis Signy and Mrs Signy.

Regrettably, our Hon. Auditor, Mr R F Penney, is away that weekend; and so is the third Editor whom we would like to have entertained, Bill Field of the Barnet Press.

We are also sad that Vivienne Constantinides, daughter of our founder, will be sailing up the Nile to Aswan at the moment that we are sampling historic cookery in NW11. Otherwise, we gather, wild horses wouldn’t have stopped her being with us:

FLOWERS FOR A FEAST

Are you coming to the birthday party? Do you live in or near the Hampstead Garden Suburb? Have you flowers and/or greenery to offer? Then please ring Helena Nash (455 5913) and make your offers. Flowers and greenery should be delivered at St Jude’s Hall at 2 pm on the day of the party or to Nell Penny (458 1689) before 1 pm on that day.

THE HIGHGATE WOOD KILN by Tessa Smith

.On Saturday morning, Feb 13, a dozen HADAS Roman enthusiasts met at Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham. It was the museum’s latest acquisition which drew us – a Roman kiln, lifted from Highgate Woods during excavations led by Harvey Sheldon and Anthony Brown (starting with a trial trench in 1966 and continuing through various digs up to 1974). The kiln has been on temporary display at the museum since January, and will be withdrawn from general public viewing when the next exhibition is arranged.

The kiln, dated between 60-120 AD, has solid looking furnace walls made of local baked clay and was built directly onto the topsoil at Highgate Woods. It is about 125 cm (4′) diameter and 30 cm (1′) deep, In the centre of the kiln chamber is a clay pedestal which supported the pots to be fired, and allowed hot gases to circulate in an updraught. Although radial fire-bars are absent from this particular kiln, there is in the exhibition one fire-bar which clearly shows the potters fingerprints.

The tiled flue entrance is arched and the tiles must have been brought from elsewhere. During firing the stoke-hole would have been fed continu­ally with lighted wood, and the draught of hot gases sucked through the narrow flue, to circulate round the stacked pots in the kiln chamber. Aemperature of 9000-10800c is needed to fire pots to earthenware; the whole process would have taken 1236 hours, or even longer, to complete. The flue entrance had been intentionally blocked. This may have been done at the end of firing in order to slow down cooling and thus reduce problems of cracking.

In the lecture theatre we were shown slides by the Museum curator, Claire Tarjan, of an interesting experiment made at the Highgate site by a group of teachers. The aim was to construct kilns, throw pots of locally dug clay and fire the pots. These were based on Roman originals from this area: bowls, beakers and jars. A most interesting problem arose. At first the resulting pots were of a rather pleasing pale fawn colour, but quite unlike the grey Highgate wares at which the teachers were aiming. This was solved by adding organic material both inside and outside the pots at the stacking stage.

Examples both of the modern pots and actual original Highgate Woods Roman pots are on display, as well as examples of wooden tools used by the teachers in pot-making and, decorating.

Bruce Castle Museum which, by the way, owes part of its name to Robert the Bruce, who held the Manor of-Tottenham at one time, contains a rare collection of postal material from the 16th c to the present day, a tribute to Sir Rowland Hill, whose family once owned the house. The museum also houses the local history collection of Haringey, and the Regimental Museum of the Middlesex Regiment.We all agreed it was a most worthwhile visit.

For further reading: the teachers experiments in making and firing pottery were fully described in The Horniman Museum Kiln Experiment at Highgate Wood: Pt 1 London Archaeologist, vol 2 No 1 p 12-17 Pt 2 vol 2 No 3 p 53-59

CULTURE ON ICE: Report by REVA BROWN

THE FROZEN TOMBS OF SIBERIA on the HADAS March lecture

Kenneth Whitehorn held us spellbound with his talk on March 2 on the Frozen Tombs of Siberia. He explained that these tombs exist in one of the few places in the world where weather conditions have made it possible to find literally complete remains of an ancient culture. Normally, organic materials like wood, leather, fur, felt or basketwork tend to decay in a relatively short time. The Altai, 5000 ft above sea level, where these tombs were discovered, has a short, hot summer in June and July; by August there are already frosts.

The Altai appears to have been an area where trade routes crossed, linking Greece, China and Persia. The tombs are of nomad chieftains of the 5th c BC. Their wealth lay in flocks and herds and among the arte­facts buried with them were superb horse ornaments (in one case, a complete ornamented harness and bit). These nomads led lives common over much of Europe and Asia before the emergence of the nation states with which we are familiar today.

The tombs were dug 12 to 20 feet down into the soil which freezes in winter, though this is not an area of permafrost: The chieftains were buried in “log cabins” at the bottom of the pits, in ‘massive coffins made from larch trees. They were accompanied by containers of food and drink, clothing; weapons, carpets, rugs, furniture, carts and carriages, as well as horses with ornate harness trappings. The tombs were topped by 15-ft high stone cairns, sometimes 150 ft across. The stones produced cold atmosphere in the-tombs and moisture, which penetrated, froze and increased and the subsequent build-up of ice preserved intact what had not been looted.

Mr Whitehorn showed slides of the treasures excavated from the tombs, as well as a selection of the gold objects found in Scythian tombs further south, which are now in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.

The memorable thing about the artefacts were the horse ornaments, made of carved wood and bone – intricately created designs of eagles, tigers, rams, boars, snakes and mythological animals. (The later art of the Celts, Franks and Anglo-Saxons bears a resemblance to the art of these nomads who lived a thousand years before them).

There were slides of human remains – one, a head covered in a plaster mask,: painted near the eyes with a design which might have been meant to represent warpaint; a section of heavily tattooed skin, again with in­tricate animal designs; and .the head of a chieftain, crushed in three places and scalped.

But it was the intact “Ordinary” things that were most amazing – a saddlebag of felt and silk, (this is the only examrle of this particular kind of ‘silk in existence – nothing exists in China itself); a leather belt decorated with appliqued cockerels; a man’s shirt made of’linen (hemp); and a -air of lady’s boots, decorated with seed pearls, with diamond shapes of silver in the soles – which would be seen when the owner sat cross legged upon a carpet in a nomad tent.

The lecture was over too soon, but memories of the treasures, ranging from the precious to the everyday, will stay in the mind for a long time.

VIKINGS and OTHERS

The Vikings in England – an Anglo-Danish exhibition on at the Yorkshire Museum, York, from the first Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793 to the defeat of the Vikings at Stamford Bridge in. 1066. It covers the history of the Danelaw from Northumbria to the Thames. Included are finds from the Coppergate site in York. Open Mons-Sats 10 am-5pm; Suns 1-5 pm. “One hour is the recommended minimum for a visit,” says the leaflet. Adults £1.50 children and pensioners 75p.

Apr 22-25. York Archeological Weekend and more Vikings: this time, recent Viking discoveries in England. Conference fee £21 – but you arrange your own accommodation. Subjects include Viking trade and industry, textiles, pottery, “coins, sculpture, domestic crafts, metalwork. Sites include York Lincoln and Northampton. Applications by April 16 to the Director of Special Courses, Extramural Dept,’ University of Leeds.

May 1-3. Hampstead Garden Suburb Festival Week, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Suburb on May 2, 1907. A Blue Plaque to Canon and Dame Henrietta Barnett will be unveiled on Heath End House, Hampstead, on May 2 – and HADAS has a particular interest, since back in. 1975 the Society opened the negotiations with the GLC of which the plaque will be the final result. There will be an exhibition of archives at the Free Church from May 2-8; HADAS will exhibit in the rebuilt Institute hall on hay 5 and will have a bookstall at the Teahouse from May 3-5.

May 3 1982. A demonstration of Roman army tactics and drill by the Ermine Street Guard at Crown Woods School, Riefield Road, SE9 at 12 noon, 2.15 pm and 3.30 pm. Ticket applications (students 20p, adults 50p) to Sally Kemp at Crown Woods School by May 1. The Ermine Street Guard is a society which studies the armour, arms and accoutrements of the Roman Army, reconstructs them authentically, and displays them in Roman-style exercises. Their headquarters are in Gloucestershire, so a chance to see one of their displays in the London area is comparatively rare.

NEIGHBOURLY NEWS

HADAS has received one handsome birthday present already. Our colleagues in the Mill Hill & Hendon Historical Society have given us (and their Hon. Secretary, John Collier, specified it being in honour of our birthday) a nurber of interesting rapers collected by one of their members, the late A G Clarke.

These are concerned with local history topics in Hendon and Golders Green. Mr Collier explained that when their Society, which is centred on Hill Hill, started 50 years ago it was the only one in the area; it therefore took Hendon – an historic place – under its wing as well as Mill Hill. Nowadays, however, Mill Hill & Hendon Historical tends to. do moat of its research in Mill Hill itself. It -was felt that HADAS might be able to use Mr Clarke’s Hendon papers in some of our work.

The papers arm of considerable variety: letters, photographs, news cuttings and notes, copied. by Mr: Clarke from documents of all kinds.

Many of these last are in shorthand: fortunately it is Pitman’s, and very clear and legible to anyone who knows the craft.

Apparently Mr Clarke’s study was a sight to see: its walls were completely lined with pigeon holes; and if he were asked a question on any local history topic he could go unerringly to the right hole and get you sone facts about it.

HADAS would like to thank the Mill Hill & Hendon Historical Society very much for the papers, which will undoubtedly be of help and interest in many hADAS projects. And how pleasant it is that in our area societies with kindred interests are prepared to help each other and work together.

We have heard recently from another neighbour – the Enfield Archaeo­logical Society.

Their publicity officer, John Stevens (also, incidentally, a NADAS member) has asked if we will remind our members of the existence of the Enfield Archaeological Society. It is slightly our senior, having been formed in 1955, and the western boundary .of its territory marches with the north east perimeter of HADAS’s patch; Mr Stevens thinks that perhaps keen archaeologists (especially in that area) might find membership of both societies of value.

And asks us to say that EAS would welcome new members; that it has a programme of monthly lectures on a variety of subjects and a subscription of £2 per annum. You can obtain further details from him at 3 Scarborough Road, London N9.

ALL ABOUT PEOPLE

A notable HADAS invalid during part of March has been DOROTHY NEWBURY, our Programme Secretary – now, we are happy to report, well on the road to recovery. She retired to hospital for an operation the day after the March lecture, All went according to plan and as this is written she is home again -with instructions to take it easy for a bit. However, being Dorothy, she just says “tell everyone I’m back in circulation.” She also asks the Newsletter to thank, on her behalf, all the members who sent her cards, letters and flowers.

Good news, too, from another March invalid, PETER FAUVEL-CLINCH, one

of our ace photographers. He has also had an operation, but reports that he is now fully recovered.

DAPHNE LORIMER, who has been globe-trotting again (this time to Hong Kong)-is back in London. She will be one of the .speakers at the 19th Annual Conference of London’ Archaeologists at the Museum of London on March 27 – a few days after this Newsletter goes to press. She intends to sum up the findings of the West Heath dig – just five years after Desmond Collins gave the first verbal report on it at an earlier Conference-of London Archaeologists in March 1977. Because of the timing, we won’t be able to tell you about the Conference in this issue: but we hope to have something about it in May.

The HADAS grape-vine says that this is a red-letter year for one of our keenest diggers, DAVE KING. He got married in the middle of March, and a few weeks’ time will be taking the finals of his three-year course at the Institute of Archaeology. All his HADAS friends wish him happiness in both undertakings.

,At the Prehistoric Society’s spring conference, held at the Museum of London on: March 20/21, we counted 22 HADAS heads among the audience. That’s a fair turn-out for one local society: but then the theme of the conference was one which, since West Heath, has been close to HADAS’s heart: the Archaeology of Hunter Gatherers.

THE MAKING OF THE GARDEN SUBURB by LIZ SAGUES

Tucked away at the bottom of one of the many display screens which combine ‘to form’ The Making of the Garden Suburb exhibition at Burgh House, New End Square, Hampstead, is a colour photograph of a flower display entered for one of the horticultural society shows.

The display – made entirely of dried material -‘is titled The Archives. Beside it, a caption adds: “not, we hope, as dry as dust.”

Certainly it is archive material – collected together by Brigid Grafton Green in her other guise as Suburb Archivist – which forms the exhibition. But in no way can the result be described as dry as Aust. It’s all too human too close both to residents of the Suburb and to any­one who knows it for that’.

From the beginning, when sheep and cattle grazed on the land Dame Henrietta was soon to use for her ambitious amalgam of social classes in homes that had a wide and pleasant outlook, ‘surrounded by green space for children to play on and community facilties shared by all, people predominate.

The Dame herself, of course, her husband whose involvement in the Whitechapel slums led to her pioneering, practical social work and-those who joined them in establishing the Suburb are there. Its architects ­renowned and lesser names – who are seen in domestic settings as well as professionally are there too. So are the royals, who have commended Suburb ideals. on many visits; and celebrities among the residents who have even taken major parts in local activities, as on the occasion when Michael Flanders played the lead in a Play and Pageant Union production of The Man Who Came to Dinner.

But most of: all there are the residents themselves, struggling over muddy, unlit, unmade roads to their new homes, miles from lCanyuseful shops; building up a community feeling with horticultural shows, church activities, Institute classes; surviving two wars, whose major architectural and community victim was the Club House; supporting the continuance of the Dame’s intentions, as in the 1970s rebuilding of The Orchard old people’s flats.

Photographs, pictures, plans, extracts from letters, ephemera like menus and programmes, the occasional more solid souvenir like the Dame’s family Bible or the-shovel that cut the first sod, all help to build the story of the Garden Suburb in a way that instantly seduces Visitors and holds them fast. Just one warning – allow at least an hour, ideally much more, to take it all in. Burgh House is open from noon to 5 pm, Wednesdays to Sundays, adnission is free.

FENGATE by Francis Pryor

Shire Publications £1.95

The latest in the Shire Archaeology series is this 56-page booklet, illustrated with photos, plans, maps and pictures of models and recon­structions, on the Fengate sites east of Peterborough.

The author is Director of the Welland Valley Project, and was Assistant Curator at the Royal Ontario Museum, which has contributed greatly to the cost of digs and post-excavation research.

The sites explored lie – as the name suggests – along the approaches to the fens. There are prehistoric sites from Neolithic times on through the phases of the Bronze and Iron Ages. The author first dis­cusses the original discovery of some of the sites early in this century; the use made more recently of aerial photography to map the wealth of sites in the ancient landscape; and the historic formation of fenland and the environmental changes of the last eight or nine millennia

The archaeological record begins with the Neolithic-Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, the author says, “do not concern us – evidence for their existence is very sparse.” Most important is the discovery, through trackways and enclosure systems, of a “fully-developed landscape and

a population large enough to maintain it of late Neolithic date. This evidence-the author describes as “decidedly unexpected,” and he adds that it was difficult to accept when first found in the early 1970s.

The Bronze Age settlement pattern of before 1000 BC was found to be a dispersed one; but by 400-300 BC a phase for which there was good evidence – “settlement was nucleated and continued to be so.”

The booklet suffers a little from the necessity of keeping it short – for instance, dating is admitted to be “in very round terms,” and ‘the prehistoric archaeological periods are also very generalised.” However – as with most Shire Archaeology booklets – the author knows his stuff and it is a good generalised account of some fascinating sites and a period of some four thousand years about which archaeological opinion has changed dramatically in the last decade – partly because of what was found at Fengate.

Copies of the booklet are available from our Hon Treasurer, 66 Hampstead Way, NW11 7XX. Please add 25p for postage.

NEWSLETTER l33: March 1982                                                                         21st Anniversary Year

HADAS DIARY:

Tuesday March 2 – The Frozen Tombs of Siberia by Kenneth Whitehorn

Mr Whitehorn will be remembered by members for his excellent lecture last year on Sutton Hoo, and his topic this year is certain to be another Winner. He provides this introduction: “The frozen tombs of Siberia are of exceptional interest to archaeologists because the frozen soil preserved all kinds of perishable organic material which is never found elsewhere — decorative leatherwork, woodwork and silk. The art styles are similar to the famous Scythian gold which will also be shown.                                                                             The lecture will start at 8.20 pm.

Tuesday April 6 – Prehistoric Burial Rites in Britain by W.F.Grimes

All tickets for Professor Grimes’ lecture have now gone, writes Dorothy Newbury. Will any members who have tickets and subsequently find they cannot attend PLEASE LET ME KNOW so other members can use them (ring me on 203 0950).

Saturday April 24 – 21st Birthday Party

A few tickets (E7.50) remain for the anniversary party, to be held at St Jude’s Church Hall, Central Square, .Hampstead Garden Suburb, starting at 6.30pm. They will be available at the March lecture or, before March 3, from Dorothy Newbury, 55 Sunningfields Road, NW4.

Tuesday May 11 HADAS AGM Details later
A NEW HADAS DIG

The site behind the Old Bull pub – now a community centre – in the heart of old Barnet could hardly be more different from West Heath, reports Philip Venning, who is directing the society’s rescue dig there.

Work began on the weekend of February 13-14, with some back-breaking concrete shifting as well as more gentle excavation. After two weekends and a full week of effort, four significant trenches had been opened and finds were appearing in appreciable quantity. The site should have been in use – possibly as an ale house – back into medieval times- but the ground is heavily disturbed and depth of excavation is limited (by agreement with the architects of the small theatre to be built there) to a maximum of one metre over most of the available digging area.

Features noted so far include two areas of evenly-laid brick floor and a tiled area, perhaps a pathway, but it has not yet been possible to date them. Most finds are 19th century, but some earlier pottery and clay pipes have appeared. Clearly, lots of sea food was consumed nearby in the past, with oyster, mussel and scallop shells recovered – plus the “winkle pit”, which appears to contain a winkle seller’s unsold stock.. Wine bottles indicate thirsts were quenched, too.

