Newsletter

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In this season of good resolutions one of the best that HADAS can make is to keep our Society’s financial head above water in 1976. So we don’t apologise for opening this New Year Newsletter with details of our next fund-raising effort — the Spring Minimart, in which we hope all members will co-operate as actively as possible.

The Minimart will take place on Saturday 6 March from 10.00a.m.-12.00p.m. at the same venue as last year — Henry Burden Hall, Egerton Gardens, NW4. There will be six main stalls:

1. BOOKS — in charge, George Ingram. Hardbacks, paperbacks and magazines in good condition.

2. GARDEN — Elizabeth Holliday. Any things for the garden, including established cuttings, seeds, seedlings, indoor plants, bulbs.

3. MISCELLANY — Neil Penny. “Unwanted” gifts, cosmetics, stationery, trinkets, jewellery.

4. PRODUCE — Daphne Lorimer. Home-made cakes, jams, marmalade, pickles, pastries.

5. GOOD-AS-NEW — Dorothy Newbury. Ladies’, gentlemen’s and children’s garments; to always and oddments such as balls of wool, remnants of material, etc.

6. BRIC-A-BRAC and VICTORIANA — Christine Arnott.

Contributions to any or all of these stalls will be most gratefully received. They can be brought to the January or February meetings, and there handed over to Mrs. Lorimer, Mrs. Newbury or Mrs. Arnott. Alternatively, if you care to telephone any of these three members, collection can be arranged. The earlier contributions are received, the more time there will be to sort and price them.

Another kind of help will also be welcome: if you can spare time to help with setting up, selling and clearing away, please let Mrs. Arnott have your name.

The Minimart is a social occasion, too — as last year, coffee and biscuits will be dispensed by Joan Bird; and there will be a small exhibit of photos of various HADAS occasions to look at and discuss.
The January Lecture — Napoleonic Defences and Martello Towers

The next HADAS lecture, on Tuesday January 6th, 1976, will be by one of our Vice-Presidents, Andrew Saunders, on a subject of which he has made a special study. Mr Saunders is an historian, who joined the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings in 1954. He was appointed Chief Inspector in 1972.

At various times in the past England has suffered the threat or reality of invasion. As a result the English Coast, particularly in the Southeast, is strewn with the remains of defensive systems thrown up to meet the exigences of their time.
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Nervous inhabitants of Britannia raised a string of forts along the Saxon Shore in an effort to retain their Roman way of life, while in 1588 defences were built against the danger of the Spanish Armada. Over two centuries later the threat came from Napoleon; and the Corsican “Torre del Martella” became the prototype for a defensive line of circular, brick-built Martello Towers from Aldeburgh in Suffolk to Seaford in Sussex. Between 1810-12 103 were built and 45 still survive. A backup system of signal stations, from Portsmouth and Deal to London, were also created. These Napoleonic defences will be the subject of Andrew Saunders lecture.
Looking Ahead

These are the HADAS lectures for the rest of the winter:
Feb. 3 – Medieval York – P. V. Addyman MA
Mar. 2 – Vernacular Architecture – Joan Harding FSA
Apr. 6 – There was no road to Petra – Betty Hellings-Jackson

Meetings are held at the Central library,, The Burroughs, NW4, starting at 8.00p.m. with coffee. The lecture follows about 8.30p.m.
The Parish Boundary Survey — A Progress Report

By Paddy Musgrove.

The London Borough of Barnet covers an area of 35 square miles, so the length of its perimeter is considerable. If we add to this the lengths of all the internal boundaries of the ancient parishes, it is obvious that the HADAS boundary survey project must be a long-term activity. For that reason it was decided last spring to launch a pilot scheme designed to establish (a) the most appropriate forms of investigation and recording, and (b) the suitability of the activity for our junior members and for school groups within the area.

Results have been encouraging. As the volume of reports, drawings and photographs of located boundary markers increases, we shall clearly have to refine some of our methods for handling the paperwork. Basic procedures, however, seem to be correct. As for the participation of school groups, Elizabeth Eveleigh’s report in the November Newsletter indicated the enthusiasm with which four students from Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School entered into the field work. Their final reports formed part of a HADAS exhibit to the recent Local History Conference of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, exciting considerable interest among other societies. The exhibit will be on show to HADAS members that are January meeting.

The boundaries so far surveyed are in the south end of the Borough, extending from the Finchley Road to the Kenwood area (Hendon/Hampstead, Finchley/Hampstead and Finchley/Hornsey boundaries). It is hoped to start work soon on other sections to the east and north of the modern Borough.

We have learnt that careful map research is needed before the outdoor workers set off to locate, clean, draw, photograph (and sometimes excavate!) the stones and other markers. Comparisons of the recent and the 1862-68 OS 25 inch plans indicate boundary changes and point at which markers have been inserted or resited. Maps of intermediate date have also yielded extra information, and we foresee instances where it will probably be necessary to consult the tythe maps.

Ultimately, we shall have information leading to the establishment of a typology of boundary stones, posts and other markers over a period of about 200 years. A study of the Vestry and Local Board Minutes can yield information concerning the placement of individual markers, the Rogationtide beating of the bounds, the historical reasons for minor boundary changes and similar matters of interest to the local historian.
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Research of this type, though of interest, can however wait. The urgent problem is to locate and record the existing boundary markers and, where necessary, preserve them. Since the old boroughs were incorporated into the London Borough of Barnet, practical reasons for their retention have disappeared. Some have been removed to facilitate recent road improvements or in the interests of private gardening. Some iron boundary posts have already rusted into illegibility and all the others need de-rusting and protection by paint or other means.

Our need, therefore, is for more hands — and feet — to carry out both the preliminary map work and the search and recording in the field. In addition, although ordinary “snap-shot” technique is good enough for most of recording, more experienced photographers are needed for certain problem locations.

Christine Arnott and I will be glad to hear from volunteers in any capacity.
Edgware Field Walk

On 14 December Daphne Lorimer and Ann Trewick organised a field walk in the northwest corner of the Borough, in the vicinity of Bury Farm. After obtaining permission to walk from Mr Shepherd at the Farm, they chose Field Number 5831 on the OS plan TQ 18/94 for the exercise, as this had recently been ploughed.

The walk started at the southeast corner of the field. The party went up the eastern side as far as the boundary fence with the M1 motorway. It then turned across the field to the western boundary and back again. Some interesting pieces were found, including building material, tobacco pipes, glass and pottery. As it was possible to walk over only a small area, it is hoped to do a further walk in January. Members interested in taking part in this second walk should get in touch with Mrs. Lorimer for details. After the second walk, and when the material already found has been fully studied, a further report will be made.

HADAS would like to take this opportunity of recording its thanks to Mr Shepherd for kindly permitting the walk to take place.
HADAS at Work

A report on a three processing weekends held recently acts of the Teahouse, Northway, NW11.

Any member who participated in these weekends will know that they were distinguished by an atmosphere of nose-to-the-grindstone concentration. 25 different members took part, some only for occasional sessions; but a hard core (and hard-working core, too) of ten turned up most days. Those with experience of handling Roman Pottery dealt with the Brockley Hill material; others worked on finds from Church Terrace.

The Church Terrace contingent finished washing the animal bones from the Saxon ditches, marked them and boxed them for sending to Don Brothwell at the Institute of Archaeology. Mr Brothwell, a leading expert on bones and a member of the team which uncovered the Piltdown forgery, has kindly agreed to examine and report on the Church Terrace bones.

Subsequently more work was done on the Church Terrace pottery, particularly on weighing the body-sherds in order to assess the total amount of pottery coming from each level.

On the Roman side the complete indexing, drawing and/or photography of two important of Brockley Hill types – amphorae and flagons – was finished. Amphorae divide into two main types — long and short necked — with one or two sub-types under each main heading.

Flagons fall into many more types, the principal ones made at Brockley Hill being disc-mouthed, pinch-mouthed and ring-necked; ring-necked flagons in turn have many sub-types, according to the number of rings, the length or shortness of the neck and the angle of its expansion. Commonest type is ring-necked, single-handled flagons with 4 neck-rings.
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A good start was made, too, on completing the index of jars – cordoned wide-mouthed jars; “honey” jars (they take their name from the fact that one of the first found at the word “Mel” scratched on the side); roll-rimmed jars; and storage jars. These latter provided many different rim shapes; probably most of them were imports to Brockley Hill, and were not made there. Two, for instance, in coarse pinkware tempered with iron pyrites, may be oil amphorae fragments from Spain.

In course of studying the jar fragments, a number of sherds were observed as being a very similar to ware found a recently at Highgate Wood. About 40 Highgate-type sherds from Brockley Hill are therefore to be studied by Harvey Sheldon, who directed the Highgate dig and is now Archaeological Field Officer to the Museum of London. It is hoped to have some of them thin-sectioned, to prove whether they were made at Brockley Hill, were imported from Highgate or came from the yet a third site. The results of such a study would provide interesting information about both the Highgate and the Brockley Hill potters.
HADAS at Play

A light-hearted report of a light-hearted occasion by Helen Gordon.

The famous HADAS Annual Examination took place as usual this year on Friday 5 December, invigilated with decorum by that well-known Educationalist and Alumnus of Oxford, Mr John Enderby. 20 questions on subjects ranging from middens to strigils gave cause for serious thought to some 80 aspiring Candidates; for remarks being claimed by only one Examinee whom it was later found necessary to disqualify for failing to comply with the rules — a sad reflection on the state of morals of some of the Younger Generation, and aptly demonstrating the need to study the Noble Ideals of our Golden Past so rightly emphasised by our Society in its incessant search for the Minutiae revealed in our painstaking and meticulous excavations.

The Examination also included an Anthropological section based on the Evolution of our illustrious Committee from the Ape, a pictographical test on local nomenclature, a section on the Roman Apparel in Northern Climes, and a Practical Examination in the latest Chinese Method of Excavation. (But it is to be regretted that the medals awarded were too ephemeral to provide much information for the archaeologists of the future.) We were much indebted to Pam Selby and Margaret Musgrove for the soundness of the examination.

All candidates were entertained to a most splendid Yuletide Banquet generously donated by our members, skilfully planned and directed by Irene Frauchiger, the liquor flowing freely under the expert and of moustachioed Colin Evans and his pretty wife Ann; later the Company were delighted by Christmas Carols sung divinely by Andrew MacGregor with the support of all present and accompanied tunefully by George Ingram on a Clarinet.

In fact, so well combined were the elements of noble Self Improvement and Entertainment, that our forward-looking Society might well suggest to our Borough that, in these times of financial stringency, far-reaching economies might be achieved by combining all schools, colleges, restaurants and public houses in multi-purpose units…..

… in other words, the HADAS annual Christmas party went with its usual hilarious swing, and our thanks go to all who contributed to it, in cash, in kind and in smiling service.

Newsletter

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New Look Party

Happy Christmas, everyone! To open the festivities we are looking forward to meeting you all at the HADAS Christmas party on Friday 5 December at 166 Station Road, NW4 at 7.45p.m.

Most of the organisers of this year’s party are trying their hands for the first time and are full of fresh ideas. Irene Frauchiger has some mouth-watering notions for the buffet, with wine. Pam Selby and Margaret Musgrove have got together about entertainment — their advice is don’t bring your trowel to this archaeological event, but do bringing a pencil for light-hearted quizzes — positively nothing of brain-stretching.

The experienced hand on the tiller will be that of John Enderby, who has compered many a HADAS party. As master of ceremonies he’ll carry us along at a spanking pace. No Tombola this year, by the way — but a hamper and sherry raffle instead.
HADAS Field Walk

To give yourself an appetite for Christmas, how about joining a special HADAS field-walk in the historic Bury Farm/Brockley Hill area (Bury Farm was the centre of the mediaeval manor of Edgware, Brockley Hill’s Roman Connections needed no introduction to HADAS members) on Sunday, 14 December? Organisers Daphne Lorimer and Ann Trewick plan to start at 10.00a.m. from a rendezvous at Spur Road roundabout on the A41, at the entrance to Green Lane.

If you intend to join us, please ring Daphne Lorimer and let her know, in case there is any last-minute change of plan.
Other Dates Ahead

HADAS lectures for the second half of the Winter will be:
Jan. 6 – Napoleonic Defences – Andrew Saunders MA FSA
and Martello Towers
Feb. 3 – Medieval York – P. V. Addyman MA
Mar. 2 – Vernacular Architecture – Joan Harding FSA
Apr. 6 – There was no road to Petra – Betty Hellings-Jackson

You might like also to note that:

Saturday morning, 6 March, will be the HADAS Minimart, Henry Burden Hall, Egerton Gardens, NW4.

Starting 27 April and each Tuesday evening thereafter for six weeks at the HGS Institute, lecture course on the Mesolithic, run by Desmond Collins in connection with next Spring’s HADAS dig.

Note: the Mesolithic course is University sponsored and therefore limited to 25 students. HADAS members and those in Camden History Society who wish to participate will have priority in bookings until 29 February. Members would be wise to sign on soon with John Enderby, as even within our and Camden’s membership it will have to be first come, first served.
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Hampstead Garden Suburb Boundary Markers

In at the last Newsletter Raymond Lowe asks for information about a cast iron plate attached to a tree in the garden of 33 Denman Drive, NW11.

