Volume 10: 2015 – 2019‎

No. 545 AUGUST 2016 Edited by Stephen Brunning

HADAS DIARY 2016/17

Saturday 3rd September 10am to 4pm. HADAS Open Day. Hendon Baptist Church Hall, Finchley Lane, Hendon NW4 1DJ. Display of artefacts from Hendon sites & a series of brief snapshots of life in Hendon. FREE including refreshments.

Monday 19th to Friday 23rd September: Trip to Bradford-on-Avon.

Tuesday 11th October @ 8pm: Women in Medieval London. Lecture by Dr Caroline Cartwright.

Tuesday 8th November @ 8pm: The Cheapside Hoard. Lecture by Hazel Forsyth.

Tuesday 10th January @8pm: My uncle, the Battle of Britain VC. Lecture by James Nicolson.

Tuesday 14th February @8pm: To Be Confirmed.

Tuesday 14h March @8pm: Bugging the Nazis in WW2: Trent Park’s Secret History. Lecture by Helen Fry.

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

Free University on-line courses (at FutureLearn):
HADRIAN’S WALL – starting 7th November. Enrolling now.
EXPLORING ENGLISH: MAGNA CARTA (started 18th July).
HOMO FLORESIENSIS UNCOVERED: THE SCIENCE OF ‘THE HOBBIT’ (started 18th July).

Plus many more……….

Altogether there are over 50 courses from Family History to Climate Change, plus a couple on Shakespeare. All are on-line & free. All the material is provided; no books to buy/ read, essays or exams. Learning is by dialogue with tutors/other students. All the material is accessible on-line (once enrolled) at any stage, so it’s easy to join late, & catch up if necessary.

An unexpected interesting by-product with these courses is the chance to converse with fellow students/ enthusiasts located literally all over the planet!
https://www.futurelearn.com

British Archaeological Awards winners announced at the British Museum in July

Historian Bettany Hughes and archaeologist Julian Richards presented awards to some of the UK’s leading archaeologists, showcasing new discoveries up and down the country that are transforming our understanding of Britain’s past.

The 2016 winners reflect the rich diversity of archaeology across the UK, from the industrial archaeology of the Welsh Slate industry, winner of ‘Best Book’, to the major discoveries being unearthed Under London and in Cambridgeshire at Must Farm, which was awarded ‘Best Discovery’ for reshaping our knowledge of the British Bronze Age.

In a presentation about his Highly Commended Stonehenge book, Mike Parker Pearson reflected on the British public’s increasing fascination with the distant past, fuelled by technological advances, archaeological innovation and new knowledge.

Sharing the excavation with the public was central to Oxford Archaeology South’s winning Westgate project
– the largest ever archaeological site in Oxford, while enabling readers to examine the unique Mesolithic Star Carr pendant for themselves using digital publishing technologies was the focus of the Postglacial project’s electronic article in Internet Archaeology.

Community engagement and passion for their shared past shone through the Battles, Bricks and Bridges project, which brought together archaeology and reminiscing to identify a previously disputed battlefield site in County Fermanagh and restore a seventeenth-century bridge, turning villagers’ memories of history and culture into heritage for future generations.

The excavator of Danebury Hill Fort, the Sacred Spring in Bath and Fishbourne Roman Palace, Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe CBE, was recognised for his own exceptional contribution to our understanding of the past with an Award for Outstanding Achievement. In an inspiring acceptance speech, Barry called archaeology “a family”, saying that archaeologists all shared the desire to communicate their knowledge and were “creative, vital and inclusive”.

DCMS Heritage Minister, Tracey Crouch presented the Best Community Engagement Award, commenting:
“Archaeology is such an important part of our nation’s heritage, helping us understand our culture and how people lived in the past.”.

The Great Stink, London, 1858 Stewart Wild

It’s difficult to imagine living conditions in London 160 years ago, when overcrowded cities were unhealthy places to live, disease was rife and the stench of horse manure and human waste was pervasive.

Deaths from sickness were at a level not seen since the Black Death. In London, with a population of three million, the problem was becoming a crisis. Thousands of homes still had stinking cesspits beneath them and in the poorest areas this vile effluent oozed up through the floorboards.

In 1847 the newly formed Metropolitan Commission of Sewers took action, banning all cesspits and stating that all privy refuse should be discharged in the sewers. This added to the waste from the water closets which had recently become popular among the city’s richer residents.

However the sewers were little more than storm drains and so the new law simply meant that all human waste flowed straight into London’s rivers and then into the Thames. As a result, a cholera epidemic (1848–
49) killed over fourteen thousand Londoners and the smell over London got worse. Only essential commercial traffic continued to ply the river.

Toshers

In the 1850s and 1860s poor Londoners found a new source of income. Those hardy souls prepared to enter the sewer outfalls during low tide scoured the mud for old metal, coins, clothes and rags and anything else that could be sold later. These sewer-hunters, or ‘toshers’, as they were known, always travelled in groups of three or four for safety, armed with a long rake which guarded against vermin but which could also be used for pulling themselves out when they got stuck in the mud or sludge.

The venerable social reformer Henry Mayhew, in his London Labour and the London Poor (fourth volume, 1861) estimated that this unconventional trade was worth overall around £20,000 a year, a tidy sum to say the least.
Disraeli’s eloquence

Then in 1858 a long very hot summer made the stench unbearable. Tons of chalk, lime and carbolic acid were tipped into the Thames but nothing could mask ‘The Great Stink’. Sheets were hung on the riverside windows of the House of Commons and soaked in chloride of lime solution (bleach), to no avail. Prime Minster Benjamin Disraeli described the river as “a Stygian Pool reeking with ineffable and unbearable horror.” MPs were forced to act.

Within eighteen days a bill was passed and the railway engineer Joseph Bazalgette (1819–91) was tasked with the vast job of building London’s sewers, apparently on the recommendation of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, also of Huguenot descent.

Bazalgette’s genius

Bazalgette and his team began work in 1859 and in the following nine years, and at a cost of £4.2 million (£500 million in today’s money) they built four pumping stations, 82 miles of intercepting sewers parallel to the Thames and 1,100 miles of street sewers with outfalls at Barking and Crossness; much of this is still in use today.

The Observer described Bazalgette’s work as “the most extensive and wonderful feat of modern times”. The system was officially opened by the Prince of Wales in 1865 although the whole project was not actually completed for another ten years.

The entire network was somewhat over-engineered, with sewer diameters far greater than was needed at the time, but Bazalgette’s foresight together with the quality of the brickwork and sound Victorian engineering have meant that the system generally still works well today.

Bazalgette lived at 17 Hamilton Terrace, St John’s Wood; he is commemorated by a blue plaque that was placed on the house in the 1970s. Towards the end of his life he moved south of the river, to a house in Arthur Road, SW19, where he died, perhaps from overwork, in 1891. He is buried in nearby St Mary’s Church in Wimbledon Village where there is a mausoleum to his memory. There is a second memorial on the Victoria Embankment, a major part of his subterranean achievements.

The Three Bridges, Southall Jim Nelhams

Southall is on the Grand Union Canal as it makes its way to join the Thames at Brentford. With the building of the Great Western Railway passing through Southall, chief engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was charged with constructing a branch line from Southall to Brentford. This would need to cross the canal as well as negotiating several roads.

Brunel calculated that his cheapest option was to pass under the canal at a point where a road bridged the canal, so that he crossed both with one bridge. Thus was born the three bridges, a unique construction to this day. The line opened in 1859 originally using broad gauge though later replaced with two standard gauge tracks. One track has now been removed.

The project required Brunel to construct a cast iron trough, eight feet deep, supported by iron girders on a central brick pier to contain the canal, and his contract with the Canal Company imposed a fine for every hour that the canal was out of service.

1877 Ordnance Survey map.

Although passenger services have been discontinued, the railway still has occasional freight traffic. The line has also been used for some heritage steam engines, including Flying Scotsman when it was for a while stationed at Southall Steam Centre.

Now there are plans to restore the removed track and reinstate passenger services by 2020 to link up with the Crossrail service, so Brunel’s innovative bridge will have an ongoing use.

The bridge has been used in carefully posed promotional photographs by several organisations. The picture shows it being used by British Railways, British Waterways and British Road Services.

The bridge has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Battlefield Archaeology Jim Nelhams

A number of HADAS members attended a talk on 16th June organised by the Battle of Barnet Partnership and given by Sam Wilson of Huddersfield University. Sam is the Archaeological Supervisor of the project.

Battlefield Archaeology, Sam explained, is a sub-set of conflict archaeology dealing in particular with the sites of battles or in some cases, potential battles. It is a relatively new discipline which had developed following the invention of metal detectors. It had been successful in the mid-1980s in America when investigating the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, with the detectors finding lots of cartridge cases and other military items. Newer technology such as ground penetrating radar and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) from aircraft, adding to aerial photography, helped provide topographical information not always apparent at ground level.

The discovery of a battle site should bring together historical documentation, with topographical
information and the discovery of battlefield remains, largely metallic in nature. With the battle of Bosworth Field, the process of proving that the accepted site was incorrect, and locating the correct site had taken about 5 years. The conclusion had been confirmed by a cluster of over 30 cannon balls. These were largely lead – iron does not normally last for long periods in the ground. Also, there is so much “modern” iron on fields that detectorists set their machines to ignore it. Once the site had been found, all the information came together.

As far as the Battle of Barnet is concerned, it is still early days. Very little has been found that points to a particular location, but some agricultural land can only be inspected outside the growing season. The current funding runs to this August, but it was hoped that more could be found. So watch this space ….. or maybe that one.
The Abbey Folk Park, New Barnet Bill Bass

This site bounded by Park Road and Heron Rise has a fascinating past being founded by Rev John Ward in 1934. He created a complex mixture of museum, building reconstruction, experimental archaeology and ethnography. It is said to be one of the earliest ‘open air’ museums of its kind.

Based around an existing Victorian Villa called Hadley Hall the most notable ‘reconstruction’ was a medieval tithe barn moved from Birchington-on-Sea, Kent (this was converted into a chapel which still stands). Other areas in the park contained an African village, a prehistoric village complete with roundhouses, smithy, Roman villa and Witches Cottage amongst others. Other structures housed the museum collection of some 90,000 objects.

The park ran successfully until 1940 when questions were asked how the museum was being run – there was a semi-monastic, religious and mystical feel to it. After a court case the collections were sold to pay costs, Ward took his community to Cypress where he died in 1949, and the park was sold on to become the Abbey Arts Centre. Many of the objects were scattered; Liverpool Museum holds a number of Tibetan figurines known from Ward’s collection. Remarkably 4500 objects made their way to Australia and now form the Abbey Museum of Art & Archaeology, Queensland, opened in 1986.

The New Barnet site has become subject to planning applications for 3-4 two-storey dwellings on the southern half of the park, the northern half with the chapel, villa and cottages is unaffected. The latest of the applications dates to May/June 2016.

For more information see ‘John Ward: The Man who Collected Houses’, British Archaeology May/June
2016. Or see the planning application 16/3318/FUL, heritage statement, on Barnet Council’s website.

Report of the June 2016 post-AGM Lecture. The Rose Discovered and the Rose Revealed given by Harvey Sheldon. Written by Liz Gapp and Simon Williams

Harvey Sheldon, who is president of HADAS, initially gave a brief review of his involvement with the Rose theatre excavation. Firstly, he was employed by the Department of Urban Archaeology of the Museum of London, then ultimately he became chairman of the Rose Theatre Trust formed in 1989, which means he has more than 25 years involvement with the Rose.

Whilst this year is widely known to be the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, what is less known is that it also is the 400th anniversary of the death of the man who built the Rose in 1587, namely, Phillip Henslowe, who died on 6 January 1616.

With a background slide of the uncovered excavated Rose foundations, Harvey gave us the history of the excavation, which has proved to be very significant to subsequent excavations. He also described the fight to preserve it for future generations, preventing its destruction by the builders.

The excavation started in 1988. An office building, Southbridge house, was to be replaced, and the developers acceded to requests for excavation. Harvey showed us various maps on which the Rose’s location is indicated. As he said, nowadays there is much more initial investigation of paper records to evaluate whether excavation will reveal anything significant. It was fortunate this was not done so rigorously back in 1988 as maps showing the area at this time had the Rose at the opposite end of the Rose alley. The discovery of the Rose foundations was considered so important at the time, when planning laws did not require archaeological considerations to be taken into account, that Mrs Thatcher subsequently, as a direct result of this excavation, introduced the requirement, which included funding, for all subsequent building development projects.

Originally a very short period was allocated for the Rose excavation. Leaving it at the end of the allocated time would have meant that all traces of the Rose would have disappeared unrecorded. Prior to excavation no physical evidence had ever been discovered – no shape, plan, or structural details of any theatre. Some Victorian maps provided the only extant archive, which as previously mentioned was not always accurate.

Within 4 weeks, segments of the wall appeared, not at right angles, but showing a polygonal shape. By February 1989, the details revealed had caught public interest. What had been uncovered were the gallery walls, two phases of the stage including a 1592 alteration to enlarge the theatre, a floor sloping towards the stage, and a 14 sided polygonal shape for the original theatre before enlargement.

The campaign and publicity accompanying this excavation radically altered the excavation with more time and money required. It was felt that the physical remains deserved more than just recording. Amongst other publicity was an article dated 15 February 1989 in the Times. An added dimension to the campaigning was the involvement of many famous actors who felt that the history of the Rose in the theatre world made it very important to preserve it. After Sir Lawrence Olivier’s last public utterance, reported in The Times on 12 May 1989, which included his battle cry of ‘God for Harry and the Rose’ – he died a few weeks later – and a star studded campaign, the campaign climaxed with Dame Peggy Ashcroft leading a candlelit night vigil on the Rose site. On the following day Mrs Thatcher’s Government announced a £1million grant to save the Rose. The government announced one month’s moratorium on the building, the result was that the developer agreed that the first floor of the new building would be allocated to display artefacts found during the Rose excavation. These included broken money boxes for the takings and the broken hazel-nut shell surface of the internal drainage ditch for the roof run-off into the standing area. The nutshells may have been a remnant of soap making. All these uncovered artefacts have certainly pushed forward knowledge of the Elizabethan Theatre.

Before the building began the site excavation had to be covered over in sand and concrete, both to protect it from potential damage from the building process and also because as the site, which was originally a wetland area, began to dry out the foundations were being damaged, so it was necessary to reinstate the damper environment.

June 1989 marked the end of the museum’s involvement, when it devolved to English Heritage. In February 1992, the site was granted ancient monument status, so giving it protection. It was then left until 1999, when a temporary exhibition was mounted to highlight the theatre footprint in the basement, and to display the plans being drawn up for its future. Today, it is open for modern tours on Saturdays. The area which had declined in the 1960s from its late 16th century roots is now, partly thanks to Tate Modern and other local development, returned to its former vibrancy.

Opening the doors of the Rose displays helps with funding for the Heritage Lottery Fund plan to build a visitor centre which Southwark Council planning department have approved. This will cost £8million, but to qualify for the grant needs a minimum lease of 15 years. Since its construction, the Rose Court building has passed through four owners. The Rose trustees had been negotiating for 18 months with the latest owners, Ho Bee, when they announced plans to sell the building, so negotiations are currently on hold. The trustees are now approaching the government to get pressure to force the lease through.

Harvey then showed us a series of slides showing the progress of the excavation and the campaign to raise public profile. This also highlighted the importance of the Rose which was associated with both playwrights Shakespeare and Marlowe, and the actor Edward Alleyn.

Papers from Henslowe’s extensive accounts, with connection to the Rose, Marlowe and Edward Alleyn,
Henslowe’s son-in-law, were endowed to Henslowe’s foundation, Dulwich College. Included in these papers are references to ‘turned’ balusters (for the galleries) like the one of fine oak that was found intact on the ‘Globe’ site.

The slides included images from late 1988 when the excavation started, showing early stages of demolition; images from April 1989 with the whole (2/3) of the Rose building foundations uncovered, showing the drip trench for the gallery and the change to the theatre slope. (Only 2/3 was excavated as the rest was not in the excavation area.)

There were many images showing the actors involved in the publicity campaign on the site, including Dame Peggy Ashcroft’s sit-in. From 2000 to 2001, Susanna York put on a play to raise funds for the Trust, and there have been other plays since. There were various images of this. Images showing mock-ups of the future planning ideas which will happen if the lease issue for the building is resolved were displayed.

There is also now an opportunity to excavate the last 1/3 of the Rose foundations, to confirm (or otherwise) that its shape is as surmised from the 1988/9 excavation, which will come under the same protection as the rest of the current foundations.