As the Newsletter went to press, it was uncertain whether the beginning of March deadline for excavation could be extended. If it has been, diggers will be welcome on site, both weekdays and at weekends. Ring Phillip Venning to check..

YOUNG DIGGERS

Bryan Hackett, junior representative on the HADAS committee urges young members to join the Young Archaeologists’ Club.

The Young Archaeologists’ Club is the only national club for all young people interested in archaeology. The annual subscription is £2, for which members receive four copies of Young Archaeology, a fully-illustrated magazine, with news about excavations and discoveries, information about monuments and museums to visit and much more.

There are field-study holidays all over the country, from which groups study archaeological monuments in the surrounding area. There are activity days throughout the country, including one in London on March 6, so if you want to go hurry up and join (I will be going on this outing). YAC members can work on excavations throughout the country, lists of which are published in the magazine.

If you would like further information, please send a stamped, addressed envelope to Bryan Hackett, 31 Temple Fortune Hill, NW11 7XL.

… AND A REMINDER

Entries for the HADAS poster competition – title, “Scenes from History” – close on March 31. Schools or individual junior members may enter, with no limit on school entries and a maximum of three from individual members & Posters should be either double crown size (20 in by 30 in) or crown size (15 in by 20 in). There’s a prize worth £10 for the school from which the winning entry comes, or a small prize if a junior member wins. Entries should be sent to Brigid Grafton Green, 88 Temple Fortune Lane, NW11 7TX.

WEST HEATH AND OTHER MATTERS PREHISTORIC

Members of the Prehistoric Group are continuing indefatigable work on the West Heath material and slow but steady progress is being made towards the report, says Daphne Lorimer.

The group is also very interested in participating in a series of field walks in the autumn with the Roman Group. Those members who heard Dr Kinnes’ theories of Neolithic settlement in Hertfordshire at the CBA Group 7 meeting last autumn will scour the clay fields and heavy soils of the borough with renewed enthusiasm – especially where Neolithic axes have already been found. Nearby, Dr Kinnes assured us, we should find a Neolithic farm!

SCREEN SHOW

There’s just a fortnight left of the Silents to Cinerama exhibition .at Church Farm House Museum, Greyhound Hill, Hendon, based on the collection of cinema-related material built up by Maurice Cheepen, manager at some of London’s best-known cinemas from the end of World War I until his death in 1980.

THE MOST IMPORTANT NEOLITHIC BURIAL SITE OF OUR GENERATION

Daphne Lorimer reports on the February lecture

“The most important Neolithic burial site of our generation” was how Dr Ian Kinnes described Les Fouaillages at the February meeting. His profusely illustrated and fascinating lecture revealed how the total excavation of a hitherto unknown (and thus untouched) dolmen on L’Ancress Common in Guernsey had uncovered new and exciting evidence of Neolithic settlement in Europe.

The site was discovered by two members of La Societe Guernsiaise and a small trial excavation was undertaken. This revealed a built stone wall in a man-made mound, some Neolithic pottery and the corners of two horizontal stone slabs. Total excavation was under­taken by the society, under professional direction from the British Museum, over a period of 13 weeks during 1979, 1980 and 1981. Mechanical aids were available to assist with the raising of heavy boulders but the “rope and roller” method proved effective, provided a plank trackway was laid. The site was situated on fertile loess soil but had once been forested. A scatter of mesolithic flakes were found and the exca­vation continued down to the archaeologically-sterile raised beach.

Dr Kinnes considered the Neolithic farmers to be a highly organised, very civilised and sophisticated people. They travelled all along the North Atlantic seaboard from Spain to Northern Ireland, their settlement being distinguished by the building of exceptional funerary monuments. These monuments, Dr Kinnes said, were obviously very important to their makers, a number contain superb carvings (possibly a symbolic language), and they may well be our only available avenue to the way of thought of their builders.

In the 13th and 14th centuries at least 70 chambered tombs were known on Guernsey according to the references compiled by Lt. Col. T.W.M. De Guerin and the Lukis family, of which only 11 remain. Dr Kinnes wondered how many more than 70 would have been present in prehistoric times.

The standard monument is a simple passage grave – a round mound with a passage into the central chamber. The monuments survive along the rock coast in the northern part of the island where fairly recent sand-blow has rendered the land useless for farming.

Other monuments include the very fine late Neolithic figure (dated to about 2,400 – 2,000 BC) found buried in a church (a very similar carving, found in Southern Brittany, showed the connection between the two communities). A figure, La Grandmere, was also found outside another church, the lower half being Neolithic but the carving from the chest up Iron Age.

Returning to Les Fouaillages, Dr Kinnes said the earliest structure proved to be a triangular turf-built mound surrounded by a well-built boulder wall with a slab facade. Down the centre was a series of funerary monuments only 20 metres long. These consisted of a semi­circular paved area at the rear with a trapezoid cairn in front which separated it from an open-roofed chamber in which three pots were found. It appeared that the two rear sections had been covered by a mound from their inception and soil analysis sugests that human bones were found only in the second chamber.

The chronological date is put at about 4,500 BC, which makes it the earliest megalithic tomb in Europe, so far, and indicates that other even earlier tombs are waiting to be found on the mainland. These might not, however, be in stone as the monument is, in many ways, the stone rendition of work in timber. The tunnel chamber in the centre of the mound is very small and was possibly used for the storage of bodies. It was found filled with beach sand which must have been brought from two miles away. The early stage of the site served about 12 generations and then went out of use.

A decorated pot sherd (Bandkeramik) was found, then a whole band-keramik pot. The indication that the grave was built by bandkeramik people was, Dr Kinnes considered, startling as, elsewhere, the culture does not include the building of graves. The only other known triangular graves come from Poland (but Dr Kinnes did not propose a Guernsey-Poland connection!). The other unusual fact was that the grave stood in the middle of a settled farming community and not at the edge of a fertile area as considered up to now. In all 35,000 Linde were made, including fragments of a stone bracelet.

About 3,000 BC (500 to 600 years after the first monument went out of use) the site took on a new form. The old flat facade was concealed by a semi-curved structure and consisted of laid blocks of stone and turf with a capping of boulders. The blocking had no chamber to go with it but, when excavated, a series of circles of recumbent boulders were found, in the centre of which were the post holes for massive oak timbers (two holes were 80 cm in diameter). These circles defined mortuary areas. The posts had rotted and been replaced by dry-stone enclosures. This phase lasted until about 2,000 BC when the monument went out of use.

This phase produced many finds including complete pots, three whole stone axes and fragments of 15 or 16 others, a polissoir and the base of a bow-drill. A final votive deposit was made of eight very fine barbed and tanged arrowheads – four were honey-coloured Grand Pressigny flint and four of dark Normandy flint – and the whole area was covered by a mound of black earth. Dr Kinnes thought the mound had been meant to last for ever. No structures were associated with it but the excavation of a sample area adjacent to the mound revealed a Beaker settlement with very fine beaker pottery and flint work.

Finally a ruined monument 50 metres away was examined. It proved to be very disturbed but consisted of a closed chamber with orthostats decorated with cup marks and enclosed in a stone circle. Beaker pottery was found.

Dr Kinnes dry humour, fascinating account and superb photography produced an evening memorable even for HADAS.

GLC RECORDS: CHANGES IN OPENING HOURS

One immediate effect of the forthcoming upheavals as the GLC Record Office prepares for its autumn move to Clerkenwell (see Newsletter 131) is the closure of the County Hall Search Room all day on Mondays. Access to the History Library and map, print and photo­graphic collections is available only after 2pm on Mondays. There will also be some other “disruption”, as the head archivist puts it, advising a preliminary phone call (Search Room 633 6851, maps and prints 633 7193, photographs 633 3255 and History Library 633 7132) to avoid a wasted journey.

CONGRATULATIONS.

To HADAS junior member Simon Coleman, currently at University College School, Hampstead, who has won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, where he will read archaeology and anthropology.

CLUES TO FINCHLEY’S PAST Paddy Musgrove reports on a dig at Finchley Manor House

A short, sharp dig on January 4 and 5, in which five HADAS members took part, answered one outstanding question concerning the history of the Manor House in East End Road, Finchley. The present building dates from 1723 only, but references to the medieval manor house and the existence today of the remains of a substantial moat in the grounds have contributed to the popular belief that the present building replaced an earlier one on the same site and, in particular, that the extensive basement with its well-worn flagstones belonged to that earlier building. On the other hand, there have been those, such as Frank Marcham (Barnet Press, June 1, 1936), who believed that the earlier manor house was elsewhere.

Extensive repairs currently being carried out at the Manor House provided an opportunity of excavating part of the cellar floor. A passage runs roughly north-west to south-east down the middle of the basement area, providing access to various store rooms and domestic offices. In this we lifted two areas of flagstones, each 180 cm by 115 cm. The mid-point of one trench was 12.75 metres from the main exterior south-east wall of the building and the other was 16.95 metres.

The underneath faces of all ten flagstones showed no signs of wear, such as might be expected if they had been reused. They were set on large blobs of red sandy mortar, which rested on 12 cm of rubble, the upper surface of which in places formed a roughly concreted mass. Beneath the rubble in the more westerly of the two trenches, a 1 cm layer of brick dust was spread neatly over the surface of the undisturbed chalky Finchley boulder clay. A similar layer in the other trench lay in part on a few centimetres of dirty sand and gravel, presumably introduced to level the clay surface.

The rubble Consisted on broken bricks, hand-made roofing tiles and a considerable amount of plaster, much of which had been painted. It also contained animal bones, shells, fragments of wood and charcoal, together with pottery and other artifacts which can be dated to the 17th century or later, thus confirming that the flagstones examined definitely did NOT represent the floor of an earlier manor house cellar.

Among finds retained for future reference are the following:

Rubble: Portion of a dark brown overfired brick, 3⅝ in (92 mm) broad and 2 in (50 mm) thick, with no frog; fragments of roof tiles 6¼ in (158 mm) wide, some with circular peg holes (10 mm diameter) and one with two square holes (13 mm square); pieces of wall plaster, painted light blue and red/brown, some showing marks of laths.

Glass: Neck of wine bottle with wide string ring (17th century); fragment of very thin ancient clear sheet glass; portion of clear glass decorated stem of (?) goblet.

Bone: 10 pieces animal bone, none showing signs of butchery, but one split lengthwise.

Pottery Nine sherds of white and blue-and-white “delft”; seven other glazed sherds, two possibly of Surrey ware; three pieces of stoneware, including one of Bellarmine showing parts of mask and seal.

Clay pipes: Eight portions of tobacco pipes, including one bowl of 1640-1660 type.

Shells: 12 oyster shells; one cockle shell.

We are very grateful to the Leo Baeck College and its architects, Messrs Hildebrand and Glicker, for permission to dig on this site.

THE SUBURB IN PRINT AND ON SHOW

Two events occur this month which concern the south-eastern corner of our borough – particularly the Garden Suburb, writes Brigid Grafton Green.

One is the publication, on March.1, of a book by Kitty Slack, a HADAS member, called “Henrietta’s Dream”. The book is sub-titled “A chronicle of the Hampstead Garden Suburb, 1905-1982”.

It deals, particularly with the Suburb as a social experiment, and tries, from that aspect, to say whether the dream of the founder, Henrietta Barnett has come true. It contains, among other things, many quotations taken from the tapes which Miss Slack has made of interviews with Suburb residents. “Henrietta’s.Dream” costs £2.50 (plus 30p postage, if required) and can be obtained from Kathleen Slack, 17 Asmuns Hill, NW11 6ES.

The other event is an exhibition called The Making of the Garden Suburb, which opens at the Hampstead Museum, Burgh House, on March 6. It contains maps, photographs old and new, objects, documents, posters and other material which tell the history of the Garden Suburb.

The exhibition – in which a number of HADAS members have had a hand – celebrates the 75th anniversary this year of the Suburb’s founding. It will be open until Sunday April 24, from Wednesdays to Sundays each week, noon to 5pm, admission free. Burgh House is in New End Square, Hampstead.

ANOTHER 21st ANNIVERSARY

Ted Sammes, chairman of the Maidenhead Archaeological Society, tells us that it too is celebrating the achievement of its majority this year.

To start with there will.be a celebration dinner at the Kings Arms, Cookham. Later in the year Maidenhead itself is commemorating 400 years since Queen Elizabeth I granted the town its’ charter. During the year there will be many events and to which the archaeological society will contribute a four-week exhibition at Maidenhead library, starting on March 16 and continuing until April 8, This will show some of the early days of the society and also finds, documentary and historical material dealing with Maidenhead in medieval and later’times.

For further details contact Ted Sammes Burnham 4807, who hopes that some members may be. able to visit the exhibition on a Saturday morning. The exhibition closes at 1pm on Saturdays.

HADAS ANNIVERSARY MUGS

A reminder from Jeremy Clynes that there are a few HADAS anniversary mugs remaining. They cost £1 each from Jeremy at lectures or by post (add 50p for postage) from him at 66 Hampstead Way, NW11 7XX.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR                                                                        from Nell Penny

If the chairwoman of   Hornsey Historical Society congratulates the Newsletter, it is time a member of HADAS did the same. I always read my Newsletter soon after I get it. The February issue did not disappoint me. A meticulous analysis and history of Barnet Physick Well; an encyclopaedic article about digging at St Mary’s, Finchley; .a promise of goodies to come and many other interesting items – I must find time to go.to a lecture at the Museum of London.

So thank you contributors, editors, duplicator, distributors, et al. And next time the treasurer has to ask for an increased subscription, reflect that you can get £1.38 of postage, xp of paper and many labours of love to produce 11 sheets of very interesting material.

NUMBER 1 TOTTERIDGE LANE

Daphne Lorimer reports on site-watching

Investigations into the Dissenter’s Burial Ground in Totteridge Lane, some years ago, revealed the fact that the Dissenters origin­ally held their services in an old barn in a field adjacent to the present junction of Totteridge Lane with the High Road, Whetstone. An elderly member of the Whetstone United Reformed Church told the minister that she remembered grave stones in this field when she was a small girl although the barn had long since disappeared. When the premises of James and Sons, builders, at No 1 Totteridge Lane were sold for redevelopment, careful site–watching was undertaken, but no evidence of graves was uncovered. It is, of course, possible that the graves had been removed before the original development took place.

A BIT OF A. WHORL...

Tessa Smith is keen to investigate spindle whorls and is appealing to any fellow HADAS members who can help her research to contact her – phone 958 9159.

FOR POTTERS AND OTHERS

Rural kilns and furnaces is the title of the London Kiln Study Group’s eighth seminar, to be held at the Museum of London on April 3 and 4. The fee of £12 includes morning coffee and afternoon tea and the Saturday evening wine and cheese party. Cheques to, and more details from, the London Kiln Study Group, c/o Cuming Museum, 155 Walworth Road, London SE 17.

THE LATER PREHISTORY OF BRITAIN

There’s one lecture left in this excellent series organised by the University of London’s Extra-Mural Department and held at 7pm on Thursday evenings in the Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, Bloomsbury. The final subject, on March 4, is The Udal: A Scottish Tell, by I. Crawford.

There are hopes, however, that the lost 11 February lecture, by J. Barrett on the Origins of the Iron Age, might be fitted in the following week. It could be worth a call to the Extra-Mural Department (636 8000) to check.

STUDENTS PLEASE

The enterprising part-time B.Sc in Archaeological Sciences course currently under way at the North East London Polytechnic is in danger of collapsing unless more students come forward. It’s designed particularly for holders of the University of London Extra-Mural Diploma in Archaeology, but entrance requirements are flexible, as is the whole arrangement of the course. Reports from those already following it are favourable, so what about more HADAS interest? The man to contact is John Evans at the polytechnic, 555 0811 extension 41.

LOOKING AHEAD

A century of London silver design and production is to be celebrated in the Museum of London exhibition London Silver 1680 – 1780, which opens on April 19 and runs for six months. A main feature will be the reconstruction of an 18th century silversmith’s workshop.

Newsletter 132 February 1982
HADAS DIARY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS….

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

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

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

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

TWENTY-ONE THIS YEAR

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

by the first Committee to April 1 of that year.

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

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

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

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

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

TESTING THE WATERS AT BARNET: Pt. II

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

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

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

Magnesium sulphate 1250 (Epsom Salts)

Calcium sulphate 480

Calcium carbonate 300

Sodium chloride 180

Sodium sulphate 50 (Glaubers Salts)

Potassium sulphite 40

Total dissolved solids 2508

Total hardness 1665

Temporary hardness due to calcium carbonate 305
Acidity pH 8.2 alkaline

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

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

Magnesium sulphate 1370

Calcium sulphate 343

Calcium carbonate 228

Magnesium chloride 171

Extractive matter 100

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

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

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

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

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

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

were pint ones it makes a lot of sense.

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

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

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

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

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

For further,reading:

Wise B. Bulletin of the Barnet & District

Local History Society. Nov. 1976,

Addison W. English Spas. Batsford 1951.

Potter G. Hampstead Wells., pub. 1904.

Reprinted Camden History Society 1978.

Note:

Melville L.
Pepys S.

Butler J.

Society at Tunbridge Wells. Published Eveleigh Nash. 1912

Diary & Correspondence. Vol.III,

Braybrooke. 1876 or Wheatley H.. 1949. Vol. IV.

The Physic Well at Barnet. H.A.D.A.S. Newsletter No.48. Feb 1975.

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

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

SAXON AND NORMAN LONDON

Ann Saunders reports on the January Lecture:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The rules are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BITS AND BOBS

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

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

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

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

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

Dear Editor,

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

Yours sincerely,
JOAN SCHWITZER

Chairman, Hornsey Historical Society.