This is a Finchley boundary marker. Another in slightly better condition may be seen not many yards away, attached to a garden fence on the western boundary of Little Wood. A third, bearing the same “tree and castle” emblem but in a different style, stands in Addison Way, close to its junction with Erskine Hill. There is probably another on the western end of Big Wood, but concealed by garden rubbish.

Mr ealso refers to an iron post close to the tree marker in Denman Drive. This too is a Boundary marker. Although it has been uprooted, there is no reason to think it has been moved more than a yard or so from its correct site. It is, according even to the latest 6 in. OS map, just where it ought to be, as is another of the same type still in situ in a back garden to the east of Erskine Hill. This now shows only about 9 in. above ground level.

Because of the relative positions of the plates and posts, it seems most likely that the latter were erected by Hendon, but this is a matter which will be settled when the boundary survey can be extended to that portion of the Finchley-Hendon boundary which runs through the Suburb. None of the markers which I have mentioned has yet been fully studied or recorded, as the survey has not yet reached that stretch of the boundary.
World Archaeology

A report on the last HADAS lecture by Daphne Lorimer.

At our November lecture Dr John Alexander took HADAS by the scruff of its collective neck out of its parochial trench on a survey of Archaeology throughout the world. In his view, it is in this broad vision that the future of Archaeology lies.

Not only is Archaeology the only discipline which gives any information about a large period of mankind’s history, but archaeological finds are accepted by all countries and races. This has a unifying effect and, in Dr. Alexander’s opinion, could well be the future basis of the teaching of history in schools the world over.

The concept of world archaeology has evolved only in the last 10-15 years and has been taught and studied only in the last five; only since the 1940s have archaeologists been at work in every country so that an international framework of information could be built up. In every country, too, a vast amount of information awaits the excavator — far more than was envisaged even a few years ago — due too many new techniques (such, for instance, as palaeobotany). Dating methods haveve improved and it is possible to compare mankind’s development during 3,000,000 years between one country and another.

The movement of man can also be studied. Australia was colonised 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, apparently by boat. The inhabitants of South America came southwards down the western side of their continent, with civilisations ultimately so advanced that archaeologists are forced to question the hitherto-accepted theory that civilisation began in the Middle East.

Dr Alexander went on to describe the calculation of the size of a group in a hunter-gatherer area, not only in Europe but among Red Indians and Australian aborigines; he examined the world centres of the domestication of animals and plants and theories of the dissemination of indigenous growth of cultures and techniques.

In short, he gave HADAS members a glimpse into the huge sum of knowledge to which their mite can contribute — and when one is overwhelmed by the vastness of world archaeology, it is comforting to reflect that the parochial trench is part of it, too.
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St. James the Great, Friern Barnet

During the last nine months Ann Trewick has reported in the Newsletter several times on the progress of the dig on this site, which ended two months ago. Below is her final summing up of the excavation.
The Objectives of the Dig

In 1973 HADAS was asked for advice by the authorities of St. James the Great. A tombstone had been lifted in the churchyard near the east wall of the Church (rebuilt 1853), in order to take it inside for display. The stone commemorated Sir William Oldes (d. 1718) Knight Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to Queen Anne. As a result a brickwork corner had been revealed.

The Rector wished this to be further investigated (a) in case it was connected with an earlier church on the site; (b) to find out the original position of Sir William Oldes’ tomb, as his tombstone was thought to have been moved previously. Owing to other commitments, HADAS could not start digging until February, 1975. Meantime, the hole above the brickwork was backfilled.
The Excavation

Initially two trenches were opened, each 2 m square with 1 m baulks. They were sited outside the east wall of the south aisle. This wall provides a datum line, the datum point being taken at the corner between the south buttress and the east wall of the Church. Trench A started 1/2 a meter north of the datum point, with Trench B to its east.
Trench A

Three vaults and all burials discovered, except one, occurred in this trench. Our first action was to reopen the 1973 hole. This revealed the brickwork of Vault 1 at 10 cm below ground surface. Adjacent, on the south side of the trench, more brickwork of Vault 3 was uncovered. Between was a smaller vault, No. 2.

During the dig Trench A was extended in two directions: northwards by 25 cm to enable the brass coffin plate and the lead coffin with which it is associated to be cleared; and westwards into Trench A1 (see below).

Apart from burials and vaults, the only feature uncovered in Trench A, at 125 cm below ground level on the north side, was an area of large cobbles over smaller stones. The area was too small for it to be possible to interpret the purpose of these laid cobbles. The trench was excavated natural and the baulk between Trenches A and B was removed, exposing the full length of Vault 1.
Trench A1

At the request of the authorities we investigated the foundations of the east wall of the church within the north-south limits of Trench A, which was therefore extended up to the Church wall.

It was hoped to find the foundations of the earlier church. What in fact was demonstrated was the very shallow foundations of the 1853 church — only 50 cm below modern ground surface. Some floor tiles were noted among the foundation stones. At some stage underpinning had been necessary, as a concrete shelf was uncovered, 1 meter long. When later the south baulk was removed this concrete continued towards to the south buttress.
Trench B

This trench was dominated by Vault 1 which allowed little space in which to work. The vault had been cut by the laying of a drain. In fact 2 drains were found: one of brick-and-tile against the east section of the trench, possibly pre-dating the 1853 Church; and a twentieth-century drain running across the trench at the floor level of Vault 1, about 180 cm below ground surface. This effectively stopped digging and natural was never reached in this trench.
The Finds

Small finds included a boar’s tusk, oyster shells and bottle glass, as well as fragments of stained glass and building materials. Some of these may relate to the earlier church — a possibility which is still being studied. The most interesting finds were connected with the burials, both in the vaults and outside them.
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Vault 1

This was a brick structure measuring at least 2.7 m long, 1.44 m wide and 1.6 m high, built to contain one or at most two coffins. The length could not be precisely determined because the end had been destroyed by the drain. The vault contained a single burial, in a wooden coffin. The wood was much decayed, but had been decorated with small brass studs; there was no coffin plate. On top of the coffin was found part of a clay tobacco pipe, dated 1700-1760, and thought probably to belong to the earlier part of that period.
Vault 2

This was small and of brick, measuring 1.54 m 76 cm. It was shallow and could have been a child’s grave. It appeared to have been disturbed and the bones were not of one individual.
Vault 3

This was the family tomb of the Bretton family, who were intimates of Sir William Oldes. It was investigated, at the Rector’s suggestion, at the end of the dig. Only part was revealed, because the top is still covered by a large, commemorative slab. The entrance was not excavated — a small hole in the brickwork permitted the interior to be seen. Steps within led down from the bricked up entrance.

Two undisturbed lead coffins lay in the vault. These had been decorated with studs probably pressed into a wooden coffin encasing the lead one. Lead coffin plates were affixed. Lying on top were secondary coffin plates recording the names of Mrs. Frances Bretton (d. 1742) and her daughter, Susannah Crewys (d. 1756). There had been other burials within the vault, but flooding had clearly caused much decay. The vault was re-sealed. Vault 1 seems to have been inset into Vault 3.
The Lead Coffin

The first indication of this was an unattached brass coffin played, beautifully engraved, recording of the death of Samuel Crewys in 1746. Soon after finding this, a damaged lead coffin was excavated. On the lid was a lead plate also recording Samuel Crewys’ death. This coffin was elaborately decorated with brass studs set into the wood. Its length was at 195 cm, width 63 cm, average height 35 cm. Samuel Crewys was the husband of Susannah Crewys, née Bretton. The slab above the Bretton vault records his burial near by. The coffin was reburied as near its original position as possible.
Other Burials

Two other burials in a wooden coffins were recorded — one under the lead coffin, the other under Vault 2. Another burial was noted within the north baulk of Trench A, also below the level of the lead coffin. The burial under the small vault gave the earliest date of the excavation, on a much decayed coffin plate where 169-was just visible.

All bones moved during the excavation work carefully re-buried in Vault 1.
Summary

Although the hoped for objectives were not achieved, this dig provided valuable excavation experience and many interesting side lights on eighteenth century social history. Problems arising from working in a churchyard were tackled and much was learnt. That Sir William Oldes was buried in Vault 1 has not been proved by evidence; nor, however, is there anything to suggest that the occupant of Vault 1 was not Sir William. The fact that the foundations of the early at Church were not found suggests the possibility that they may like within the confines of the present Church.

Our thanks are due to the Rector, Canon Gilmore, and to all those connected with the Church for the unfailing support and interest in the dig.

Newsletter

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The Boundary Marker Survey – Help from Queen Elizabeth’s

Welcome, if unexpected, help was obtained this summer by the Boundary Marker Survey team from pupils at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet. It was with great pleasure that we include an account of their activities by Elizabeth Eveleigh this Newsletter: —

At the end of the 1975 Summer Term, Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School Barnet, allowed the pupils who had finished their “O” level examinations to partake in out-of-school activities. Four of us were very interested in archaeological work. I therefore contacted Mrs. Grafton Green who knew that Mrs. Arnott was in charge of a survey of the boundaries of all the local parishes. Paddy Musgrove, who very kindly organised everything for us, gave us the section of the Finchley parish boundary that lies in Hampstead Heath — which proved a very lovely section.

Armed with maps and dressed for battling our way through the holly and bracken of Hampstead Heath, we started the survey. A large number of the boundary stones lay in the grounds of Kenwood House. A great amount of our time was enjoyably spent in these beautiful surroundings and in glorious summer weather. We cleaned up the boundary stones (some of the earlier ones dated from the eighteenth century), photographed them and later, in the comfort of our homes, compiled a report for HADAS and for the School.

We were unable to find some of the stones as they had been taken away by the owners of the land in which they lay or because we were refused entry by owners. We were, however, generally accepted with helpful enthusiasm; one lady telling us the history of her house, and another cleaning out a broom cupboard where the boundary stone lay so that we could record it. To us, the survey was a worthwhile and enjoyable project and taught us a great deal and we hope that efforts have been of some use to the Society.
Cast Iron Boundary Markers

By Raymond Lowe.

Fixed to an oak tree in the corner of 33 Denman Drive,NW11 is a cast iron plate. The boundary of the garden was, (until our masters saw fit to make our Borough larger than several well-known sovereign states) the boundary between the old boroughs of Finchley and Hendon and the plate marks the spot. The plate has been on the tree for 40 years — possibly longer. The tree, however, has made no growth around it thus possibly indicating that the plate does not pre-date the foundation of the Garden Suburb. Below is appended a description of the plate in the hope that one of our members may know of a similar one and be able to help with identification.

Shape: rhomboid with four straight sides. The height is 10 1/2 inches, the top width 9 in. and bottom width 9 3/4 in.

Description: there is a 1 in. border at the bottom and side borders which are 1 in. wide at the bottom but only 5/8 in. at the top. The corners are raised. A large downward pointing arrow is situated immediately above the centre of the bottom border. Top centre, there is a rectangular shield 4 1/2 in. by 4 1/2 in. bearing on the device of, on the left hand side, a deciduous tree and on the right hand, a tower with a possible twin turret on its right. They both stand on raised ground. On and parallel to either side are two words.
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The plate is fixed to the tree by a bolt through each of its four corners. Also found in the same garden under a compost heap is another cast iron object 3 ft 10 in. tall by 9 in. wide with a beaded edge 1 1/2 in. thick and having an internal depth of 1/2 in. The remains of a legend runs round the top, inside the beaded edge, and the word PARISH can possibly be deciphered across the face together with the date 1864 underneath. The post has a foot, 14 in. wide and 1 in. thick to prevent it from being pulled from the ground. The piece is obviously not in situ and raises doubts about the bona fides of the other — is there is a collector’s corner for boundary markers?

Should any members have ideas or help to offer, I would be glad to know. It is hoped to show photographs at one of the lectures. Finally, I must express my thanks to Mrs. Nell Penny for allowing access to her garden.
Hadrian’s Wall – September 26/28 1975

By Helen Gordon.

When a brand new coach swept us off to Hadrian’s Wall early on the morning of Friday 26 September, we began a weekend’s expedition which fully matched the Romans’ military campaigns in the brilliancy of execution. From small details, such as the ready typed labels for our thermos flasks, to the provision of the excellent Mr Timothy Newman, research assistant at the University of Newcastle’s Museum of Antiquities, as mentor throughout, the weekend went without a hitch — save for the weather on Saturday. How it rained! As Mr Newman stood, cheerfully lecturing, on one Roman pile after another, cap on head and coat flapping in the wind, looking not unlike a young Lenin haranguing the multitudes, we became more and more sodden; but undaunted, we missed nothing of our programme.