Upgrading Listed Building descriptions

The National Heritage for England (NHLE) contains nearly 400,000 entries (predominantly Listed Buildings) available online from Historic England. However, the list lacks images and many of the entries, particularly older list descriptions are very brief and out of date.

Historic England is aware that there are many individuals and organisations that have a good deal more information about these buildings and sites than available in the description in the NHLE entry. To bring this knowledge together with The List, Historic England has launched Enriching The List (ETL) crowd- sourcing initiative to open up the NHLE to additional information and images from its users. This additional content appears after the list entry and separated from it so it is clear that it is not part of the statutory description. Users can upload additional information, up to four images per post, and provide links to other online sources or images. These are then moderated before being published to ensure that they meet the terms and conditions.

Following a trial period, the project was launched on 7th June and at the time of writing over 2,500 contributions have been published, including over 3,000 images. The feedback from users so far has been overwhelmingly positive with users saying how easy it is to submit information and photographs and what a great idea they think it is.

Civic societies contain a vast resource of knowledge about the heritage of their local areas, both as organisations and through their individual members. Historic England is inviting the civic movement to help them enrich The List, and individuals can sign up as volunteers online.

You can find out more about the project including how to take part and some of the content uploaded so far at www.historicengland.org.uk/etl. If you have any queries or feedback please email EnrichingTheList@HistoricEngland.org.uk.

The Forth and Clyde Canal (and the Union Canal) Jim Nelhams

Some HADAS members may have noticed our interest in canals. The long HADAS outings have often included a stop at a canal, and sometimes a ride on a narrowboat. We have been taking holidays on canal boats for over 30 years (not every year) and are very interested in their history and their place in industrial archaeology. This year, we ventured north of Hadrian’s Wall for six days on these Scottish canals.

The first act of parliament relating to this canal, received the royal assent on the 8th of March 1768, making it very early as British canals go, and the first sea to sea canal in the world. It opened in 1790 and ran from Bowling sea basin on the River Clyde to the River Carron which flows into the Firth of Forth, with a short spur into Glasgow. To accommodate seagoing craft, it is wider than most canals and once operated steamboat trips. For much of its length it follows close to the Roman Antonine Wall.

The Union Canal joined the Forth and Clyde at Falkirk, giving access to Edinburgh. This is a contour canal closely following the 240 feet contour line for over 30 miles, so that the only locks, 11 of them, were in the last half mile where it dropped to join the Forth and Clyde. One wonders at the surveying that made this possible.

As with most canals, the two fell out of use, and both were closed in the early 1960s. The construction of the M9 motorway blocked the end of the canal at the eastern end, and on the Union Canal, most of the locks were filled in and housing built on the reclaimed land. So when volunteers wanted to restore and re-open both canals, they had real challenges to face.

Disused canal lock

The Forth and Clyde canal was the easier, though it needed a new exit to the Carron River, and two other locks had to be replaced. Fortunately, as part of the Millennium celebrations, Lottery funding was made available to help with both canals.

On the Union Canal, a new stretch of canal was excavated, with a staircase of two new locks, a new tunnel, the first new canal tunnel in Britain for over 100 years. To move boats the 80 feet between the tunnel and the Forth and Clyde, a magnificent new construction known as the Falkirk Wheel was opened by the Queen in 2002. The Falkirk Wheel has become a tourist attraction with coach loads arriving to ride in trip boats on the wheel and through the tunnel.

The eastern end of the Forth and Clyde is now guarded by the two largest equine statues in the world, completed in 2013, and about 100 feet tall. Known as The Kelpies, the horses’ heads are based on mythical creatures with the strength of 10 horses and modelled on two Clydesdale horses, the type that hauled the canal barges. The construction is of sheet steel sections, which at night are lit from the inside in changing colours. Two smaller copies, a mere 5 foot high, are at the side of the Wheel.

One of the Kelpies.

Tourists are also served at the wheel by an appropriately stocked shop, selling among other things bottles of a local brew branded as “Wheel Ale”!

The Falkirk Wheel

Other Societies’ events, compiled by Eric Morgan.

Thursday 8th September, 8pm. Battle of Barnet Project. Pennefather Hall, Christ Church, St Albans Road, Barnet EN5 4LA. Altars to Apps: commemorating and interpreting UK battlefields across 1000 years. Talk by Simon Marsh (Battlefields Trust). Tickets on door £5 including refreshments.

Friday 9th September, 7.45pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, Parsonage Lane,, Enfield EN2 0AJ. Life in Post-medieval Southwark: finds from recent excavations. Talk by Jacqui Pearce (MOLA & HADAS course tutor).

Monday 12th September, 3pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. Church House, Wood Street, Barnet (opposite museum). Chipping Barnet War Memorial. Talk by Dennis Bird (HADAS member). Visitors £2. Email:
enquiries@barnetmuseum.org.uk.

Tuesday 13th September, 7.45pm. Amateur Geological Society. The Parlour, St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Ave N3 1BD (off Hendon Way). Virtual Fossils: soft bodied sensations from the Silurian. Talk by Prof Derek Siveter.

Friday 16th September, 7pm. COLAS. St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3R 7LQ. The King’s Observatory: the quest for Shene charterhouse & the search for an old latrine. Talk by Bob Cowie (MOLA). Visitors £2.

Friday 16th September, 7.30pm. Wembley History Society. English Martyrs Hall, Chalkhill Rd, Wembley HA9 9EW (top of Blackbird Hill). Dirty London. Talk by Pat Dutson. Visitors £3. Refreshments 50p.

Saturday 17th September. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. Coach outing to Rochester. For details please contact Pat Alison at 37 Ladbroke Drive, Potters Bar EN6 1QR. Telephone 01707 858430 or Barnet Museum on 020 8440 8066. Email: enquiries@barnetmuseum.org.uk.

Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th September. London Open House Weekend. Free access to over 800 buildings. Details at www.openhouselondon.org.uk. Including the Friends of Brompton Cemetery. Guided tours of the chapel starting at 2pm on both days.

Tuesday 20th September, 6pm. Gresham College at the Museum of London. 150 London Wall EC2Y 5HN. Queen Victoria. Talk by Prof Vernon Bogdanor. FREE. Also Wednesday 21st September, 1pm. The Cradle of Stonehenge? Blick Mead – a Mesolithic site in the Stonehenge landscape. Talk by Prof David Jaques.

Sunday 25th September to Sunday 2nd October. Barnet Borough Arts Council. The Spires, High Street, Barnet EN5 5XY. Arts and Information Exhibition (including HADAS).

Wednesday 28th, September, 7.45pm. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 0NL. The Cinema Museum. Talk by Martin Humphries. Visitors £2. Refreshments & bar.

Thursday 29th September, 8pm. Finchley Society. Outreach meeting in East Finchley (please see Sept/Oct Finchley Society newsletter for details). Visitors £2.

Until Friday 30th September. Stephens House & Gardens (Avenue House). Hospitals for Heroes. FREE summer exhibition of Avenue House as a VAD hospital during WW1 and as the RAF Central Hospital from 1919. Open Tues/Wed/Thurs 1-4.30pm. Sat & Sun 12-4.30pm.

No. 543 June 2016 Edited by Sue Willetts

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 14th June at 7.45pm HADAS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING at Stephens House and Gardens.

Please make every effort to attend the AGM of your Society. The Society needs more volunteers to give help as the Society does not run itself. If you are unable to attend please spend a little time sending your apologies either by email to the Chairman or Secretary or a phone call. All details are printed at the back of the Newsletter.

Also come along to support your President Harvey Sheldon who will deliver a presentation after the AGM on the Rose Theatre, ‘The Rose Discovered and the Rose Revealed’ – this being the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. The May lecture was attended by over 50 people, it would be good to have a similar number for the AGM.

Monday 19th – Friday 23rd September. HADAS trip to Bradford-on-Avon

Tuesday 11th October 2016, 8pm. Women in Medieval London, Lecture by Professor Caroline Barron

Tuesday 8th November 2016, 8pm. The Cheapside Hoard. Lecture by Hazel Forsyth

All the above events, unless otherwise stated, will be held at Stephens House & Gardens (formerly Avenue House), 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, starting at 8pm, with tea/coffee and biscuits afterwards. Non-members are welcome (£1.00). Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 and 460 pass nearby. Finchley Central Station (Northern Line) is a short walk away.

Stephens House & Gardens (Avenue House) is hosting two outdoor events in June & July. Free admission. HADAS will have a table on both dates.

12th June 12-5pm: A celebration to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s 90th birthday. Live music, maypole dancing, stalls inside & outside. Food and drink will be on sale or bring your own picnic.

17th July 12-5pm: Annual Summer Fête. Live music, fun & games, stalls, food & drink.

Excavation Notice – for June / July 2016 Don Cooper

AOC & The Friends of Eastcote House and Gardens are excavating at Eastcote House and Gardens (High Road, Eastcote Middlesex HA5 2FE) again this year on the last week in June, 2016 and first week in July, 2016. If any HADAS members would like to volunteer to dig, apply in the first instance to AOC on 020 8843 7380 or email London@aocarchaeology.com It would also be an interesting site to visit during the two weeks dig.

The Curtain Theatre, Shoreditch: Sue Willetts

Archaeologists at this site have discovered a ‘bird whistle’ thought to have been used for sound effects in 16th century performances of Romeo and Juliet. The theatre would have been rectangular rather than curved. The dig will last another month before the site becomes a visitor centre. For more details http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36304627

In The Lift to The Beach: a visit to the Lundenwic waterfront: Lecture by Douglas Killock. Report from Vicki Baldwin

It is rare that an opportunity occurs for excavation of the Lundenwic waterfront since it is located under the buildings lining Victoria Embankment Gardens. However, the refurbishment of the Adelphi building necessitated the installation of a new lift and its associated shaft. This was to allow further access to the underground car park shared with the neighbouring Savoy Hotel. In order to accommodate the lift mechanism, the surface of the lowest level of the car park had to be removed and the shaft extended down. This allowed for excavation of an area approximately 4m x 5m. Apparently it was very quiet down there, although the proximity of various luxury cars lent the site the ambience of a “Bond” movie set! Any ideas of luxurious conditions for the excavators were dispelled by the slides showing bags and bags of spoil that had to be brought to the surface by hand for reuse later.

The moment the car park surface and associated rubble was removed from the excavation area a compacted layer was exposed, possibly an outside surface. Below this, there was Middle Saxon material, including loom weights close to the top. A later, 8th century, ditch and pit had been cut into the layer. Pottery from this area was dated as post AD770 and indicated habitation rather than waterfront, with an oyster shell midden of significant proportions, as well as many other items such as antler, horn and bone combs. Bone pins or thread pickers and a bone needle point to cloth production or netting. Soil samples yielded 10,000 pieces of animal bone. Micro layers of ash, burnt wood and burnt clay were possibly from timbers burnt in situ. The associated pottery indicated this happened around AD770.

Below this level, 250 kilos of reused Roman building material pointed to a systematic movement of material up-river from the City, and this location on the waterfront as a possible landing place. There was also evidence of brushwood possibly having been used to consolidate a wet and muddy surface.

Deeper in the excavation Saxon waterfront timbers were exposed. These did not extend into the river but were for managing and supporting the waterfront and were dated as being earlier than the building destroyed in c. AD770. The vertical limit of the excavation was 1m 80cm and at this level postholes and evidence of wattle indicated the earliest waterfront post c.AD650. Each successive line of waterfront timbers had dumps of waste material used for bank consolidation associated with it.

Notable finds included part of a barrelhead, identified by Damian Goodburn as being European in origin, possibly from the head of the Rhine Valley. Is this evidence of the re-establishment of a wine trade? In addition there were leather objects including shoes, and a tiny fragment of cut glass, not Saxon, possibly Levantine.

Very little metal was found apart from a few rolled fishing weights. And one possibly silver coin – a Thrimsa. Of the 5 published as being from London only one is from an archaeological context. This is closely datable to AD655 – 675 and is a “Two Emperors” type. This was an interesting lecture and an object lesson in the value of excavating even a limited area of a significant site.

The Archaeology of Crossrail: Lecture by Jay Carver Report by Andy Simpson

In his post as Crossrail Project Archaeologist, this was Jay’s 100th public lecture during the Crossrail project! And most enjoyable and informative it was, too. The archaeological investigations are almost complete after five years of work investigating some 40 locations covering sites of all periods, with just one or two small watching briefs to complete. Reports can be found at: http://www.crossrail.co.uk/sustainability/archaeology/

The project has involved tunnels cut some 30-40m below the surface through chalk and clay deposits with a few fossils such as sharks’ teeth in the London clay, plus a rare piece of amber, tested for any undisturbed prehistoric air sealed within, but none was found. By glacial epoch times some 68,000 years ago there are finds from a tundra environment from west of Paddington from the course of the River Westbourne, including reindeer and bison bones which had been chewed by wolves. Mesolithic flints have also been found.

Bronze Age finds from Plumstead include timber stakes with tooling marks, possibly parts of trackways across wetlands. At Farringdon, traces were found of some of the 40,000 people who died in London in nine months during the Black Death of 1348-49. The plague burials at Charterhouse Square were hinted at by earlier skeletal finds; burials were of individuals in ordered, but layered, rows, not the popular conception of bodies tipped haphazard into plague pits; teeth were sampled to prove the presence of the Black Death. At the Bedlam burial ground, opened in 1569 and closed in the early eighteenth century, known burials looked for, but not found, included two Levellers, one executed, and another, John Lilburne, the author of “Freeborn Rights”, buried there in 1657. There was a trial dig on part of the Bedlam burial ground at Liverpool St in 2011, this being the first municipal burial ground to cover overflow from parish burial grounds; it closed in 1739; large numbers of burials disturbed during redevelopment in the nineteenth century were re-interred at Ilford cemetery, and 400 more were excavated in 1985 as part of the Broadgate redevelopment.

Some 30% of the cemetery is believed to remain some 1.5m below street level, with a 2m depth of burials – some 3,000 bodies, with Georgian buildings over the upper burials. Some charnel pits are known, and some half-dozen not-in-situ grave slabs were found, one for a woman from the height of the great plague in 1665.

Seventeenth-century burials have more evidence of coffins than just plain shrouded burials; there is some evidence of violence including blunt force trauma from fights; one burial bore a heavily corroded and undecipherable chest plate. One mass burial was found of 40 coffins interred in one day with the burials highly compressed. Question posed – was the Great Plague bubonic or influenza?

The 3,500 bodies excavated from the Bedlam site will be recorded and then reburied, with a small group being retained for further study by the osteology team.

The Roman finds from the Walbrook have gained considerable publicity. This area, lined by Ermine St, seems to have been little used other than for burials. A heavily trafficked and rutted road surface was found with even horseshoes lying in the ruts; the roadside ditches contained pottery, coins and numerous skulls, with whole lines of skulls in the ditch fill which in Roman times was a typical pond environment; perhaps they were associated with the nearby fort at the NW corner of Londinium, as a gruesome/warning display lining a possible military road leading to the fort and used in its construction, with the skulls eventually tumbling into the ditch after display? We may never know.

Many others had previously been found in the channel of the Walbrook, possibly washed down from local cemeteries, 40 more in the Walbrook dig; a comparable find might be the line of skulls in a ditch outside the Roman fortress at Colchester.

There will be further TV coverage on Channel 4 and there is an extensive printed and digital publications programme, with the first three books, including the Thames Ironworks site, already published, with other reports on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=crossrail+archaeology

Excavations at Clitterhouse Farm, Cricklewood by HADAS.

Bill Bass and The Fieldwork Team

(Part 3 Site Phasing and other things)

Site code: CLM15, Clitterhouse Farm, Claremont Road, Cricklewood, NW2 1PH

NGR: TQ 23689 86819, SMR: 081929, Site investigated July/August 2015.

For background on this project please see HADAS Newsletters 539 (Feb 2016) and 542 (May 2016).

This is an attempt to show a basic ‘phasing’ of the Clitterhouse Farm moated site through maps, documents and some archaeology with similarities to that of Finchley Manor House, it’s a rough guide and not meant to be pinpoint accurate. Although we have pulled together some of the documentary references, it’s not a definitive history record.

“Numerous nucleated settlements (villages/hamlets) are known to have existed or originated during this period illustrating the density of settlement in areas for which previously there is little archaeological evidence. For the most part, these settlements developed away from Watling Street, although Hyde and Cricklewood are exceptions and are recorded on 1281 and 1294 respectively. The nearest other villages/settlements at this period are Hendon to the north (with a parish church) Oxgate to the west (the nearest to Clitterhouse), Finchley (with a parish church) to the northeast and West End to the south.” (Desk-based assessment, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, on behalf of Brent Cross Cricklewood Development Partners). This report refers to the Brent Cross Development south of the North Circular Road and includes Clitterhouse Farm and Playing Fields.