The Old Schoolhouse,

136 Tottenham Lane,

London N8

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

Feb 4 The Work of a Paper Conservator John Bayne

11 Palaeolithic Flints from Yiewsley David Longden

18 Preserving our Textile Heritage Kay Staniland

25 London Pottery – 1150-1350 Alan Vince

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

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

18 Animal Remains from London Archaeological Sites Philip Armitage

25 The Taking of Snuff Tessa Murdoch

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

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

HOW OLD IS THE MANOR HOUSE

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

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

The Background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Excavation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOOTNOTES:

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

2. Finchley Press, 8th June, 1973

3. HADAS Newsletter, No. 29, July 1973

4. Tithe Map 1841

5. Victoria History Middx., VoL VI.

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

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

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

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

10. V. C. H., Middx., Vol VI

11. Nigel Harvey, Fields Hedges and Ditches

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

Newsletter 131 January 1982 Anniversary year

NEW YEAR TO ALL MEMBERS

PER ARDUA AD CONVIVIUM

Christmas dinner at the Roundel Room R A F. Museum, Hendon Report by Edward James As I struggled across the ice from Colindale station feeling rather like Scott (or even Lt, Oates), I reflected that it was very appropriate that we should be meeting at the restaurant adjacent to the. Battle of Britain exhibition. There for sure I would meet “The Few”

Actually there were rather a lot of us there. Seventy of the eighty who had bought tickets turned up on one of the worst winter evenings of the century. As John Enderby assured us in his after dinner speech, The Spirit of Dunkirk still lives with HADAS. References to 1940 are of course inescapable when meeting in such surroundings, but am happy to report that the food was certainly not wartime fare. The roast beef in particular was excellent.

Before the meal, we had a private viewing of the Battle of Britain exhibition, which is in a large hangar a short distance from the main part of the R A F museum, The exhibit at the entrance reminded us that digging has its place, even in aviation archaeology. There we saw the twisted remains of a Spitfire, shot down in 1940 excavated from, the East Anglian sand in 1973. Although there are many of exhibit, .the aircraft take pride of place. Every major type of aircraft that took part in the battle is represented no forgetting the brief appearance of the Italian Air Force, Examples of several types which flew later in the war are also on view including the actual German night fighter which was hijacked by an anti-Nazi crew and flown to Scotland with the secrets of with the secrets of the German airborne night radar in 1943. .

After dinner, John Enderby not only evoked the spirit of 1940 but also recalled his initiation into archaeology in post-war Canterbury. We were also reminded that HADAS will soon be celebrating its 21st. anniversary and we were pleased to find two of the 18 founder members with us that evening.

We are grateful to John Enderby for an amusing and informative speech, to Christine Arnott who organised the raffle, which I believe is an innovation at our Christmas gatherings and to Dorothy Newbury for arranging a very successful and convivial evening. Our thanks must also go to the restaurant staff for their courteous and efficient service, which was especially commendable since we had brought them out in such inclement weather

FIRST LECTURE OF OUR ANNIVERSARY YEAR

Tuesday, 5th January at 8pm. Hendon Library “Saxon and Norman London” Our speaker at this lecture will be Mr. John Clark of the Museum of London

He has written an informative pamphlet on the subject, which was reviewed in a previous Newsletter. Mr. Clark will be known to many members as the Secretary of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.

SITE WATCHING A note from Liz Sagues

First, an explanation; second, an expression of thanks and third, an exhortation.

If those HADAS members who in the past volunteered to watch development sites for signs of archaeological material uncovered during building operati­ons have found there have been no requests for their help over recent months, it’s not because they’ve been forgotten. The Research Committee has, with much heart-searching, been reconsidering the organisation of site watching in an effort to reduce the vast amount of time, for very little return, put in by the volunteer watchers.

The result has been a decision to abandon the previous system under which a large proportion of all development sites in the borough were watched, in favour of concentration on specific sites thought to be of particular importance. So all planning applications are now being studied with this in mind, and the members concerned – Helen Gordon for the Hendon area, Sheila Woodward for Edgware, Paddy Musgrove for Finchley, Bill Firth for Golders Green and Childs Hill, Ann Trewick for Barnet – will be calling on other site watching volunteers only when something major comes up. In this way, the Research Committee hopes to reduce the frustration the previous system inevitably produced.The members of HADAS involved the site watching in the past are too numerous to mention here by name But the Research Committee would like to pass on to them its heartfelt thanks for all their efforts, in what was all too often an unrewarding task.

But, the fact that the new system exists is not an excuse for members to cross to the other side of the street each time they see a building site. There

is still a need for observation for the most spectacular or interesting of finds can be made in the most unexpected places so please every time you pass a building site, look to see if there’s anything that just might be archaeologically interesting. Don’t be deterred by inexperience – a more expert member will be happy to give a second opinion. And if the site is close to your home, or regular route to work or the shops, the establishment of a friendly acquaintanceship with the foreman could reap rich archaeological rewards or even produce a new HADAS member. If you need help or advice, the site watching “supervisors” can be reached as follows

Helen Gordon, 13Sunningfields Road, NW4 (203 1001) Sheila Woodward, 8 Hereford House, Stratton Close, Edgware Paddy Musgrove, 20 Redbourne Avenue, N3,(346 0128); Bill Firth, 49 Woodstock Avenue, NW11 (455 7164); Ann Trewick, 88 Western Way, Barnet (449 4827).

ROMAN RESEARCH GROUP

The next meeting of this group will be at 8n m on Wednesday, 20th Jan

at 94 Hillside Gardens, Edgware (Tessa Smith).

The next walk – researching Roman roads – will take place on Sunday, 31St

January, Exploreres should meet at 10am underneath the viaduct in Waterfall Road, Southgate, N.11 For further details, or a lift, please telephone Helen Gordon, 203 1004.

HADAS MEMBER LAID LOW

For one HADAS member November 1981 proved an unlucky month
MURIEL JONES was walking down Brent Street one evening, starting her journey home to North Finchley, when a van turned sharply out of Shirehall Lane. The next thing she remembers is waking up in Ward Cl at Edgware General Hospital’ – with several broken bones, not to mention cuts and bruises

Miss Jones’s many friends in the Society missed her cheery presence at the Christmas party – she is normally an enthusiastic supporter of meetings, lectures and outings A 2-month stay in hospital was forecast by the doctors after her accident: but she is such a determined lady that we would not be a bit surprised to hear she had proved them wrong

All her HADAS friends will, we feel sure, want to join the Newsletter in
wishing Miss Jones a speedy recovery and sending her our warmest sympathy.

WORKING FOR de HAVILLAND IN THE 1930s By Bill, Firth

Following an appeal around Burnt Oak by Albert Dean for reminiscences of the aircraft industry in the area, a reply was received from Mr John Marini who was about to return to Canada. In the short time available Bill Firth was able to interview him and take notes from which the following account is written.
In 1927, when Mr. Marini was 11, the family moved into 2 Slipstream Road which was the first part of the Watling Estate to be completed his sister still lives in the house, which is where the interview took place, and not only must she be one of the longest-standing residents on the estate but the house must be one of few which have been in the constant occupation of one family;

Before the completion of the estate Mr Marini remembers, being able to look across the fields to Hendon Aerodrome, the nearest part of which is only about ½ mile away. In 1927 there were no shops in Watling Avenue. L. W. Brady sold newspapers outside the station and later opened the first shop nor was there anything on the Edgware Road, now Burnt Oak Broadway, except the Stag pub. There were a few cottages on the right hand side going up Stag Lane but otherwise the surrounding area was all farm land.

When he was 15 (in 1931)` Mr’ ‘Marini started working at the de Havilland works on a “time equivalent” basis – there was no apprenticeship scheme in the aircraft industry at that time but after one had completed one’s “time equivalent” at the age of 21, one was regarded as a skilled worker and would be paid accordingly: Work started at 7.30am and when the factory workers were walking up Stag Lane to clock on, a cowman was driving cows up the lane for milking. There was a gate across the factory entrance which was closed at 7.30 and not opened again until 7.40 when one could clock on for 7.45, so that anyone who was late at 7:30 lost 15 minutes. The original factory was in old-fashioned hangers and wooden huts of which

one, which was the original office, is now a museum at Hatfield. The extant brick buildings are the World War II factory: There were about 300 employ­ees and the firm was making a variety of Moths: Mr. Marini recalled the Gypsy Moth with two open cockpits, the Fuss Moth with a cabin and the Fox’ Moth which had an open pilot’s cockpit behind a four-seater passenger cabin. A Moth sold for £850- £1000. The company had made its own engines since about 1923. The engine shop was on the right of the gate, beyond it were the aircraft shops and design offices.

In addition to de Havilland, The London Flying Club and Air Taxis Ltd. used the aerodrome. AmyJohnson was a member of the club and, although she was an excellent navigator, she was not such a good pilot and she contin­ued to take lessons at Stag Lane. Mr. Marini used to go to the aerodrome at the weekends to help her clean her aeroplane.

The aerodrome had a bad slope on it which Mr. Marini feels may have been

the cause of accidents. However, in 1934 it was sold and flying transferred to Hatfield, ‘although the engine division remained at Stag Land. A new propeller manufacturing division was started in the vacated aircraft factories. Mr. Marini bought a motor cycle in order to travel to Hatfield but, since the company would not increase his pay from 8d per hour (3½p) to 9d per hour (4p), he stayed a few months in the engine division and then left to work for Handley Page at Cricklewood. Mr. Marini added that, although Handley Page had lots of work in hand on the Heyford bomber, very few de Havilland workers changed employers. The majority in aircraft division at Stag Lane went to Hatfield. However, de

Havilland had trouble at Hatfield to find enough labour – it was at that time a very rural areal and after a few months at Handley Fage, ways were found for Mr. Marini to be re-employed by de Havilland at Hatfield at 9d per hour. In

1935 with the new activities at Stag Lane, more people than ever were employed there and then the company restarted part of the aircraft division there to make aeroplane parts, not only for their own Moths but also wing centre sections for Gloster Gladiators. After some more shuffling between de Havilland and the Power Equipment Company, Mr. Marini came back to Stag Lane to work on the Gladiators but ‘in 1337 when he was 21, he went away to Yeovil to work for Westland as a fully qualified adult worker – but not for long because during World War he was back at Hatfield.

Mr. Marini recalls Geoffrey de Havilland as a “character”, He made a point of talking. to everyone on the plant at least once a week and Mr. Marini remembers struggling one day to make some bolts fit when de Havilland came and told him to.get a 2-pound hammer on the job. This was obviously a tongue in cheek remark because Mr, Marini hastened to add that de Havilland were

very quality concious, more so he reckons than other aircraft firms at that

time.

Geoffret de Havilland and his board were very good to their workers and the company was a rare one in being among very few which paid their workers for the Christmas Day holiday. The management however was anti-labour and eventually got kicked out because of their attitude.

In the late 1930s skilled tradesmen at Stag Lane (e.g. fitters, machinists, woodworkers) got 1/4½d per hour (7p) for a 5½ day, 48 hour week. There was no sick pay and no paid holidays. Skilled workers at Ford, Dagenham got 1/10 per hour (9p). In 1938 although the aircraft industry was very bust on rearm­ament, projects wages did not go up. There was a national wage claim by the Confederation of Trade Unions for £1 per week increase but the unions had little power at that time and actually settled for ¾d per hour – only 3/- (15p) for a 48 hour week – and even this was paid in ¼d monthly instalments over 3 months de Havilland was not unionised until the move to Hatfield.

At Hatfield a special shop for the DH 94 Moth Minor was built somewhat distant from the rest of the plant and at the start of World War II this become part of the sheet metal department. Quite early in 1940 this was “accidently” bombed. A Junkers JU88, which was lost, broke cloud over the aerodrome which was recognised by one of the crew who had worked there as a student. “Don’t bomb it”. he said, but, with fuel low, the bombs had to go. From a low altitude they skidded on the grass and hit the DH194 building. The aircraft was shot down by an old naval gunner and the crew captured which is how this story became known. As a result, de Havilland dispersed their activities into many factories in the surrounding area – six in Welwyn Garden City, including Buchanan’s toffee factory, one in Luton; and four or five in St. Albans, including the Salvation Army brass instrument factory from which the S. A. workers were instantly hired into the aircraft industry. Mr. Marini took charge of quality control in the Welwyn and Luton factories.

One other aspect of the 1940 raid was that after it Hatfield was very well camouflaged while a poorly camouflaged dummy factory was set up nearby at Panshanger. This was later bombed while Hatfield escaped.

After the war, Mr Marini worked on the Comet for a time but went to Canada in 1951.

GREATER LONDON RECORD OFFICE

The Record Office issued a statement in mid-November about the impending move, in the autumn next year, to 40 Northampton Road, Clerkenwell, E. C.1

A start will be made early in 1982 on moving records . “While collections are being prepared, packed and moved they will not be available for consultation,” says the statement. “Afterwards they will be treated as out-re.pository material, and can be brought to County Hall for consultation, but five clear working days’ notice will be necessary, As soon as possible we will issue a detailed time­table indicating when particular groups will be moved and when the Search Room and History Library will close for transfer to Clerkenwell.

The new premises, we are told, will provide improved accommodation for readers as well as for storage. There will be a readers’ common room and an exhibition room for talks and displays. Meantime, there will inevitably be some disruption in service, and an appointment, or a preliminary phone call, may save waste of time.

The Greater London Record Office is open from Monday to Friday, 10a. m. – 4.45p.m and on Tuesdays, till 7.30p.m. (by appointment only). For records stored in an out-repository, an appointment 3 working days in advance must be made – and no list has been published indicating to which records this applies. For enquiries and appointments telephone 633 6851.

It is interesting to compare the normal arrangements at the Greater London Record Office (that is, open 6¾ hours on 4days a week, 9½ hours the fifth, and closed on Saturday) with the sort of service offered in another city.

In the last issue of “Local Population studies” (which fights many a battle for the users of public records) there is a letter from a research worker in Liverpool, which is worth quoting in Full. It is headed “A. Testimonial from a Satisfied Customer”

“I read with interest the latest editorial regarding record offices, but think that Liverpool Record-Office merits special mention, as an example of the type of service that a record office should provide to all researchers.

Although it is a city record office its collection of archive material rivals many of the county record offices. It is open 12 hours a day Monday to Friday

and nine hours on Saturday, and 69 hours of free access with ample seating and no booking is praise-worthy, indeed when we see the difficulties faced in some areas”

HADAS MEMBERS’ LIST

The new membership list – corrected up to Jan. 1st 1982 ­will be typed and duplicated during January, for issue from Feb.1st. We would like to take this chance of warmly thanking Phyllis Fletcher for so quickly and kindly offering to do the long and tedious job of typing and checking it.

Copies of the new list will go automatically to Committee members, but it will not be circulated as a matter of course to all members: several people have indicated that they really do not need it. If you are not a Committee member and you would like to have an up-to-date membership list, please let our Hon. Secretary know before January 15th. A list (no charge for it) can then be included with your February Newsletter

ANCIENT BUILDINGS IN WHETSTONE

We end this month’s Newsletter with a piece of recording by HADAS member MARY ALLAWAY.

Any motorist who has driven a car up Totteridge Lane to its T-junction with High Road, Whetstone, and has been caught at the traffic lights will know the row of shops opposite the lights immediately and north of the Griffin pub (itself on the

site of an older inn (it was rebuilt c1920). when you look up at the roofs of the buildings- nos. 1264-68 High Road- are ancient; and a trip round the back shows a medley of varying roof-styles and weatherboarding which seems positively medieval.

Early this summer Mary Allaway undertook for the Documentary

Group, a survey of these buildings and a study of their documentary

history. The first resuIts of her work, on two of the houses, is

seen in the following pages. The figures in ovals on the various

plans indicate the ceiling height of the room or passage concerned.

Mrs. Allaway emphasises that this is only the first stage of her report, It has not been easy, so far, to gain access to some parts of the various building; but she hopes, in time, to be able to record all of them. She also hopes to be able to turn up some more documentary evidence: the next step there is a determined assault on the hearth tax returns

Newsletter.130; December, 1981

SHADES CHRISTMAS PAST

Recently a HADAS researcher, ALBERT DEAN, has been working at the British Library Newspaper section in Colindale, examining the local press of Hendon and Finchley at the end of the last century. As often happens in this kind of research, Albert found himself wandering down all kinds of unexpected byeways. Luckily, he took photocopies of some of his more interesting finds. We hope to publish them from time to time in the Newsletter.

Here, to start with, are some descriptions of Christmas shopping in Victorian Hendon and Finchley, complete with flowery language and even the occasional Shakespearian quotation.

We open with this lively description of a chemist’s shop in Brent Street, taken from the Hendon Times & Finchley & Hampstead Advertiser of Saturday, December 23, 1876:

“Brent Street, Hendon, from its wide and sweeping appearance, with its general aptitude for smartness, deserves to be called the market of Hendon. Here we see a great many indications that some great festival is to take place and we come to the establishment kept by Mr Goldfinch. The description given by Romeo of an apothecary’s shop is a very different thing now to what it was in the city of Mantua:

‘And in his needy shop a tortoise hung

An alligator stuff’d and other skins

Of ill shaped fishes, and about his shelves

A beggarly account of empty boxes

Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds.’