Briefly, our itinerary included a visit to the Newcastle Museum of Antiquities on our arrival on Friday, followed by a drive along the wall to our HQ, the Twice Brewed Inn; visits to Hexham Abbey, Corbridgre (Corstopitum), Chesters (Cilurnum), and Chesterholm (Vindolanda) on the wet Saturday ; and visits on Sunday morning in perfect weather to Carrawburg (Brocolita) – fort and Mithraeum – and Housesteads (Vercovicium), followed by a walk along the beautiful stretch of the wall climbing high along the cliffs overlooking Carg Lough between Housesteads and Steel Rigg car park; milecastles and turrets and the native settlement of Milking Gap were examined on the way.

We were thus enabled to follow the history of this, the furthest northern Roman frontier; first, the pre-Hadrianic Stanegate, the road with its line of forts including Corstopitum and Vindolanda built by Agricola, just south of where Hadrian subsequently put his wall. Hadrian’s wall was originally intended to be used in conjunction with these forts, but as the 80 Roman miles of wall were built, plans changed; it was found more suitable for the forts to be actually on the wall, the Cavalry forts even jutting out to the north, as we saw at Cilurnum and Vercovicium.

The forts themselves provide much interesting evidence of the Roman army’s way of life — the care devoted to the storage of grain in the large granaries with their raised, ventilated floors; the well-designed water and drainage systems, with bath houses, water tanks (lead lined), and latrines equipped with a flow of clean water for dipping the sponges used in place of toilet paper and the contrast between the comfortable, heated quarters of the Commandant and the barracks of the lower ranks. We saw also the evidence that, as time went on, women were allowed to live with their men in domestic quarters. Much else deserves mention: the scraps of cloth, the leather and shoes, the fragments of writing on tablets excavated and on display at Vindolanda and much sculpture and quantities of inscriptions which are, of course, a mine of information about troop movements and individuals.
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The Wall demonstrates the grandeur of Hadrian’s vision and under his reign the Roman Empire reached its greatest prosperity. Yet there was a sadness in him and he wrote this, is only poem to be preserved, shortly before he died:
O blithe little soul, thou, flitting away
Guest and comrade of this my clay,
Whither now goest thou, to what place,
Bare and ghastly and without grace?
Nor, as thy wont was, joke and play.
Report on the October Lecture

By Derek Grant.

Question: what have a BBC transmitter on the Wrekin, the XIV Legion, a fire in a market place, a gymnasium larger than Canterbury Cathedral, a sixth century palace and a lion a ring in common?

Answer: the erection of a BBC transmitter on the Wrekin was preceded by a small excavation which showed that the iron age inhabitants (the Cornovii) lived in square huts at a considerable population density and that the hill forts were permanent settlements to the hill towns of Italy today.

The XIVth legion constructed a military fortress at Wroxeter, whose existence and shadowy outline in the basal sand were only discovered a few years ago. When the Legion advanced to Chester, Wroxeter was developed as a planned town of 200 acres with a magnificent Civic Centre. The move from the closely packed hill fort to a large stone built town was literally entering a new world where one could pass the time exercising in the gymnasium and recover with a leisurely and convivial bath. The forum or market place, surmounted by a fine inscription to Hadrian, was likewise a source of wonder — especially one market day when it was dissolved into flames, spilling stall loads of merchandise into the gutter, to await archaeological rediscovery centuries later.

After Roman control slackened in the fifth century a native resurgence took place with a return to vernacular building styles, though judging by the dimensions of a sub-chieftain’s wooden palace on the site of the demolished gymnasium, they were capable of erecting generous structures.

Mr Toms, having recharged the memories of those of us who toured Wroxeter with him last year (and filled with envy the uninitiates who missed it) enlightened us with pictures of some of the most recent small finds — someone probably wept over the loss of the fine lion intaglio, the centurion may have been disciplined for losing his belt plate and who knows what happened to the husband who returned without his front door key?
Woodland Dig

By Alec Jeakins.

The possible road surface has been cleared and work lifting the pebbles has now started. More medieval pottery and two very worn and unidentifiable coins have been found, and it is hoped that the pieces of Herts ware (Medieval) from within the road surface may give some indication of a date. Digging will take place every Sunday (weather permitting) until the start of the processing weekends (November 15/16). I need more diggers on Sunday mornings, please come along if you are free — previous experience is not necessary.
Processing Weekend

Material from Brockley Hill and Hendon sites will be processed on the weekends of 15/16, 22/23, 29/30 November and the Teahouse of the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute. All members who would like to work with this material and help with this project, will be most welcome.
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November Lecture – World Archaeology

For the second lecture of the season, we are lucky to have a Dr John Alexander who is lecturer in Archaeology at The University of Cambridge. He will stimulate us and them make us think of this wider approach to Archaeology. Dr. Alexander is well known to many of us who have learnt from him in the course of taking the Diploma in Archaeology. Let us have another good attendance on November 4th.
Christmas Party – Friday December 5th

7.45p.m. at 166 Station Road, NW4. Superb Buffet with Wine! For our new members, come along and meet each other; for old members our annual festivities. Price: £1.20. Senior Citizens and Juniors £1. If transport is a problem, please ring any committee member and we will see if a lift can be arranged. If any member can offer something for the buffet or a raffle prize or item towards a Christmas hamper, please ring Mrs. Frauchiger or Mrs. Carrell. Tickets will be available at the lecture on November 4th from committee members, or at the door.
Mesolithic Dig/Lectures

Mr Desmond Collins will give a course of six weekly lectures on the Mesolithic period at the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, commencing on Tuesday 27 April 1976. Priority bookings for this course will be given to members of HADAS provided they apply, in writing, to Mr John Enderby at the Institute before the end of February. Cost: £1.50 for the course. The excavation of the Mesolithic site on Hampstead Heath will run concurrently with these lectures, starting on Saturday 1 May for two weeks and then every weekend.
Exhibitions and Lectures

FINCHLEY SOCIETY is sponsoring a Public Meeting at Christ’s College Finchley on 7 November on “Conservation and Rehabilitation of an Architectural Heritage”. The principal speaker will be Mr Donald Insall who will make particular reference to his work in Chester.

LAMAS. The 10th Local History Conference will be held in the Livery Hall at Guildhall, EC2, on Saturday 15 November. An exhibit by HADAS will be included. Doors open at 1.30p.m. conference starts at 2.30p.m. admission by ticket only obtainable from to the Hon. Sec., Local History Committee. Cost £0.50 (including tea). Cheques payable to London and Middlesex Archaeological Society.

CHURCH FARM HOUSE MUSEUM. The Hendon times is celebrating its centenary with an exhibition of photographs and reproductions which show “The Changing Times 1875-1975” in the north and north west of London. Closes 23 November.

BRITISH MUSEUM – ANATOLIAN ROOM. Christine Arnott writes: I would like to draw your attention to the new Iranian and Anatolian Rooms that are now open to the public for the first time, as part of the major rearrangement in the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities. These rooms on the upper floor of the Museum are designed to demonstrate cultural changes in Iran and Anatolia over a period of 3,000 years. Those members who are taking the second year Diploma in Archaeology will be pleased with the material displayed in the Anatolian section. I found the simplicity of the exhibit focussed more attention on the objects shown — for example the clay tablets from Kultepe, a trading colony in Cappadocia (Central Anatolia) established about 1800 BC, were shown with enclosing “envelope”. Their writings translated for us give details of the business transactions and private problems of one man. One of the more attractive finds is a silver bull with gold inlays, possibly from Alaja Huyuk, c. 2500 BC, although some members may find the Urartian furniture fitting in the form of a human-headed winged bull more fascinating (8th-7th century BC).
Don’t Forget – HADAS has for sale
“Blue Plaques of Barnet”
“Chroniclers of the Battle or Barnet”
Ball-point Pens and Notelets

See Yellow Insert.

Newsletter

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October Lecture

The first lecture for Winter 1975/1976 will be on Tuesday 7 October. Mr Geoffrey Toms, M.A. from Attingham Park, Shropshire Adult Education College, and secretary of Shropshire Archaeological Society is coming to talk to us on Archaeology in that county and particularly Wroxeter. Many members will remember visiting the Roman Settlement there during our Shropshire weekend last October, and the first class talk and slides given by Mr Toms. He has been associated with the direction of the excavations over a number of years. This will be an excellent lecture — don’t miss it.

In AD 48, the line of advance of the 12th and 14th legions reached the River Severn, and a base camp from which to subdue the Welsh tribes was established. Viroconium, the civil settlement on the site, where Watling Street crosses the Severn, probably dates from AD 75. By the middle of the second century AD the city had become very prosperous and was the fourth largest in the country. Gradual decay from the second half of the third century led to final abandonment.
Location of Lectures

For the benefit of our many new members, lectures — usually accompanied by slides — are held on the first Tuesday of each month in the Winter (except December), at Hendon Library, The Burroughs, NW4 at 8.00p.m. We start with coffee and biscuits — £0.05. The lecture commences about 8.20 to 8.30. Members are welcome to bring friends for one lecture, but if they wish to come to subsequent lectures they should be encouraged to become members of the Society. Buses 83 and 143 pass the door, 113 and 240 pass a few minutes’ walk away, and Hendon Central Underground is ten minutes’ walk. Will new members please introduce themselves to any committee member present.
Beware the Treasure Hunters

By Paddy Musgrove.

Every archaeologist is on the lookout for chance finds. A scatter of gravel or sherds in a ploughed field can lead to the discovery of a Roman road or villa. Sometimes the articles found can have an intrinsic interest or value, such as the rare type of Neolithic jade axe, recently founded by a small boy in Hendon (July Newsletter), or the staggering horde of church silver found near Peterborough (Sunday Times, 14 September). Dated back to the third century, the latter is by far the earliest church plate found anywhere in the world, and it has been estimated that the lucky finder may collect £70,000 as an award for treasure trove.

The possibility of financial gain has swollen the numbers of amateur and professional “treasure hunters”, now with their own clubs, publications, and specialist dealers who promote the sale of metal detectors and other equipment. Regrettably one such dealer recently received favourable publicity in the Barnet Press. Although most supporters of treasure hunting profess high ethical standards of behaviour, this one had no such scruples. Claiming to have found “hundreds” of valuable items, some dating back to the first century, within a 10 mile radius of Potters Bar, he advocates research to establish the sites of old settlements. He then advises: “Once you find a good site, you don’t even tell your best friend where it is.”
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100,000 metal detectors are in use in this country, mostly in the hands of unskilled and irresponsible people. Their use on our beaches to find holiday-makers’ lost coins is a comparatively innocent occupation, although even here finds of archaeological importance have occurred, only a fraction of which can have been reported. The pillaging of protected sites has, however, reached such a stage that the government is considering raising the fine for such activities from £20 to £400. The usefulness of this can, however, be judged by the fact that although over 100 such sites have been damaged, in the past ten years there have been only half-a-dozen successful prosecutions. And what of the hundreds of thousands of sites which are not “protected” or even yet discovered?

Excavation of a site, whether by a skilled archaeologist or by a vandal with a metal detector, is an irrevocable act. The archaeologist, however, accumulates knowledge and publishes it. The treasure hunter destroys for ever the possibility of useful investigation. At best, he fails to record the actions he has taken; at worst, he conceals them.

Each of us can play an important part in ensuring that chance finds, however made, are properly noted and protected. By being known in our neighbourhoods as HADAS members, we may well be approached for identification of objects or for advice. Information so gained can then be passed on to the Society so that appropriate action can be taken.
The September Outing

A report by Ted Sammes.

There was good support for the last day-outing of the season which was to West Kent, and it was a pity that the organisers Ann and Colin Evans were prevented by other commitments from being present to enjoy the day.

We set off on a sunny morning and stopped for a coffee break at Badgers Mount. First visit to was to Knole, one of the largest private houses in England. It was begun by Thomas Bouchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1456, and was greatly extended about 1603 by Thomas Sackville in whose family it to remained until being given into the care of the National Trust.

The house has three courtyards and after passing these we entered the very impressive great hall. In the state rooms we saw a large collection of pictures, rare furniture, rugs and tapestries. The silver was possibly the greatest attraction, both where used to ornament firedogs and that in the Kings Room where the furniture was heavily covered with patterned silver.

Time was next allotted to eating our lunch, and for those of us who were elected for the fresh air we found that nice though the deer might look, they had very aggressive ways of getting fed!

The Roman Villa at Lullingstone was next stop, and after a few introductory remarks we were free to wander and look at the site and the exhibits. The fourth century mosaic pavements were very fine and an even better impression was gained of these and the villa as a whole when we climbed the stairs to the upper floor of the exhibition. The painting of the water nymphs in the deep room came in for some discussion, as also did the simple display of roofing (Imbrex and Tegula).

Our final visit was to Eynsford Castle, probably first built about 1088. Much of the massive curtain wall is still standing but in a very much heightened condition. In the centre we saw the remains of the undercrofts of the solar and great hall — a small and easily comprehended castle. Tea was provided in the village hall by the local Women’s Institute and consisted home-made fare — this was voted a winner. After tea some of the party visited the church, parts of which have Norman work but is more obviously 13th to 14th century. As we left the rain started, surely a day could not have been better timed?
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Down on the Farm

Shire Album 10: Old Farm Buildings, 32 pp booklet by Nigel Harvey, MA., ARICS., 45p.