Finchley Manor

Finchley Manor, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, in East End Road is a similar moated site to Clitterhouse Farm, at Finchley Manor (TQ 2552 9003, SMR 081886) there has been some limited excavation here by HADAS and DGLA. It is not precisely known when the house was established “we do know that the Manor of Finchesle was mentioned in a charter granted by King John to the Bishop of London – William de Sainte Marie Eglise – dated 16 June 1199”. “The present house, built in 1723, is not the original mansion which, records tell us in 1504 stood ‘within the moat’.”(Finchley Manor: influential families by Fred Davies, Barnet Libraries Publications). There are references elsewhere to a possible original house c1253.

HADAS, led by Paddy Musgrove in 1982, undertook a small excavation in the cellar of the existing 1723 Finchley Manor House to possibly locate any evidence for the earlier medieval structure below the later one. Lifting flagstones off the floor – “The rubble consisted of broken bricks, hand-made roofing tiles and a considerable amount of plaster, much of which had been painted. It also contained animal bones, shells, fragments of wood and charcoal, together with pottery and other artifacts which can be dated to the 17th century or later, thus confirming that the flagstones examined definitely did NOT represent the floor of an earlier manor house cellar.” (Clues to Finchley’s Past, HADAS NL 133 1982, P Musgrove). The inference being that the medieval dwelling is nearby within the moated area.

In 1991 the then Department of Greater London Archaeology (DGLA) conducted an evaluation in lieu of development at Finchley Manor (see figure 1), to try and establish whether the moat ran further north-west from the existing remains of the ‘U’ or ‘L’ shaped moat that is behind and south-west of the current house. Members of HADAS including Ted Sammes manage to view these works, “The outline of the ditch in boulder clay was clear, and just where both Paddy Musgrove and Brigid Grafton Green would have expected it to be. The fill of the ditch was mostly boulder clay wash, with a few small brick sherds. From a finds point of view, it could be said to be disappointing. As a result of this work we now know that the moat existed on three sides. The chance of locating the fourth under or near the house is remote.” (E Sammes, Manor House Moat, HADAS NL 250 1992). The DGLA report summary (MHB91,

D. Bowsher, LA Round-up 1991) concludes “Part of E-W moat some 10m (33ft) wide and 2.50m (8ft) deep was located. Pottery from backfill was in the main 17thC, with residual 15thC pottery”. There have other surveys of Finchley Manor moat by HADAS, in 1970 B.R. Martin measured five sections across the moat, and in 1989 Jean Snelling with the DGLA conducted a Watching Brief with further surveying. These produced widths of the moat between 18.00m to 23.00m. There was a water feature to the north of East End Road, an ornamental-garden and ‘fishponds’ possibly 17th/18th century, these are not usually considered to be associated with the earlier medieval moat and are not mentioned further here.

Figure 1

“The main purpose of digging a moat in the late Middle Ages was to enhance the status of the house and to provide some protection but it was also useful for draining low lying sites on clay subsoils. However moats also provide many practical benefits such as a convenient water supply, a source of fish for Fridays and fastdays, a quick means of dousing fires and a sewage outlet” (Information panel at Finchley Manor by Roy Walker 1991). The site is not open to the public.

Clitterhouse Farm

“The nucleus of the manor of CLITTERHOUSE was a house and one carucate (a medieval parcel of farmland) held by John de Langton in 1321 (fn. 146) and by his younger son Robert in 1335. (fn. 147) Robert’s son and namesake held it in 1361, when it was called the manor of Hendon, and successfully defended his tenure against Ralph de Langton, his uncle. (fn. 148)” (Victoria County History, London, 1976). This is the first mention of Clitterhouse Farm from documentary sources that we know of, and it would have been established well before that looking at the foundations of other nearby farms and manors.

One of the first map references we have is a 1584 survey held by St Barts Hospital Archive (SBHB/HC/45/1). This map shows the farm surrounded by woodland and orchard (see also part 2), a pond is sited to the west, adjacent to the farm access track, then there is a ‘U’ shaped moat, the ‘open’ end faces south-west. Within the moat there are two buildings orientated south-east to north-west, whether these are the literal orientation or just a representation is difficult to say. But the structures are shown with pitched roofs, have two stories (possibly jettied?) with windows and doors, the doors look big and may represent barns and stables with living accommodation above (?). The access track leads to a gate beside the first building, this building lays across the ‘open’ end of the moat, the other lies about halfway into the moated area (see figure 2). The northern corner of the moat is curved while the eastern corner is a sharp right-angle. As a very rough guide the area enclosed may encompass 150ft x 150ft (45m x 45m), the width of the moat may be 20ft.

The next map is from 1715 (SBHB/HC/45/2) this includes a fine panoramic view of the then farm buildings surrounding the farmyard. By this time the complex has expanded with the addition and infilling of further barns and stables, “The farm-house was shown in 1715 (fn. 167) as a large timber-framed building of two storeys, with three gables and a jettied first storey. It occupied one side of a courtyard, on the other sides of which were weatherboarded barns of the standard Middlesex type, with steeply pitched roofs, and stables” (Victoria County History, London, 1976). Whether this complex incorporates the earlier buildings is not known, the 1584 map does not show any gables so the likelihood is they have been completely rebuilt. To facilitate this expansion, part of the north-western arm of the moat has been backfilled and built over to accommodate a ‘wheat-barn’ and stables (see figure 2). But the farmyard complex is still essentially within the moated boundary, a “Gateway” leads out to the western access track/road.

Moving on, we have a plan held by St Barts Hospital Archive (SBHB/HC/45/19) done between 1790s to approx. 1816, this shows a proposal to rebuild the site. A plan similar to the earlier 1715 layout is over-written in bold with the new proposed development including repair or new build of barns, stables, cowhouse, cartshed and granaries, some of this was carried-out and other ideas dropped. The only structure left within the moated area was the ‘wheat-barn’ (above) with added bays and a (rebuilt?) granary, plans for a new curving ox-shed and a new barn within the moat were abandoned. Also “pulled down” in this area was the “Old House” (to be replaced by a “new house”, west of the site) and adjacent stables. The upshot was that the centre of the farm moves slightly westwards – to the other side of the range spanning the open end of the moat.

Figure 2

The 1584, 1715 and 1816 phases of Clitterhouse Farm, the A–A line is approximately the ‘central’ line through the different periods. The illustrations are simplified and not to scale.

A map of 1816 (SBHB/HC/45/34) reflects the new arrangement (see figure 2) within the moat, is the wheat-barn and rebuilt barn ‘spanning the open end of the moat’ with the gateway leading west into the ‘new’ farmyard. A new southern arm incorporating new stables, the northern incorporates the carthouse and pigstye and a fish-pond, the pond is seen on the 1584 map and is a constant through most of the farms history. Further west is the newly built (c1790s) farmhouse, a square structure with two western bays, it’s not known if this was in brick or timber. The new farmhouse is built on a slightly different alignment to the rest of the complex, this could be that it fronts on to an east-west trackway leading off the north-south (approx.) Clitterhouse Lane entrance road from Watling Street, also it aligns with the access road to the farmyard running behind the new farmhouse. In the immediate area east and west of the farm are formal looking paths and gardens.

In the 1860s period much of the farmland west of the farm had been sold off to the Midland Railway, access from Watling Street was ‘stopped’, maps of the time show datum points and surveying for the laying-out of the future north-south running Claremont Road which passes directly in front of the farm. The farm itself hasn’t changed much from the 1816 map, although the ‘wheat-barn’ has been extended westwards into the moated area, there may be a compound next to it perhaps for an animal enclosure (see figure 3). As for the moat, the shape survives, but has been formalised/landscaped with ornamental ‘bit and bobs’.

Figure 3

The 1865 and modern phases of Clitterhouse Farm

At some point in the latter half of the 19th century the farmhouse is rebuilt on the same footprint, “From Clitterhouse Farm a former C19 farmhouse remains in Claremont Road, three bays with a little polychrome brickwork” (Pevsner, London 4: North 1998). Also in the late 19th to early 20th century some of the main farm building is rebuilt in brick into a dairy farm, with cow sheds added to the northern side of the farmyard. Around 1900 maps indicate the ‘wheat-barn’ and its extension in the moated area have been demolished and at a similar time the moat is filled-in and ploughed over, the same fate affected the long-lived farm pond.

In 1925 the farm was sold, the surrounding land used for playing fields, civilian airfield by the Handley Page Company, housing estates and other development. The dairy farm complex with a few alterations and different uses still stands today. The moated area – the early heart of the site, lies under the car-park probably still surrounded by its infilled and buried moat. The HADAS excavation has shown that evidence for the moat still survives, but was it bigger and surround a larger area in the medieval period? Work at Finchley Manor has shown this could be the case. Small amounts of medieval pottery hint at possible pre 1321 occupation of the Clitterhouse site.

Other areas that could be investigated include current east-range of the farm, this approximately corresponds to the range of the earlier buildings that spanned the open end of the moat. This area has been occupied since at least 1584 (and probably before) and is in the position of the 1715 ‘Great Old Barn’. Future development of the area immediately adjacent to the farm complex – car-park, playing field and new road access are to be upgraded and it is hoped that these areas will be archaeologically investigated by HADAS or other professional archaeological bodies.

Clitterhouse Dairy Farm, looking east. Photo Paulette Singer & The Clitterhouse Farm Project

The interior of the farmyard as of August 2015 looking east (Roger Chapman)

Acknowledgements and thanks:

Luisa Valejo, Alistair Lambert & The Clitterhouse Farm Project.

HADAS Fieldwork Team.

HADAS Archive.

Roger Chapman – documentary research.

St Bartholomew’s Hospital Archive (various maps and documentary sources).

Desk-Based Assessment (2008) of the Archaeology and Cultural Heritage on behalf of the Brent Cross Cricklewood Development Partners.

Victoria County History.

Finchley Manor: influential families by Fred Davies, Barnet Libraries Publications.

Museum of London, DGLA 1991, Bibsworth Manor.

Roy Walker.

The Manor House Moated Site, East End Road, Finchley by Jean Snelling (HADAS).

A visit to Pope’s Grotto, Twickenham Stewart Wild

After centuries of neglect, a grotto built in 1720 under a road in Twickenham by the illustrious Alexander Pope is finally revealing its hidden treasures. I was fortunate to be able to visit it last September.
Born in London, Pope (1688–1744) was a poet, classical scholar, essayist, collector and traveller. He suffered numerous health problems, including tuberculosis, but despite this he travelled widely and found time to translate Homer’s Iliad from the Ancient Greek.

Earnings from this magnum opus enabled Pope in 1719 to buy some land in Twickenham, and for 25 years his villa, grotto and garden acted like a magnet for major literary figures of his day, many of whom, like Voltaire and Jonathan Swift, arrived by boat along the River Thames to disembark at Pope’s riverside estate.

Tunnel vision
A road divided Pope’s villa from its garden, so a tunnel was built to join the two. This gave Pope, ever the classicist, the opportunity to create a grotto for himself and his guests recalling the classical imagery of Homer’s grotto of the Naiads and Calypso’s bower in the Odyssey.

Work began in 1720, after Pope had returned from a visit to grottoes in Italy, with more and more items added to his collection each year until there were more than two hundred geological and historical features built into the roof and walls; these included minerals, fossils and crystals, shells and flints, a stalagmite from Wookey Hole and even basalt from the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. Many items were gifts from his eminent visitors.

At the riverside entrance to the grotto are two small side rooms, probably once part of the villa’s cellars. At the other end are steps to bring the visitor back to ground level. The grotto is about 25 metres long and dimly lit, so a torch is useful to pick out the various treasures all around.

After Pope’s death his garden and grotto continued to attract visitors and his gardener, John Serle, published a guide to their layout and content. But in 1807 Pope’s villa was torn down by an occupant who was fed up with the persistent visitors. This led to a romantic painting by J.M.W. Turner, who also lived in Twickenham: Pope’s Villa during its Dilapidation.

Restoration
Now a group of concerned academics and enthusiasts has launched a plan to rescue the grotto, one of the first in England and the inspiration for dozens to follow. Many buildings have come and gone on the site over the years but the grotto under Cross Deep has remained largely forgotten although it is now Grade II* listed and on the Heritage at Risk register.

The current owner of the property, Radnor House School, is in the vanguard of restoration, working with Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust to raise funds. They aim to improve the lighting, secure the flooring and create a digital resource for worldwide admirers of Pope’s life and work.

It is hoped that in the future, with the school’s permission, Pope’s Grotto will be open to visitors on special occasions, and that a representative of the Trust will be able to come and talk to us at one of our monthly meetings.

N.B. We welcome further interesting reports of visits / news items for your newsletter. Ed.

Other Societies’ Events – (see also Exhibitions section below) by Eric Morgan / Sue Willetts

Sat 11 June UCL Institute of Archaeology will be holding free, fun family events for the CBA’s Festival of Archaeology. To include behind the scenes tours, art activities and artefact handling for all ages.

Sun 12 June, 1-5.00 pm – Tea in the Park event behind Barnet Museum. The Group of Medieval re-enactors will be present in the Courthouse Gardens. (New detail not in May newsletter)

Thurs 16 June, 8 pm -Battle of Barnet Project. Archaeology and aiming for war. Talk by Sam Wilson. £5.00, Conc. £3.00 on door. Pennefather Hall, St. Albans Rd, (Hall of Christ Church), Barnet, EN5 4LA

Sat 18 June, 11am – Friary Park. Unveiling of a plaque in front of the ‘Peace statue’ by the Mayor of Barnet. Plaque will provide details of the history of the park, the story of the statue and the sculptor.

Sun 19 June, 12-6.00 pm – East Finchley Festival, Cherry Tree Wood (opposite Station, off High Rd, N2) Many stalls (inc. Finchley Soc. & Barnet Borough Council), entertainment, food & drink.

Wed 22 June, 7.45 pm – Friern Barnet & District Local History Soc. Seeking Sergeant Victor Hember: the story of WWI soldier (Battle of the Somme) Talk by Hugh.Garnsworthy. N. Middx Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL www.friern-barnethistory.org.uk/programme

Sat 2 July – Barnet Museum & Local History Soc. Coach trip to Sutton Hoo and Woodbridge. More info to follow: www.barnetmuseum.co.uk or 020 8440 8066

Sat 2 – Sun 3 July, 12-7.00 pm – East Barnet Festival, Oak Hill Park, Church Hill Rd, East Barnet, EN4 8JS. Community stalls, incl. Barnet Borough Arts Council, music and dance. Theatre in the Park on Sunday at 3pm. Food, bar etc.

Sat 9 – Sun 10 July – Festival of Archaeology. Enfield Arch. Soc. Dig at Theobalds Palace, Cedars Park, Cheshunt, Herts. For more details: martin.dearne@tesco.net

Sat 9 July, 10.30 – 4.00 pm, Holloway Bus Garage, 37a Pemberton Gardens, N19 5RR. Open Day. Vehicle displays, sales stands, heritage vehicles on special services. Admission charge (unknown)

Tues 12 July, 7.45 pm. Amateur Geological Society. The Parlour, St. Margaret’s Church, Victoria Ave, N3 1BD 30 years of collecting with Sussex Mineral & Lapidary Soc. Talk by John Pearce

Tues 12 July, 9.00 am, Mill Hill Historical Society. Coach outing to The Bosworth Battle Field Centre. Book by 18 June. http://www.millhill-hs.org.uk/contact.html

Tues 12 – Sun 17 July – Dig at Elsyng Palace, Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield, EN2 9HA – open to the public on Sunday 17 July. Contact Martin Dearne see above.