‘”Contrast this description with the appearance of Mr Goldfinch’s shop, with its plate-glass windows and showcases, mahogany counters and innumerable rows of stoppered jars, whose nomenclature beggars description. We ought to be thankful in Hendon that so excellent an establishment exists, and that whatever prescription is ordered by the faculty can be made up without delay. But apart from the sale of drugs, no doubt very essential to the health of the community, Mr Goldfinch has numbers of cosmetics, scents, pomades, brushes, etc. Moreover he is, we fancy, the only tradesman that keeps in stock those mineral waters which just now are in great demand, such as soda, potash, apollinaris, carlsbad, friedrichshall, pullna, lithia, seltzer, vichy, vals and hunyadi-janos. Mr Goldfinch has for many years carried on a high class trade in Christmas cards, many of them designed and manufactured by himself, and equal to the works of Marcus Ward and de la Rue. Chromos, oleographs and other pleasing articles are in stock, so for presents Mr Goldfinch’s shop ought to be much sought after, and we wish him a rapid diminution in the articles he has for sale.”

The Hendon “Floral Bouquet”

Mr’Goldfinch’s shop was clearly quite something, for a year later, in 1877, an article in similarly glowing terms appeared, in which Mr Goldfinch was credited with specialising in scent. “He has been dis­tilling a supply of the celebrated Hendon Floral Bouquet, which is prepared solely by this tradesman, and has a reputation far beyond the limits of the place. Of course a supply of the famous Jockey Club, Rondoletia, Millfleure, KissMeQuick, Frangipanni, Eau de Cologne, etc, is here to be had …”

Has any HADAS member ever come across references to “the celebrated Hendon Floral Bouquet” (or to Mr Goldfinch, who sounds a man of many parts) before?

On the whole these Victorian press cuttings give an impression of reporters being sent forth with instructions to mention every shop in the street, and not to miss one (could this have been with an eye to future advertising, perhaps?) As a-result the writers must have had problems: how do you, for instance, make one bulging butcher’s shop sound any different to three or four others, equally bulging?

In fact, the best description of a Christmas butcher comes from The District Times of Christmas Eve, 1891. “At North Finchley,” it says “Mr H Griffin has an extraordinary fine show of meat. This shop is decorated with bunting and evergreens, and the stock includes, among other meat, two Devon oxen, fed by Mr E Homan JP of Friern Watch; and a huge porker (11 months old) and 9 pigs (14 weeks old) fed by the same gentleman. Mr Watson, Mr Pritchard and other butchers also have good shows of meat.”

In 1891 Finchley obviously still considered itself a village on the edge of the country, not part of the town. “Finchley cannot boast any very extensive places of business,” the paper says, but nevertheless there are shops to suit the requirements of the district. At this festive season the proprietors are not behind town shopkeepers in dis­playing their stocks for Christmas.”

Stretching the Festal Scene

Some of the shops don’t, in fact, sound all that festive; sometimes a reporter has to stretch things in order to give them a seasonal flavour. Take this description of Mr. J Jefferson’s shop in Church Lane, Hendon, in December 1877: “Pull wires may get out of order from the constant ringing of the postman or other welcome visitor. Kitchen ranges may also, from the extra amount of work they are called on to perform, fail in their duty. To all families who find themselves in a dilemma in this respect, I can only commend them to Mr Jefferson. He has likewise a good supply of japanned wares, lamps, and plated goods, and should be busy- …”

Mr Jefferson’s shop was near the junction of Church Lane and Brent Street. Round the corner in Brent Terrace was the ironmongery recently taken over by Mr. E Smart from Mr. H Gedney. It is said to be at this time (1877) “the oldest business of its kind in Hendon,” having been established 17 years before.

“It is now,” says the Hendon Times “showing a good assortment of articles in the way of lamps, electro and plated goods which will be found suitable to persons who desire to make presents of the useful order. In addition Mr Smart has in stock any and every article, from

a ten penny nail to a garden roller .

Passing further along Brent Terrace, we are told that “one is attracted by the display of fancy goods, books, periodicals and con­fectionary which Mrs Faulkner .has to offer. Here also may be found the business of a tobacconist, and the Indian weed will probably be in high repute at this season of the year ….”

.How very Victorian “the Indian weed” sounds.

DECEMBER DIARY

•

Tues Dec 1 Roman,Group meeting, 56 Northway, NW11. 8 pm (ring Enid Hill, 455 8388)

Thur Dec 3 Documentary Group meeting, 88 Temple Fortune Lane, NW11. 8 pm (ring Brigid Grafton Green 455 9040)

On Wed morning (10 am-1 pm) the Prehistoric Group meets for regular processing of-the West Heath finds at College farm Fitzalan Rd, Finchley N3. All members most welcome, but please check first with Christine Arnott (455 2751) before you come to the farm, in case there has been any alteration in arrangements. After Christmas this Group will meet to discuss further projects, which will be announced in the ‘Newsletter..

Tues Dec 8 Dinner at RAF Museum, Hendon. Dorothy Newbury would be pleased to receive a few more names of either members or friends to make the party up to 100 – please phone or write

to her (55 Sunningfields Rd NW4. 203 0950).

Then, after the great divide of Christmas, this is the programme for the early part of next year:

Tues Jan 5 Saxon and Norman London by John Clark

Tues …Tab 2 Guernsey Excavations by Dr Kinnes (owing to an accident Dr Kinnes had to.swop places with Dr Saunders, who delivered her lecture last month – see report elsewhere.in this newsletter)

Tues Mar 2 Frozen Tombs of Siberia, byKenneth Whitehorn

FROM OUR POSTBAG

Sometimes the HADAS mail bag is a bit like a lucky dip. A letter arrived recently from Bridge of Don, Aberdeen, where Mr. J P James is engaged in writing an account of recent exposures of London clay in Whetstone. He wants to refer to discoveries, of London Clay fossils made in the mid,-19th c at Whetstone Park and during well-digging at an unspecified place-in Whetstone. The fossils themselves still exist at the Natural History Museum.’

“1 would be obliged,” he writes, “if you could shed any light on the ‘location of either Whetstone Park or of a deep (350f-450’) well dug: in Whetstone between, say, 1845-1870.”

An equally esoteric enquiry came from Mr Smeeton, who also lives outside the area. He specialises in the history of early tramways, and is chasing the plans which he knows were drawn at one time (but never put into execution) for a tram-turnround at Golders Green station for trams coming down from Finchley. He has tried all the likely sources like council minutes, London Transport records, etc, to no avail.

If any HADAS member is able to help with either of these enquiries, please let our Hon. Secretary know.

Final item from the postbag comes from one of our founder members, Miss Phyllis Simmons, now living in retirement in Tankerton, Kent, but still a member (and a very generous one) of HADAS. She takes a great interest in all our activities. She writes:

‘So HADAS is ‘coming of age’ next year. I think it is a grand idea to work out a year of celebration. How pleased Mr Constantinides would have been. HADAS has grown into a dream far beyond his expectations. As far as that goes, I never expected it could have extended its interests over such a large area, but I admired his energy and foresight ….

I am still in touch with Mrs Constantinides’ sister, Miss. Dickinson, who lives in Highgate. The Dickinson’s father had a private school in Highgate – oh dear, it seems such a long time ago: – which my brother and myself and Mr Constantinides all attended ….”

We would have been really delighted had it been possible for Miss Simmons to join us on our 21st birthday party next April – but, alas, she thinks arthritis will make that impossible.

A SALVIN CENTENARY

A century ago this month, on December 17 1881, there died, at his home at Fernhurst, near Haslemere, one of the best known Victorian architects, Anthony Salvin. He is of interest to HADAS members for several reasons. He had many links with Finchley. Long before anything like the Historic Buildings Council had been thought of, he was an authority on historic buildings; and his knowledge of the archaeology of the medieval period, specially its structures, was deep and detailed.

Salvin was born in 1799, son of a general who belonged to a northern family which claimed that its ancestry came over with the Conqueror. The senior branch of the Salvins had held a Durham manor in unbroken succession since 1471.

Anthony started, in a sense, at the top. He trained as an architect in the office of John Nash, architect of Regent Street and the Regents Park terraces. “It was not,” his daughter was later to note, “at that time considered to be a profession for a gentleman, but his bent was so marked that his father determined to throw no obstacle in his way.”‘ Calvin set up his own office in London in 1822; he worked from the capital for 60 years, first in Somerset Street, then in Savile Row and finally in Argyle Street.

The restoration, renovation and alteration of ancient and historic buildings was his forte, and he was the acknowledged expert of his time on medieval military architecture. ‘His commissions included many ancient fortresses; his work, for instance, can be seen in the towers of The Tower itself; and also at Windsor Castle, where his plans had to pass the eagle eye of the Prince Consort. He had a hand in the restoration of many castles, including Carisbrook, Caernarvon, Warwick and Alnwick, where he rebuilt the great Keep. He was architect to the Percy family for many years, and was responsible for all kinds of buildings on the Northumberland estate. He also designed the memorial to Grace Darling in Bamborough churchyard.

He became a Fellow of the RIBA in 1836; .and in 1863 won the Institute’s Gold Medal. On the historical side, he was a Fellow of the Society of. antiquaries for 57 years. Among his unsuccessful work was an entry in the competition for the new Houses of Parliament$ after the fire of 1834. It was for a building completely in the Tudor style.

Salvin married his cousin, Anne Andrews Nesfield, daughter of the vicar of Brancepeth, Durham, in 1826; and seven years later the young couple moved to Elm House, later Elmshurst, in East End Road Finchley ­then a country road, bordered by hedges and fields, with occasional large houses. Elmshurst, which they took on a 60-year lease from Mr Rew,-.who lived next door at Knightons, was such a house, standing in 10 acres of ground 3 storeys high, standing some way back from the road, looking NE/SW, with a fine approach down an avenue of elm trees. It was shown on the 1866 25 in. OS map, on the south side of East End Road, just east of what is now Nazareth House (originally Knightons). Today Elmhurst Crescent (the central ‘s’has been dropped) commemorates the Elmshurst .name.

Bringing up a Family in Finchley

The Salvins stayed in Finchley for 24 years,- bringing up a family of 2 sons, (Anthony junior and Osbert) and 2 daughters (Emmaline and Eliza Ann). In 1857 they moved to Hanover Terrace, Regents Park where Anne died. Finally in 1864 Salvin went to Fernhurst. Elmshurst itself was sold by auction in January 1939 and demolished later that year. It is described in the sale particulars as having 23 rooms (the Salvins had built on a new drawing and dining room as soon as they moved there) with two cottages and outbuildings in the grounds. –

Fortunately some of the Salvin family papers have survived in the Local History Collection at Hendon. There is a description by Anne Andrews Salvin of a holiday in 1838, when she took her first train journey. It ends like this:

“I come to the last part of my story: the passage by railroad from Coventry to London. It was performed in the short space of time between.1.30 and 7 o’clock, and we all agreed that the quicker it went the better, as its speed is its only recommendation. It passes through most uninteresting country, makes a most unearthly noise, sends forth now and then most offensive smells, passes through dismal dark tunnels and has an uneasy motion.

. ,

“we reached Finchley at half past 8, having fasted 12hours, which was one reason, perhaps, for our abusing the railroad. A dish of hot mutton chops and warm tea made a decided change in our ‘sentiments …”.

Eliza Ann, the youngest Salvin daughter, wrote (obviously partly from reminiscences, she had heard from her. mother) the early history of her parents married life, as part of her own diary. The diary starts in Finchley in February 1847: when she was 11 (with the artless statement “there was a bull come to Finchley yesterday and knocked three men down. I don’t know how they caught it”); and ends in 1856. There is a first-hand account of the Great Exhibition as it appeared to a young lady of 15 years:

May 9 1851. Went to the Great Exhibition. It is a most splendid place, quite passed any description. We were there 6 hours and never sat down once. I shall never forget my first impression: the glass and fountains, the trees, the humming noise of voices and feet, the colours, the masses of people and things all made an impression that I shall never forget. My dear mother was in ecstasies. A great many foreigners were there which pleased one. I saw only one Chinaman.”

The buildings for which Salvin was responsible in Finchley were Holy Trinity Church, in Church Lane, N2 – the parish church of East Finchley, which started building in 1846; Holy Trinity School, East . Finchley (1847) listed Grade II in 1973; and part of Christs College, Finchley. This was not the main school, with the copper-capped tower, on the south side of Hendon Lane – that was designed by Edward Roberts. Salvin designed, in 1860, a dining room and additional dormitories the original school (once the Queen’s Head pub) which stood on the north side of Hendon Lane where Church End Finchley Library now stands.

Salvin’s name was on the original list of ten which were put forward as possibles for commemorative Blue Plaques by HADAS and other local societies. We would have sited the plaque as near as we could the site of Elmshurst. However, as we reported in the October

letter the original list had to be cut to five: We hope that once the Blue Plaque programme begins to roll it may be a continuing one. Then Salvin’s name will be high on the next list.

LIKE TO TIP-TOE THROUGH THE TULIPS?

The Finchley Society is organising a trip to the Dutch bulb fields next spring and asks us to say that HADAS members will be very welcome if. they care to join it. ‘The Group will leave Finchley on the evening of-Monday May 3, by coach, and will return on Sunday morning, May 9.The cost will be £160 per person, which will include most meals: and all travel and entrance fees. Further details of the varied programme and an application form can be obtained from Kurt Weinberg, 1 Brunner Close NW11 6NP.

CALAMITY AVERTED – BY A WHISKER. A report, based on notes by

CHRIS LEVERTON, on the HADAS November lecture

HADAS is usually lucky with its lecturers. This was certainly so

in November, when calamity nearly struck. Dr Ian Kinnes fell and tore the ligaments in his leg; he had to cancel his talk the day before he was due to give it. Into the breach, at 24 hours’ notice; stepped Dr Ann Saunders, a lady who wears her learning lightly. Without referring to a note or using a slide she captured her audience with her history of Marylebone, 1350-;1800: no mean feat, considering that many her hearers were pre-historians who had come expecting to hear about Neo-lithic Guernsey in the 3rd millennium BC. There wasn’t a rustle or a cough in the hall while she was speaking -.though there were quite a few chuckles, as Dr Saunders has a nice sense of humour.

Dr Saunders began by taking us back, in imagination, to c .AD 1350. We started in what is now Oxford Street (then it was merely the road to Oxford). There, opposite today’s Bond Street tube station, and about on the site of the present Dolcis shoe shop, stood the small parish church of St John the Baptist. Beside it was a building housing the head of one of ‘the conduits which provided water for the City, occasion­ally inspected by the City fathers, who ate a ceremonial dinner there on their way back from hunting round about Harley Street. At Domesday the little settlement near the church had housed some 8 families – about

40 to 50 souls.

In 1400 the church was moved further north, to what eventually became the New Road from Paddington to the City. The most likely reason for the move was that land cultivation had been extended northwards: it was thought better to have the parish church near the centre of the parish than on the perimeter (and a perimeter, too; troubled by footpads and unsavourily near Tyburn gallows).

The new church was re-dedicated to St Mary the Virgin, or St Mary-by-the-stream; more often given as St Mary-by-the-Bourne, from which Marylebone., The first documentary use of the name- Marylebone found by Dr Saunders is in an inquisition post mortem of 1464 , but she feels pretty sure the name was in use before that.

Next important character on the Marylebone scene is Thomas. Hobson, .one of Henry VIl’ new brand of civil servant.” He had made his mark by settling the complicated estate of the King’s mother, Margaret Beaufort after her death. Hobson obtained the freehold of Marylebone from the Abbey of Barking, paying 30s a year compensation for rent. He built a manor house, and by the time of his death had acquired most of the manor of Tyburn and had spent £1000 on his purchases.

Came the dissolution in the 1530s and Henry VIII took Marylebone, giving Thomas Hobson II land in the Isle of Wight instead, to which he quietly and wisely retired. The King loved hunting and had his eye on a nice hunting ground near home. Geoffrey Chambers made a detailed survey for Henry VIII, showing 554 acres north of the village of Marylebone to be emparked as a hunting ground and surrounded with a ditch and bank. Edward VI put a fence on top of the bank. This is the land which is now Regents Park. Dr Saunders reckons that it is round because that’s the way Henry VIII drew it on Chambers’ survey to show what he wanted as his hunting park.

By 1552 (when there is a rather pathetic inventory of the few goods owned by the parish church) there were 66 households in the village.

Nothing much happened in Elizabeth’s reign – the Russian. Ambassador went hunting in the park and stayed overnight in Thomas Hobson’s manor house. James I, always wanting a quick buck, sold land south of the hunting park; and Charles I, also needing money, pledged the hunting park for £22000 for the supply of muskets and gunpowder. Cromwell, equally broke; sold the park to three of his officers, who cut down 15000 trees and sold the timber to the Navy or for house building. The roots were grubbed out and the land let in small parcels to soldiers for farming; the palings were burnt, the bank was levelled and the animals all got away.

Charles II charged rent for the farmland. The area was a dairy for London, which needed milk, butter and eggs; hay was grown, too; as feed for the many horses in the city. When the weather was good you got three crops in a summer, in May, July and September. Rinderpest in the 1740s. caused several farms to go bankrupt.Meantime, in the lands south of the hunting park, steady development was going on these had come to Lord Newcastle’s daughter, who had married, Harley Earl of Oxford; a compulsive book-buyer who built

up in his house in Marylebone the magnificent library which was later to form-the Harleian collection of the British Museum. The street names in:Racque’s 1745 map reflect not only the names of ‘the owners of the area but also the other estates they owned – Wimpole, Welbeck,

Mortimer, Henrietta, Cavendish, Harley, Bentinck, Margaret. In 40 years, by 1785, the area was built-up as far as the New Road (now the Marylebone-Euston Road, made sufficiently wide for cattle to be driven along it to Smithfield) and that marks the end of Marylebone as a village.