Many members will have become familiar in recent years with Shire Publications “Discovering” series, particularly in their excellent Regional Archaeologies. What may not be so well known are the Shire “Albums”, devoted to topographical and rural themes and presented in a mixture of photos, prints, engravings and text. We are happy to say that the latest of these, No. 10 is by a HADAS member of long standing, Mr Nigel Harvey. It is on the subject of Old Farm Buildings, on which Mr Harvey is a considerable expert. His full-length History of Farm Buildings in England and Wales (published 1970) is already considered a standard work, and he was for many years advisor on farm buildings to the Ministry of Agriculture and then to the Agricultural Research Council.

His present booklet covers barns, granaries, cartsheds, cattle buildings and urban cowhouses, dairies, stables, piggeries, dovecots and oasthouses, finishing off with some notes on “how the farmhouse fitted together.” There is also a “further reading” list, and a list of places to visit to see old farm buildings at their best. The booklet is lavishly illustrated with photos of high quality and interesting prints. Altogether a good buy.

Some of the other Shire “Album” series might also interest members: Vintage Farm Machines; Fire-marks; Canals and Canal Architecture; Old Farm Tools; Old British Livestock; Bottles and Bottle Collecting; Haunted Houses; Canal Barges and Narrow Boats; and Pillow Lace and Bobbins.

Mr Harvey has kindly presented a copy of “Old Farm Buildings” to the HADAS book box, for which the Society is most grateful.
Type-fossil of the 1930s

What would you choose as the type-structure of the late 1930s — the sort of thing which, when an archaeologist of the future excavate a twentieth-century site, will make him pinpoint it with near certainty to the years 1938-41 in the same way that a prehistorian, coming upon a round barrow, begins at once to mutter “Early Bronze Age” and to discuss Beaker cultures?

HADAS’s experience this summer suggests that the Anderson shelter will be the characteristic building. Already it is starting to crop up surprisingly often as a “find”. In July we were invited to inspect a “structure” found in the front garden of a house in The Burroughs, NW4, by a patriotic citizen intent on putting her front garden down to cabbages. This proved to be a concrete rectangle, about 6 ft by 4 ft, with walls standing some 18 in. high, and sunk to a depth of 3 1/2 ft. below ground surface. The thing above everything else which gave it away, however, was the fluted surface of the exterior wall.

A few weeks later an excited resident of a house in Cotswold Gardens, NW2, telephoned to say that in the dry spell his sons, playing in the back garden, had warn both grass and away to such an extent that walls were appearing where once the grass had been. He started to describe the walls which sounded interesting until the adjective “fluted” again crept into the conversation — and then the measurements, material and wall-type all came together to produce another Anderson. We predict that this particular enquiry is going to crop up at regular intervals from now on.
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Woodlands Dig

The excavation commenced on Sunday 17 August, 2 three-metre square trenches been opened at right angles to the Golders Green Road. Both have produced dark gritty medieval pottery and a small piece of Surrey ware in trench 2. At a depth of 32-50 cms a compacted uneven road surface has been reached. This will be fully uncovered before going any deeper. Because of the limited number of diggers that can be accommodated, diggers are asked to ring Alec Jeakins beforehand. There will be no digging on Sunday 28 September.
Exhibition News

Newsletter 53 reported a forthcoming exhibition in which HADAS members are playing a large part — the Suburb Heritage exhibition to be mounted soon in Hampstead Garden Suburb in celebration of European Architectural Heritage Year.

This is just to remind members that the exhibition will take place at the Henrietta Barnett Junior School, Bigwood Road, NW11, from 27 October to 1 November. It will be open each weekday from 2 p.m. until 9.00p.m. and on Saturday, 1 November from 10.00a.m. to 9 p.m., and should be well worth a visit.

The main emphasis will be on the architecture of the Suburb, with displays of house plans by the early architects — and house plans at the turn-of-the-century were hand-coloured, meticulously drawn in great detail and altogether more interesting to look at house plans today. There will also be biographical material on architects such has Sir Raymond Unwin, the “father of town planning”, Sir Edwin Lutyens, acknowledged as the greatest English architect of this century, Baillie Scott, with his close links with the Arts and Crafts movement, and many others. The more general history of the early Suburb will also be shown, with information about the Suburb’s founder, Henrietta Barnett, and the circle of co-founders who helped her to launch the venture.

This autumn will also see a display by HADAS at the Turret Gallery, 37 Friern Barnet Road, N11. The gallery has been kindly lent to us by the Barnet Borough Arts Council, to which HADAS is affiliated. The gallery has an attractive shop front on Friern Barnet Road, and we plan to display archaeological material from various parts of the Borough in the windows. On Saturdays we hope to man the shop, so that inquirers will be able to come in and get any details they want about the Society. Helen Gordon and Paddy Musgrove will be organising this exhibition, and will be very glad to hear from any members who would like to help, either with setting up or with stewarding on Saturday mornings.
The American War of Independence

By Christine Arnott. In view of the bicentenary of the start of the American War of Independence (1775-1783), there is currently a fascinating and comprehensive exhibition at the British Museum. Maps, manuscripts, cartoons and prints combine to illustrate graphically the history of the war and the attitudes of contemporaries. The skirmish between Redcoats and Minutemen at Lexington in 1775 that sparked off of the rebellion, ended in a revolution. All this is covered by the exhibition in at the King’s Library at the British Museum. It is open until 11 November and I urge you to visit it. A fully illustrated catalogue is available, also facsimilies and slides.
Subscriptions Reminder

Our Treasurer asks all members who have not yet paid their 1975/6 subscriptions to do so at once. The rates for the year from 1 April are: full membership, £1; under 18, £0.65; senior citizen, £0.75. Subscriptions should be sent to Jeremy Clynes.
Assyrian Palace Reliefs

Members may be pleased to hear that the booklet on the Assyrian Palace reliefs —

NOTE: the rest of this paragraph disappears off the bottom of the page.

Newsletter

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The Winter Programme

At this time of year diaries come out and members begin to plan activities for the coming winter. To start with, therefore, here is a run-down on what he Programme Committee has in store for us all the first Tuesday evening of each month from October to April next:
Oct. 7 – Archaeology in Shropshire – Geoffrey Toms
including Wroxeter Roman site
Nov. 4 – World Archaeology – Dr. John Alexander
Jan. 6 – Napoleonic Defences – Andrew Saunders
and Martello Towers
Feb. 3 – Medieval York – P. V. Addyman
Mar. 2 – Vernacular Architecture – Joan Harding
Apr. 6 – There was no road to Petra – Betty Hellings-Jackson

A good and varied programme, we hope you will agree. It has been chosen with the particular aim of providing something for everyone, because in a Society as large as ours people have many diverse interests.

Meetings, which take place at Central Library, The Burroughs, NW4, will start at 8.00p.m. and the lecture will be preceded by coffee and biscuits. In addition to the above programme, there will be in December usual Christmas “happening” — details to be announced later.

As well as attending HADAS lectures, many members sign on for one or another of the courses in archaeology, local history or allied subjects which are provided by the University Extra-mural Department or WEAs in the area. Here are brief details of some of the courses available:

EXTERNAL DIPLOMA IN ARCHAEOLOGY (London University: 4 years). YEAR 1 (Archaeology of Palaeolothic and Mesolithic Man) — Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, Wednesdays, 7.30-9.30p.m.; lecturer Desmond Collins. YEAR 2 (Archaeology of Western Asia), same Institute, same time, Thursdays, lecturer D. Price Williams. There are no local courses for the year 3 (Prehistoric Europe) and 4 (various options), but these can be taken centrally at the Institute of Archaeology or at other non-local centres.

CERTIFICATE IN FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY (London University: 3 years). No local courses; all 3 years can be taken further afield.

DIPLOMA IN LOCAL HISTORY (London University: 4 years). No local courses; can be taken centrally at Senate House, Malet Street, WC1.

TUTORIAL CLASSES: the following local courses start in either of the week of September 21st or 28th; evening courses at either 7.30 or 8.00p.m.; cost £3-4; lecturers various; most courses are of 24-28 meetings:
Peoples of the Old Testament – Barnet College, Monday evenings
Archaeology of Western Europe, 1000 BC-1000 AD – Camden Institute, Thursday evenings
Greek civilisation – QE Girls’ School Barnet, Tuesday evenings
Londinium and Roman Britain – Middlesex Poly, Hendon, Wednesday evenings
Aspects of the Greek Arts – Edgware library, Monday evenings
Romans in the West – Barnet WEA, Friday mornings
Romans in the West – Friern Barnet WEA, Thursday mornings
Life in Regency and Victorian England – Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, Monday evenings
Legacy of the Anglo Saxons – H.G.S. Institute, Wednesday evenings
Late Victorian and Edwardian England – East Barnet Central library, Thursday evenings
The Victorians – Friern Barnet Library, Monday evenings
Victorian London – St. Margaret’s Parish Hall Edgware, Wednesday evenings

Further details of courses may be obtained from the Hon. Secretary.

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Summer Tailpiece

Having started with plans for the winter, we must now remind members that summer isn’t over yet. There are still two events to come in the 1975 summer programme.

On Saturday 13 September, the last one-day outing of the season will be to Knole and Lullingstone. The Roman Villa at Lullingstone will be well known to many HADAS members, but it is hoped that a fresh approach to the villa and its excavation will be provided, since our guide will be Lt. Col. G. W. Meates, who directed the original dig.

Knole House, a National Trust property, dates from 1456 in its earliest phase. It is set in fine parkland and the state rooms contain a large selection of seventeenth century furniture. An application form, which should be returned as soon as possible to Dorothy Newbury, is enclosed with this letter.

September 26-28 will see the Society taking coach for its second long weekend, this time at Hadrian’s Wall. Dorothy Newbury has filled all 48 available places at the moment, but sometimes there are cancellations. If any members would like to put their names on the waiting list, Dorothy will be delighted — she likes to have someone up her sleeve for an emergency.
Landscapes and Documents

By Colin Evans.

Recently, I was fortunate to attend an archaeological field surveying course tutored by Christopher Taylor of the Royal Commission for Historical Monuments. During the week, apart from providing a thorough grounding in basic surveying techniques and field archaeology, Chris took the opportunity of exposing us to his ideas and theories “total archaeology” (or “landscape history”). Using this technique, he feels that adequate interpretations of the sites may be made by competent field archaeologists who are “part geologist, geomorphologist, geographer, botanist, archaeologist, historian, archivist, architectural historian and much else,” and who also make themselves thoroughly familiar with all aspects of the sites. Such interpretations can either do away with the need for excavations altogether, or reduce excavation to a series of small incisive trenches designed to answer specific questions posed by the field archaeologist.

The result of a sunny secluded week of lectures, visits, surveying deserted villages and exposure to Chris’s forceful personality and logic was, for myself as least, complete conversion, and I now view with some suspicion those archaeologists who find it necessary to indulge in expensive open-area excavations of huge tracts of land, often in that process producing more questions than are answered.

The problem is that few of us, unless occupied with it full time, could hope to reach the required level of competency in all the stipulated fields. It is also doubtful if the technique of landscape history would be totally successful if applied to a multi-occupation site in a modern town centre.

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Chris Taylor set down his views in a paper presented to a conference of adult education tutors held in Bury St. Edmunds in May 1972, arranged in the hope of bringing to about closer co-operation between historians and archaeologists. This paper — “Total archaeology or studies in the history of landscape” — has been reprinted, with six others given at the conference, in a paperback called “Landscapes and Documents.”

The conference did not entirely achieve its aims, but the book must be judged successful. It contains some stimulating reading which, while keeping to the main topic of the interaction of archaeology and history, sheds light on such intricacies as assarted fields, “Hooper’s Hedgerow Hypothesis,” “Italian” Bradford and Shropshire plate railways. Many will find this book worthwhile, if slightly overpriced at £1.50.

“Landscapes and Documents,” edit. Alan Rogers and Trevor Rowley, is published by the Bedford Square Press for the Standing Conference for Local History.
Show Summer

By Jeremy Clynes. By mid-September HADAS will, in the space of three months, have mounted six exhibitions in different parts of the Borough — quite a record when you consider how much work and planning goes into even a small exhibition.

As well as taking our usual stalls at the 3-day Finchley Carnival and the 2-day Friern Barnet Summer Show, we accepted the offer of a “one-day stand” at Woodhouse School fete in July. As far as possible we tried to match our displays to each district: for instance, the survey of the Finchley Manor moat was shown at Finchley Carnival and the St. James’s dig provided the centrepiece at Friern Barnet Show.

The largest of the summer exhibitions is on now at Burnt Oak Library, where the Borough Librarian has kindly given our space and the use of some equipment for a Roman Edgware display. This was originally intended just for Edgware Week, but the Library has kindly agreed to let it stay up for three weeks until September 13th. All material shown was found locally — either at Brockley Hill, in the Pipers Green Lane cremation or during the HADAS dig at Thirleby Road a site only a stone’s throw away from the Library. Any member who missed the original Roman Hendon Exhibition in 1971, when the material was first shown, will find a visit now to Burnt Oak Library well worthwhile.