Sat 16 July. E.M.A.S University of London Extra Mural Arch. Soc. Activity Space 1. 1066 and all that. for venue see web site Day School, Tutor D. Beard. http://emas-archaeology.org/

Tue 19 July, 10 am – 6.00 pm Mill Hill Historical Society. Riverside Walk from Tower Hill to St Katherine’s at Limehouse with Anne-Marie Craven, Book by 4 July. See above for contact details,

Sat 23 July -Battle of Barnet Project. Being Richard III. Talk by Dominic Smee. £5.00/ £3.00 for Barnet Hist. Soc. Members, on door. Pennefather Hall, St. Albans Rd, (Hall of Christ Church), Barnet, EN5 4LA

Correction

Mon 13 June is the correct date for the Barnet Local History Soc. talk by Terence Atkins Another look at postcards. This was given as Mon 15 Jun in the HADAS May Newsletter

Exhibitions / Festivals

British Museum: Two noteworthy current exhibitions. See link below for booking info

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/special_exhibitions.aspx

Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds Until 27 November 2016

Sicily: culture and conquest Until 14 August 2016

British Library: Shakespeare exhibition until 6 Sep 2016

CBA’s Festival of Archaeology 2016: Sat 16 July – Sun 31 July 2016

http://www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk/whatson – search for Greater London in the drop down box as more events will be added, but also click on links below for more details on the following events

Various dates Rainham Hall – archaeology uncovered

Various dates George Orwell and Islington in the 1940s

Various dates Guided tour of the Grade I listed Union Chapel, Islington

Fri 15 July Burlington House summer lates

Sat 16 July Focus on industrial archaeology at Kirkaldy Testing Museum, London

Sun 24 July Ice Sunday at the London Canal Museum

Mon 25 – Fri 29 July A journey of discovery at Museum of London Docklands

Mon 25 -Fri 29 July Ancient poo and you at Museum of London Docklands

Tues 26 July Bones in the basement at Benjamin Franklin’s House

Fri 29 July Sensing history at Kingston upon Thames Museum

24 May – 3 July – Museum of London, Under London: Photographs by Simon Norfolk, Exhibition for National Geographic Magazine of archaeological objects found in London and photographed above ground in specific London streets. 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Free. Opened 24th May

Sat 23 July – Mon 17 April 2017 Fire! Fire! Interactive exhibition to commemorate The 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. Admission from £8.00 online (Concessions from £6.40 online) http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london/whats-on/exhibitions/fire-fire

Until Sun 8 Jan 2017 Enfield Society, Enfield Museum, Dugdale Centre, 39 London Rd, Enfield, EN2 6DS. 80 years of action, 1936-2016. Celebrating the work and achievements of the Enfield Society over the past 80 years, its present and looking forward to its future. Open Mon – Sat 9.00 – 5.00pm, Sun 10.00 am – 1.00 pm

No. 542 MAY 2016 Edited by Dot Ravenswood

HADAS DIARY

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

Tuesday 10th May: Hadrian’s Wall; Life on Rome’s Northern Frontier

Lecture by Matthew Symonds

Matthew Symonds is the editor of Current Archaeology magazine and a visiting fellow at Newcastle University. He undertook his doctoral research on Roman fortlet use in the north-western frontier provinces at Christ Church, University of Oxford. Matthew’s research interests include Roman frontiers and Roman Britain, and he has published numerous specialist and popular articles exploring these topics. He is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Scotland, and Newcastle, and a regular speaker at archaeological events.

This talk will seek to provide a balanced view of life on Hadrian’s Wall by setting the well-studied military remains within the wider physical and human geography of the frontier zone. It will examine what Hadrian’s Wall was intended to achieve, how successful it was, how it changed over almost three centuries of operation, and what impact the frontier had on the lives lived in its shadow.

Tuesday 14th June, 7.45pm: HADAS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, Stephens House and Gardens. Please note the starting time.

Following the meeting, Harvey Sheldon, our President, will give a presentation on the Rose Theatre, “The Rose Discovered and the Rose Revealed,” this year being the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Monday 21st September – Friday 23rd September: HADAS trip to Bradford-on-Avon

Tuesday 11th October: Women in medieval London. Lecture by Professor Caroline Barron

Tuesday 8th November: The Cheapside Hoard. Lecture by Hazel Forsyth.
OUTINGS, OUTINGS, OUTINGS
Outings with Mill Hill Historical Society: HADAS members welcome
Following discussions with Jim Nelhams and Keith Dyall, chairman of MHHS, HADAS members are being invited to partake in their outings. Given that we have no day outings planned for 2016 due to not having anyone to organise them, this is an opportunity to support a fellow local society.
Tuesday 7th June 2016 Rainham Hall
This charming house is one of the country’s finest examples of an early 18th-century merchant’s house. It was opened to the public last October after a £2.5 million conservation project. There are a number of projects planned, especially for the three acres of gardens. The house is furnished with displays relative to its first owner and builder, Captain John Harle. Later it will be altered to suit later owners of the house.

The stables now house the café with an exhibition space above which is regularly changed. Cream teas, cakes, and pre-ordered cold lunches are available. Hot lunches are available from the pub opposite. Captain Harle was buried in the little Norman church next door and we are trying to get the church unlocked for our visit to look inside.

Cost £5 £1 NT The site is within zone 6 for Freedom card holders.

Meet 10.30am Tower Hill Station by the Tram refreshment kiosk.

Tuesday 12th July Bosworth Battlefield Centre.

Finding the remains of Richard III under a Leicester car park and their subsequent re-interment in the Cathedral gives impetus to visit the battlefield site and refresh our memories of events leading up to the battle. There will be a short talk on arrival and a walking tour of the site. There is also the exhibition centre, falconry, an ancient barn converted, into a restaurant/café. 10 minutes away is a heritage railway, a glass blowing centre at the station and a pottery nearby. If we have time there will be a brief visit to the attractive town of Market Bosworth

Cost £28 The coach will leave the Hartley Hall Flower Lane, Mill Hill at 9.00 and leave for home at 4.30. Please book by 18th June 2016.

Saturday 20th August Alresford and Hinton Ampner NT

A visit to the delightful Hampshire town of Alresford. It is well known for being the western terminus of the Watercress Line, and the meeting place for Soviet spies handing over secrets. There are lots of eating places for an early lunch before we move on to Hampton Ampner. In the middle of the 20th century the house suffered a major fire but the owners rebuilt it to how you see it today. It is also well known for its gardens. On the day of our visit there is a traditional jazz trio playing on the lawn from 13.00 until 15.00. This is an interesting place to visit.

Cost £29 NT members £21 The coach will depart from the Hartley Hall, Flower Lane, Mill Hill, at 9.00 and will leave for home at 4.30. Please book by 30th July 2016.

Monday 5th September Holkham Hall

This is one of the great houses of England, on a par with Chatsworth and Blenheim, built by the Coke family between 1734 and 1764. Many of you will remember from your history lessons the agricultural reforms introduced by Coke of Holkham. Besides the magnificent Great House set in a 3000 acre park, there is a museum of agricultural development and a bygones museum as well. The park is home to 800 fallow deer and the lake attracts many hundreds of birds, both resident and on migration. The last Countess developed a pottery within the complex. There is a walled kitchen garden, produce from which can be bought in season.
Cost £36 Historic Houses Association members £25. The coach leaves the Hartley Hall, Flower Lane at 9.00 and leaves for home at 4.30pm. Please book by 6th August 2016. Contact MHHS at 26 Millway Mill Hill, NW7 3RB, tel 020 8959 7147

Tuesday 19th July 2016: Riverside Walk with Blue Badge Guide – Anne-Marie Craven
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE or Piety and Piracy
The religious communities in medieval London were a savvy lot. Their monasteries or friaries were ideally located near the water and in this walk we start with the Cistercians near Tower Hill and cross over to what was the Hospital of St Katherine located on the River Thames. It is not long before John Stow in the 16th century christens Wapping Street as a “filthy straight passage” with pubs galore, sailors-cum-pirates, executions and mayhem, a far cry from the tidy converted warehouses of today. We continue, if possible, to Limehouse to see where the Foundation of St Katherine, as it is known today, has its HQ.

We will first walk for 1.5 to 2 hours; it is then intended to adjourn to an Italian restaurant, www.bottegawapping.com recommended by Anne-Marie, for lunch (at your own expense), after which we will continue the walk to Limehouse finishing at around 4pm. You may, of course, drop out at any suitable point along the way.

Please book by Monday 4th July 2016 (please remember to indicate if you are joining us for lunch)
Cost: £12 each plus lunch at your own expense. Minimum number 15/maximum 25
Meet: 10:20 just inside Trinity Square Gardens, by the Tram which sells refreshments, at the exit of Tower Mill Underground Station.

Contact MHHS at 26 Millway Mill Hill, NW7 3RB, tel 020 8959 7147. www.millhill-hs.org.uk/

Excavations at Clitterhouse Farm, Cricklewood by HADAS

Bill Bass and The Fieldwork Team

(Part 2: The Excavations)

Site code: CLM15, Clitterhouse Farm, Claremont Road, Cricklewood, NW2 1PH

NGR: TQ 23689 86819, SMR: 081929, July/August 2015.

For background on this project please see HADAS Newsletter 539, February 2016.

The dig

In all, three evaluation trenches of 3x1m were dug over the period of one week, in the narrow enclosed area outside of the south-east main farm building, between the outside of the building and the boundary fence to the gardens of Quantock Gardens. These trenches were essentially trial-trenches just to see what if anything survived, but also positioned to investigate features seen on various archive maps and may give an indication of any archaeological deposits, their survival, and possible dating material. This area appears to be the farm garden from earlier maps, but there is an old ox shed, barn and stable on a different alignment from the main farm complex known from a plan in this area. The southern arm of the “moat” terminates just before this area on known maps, but there are indications that it enclosed a bigger area (say in the Saxon/early medieval period), so there could be a chance of seeing this here.

The parcel of land we were digging had become a bit neglected over the years, and was somewhat overgrown and used as a local dumping ground for builders’ rubble, garden waste and the like. The Clitterhouse Farm Project had the area cleared of overgrowth as best they could; we then laid out a baseline and the trenches. Unfortunately we could not do any resistivity-surveying due to the nature of the ground surface and dumping. A mini-digger machine was used to remove excessive overburden in trenches 2 & 3.

Trench 1

One of the St Bart’s Hospital Archive maps (SBHB/HC/45/19) of Clitterhouse Farm early in the late 18th century indicates some redevelopment works and buildings to be removed. Some of these works may or may not have taken place, but on the map there is an old structure marked “Barn and Stable requiring repair – but proposed to be taken down”. It was a square shed on a north-south alignment, and the building was demolished as part of the new works not long after the map was made. Trench 1 was placed in the vicinity of these structures.

Removal of the topsoil revealed the edge of some modern concrete slabs to the NE of the trench. In amongst the build-up was a number of car-parts including the wheel centre of a Rover P5 Saloon car, in production 1958-1973. It’s a silvery “Viking” long ship design – they were rovers, hence the emblem. Below the topsoil to the east of the trench, a loose single brick “floor,” unmortared, was laid adjacent to some concrete slabs. This is part of a fairly modern demolished out-building/hard-standing or similar. Below this was a 25cm layer [003] of packed roof tiles and demolition material in a black sandy/silt matrix.This layer appears to slope in to the trench from north to south, possibly from the same building as above.

Below [003] a chalk layer context [007] was uncovered, what appeared to be a beaten chalk floor 5-8cm thick; this covered the whole trench at approximately 57.50m OD. Sealed underneath [007] was an orange/grey sandy clay/pebbly layer context [005] some 14-20cm in depth; there may have been some later intrusion by context [004]. This context also contained some loose large worn cobbles and small amounts of animal bone. The natural London clay was encountered at approximately 57.05 OD.

Finds from [001] This context included a mixed pottery collection of Post-medieval Redwares (PMR), and more modern whitewares and Transfer-printed wares (TPW) and others. Pottery from [003] contained a variety of fabrics including Tin-glazed Ware A (TPWA), Border Wares (BORD), Post-medieval Redwares, Frechen and Raeren Stonewares.

Trench 1 discussion

The earliest dating material here from layer [005] are 4 sherds of jar-bases of Raeren Stoneware 1480-1610 and 9 sherds of Tin-glazed Ware A 1570-1650. Together with the other pottery mentioned above, we may have occupation say around 1600-1750. Taken together with the cobblestones and animal bone, perhaps we are looking at some of the remains of the “Barn and Stable” and surrounding yard as mentioned on the early 18th century map. Towards the end of the 18th century a chalk floor is laid with occupation in the 19th century, in perhaps more ephemeral “yard” or garden type buildings. Another interpretation is that much of the tile dump [003] resulted from demolition or natural roof-line collapse of the main southern range of farm buildings into the garden, the range which was in great need of repair and rebuilding with a reconfiguration of the farmyard complex and other structures.

Trench 2

Trench 2, 3x1m, was placed 13.00m east of Trench 1 directly against the wall of the existing southern range of the farm building complex, to see any stratigraphical relationship of the main range to the garden. Up to 50cm of topsoil was removed to expose the main building range foundation, this consisted of a course of stretcher bricks at 57.30 OD, with a course of header bricks directly below, then a further 3 courses of header bricks forming a stepped plinth foundation. In the middle of the trench a large almost ovoid concrete structure appeared running roughly E-W, this may have contained a modern drain or sewer encased in concrete (there was a drain cover nearby), we left it alone and work either side of it.

Below layer [001] the soil changed to become [002], this firm grey/brown silty sandy clay was excavated to a thickness of 55-60cm. Within [002] a brick and tile drain was uncovered, it ran N-S 16cm below the current building foundations. The drain had been laid on a base of tiles with the two sides consisting of 3 courses of brick, fragments of pantile were used to cover the structure. The drain ‘gulley’ was 6cm wide at the northern end, opening out to 16cm wide at the southern end, from here the drain had an easterly curve, some of it may have joined a field-drain system seen in trench 3. The bricks had little or no “frog” and appeared to be reused to form the drain. Natural London Clay was reached at 56.46 OD.

Finds from within the drain and construction ‘cut’ together with the brick (although reused) may give a date of around 1800. The finds from the main [002] layer give a mixed picture, pottery included Transfer Printed Ware 1780-1900, Post-med Redware 1550-1800, White salt-glazed stoneware 1720-1780, Creamware 1740-1830, amongst other small amounts of porcelain and china fabrics. Other finds included two clay-pipe tobacco spurs, one dated 1750-1820 with the initials S & H, the other dated to 1660-1680. Unusually, a pipe-clay “wig-curler” was also recovered. Other material included a small amount of vessel and window glass, iron items – nails, bolts and possible lock-plates, an amount of roof tile and other bits of building material.

Trench 2 discussion

The pantile covered drain may date to the rebuilding of the farm complex sometime in the late 18th – early 19th century, as seen on the SBHB/HC/45/19 map mentioned above. There is then a mixed build-up or silting of material 1800-1900 [002] At some point in the late 19th to early 20th century the main farm building is rebuilt in brick into a dairy farm; this is the “plinth” foundation we can see as it sits on and is dug into the [002] layer.

Trench 3

Trench 3, 3x1m, was positioned at the NE end of the excavation area adjacent to the gate and fencing protecting the excavation area. The trench was placed here in an attempt to find possible evidence of the “moat” known to have partly surrounded the farm complex since at least 1584 and most likely well before.

After removing the dumped overburden by machine, a topsoil layer was excavated [003]; below this a firm grey/brown silty sandy clay [005] was uncovered at approx 56.75m OD. This context [005] could be similar to that of [002] in Trench 2, being a firm silty clay layer with little in the way of pebble and other inclusions, but with charcoal flecking, it was homogenous with little in the way of dump or tip layers within. Near the top of [005] a pair of circular field drains (side by side) entered the trench from the SW side; they ended before they reached the NE side. It is tempting to say they were emptying into the “natural” drain that was the silted-up moat, as the fall of the land is in the easterly direction. A sample of [005] was taken for environmental analysis, which is summarised below.

At approx 56.15m OD the context changed to a thin patchy chalky/redeposited clay layer. It was then noted that the change of layer began to dive down towards the SE end of the trench; below all this was the natural London Clay. We recorded this break of slope “a cut feature” from 56.15m to 55.70m OD, at which point the context turned into a black/grey silty layer [007]. It went deeper but at this level became difficult to excavate as we had reached our safety limit and the water-table had been found so the trench bottom kept filling with clear water from a possible spring line or the water-table.

Finds from Trench 3 included from topsoil [003] largely TPW, CREA and others in pottery, various window and vessel glass including a complete Express Dairy milk bottle with printed “College Farm, Finchley”. An amount of iron objects and some building material was also recovered.

From [005] the pottery included a jar rim and two body sherds of medieval South Herts Greyware (SHER) 1170-1350 with flinty inclusions – the oldest pottery recovered from the excavation – PMR, China, TPW and CREA fabrics. A notable and unusual vessel in CREA fabric was the base of a candlestick holder probably dating to 1800-1900. Various amounts of mostly bottle glass with two partial bottles were found dating to the 18th century. There was a miscellaneous collection of building material, not all was kept; a sample of what we processed included brick, peg/slate/pantile, floor tile and sewer-pipe. Other finds seen were more iron items and a small amount of animal bone and oyster shell. A bone knife handle with remains of the iron tang was also found here.

A visiting HADAS member spotted on the Trench 3 spoilheap a shiny object which turned-out to be a gold half-sovereign coin of 1898 in excellent condition. Unfortunately this was “unstratified,” but an interesting item not usually found on HADAS digs!