AROUND AND ABOUT

Members who are working on research projects which deal with the northern part of the Borough will heave a sigh of relief at the news that, as this. Newsletter goes to press, the end of the alterations at Barnet Museum is in sight. Curator Bill Taylor tells us that he hopes to have, the museum objects and documents moved back by the beginning of March. There will then be an official re-opening, and the Museum will be in business again. If any HADAS members can spare time during January and February to help with the move back, please let Brigid Grafton Green know – Mr Taylor feels he might be glad of some HADAS assistance.

Equally cheering is the information, from LBB Libraries Department, that the Borough Archivist, Mrs Joanna Cordenl who has been on leave for some-months, is due back in the Local History Collection at Egerton Gardens from November 29. We have missed her help greatly, and look forward to being able to call upon it again.

A seasonable exhibition opened at Church Farm House Museum on November.7: They Were Amused. It shows 19th and 20th c toys, games and leisure pastimes from the collection of Anthony Parker, who has arranged the exhibition and written the catalogue.,

The exhibits are varied – a walking doll, model train sets, animals, board games, musical boxes, an early gramophone, collections of stamps and cigarette cards. An adult hand can be seen in some of the pastimes – for instance in the four-panel scrap screen.(an extension of the scrap book idea) and in a partly built model boat. Altogether, an exhibition well worth a visit for children and adults alike. The Museum will be closed from Dec 24-29 inclusive; and from 4 pm on Dec 31 to 10 am on Jan 2.

WEST HEATH BOWS, OUT

Anyone who expected the West Heath farewell party to be a sad occasion got it wrong. Archaeologists, are a resilient lot.

We didn’t keep careful count, but during the afternoon of November 21 about a hundred people must have turned up at the Teahouse. It was a particular pleasure that. Desmond Collins was able to make the journey from Devon, accompanied by his wife Ann (who had often brought her Camden School classes to dig at West Heath) and his son Simon (who many time, on his way home from school, had cheered the West Heath diggers on). The tea was a real HADAS spread -.lots of home-made cakes and savouries – beautifully and unobtrusively organised by Christine Arnott with many helpers. There was a carousel show of slides going on in

one corner all the time, showing not only the human characters of the site but also the animal ones – like the ducks which adopted us in 1976 and the solitary hairy bee whose exploits, explained by Joyce Roberts, lightened many a tea or coffee break.

There were photographic exhibits, a press cuttings book and all the tools and cores (except this year’s, which are stillbeing worked on). They make a massive and most impressive show.

And of course, there was talk – people who hadn’t seen each other for years, people who had met only last week, but all with something to say and a considerable interest shared in common.

Halfway through the afternoon a small presentation was made to the person who has been the mainspring of the dig for 6 years, our site supervisor Daphne Lorimer. We gave her a book token, a tiny trowel (there’s a .saying among diggers “the smaller the trowel; the finer the troweller”) and a card, drawn specially by Mary Allaway, of the West Heath scene.

And, of course, we comforted ourselves with the thought that it isn’t really goodbye West Heath yet there is still the report to complete and this year’s finds to be dealt with.

NEWS FROM THE HADAS LIBRARY

Our Librarian, June Porges, asks us to say that she will be at Avenue House East End Road, Finchley, on Friday Dec 4 from 8-9 pm. Please change books then if you would like to. Avenue House will be closed over Christmas and New Year, so she is arranging to be there on Monday Jan 4 (instead of Friday Jan 1) from 8-9pm.

Here are some of the new additions which have come in to the library.recently:

Presented by Mrs I Worby:

Souttar, R. The story of ancient Egypt and its neighbouring people, the Hebrews, Phoenicia, Carthage. Hodder & Stoughton, n.d.

Naspere, G. Art in Egypt. London, Heinemann, 1912.

Petrie; W M Flinders. Egypt and Israel.-.SPCK, 1923.

Petrie, W I Flinders. Egyptian decorative art: a course of lectures delivered at the Royal Institution. Methuen, 1895.

Gaskell, G A.Egyptian scripture interpreted through language of symbolism present in all inspired writings. C W Danielt 1926.

Presented anonymously:

Roe D A The lower and middle Palaeolithic periods in Britain. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981.

World Ar.chaeology, February 1981 and June 1981

Atkinson, R J C Stonehenge. Hamilton, 1956 •

Renfrew, c (ed) British Prehistory: a new outline. Duckworth, 1974.

TESTING THE WATERS AT BARNET

As announced, a party of some 15 HADAS members visited the Physic Well at Barnet on Nov 6, wearing (on the Borough Librarian’s advice) gumboots, carrying (at the suggestion of the Town Clerk’s department) torches, and armed (on their own initiative) with cameras, sketch pads, clip-boards and bottles. You’d have thought we were off, at the very least to scale Snowden or chase the Loch Ness monster. The bottles by the way were empty when we went in; but coming out, Ted Sammes had filled them with the mineral waters of Barnet spring (said to be twice as effective as Epsom salts) which are now being analysed.

Some of the results of our expedition are seen in the following pages, in Mary Allaway’s drawings and Brian Wibberley’s plans and isometric sketch,

The curious, octagon-shaped Wellhouse was built in 1937. There had, it is thought, been earlier buildings guarding the spring – probably the ground was first excavated and a chamber built in the mid-17th c; in 1808 an appeal was made for funds to provide-a shelter for the Well Chamber. By 1840 the Well House (presumably built over the 17th a chamber) had been demolished, the chamber itself was covered with earth and the only thing to be seen was a small iron pump.

We are indebted for the above facts to the Bulletin of the Barnet & District Local History Society of Nov 1976, in which Brian Wise gives detailed documentation -for the Well (copies obtainable, 26p inc. post, from Mr W S Taylor, 6 Mount Grace Road, Potters Bar).

After describing how Barnet-Urban District Council (not to be con­fused with the Borough of Barnet, which inherited from BUDC when the London boroughs were re-organised in 1963) decided to take charge of the Well when it bought the land for Wellhouse Estate in the early 1930s, Mr Wise goes on to paint a vivid picture of the formal inspection made 1932:

“The chamber was found in a perfect state of preservation. It was assessed by, the Council Surveyor and others as being typical of 17c architecture, an arched, or barrel shaped roof; spans the chamber and the whole is constructed of ‘small, red, hand-pounced and burnt bricks. A flight of stone steps afforded access and there was accommodation for about 20 people. A sump, some 8 to 10 ft. deep, had been excavated and two rectangular basins built, into which the water from the spring percolates. Before the pump was installed drinkers were expected to stoop and help themselves by scooping the water from one of the basins, although Pepys was ministered to by a female attendant. The Council ultimately allocated nearly £500.and in 1937,the present shelter was erected, When Completed a representative of the Barnet Press sampled the water, in the course of duty, and found that it tasted very clear, very cold and somewhat grim.'”

BRIAN WIEBERLEY makes these points about his isometric sketch (see the final page of this Newsletter), which gives an excellent idea of how the well-chamber now looks. (It’s a bit of luck that Brian and Mary Allaway have done their drawings from opposite sides of the chamber, so that they complement each other).

The sketch, he points out, is a cut-away view showing constructional details. The site of the bricks of which the chamber is made is approx. 8″x4”x23″. This, and the English bonding style, is typical of 16c/17c vernacular building practice.

Water-flow within the well chamber follows the fall of the hill in which the chamber is situated, roughly from NE to SW. There are two pools within the chamber which may house a spring, but which take waters from the projecting pipes at the north end. It is not obvious at present why there are two pools; perhaps one is for sedimentation of soil and debris brought down (or up) with the waters; or perhaps one was for drinking and one for bathing.

The buttressed NE wall is interesting. At the base there are intent­ionally built-in slots which extend back into a cavity. A hole in the wall at the position shown in the sketch enabled us to look into the cavity behind, which appears to have been cut or eroded from the soil behind it.

The preliminary visit was most interesting and whetted our appetite to look at both the well and the features of its chamber much more closely. We hope to have a chance to do so another time.

The position at the moment regarding the Well and Wellhouse is that £350 has been allocated by the Borough for clearing the casual rubbish in the upper chamber and for re-decorating both inside and out. Once that has been done, some kind of plan for the Well’s future will need to be drawn up by those who are interested in this unusual bit of Barnet’s history.

Newsletter 129: November, 1981

HADAS’S TWENTY-FIRST

It can’t have escaped the notice of many members that HADAS is coming up to what used to be called its majority, next year we will be twenty-one years old.

You have already had Dorothy Newbury’s special 21st birthday programme card. Behind it lies a combination of thought, imagination, hard slog, neat dovetailing, cajolery, cheek, charm, pertinacity and patience. It took all those qualities, plus a few more, before Dorothy could build the card up into the finished programme.

The 1982 Lecture list is full of good things: it is an especially happy omen that in April our President, Professor Grimes, whom we see all too rarely, is able to make the journey from Wales to speak on one of his pet topics.

Another April highspot will be our 21st birthday party, to be held at St Jude’s Hall, Hampstead Garden Suburb, where the Roman banquet of happy memory was held two years ago. By pleasant coincidence a founder member and present Vice-President of the Society, Mrs Rosa Freedman, is Mayor of Barnet this year. She and her husband, also an old friend of HADAS, have agreed to be our guests of honour. We hope to provide more than a touch of history throughout the evening – in the decor, in the birthday buffet, which will feature historic dishes from Roman times onward, and in the entertainment.

Outings will also have a birthday look next year. It may seem para­doxical to talk first about the last outing of next season, but at the suggestion of Ted Sammes, who will organise it, this final outing of 1982 will repeat the Society’s first-ever day trip to Greensted and Waltham Abbey.

The other 1982 visits will all be to places which, in the past, have proved particularly popular. Canterbury and Colchester were both explored early in the Society’s life; King’s Lynn – to be organised again by Nell Penny – provided an outstandingly successful outing in 1976; it is the only one at which HADAS has ever been accorded a civic reception. Those who visited Hadrian’s Wall in 1975 have been saying ever since that they’d like to do it again – and that in spite of spending the whole of one day looking like newly drowned rats.

BACK TO BEGINNINGS

Perhaps a little bit about the beginnings of. HADAS won’t be out of place. The Society started life at a public meeting at Hendon Library (then usually called Central Library) in the Burroughs on Wednesday evening, April 19, 1961. The meeting was convened by a local resident who lived in Egerton Gardens, Mr T Constantinides, who hoped particularly that the new society would prove beyond all possible doubt the Saxon origins of the hamlet of Hendon.

This didn’t mean that he was interested only in the history and archaeology of Hendon; it was he who insisted at that first meeting that the words “and District” be given equal prominence in the Society’s title.

It was Mr Constantinides, too, who suggested backdating the in­auguration of the Society to April 1, 1961, for two reasons. The first was that it would coincide with the start of the financial year, which would make things all right and tight for the Treasurer. Even more important was Mr Constantinides’ belief that the charter of King Edgar, in which Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, granted Hendon to the Abbot and monks of St Peter’s at Westminster, was signed on April 1, AD 959.

(There is, in fact, the gravest doubt about the authenticity of this and other so-called Saxon charters which deal with Hendon. Most historians believe the charters were not written down until well after the Norman Conquest, and then only to give the monks good evidence of title; but it is also considered probable that the writing down merely confirmed what had been the real situation from time immemorial).

That inaugural meeting fixed the HADAS annual subscription at 7s.6d – 3s.9d for under-18s. Three Vice-Presidents were elected: Mr Constantinides, Miss Nellie Hinge, owner of Church End Farm (where the Society hoped to dig) and Mr J H B Warden, proprietor of the Hendon Times. Professor Knowles, one of the country’s leading experts on the history of the monastic orders in Britain, was to be invited to be President – no doubt because of Hendon’s links with Westminster in its monastic days. This invitation he later, accepted.

Mr Eric Wookey, still active in HADAS today, was the first Chairman; Mr R C Cooper, who left the area some years ago, was vice-chairman and Hon. Treasurer; and Mr Ian Robertson was Hon. Secretary. Thirteen people, apart from these officers, were elected to the first Committee. One of them – Mr John Enderby – still sits on the Committee today. Next year he will have achieved a remarkable record of 21 years unbroken committee service for the Society. Another member of the original Committee, Miss Elizabeth Watkins, is today (after taking a breather in HADAS’s middle years) secretary of the Research subcommittee – she is now Mrs Liz Sagues.. None of the remaining 11 members of the first committee is still a member. There must, however, be several present-day members who joined at that first meeting.

The Society plunged into digging straight away, doing several weeks work at Church End Farm in the summer of 1961, under the directorship of Ian Robertson. Another general meeting, held three months later, in July 1961, reported that there were already 73 members, of whom 14 were juniors, and that cash in hand amounted to £31.10s.5d. Suggestions were made for a future programme and – an exact quotation – “it was hoped to entice along sufficient experts on Archaeology to fill six monthly lecture evenings.”

We’ve come quite a way since then.
ANNIVERSARY SOUVENIR

To mark HADAS’s 21st anniversary we have commissioned a limited number of anniversary mugs, which are being produced for us in Scotland, in beige stoneware.

These should be on sale at the November lecture and other occasions, such as the West Heath party. They will also be available by post from the Hon. Treasurer:- Jeremy Clynes, 66 Hampstead Way, NW11 7XX. Price £l, plus 45p per mug postage.

Order early to avoid disappointment.

WINTER WEEKENDS AWAY

The Snowdonia National Park Study Centre is running a series of three archaeological weekends this winter which may be of interest to members. The Tutor for each is Peter Crew, who is well known to HADAS.

Further details obtainable from the Centre at Maentwrog, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd LL41 3YU. Tel: 076 685 324

OBITUARY

Members of HADAS will learn with deep regret of the sudden and tragic death on October 14 of Mr Adrian Jeakins, husband of Betty Jeakins and father of Alec. Although he was not himself a member, his wife and son have long been HADAS stalwarts, and Mr Jeakins often joined them on our outings and at other events.

His quiet helpfulness will be remembered with particular gratitude too, because he undertook the long and rather tedious task of making one of the Society’s most useful administrative tools – its index and description of all the Listed buildings in the Borough of Barnet; Indeed, only a few months ago, knowing that a new List was in the offing, he volunteered to re-make and up-date the old index as soon as the new List was published. We shall miss his help very much.

The Society offers its deep sympathy to Mrs Jeakins and Alec.

ADVENTURES IN HAYONUM

HADAS members seem to travel the world on their holidays. Not long since Daphne Lorimer wrote of her trip to Thailand; another member has promised the story of a recent visit to China; and here LINDA BARROW describes holiday­ing with the Natufians in Israel.

After first hearing about the Natufians in Year II of the Dip. Arch, my interest got the better of me and for the month of August I was fortunate enough to dig on the Natufian. cave and terrace site of Hayonu in Northern Israel.

The dig, which started at the end of July and finished at the end of September; is a small stratigraphic sounding in the Natufian layers (10,000-8,000 BC). The actual trench in which we were digging was no more than 4 x 3 metres, and this created problems when six of us were digging.

The deposits were extremely rich in flint tools, animal bones (the majority being gazelle) and snail and cockle shells.’ When it came to Processing the finds fish vertebrae, dentalium shell, jaws, teeth crustacea and other important minute fragments were in evidence.

During the course of my stay about five bone tools were .recovered; these were usually distinguishable by the fact that the end 0f the implement was pointed and also the bone had a polish on it.

Although the trench was small it was rich in features. These included two partial skeletons. One Was of an infant, and half of this was actually under the section. The other-skeleton was of an adult (without a skull). This skeleton obviously had no thought for future archaeologists and positioned it3elf bang in the middle of the trench so that we all had to be extremely careful – its phalanges were placed in an upright position and very easy to break off! The infant had received a decent burial. It was laid on slabs of bedrock with smaller well-set upright stones surrounding it in a semi-circular fashion. The infant bones were considerably easier to remove than the adult bones, which suffered from concretion.

Although the site was extremely interesting, digging conditions were pretty tough. The only shade provided was of course in Hayonum cave (we were digging on the terrace). It was rather interesting having the Natufian circular houses to gaze at whilst eating our lunch. The highlight of the day was the delicious water melon to nibble at – most refreshing during the midday heat.

We were stationed at AKKO Youth Hostel, and left every morning at 7 o’clock, arriving on site at about 7.30 am. The last ten minutes of the journey were an extremely bumpy ride by land rover along the wadi.

The heat was unbelievable (I have never drunk seven pints of water per day until then) although there was a breeze blowing which did help a little. On our arrival back at Akko between 4.30-5.00 pm there was a general rush for the showers to rid ourselves of a mixture of perspira­tion, dust and suntan lotion.

I nearly forgot to mention the most prevalent hazard: the wildlife that Hayonum boasted. I shall not forget trying to wet-sieve material in the company of giant hornets (the competition for water being great); or the small yellow scorpions which enjoyed lying under the newspaper on which the wet-sieve-material was placed. Fortunately none of us were stung. Other interesting forms of life included bats (which serenaded us at lunchtime), colourful lizards and minute snakes.

There ended my Hayonum adventure: it shows the variety of archaeology that my next digging experience began a week later in Hampstead – at West Heath.

HADAS DIARY

Tues Nov 3, Excavations on Guernsey. Lecture by Dr Ian Kinnes at Hendon Library. Coffee 8 pm, lecture 8.30.

Our speaker, Dr Kinnes, is Assistant Keeper of the Dept. of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities at the British Museum. He will be known to many members as a lecturer at their Extramural Diploma classes. His subject will be the Neolithic excavation on Guernsey which he began in 1979 and completed this year.

Fri Nov 6 Visit to Physic Well, Well Approach, Barnet. The Town Clerk’s department of the Borough of Barnet is kindly arranging to show a small group of interested HADAS members the interior of the Physic Well (see p 7/8 of last month’s Newsletter). This will be a morning visit; members who would like to take part are asked to ring Brigid Grafton Green (455 9040) for further details.