We shall also have a stall at Edgware Carnival on 30 August; and on 6 September we have been invited to mount a display at the Henry Burden Hall in Hendon. Anyone who would like to help with this last event is asked to get in touch with Dorothy Newbury.

As well as keeping news of HADAS activities in the public eye, these exhibitions have been financially rewarding. At the first three we sold £18 worth of publications and, directly or indirectly gained some 19 new members. That’s why a vote of thanks is due to all who have helped with planning and manning the shows and — and why we hope for more of this kind of activity.
Dig News

The dig at St. James the Great, Friern Barnet, is now closed and the trenches have been partially back-filled. On 7 September it is hoped to mount a small exhibit of maps, photographs and finds inside the Church for the information of parishioners. And Trewick will report further upon the results of the dig in a forthcoming Newsletter.

The dig on the Woodlands site (corner of Golders Green Road/North Circular) began on August 16th. Two trenches have been opened at right angles to Golders Green Road and slightly further north than the original trial trench cut by HADAS in 1968. Digging will continue every Sunday (not Saturdays) until further notice. Members who would like to dig are asked first to phone Alec Jeakins.

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Edgware in History

Part II of a “potted” history prepared for the Edgware Week programme.

Agriculture has, with communications, been a big factor in the history of Edgware. Though parts of the area may have been farmed in Iron Age and Roman times, the greater part of the parish was forested until the twelfth century. Between the 1100 and 1250 assarting — the reclamation of woodland — went on apace, so that a survey of 1277 gives these figures: the demesne lands of the manor contained 357 acres of arable, 6 1/2 acres of meadow and 90 acres of woodland. The remaining land, about 1084 acres, was farmed by smallholders.

Between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries the pattern of farming changed: by 1845 7% of land was arable, 86 1/2% was meadow or pasture and only 18 acres of woodland remained. By 1791, in fact, London was chiefly supplied with hay by the fields around Edgware, “so it was no uncommon thing to see 100 loads of hay go up to London on a market day and each team bring back a load of dung for dressing the land.”

Edgware apparently had no manor house. The farm at Edgwarebury seems to have served as centre of the manor, although the manor court was held at the George Inn (demolished 1931). Today Bury Farm (part seventeenth part eighteenth century building, with the nineteenth century additions) is one of the oldest and also one of the few Listed buildings in the district. It has connections with Dick Turpin — if you can describe stealing the silver, raping the farmer’s daughter and pouring boiling water over her father as “having connections.”

First mention of Edgware manor occurs in 1216, when Eleanor, Countess of Salisbury, is “to hold her manor of Edgware in peace.” Subsequently the estate passed through various hands, being finally granted to All Souls College in 1441, by whom it has been held ever since. From the thirteenth century the manor included the greater part of Edgware parish.

Edgware Boys, a separate manor, lay along the east boundary of Edgware in a long, narrow oval. It belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, possibly as early as 1231, although the first mention of it as a separate manor is in 1397, when it consisted of 288 acres. The Knights held it until the Dissolution, since when it has had various owners. It, too, had no manor house; but the parish church of Edgware, St. Margaret’s, was in the gift of the Knights and then of the subsequent owners of Edgware Boys until 1926. The tower of St. Margaret’s is the oldest part — probably 15th century. The rest of the church was rebuilt in 1763 and 1845, with editions in 1927.

Only at the beginning (with the Roman Pottery kilns) and at the end does industry figure in Edgware’s history. In 1919 a firm of manufacturing engineers struck 2 million Mons stars and victory medals in Edgware, and during World War II 94 1/2 million metal parts of gas masks were made.

In 1607 Edgware had its own market, but this was discontinued by the 1790s. In 1810 lack of amusement for the inhabitants induced some local tradesmen to organise a fair in August. There were shows, booths, and stalls in Bakers Croft, a field north-east of Edgware bridge, and the Fair became an annual event until about 1855.

The Carnival which will form part of this year’s Edgware Week will therefore be in the historic tradition — though we doubt if it will include quite the same diversions as those that amused our forebears of 150 years ago: “wheeling barrows blindfolded for a new hat, jumping in sacks for a smock frock, grinning through horse collars for tobacco and climbing a lofty pole for a shoulder of mutton.”

Newsletter
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HADAS and the Mesolithic

By Daphne Lorimer.

In spring, 1973, HADAS member Alec Jeakins made an exciting surface find of a collection of flint blades on Hampstead Heath (for obvious reasons the precise locality must, at present, remain unpublished).

The blades were seen by Desmond Collins, whose recent lecture to the Society on Neanderthal Man many members will have heard. He cautiously (because of their relatively small number) expressed the opinion that the blades could possibly indicate the presence of a Mesolithic site — the first in this part of London.

In April this year HADAS approached Mr. Enderby, of the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, and Mr Collins with the suggestion that an excavation be mounted on the site, linked with a short course of six lectures at the Institute on the Mesolithic period. This suggestion was favourably received; Mr Collins agreed both to give the lectures and to act as Director of the dig, and Mr. Enderby arranged for London University Extra-mural Department to sponsor the lectures.

Next Ted Sammes obtained the agreement of the Director of the recently formed Inner London Archaeological Unit, John Hinchliffe, as the site was just within the territory in which his Unit operates. The final hurdle was to gain the consent of the GLC to a dig on one of their best-known public open spaces. This was obtained on June 19th, when the Area Manager, J. D. Hancock, agreed in principle to HADAS’s “exciting proposal for an archaeological dig” — always provided the diggers respected the nesting sites of the blackcap, which finds the area favourable as — we hope — did Mesolithic man.

This project breaks new ground (if you can bear the pun) for HADAS in more ways than one. It will be our first opportunity to undertake a prehistoric dig in our own area, while the combination of digging plus lecture course will provide each with an extra dimension. Both dig and course will take place next April and May, and more detailed arrangements will be announced later.
Current News From The Dig/Field Work Front

Next, news of a HADAS dig starting this month, in the garden of No. 1 Woodlands (OS grid ref TQ 241 885) on the East side of Golders Green Road at its junction with the North Circular.

This is a site on which HADAS had a brief weekend dig in October, 1968 when a single trench was cut. This produced a stretch of possible road metalling and a small amount of associated medieval pottery of mainly fourteenth century date. We shall now explore the area beyond the original trench.

Alec Jeakins will be in charge of the dig, which will start on the weekend of August 16th/17th and will continue at weekends thereafter. Members interested in taking part should get in touch either with Alec or with the Hon. Secretary for further details.

It was hoped to investigate two other sites on the north-south line of Golders Green Road/Brent Street at the same time as Woodlands: the Brent Bridge Hotel and the empty site beside the White Swan. Whether we shall be able to start these in mid-August also will depend on a whether demolition is complete at Brent Bridge and upon the outcome of negotiations for permission to dig at the White Swan.
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ST. JAMES THE GREAT, FRIERN BARNET. And Trewick reports that natural as been reached all over the excavated area. Back-filling is about to begin and should be completed by mid-August. A summary of the information uncovered on the site will appear in a later Newsletter.

PARISH BOUNDARY SURVEY. Christine Arnott and Paddy Musgrove report that this is continuing and new recruits are gradually being introduced. An account of the summer’s work will be given in an autumn Newsletter.
Norwich in July

As reported by Nell Penny.

The best comment I heard on the HADAS expedition to Norwich was that of a new member with whom I took tea. He said the “walkabout” had been so interesting that he was going back to the city for more.

We reached Norwich at noon on a pleasantly warm dry day. The ubiquitous car and coach park, until recently a cattle market, was on the site of the outer bailey of the Castle. Someone had to build a castle on the steep hill rising above the tidal River Wensum: it was the Normans who did it in 1130 and they threw up a motte for good measure. The facade of the Keep is very new looking. It was refaced between 1834-9, exactly copying the Norman original.

The Keep and new buildings in the inner bailey are the main city museum. I concentrated on the archaeological displays. There were introductory diorama: my ten year old granddaughter found them interesting. In one, Neolithic people were cooking and stretching hides against a backcloth of pleasant parkland in which mammoth and rhinoceri grazed peacefully. One case had real items and replicas from the Snettisham hoard of a metalsmith 2000 years ago. The discovery of this treasure in the 1950s by deep ploughing set every tractor driver in Norfolk looking for a similar lucky strike.

After lunch we divided ourselves between 2 guides provided by the Tourist Board. The guides are volunteers who attend winter lectures and take an examination. “B” party was led by an architect, employed by the city, so our tour had a pleasant flavour of “buildings for purposes.” We saw medieval and Tudor merchant houses. One with an arched gateway reminded us that wagons of cloth had rumbled through in the days of worsted making. Another was built in the fourteenth century of squared, or “knapped” flints. These are virtually indestructible and the walls have never needed repair. The last area of domestic architecture through which we walked was cobbled Elm Hill — a lovely hotch-potch of Tudor timber work and Georgian facades. The elm has been cured of Dutch elm disease by massive injections; the Briton’s Arms is being re-thatched with Broadland reeds.

Ecclesiastical Norwich has many monuments. The Cathedral and its precincts are what is left of a Benedictine monastery begun by Herbert de Losinga in 1096. Most of the splendid building is in the Norman style, but clerestory and cloisters or Early English.

I was equally attracted by the Nonconformist chapels. The simple Old Meeting House was built in the late seventeenth century by those “non-juror” clergy who could not accept the Act of Uniformity. The restrained use of oak furnishings made a very serene atmosphere. The Unitarians got Thomas Ivony to build them an octagonal chapel in the mid eighteenth century. When it was restored our guide designed the finial (it is not a weather vane) from a drawing contemporary with the new chapel.

I haven’t described London Street, a traffic artery which became a pleasant shopping precinct in 1967; our party hadn’t time to see the Market Place, Guildhall, or Maddermarket Theatre. But who can “do” Norwich in 4 1/2 hours? We did all manage to rendezvous at the Maid’s Head, another architectural hotch-potch, for a good tea.

We had seen and enjoyed enough to be very grateful to Pip Saunders, who had done that the essential fieldwork, and to Dorothy Newbury who is rapidly becoming a superb at logistic commander.
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Dates Ahead
Sat Sept. 13 – Lullingstone Roman villa and Knole
Fri Sept.26-Sun. Sept.28 Weekend at Hadrian’s Wall

For members who would like some preliminary reading about the Wall, here is a special book-list, which may be used in conjunction with the Roman Britain booklist in Newsletter No. 42:

Four guides published by the Ministry of Public Building and Works, all obtainable from HMSO:
I. – HADRIAN’S WALL, illus, 1973, 32 1/2p.
II. – CHESTERS ROMAN FORT, 1972, 15p.
III. – CORBRIDGE ROMAN STATION, 1973, 15 1/2p
IV. – HOUSESTEADS ROMAN FORT, 1972, 15p.

History trails: HADRIAN’S WALL. Series by Les Turnbull, pub. 1974.

I. – ARCHAEOLOGY OF HADRIAN’S WALL
II. – GUIDE TO BIRDOSWALD AND GILSLAND AREA.
III. – GUIDE TO HOUSESTEADS AND THE GREAT WHIN SILL.
IV. – GUIDE TO CHESTERS, CAWBURGH AND VINDOLANDA.

All at £0.80 each, available from Dillons, the University Bookshop, Malet Street, WC1.

Other publications (prices are those applying at the time of publication):

ALONG HADRIAN’S WALL, David Harrison, 1962, Cassel 21s. (Also available in Pan paperback, £0.60)

HANDBOOK TO THE ROMAN WALL, J. Collingwood Bruce, 1957, Harold Hill & Sons, 15s.

RESEARCH ON HADRIAN’S WALL, Eric Birley, 1961, Titus Wilson, Kendall,37s 6d.

HADRIAN, Stewart Perowne, 1963, Hodder & Stoughton, 25s.

MAP OF HADRIAN’S WALL, 2 in. to mile, Ordnance Survey, 70p.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme

HADAS was recently invited by Barnet Education Department to offer instruction and/or assessment to candidates for this Scheme. We accepted with pleasure, and one of our younger Committee members, JOANNA WADE, kindly volunteered to coordinate HADAS’s part in the Scheme. Here she describes what this is all about:

The Scheme, introduced in 1956, has since had over a million entrants. In the words of the information booklet, it “offers young people, both in the UK and in other Commonwealth countries, a challenge of endeavour and achievement through a balanced programme with a wide choice of leisure activities. Those involved are encouraged to develop existing interests or undertake something new.”

What seems particularly admirable about the Scheme to me, however, is that it tries to involve the whole community. The Duke of Edinburgh says:

“This scheme is intended to help both young people and those who take any interest in their welfare. It is designed as an introduction to leisure time activities, a challenge to the individual to personal achievement, and as a guide to those people and organisations concerned about the development of future citizens.”

Within the Scheme are three standards to choose from: bronze, silver and gold, each of increasingly strenuousness. You yourself choose what you are going to do under the broad headings of: service; expeditions; interests; design for living; physical activity. HADAS’s role will lie in the “Interests” section, to give a wider choice of hobby than school or youth club can offer.