Trench 3 discussion

Below the modern topsoil and dumped over-burden we have context [005] which fills the cut “feature”; This feature appears to be the northern slope of a ditch dug into the natural clay, in the position and alignment where we were looking for the “moat”; it would perhaps be a fair assumption that we have found evidence for this feature. Many of the finds from [005] have a wide date range 1170-1900 but possibly most were deposited/dumped approx 1800-1900. It is understood the “moat” was finally backfilled around 1910, but it would seem there was a period of silting beforehand as there were no apparent tip-lines or separate dumping in the [005] fill. In the bottom of the ditch there was a dark-grey black/silty deposit, perhaps some primary silt with some metal-working debris or similar. Iit was difficult to interpret as excavating conditions were a problem in this spot.

Summary

The trial-trenches confirm that archaeological deposits do survive beneath below this parcel of land. From the sealed 17th- 18th century occupation layer in Trench 1 to the brick and tile drain in Trench 2 and moat in trench 3. But there does seem to be a substantial amount of silting-up in trenches 2 & 3 including the filling of the apparent ‘moat’ making interpretation difficult in these areas. They may have been open for some considerable time as part of the farmyard working and later garden use. The presence of the water-table may point to the survival of organic finds in the moat.

From an 1584 map the (excavated) area seems to have been general land in front of and SE of the original timber built farm buildings, there are entrance gates to a field surrounding the moat, another field and a gate to the then extensive woodland to the northern area of the farm. Further maps show the land as a spare or clear area, it then develops into a formally laid-out garden with paths and trees as in an 1816 map. An aerial photograph of 1926 (when the farm was finally closed) still sees it used for gardens. Only the plan showing the proposed works c1790-1816 has a difference as it indicates an “ox shed” and “barn and stables” on this area of land, these are not seen on any other maps (so far) so these buildings may have been a short term measure.

More work needs to be done on the development of the farm and moat plan, through various map and documentary sources. Due to the relative lack of medieval and earlier material in our excavations, preliminary work may indicate that the earlier heart of the farm lies under the present day car-park outside the NE range of the farm building surrounded by the (now filled-in) moat. The documentary sources, possible signs of medieval ridge and furrow from the Cranfield University survey (see part 1) on the playing fields east of the farm and reports of possible ridge and furrow on the Clitterhouse playing field in HADAS newsletter 250, Jan 1992 by Ted Sammes, make it fairly plain there should be medieval occupation evidence nearby.

A later observation

Adjacent to the car-park and roughly 15m NE of the farm building, a concrete base with broken metal ring was found covered-up by grass. This may have been the remains of a barrage balloon mooring-ring dating to the Second World War protecting the Handley Page aircraft factory based on land to the SE, formerly owned by Clitterhouse Farm (Pers. Com A. Simpson).

Acknowledgements and thanks:

Luisa Valejo, Alistair Lamberth & The Clitterhouse Farm Project. HADAS Fieldwork Team – Don Cooper, Vicki Baldwin, Roger Chapman, Tim Curtis, Melvyn Dresner, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams, Janet Mortimer, Joseph O’Kane, Sigrid Padel & Andy Simpson. Specialist Reports – Mike Hacker. Jacqui Pearce – selected finds identification.

St Barts Hospital Archive (various maps and documentary sources). Desk-Based Assessment (2008) of the Archaeology and Cultural Heritage on behalf of the Brent Cross Cricklewood Development Partners. Cranfield University – Geophysical Survey of Land at Clitterhouse Playing Field, Jan 2015. Sandy Kidd – Principal Archaeology Advisor (GLAAS) Historic England. Barnet Council Planning Dept.

Appendix 1

Analysis of Environmental Sample, Sample 2a, Trench 3, Context [005] by Mike Hacker, Feb 2016. (This is a summary of Mike’s report, the full report lies with the archive.)

Objective

To assess a soil sample of the fill of a cut feature, believed to be part of a medieval moat, to establish the composition of the fill and the environmental conditions at the time of its deposition.

Location and description of sample

Location: south eastern end of trench 3, depth c. 1m20 below surface level.

Taken from spoil heap c. 24hrs after excavation. (note: possiblity of some contamination from other material on spoil heap). Weight of sample: 1502gm, Condition: damp, Compaction: soft, Colour: dark, brownish grey,

Composition: silty clay. Forms ball and sausage but not ring, Inclusions: occasional pebbles

Processing method

Dispersed in water and repeatedly washed and settled in 15 lt bucket for 60 secs. Supernatant poured over 200µ sieve. Flot retained and air-dried. Residue air-dried. Dried residue swept with ferrite magnet to isolate iron rich particles. Dried residue passed through graded sieves.

Preliminary conclusions

Geology: The relatively high proportion of very fine sand, silt and clay indicates that the bulk of the material is derived from the underlying London Clay bedrock. The London clay does not contain material >250µ and the sand and pebble >250µ isolated from the sample must have been derived from other sources.

Visual observation of sub-rounded to well-rounded flint large pebbles present on the spoil heap and examination of the pebble and sand fractions from the sample suggests that the sand and pebble fractions of the sample is derived from the Dollis Hill gravel. This may be indicative of a head deposit. Alternatively it may be derived from gravel used for roads and paths imported onto the site from the deposits of Dollis Hill gravel on Dollis Hill (c1.5km from the site) or the Hendon plateau (also c1.5km from the site, BGS 1994 1:50,000 Series, North London Solid and Drift Geology, Sheet 258). There is evidence for gravel extraction from both these areas (LB Brent 1988 schedule of archaeological sites, GLHR record No, 1324570 and LB Barnet, Hendon, The Grove, 19thC gravel pit – Proc, Soc Ant. Dec. 1889, p16).

Organic material

The Rubus seed identified is indicative of such plants as blackberry or raspberry. They may have been growing in the ditch fill. However such seeds are very robust and as dietary fruit, they may be indicative of cess deposition. The preliminary identification of seed of Cyperaceae (sedge), a plant associated with damp habitats, would be consistent with it growing in ditch fill. No plant or animal evidence was recovered that would indicate that the ditch was retained standing water at the time the sampled fill was deposited.

Inorganic material

The presence of coal suggests a late medieval or post medieval date for the deposit.

The iron-rich material contained particles of slag and hammer-scale (fig. 3). This is possibly indicative of iron working. However the relatively small proportion of spheroidal hammer-scale suggests low temperature iron working. This would be consistent with activities such as agricultural tool or equipment maintenance or horse shoeing, as opposed to blacksmithing. Alternatively, depending on the date of the deposit, these particles, together with the presence of slag in the other fractions, could indicate material derived from ash from cast-iron hearths.

Potential for pollen analysis

A small sample of the in-situ ditch fill at a depth of c 1.30m below the surface was taken with a hand auger. This has been examined by Prof. Rob Scaife who has confirmed that the deposit contains well-preserved sub-fossil pollen (Scaife R. Pers. Com).

Trench 1 looking north (Melvyn Dresner)

Trench 1 looking north (Melvyn Dresner)

Trench 2 looking West, showing the brick & Tile drain, farm foundations and mystery concrete feature (Melvyn Dresner)

Trench 3 looking east including the moat cut into natural clay (Melvyn Dresner)

Desmond Collins by Don Cooper

It is with sadness that we report the death of Desmond Collins on the 9th March 2016. Desmond had a long and close association with HADAS. He taught archaeology at the Hampstead Institute and the UCL Institute of Archaeology, and was a contributor to several publications. He was especially interested in the evolution of early man and the development of culture. He jointly directed the excavations on West Heath in the 1970s. The results of the excavation were published under his and Daphne Lorimer’s editorship as “Excavations at the Mesolithic Site on West Heath Hampstead 1976-1981”. It was a BAR British Series 217 (1989) publication.
As Brian Jarman’s foreword to the book sums it up:
“The Hendon & District Archaeological Society wishes to express the big debt of gratitude it owes to Desmond Collins, who gave of his time and expertise to direct the West Heath excavations. With unfailing patience, he taught the skills necessary to excavate the site, encouraged members to follow their own lines of research and contributed in great measure to the success and enjoyment of the dig.”
Desmond was a life member of HADAS. His friends in HADAS would like to extend our deepest sympathy to Ann, his wife, and all his family. With thanks to Myfanwy Stewart for her contribution.
Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Wednesday 4th May 6pm The Princes Alice Disaster Docklands History Group. Talk by John Lock. Museum of London Docklands No. 1 Warehouse, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, Canary Wharf E14 4HL. Visitors £2.

Saturday 7th May 10.30-5.30pm Before the Doors: London River and the Port in the 18th Century Docklands History Group 5th Annual Symposium. Museum of London Docklands No. 1 Warehouse, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, Canary Wharf E14 4HL. Information and booking: www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk .
Wednesday 18th May 7.30pm Agincourt at the Islington Borders, Whitsun 1416. Islington Archaelogical & History Society. Talk by Lester Hillman, on echoes of Agincourt from Moorgate’s archery heritage to Dick Whittington’s stone on Highgate Hill. Visitors £1.
Wednesday 1st June 6pm London’s Great Fire and its Aftermath Talk by Dr Stephen Porter (Charterhouse archivist). Gresham College at the Museum of London (MoL), London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Free.
Saturday 4th June 10.-30am-4.30pm.Local History Day British Association for Local History. St Andrew’s, Holborn, EC4A 3AB. A range of interesting sessions. Information/booking: www.balh.org.uk/events
Thursday 9th June 7.30pm From Forty Hill to Bulls Cross Illustrated talk by Frank Bayford, preceded by AGM & refreshments. Enfield Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, jncn Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ.
Friday 10th June 7.30 for 7.45pm Poet’s Corner Yard Dig, Westminster Abbey Enfield Archaeological Society. Talk by Chris Mayo (PCA) . Jubilee Hall (see May 9). Visitors £1. Refreshments.
Sunday 12th June Tea in the Park with Barnet Museum and Local History Society. The park is behind the museum, Wood St, Barnet. Includes musical events and fine teas.
Monday 15th June 3pm Another Look at Postcards Talk by Terence Atkins. Barnet Local History Society, Church House, Wood St, Barnet (opp. Museum).
Friday 17th June 7pm A Pilgrim’s Progress: Recreating a 14th Century Journey Talk by Steven Payne. COLAS, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3R 7LQ. Visitors £2.
Friday 17th June 7.30pm The French Navy During WWI Talk by Malcolm Barres-Baker. embley History Society, English Martyrs’ Hall, Chalk Hill Rd, Wembley HA9 9EW. Visitors £3.
Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th June London Open Garden Squares Weekend Visit gardens not normally open to the public (more than 200). Organized by London Parks and Gardens Trust and the National Trust. Including 10am-5pm Myddelton House Gardens (where HADAS has done a resistivity survey). For details see www.opensquares.org .
Sunday 26th June 11am-5pm Steam Open Day Markfield Beam Engine Museum, Markfield Park, Markfield Rd, South Tottenham N15 4AB. Free admission.
Thursday 30th June 7.30 for 8pm AGM, followed by: A Dip into the Archives Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephen’s) House (address, see front page). Non-members £2, refreshments before and after.
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With thanks to this month’s contributors: Bill Bass, Don Cooper, Eric Morgan
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No. 541 APRIL 2016 Edited by Peter Pickering

HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events.

Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8pm, with coffee/tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members: £1. Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a 5-10 minute walk away.

Tuesday 12th April 2016: Douglas Killock: In the lift to the beach: a visit to the Lundenwic waterfront.
Tuesday 10th May 2016 Matt Symonds: Hadrian’s Wall: Life on Rome’s Northern Frontier
Tuesday 14th June 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Monday September 19th to Friday September 23rd. HADAS trip

Tuesday 11th October 2016 Professor Caroline Barron: Women in medieval London
Tuesday 8th November 2016 – Hazel Forsyth: The Cheapside Hoard

HADAS Newsletter Archive. Don Cooper

Finally after many years of hard work, all HADAS’ monthly newsletters are available on-line on the HADAS web site (www.hadas.org,uk). The newsletters have been digitised and are searchable by word or phrase, although, because they have been passed through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software, there are still a lot of textual and spelling errors.

How to access this useful archive:

Go to the main HADAS web page at www.hadas.org.uk and on the right hand side of the page, you will see a heading “Newsletter Archive”, select and then on the newsletter archive page, you will see on the left panel, a table of volumes in five-year lots. If you want to see a copy of a particular newsletter, select the volume containing the year of publication and a list of the newsletters in that year will be listed,. Select the one you want.

To search all the newsletters for reference to a place or person, enter the search term into the field on the top right-hand side of the main newsletter archive project page. Enjoy.

February Lecture Melvyn Dresner

South Mimms Castle

Adam Corsini of the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) talked to us about a 12th century Norman castle built just north of Barnet at South Mimms. Castle building in the 12th century could not happen without the King’s assent (and in this case an Empress). So how could there be a now-forgotten Castle so close to north London?

Adam explained how the castle was not forgotten though not widely known. On a 1504 map the area was marked Castle Acre Field, and the chalk quarry was known as Castle Quarry. It entered the archaeological record in 1918, when A F Major and G T F Cruickshank discovered the site. A local committee was established in 1931, funds were raised by 1933 to investigate further and in 1936 the site was scheduled (before it was understood properly) to protect it as an ancient monument. During World War Two it was used as a rifle range. In 1950, the North London Archaeological Committee was set up. It was not until John Kent (1928 – 2000), a numismatic specialist from the British Museum and Hertfordshire local archaeologist, got involved that archaeological investigation began in earnest. This investigation changed our understanding of castle building techniques, and shed light on a difficult and confusing period of medieval history – the civil war between cousins King Stephen and Empress Matilda known to historians as the Anarchy. The figure of Geoffrey II de Mandeville, first Earl of Essex, between 1136 and 1143, emerged as the possible castle builder.

The site was dug by volunteers during the 1960s including girls from Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School Barnet. Adam showed pictures of the site and how deep they were able to dig. The timber tower was built on raised ground, though most of the earthworks were constructed around the tower. Previously the assumption had been that with this type of castle the earthworks were built first and the tower placed on top. But South Mimms showed that the earthworks and tower construction were integrated. The earthworks were there partly to protect the wooden tower and partly to provide height as a viewing platform over the landscape.

Why was the castle built? Charters and history of the 12th century suggest political and military reasons. The location close to the Royal Forest of Enfield Chase points towards hunting, and material finds suggest later occupation of the site after the Anarchy in the late 12th century. A plaque found shows a lion emblem that could be associated with Henry I (Empress Matilda’s father ) or could be a hunting dog, (or a giraffe according to a shopper at Brent Cross Shopping Centre!)

The bulk of pottery found was South Hertfordshire Greyware with flint inclusions and mainly identified as cooking pots. They remind us that behind powerful men and women are potters, cooks, ploughmen, and herdsmen, who produce and prepare food; labourers who build; and crafts men and women who make pots, tools and weapons. The pottery was dated to late 12th century according to a London sequence. That is after the Anarchy, so the pottery either extends the use of the site, suggests its origin was later, or represents the time it took for local production to turn up in the City of London. Tools associated with construction include a pick and an auger; there was also re-used Roman material; a stone used for grinding that originated in Germany(classed as building material in the context of this site). Adam suggested it took 2,000 hours to build the earthworks and tower – either over say two months of intensive labour or perhaps up to two years. There was evidence (beam cut angles) for the tower tapering to improve structural strength.

Arrow heads dateable between 1130s and 1200 associated the site with hunting and archery. High status clasps from decorative boxes or books as well as Stamford ware represent a high quality, decorated and glazed import from outside the region that would have graced the table of a powerful magnate like Geoffrey II de Mandeville or his associates.

Though annual reports were produced each year between 1960 and 1967, the site had not been fully published by the time of John Kent’s death in 2000. After a few years a Committee was formed by John Clark, of the Museum of London, to bring the archive together and publish. In 2014 HADAS members and others were repacking finds at the LAARC and sharing these with more than 1,000 people over two days at Brent Cross Shopping Centre as part of the Unearthing Barnet project. The archive was deposited in LAARC in 2010 and ‘Excavations at South Mimms Castle, Hertfordshire’ was published as London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Special Paper 16, 2013.