Sun Nov 8 Roman Group Walk. Meet 10 am Southgate tube station, to walk the short stretch suggested by the Viatores as the possible line of their route 220. This runs near the eastern perimeter of the Borough of Barnet, skirting the grounds of Friern Hospital and crossing the valley of Pymmes Brook. (Helen Gordon 203 1004).

Wed Nov 11 Roman Group processing of field-walk material at Avenue House, Finchley. As space is limited, please ring Ann Trewick

(449 4327) if you would like to take part.

Sat Nov 21 West Heath farewell party, the Teahouse, Northway, Hampstead Garden Suburb, 3-6 pm. Further details later in Newsletter.

Tues Dec 1 Roman Group meeting, 56 Northway, NW11, 8 pm (Enid Hill

455 8388).,

Thur Dec 3 Documentary Group meeting, 88 Temple Fortune Lane, NW11, 8 pm (Brigid Grafton Green 455 9040).

Tues Dec 3 Dinner at RAF Museum, Hendon. Apolcgies for confusing everyone by having the wrong date on last month’s application form. It is as the programme card says – Tues Dec 8.

The Roundel Restaurant is large, :and more applications can be accepted. Please come and join the party. The Battle of Britain Museum is being specially opened for us. Phone Dorothy Newbury (203 0950) or write to 55 Sunning fields Road, Hendon NW4.

Note: new members will be most welcome at all HADAS Group meetings, so please don’t hesitate to join in if you would like to. It will be helpful if you can let the member organising the event (whose name and phone number follow each entry) know beforehand that you intend tc come along.

OTHER DIARY DATES

Nov 14 Opening of London’s Flying Start – an exhibition at the Museum of London on the pioneers of Britain’s aircraft industry in the Capital. Much of interest for HADAS members, including a section on Hendon Aerodrome.

There will be a series of lectures in connection with the exhibition on Wednesdays at 1.10 pm, starting Nov 4. The lecture on Dec 9 will be on the Early Years of Hendon Aerodrome, by Jack Bruce, Keeper of the RAF Museum.

Thursdays at 1.10 pm. The “Workshop” series, run’by members of the staff, continues at the Museum of. London, covering such subjects as London maps, Tudor chart making, Victorian attitudes to death, prehistoric pottery, and glass-making in London.*

Nov 21 All-day conference for local historians at Birmingham University on Local Population Studies in,Industrial Societies*

Nov 28 LAMAS Local History Conference, 2 pm (exhibits open 1 pm). Details in last Newsletter.

*further information available from Brigid Grafton Green

MINI INTO MAXI

The mini-Minimart on October 17 turned out to be a Maxi-Minimart. Our thanks must go to all those members who gave goods to sell, made cakes, jams etc, and struggled through the rain to attend.

Special thanks to Brian Wibberley, Dave King, John Enderby, Peter Clinch and Brian McCarthy for transporting the mountains of goods to the

hall and up the stairs, and for returning the residue afterwards. This is always our biggest nightmare. And thanks to the shivery doorkeepers, too. Our usual teams of stalwart salespersons have, over the years, got into the swing of things and, we believe, could sell coals in New­castle .or tea in China.

Our Ploughman’s Lunch proved to be a popular innovation and Tessa

Smith and her team made it a great success Our receipts to date are a stupendous £660 and several tireless members have spent:the week following the Minimart selling the remains from an emty shop – an

effort which has proved most rewarding. Thank you all.

D A NEWBURY, C ARNOTT

ROMAN THMESIDE MARY O’CONNELL reports on the

first of the winter lectures

A large HADAS audience turned out on a bleak, wet night to hear Gustav Milne, -from the Department of Urban Archaeology, raise the Roman wharves of Londinium before us from the brackish Thames mud. He raised our dampened spirits, too, with his deceptively casual, wry, information-­packed talk.

Over the years the destruction of the Victorian port and warehouse complex has allowed archaeologists to snatch occasional information from short spells of site-watching and excavation. For example, the GPO tunnel and single-track railway beneath Thames Street could be examined and recorded only during tea-breaks and lunch hours.

Known sites: from west to east include:

· The Blackfriars coffer dam from which Peter Marsden recovered a 2nd c river barge in 1962-3.

· The medieval Baynard’s Castle site which in 1975-6 revealed an 80 m length of defensive stone river wall, probably 4th c AD.

· A public bath suite at Huggin Hill, with two apsidal rooms, hypocaust and furnace.

· Ruins of a massive structure half buried under. Cannon St Station identified in 1965 as “the Governor’s Palace” a huge official building of late 1st CAD.

· At Miles Lane there was evidence that a pottery store was destroyed in the fire of AD 120.

· At Billingsgate a 4th-5th c town house and private bath suite were examined; this is partly preserved in the basement of an office block.

· In 1974-5 the 40′ x 12′ box construction of the Roman quay: wall was discovered on the Custom House site; in the short time allowed for investigation thousands of squared logs were recovered and skilled carpentry details noted.

· Support piles found at New Fresh Wharf indicated late 2nd c wharf-side buildings; quantities of sherds from new pottery found in the silt, earned this site the nickname Samian City.

· In 1978 the eastern end of the river wall came to light at the Tower. There is 3m of upstanding Roman quay close to London Bridge.

Upper and Lower ThamesStreet show the line of the Roman waterfront. Land to the, south of this has been reclaimed. McAlpines, working on the Pudding Lane development, 160m north of Thames Street, began pulling up .hundreds of massive’ timbers from a. Roman. quay. Working against time and mud) archaeologists took samples and recorded finds before the timbers were transported to fill in the old Victorian docks. “And what,” said hr Milne, will future archeologists make of that?”Dendrochronology tests date the timberwork to AD 80. The area from the northern perimeter to half way down the Pudding Lane site belongs to this early period. The remainder, south to Thames Street, shows later features AD 120; south of Thames Street again, as far as St Magnus churchyard, is AD 200. This site comprises a waterfront development, fossilised inland.Thee early level shows a mercantile terrace – a warehouse with a “plushy” town house behind it. Unfortunately much evidence was destroyed by a large-brick feature (possibly an 1833 cesspit), but part of the hypocaust remains, complete with pilae and opus signinum floor. When this was moved a scorch-marked mosaic floor was found beneath. Moulding decorated either side of the doorway, and part of a deep bath was found, with floor and apsidal wall covered in mainly white tesserae with a red band. The pieces were irregular in shape and size, requiring a degree of skill to lay – suggesting a wealthy owner who could employ the best craftsmen. At a lower level stood two warehouses, open-fronted to the south and colonnaded to support lintel and roof. Built parallel to the river, the buildings were narrow, 18-20m long with four or five bays. Floors laid on wooden joists were ten planks wide, Between the, warehouses were found elaborate timber drains (now being utilized by the archaeologists) to channel the spring waters. One drain passed under a flat arch at the upper level, then under a triangular one and lastly under a rounded arch. All are of the same period and designed to control tide levels,’The wharf road had a compacted clay and gravel surface. Peeled back, it revealed oak timberwork to its full height of five baulks and 9m long, bisected by four 20m long tie-back braces which protruded over the Roman beach. This basis compares with that of the’ dock at Xanten, on the Rhine.

The scale and expert construction of the quays reflected the. size and prosperity of a city which boasted a 500′ long forum (only 40′ shorter than the one in Rome) and these quays continued to ensure the development of bridge and road systems which lasted into the 5th c.AD.

Gus Milne wound up an excellent lecture, illustrated by first-class slides, by describing the finds of Roman period boats in and hear the Thames. He gave us an evening packed with information, which he imparted with. the lightest touch: we hope he’ll come and talk to us again.

DIG NEWS,

West Heath ‘Vale: DAPHNE LORIMER reports that, although the weather has been unkind, she hopes to complete the southern section of the dig by Saturday, Oct 31. Then, after six seasons of excavation, it will be ‘farewell to’ West Heath. On Sunday Nov. 1 there will be a tidying-up operation, dealing with tools, equipment, etc..

Back-filling of the trenches will probably not take place till early December. Back-filling, however, is not going to be back-breaking so far as HADAS members are concerned, because the Society is hiring a JCB to do the job.

Digging tat Elstree. Some HADAS members have already helped at the Harrow& Stanmore Historical Society’s dig at Elstree, which we mentioned in the June Newsletter.

George Salveson, who is running the dig, will be continuing at weekends through November and, if the weather doesn’t turn too nasty, into December. He would be happy to have more HADAS volunteers, but suggests you ring him (on 423 1781) before you visit the site, to make sure you have chcsen-a digging day. The dig is on the playing fields to the west of the A5 road, opposite Hill House, Elstree.

So far the foundations of a 2-phase 18c building with a chalk floor has been uncovered. Phase I is late 17c-early 18c; Phase II is mid-18c to 1810.

There are no medieval structures, but ditches and pits contain pottery dated to c1250-1300. This is mainly Hertfordshire red and’ grey ware – -“grotty, gritty stuff, but lots of it,” Mr Salveson says. Latest find is a brick wall, which has just started to appear. It seems to contain both Roman and more modern brickwork.

HAVING DIFFICULTY WITH CHRISTMAS PRESENTS?

HADAS Occasional Papers make excellent.Christmas presents; and our notelets with an illustration of’Warwick the Kingmaker, which are sold in pickets of 10 with envelopes, can either be given as presents or used as Christmas cards. Prices are:

Chroniclers of the Battle of Barnet 45P

Money, Milk and Milestones 35p

Blue Plaques of Barnet 45p

Victorian Jubilees 50p

Those Were the Days 95p

Pack of Notelets 45p

All are available from the Hon Treasurer, Jeremy Clynes, 66 Hampstead Way, mil 7XX. Please add 20p per order for postage. We can also supply the complete range of Shire Publications. The latest Shire catalogue is available on request from the Treasurer.

MORE BOOKS FOR THE LIBRARY – a note from our Librarian, June Porges

The Society’s Library has received some most interesting gifts in the last few weeks thank you to all the donors. Several are books which would be useful to members attending evening classes. If you require any books please ring me (346 5078) or come to Avenue House -en the Friday before a lecture, when I will be there from 8-9 pm. Also, I always bring a small selection of books to each of our winter meetings. You, will find me at the front of the room, and I will be glad to show you what I have brought. A list of new additions will be given in the next Newsletter.

To say farewell to West Heath

Newsletter 125 July 1981

A FUTURE FOR ARCHAEOLOGY – OR NOT?

When you live for some time with a crisis, it becomes familiar: you almost forget that it’s there. That is why we ought, perhaps, to remind ourselves occasionally that there is a considerable and continuing crisis in archaeology the danger of losing the raw material of which archaeology is made.

This quotation from Dr.Peter Fowler, in course of a recent review in the journal Popular Archaeology, puts the matter in a nutshell:

“Perhaps it would help if I just state bluntly that most of the archaeological remains in England are already destroyed or damaged and that much of that which survives is, like many natural resources, under serious threat of extinction. I for one fear that by next century not only will there be little left to see but also that much research into improving our understanding of our past will have to be by desk-studies based on records already made rather than by new work on the primary evidence in the field. It will simply not be there. We are all scared stiff about our oil reserves running out by the end of the century, yet oil is by no means the only natural resource of a finite nature. The visible past is on a time fuse, too”.

Dr.Fowler -.HADAS members who went on our weekend to Bristol some years ago, will remember how well he conducted that trip – is in a position to know precisely what he is talking about. He is now the Secretary of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England.

OUTING TO KENT Report by: Elizabeth Sanderson

Our first stop on the second HADAS outing of the year was at Blackheath where we met Dr.Paul Craddock, a prehistorian at the British Museum. He showed us the remains of a Saxon Cemetery, something which used to be most common but, due to ploughing or excavation, mainly in the late 18th century, is now a rarity. The burial mounds are small circles about 2 metres across with a small ditch, usually containing only one inhumation.

Our second stop was at the famous and most important site of Swanscombe where the ¼ million year old skull of a ‘palaeolithic person’ was found in the company of over 1000 hand axes. The site is something of a surprise on one’s first visit being a rubbish tip surrounded by a barbed wire fence. The area is comprised of gravels and loam of the Thames’ 100ft. terrace which was formed when rivers and sea level rose at the end of the Hoxnian interglacial. Mr. Marsden, a dentist, as a result of publicity over the fraudulent “Piltdown Man’, decided human remains should be sought at Swanscombe and he found the occiput and left parietal bones of a skull. In 1955 John Wymer found the other parietal which neatly fitted the other parts. On the lower gravel, the remains of 40 individual animals including bos, elephant, deer and cave bear were found in association with Clactonian flakes. It has been assumed that man deposited the carcasses there not too far from his camp site after hunting or scavenging for the food. In the higherlevels Acheulian hand axes were found, tools which did not occur in the lower gravel. The site, then, had a long period of occupation although not necessarily continuous. Dr.Craddock has recently found stone tools there and HADAS members needed no encouragement to add to their own collections:

Our next port of call was Lullingstone Roman Villa which was probably built as a modest farmhouse dating from c.43 AD. The first house of durable materials, with flint and mortar walls, was built about AD 80-90. In the 2nd century AD the villa was extended by its prosperous owners who probably had Roman antecedents judging by the pottery, coins and portraits remaining. Unfortunately they seem to have had to make a “moonlight flit” from the villa about 200 AD, perhaps due to the political upheavals. The house was re-occupied in the second half of the 3rd century after possibly serving as a tannery. Finally, Romanised Britons lived there till its destruction by fire in the 5th century. A mausoleum had been built in the meantime and mosaic tiles with mythological scenes set into a semi-circular dining room floor. Later the site became Christian as indicated by painting on plaster showing praying figures and the Chi Rho sign. We were greatly indebted to Harry Lawrence, a long-standing HADAS member, who was able to regale us with details from his own first hand experiences digging the site.

We made a short visit to Kit’s Coty House, a neolithic megalithic monument of the Medway group. The remaining sarcens are from the central part of the earth covered tomb, which may have been of the Severn-Cotswold type. The tomb was regularly used from its erection until the Bronze Age.

The party split at Rochester and took turns to visit Dr.Craddock’s home, where Mrs. Craddock very kindly provided a splendid tea and also Rochester . Castle and Cathedral. Rochester was probably an Iron Age settlement sited at a main river crossing where the Romans built a town of which some walls still remain. The early castle which comprised a central keep was built by Gundolf in the 11th century. In the 12th century a forebuilding was added of 3 stories, the top one of which was the chapel. The belief was held at the time, that fighting should not take place over a religious area and so a pitched roof was added to the forebuilding. In 1216 the castle was besieged and although a corner tower was undermined and fell away, the remaining half of the keep held and its occupants were undaunted and refused to surrender. The attackers, not relishing another mining operation, negotiated a truce. The nave and westerly part of Rochester Cathedral were built in the 12th century whilst the remainder dates from the 13th century. Of an early Saxon church, built by King Ethelbert in 604 AD, little remains. This final visit rounded off a fascinating day for which we have to be most grateful to Dr. and Mrs. Craddock. We were also very lucky to have beautiful warm sunshine all day.

SUMMER DAYS ARE HERE AT LAST and a full coach-load enjoyed the outing to Rochester in June – let’s hope the next outing will be as successful on Saturday, July 18 to the Temple Precinct Excavations at the Roman Baths Museum, Bath and to Lacock Abbey and village.

If you would like to join this outing, please complete the enclosed application form and send, with cheque, to Dorothy Newbury at once.

Saturday, August 15 Piddington Roman Villa (dig in progress); Iron Age Hunsbury Hill, Abington Park Museum, Museum of Leathercraft in Northampton.

VISIT TO ROYAL AIR FORCE HENDON

A visit has been arranged to tour the historic buildings at RAF Hendon on Saturday, 25th July.

There may be a restriction on numbers so, the tour will be filled on a first come first served basis and, since the RAF must know numbers in advance, the list will close on Wednesday, 15th July. Please let Bill Firth, 49 Woodstock Avenue, NW11 (Tel. 455 7164) know if you wish to join.

Restricted photography will be permitted but there is a security area in the middle of the tour area and all members are asked to abide by the rulings of the RAF personnel about photography at all times.

In an emergency the tour may be cancelled without notice or curtailed while it is in progress.

Those coming should meet at the Guardroom on the North side of the round­about at the Colindale Avenue/Aerodrome Road/Grahame Park Way junction not later than 2.25 p.m. on Saturday, 25th July. In RAF parlance the tour starts at 1430 hours.

For background members are referred to Newsletter 112, June 1980 and 116 October 1980.

FLOWER LANE LECTURES: PRELIMINARY NOTICE

Members are reminded that once again HADAS is providing a course of elementary lectures on archaeology at Flower Lane Adult Education Centre, Mill Hill next autumn. Term starts on Monday, 21st September.

Early enrolment (without much queuing) on Wednesday, 1st July 6.00 – 8.00 p.m. at Flower Lane or Thursday, 2nd July 10.30 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. and 6.00 8.00 p.m. at Montague Road, West Hendon (off Station Road).

The lectures are divided into two parts – those before Christmas form a basic course and those after Christmas cover particular aspects of archaeology.

New members may find these lectures of particular interest. Further details will be given in the August Newsletter.

ROMAN WINDFALL FOR HADAS LIBRARY

Before Desmond Collins vanished to his new habitat in the West Country, he kindly bequeathed to the HADAS Library copies of a number of papers, on finds at Brockley Hill, as well as some material on St.Albans and Highgate Wood.