I think that the Scheme is indeed very well-balanced, so that by the end you have not only broadened your mind and trained your body but you have also served others. The “Design for Living” part, moreover, (where you have a range of courses from Floral Design to Local Government) prepares you for a less glamourous but equally important side of life.
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It is obvious that the actual Award is only a small part of the benefit.

HADAS hopes to help in two ways: firstly, the Borough will be able to refer to us any young people who decide that they would like to include archaeology or local history among the “Interests.” Secondly, perhaps some of our own younger members (we have more than 30 within the Scheme’s age range) may like to take part in the Scheme. If any HADAS member under 25 is interested, you can get more information from LBB Youth Service, Town Hall, Friern Barnet, N11; or if you would like first to get in touch with me, (Joanna) I would be delighted to talk it over with you.
Edgware in History

At the end of August Edgware is having a festival week with music, carnival and other junketings. A HADAS member was asked to write a “potted” history of the area for the official programme. We thought the Newsletter might use it to, in two instalments. This is the first.

The name Edgware is said to come from the Saxon and to mean “Ecgi’s weir or fishing pool.” Who “Ecgi” was is unknown. The name first appears as “aegces wer” in a charter of possible tenth century date.

The extreme northwest of Edgware, however, has a claim to fame well before Saxon times. As HADAS readers will know, archaeological research uncovered the site of an important complex of Roman pottery kilns at Brockley Hill (Roman Sulloniacae) which was active from c. 70-160 AD. The kilns specialised in certain shapes of vessels made from local clay: tazze, flagons for liquids, bowls of various types and mortaria.

These last provide precise evidence of the importance in Roman times of the kiln site in this neck of the Middlesex woods; for Gallic potters working at Brockley Hill stamped their names and the word “fecit” on the rims of the mortaria which were then dispatched all over Roman Britain. Their remains had been found on sites from Scotland to Dorset and Essex to Wales, so at this early date bowls made in Edgware were in daily use in Romano-British kitchens.

Edgware’s story is one mainly of agriculture and communications. Perhaps the most important Roman contribution of all was the great Road which the Saxons called Watling Street and we know as Edgware Road. It shaped the western boundary of Edgware manor and parish and must have been a principle fact of life for Medieval, Tudor and later inhabitants. Edgware village lay strung out along it, from the bridge over the brook to the church, with until quite recent times only outlying farm settlements at Pipers Green and Edgwarebury.

Much of Edgware’s history comes from documents about the road — bills for repair of Edgware Bridge, grants for tolls and pavage and records of the turnpiking of the road in 1711. This was done ostensibly because “the road was almost impossible for six months of the year, being covered in winter 9 in. deep in mud;” but another important factor in the creation of the turnpike may have been that the Duke of Chandos had decided to build his great mansion at Canons, and wanted a good road for the passage of building materials.

Later Edgware history reflects transport improvements: in 1791 one stage and two other coaches passed daily to London and back; by 1839 there were nine coaches to London each weekday, seven carters and one wagon. By 1851 five horse buses ran daily to London. Then the railway took a hand. In 1867 a GNR branch line from Finsbury Park to Edgware opened: two years later it was paying its way. Finally in 1924 Edgware station, terminus of the Hampstead tube (now the Northern) opened.

Population figures show a like growth. In 1277 Edgware had 8 free and 52 customary tenants (i.e. subject to certain feudal duties). In 1547 the parish had 120 communicants; in 1642 the protestations oath was taken by 103 adult males. The first census in 1801 gives a total population of 412. The dramatic change comes with the 20th century: 1901, 868 people; 1961, 20,127.

(To be continued.)

Newsletter

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Summer and Autumn Plans

HADAS has a busy summer and autumn ahead. Apart from our programme of outings, culminating in the weekend trip to Hadrian’s Wall in September, a variety of other activities is planned in which members are warmly invited to take part.

The dig in the churchyard of State James the Great at Friern Barnet continues and will go on for several more weeks. It is being carefully documented, with Peter Clinch photographing each stage and Ann Trewick, who is in charge, now engaged on preparing plans and sections. William Morris is drawing the coffin-plates, etc, which have come to light. A small exhibit of maps, plans, photographs and drawings will be shown on the HADAS stand at the Friern Barnet Show in August.

A resistivity survey has begun on the open spaces at Brent Bridge Hotel, and should be finished in the next few weeks. When demolition of the hotel is complete and when the results of the meter survey has been assessed, the Research Committee will decide whether a dig should be mounted and what area it should cover. Unfortunately there were cellars, so it is unlikely to be worth excavating under the building itself.

A little further south, on the empty site next to the White Swan Public House on the west of Golders Green Road, it is hoped to start a small excavation in August. The dig must be confined to the strip out the front of this site as unfortunately some two years ago, before the site was fenced, a load of concrete was dumped about 15 yards in from the road frontage.

The Newsletter will carry further news about work on the White Swan and Brent Bridge Hotel sites as soon as it is available, as volunteer diggers will be much in demand.

On the field work side the parish boundary survey, announced in newsletters 50 and 52, is now under way. It is throwing up some interesting information — see, for instance, Paddy Musgrove’s notes one and “island” boundary stone later in this Newsletter. Members who would like to help with the survey are asked to get in touch with the organiser, Christine Arnott.

HADAS also proposes to seize every opportunity to display the results of its research to the public in various parts of the Borough. We have already mentioned the Friern Barnet Show in August. In addition in July we shall have a stand at the Parents-Teachers Association Medieval Fair at Woodhouse School; and one at Finchley Carnival where a record of the resistivity meter surveys and other research on Finchley Manor House, East End Road, will be shown. In September at the Henry Burden Hall, Egerton Gardens, NW4, material from the Church Terrace and a Burroughs Gardens digs will be on display.

This year Edgware is celebrating a special Edgware Week from 24-31 August. We hope to have a one-day stand in the marquee at the Carnival in Montrose Park. The Library authorities of the London Borough of Barnet have also kindly given permission for some of the Brockley Hill Roman pottery to be shown at Burnt Oak Library throughout Edgware Week. This is an opportunity HADAS particularly welcomes, as it means that the Brockley Hill material will be on show close to the very site on which much of it was manufactured in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. As many HADAS members who have worked on the pottery know, there are fine specimens of flagons, tazze, bowls and mortaria, not to mention many small finds, which can be displayed.

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This programme of exhibitions means much work for those members of the Society transport exhibition material, plan and set up displays and steward the stands. The more members prepared to help with these jobs — and even a couple of hours represents real help — the easier it is to spread the load, so if you have any time to offer get in touch with the various organisers, who are:

Woodhouse School (July 5). Jeremy Clynes.

Finchley Carnival (July 10-12). Paddy Musgrove.

Friern Barnet Summer Show (Aug. 15-16). Paddy Musgrove or Ann Trewick.

Carnival Day, Edgware (Aug.30). Jeremy Clynes.

Burnt Oak Library Exhibition of Brockley Hill material (setting up only, prob. On Aug. 22-23). Ann Trewick.

Henry Burden Hall (Sept. 6). Jeremy Clynes.

Or if it is easier to send your offer of help to our Hon. Secretary she will gratefully pass on the information.
Outings Ahead

On July 12th we break new ground with a visit to Norwich — a city which, in medieval times, was second only to London. Its historical wealth cannot be seen in a day, but we are engaging a local guide to show us as much as possible. An application form is enclosed. Please return it to Dorothy Newbury as soon as possible.

Please, also, check that you have the following dates in your diary:
Sat Sept. 13 – Lullingstone Roman villa and Knole
Sept. 26/27/28 – Weekend at Hadrian’s Wall
Clay Pipes for the Archaeologist

A review by Jeremy Clynes.

The recently published “Clay Pipes for the Archaeologist” by Adrian Oswald (British Archaeological Reports 14, 1975, obtainable directly from the publishers at 122 Banbury Road, Oxford, £3.80, post free) will no doubt be the standard work on this subject for many years to come.

Adrian Oswald, probably the leading specialist in the study of clay tobacco pipes, has in one book brought together the researches of a number of writers, updating these where necessary to provide, in his words, “a practical workhorse for the archaeologist”.

The book, which covers the whole British Isles, describes the introduction into Europe of both tobacco and the pipe; it outlines the organisation of the industry, as well as describing the process of pipe manufacture. It then discusses ways of dating pipes, giving a comprehensive typology and including decorated pipes. There is a good bibliography, and the last part of the book lists pipe-makers by areas.

Although this book will be invaluable to museum curators and to archaeologists in the field, it goes too deeply into the subject for the general reader, who would probably not want the list of pipe-makers which occupies 1/3 of the book; and at £3.80 the book is certainly not cheap.

As an introduction to the subject I would therefore recommend Oswald’s two previous works:

English Clay Tobacco Pipes — reprinted in 1967 as a separate pamphlet at 12s.6d, from the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 3rd series vol. XXIII, 1960.

London Clay Tobacco Pipes — (in conjunction with David Atkinson) reprinted from J.B.A.A. 3rd series vol. XXXII, 1969.

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An Island Boundary Stone

The April newsletter referred to a mysterious boundary stone which once stood on island on the Finchley-Hendon border. PADDY MUSGROVE now reports that its position was approximately 120 yd North of Finchley Bridge (the Hendon Lane-Finchley Lane crossing of the Dollis Brook, close to the Great North Way). Indeed, it may still be there underground. The only trouble is that both the island and the lake in which it still stood have disappeared.

The existing mini-waterfall at Finchley Bridge marks the dam erected by a former occupier of Hendon Place. Edward Walford (Greater London, 1882) wrote: “The River Brent, which skirts the eastern side of the grounds, has been artificially widened so as to form a moderate lake, which, with the bridge by which it is crossed, adds not a little to the beauty of the Landscape”.

The Ordnance Surveys of 1863-69 and 1893-95 show both the lake and two islands. The former records a boathouse in the grounds of Hendon Place; the latter indicates the boundary stone on the more southerly of the islands. Both maps show the Finchley-Hendon border meandering through the lake, following the original course of the Brook. The modern boundary follows the present line of the Brook, which is that of the western limit of the old lake.

The open space of Brookside Walk has been created by the infilling of the lake, which originally extended from Finchley Bridge northwards to Waverley Grove and from the present line of the Brook eastwards to the bottoms of the gardens in Broughton Avenue.
Suburb Heritage Exhibition

This is, as all HADAS members will know, European Architectural Heritage Year. An exhibition to mark the fact will be held in Hampstead Garden Suburb — itself very much part of Britain’s architectural heritage, since it is the prototype of garden suburbs, which has been copied not only all over Britain but also in many countries overseas.

The Exhibition — to be called Suburb Heritage — will be sponsored by three Garden Suburb organisations — the New H.G.S. Trust, the Residents’ Association and the H.G.S. Institute. It will illustrate the early history and architecture of the Suburb and will include some of the original architects’ plans for houses and public buildings on the estate.

These plans carry names which are now famous – Edwin Lutyens, Raymond Unwin, Barry Parker, Baillie Scott, to mention but a few — although 60 or 70 years ago the designers were young and comparatively unknown. A collection of the plans, many in colour and showing a meticulous attention to detail, was found recently in a cellar off Victoria Street and was rescued and brought back to form part of the Suburb archives. They will be on show for the first time.

The exhibition — with which many HADAS members are helping — opens on 27 October in the Henrietta Barnett Junior School, Bigwood Road, NW11 and continues till 1 November. Their first visitor will be Sir John Murray Fox, Lord Mayor of London, himself is an ex-resident of the suburb. Opening times are: October 27-10.00a.m.-9.00p.m.; Saturday 1 November: 10.00a.m.-9.00p.m.
Photographic Competition

A photographic competition in which HADAS photographers are cordially invited to take part is being sponsored by the Hendon Times in connection with the Suburb Heritage exhibition.

Photographs, in black and white, can be of any building or group of buildings or of any building feature in the Garden Suburb which illustrates the place the area holds in our architectural heritage. The sort of building features envisaged are, for instance, the use of patterned brickwork, dormer windows, design of roofs or chimneys or the use of open space in relation to buildings.

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Each photograph should be accompanied by an entry form, obtainable either from the H.G.S. Institute (Central Square, NW11) or from the New H.G.S. Trust (862 Finchley Road, NW11). Entries close on 31 August 1975. The Hendon Times is offering a price of £5 for the winner, with subsidiary prices of £3 and £2.
Trip To Maiden Castle, 14 June 1975

Report by Christine Arnott.

After the extreme heat of previous days, 14th June dawned grey; but during the journey the sun came through and we picnicked at Maiden Castle in full sunshine, with a gentle breeze.

After lunch we climbed through the successive defensive embankments and ditches and the intricacies of the entrance to the heights commanding the surrounding country. From this magnificent vantage point Ted Sammes gave us the outline details of the site, describing the original much smaller causewayed camp of the Neolithic period, around 3,000 BC; the long barrow that was constructed towards the end of this phase; and the child burials found at the eastern end.