Lurking in Churchyards Sylvia Javes

During our stay in the New Forest, we saw many ancient buildings and sites, but among them were some ancient trees, that were very much alive.
In Breamore churchyard stands a Yew tree that is completely hollow inside, with stems surrounding the hollow centre which is full of intertwined roots. When we visited it was covered with red berries. Breamore Church is Saxon, and it is thought the Yew was mature when the church was founded, making it at least 1000 years old.
Nearly as old is a Yew in Minstead churchyard, which had a narrow escape from felling in 1979. It was hollow inside and had had concrete poured into it, presumably to preserve it. However, a storm in 1979 caused half of it to fall, blocking the lychgate. It was decided to leave the remaining part of the tree and support it, and it is still growing and producing berries. Tree experts estimate it to be about 700 years old.
In the Gazetteer of ancient, veteran and significant yews:
Breamore: Classed as ancient and exceptional. Its girth is 1082cm at 60 cm height (over 35 feet). It is a female tree, but does have a young male tree growing within it! It is about 1000 years old.
Minstead: Classed as notable. Girth is 445cm at the ground (14ft 7ins).
Yew trees were revered as sacred before Christianity, and since churches were often built on pagan sacred sites, yews have long been associated with churchyards.
The leaves and seeds of yew are lethal if consumed, but the poisonous alkaloid found in ‘Taxus baccata’ contains some incredibly useful chemicals called taxanes. These are most concentrated in the needles of the English yew. Between the months of May and October, clippings from yew hedges in large gardens (eg National Trust gardens) are collected. Taxanes are chemically extracted from the clippings, purified, and converted into the chemotherapy drug Taxotere® (docetaxel).
Incidentally we have our very own ancient yew in Totteridge churchyard. It is classified as ancient, with a girth of 788cm at 90cm height (about 26 feet round), and thought to be up to 2000 years old.

Ipplepen Archaeological Project Jean Lamont

The name of Ipplepen may not be familiar to members of HADAS, but viewers of “Digging for Britain” may recall an episode, covering the South West, included a short piece on recent discoveries at Ipplepen.

In 2007, metal detectorists discovered Roman coins in a field near the small Devon village of Ipplepen which sits on the A381 road midway between Newton Abbot and Totnes. Funding for an excavation was found and Exeter University has been digging there since 2010. My sister lives a couple of miles away and took me to see the site when I visited her in August last year but sadly after the dig had closed for the year. (My sister is quite tolerant of my interest in archaeology and will visit archaeological sites with me “provided I explain what she is looking at!” – most remains on Dartmoor being pre-historic. So I was pleasantly surprised to hear that she had attended the Open Day.)

The site is recognised as being the most important discovered recently in Devon, consisting of the largest Romano-British settlement in Devon outside Exeter. Geophysical survey has shown that the site extends over 23 acres. It was previously supposed that Roman activity west of Exeter probably consisted of individual farmsteads. Successive digs have revealed continuous occupation of the site from pre-history with flints and Bronze Age pottery, Iron Age ring-ditch and round houses, Roman coins and pottery, through to the post-Roman period. The earliest coin dates from 150 BC. The most significant finds have been a Roman road with cart tracks and potholes (!), over an Iron Age track, with 15 skeletons beside the road (one dating to 655 – 765 AD). The 2014 dig uncovered a piece of Samian ware of 150 – 180 AD from Central Gaul stamped “Aucella”. postholes which are contemporary and in alignment with the road could be small rural houses, and evidence of smelting.

The orientation of the road is the same as the current road but slightly uphill from it and presumably linked the fore-runners of Newton Abbot and Totnes, both on tidal river estuaries (The Teign and the Dart), which would have been important for trading. No public announcement has so far been made of the dating of more of the skeletons or the result of the isotope analysis. It will be fascinating to discover where the people came from.

For further information visit the Exeter University website. http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/archaeology/fieldwork/ipplepen/

The Ancient Greeks at Gallipoli Roger Chapman

Above ‘S’ beach lies the Turkish Martyrs memorial complex built on Eskihisarlik Burnu (Old fortress Point). Visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year it is one of the main Turkish memorials on the Gallipoli peninsular. It was occupied by the French during much of the campaign.

Less well known is what lies beneath the memorial and indeed is still visible in many places. This area is the site of the ancient Greek city of Eleaus. The Gallipoli peninsula was renowned for its wheat. It also profited from its strategic location on the main trade route between Europe and Asia, as well the ability to control shipping to the Black Sea.

Eleaus is reputedly the last resting place of the mythological hero Protesilaus, near a steep coastal cliff. According to Homer’s Iliad, Protesilaus was the first Greek to set foot on land during the Trojan War, for which – according to the will of the gods – he was also the first to die. His tomb at Elaeus lay on the European coast opposite Troy and became a place of pilgrimage for the cult of Protesilaus. Later, the temple contained votive offerings and was surrounded by a settlement. In antiquity the location was variously under Athenian, Persian, Spartan and later Macedonian control.

Alexander the Great is said to have visited Elaeus at the start of his Persian campaign in spring 334 BCE in order to visit the temple of Protesilaus. Here he made an offering before crossing the Dardanelles and himself becoming the first of his army to set foot in Asia.

During the 1915 campaign the French undertook an archaeological excavation of the site making significant finds. The French army brought five sarcophagi, jewellery, ancient pottery and other objects to Paris, which are now displayed in the Louvre. Some of the main stone walls of the city are still exposed and visible today.

Kentish Town Lock Bill Bass

Several members of HADAS visited the lock, part of the Regent’s Canal, during an ‘open weekend’ on the 23-24th January organised by the Canal & River Trust. The lock had been dammed and emptied so that the lock-gates could be renewed (this is undertaken every 25 years or so). The week before the ‘open weekend’ the old gates were craned out and new ones made of green Welsh Oak replaced them. As much of the original metal and other fittings are saved where possible, the work will take several weeks with other modifications being made.

Members of the public had access to the empty lock via a specially erected set of steps and platform, with a chance to inspect the new doors and the original brickwork and structure built c1820. There were many volunteers, together with display stands to explain the history of the lock and it’s operation. The area was once an important way of transhipping goods between the canal, railway and roads and many of the local industries e.g. timber yards, coal, wine merchants and icehouses.

Nearby a separate development for ‘Camden Lock Village’, a mixture of retail, leisure, arts cinema units and a new school will transform this part of Camden. Today this stretch of waterway is very popular with leisure barge and narrowboat traffic.

Canal Visits Jim Nelhams

In July 2012, “ownership” of the canals in England and Wales, which had been nationalised in 1948, was transferred from British Waterways to a charity named “The Canal and River Trust”. This continued the use of volunteers who had been involved in the restoration of canals. Unlike their predecessors, the Trust has realised the value of publicity, and organises a number of events each year. Some of these take advantage of lock gate replacements to allow people to visit and inspect the locks.

While going into a lock does not involve digging, the draining of the water does reveal artefacts that have found their way into the water, including the inevitable supermarket trolley. The opening of the lock allowed us to be among the first members of the public at the bottom of the lock for nearly 200 years. A number of Victorian glass bottles were on display. As the Trust puts it, it is an opportunity to unlock some secrets from the past.

The Trust also organises walks along the canal towpath, including sections of the Regents Park Canal between Little Venice in Paddington and King’s Cross. Most of these are on level ground. Of course, you can do this yourself at any time, since the towpaths are open to the public, and easily accessible. Or you can visit the London Canal Museum near King’s Cross.

Further details can be found at https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/places-to-visit?

In our recent trips, HADAS has visited a number of canals and canal infrastructure, including last year the steam pumping station at Crofton on the Kennet and Avon canal. Our 2016 plans include a visit to another section of this canal. Watch this space.

Coal Posts Bill Bass

On my occasional railway photographic forays to Potters Bar golf club I’ve noticed a stone ‘obelisk’ tucked away in the north-west corner by the lineside on top of the embankment. It was usually in over-grown land and difficult to get at. I assumed that it was a war memorial or folly that had been moved out of the way. On a recent visit the area had been cleared and the course not yet open so had the chance of a closer look, the stone is about 4m high with some letters and numbers, on the side facing the line is a shield which I recognised as the City of London.

Asking a green-keeper he said it was something to do with tax – and there were more of them. An internet search soon revealed that these were ‘Coal Tax Posts’, any coal being taken through the City of London had tax or duty payable, so the posts were set-up on all railways, canals and roads etc as a visible reminder of the tax due. Hundreds were set-up in a ring around London and many still survive, the figures on them refer the act and date they were set-up for.

More info here:

http://www.brookmans.com/history/projects/postspics3.shtml

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

Saturday 9th April, 11-2.30 North London and Essex Transport Society. Enfield Spring Transport Bazaar. St Paul’s Centre, 102 Church St. Enfield EN2 6AR. Bus, Railway, Aviation and Military Transport, with books, photos, DVDs, Timetables, Maps, Memorabilia etc. Admission £3. Refreshments available

Thursday 28th April. 8pm Finchley Society. Trinity Hall, Nether Street, North Finchley N12 7NN. Environmental Issues. Talks by various speakers on subjects including Open Spaces, Litter, Roads (congestion, potholes and parking). Note venue. Visitors £2

Mondays 2nd and 30th May from 11am to 5pm. Markfield Beam Engine and Museum. Markfield Road, South Tottenham, N15 4RB Steam Open Days Admission Free.

Tuesday 3rd May 7.30 pm Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ Presenting Enfield. Talk by Joe Studman £3. First of a monthly series.

Monday 9th May. 3pm Barnet Museum and Local History Society. Church House, Wood Street, Barnet (opposite museum) Dickens: the Man and his Work. Talk by Paul Baker. Visitors £2.

Wednesday 11th May. 6pm. Gresham College at Museum of London 150 London Wall .The Five Catastrophes that made London. Talk by Simon Thurley on advances in Architecture. Free.

Thursday 12th May 7pm. London Archaeologist. Institute of Archaeology 31-4 Gordon Square WC1. AGM and Annual Lecture. Crossrail Liverpool Street Excavations. Alison Telfer.

Friday 13th May 8pm Enfield Archaeological Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ The Cutting Edge – Stone Tools in recent EAS digs. Talk by Neil Pinchbeck. Visitors £1. Refreshments 7.30pm.

Monday 16th May 7.30 pm Enfield Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ London’s Railway Termini – Part 1, North Talk by Roger Elkin

Thursday 19th May 2-5.30pm Gresham College Barnard’s Inn Hall, Holborn, EC1N 2HH Cultural Heritage and War. Symposium presented by Professor Tim Connell and a panel of experts, focusing on the current situation in the Middle East. Free, but reservations required – visit www.gresham.ac.uk , tel. 020-7831 0575 or e-mail enquiries@gresham.ac.uk

Friday 20th May. 7pm City of London Archaeological Society, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3R 7LQ Religious and Rirual Imagery on Roman Pottery from London. Talk by Fiona Seeley (MOLA) Visitors £2. Refreshments after.

Friday 20th May. 7.30pm Wembley History Society. English Martyrs’ Hall, Chalkhill Road, Wembley, HA9 9EW (Top of Blackbird Hill, adjacent to Church) Brent’s Brent Talk by Margaret Pratt and Cliff Wadsworth on the river’s past and present. Visitors £3, refreshments 50p..

Wednesday 25th May. 7.45pm Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane N20 0NL. John Donovan Memorial Lecture by Helen Fry. Germans who fought with the British. Preceded by AGM. Visitors £2. Refreshments.

No. 540 MARCH 2016 Edited by Deirdre Barrie

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 8th March, 8pm. The Crossrail Archaeology Project. Lecture by Jay Carver, lead archaeologist with the Crossrail Project. The archaeology programme has involved more than 50 new investigations into London’s long history, spanning its prehistoric beginnings, the founding of Londinium in the Roman period, and a wealth of medieval and post-medieval sites right up to the City’s industrial and rail heritage age in the 19th century. Jay will provide an overview of the new discoveries undertaken during the last five years of work on Europe’s largest construction project, which has involved the efforts of more than 200 archaeologists and engineers.

Tuesday 12th April 2016, 8pm. In the lift to the beach: a visit to the Lundenwic waterfront by Douglas Killock

Tuesday 10th May, 8pm. Hadrian’s Wall: Life on Rome’s Northern Frontier. Lecture by Matt Symonds.

Tuesday 14th June 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Tuesday 11th October 2016 Talk by Professor Caroline Barron – title to be announced.

Tuesday 8th November 2016, 8pm. The Cheapside Hoard – lecture by Hazel Forsyth

All the above events, unless otherwise stated, will be held at Stephens House & Gardens (formerly Avenue House), 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, starting at 8pm, with tea/coffee and biscuits afterwards. Non-members are welcome (£1.00). Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 and 460 pass nearby. Finchley Central Station (Northern Line) is a short walk away.

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Bradford on Avon Trip Jim Nelhams

We have had a good response and have now booked the hotel and the coach. We will be travelling on Monday 19th September and returning on Friday 23rd, staying for four nights at the Best Western Leigh Park Hotel on the outskirts of Bradford on Avon.

Full price is not yet known but seems likely to be around £470 per person sharing a twin or double room, and £520 per person with their own room. This is a slight increase on last year, but the first increase we have had for a while. We will need a deposit of £125 by the end of April with the balance by 15th July.

There are still places available, so if you want to add your name to the list or if you have any friends who would like to join the trip, please contact Jim or Jo Nelhams (contact info on back page). Each empty seat on the coach costs everybody in the group about £2 extra, so more people help to keep the cost down for everybody.

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November 2015 Lecture – The History of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution – Keith Cunningham Report by Marilyn Burgess

The lecture was delivered by Keith Cunningham, founder member of the City of London Fundraising Committee, and focused on how the Royal National Lifeboat Institution was formed and the types of lifeboats used from the outset to present day.

The turbulent seas round the coast of Great Britain can be treacherous and over the centuries countless ships had come to grief. By the eighteenth century, with sea traffic increasing as trade grew, a competition was held to find the best design for a lifeboat. The competition was won by Henry Greathead who was a boat builder and in 1789 the first purpose-built lifeboat was built and stationed at South Shields by the Tyne.

The invention and development of the Shields rowing lifeboat continued, but shipwrecks were commonplace and regarded as an accepted way of life at sea. The number of shipwrecks around our coastline had risen to approximately 1800 a year and in 1823, when William Hillary, the MP for the Isle of Man, witnessed a tragedy, he made an impassioned plea to the nation and published a pamphlet detailing his plans for a lifeboat service. The pamphlets were sent to the Royal Navy, ministers and prominent citizens, appealing for what was called the National Institution for the Preservation of Lives & Property from Shipwreck.

William Hillary’s appeal fell on deaf ears, but he did not give up and re-branded his appeal. In 1824 his idea caught the eye of Thomas Wilson, Liberal MP for Southwark, and shipping magnate George Hibbert, a Whig MP and Chairman of the West Indies Merchants. The three men became a formidable force, and the campaign rapidly gathered momentum. As more and more benefactors came on board, an interim committee was set up, with King George IV assuring Royal Patronage and Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, agreeing to be President.

A meeting was held on 4 March 1824 at the London Tavern in Bishopsgate, London, where Vice-President Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Charles Manners-Sutton presided, and the crowd unanimously passed 12 resolutions. It was agreed that an Institution be formed, which was to be funded by donations and annual subscriptions. The institute was named The Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the 12 resolutions still stand today as part of the RNLI’s charter, almost 200 years later.

We viewed slides featuring the Newquay Lifeboat Station and showing early lifeboats which had to be pulled out of the boathouse by man- and horse-power and taken to the shoreline, a rocket being launched to summon the crew. The old-style boats were very laborious and a team of men was required to drag them into position. Problems were encountered in the harbour with the tide going out and it was necessary to construct new buildings.

We were told of the improved lifeboats, which are primarily split into categories: inshore, offshore, all-weather boats and hovercraft. The fact that these new boats are state-of- the-art designs with an improved technology means that far smaller crews are needed, and volunteers are now paged when their assistance is required. The average age of a lifeboat is 20 years in service of RNLI, although the boats still have many further years’ usage, and from 2007 lifeboats have been sold on to China, and also countries in Africa and South America.

The tragedy of the collision of the Marchioness pleasure boat and the Bowbelle dredger in 1989 resulted in the loss of 51 lives, and it was identified by the Port of London Authority that lifeboats should be introduced to the Thames. There are four lifeboat stations covering the Thames: at Teddington, Chiswick, Gravesend and Tower Bridge (now relocated to Waterloo Bridge), with the Tower Lifeboat Station being the busiest lifeboat station in the country.

Keith gave us an insight into his involvement as a volunteer with the RNLI dating back to 1967, when he participated in a collection with a work colleague, and this led to his forming the City of London Fundraising Committee. His team of collectors grew to 49, and at their peak collected the sum of £9,000 in a day. The volunteers had some memorable experiences, in particular participating in the Lord Mayor’s procession on two occasions. Many thanks to Keith for an interesting talk.