The Society is delighted by this acquisition and would like to take this chance of recording its thanks to Desmond for his kind thought. The material includes:

The North Middlesex Archaeological Research Committee “The Roman Settlement on Brockley Hill (Sulloniacae) A brief account and an appeal’

Trans. LMAS New series X part 1 (1943) K. M. Richardson “Report on the Excavations at Brockley Hill, Middx” 1947 & 1937

Trans. LMAS New series X part III (1951) S.Applebaum 1950

Trans. LMAS New Series XI part II (1953) P. G. Suggett 1951

(2 copies) Trans. LAMAS New series XI part III (1954) P.G.Suggett 1952 3 1953.

Trans. LMAS 18 part 1 (1955) P G Suggett “The Moxom Collection”

Trans. HADAS 19 part 1 (1956) P.G.Suggett “Excavations at Brockley Hill 1953 and 1954”

Stanmore, Edgware and Harrow Historical Society, 1957 “A Short History of Edgware and the Stanmores in the Middle Ages”

by C.F.Baylis

Verulamium Museum Publications No.3 – Plan of Verulamium – Reprinted from Antiquity. June 1941

Verulamium Excavation Committee First Interim Report 1955 by S.S. Frere from Antiq. J. XXXV1 (1956) No.1,2

London Arch. Spring 1969 A.E.Brown & H.L.Sheldon. Excavations in Highgate Wood. 1966 – 1968 Part 1.

MORE NEWS FROM ROMANISTS

Next meeting of the Roman Group will be on. Tuesday, July 14 at 94 Hillside Gardens, Edgware, by kind invitation of Tessa Smith.

Time: 8.00 p.m. Welcome: all members who are interested in Roman Archaeology. We shall be delighted to add new members to the Group.

CEDARS CLOSE DIG A note from Percy Reboul

Backfilling has started on the trench excavated last year – details of which appeared in the recent ‘Pinning Down the Past’ exhibition.

Because of pressure of other work, it will unfortunately not be possible to extend the excavation during 1981 but it is hoped that Mr. & Mrs. Miller might be prepared for HADAS to investigate further sometime in the future: hopefully 1982.

I would like to place on record my gratitude to the Millers for their kindness and keen, active interest in the work – which can only be done at some inconvenience to their household. More than this, Mr. Miller has come up with an excellent idea that might be capable of further development on other digs. He has decided to put up, in the hallway of his house, a ‘display’ of photo­graphs, maps, exhibits etc., associated with the dig. This will be a permanent reminder to him and his family of the past. I am certain, too, it will prove to be a marvellous ‘talking point’ when visitors come to the house.

CONGRATULATIONS

Best wishes and congratulations to Mrs. Joanna Gorden on the birth of a son, a brother for. Gregory.

COME FOR A WALK, BACK INTO THE MID-NINETEEN TWENTIES with DAVID ST GEORGE

who takes a round trip, in childhood memory, from Temple Fortune through Golders Green, Clitterhouse, Hendon, part of Hampstead Garden Suburb and back again to Temple Fortune.

We go up Hendon Park Row, from where women used to walk (not all that long ago) across the fields to Camden Town to do their shopping and bring it home in a sack; we come to Finchley Road, and turn left, past tall houses with steps up to their front doors, set back from the road, and come to the stables beside the Royal Oak pub in Temple Fortune. Turning left into Bridge Lane we see a field on the right, edged by hawthorn trees, with the Ebenezer Hall just past it. Turn left into Leeside Crescent, and right into Cranborne Gardens, and here is “the church in the fields” with its corrugated iron roof (now the Church of St.Barnabas). There is a large woodshed on the left, on the corner of Grosvenor Gardens.

Turn out of this road into Eastville Avenue, and we come to Leeside Crescent again. Turning right, there is another woodshed on the left by a passage into Wentworth Road. Continuing down Leeside Crescent, we come to another passage which we follow down to a stream (Decoy Brook), full of water beetles and other pond life. Walking up Highfield Road we come to Howard Farrow’s engineering works, next to a large timber yard.

We now turn right into Golders Green Road and a little way down is Sucklings, where we can see horse shoes being made and fitted while a boy pumps at the bellows to keep the fire going. Off across the fields to Clitterhouse Farm and the sewage works, where sprinklers can be seen going round. Turning north up the lane there is a small hospital on the left. This is Hendon Cottage Hospital, a very important place for the whole district.

On up the hill to the Burroughs Pond with its muddy banks and nearby horse trough. Turning right we see a little sweetshop where a sherbet dab can be bought for id with a pencil given free: Further on is the “new” Town Half (built 1900 but it still seems new:), with Ravensfield College nearly opposite. In the near distance is another farm on the corner of Greyhound Hill, and walking down the hill we come to Hendon Aerodrome.

Turning left into Bunns Lane we walk across the fields again to Ashley Lane, where a tramp called Dirty Dick is reputed to live there is certainly a shelter under the hedge, with a well-swept “drive” up to his “front door”. Climbing the hill up Parson Street to the Bell there is another horse trough and, not so long ago, a set of stocks for miscreants.

Going down Bell Lane we come to a narrow hump-backed bridge by Decoy Farm, where sheep and pigs are wandering around. Turning east across the fields again we come to watercress beds in a dip of Finchley Road down to the river (Mutton Brook).

Straight on along Addison Way we see a narrow-gauge railway being constructed (about where Brookland Rise is now) to carry building materials for new houses still being erected in the northeast of the Garden Suburb. At the end of Addison Way is Kemp’s general store, the only shop for nearly a mile.

Keeping to the gravel paths (really crushed clinker, tamped down) with their wooden kerbs flanking the pot-holed and often very muddy roads, we walk down to Finchley Road again through Child’s Way with its small school next to the church hall of St.Jude. We can now turn left across the fields to the formal gardens where red admiral and peacock butterflies feed on the sedum in lovely mauve blossom.

Opposite is the Post Office counter in the back of Shutlers store.

Calling in at Tozer & Smiths for a comic, we walk down past the surgery of Drs. Titmus, Whitelaw and Henderson, to Farr’s cake shop, and buy a sticky bun or two for ½d each.

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CENTRE FOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY

HADAS has always had a soft spot for the work of the Ironbridge Gorge Trust since we took our first-ever long weekend trip in 1974 to Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale and Blists Hill Open Air Museum. Since then many attractions have been added to Ironbridge. The latest, expected to open in full glory in about two years’ time, but already operating in a modified way from temporary premises, is a complete research centre for documents of every type dealing with industrial archaeology.

The basic raw material of this centre, which will be of international importance, is the collection left by Sir Arthur Elton when he died in 1972. This was accepted by the Treasury in lieu of death duties. In 1973 it was decided that the Elton Collection should be put in the care of the Telford Development Corporation and administered by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

The Elton Collection contains about 4000 books and pamphlets, 2000 paintings, drawings and prints and several hundred commemorative objects such as medallions, tokens, etc. Here is a recent description of some of its goodies:

“A whole run of Mechanic’s Magazine from 1323-1850, two volumes of An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences of 1708, the first 3 volume edition of 1774 of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ree’s Encyclopaedia of 1819 in 39 volumes of text and six volumes of plates… Rawlinson on early factory chimneys… Rolt on tools for the job… Stuart on the steam engine… perfect specimens of … Bury’s London and Birmingham Railway and his Liverpool and Manchester Railway of 1833 … Bourne’s famous Great Western Railway of 1848… the volume Reports by the Juries of the Great Exhibition of 1852 containing photographs by Fox Talbot, of which only 15 copies were printed…

“Elton’s particular passion was railway material produced before 1840 and the collection is therefore rich in that … it is also comprehensive on bridges, mining, tunnels and the Crystal Palace. Some areas, however, are more thinly represented, such as textile mills and machinery, shipping and waterways. These will be extended by new purchases.

“Rare things are to be found the original sketch for Frith’s “The Railway Station” (in fact, Paddington)… Owen Jones’s unsuccessful designs for St.Pancras Station Hotel…a set of photographs of the Forth Railway Bridge under construction…forty song-sheets, including ‘There’s Danger on the Line’ …and a rare quart-size frog mug of 1830, decorated with a scene on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as a ceramic coffee machine in the form of a steam locomotive.”

At present the collection is housed at the Trust’s offices, but an old brick warehouse beside the Iron Museum at Coalbrookdale is being adapted for it. When ready there will be reading, archive and research rooms. The collection is already providing material for local exhibitions – notably at Rosehill House (once owned by the Darbys) in Coalbrookdale and it is hoped to have on general sale many of the plans and pictures, both as prints and postcards.

Newsletter 124: June, 1981

FORWARD TO HADAS’S MAJORITY

The 20th Annual General Meeting of HADAS took place, in its normal friendly and relaxed atmosphere; on May 19 at Hendon Library. Vice Presi­dent Eric Wookey took the chair, and gave his usual masterly performance of getting through the business of the meeting with speed, charm, dexterity and humour.

Reports from our Chairman, Brian Jarman, and our Hon. Treasurer, Jeremy Clynes, showed that the Society is active, financially solvent and in good heart. One important point made by the Treasurer, looking ahead, was that for the Society to maintain its present level of activity and to remain “in the black” it will be essential to supplement subscription income each year with the proceeds of a fund-raising event.

From the Chairman’s report we choose a sad excerpt – the fact that last year we very nearly obtained with the help of the Controller of Education Services of the Borough, a permanent home for the Society, and one in which we could have spread ourselves; but, alas, we missed it by a whisker and through no fault of our own. However, that is one struggle which we shall continue.

Membership figures showed a very slight increase for the year: 443 at March 21, 1981 as against 440 at the same time in 1980.

The officers for the coming year, who were declared elected, are:

Chairman: Councellor B A Jarman

Vice Chairman: Mr T Sammes

Hon Secretary: Mrs. Brigid Grafton Green

Hon Treasurer: Mr. J Clynes

The Committee Members for 1981-82 are:

Mrs Arnott

Mr Enderby

Miss Errington

Mr Fauvel Clinch

Mr Foster

Mr Ingram

Mrs Korn.

Mrs Lorimer

Mrs Newbury

Mrs Penny

Mrs Smith

Mr Vause

Miss Woodward

ON THE RESEARCH FRONT

The activities of the first year of the reorganised Research Committee were described at the AGM by Sheila Woodward, its Chairman. Highlights in­cluded the walks in search of Roman roads organised by the popular Roman group and contact with residents around Brockley Hill in the hope that they had made interesting finds in their gardens – which they had not; a start on a reference collection of medieval pottery sherds; the instigation of a major investigation of aeronautical remains in the Borough by the In­dustrial Archaeology group; continuing efforts on the West Heath finds by the prehistorians; and a whole series of projects, from outdoor sculpture to brickworks, by members of the documentary group.

The Research Committee’s task, said Sheila, was defined as “to co­ordinate and, where appropriate, instigate research into the history and archaeology of the Borough of Barnet. This was being carried out through the five working groups, whose respective leaders are:

Prehistoric: Daphne Lorimer

Roman: Helen Gorden

Medieval: Ted Sammes

Industrial Archaeology: Bill Firth

Documentary: Brigid Grafton Green

All would be delighted to hear from any members wishing to join their groups. Liz Sagues

FUTURE PLANS FOR WEST HEATH by Daphne Lorimer

Processing of the finds from West Heath has continued during the winter and the basic work of recording and marking has been completed. Analysis of the finds, the preparation of distribution charts and the various research projects are well under way: Excavation this year will be aimed specifically at answering queries posed by our analysis. It will take place in the late summer and early’autumn. A provisional timetable allows for digging to start on Saturday, Aug 29 and to continue through the whole of September and October. In addition to the usual Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, it is hoped to arrange to dig on two other days in the week – probably on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The time will be, as usual, 10 pm. All members will be welcome for as long as they can manage. New diggers need have no fears – they will be given all the help and training they need.

Desmond Collins and his family are migrating to Devonshire soon and his regular visits to the site will be much missed this year. He has, however, kindly agreed to give advice and consultation over the telephone and will certainly see the results of our labours. We hope he may also manage an inspection. We are fully conscious that there are not many amateur societies which have been privileged not only to draw on the advice and skill of an expert, but also to have such kind and friendly guidance as Desmond has given us. Most of all we appreciate his encouragement to undertake original research for the report which he is master-minding. We are duly and truly grateful.

SUMMER DAYS AHEAD was what the May Newsletter said. Alas, as this June Newsletter goes to press they still don’t seem to have materialised, but let’s hope they will by

Sat. June 13, for the HADAS outing to Blackheath, Swanscombe and Rochester (not Penshurst, as we visited there in 1979). This trip will cover a wide span: Palaeolithic, Roman, Saxon and Medieval.

If you would like to join the outing, please complete the enclosed application form and send, with cheque to Dorothy Newbury at once.

Sat. July 18. Outing to Lacock village and Abbey; and to the new Barry Cunliffe excavation at Bath.

Sat. Aug 15. Piddington Roman villa (dig in progress); Iron Age Hunsbury Hilly Abington Park Museum, Museum of Leathercraft in Northampton.

Sept 11-13. Weekend in the Brecon Beacons, This was well over-subscribed when details were announced in December We have now completed final arrangements and will be in touch within the next two months with members who have signed on for the weekend.

Although we have a waiting list, sometimes a few last minute cancellations occur. If you would like your name put on the waiting list, please ring Jeremy Clynes (455 4271) for further information.

OTHER DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Sat/Sun June 20/21. Flower Festival and open day at St Paul’s church, Mill Hill. The crypt will be open (Sat 10.30-3.30, Sun 12-6.30), there will be an exhibition of restoration work and a churchyard trail.

July 12/Aug 31. HADAS member Dr Ann Saunders is now in the throes of producing what sounds like a fascinating exhibition. It is on the Regents Park Villas and the people who lived in them (a subject on which she is an expert she is the author of a book on Regents Park). .

The exhibition will be at the Holme (near the main Bedford College build­ing) on the Inner Circle of Regents Park, every day from 12 noon-5 pm. Adults 50p, OAPs, students, children 25p.

PINNING DOWN THE PAST

This HADAS exhibition ended at Church Farm House Museum on May 5. The Borough Librarian, David Ruddom, has now written to tell us how it went. He says: “During its 66 day run the exhibition had 3133 visitors, giving a very pleasing average daily attendance of 47 people. ‘Pinning Down the Past’ was universally well received by the general public and was favourably mentioned in the local press.

I should like to thank HADAS for its considerable efforts in the preparation and mounting of this extremely successful exhibition. Thanks are also due to those members who gave up their weekends to act as stewards each weekend during the last months, and to those who organised the delightful Opening Day ceremony.

HADAS exhibitions at Church Farm House Museum have always proved highly popular: ‘Pinning Down the Past’ has continued this tradition. I look forward to a similarly successful display in the mid-1980s.”

The stewards, highly commended by Mr Ruddom, were organised most efficiently by Nell Penny, who says:

“HADAS often asks its members to dig, to buy, to sell and to come and go. This time I want to thank over 30 members who acted as weekend stewards at Pinning Down the Past. By the time the exhibi­tion closed they had answered many questions, enrolled a few new members and sold a pleasing number of our publications. And they did it all with grace and goodwill.”

Finally, a word of thanks to those who planned and executed the various displays; who took part in the exciting but sometimes traumatic job of “setting up;” and those who managed the less exciting, but equally important, chore of careful dismantling. We should like also to record our

appreciation of the help provided by Gerrard Roots, the curator of the Museum (who is also a HADAS member) and Mr Lewis, his assistant: they were there whenever needed, and solved every knotty problem we put before them.

FOR STARTERS COFFEE IN THE CEMETERY MICKY WATKINS

reports on the first of the summer outings

On Sunday May 10 a small party of HADAS members set out for Bishops Stortford and Ludley End. Skies were grey and unpromising and umbrellas much in evidence at Hendon and Golders Green, but the weather improved during the day.

At Bishops Stortford the Local History Society welcomed us in their new museum, housed in a small building in the old cemetery. Though cramped for space, the museum has many interesting local finds, including a collection of clay tobacco pipes and bottles found in a Victorian dump; farm implements and some fine harness. While at the museum, we were given a welcome cup of coffee: the first time any of us had had a coffee party in a cemetery.

The Rhodes Museum was our next port of call. Cecil Rhodes was born in the vicarage in Bishops Stortford in 1853, one of nine children. The vicarage has been turned into a museum commemorating his life and work. The curator told us that Rhodes first went to South Africa at the age of 17 because it was hoped the climate would improve his health. His short life was packed with activity, for he had amazing energy and ambition and was convinced that English speaking people had duty to spread their culture to other nations. He combined studying for an Oxford degree with diamond mining at Kimberly – quite a lucrative form of vacation work. After making a fortune and founding Rhodesia, he endowed the Rhodes scholarships.

Now the rain stopped, and our guides showed us the church, town houses and the maltings. In the past Bishops Stortford had many maltings by the Stort. Barley was brought in from farms to be processed in the maltings. It was laid out on the floors and left to sprout, then roasted, pervading the town with its heady smell; finally it was shipped down-river to London for beer making.

Our visit to Bishops Stortford was most interesting, and we are most grateful to Mr and Mrs Wright and the Local History Society whose hard work and kindness made it such a success.

After lunch.we drove through pleasant country filled with spring colour to Audley End. In the 17c Audley End was built by the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Treasurer of England, at the phenomenal cost of £200,000. (He was later charged with embezzlement from public funds). This was an enormous mansion, and after the Restoration it was used as a royal palace by both Charles II and James II. In the early 18c this first great Audley End was mostly demolished, because it was too expensive to maintain.

The present house was designed by Vanbrugh and Robert Adam. The State Rooms, designed by Adam, are brilliantly coloured with silk-lined walls and painted ceilings, freshly restored according to the original plans, which can be seen in the Library. Another particularly notable room is the Chapel, in late 18c “Strawberry Hill” Gothic style. After exploring this vast house we had little time to spend in the grounds, landscaped to take advantage of a fast-flowing River Cam, swollen by spring rains.