Approximately the same area was utilised by Iron Age peoples About 350 BC. They enclosed it with a single rampart and a ditch. About 150 BC it was extensively enlarged, further ramparts and ditches being added and the entrances strengthened. There was more remodelling around 75 BC. These processes continued until AD 44 when the Fort was attacked by the Legio II Augusta under the Roman general Vespasian (later Emperor Vespasian) who stormed the east gate with attendant carnage and destruction, as was graphically brought to light by Mortimer Wheeler’s excavations.

There is no further knowledge of the fort as a defensive unit after this time, although a small Romano-Celtic temple was built inside the northern part about 367 AD. After a walk round the top of the “walls” surrounding the area, Ted Sammes led us to the footings of this temple, speculating on the ceremonies that took place on this hill-top with its stupendous views.

It was doubly interesting later on to see in Dorchester Museum some of the objects from the Maiden Castle excavations: they ranged from the macabre — Celtic vertebrae pierced by a Roman ballista ball — to the domestic: weaving equipment with loom weights and combs. For numismatists there was a splendid collection of Roman coins.

Finally, Dorothy Newbury had arranged a welcome and refreshing tea at Judge Jeffrey’s Restaurant. We were all deeply grateful to Ted Sammes for shepherding us, explaining sites and calling attention to the monuments we passed en route – Figsbury Ring, Ackling and Bokerley Dykes, the round barrow cemetery on Oakley Down and the clear line of the Roman Road cutting through it. A full programme, a splendid outing, a glorious day weatherwise and first-rate HADAS staff work.
An Unique Chance Find In Hendon

As this Newsletter was in preparation there came the news of an exciting find. Mr. J. M. Lewis, a school teacher in Hendon, rang up saying that one of his younger pupils had come to school with “a pretty stone” which had been found on the surface of a back garden in Kings Close, Hendon.

Mr Lewis thought it was more than a “pretty Stone” and had it taken forthwith to the British Museum, where it was identified as a Neolithic jade axe, 22 cm long and dated around 3,000 BC. According to Museum records, it is the first of its kind to be found in the London area. Ted Sammes adds that it must be one of only a dozen jade axes known in Britain; nearest similar find in the south-east was in Canterbury.

At the moment the axe is being studied at the British Museum; as soon as it is returned, HADAS has been promised a chance to draw, photograph and record it for the LAMAS archaeological finds index.

Newsletter

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The 14th Annual General Meeting

This meeting of the Society took place on 6 May at Central Library. Vice-President Mrs. Rosa Freedman presided, welcoming the 67 members who attended and recalling that she had been present at the foundation meeting of the society, 14 years before. Then she had been asked to persuade Hendon Borough Council to lend us “some buckets and spades”. We had come a long way since then, and she felt that the Borough of Barnet could count itself lucky in possessing such an active archaeological society.

The various Reports which followed Mrs. Freedman’s opening remarks illustrated the many facets of this activity. Brian Jarman reported an increase in membership — now at 270, and all-time high; and an increasing attendance at lectures and outings. Jeremy Clynes introduced a Balance Sheet showing a healthy bank balance of nearly £600 and a surplus of £190 odd for 1974/5. Ted Sammes described past and current excavations, surveys of buildings, work on pottery and other finds and numerous smaller projects. All in all, these reports painted a picture of a vigorous and thriving Society whose members are prepared to work for it in many ways.

There were some warning notes, of course. Mr. Clynes mentioned that £200 of our bank balance is already “bespoke” for projects in the early part of this year; Mr Sammes commented on the problems of publishing the results of research, the need — so long felt — for a permanent HQ and the importance of members increasing their knowledge and skill by attending the many archaeological classes available in the London area.

Three special resolutions, which had been circulated to members of prior to the meeting, were passed. These provided a tidying-up operation which brought the HADAS Constitution into line with the Society’s present practise.

The following Officers and Committee were elected for 1975-6:
Chairman – Mr. Brian Jarman
Vice-Chairman – Mr. E. Sammes
Hon. Secretary – Mrs. B. Grafton Green
Hon. Treasurer – Mr. J. Clynes

Committee: Mrs. C. Arnott, Mr. M. Bird, Mr. G. M. T. Corlet, Mr. J. Enderby, Miss E. Holliday, Mr. G. Ingram, Mrs. D. Lorimer, Mrs. D. Newbury, Mrs. N. Penny, Miss Ann Trewick, Miss J. Wade, Mrs. F. Wilkinson, Mr. E. Wookey.
Dates For Your Diary

Saturday 14 June: the next outing to Maiden Castle and Dorchester. An application form is enclosed, please return it to Mrs. Newbury as soon as possible.

The archaeological riches of Maiden Castle will need little introduction to HADAS members — it is one of the most famous sites in Southern Britain, with a spectacular Iron Age hill-fort covering 45 acres, the just-visible remains of a in Neolithic long barrow and a Romano-British temple. The archaeological span of the site is from c. 2500 BC to 370 AD. Dorchester — the Casterbridge of Hardy’s novels — contains many Hardy links, including the novelist’s former home, as well as the lodgings of Judge Jeffreys.

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Saturday 12 July — outing to Norwich

Saturday 13 September — outing to Lullingstone and Knole.
And a Special Date

Friday 26 September — Sunday 28 September.

Last autumn’s weekend in Shropshire so whetted member’s appetites for going further afield that the Programme Committee has had no peace until a further weekend has been arranged.

This will take place on the above dates, and will be to Hadrian’s Wall — the first long trip HADAS has so far made. An application form is enclosed and members are urged to complete it and return it to Dorothy Newbury as soon as possible, since arrangements have to be made well in advance because of problems of accommodation, guides, etc.

We hope to see most of the famous “sides” of the Wall – Housesteads fort, the Carrowburgh Mithraeum, the new excavations at Vindolanda, now being carried on under the directorship of Robin Birley, the baths at Chesters, Corbridge fort and museum and the excellent Roman Museum at Newcastle University. We feel it will be an outstanding weekend which will go down in HADAS annals.
Hampstead Walk

On Saturday 28 June HADAS is invited to join a Camden History Society walk around North End, Hampstead. Part of the walk will, in fact, take place in our own Borough, as we shall cross the Camden/Barnet boundary at Wyldes Farm.

This hospitable invitation from the Camden History Society arises from their visit to us last October, when they joined us at the opening lecture of the HADAS winter season. The walk will start from Jack Straw’s Castle at 3.00 p.m. The HADAS contingent will be limited to 20 members, as we are being given a cup of tea by the present owner of Wyldes and there is a limit to the number that can be accommodated. If you would like to join the walk, would you please let a Brigid Grafton Green know by 20 June at latest. The first 20 members to apply will be the lucky ones.

The walk will take in the grounds of the house of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (the house itself, alas, was demolished some years ago), the Bull and Bush, Golders Hill Park, Pavlova’s house and Byron Cottage, and will finish at Wyldes. (Any HADAS member who does not know something of a history of Wyldes is in bad need of HADAS Occasional Paper No. 2, “The Blue Plaques of Barnet”: get one, price £0.40, from our Treasurer, Jeremy Clynes, who wrote the Wyldes entry in the booklet!)
Subscription reminder

And, talking of our Treasurer, he has a message for members who have not yet paid to their 1975/6 subscription. It’s very simple: please do! The rates for this year, which began a 1 April, 1975, are:
Full membership – £1.00
Under 18 – 65p
Senior Citizen – 75p

Subscriptions should be sent to Jeremy Clynes.
Domesday Book

A fresh translation of Domesday Book, county by county and in a cheap edition, is an event to be welcomed by all local historians. As a source of information about a local land tenure, population, agricultural resources and comparative values in 1086 Domesday is unique and irreplaceable. The only printed Latin text, until some three months ago, was set up in 1783 by Abraham Farley.

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Now Phiilimore has started publication, under the editorship of Dr. John Morris, of the complete Latin text with a modern English translation alongside. Huntingdon, Middlesex and Surrey are already in print. Other counties will follow until the whole publication is complete in — it is hoped — 1979.

This is a new translation of the Domesday entry for the Manor of Hendon, in the Middlesex Hundred of Gore:

The Abbot of St. Peter’s* holds HENDON. It answers for 25 hides. Land for sixteen ploughs. Ten hides belong to the Lordship; three ploughs there. The villagers have eight ploughs; a further five possible. A priest has one virgate; three villagers, a half hide each; seven villagers, one virgate each; sixteen villagers, half a virgate each; twelve smallholders who hold half a hide; six cottages; one slave. Meadow for two oxen; woodland, 1,000 pigs, and 10s. too. Total value £8; when acquired the same; before 1066 £12. This manor lay and lies in the lordship of St. Peter’s Church.

i.e. Abbot of Westminster.

Notes: hide — a unit of land measurement, usually reckoned at 120 acres, but sometimes different; or a unit of tax assessment.

virgate — a fraction of a hide, usually 1/4.

woodland, 1,000 pigs — may mean sufficient woodland to pasture 1,000 pigs; or woodland on which 1,000 pigs are paid for right of pasture.

In hardback, the three counties so far published each cost £2.50; in a paperback, £1.25. Should be obtainable from any good bookseller; or direct from Phillimore, Shopwyke Hall, Chichester, Sussex.
The May Outing

A report by Paddy Musgrove.

On May 17th the Southend Arterial Road was flooded. Colin and Ann Evans are therefore to be congratulated, not only for their excellent planning of the Society’s outing to Mucking and neighbourhood, but also for having had the foresight to select a gravel site. Even those without wellingtons remained dry-shod.

Following the discovery by air photography of a palimpsest of crop-marked features, nine years rescue digging just ahead of the gravel quarrier’s equipment on the 100 ft terrace has revealed occupation over a period of 4,000 years.

Escorted by the site director, Mrs. M. U. Jones, and other site workers, members were able to view Iron Age round huts and sunken Saxon huts at various stages of excavation. At first sight the large expanse of bared gravel seemed devoid of detail, but soon members were busily identifying unexcavated features by differences of soiled colour and texture — a useful exercise for diggers!

Mucking’s importance is reflected in the interest which it generates overseas, from whence come about half its volunteers. At present there are enthusiasts from the United States, the Netherlands and Poland.

We were treated to hot drinks on site and also to a small exhibition of finds. Literature was eagerly bought and, let it be recorded, at gratifyingly reasonable prices.

Next visited was Thurrock Local History Museum, where further finds from Mucking were to be seen and where the displays and captions could serve as an example to many more pretentious establishments. It is truly a local museum illustrating the development of the area from earliest times down to the latest factory.

At Prittlewell Priory we were escorted by its Keeper, Mr. D. G. MacLeod, around this interesting Cluniac foundation which dates from about 1110 AD. Here time was all too short. Our final visit was to Southchurch Hall (thirteenth or fourteenth century) where excavation is in progress. The grounds have been heavily landscaped in recent times (but without record) so reconstruction of the earliest features is providing many problems. We saw exposed chalk walling which may be part of a gatehouse: but such massive masonry seemed out of keeping with the existing manor house.

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Parish Boundary Survey

The April Newsletter announced this new field-work project: a survey on of the parish boundaries of our Borough, with the object of listing and indexing all boundary stones which remain.

Christine Arnott is acting as organiser of the project; she has already collected the nucleus of a group of volunteers. A pilot survey of a small area of the Hendon/Hampstead boundary has been made, as a preliminary to formulating the guidelines on which the whole survey will be conducted.

If you would like to help when the full survey gets under way, please let Christine Arnott know now so that she can keep you informed of developments.
Hundreds And Hundreds Of Postcards

If you have any interest at all in the history of the last 70 years in any part of the Borough of Barnet, then there is probably something for you in the present exhibition at Church Farm House Museum ( “Postcard Views of the Borough” — open till 20 June next.)

Row upon serried row of postcards provide new slants on the recent history of Totteridge, Hadley, Arkley, High Barnet, Whetstone, East and New Barnet, Friern Barnet, Childs Hill and Cricklewood, North Finchley, East Finchley and Golders Green. Particularly well represented in numbers of cards are Mill Hill, Church End Finchley and Church End Hendon (one of the two Church End Hendon displays contains 200 cards).

Here you will see the River Brent as a charming, meandering country stream complete with waterfalls; and roads which you may now think of as car-lined commuter tracks appear as recently as 60 years ago in the guise of tree-lined country lanes. There are a few cards dated to the late 1890s, but the majority belong to this century and are shown in date order, so that they illustrate how development accelerated between 1900 and the 1930s.