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Membership Renewal – Stephen Brunning (Membership Secretary)

The HADAS membership year runs from 1st April, so all memberships are now due for renewal, apart from those new members who have joined since January this year. There is a separate form with this Newsletter for those people who pay by cheque, and I would ask that you return the form to me along with your remittance for the appropriate amount. Members who pay by standing order need take no action. The rates remain unchanged.

Anyone who thinks they should have had a Membership Renewal Form or Standing Order Form but hasn’t received one, anyone who wants to make their membership under Gift Aid and hasn’t already done so, or anyone who has any question at all about their membership, please contact me (contact details on back page).
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Help Required Don Cooper

In mid-2014 HADAS published “A Hamlet in Hendon”. We distributed it free to all our members and sold a small number of copies. To take its distribution to the next stage we need a volunteer to devise, create and implement a marketing plan so that this well-reviewed book reaches as wide a readership as possible both locally and nationally as well as among the history and archaeology community.

Should you feel that this is something you would like to take on, please apply to the HADAS chairman. See the contact details at the end of this newsletter.

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HADAS Trip – Lyndhurst – Day 5

Time to head home, but not without some stops on the way. First to Winchester. Luckily more than 40 days had expired since St Swithun’s Day.

Winchester Great Hall Dot Ravenswood

On Saturday the coach took us up to a high viewpoint, the wide paved area on the site of the Norman castle. We were to visit the only part of the castle that Cromwell left standing, the Great Hall (and, according to Jim, to see the world’s biggest dartboard!). Our guide was an enthusiastic walking encyclopaedia, never at a loss for a name or a date. Among other things, she told us that the hall was built between 1222 and 1235 at a cost of £500; it had always been an important legal and administrative centre, Edward I held a tournament and other celebrations there for the betrothal of his daughter in 1290, Sir Walter Raleigh stood trial there in 1603, and Judge Jeffreys held the Bloody Assizes there in 1685.

The Great Hall, with its tall, slim pillars of Purbeck marble, is said to be one of the finest aisled medieval halls in existence. But its main attraction must be the “giant dartboard” – in other words, the Round Table that hangs on the west wall.

The Round Table of Arthurian legend was first mentioned by the chronicler Wace in 1155, six or seven hundred years after the time when Arthur may have lived. It was later still, probably at King Edward I’s tournament in 1290, that the Winchester Round Table first appeared. I must admit that I had always assumed it to be a Victorian fake: a bit of nostalgic, nationalistic myth-making in the style of Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur. So it was doubly surprising to learn that in its present form it was actually a Tudor fake, since the gaudy royal figure, the rose and the segments were painted in for that great self-publicist Henry VIII. Some things don’t change….

Winchester City Return Visit Andy Simpson

Having had a wonderful three years in Winchester from 1978 (!) doing my first degree, it was good to be back – so little time (relatively speaking), so many places to visit! Sadly the Roman House formerly on view beneath the Brooks Shopping Centre in the city centre had closed – but that just left more time to pop down to the former Winchester Chesil railway station site on the former GWR Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line, and the nicely preserved Bar End goods depot nearby, not visited since 1982! A good view of the related railway viaduct and nearby Iron Age univalate hillfort at St Catherine’s Hill was obtained from the coach. And a quick look at the city walls – including tiny fragment of Roman wall- in the SW corner of the city.

Winchester City Museum Deirdre Barrie and Andy Simpson

And of course a lingering look at the archaeological and social history displays in the City Museum, situated right by the magnificent cathedral. After a recent refurbishment, you start at

the top in Roman Winchester – Venta Belgarum – proceed to Saxon and medieval Winchester – Wintanceaster – Saxon Royal capital of England, and burial place of Alfred the Great. And a happy hunting ground for Martin Biddle excavating various Saxon Minsters and town centre sites in the 1960s/70s. Lots of pagan Saxon grave goods on display from extra-mural cemeteries – and end up in Victorian Winchester with its reconstructed shop fronts on the ground floor. Exit through Gift Shop, naturally. The models of Roman and medieval Winchester were excellent, as were the medieval pottery selections – a good primer for the evening class! Some lovely Roman mosaic and painted wall plaster fragments also, as shown in the accompanying photo. Must return soon…

The top gallery houses a star exhibit: the nearly complete Sparsholt Flower Mosaic floor, from a Roman villa excavated between 1965-1972 by D.E.Johnson.

The Winchester Moot Horn (12th C, copper alloy) needed a shoulder strap to support its weight, when it was used to call citizens to the “Burrough Mote” which was similar to today’s Council meetings. It could apparently be heard for several miles in the 1920s, when it was last blown, but it’s a replica which is now sounded at the annual mayor-making ceremony in May.

Another interesting exhibit is a rare suit of Almain Rivet armour, which might have belonged to the Tudor town guard, and was imported from Germany.

“Janeites” (i.e. fans of Jane Austen) would be particularly interested in the items owned by the author, which include a poem in her own hand, and a pretty purse with blue beads, which is supposed to have been worked by Jane herself. Jane came to stay in Winchester hoping for expert medical help to cure her last illness; but is buried in the Cathedral.

Apparently some local residents can still remember the preserved Victorian shop fronts (ground floor, Winchester Gallery) when they were in their original places. The tobacconist’s shop (does anyone remember “Passing Clouds” cigarettes?) is a particular favourite.

The museum is well worth a couple of hours of your day trip.

Winchester Cathedral – “Don’t Forget the Diver!” Liz Tucker

Whenever I go on a cultural trip including cathedrals, I am always overawed by their wonderful architecture and fascinated by their history – but after returning home, I often can’t remember which cathedral is which. This time we visited two, which were both built by William the Conqueror to replace older buildings in the area – and I made a special effort not to confuse Winchester with Salisbury.

After waiting for the Bishop to emerge from a service with various Mothers’ Union delegates, we went inside and heard a very interesting talk by a guide. The Romans, followed by the Saxons, settled in the area, which became Christian in 634 AD. In William’s time, Winchester was the capital of England, so he was determined to build something very imposing, similar to St Etienne in Caen. You can still see the original Romanesque style (with round arches) in the transepts, followed by different styles of Gothic in other areas. The long, high and narrow nave, with wonderful stone vaulting, is the most spectacular part of the building. The guide pointed out that the width of the nave was determined by the height of the trees available for the roof.

The choir stalls by the altar still have some of the original wooden carvings of secular subjects, such as dragons, green men and a cat with a mouse. We saw Jane Austen’s grave slab, and the plaque set up in her honour later on. Andrew and I, regular choral singers, were delighted to hear a lunchtime concert by a chamber choir, including Ave Virgo Sanctissima by the Spanish composer, Francisco Guerrero, which might have been sung in the cathedral at the wedding of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain.

Over the centuries, parts of the cathedral were “knocked about a bit” by Henry VIII and then Cromwell. The glass from the huge West window was later reassembled in a random pattern, and the statues of the great screen were re-carved; St Swithun’s shrine, however, was lost without trace.

The greatest enemy of the building, however, was not human beings, but Nature. The Romans had diverted the River Itchen to form a moat, so that the cathedral is built on a very unstable river bed. It could not possibly support a spire like Salisbury’s, or even the large towers planned by William. The crypt floods regularly, and an Antony Gormley installation takes advantage of this effect.

In 1900, the cathedral was seen to be subsiding, and it was discovered that the foundations consisted of soft peat and floating logs. A deep-sea diver, William Walker, spent six hours a day, for six years, replacing these with concrete. My photograph shows two of the memorials to him. I wonder if the constant struggles with water gave rise to the legend of the patron saint making it rain for forty days, because he was annoyed that his tomb had been moved!

Whitchurch Silk Mill Ken Sutherland-Thomas

Our final visit of the holiday was to the Whitchurch Silk Mill.

The silk mill is the oldest in the UK still in the original building, and is a gem of industrial heritage. The mill is a Georgian building and uses 19th century machinery powered by the original water mill wheel.

On arrival, our party was split into smaller groups for guided tours of the premises. Being a Saturday, no work was being carried out, but our guide explained the manufacturing process and showed a film about the mill and its manufacture of silk. The objectives of the trust that runs the mill are to retain the skills of weaving on the machinery, to care for the building and its contents, and to inform the public about textiles.

Before leaving, many of our group made use of the mill’s catering facilities and well-stocked shop.

The mill is beautifully sited and the mill stream (part of the River Test) is home to many ducks. The mill clock is a feature of the outside of the mill, and was made in London by Handley and Moore in the late 18th century. It still provides the time for the citizens of Whitchurch today.

Correction

In the article on Clitterhouse Farm in the last edition I said in footnote 3 that ‘Westminster Abbey is used as a modern shorthand. The land was held by the Abbot of St. Peters at the time of the Domesday Book, only becoming known as Westminster Abbey at a later date.’ It has been pointed out to me that this is wrong. The list of landholders that stands at the start of Domesday Middlesex actually has ‘Abbatia de Westmonast’- i.e. Abbey of Westminster; ‘abbot’ would be ‘abbas.’ I’m grateful to Pam Taylor for pointing this out. Roger Chapman

The Royal Palaces of Enfield: January 2016 Lecture – Ian Jones,

Acting Chairman of Enfield Archeological Society Report by Liz Gapp

Ian started the lecture by explaining that there were two palaces in Enfield: Elsyng Palace at Forty Hall and Enfield Palace to the rear of Pearson’s, the Department Store in Church Street in Enfield.

The first part of the talk was about Elsyng Palace and the excavations carried out there. Photos of the first excavations carried out in the 1960s highlighted that in those days the ladies excavating wore skirts rather than trousers as now. Unfortunately, most of the site plans from the 1960s excavations have disappeared, although the site workbooks still exist and have proved very useful.

Not all of Elsyng Palace was excavated; a series of excavations were carried out to assess its size. An old view of the Lime Tree Avenue was shown to explain that where the path dropped down was where it would have been possible to see brickwork of the palace, which is no longer there. A lot of the lime trees came down subsequently in the storm of 1987. Due to a decision to reconstruct the Lime Tree Avenue, large holes were dug in readiness for the new trees. The first holes dug revealed brickwork at the base. As the site of Elsyng Palace is a scheduled monument, and the Enfield Society’s fieldwork director is a professional archae- ologist, English Heritage gave permission for the Enfield Archeological Society to excavate the holes that were being dug, as the bricks uncovered were deemed to be part of the palace. This meant relocating the trees being planted, with the benefit of uncovering further details of the palace. Unfortunately, the excavations were not extensive enough to identify the usage of these areas. In the tree pits, where the brick foundations were found, the only way to age them was via the mortar used.

There were very few finds to give clues to the likely usage; the area appeared to have been cleared of most of such items, probably when the palace was demolished. A very fine cesspit was uncovered, but unfortunately collapsed very shortly after being revealed. Initially vandalism was suspected, but then it was realised that the lime mortar’s fragility was the culprit, as once exposed to the air it could no longer hold the structure in place. Due to the collapse, it was not possible to find what was in the pit, as English Heritage strictures would not allow further excavation of it. A shame, as often such pits are a rich source of artefacts.

From excavation, there are believed to be four main stages of development; Phases I and II being medieval, while Phases III and IV date to Henry VIII’s time. Due to the closeness of the time frames for the phases, it is not entirely clear that there are four phases of development.

A brief outline of the palace’s history started with the fact that Henry VII and his daughter Margaret stayed in the Tudor apartments for hunting in 1497 and 1498. Custodianship of Elsyng went from the Ros family to Sir Thomas Lovell, speaker of the House of Commons, via marriage to Isabel, sister of Edmund Ros, after he was committed to an asylum. It returned to the family in the guise of his great-nephew Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. Thomas Lovell was responsible for extending the building to become a ‘brick palace sufficient to receive the court in progress’.

Lambert Simnel, one of the many pretenders to Henry VII’s throne, was obviously considered to be harmless as he was parked in Thomas Lovell’s kitchen in 1487 and later became a falconer. Still alive in 1524, he was explicitly mentioned in Thomas Lovell’s will stating he was not to inherit anything from it when Lovell died. Part of a peregrine falcon’s skeleton found in the 1960’s verifies the royal connection, as these birds were bred only for royal use. In 1516, Henry VIII’s sister, Queen Margaret of Scotland, stayed there. Lovell also contributed to the clerestory and glazing of Enfield parish church, and founded the Holywell Priory.

Henry VIII obviously liked the house as a base for hunting, so persuaded the Earl of Rutland to give it to him in exchange for property in Leicestershire. Henry’s children spent part of their childhood there, and it was there that Elizabeth and Edward learnt of their father’s death. Extensive repairs were carried out in 1542 for a Christmas visit by Prince Edward and his sisters, and again under Elizabeth I, who is believed to have stayed at the Palace on at least four occasions. There are lots of documents associated with the building repairs which give good information.

To give an idea of the probable style and size of the Palace of which nothing is now visible above ground, we were shown comparable buildings viz:

Nonsuch Palace, if the long gallery is omitted, shows the size; Oaklands Palace in Surrey; a photo of a painting of the interior of Whitehall Palace illustrated the richness of the interiors which are likely to have existed at Elsyng Palace; Lincoln’s Inn entrance is likely to be similar to that at Elsyng Palace, particularly as it was funded by Sir Thomas Lovell; Nether Hall; and Rye House in the Lea Valley.

A geophysical survey done in the 1990s turned out to be quite misleading. In 2004, a new excavation was started. Magnetometry, geophysics and photos all looked very interesting, but because of rammed gravel in the area, proved to be deceptive. A beautiful brick drain was shown, from which many items were extracted. Other items found included carved brick and fragments of carved stone; post-medieval red wares, probably dated to the first half of the 17th century; tobacco pipes; several fragments of trailed Venetian glass, all from different vessels; and three mid-17th century fragments of Bartmann heads. A 1550s Cologne ware flagon was found, as was a very rare set of window glass triangles, some still framed in their original lead canes. There was also brick, probably from the service areas, as the main areas were believed to have been in stone. Similarly green-, yellow- and brown-glazed tiles were found, with more elaborate tiles in later areas. A large drain was found with a trickle of water still draining through it, and a couple of the archaeologists were able to get through 70 feet of this until the way forward was blocked by rubble.

The deer park that surrounded Elsyng Palace was fenced with wooden fencing and with several gazebos over the area. By 1586, Elsyng Palace had deteriorated and was rumoured to be in use as a Bath House and was only worth £7 a year. In 1650 a threshing barn was built, on top of the Tudor remains, and was then demolished in 1660s, unfortunately impeding excavation of the palace below. It is possible that the lake in the grounds is the remains of the 16th century water gardens.

With time running out, we were given a brief description of the Enfield Palace. This was given by Edward VI to his sister Elizabeth and for this purpose was sumptuously fitted out, although it is possible she never stayed there. After various incarnations, it was finally demolished in 1928 to make way for an extension to Pearson’s Department Store. The interiors of Enfield Palace were salvaged, and we were shown pictures of the amazing oak panelling and plaster-panelled ceiling from the house now in a local dwelling to which these have been moved. There are two rooms fitted out with these, which are in extremely good condition and also include a fireplace with Edward VI’s Royal Coat of Arms. There is also a second fireplace in the billiard room.

Many thanks to Ian for his talk, of which only a flavour has been possible in this write-up.

Other Societies’ Events by Eric Morgan

Saturdays 5th and 19th March, 11 am-12.30 pm, 1.30-3pm. LAARC – “Hidden London.” A tour exploring archaeological secrets from beneath some of London’s most iconic buildings, such as the “Gherkin” and the Olympic Park’s Velodrome. Book in advance, £9. Website:
https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/events/?event_id=37808 or tel.
Museum of London 020 7001 9844.

Friday 11th March at 7.45, Enfield Archaeology Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 OAJ, “Barnet: the search for London’s only medieval battlefield.” Talk by Bruce Watson (M.O.L.A.) Visitors £1, refreshments.

Saturday, 12th March, 2016 – 2pm, The Historical Association (Central London Branch) “The Forgotten Invasion of England 1216,” talk by Dr Sean McGlynn. The Wolfson Room, (NB02) Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, WC1E 7HU. Members free, visitors £3, students free (with proof). No need to book. Join as a branch member (£12.50 p.a.) on the day and admission refunded. Enquiries: email chrissie@ganjou.com or tel. 020 7323 1192.

Tuesday 15th March, 8pm, Historical Association (North London Branch) Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Enfield, EN2 OAJ. “The ‘Boffins’ of the First World War: the unknown story of the scientific revolution of the First World War.” Talk by Taylor Downing.