As we climbed back into the coach the sun, despite gloomy forecasts, was shining over the whole countryside. It had been a highly enjoyable expedition, most competently led by Dorothy Newbury and George Ingram.

CONSERVATION AREAS

Earlier this year the Borough of Barnet produced Topic Study No 3 in the series which it is preparing, as a basis for its final Borough Development Plan, on various aspects of life in the Borough. These Studies are intended as consultation documents and are circulated widely, riot only to interested organisations and individuals inside our Borough; but also outside it. No 3 (108.pages and 7 maps) is on the Environment. HADAS was sent a copy and invited to comment – which we did – and so was the county society, LAMAS.

In many ways the Topic Study on Environment is an admirable document; and if only the principles which it enshrines can be followed faithfully, Barnet will become a better place to live in; but alas, often a gaping gap yawns between the enunciation of an admirable principle and its execution. On this, all we can do is wait, see … and then judge.

Meantime, you might be interested in a small part of the Study which deals with the history of the various Conservation Areas which have been set up under the provisions of the Civic Amenities Act, 1967 (now largely incorporated into the Town and Country Planning Act 1971).

There are at present ten Conservation Areas in the London Borough of Barnet:

Designated

Hampstead Garden Suburb A April 1977

Hampstead Garden Suburb B Dec. 1968

Mill Hill Dec. 1968

Totteridge Dec 1968

Monken Hadley Dec. 1968

Extended Feb 1979

Wood Street April 1969

Extended Feb 1979

Moss Hall Crescent N12 Aug. 1974

Elstree Village Aug. 1976

Finchley Garden Village N3 Nov. 1978

Church end, Finchley N3 July 1979

The procedure for designating a Conservation Area includes publishing a notice of designation in the London Gazette and at least one local news­paper. Before designating, a local authority in Greater London must con­sult the GLC. In practice local societies and other interested organisations in the Borough are consulted on the principle and extent of a Conservation Area and their views are taken into account before a decision is made.

To assist the Council in the enhancement and control of development in Conservation Areas, Advisory Committees have been established for Hampstead Garden Suburb, Mill Hill, Totteridge, Wood Street and Monken Hadley Conservation Areas. These Committees are composed of representatives of local societies, amenity groups and professional bodies who have knowledge of local conditions, planning and design,

Four of the ten Conservation Areas, Mill Hill, Totteridge, Monken Hadley and Elstree, are centred on historic village settlements, and include a significant element of Green Belt land to which policies additional to normal conservation policies apply. The Wood Street Con­servation Area forms part of the Chipping Barnet Town Centre and includes the mixture of urban uses typical of a small market town of the 13c. It is remarkable for its concentration of listed buildings; its future will be closely linked with changes which may occur in the pattern of development and circulation in and around Chipping Barnet.

The Hampstead Garden Suburb was originally designated a single Conservation Area, but later re-designated in two parts to allow the earlier part of the Suburb to be declared by the Secretary of State for the Environment as an “outstanding Conservation Area,” thereby becoming eligible for conservation grants from central government funds. The Hampstead Garden Suburb, founded by Henrietta Barnett in 1907 and planned by Sir Raymond Unwin, is an example of a community established in accordance with Garden Suburb principles which has been recognised as being of national importance.

Moss Hall Crescent consists of a group of large Victorian houses in North Finchley typical of the area and of the period, not individually outstanding architecturally but pleasantly grouped and related to a small open space fronting Ballards Lane. Here the Conservation Area was designated to protect the group from piecemeal demolition and redevelopment.

Finchley Garden Village consists of a development of detached and semidetached houses grouped round a central green, built between 1908 and 1914; whilst Church End, Finchley, encompasses mainly late Victorian and Edwardian development centred on Regents Park Road and Hendon Lane, including the Avenue House grounds,

Following designation, it becomes the duty of the local planning authority to pay special attention to the character and appearance of the area when dealing with planning proposals under the Town and Country’ Planning Act 1971, the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act, 1953, and the Local Authorities (Historic Buildings) Act, 1962. As an additional measure of protection, the Town and Country Planning Act, 1974; allowed the control of demolition of all buildings in a Conservation Area, and provided for the protection of trees in Conservation Areas.

FIELD NAMES IN THE BOROUGH OF BARNET, 1321-1981 by NELL PENNY

My desultory interest in field names was re-activated when I read an article, “Field-name Studies,” by John Field, in The Local Historian. The author wished to encourage local historians to record parish and borough field names and offered the help of the English Place Name Society towards publication. EPNS has already published “Field Names of the London Borough of Ealing,” by C H Keene.

As a modest beginning I have been recording those field names in the Hendon. area which can be traced from 1321 to 1840 and in some cases to modern street names. My sources have been copies of the manor surveys made in 1321, 1574, 1635 and 1685. There are maps of small areas – one made in 1570 for St Bartholomew’s Hospital and one in 1597 detailing some fields belonging to All Souls College, Oxford. Comprehensive surveys with maps were made in 1754 by James Crow and in 1840 for the Tithe Award.

Here are a few “long-life” names:

BOWSTRINGFELD. In 1321 John of Middleton held a croft called “Bowstreng-feld at Crikelwood.”- His service to the Abbot of Westminster for this land was a bowstring. The name appears on the map made in 1570, and in the 17c surveys. In the 18c map no Bowstring fields, but two Bolster fields are in the same place, and the new name is repeated in 1840. Is it reasonable to decide that poor oral transmission is responsible for the change of name? Superimposed on a modern map the Bolster fields are in Cricklewood between the Vale and Clitterhouse Recreation Ground.

FURTHER BRAINT AND NEARER BRAINT. These fields are mapped in 1754 and 1840 on the east side of Hendon Wood Lane. They lie on the old borough boundary with Barnet, which here follows the line of the river Brent (shown on today’s maps as the Dollis Brook). In the survey of 1574 “Braintfield Corner” is part of the “outbounds” of Hendon manor. In 1321 the “terra de Breinte” was in the lord’s hands.

The Dictionary of Field Names, by John Field, makes the obvious comment that the name DEERFIELD means a field where deer were seen. In Hendon it is a reminder that a large part of the forest of Middlesex existed in a medieval times and many fields were assarted from the forest. In 1321 there is Derefeld; in 1574, 1635 and 1685 the names are Deerefields. The All Souls map shows “parts of Dearefields” next to woodland and south of Colin Deep Lane. In Crow’s map Deerfields or Great Hundred Acres is shown to the east of the Silk Stream in The Hyde, Hendon. The next field is Little Hundred Acres! Today Deerfield Cottages keep the name alive in the Hyde.

GREAT, LAMB PITS AND LITTLE LAMB PITS are mapped in 1754 on the south side of Finchley Lane at the Quadrant, Hendon: Lamput (1321) Lampitts (1635) are earlier forms. The Dictionary says “loampits” is the origin of the name Loam is a farming term for soil in which sand has been added to clay, combining the good qualities of both. It is tempting to guess that because the Quadrant Garage lies in a hollow, it covers the site of the loam diggings.

LONGELAND was on the boundary of Hendon manor with Edgware. In 1321 it was described as 24 acres of arable. In the 1754 map Longlands borders. Deans Brook. It is not an unusually long field, but one of its neighbours, Blakelands, is and may have originated as furlong strips in a common field. I was made aware of the pitfalls awaiting those who try to correlate surveys without maps with those with maps. The sharp but friendly eyes of my colleagues of the documentary research group led me to identify two DOWNEDGES. In 1321 Dounhegg was a wood providing pannage and faggots for the manor. In the 17c Downedge is part of the “outbounds” of the manor in the south west, near “Cowie” Oak. The maps of 1754 and 1840 show two Downages: one on the south western boundary of the manor near Cool Oak Lane; the other as woods and two fields, Thistley Downage and Lower Downage. These fields are east of Hendon parish church. The modern road Downage runs from Parson Street to Great North Way, so where was Dounhegg, and what does the name mean?

SHEAVESHILL Avenue links the A5 at Watling with Colindale Park. In the 1574 survey there are 15 references to holdings in Sheveshill. The name varies to Shelshill and in 1754 Shesehill Common Field is shown with nearly 30 strips. There is no record of common fields in 1321.

HODESFORD. The manor of Hodesford was held by Sir Henry Scrope. In later surveys the name is part of the southern boundary of the Manor “Weilswood over the Heath to Hodford Wood Corner.” By the 18c “Seven Acre Field alias Lower Hodford Wood,” and two other fields with the Hodford element are mapped. These fields would have covered Golders Hill Park and its environs. Now Hodford Rd runs from Finchley Rd to Golders Green Rd.

Fields in North Finchley, West Hendon, Edgware, Barnet and Friern Barnet await name recording. Is any member of the Society interested in helping with any of this research? If so, please let me know (Nell Penny,)

REPORT ON IONA

Back in October 1977 Dr Richard Reece talked to HADAS about his 10-year excavation of the Medieval monastic site at Iona. Members who recall that lecture may like to know that the Institute of Archaeology is about to publish the report on Dr Reece’s work – IONA 1964-1974. There will be specialist reports on finds and environmental material, including a report by the late Calvin Wells on human remains from Martyr’s Bay, Price £6, plus .90p post, from the Registrar, Institute of Archaeology, 31 Gordon.Sq, London WC1.

LISTED BUILDINGS

The phrase “a listed. building” is part of the vocabulary of modern life. It means that a building has been placed on the statutory list of buildings of either special architectural or special historic (or some-times-both) interest.

The List divides into two categories: Grade I and Grade II with Grade II sub-divided into starred buildings (II*) and un-starred (II). There used to be a Grade III, but listing in that never gave much pro­tection and nowadays is not used.

Most protected buildings in the Borough of Barnet are Grade II. The only Grade I building is the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, designed by Edwin Lutyens.

Periodically the statutory list is up-dated. The Barnet list has been undergoing this process for at least 5 years. We understand the new list is almost finished, and ought to emerge from its wraps later this year. Back in 1975 HADAS – along with many other organisations in the Borough – made suggestions for changes in and additions to the list; so we await the new list expectantly, hoping to see some of our ideas incorporated.

Meantime, buildings are occasionally “spot-listed.” This happened to two LBB buildings last March: Golders Green Crematorium and the Chapel of Belmont School, Mill Hill. Both were built this century.

Belmont School chapel was designed in 1924/5 by John Carrick Stuart Soutar, FRIBA (1881.1951). It has echoes of the churches on Central Sq, Hampstead Garden Suburb – perhaps not surprisingly, for Soutar was for over 30 years Architect to the HGS Trust, working from Wyldes Farm. He succeed­ed Raymond Unwin, who left the Trust in 1914, and he designed a number of Suburb buildings of post-World War I date, including the Teahouse in Northway (where HADAS often holds processing sessions) and Bigwood House (formerly Henrietta Barnett Junior School) in which our West Heath Symposium was held some years ago.

Soutar was a Scot, educated at Dundee University and first articled to a Dundee architect, T M Cappon. He gained early experience planning municipal estates for the LCC, under W E Riley. Then he and his brother, Archibald, went into private practice. He planned Woodlands Garden Village, Doncaster; garden suburbs at Warrington; Ruislip Northwood estate for Kings College, Cambridge; and Knebworth estate in Hertfordshire.

The other “spot-listed” building needs no introduction. The “Crem” in Hoop Lane, NW11, is a landmark for all who live in or near Goiders Green. Standing in 12 acres of beautiful grounds, originally laid out by the famous garden designer Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) the Crematorium, built in 1902, was designed by Sir Ernest George, a well-known architect of the turn of the century, in whose office the young Ned Lutyens began his career as an architect in 1887. It was the first crematorium in London and is the first in the country to be listed.

AND – UNHAPPILY – AN UNLISTED BUILDING … This is a story of a building with a sad ending.- The two cottages in Cricklewood Lane, Nos. 77-79 which together formed one house known as Vine Cottage, a local landmark for the best part of a century and a half, were knocked down by their new owner during the Easter weekend. Vine Cottage was not statutorily protected, although many efforts, by LBB, by HADAS and by others, had been made to persuade the Department of Environment to list it. HADAS’s last appeal on the subject was dated only a week before-demolition.

Vine Cottage was not an important mansion, built by or lived in by the famous, but for that very reason because so few historic small houses of humble origin exist any longer HADAS wanted to try to preserve it. In 1972 Sir Roger Walters, Architect to the GLC, described Vine Cottage as “one of a very small number of humble single-storey vernacular cottages of pre-Byelaw date in Greater London.” He could then find only three other similar examples, two of the late 18c and one of early 19c date.

The cottage had been in the Clark family certainly since 1870, when it was a dame-school; The last owner, Miss Primrose Clark, who had lived there her whole life, died last year in her nineties. From that moment the threat of demolition loomed; at Easter it became reality and the cottage became just a heap of rather ropey rubble. Unfortunately, because it was not listed, it had not been surveyed or drawn; nor does HADAS know of any photographs of the interior.

THE WORKERS HOME

A footnote to the sad tale of Vine Cottage is supplied by a recent illustrated publication of the Oxfordshire Museums Service called “The Workers Home – small, houses in Oxfordshire through three centuries.” (75p from Dept. of Museum Services, Woodstock, Oxon).

“We know a good deal about the houses and domestic arrangements of the wealthy and the middle classes,” says the introduction, but about the houses of ordinary people, even a generation or two ago, we know very little. How big were the houses of the working class? How were the rooms used and furnished? Where did the children sleep? Where was the washing done? Where were visitors put when they called?”

“The Workers Home” tries to answer some of these questions, but as it says itself “this booklet asks more questions than it answers.” There is a general text about how housing developed in Oxfordshire from a labourer’s cottage of 1699 up to council houses of the 1930s; illuminated by case studies (both town and country) of specific buildings, with photos and house plans.

Here are some excerpts from the description of a tiny town cottage, demolished in 1938: it was “a single cell structure of local stone with a thatched roof and a chimney stack of brick, the front door opened onto a small hallway. From this a door led into the living room it contained a dining table and chairs, a sofa and a big wooden armchair and a freestanding corner cupboard for china. The mantelpiece was covered with a plush cloth and on it were a clock, a few ornaments from fairs and a tea caddy. On the wall were pictures of Queen Victoria, the Last Supper and ‘The thin Red Line.’ There were geraniums on the window sill and a tasselled cream-coloured blind at the window. On the floor flags were rag rugs, freshly made each spring. Lighting was by wall-mounted oil lamps. “All washing and washing up was done in a bowl on a table in the passage. There was no sink or piped water, all water being carried from a communal pump, the communal lavatory served 29 households. The two bedrooms upstairs contained one bed each. Both beds were covered with handmade patchwork counterpanes. There were lace curtains bought in Banbury Market at the windows. The rent in the early 1920s was 2s a week. The household income may have been limited to one old age pension.”

The intention of the booklet is “to arouse interest in the vast subject of Workers’ housing and to encourage an interest in the history of people’s homes.” It is a virtually untapped area of research, in which history and archaeology go hand in hand, since structures, artefacts and documents all play a part. The trouble is, they must play it soon, or most of the evidence will have vanished. Is any HADAS member sufficiently interested to start an Oxfordshire-type project in Barnet?

DIGGERS AHOY!

George Salveson of the Harrow and Stanmore Society would be happy to have some help from HADAS diggers. He will be excavating most of this summer in Elstree, on the playing fields to the west of the A5 road, opposite Hill House.

This is a medieval site, so far with nothing earlier than 13c. Finds include pottery and two medieval ditches, as well as a pitlike feature which might be a kiln firebox. There are also remains of an 18c timber framed building, as well as considerable kiln waste.

Digging will be on Saturday afternoons from 2.30 and all day Sunday, from 10am; not every Saturday, however, so HADAS members should ring Mr Salveson on 423 1781 before going to the site.

TWO FACES OF FARMING IN MIDDLESEX

Pinner Local History Society (this year celebrating its 10th birth­day) recently produced a booklet, “A Pinner Miscellany.” It gathers to­gether various research done by the Society in the last few years.

The booklet opens with a paper on 19c farming in Pinner. It quotes ‘ from John Middleton’s View of the Agriculture of Middlesex, published 1797, which took a poor view of Pinner farmers. “They seldom if ever plough their fields more than once,” it says, “and for want of so doing, they rarely obtain a good sweet tilth to sow their wheat in and they do not cut water furrows sufficiently across heavy clay lands to take the water off.”

Middleton painted a very different picture of Hendon farmers (also in the View of-Agriculture, though this is not quoted in the Pinner book). Of them he says “farmers in the parish of Hendon and its environs manage their compost heaps best in the kingdom. They make it as fine as ashes, by which means they are enabled to put it on their land at most times of the year; the first shower of rain is sure to carry it down to the roots of the grass.” It goes to show that farming could differ within 6 or miles.

Pinner Miscellany is a good buy. It has closely researched histories of two Pinner houses – Pinner Hill and Pinner Park – illustrated with maps and diagrams, plus a report on site watching and. excavation behind Pinner High Street. Price £1.20p, post 35p, from Pinner Local History Society, 121 Eastcote Rd, Pinner, Middx HA5 lET.

PRE-DOMESDAY FILM…, on the Borough of Barnet’s early history is being made. by Steve Herman for Barnet Libraries and the Greater London Arts Association.’ The half-hour colour video production, primarily for-local distribution, will outline the story of the area through prehistoric, Roman and Saxon times. It will include aerial sequences.

It is hoped to start filming at the end of August. Steve Herman would actively welcome the help and participation of HADAS members, so if you are interested, contact him on 836 5391.