The only criticism to be made of this excellent exhibition is that the sheer massed effect of so many postcards provides more detail than the mind can cope with at one sitting. This is an exhibition which should be visited and revisited so that it can be studied in small doses. And don’t believe all the postcards tell you; some of the captions printed on the actual cards are highly inaccurate. Several cards described the Hampstead Garden Suburb as Hampstead Garden City: the very thing it wasn’t. While the men who planned them 70 years ago would never recognise Meadway Gate at the top of Hoop Lane, NW11 under its title of “Meadgate”, nor the entrance to Big Wood, Temple Fortune Hill, as “Woodgate”.
New Members

It’s some time — in fact, not since last October — that there has been a paragraph in the Newsletter about our new members. Since then 42 new colleagues have joined the Society; the Newsletter has great pleasure in welcoming them, and hopes that they will enjoy participating in may HADAS activities. They are:

Mrs. Lucille Armstrong, Golders Green; Mr. Batchelor, North Finchley; Mrs. Beevor, Hendon; Miss Linda Clackson, Edgware; Stephen Conrad, Mill Hill; Miss Glenys Davies, Muswell Hill; Mrs. Dean, Willesden; Dennis Devereux, Hendon; P. W. Foster, Mill Hill; Vincent Foster, Funchley; Canon Gilmore, Friern Barnet; Mrs. Griffith, Mill Hill; Mr. & Mrs. Heathfield, N. Finchley; H. M. Hoather, Whetstone; Miss Holburn, Stanmore; Mrs. Holtman, Hendon; Miss Howel, Garden Suburb; A. R. Hudson, Totteridge; Mrs. Hughes, Arnos Grove; Mrs. And Miss Loewi, and Dr. & Mrs. Maclagan, Garden Suburb; Miss Catherine Norris, N. Finchley; Miss Janet Norton, Barnet; Mrs. Dawn Orr, Garden Suburb; Mrs. Pares, New Barnet; A. J. Peacock, Hendon; R. F. Penney, Finchley; Mrs. Porges, Finchley; Mrs. Pritchard, Hampstead; Miss Helen Rowland, N. Finchley; Ms. Mary Salton, Totteridge; R. R. Shah, Hendon; Mrs. Shulman, Golders Green; Mrs. Solomons, Finchley; Mrs. Mary Turner, East Barnet; Mr. & Mrs. Wagland, Colindale; Mr. & Mrs. Stuart Winter, New Barnet.

Newsletter

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Digging News

The HADAS dig in the churchyard of St. James the Great at Friern Barnet continues each Saturday — sometimes in the teeth of gales, snow, sleet and hail — and Ann Trewick sends us this report:

In the March Newsletter the brickwork in trenches A and B was described. This has now definitely proved to be a vault. Its entrance, which is in trench B, has been damaged, possibly when a drain was laid near it. It has good barrel-vaulting and is now in the process of being cleared of soil.

Trench A, which lies nearer the Church, has been extended towards the Church so that the east wall foundations can be examined. About 70 cm below present ground level the roof of another vault has been uncovered. It, too, is damaged and has not yet been uncovered. A brass coffin plate has also been found, beautifully engraved and dated 1746. Further details of this will be given in a later Newsletter.

Members who wish to take part in the dig are asked to get in touch with Ann Trewick.
The May Outing

This will take place on Saturday 17 May; an application form is enclosed. If you would like to join the trip you are urged to send the form to Mrs. Newbury without delay.

The main objective of the outing will be the excavations at Mucking, about which Mr And Mrs. Jones talked to us last January. In addition to a conducted tour of this most interesting multi-period site there will be a visit to Thurrock Museum to see the finds from it, as well as stops at the twelfth century Cluniac Priory of Prittlewell and the fourteenth century moated Southchurch Hall.

Other outings this summer will be:
Sat June 14 – Maiden Castle and Dorchester
Sat. July 12 – Norwich
Sat Sept. 13 – Lullingstone Roman villa and Knole
Brushing up on Digging

A leaflet, “Notes for New Diggers “, comes with this Newsletter. We hope it will interest all our members.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that you are all “new diggers”. Many of you are seasoned hands at excavation; while others, though joining in many of our activities, preferred to opt out of the kneeling-mat-and-trowel routine.

All the same, we thought there was something for everyone in this lucid and practical exposition (a reprint of an article which appeared originally in the London Archaeologist) of what happens on an excavation site, with particular reference to how it affects the amateur archaeologist.

A number of new members in our rapidly growing Society have not yet had an opportunity to sample digging at first hand; others go on HADAS outings to various digs and may well be glad to brush up on the methods that they see being employed.

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Perish the thought that any HADAS member would ever commit the sins which were described to us recently by an archaeologist colleague who had welcomed a party of visitors to his Iron Age site. “I couldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it happen”, he said. One over-large gentleman walked so close to the edge of a trench that the side started to crumble under him, and he had to leap wildly for safety. He made it — but honestly I was more worried by the fact that one of my best sections was ruined.

“To cap that, three girls walked slap across a shallow trench. Two of my most patient trowellers had been working on it for six hours, showing up a beautiful pattern of pits and ditches — only to have it ploughed up before their very eyes.”

We crossed our fingers and assured ourselves that that could never have happened on a HADAS outing.
The April Lecture

A report by Trewick.

Are we fair to Neanderthal man? In a word, “No”.

This was the theme of the last full lecture of this winter. In a fact-packed hour Desmond Collins postulated the theory of neotony* to explain the evolution of Cro-Magnon Man, and thus Homo Sapiens, from Neanderthal Man.

With the help of slides he gave a fascinating lecture which covered the history of the discovery of the Neanderthalers and the fables which became attached to these most interesting and enigmatic ancestors of the modern man.

The impression one has of Neanderthal Man is of a heavy-browed, stooping individual, half-man, half-ape. This is the traditional idea, built up from a type-specimen found at La Chapelle aux Saintes. When it is realised that this character was over 40 when he died in — very old by the standards of his people — and that he suffered from acute osteo-arthritis, it becomes evident that a reappraisal of Neanderthal specimens was necessary. In the last ten years such a reassessment has been going on and it now appears that Neanderthal Man could be the immediate ancestor of Cro-Magnon Man and not a branch which became extinct. Intermediate types have been found in the Mount Carmel caves, and early Cro-Magnon cultures have been associated with late Neanderthal cultures.

So Neanderthal Man has been much maligned but at last he is being given his rightful place in the order of things. And how could one believe he is extinct when one can see some vestiges of Neanderthal Man still extant?

Our thanks go to Mr Collins for a very thought-provoking evening.

Neotony: the prolongation of juvenile or foetal characteristics into later life (which means that man is born with a skull still sufficiently soft at birth to be easy; and then has a very long learning period as compared with other mammals).

Finchley as it Was

HADAS member Clive Smith has done it again. Following on his successes with booklets of old photographs of Hendon, Mill Hill and Golders Green, he has now done the same thing for Finchley.

This 30-page booklet, complete with reproductions from the 1873 O.S. map of Finchley, consists of many fascinating early photographs accompanied by fat captions of facts. Pubs, houses, churches, street scenes, farms, horse-coaches — they are all here.

Obtainable from Mr Smith. Cost is £0.75, but HADAS members are offered a special price of £0.50, plus postage.

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Book-list for the Post-Medieval Period

In newsletters 42 and 43 were published book-lists for the Roman and Mediaeval periods. Below Edward Sammes suggests a post-Medieval book-list.

In this period come the beginnings of mass production and the Industrial Revolution. Whilst much is documented, vast gaps exist in our knowledge. The Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, founded 1966, tries in its Journal (which reaches its 8th issue in 1974) to fill some of them.

Much of the pottery produced in the latter part of the period is the collector’s perquisite, and there are many books dealing with the fine pottery produced. These are expensive, but the Central Library in The Burroughs, NW4, has a good selection, including dictionaries of pottery marks. These are often helpful in dating sherds.

indicates a key publication.

DATED POST-MEDIEVAL POTTERY IN THE LONDON MUSEUM. F. Celoria. HMSO, 1966, 17 1/2p when published.

TREASURES OF THE ARMADA. R. Stenuit, Cardinal paperback 1974, £1.45.

ELIZABETHAN LONDON. Martin Holmes, Cassell 1969, £3.15.

BRICK BUILDING IN ENGLAND, MIDDLE AGES TO 1550. Jane A. Wright, John Baker 1972, £7.50.

A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTION OF TILES. Arthur Lane, HMSO 1060, £1.05 Describes and lists the tile collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

DUTCH TILES. C. H. de Jonge, Pall Mall Press 1971, £8. Very well illustrated. Some copies were recently on the remainder market at £4.50.

LONDON CLAY TOBACCO PIPES. David Atkinson and Adrian Oswald, Journal of the Archaeological Association, Vol. XXXII 1969, available as a reprint.

EVOLUTION AND CHRONOLOGY OF ENGLISH CLAY TOBACCO PIPES. Adrian Oswald, Archaeological Newsletter Vol. 7 Sept 1971 (in Central Reference Library).

CLAY PIPES FOR THE ARCHAEOLOGIST. Adrian Oswald, British Archaeological Reports 1975, £3.80. This is new and as yet unseen; it would be logical to expect it to incorporate material from Oswald’s many publications on clay pipes.

THE SO-CALLED BELLARMINE MASK. M. R. Holmes, Antiquaries Journal, XXXI 1951 pp 165-9 (in Central Reference Library).

STEINZUG. A catalogue in German, devoted mainly to stoneware. Cologne Museum 1971. Contains a small photograph of each pot mentioned.

THE FULHAM POTTERY. Occasional Paper No. 1, Fulham and Hammersmith Historical Society, March 1974, 50p.

LAMBETH STONEWARE. Rhoda Edwards, London Borough of Lambeth 1973, 95p plus postage.

ENGLISH DELFTWARE. F. H. Garner & M. Archer, Faber & Faber 1972, £7.50.

A GUIDE TO THE ARTEFACTS OF COLONIAL AMERICA. Ivor Noel Hume, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1970, $10.00. Deals with all types of artefacts of the period and is well worth the trouble involved in borrowing a copy. Obtainable by post on invoice from Publications Sales Desk, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia 23185, USA.

Various numbers of The Journal of Ceramic History are of interest, e.g. for chamber pots see No. 2 1968 by P. Amis, disguised under the title “Some Domestic Vessels of Southern Britain”, George Street Press, Stafford, 30p. Postage extra.

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THE GLASS WINE BOTTLE IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. Ivor Noel Hume, Journal of Glass Studies, Vol. III 1961, Corning Museum of Glass, New York.

Bottles, after the two works by I. N. Hume already mentioned, 2 sections 9 & 10 in ENGLISH AND IRISH GLASS, Geoffrey Wills in the Guinness Signatures series 1968 are well illustrated.

JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. Richard Tames, Shire Publications Ltd in their Lifeline series, 1972, 40p.

TURKISH POTTERY. Contains pictures of coloured and glazed pottery made at Isnik, 15th-17th centuries, HMSO reprinted 1971, 25p.

HISPANO-MORESQUE POTTERY. Pictures and brief details of the period 14th-17th centuries, HMSO 1957, 22 1/2p.

A COLLECTORS HISTORY OF ENGLISH POTTERY. Griselda Lewis, Studio Vista, London, 1969, £4.20. A very useful picture book, available on loan from the Central Library.

Much useful information can also be obtained from a DISCOVERING ANTIQUES, a weekly journal which ran for 80 issues. Pub. Purnell, 1970 onwards. Also numbers of Country Life, the Connoisseur and the Illustrated London News can help, if one has time to browse.
Trip into Huntingdonshire

This, the first outing of the HADAS summer season, was by way of being an experiment. It was held on a Sunday, took only half-a-day and occurred on 20 April, about a month in advance of our normal outings. It’s good to be able to report that the experiment was an unqualified success, thanks mainly to the excellent staffwork by Daphne Lorimer and Dorothy Newbury.

They had planned an historically interesting afternoon through from Saxon to Industrial Archaeology. They supplied each member with excellent notes on what we would see, laid on guides and made sure we had a delicious tea (no easy task in rural Hunts late on a Sunday afternoon).

As a bonus, we had Spring. The sun shone, all the hedges were strengthening and all the buds bursting. The willows were already hidden in graceful golden veils, a hare went leaping through a field of young broad beans, cock pheasants showed of to their dowdy speckled little wives, the Ouse was full of specimens of homo sapiens messing about with boats, black-faced lambs capered around their mums and HADAS members, too, succumbed to that spring feeling. You should have seen 50 of them tearing round an earth-maze in the middle of a village green as if their lives depended on it. The locals must have thought that a coach load of zanies had descended on them.

Most odd coincidence of the day occurred when we got to the cafe in St. Ives for tea. The first thing we saw was that all the crockery had been purchased from, and was marked with the name of … guess what? The Brent Bridge Hotel, Hendon, NW4! “Just to make you feel at home”, said to Dorothy Newbury, as if it was all part of the service.
RECENT ACCESSIONS TO THE BOOK BOX

GEORGIAN HADLEY, W, H, Gelder, 1974

Clay Pipes for the Archaeologist, Adrian Oswald, 1975

Both the above were bought by the Society.

Everyday life in Roman Britain, M. & C. B. H. Quennell (given by H. Lawrence)

Buildings and Earthworks (Ward) (given by Miss R. Wells)

Excavations at Brockley Hill March-May 1973. Reprinted Trans LAMAS Vol. 25 (1974) (given by Miss A. Trewick)
CORRECTION

Jane Butler asks us to say that in her account of the Physic Well back to Barnet in the January newsletter there was an error in transcription. The date 1912, given up an analysis of the water by Dr Trinder should have been 1812.

NOTE – Correction to correction — it appeared in Newsletter 48 of February 1975.