Friday 18th March, 7 pm. COLAS, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3R 7LQ. “Behind the Scenes at the Crime Museum” – talk by Jackie Kelly (M.O.L.A.). £2.
(Meanwhile, “The Crime Museum Uncovered” Exhibition at the Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, continues until Sunday 10th April. Tickets from £10 on-line. Advance booking advised to ensure entry. http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/the-crime-museum-uncovered )
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CORRECTIONS: the item in the February Newsletter which reads “Thursday 17th March, 7.30pm Camden History Society Islington Town Hall, Upper St N1 2UD Radical Hackney Simon Cole. £1” should read:
Thursday 17th March, 7.30 pm, Camden History Society, Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, 2nd Floor, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PA “Artistic Symbolism in the Suffragette Movement.” Talk by Irene Cockroft, £1.

Also the talk given in the February issue for the venue Islington Town Hall should read:
Wednesday 16th March, 7.30 pm, Islington Archaeological & History Society, Islington Town Hall, Upper St, N1 2UD, “The Radical History of Hackney of the Past 400 Years.” Talk by Simon Cole. (Visitors £1).

The time of the talk for Friday 18th March’s Wembley History Society is 7.30 pm, and the correct title should be “Spies and Murderers in Westminster Abbey.” [February Newsletter].
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Saturdays 2nd and 16th April, 11 am-12.30 pm and 1.30 pm – 3pm, LAARC, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, N1 7ED, “Shakespeare’s London” Tour. Delve into the world of Shakespeare, and handle artefacts such as bear bones discovered at London’s Elizabethan theatres. Book in advance, £9, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN, Tel 020 7001 9844 or book on line: https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/events/?event_id=64810
Monday 11th April, 3pm Barnet Museum & Local History Society, Church House, Wood St Barnet (opp. Museum). “Remembering ‘Bungo” Talk by William Franklin on “An Apprecia- tion of the Life and Career of Field-Marshall The Viscount Byng of Vimy”. Visitors £2.

Friday 15th April, 7 pm, COLAS, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3R 7LQ. “Archaeology in Bow, The Tudor Mansion That Became a Workhouse.” Talk by Les Capon and Lucy Whittington (AOC Arch.) There are 300 years of Tower Hamlets history on one site. Visitors £2. Refreshments after the talk.

Wednesday 20th April, 6pm, Gresham College at the Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, “Sir Christopher Wren: Buildings, Place and Genius.” Talk by Simon Thurley. Free.

Wednesday 27th April, 7.45 pm Friern Barnet & District Local History Society, North Middlesex Golf Club, The Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, N20 ONL, “A Green Spaces Walk”. Talk by Mike Gee. Visitors £2. Refreshments and bar.

No. 537 DECEMBER 2015 Edited by Don Cooper

Doesn’t time go quickly, here we are in the middle of November looking forward to that end-of-year holiday period again!! Do the years go faster as we get older? It seems like only yesterday that I edited last December’s one!

May I, on behalf of the HADAS community, wish you and yours the compliments of the season and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2016.

HADAS DIARY

Tuesday 12th January, 8pm. Royal Palaces of Enfield. Lecture by Ian Jones (EAS)

Tuesday 9th February, 8pm. Medieval Middlesex – The Archaeological Remains by Adam Corsini.

Tuesday 8th March, 8pm. The Crossrail Archaeology Project. Lecture by Jay Carver.

Tuesday 12th April 2016, 8pm. In the lift to the beach: a visit to the Lundenwic waterfront by Douglas Killock

Tuesday 10th May, 8pm. Hadrian’s Wall: Life on Rome’s northern frontier. Lecture by Matt Symonds.

Tuesday 14th June 2016 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Tuesday 11th October 2016 To be arranged

Tuesday 8th November 2016, 8pm. The Cheapside Hoard. Lecture by Hazel Forsyth

All the above events, unless otherwise stated, will be held at Stephens House & Gardens (formerly Avenue House), 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE, starting at 8pm, with tea/coffee and biscuits afterwards. Non-members are welcome (£1.00). Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 and 460 pass nearby. Finchley Central Station (Northern Line) is a short walk away.

Church Farm House by Don Cooper

Church Farm House, Hendon (formerly Church Farm House Museum) is STILL vacant. The museum was closed in March, 2011, so it won’t be long until the 4th anniversary of its closing. We are being assured by Barnet Council that it is secure and being properly maintained and Historic England have not felt it necessary to add it to the buildings-at-risk register published last month (October 2015). Negotiations, we are told, are proceeding with Middlesex University but have yet to result in the signing of a lease.

Recent discoveries about Roman Britain By Peter Pickering
On 7th November I went to a conference organised by the Roman Society and the Association for Roman Archaeology. There were four lectures describing very recent excavations with remarkable new discoveries from Roman Britain. One was of a late Roman temple site in south-west Wiltshire, with a spectacular set of finds, especially miniature amphorae and hammers, and a large number of coins, over 30 of which have iron nails in them – perhaps originally attached to pieces of cloth, or hammered into a wooden post. There are also some lead curse tablets. But no indication, as yet, of what god or gods might have been worshipped there.
Professor Michael Fulford took us over the eighteen years of his excavation of part of Insula
IX of Silchester, which has finally come to an end, discovering so much more than the Society of Antiquaries had been able to find at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We were all fascinated by the evidence of a flourishing business of skinning dogs, presumably to make fur cloaks – a knife was found carved with an image of mating dogs. It seemed at the end that Professor Fulford was weaning himself and his students slowly from the excavation, having done some work on another insula, re-excavating some of the trenches of the Society of Antiquaries.
Sam Moorhead then gave an account of the Romans west of Exeter.
Although he was standing in for a lecturer who had been prevented from telling us about Binchester, the ‘Pompeii of the North’, no-one would have guessed this from his polished and fluent presentation. The discovery of the site at Ipplepen was due to two active and responsible metal detectorists (who recorded the GPS data for the many coins they found). The coins demonstrated that the Romans had not lost interest after they got to Exeter; geophysical surveying and excavation has already found many archaeological features over several acres, including a roadside cemetery. The dig has a strong community focus. Finally, Andrew Birley told us about the most recent work at Vindolanda, which continues to be one of the most important Roman sites in the country. He is the third generation of Birleys to work there. Among the finds he described were a gold coin of Nero, and the wooden toilet seat. The anaerobic conditions in parts of the site continue to reveal wooden writing tablets and other things which are usually lost. It looks as if the Vindolanda excavations will continue for many years.

The Sandridge Hoard by Jean Lamont

Members of HADAS may be interested to know that the Sandridge Hoard has now been conserved and has gone on display at the Verulamium Museum in St Albans. The Museum is open all year round and every day (Monday to Saturday from 10.00 to 17.30 and Sunday from 14.00 to 17.30), for public holidays such as Christmas check with the Museum, tel. 01727 751 810.

The Sandridge Hoard consists of 159 gold solidi and is the largest collection of solidi ever found in this country: they date from 375-408 AD and represent more wealth than most people could earn in a lifetime. There is no trace of the original container. The guidebook suggests a connection with one of the local villas and mentions Turnershall Farm a few miles away, itself subject of a separate display. Well worth a visit.

http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/verulamium/ Website gives details of entrance fees / parking etc

Lyndhurst Trip – continued
Our aim on our trips is to visit a variety of places without spending too long on the coach. These cover a range of interests, with twenty of our travellers submitting interesting newsletter contributions about our stops, and related topics. Our thanks to all who have put pen to paper.

Day 2 started with one of our longer excursions – one hour to Stonehenge.

Visit to Stonehenge Liz Gapp

Our coach dropped us at Stonehenge in time for entry timed for 10.30. As the threatened rain was holding off, most of us decided to get the shuttle bus to visit the monument first, before visiting the visitor centre. Some people walked the 1¼ miles to the site; some later also walked back.

We had all been provided with audio tour guides. There were numbers on the site which went from 1 to 8 corresponding to the audio descriptions. These descriptions also gave additional numbers for more detailed information about specific aspects. The descriptions pointed out that Stonehenge is the only stone circle with lintels; there are 300 later mounds around the circle using it as a focal point; the monument is not a true henge as the ditch is inside the defensive mound, not outside it; it was all built over a period dating 3,000 – 2,000 BC; the famous bluestones reputedly from the Preseli Hills in Wales are the smaller of the upright stones, the larger ones being the Sarsen stones from a more local area, most likely the Marlborough Downs in North Wiltshire; the stones had been rearranged at various times in the past. As you walk round the circle of the monument various features such as the Heel Stone and the Slaughter Stone are described. You are kept to the edge of the monument by barriers, as the archaeology inside the barriers is deemed too fragile to be walked on.

Talking to people who knew the site from previous visits, it was felt the new approach, whether by shuttle bus or foot, was more atmospheric and a good way to enter the landscape.

After returning to the interpretive centre (around midday), we went to the café and ate our lunch. Then we went to the exhibition, not large but with quite a few interesting video displays. After this we briefly walked round the reconstructed village of round houses. There we also saw two sample bluestones and a Sarsen stone, the latter in a frame to enable it to be moved. This was so that it was possible to feel the difference between the two stone types. The Sarsen frame was set up with a challenge for people to try and move it, with pressure gauges to highlight how much effort it would take to move it, and showing that in practice it would have taken 200 people to move it.

We returned to the coach just after 13.00, although it wasn’t due to depart until 13.30. We were lucky, the rain had held off until just as we were due to leave the site, despite forecasts predicting an earlier start to the rain. Although not the warmest, it was a very enjoyable and rewarding visit.

Old Sarum Peter Nicholson

The grey skies which had threatened, but mercifully held off during our visit to Stonehenge began to rain at a sprinkle on the coach trip to Old Sarum, then dampened us more and more. This curtailed both the time we spent on site and the proportion of it we explored.

The boundaries of the site are those of an Iron Age hillfort probably from about 400 BC.
When the Normans arrived, ready-made defences seemed a bonus too good to ignore and William the Conqueror raised a motte and bailey castle inside in about 1070. Our access was easy – the coach park is in the outer bailey, so no need to climb a hill as at Danebury. The view in front of us was impressive. A deep ditch was crossed by a modern wooden bridge and, rising above us, the inner bailey with rubble cores of walls of extensive ranges of buildings remaining.

Besides castles, the Normans were great cathedral builders and, at Old Sarum, they built two in quick succession inside the hill fort. The first, begun about 1075 was small by their standards with three apses at the east end. The second, larger, cathedral is shown by the rubble cores of its walls, which remain to a little above ground level. The wall lines of the first cathedral, where they do not coincide, are shown by lines of modern paving.

Time moved on and so, unusually, did the cathedral. A hilltop site exposed to extremes of weather and inconvenient for trade had obvious disadvantages. Proximity to a Royal castle, which was politically advantageous in the eleventh century, had ceased to be so in the thirteenth when the Pope had excommunicated the King. After years of dissatisfaction and discord, the foundation stone of the present cathedral, on its site in the river valley below, was laid in 1220. After the cathedral went downhill, literally, Old Sarum did so metaphorically, suffering depopulation, and eventually became notorious as one of the rottenest of rotten boroughs.

Lyndhurst

With the inclement weather, we opted to return to the hotel. The rain having relented, it gave an opportunity for a brief walk around Lyndhurst itself. The town is quite small, with roads that do not lend themselves to modern traffic with frequent queues of traffic for some 400 yards from the traffic lights onto the High Street. Our hotel was at the northern end of the town opposite some open ground.

Race Course View by Vicki Baldwin
Although the ‘view’ is now open ground where the New Forest ponies come to graze, in the 18th Century there really was a popular racecourse here that appears on contemporary maps and continued in use until the 1880s.

The Custards Vicki Baldwin

Opposite the hotel a turning, Race Course View, had a sign stating that it led to The Custards, which turned out to be a rather unremarkable road with houses on either side. It seemed a very strange name so I started to look on-line for an explanation. The reason given on the website for ‘Rhubarb Cottage, The Custards, Lyndhurst (I know, I know!) was that there had been orchards on the site and the apples were eaten with custard. This seemed rather an odd link until I remembered that there was a variety of cooking apple named Costard. It would seem rather more logical that ‘The Custards’ is a corruption of ‘The Costards’ and these were the apples grown in the orchards.

Report on HADAS Lecture – October 2015 by Ken Sutherland-Thomas Scientific Methods in Archaeology.

Lecture by Dr Caroline Cartwright from Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum.

The speaker’s primary areas of scientific expertise were identification and interpretation of organics such as wood, charcoal, fibres and other plant remains, shell, ivory and bones from all areas and time periods in the British Museum’s collections. She has led expeditions in many parts of the world.

The quite technical talk was illustrated with digital images of many of the objects under investigation. The many techniques used in analysis and investigation were discussed. She highlighted the fact that the processes used for this apply pre-excavation, during excavation and post-excavation as well as in conservation. Also highlighted was the need for outreach with emphasis on the requirement to publish results in an understandable form both in print and online; and to stage exhibitions.

The advance in analysis techniques including ever more sophisticated microscopes in the last couple of decades has been phenomenal and the hardware and software required mean an expenditure of many millions of pounds. Very few organisations can afford this expenditure.

The storage and archiving of objects is important as future techniques not yet discovered may well enable more information to be extracted from these objects.

The meeting, which was well attended, concluded with a question and answer session. Dr Caroline Cartwright was thanked for a very interesting lecture.

CROSSRAIL at Liverpool Street

We have a lecture in March 2016 on the Archaeology discovered during the Crossrail project. Here is a taster from the Crossrail website
http://www.crossrail.co.uk/sustainability/archaeology/liverpool-street/

The Bedlam burial ground was in use from 1569 to at least 1738, spanning the start of the
British Empire, civil wars, the Restoration, Shakespeare’s plays, the Great Fire of London and numerous plague outbreaks. 2015 marks the 350th anniversary of London’s last Great Plague in 1665 and archaeologists hope that tests on excavated plague victims will help understand the evolution of the plague bacteria strain.

The Bedlam burial ground, also known as Bethlem and the New Churchyard, is located at the western end of Liverpool Street. Over 20,000 Londoners are believed to have been buried at Bedlam between 1569 and 1738. It got its name from the nearby Bethlehem Hospital which housed the mentally ill, although only a small number of Bedlam residents are believed to have been buried there.

In June last year Crossrail invited 16 volunteers to scour parish records from across the capital to create the first extensive list of people buried at Bedlam.

The resulting database of over 5,300 names and backgrounds is published on the Crossrail website and will inform Crossrail’s archaeological excavation.

The Roman remains that archaeologists uncovered at the Liverpool Street station tell a very different story from the Bedlam burial ground skeletons. Initially, skulls found in a small river channel were interpreted as wash-out from a Roman cemetery somewhere upstream. But the discovery in May 2015 of a reused cooking pot full of cremated human bones changed archaeologists’ minds…..

Be sure and put a note in your diaries for what I’m sure will be an exciting lecture.

A Member’s Lecture by Don Cooper

Stewart Wild is giving a lecture to the Mill Hill Historical Society at Trinity Church, Mill
Hill Broadway, on 13th January 2016 at 14.30 to 16.00 on the following subject: “History of Stevens’ ink and its Finchley connection”

Other Societies’ Events by Eric Morgan

Thursday, 7th January 2016 at 10.30 am. Pinner Local History Society, Town Hall, Chapel
Lane Car park, Pinner. “Memories of the Queen’s Coronation.” a talk by Terry Jenkins. Visitors £2, Please note the earlier time.

Monday, 11th January 2016, at 15.00 Barnet Museum and Local History Society, Church House, Wood Street, Barnet (opposite Museum). “Photographic History of Charing Cross Road.” Talk by Bob Kayne. Visitors £2.

Wednesday, 13th January 2016 at 19.45 Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, Corner Ferme Park Road/Weston Park N8 9PX. “The Friern Hospital Story.” Talk by David
Berguer (Chair, Friern Barnet and District Local History Society). Visitors £2 Refreshments.

Friday, 15th January 2016, at 19.00 City of London Archaeological Society (COLAS), St Olave’s Church Hall, Mark Lane, EC3R 7BB. “The Temples and Gods of Roman London.” Talk by Dominic Perring (Institute of Archaeology University College London). Visitors £2.

Thursday, 21st January, 2016 at 19.30 Camden History Society, Venue details not yet available. “Dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park.” Talk by Professor Joe Cain. Visitors £1. Further details, visit www.camdenhistorysociety.org or Telephone Mrs. Jane Ramsay on 0207586 4436 (acting secretary)

Thursday, 28th January 2016, at 14.30 Finchley Society, Drawing Room, Avenue House, (now Stephens’ House and gardens) East End Road, N3 3QE. “Women and Medical Care in the First World War.” Talk by Dr. Susan Cohen. Non-members £2, refreshments (Please notice earlier time.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to our contributors: Peter Pickering, Jean Lamont, Vicki Baldwin, Ken Sutherland-Thomas, Liz Gapp, Peter Nicholson and Eric Morgan.