Volume 9: 2010 – 2014

No. 505 APRIL 2013 Edited by Peter Pickering

H A D A S D I A R Y – Forthcoming Lectures and Events.

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

Central station (Northern Line), is a short walk away.

Tuesday 9th April 2013: Nautical Archaeology – past, present and future. Lecture by Courtney Nimura & Eliott Wragg.

Courtney Nimura is a PhD Candidate at the University of Reading studying prehistoric maritime rock art in Scandinavia. She previously worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (USA) in Conservation and Collections Management before returning to university in the UK. Courtney has a BA and MFA in photography / museum studies from the United States, and an MA in Maritime Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. Alongside her work with the Nautical Archaeology Society, she works for the Thames Discovery Programme in London.

Eliott Wragg has a BA in Ancient History and Archaeology and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Field Archaeology, both from Birmingham University and an MA in Maritime Archaeology from UCL. He worked as an Archaeological Site Assistant for the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit and Pre-Construct Archaeology before becoming a Senior Archaeologist for the latter and then going on to work as a freelance site supervisor and project manager on sites in the South-East of England. He is currently the Field Officer for the Thames Discovery Programme and has a particular interest in vessels and vessel fragments.

Tuesday 14th May 2013 – 10,000 years of History beneath your Feet: The Bankside Foreshore. Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey.

1st June 2013 Foreshore Walk – Following her talk, Dr Haughey has offered to give us a tour of the foreshore of the river by Bankside and the Tate Modern, numbers permitting. The walk will take about two hours and cost £5 per person. The date has been chosen because then the tide is most suitable. The idea is we meet at the Millennium Bridge, south side, in front of the Tate Modern ready to leave at 13.30. The walk will take place provided there are at least 15 participants (the maximum number is 20) and it will be first come first served. Contact Don Cooper telephone 020 8440 4350, e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk

Tuesday 11th June 2013 -Annual General Meeting.Sunday 15th to Thursday 19th September 2013 – Buxton Trip

We now have sufficient members signed up for our trip in September based in Buxton, Derbyshire to make the trip viable. See February newsletter for details. It would still be nice to have a few more.

Our selected hotel should provide comfort for all, with excellent company provided by other HADAS members. If you are interested but have not yet signed up, please contact Jim or Jo Nelhams (see last page for contact details).

Tuesday 8th October 2013 – Brunel’s Tunnel under the Thames. Lecture by Robert Hulse, Director of the Brunel Museum.

Tuesday 12th November 2013 – Lions on Kunulua – excavations of Early Bronze and Iron Age periods at Tell Tayinat, Hatay, Turkey. Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey.

Sunday 1st December 2013 – Following our enjoyable Christmas event in the last two years, we have again booked Avenue House. The “party” will run from roughly 12:00 to 4:30. More details in due course.

‘The Archaeology of the First Peoples into North America.’ course by Peter Nicholson
The Mill Hill Archaeological Study Society is running a course of six classes with this title. The course will examine the archaeology of the first of the native peoples into North America. We will investigate theories regarding the entry and date via the Bering Strait and routes available to the newcomers from Alaska and the Yukon. The Clovis and then Folsum expansion into the Great Plains will be dealt with as will the possible human causes of the megafauna extinction. Questionable sites and theories will be covered along with the latest theories concerning language and DNA. Finally we will study the problems of working with living indigenous peoples and their attitude to archaeology and the excavation of burial sites. The course tutor is Scott

McCracken. The course is on Friday mornings from 10 to 12, beginning 19th April, in the Eversfield Centre, 11 Eversfield Gardens, Mill Hill, NW7 2AE. The cost for the course will be £40. Enrol at the first meeting; if you have not previously attended the Society’s meetings please contact the secretary, Peter Nicholson (020-8959 4757).

CBA Winter meeting at York on 2nd & 3rd March 2013 by Don Cooper
This meeting was themed as a forum on the ‘Role of local societies in archaeology in the 21st century’. Representatives of a large number of societies, both county level societies and small local ones, attended. It was interesting that the activities of large and small societies were very similar, namely: A winter lecture series for members, outings in the summer, small scale excavations and fieldwalking, newsletters or leaflets (various frequencies from monthly to once a year), training in the form of one day courses all the way to full 22 week ones, and social and fund-raising events. Most societies do their best to ‘defend’ local heritage, but find it difficult to mobilise support in strength.

The issues facing the societies are also very similar: a declining and ageing membership, increased cost of communication with members (publishing newsletters, postage etc.), and very few active members, (for instance, a number of societies have stopped doing outings as there was no one to run them).

A major challenge is technology and multi-media with many of the more senior members of societies finding that receiving information such as newsletters by email, electronic payment for subscriptions, using web sites, Facebook, blogspots and Twitter, difficult to understand and use. As a consequence the gradual change over to online media from paper and posted mail is and will be more difficult and expensive for local societies.

In these challenging times, partnerships with other heritage societies as well as non-heritage societies offer an opportunity to pursue local goals more effectively and ‘beef-up’ the strength of advocacy in defence of heritage.Overall the forum enabled an exchange of ideas on the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and threats facing local and county societies and provided an opportunity for establishing inter society relationships.

February Lecture – Can you tell a Longboat from a Log Boat? Tessa Smith

I think I can now, thanks to the lecture entitled “From Logboat to Warrior – Evolution of the Wooden Ship” given by Eliott Wragg – Field Officer of the Thames Discovery Programme.

Eliott steered us expertly at a rate of knots from skin boats to log boats to clinker-built boats, from the introduction of masts, sails, paddles and rudder, from river and estuary boats to sea-worthy ships and from fighting and merchant types made entirely of wood to the rise of the iron ship.

One of the earliest boats mentioned in the lecture was the Hasholme Iron Age logboat made around 300 BC from a single large hollowed oak tree dug out by hand or burned out by fire and made watertight by a mixture of moss and twigs. It had a small shelf at one end and would have been manoeuvred by a pole.
The Dover bronze age boat is much older, dating from 1500 BC, the middle bronze age. It is one of the world’s oldest known sea-going boats. It was excavated in 1992 and I remember the excitement in the press at the time, so much so that Sheila Woodward and I organised a HADAS outing to Dover to see it in the museum’s spectacular new gallery. It was impressive, made using four huge oak planks sewn together with yew lashings, a technique which was clearly visible to us.

The oldest archaeological find of a wooden Nordic boat is the Hjortspring, built about 350BC, the oldest known boat to use clinker planking, where the planks overlap one another. Later designs had stronger keels and the hull was reinforced by oak stathes joined by iron rods – boats were becoming more sea-worthy.

The Anglo Saxon early 7th century burial ship at Sutton Hoo is a longboat (in fact 90 feet long) and is a fast shallow draft vessel, but there is no evidence of sail or mast. But the Oseberg Viking longboat built around 820AD has a mast holder for a square wooden sail amidship; it is the biggest Viking longboat ever found, a massive 36 metres, 4 metres longer than the Mary Rose.

During the middle ages ships became more seaworthy both for fighting and carrying cargo. The development of masts and sails meant that the ships were no longer dependent on oarsmen and could travel vast distances using wind power.

Fighting castles were added fore and aft as in the Grace Dieu built in 1418 for Henry V, and the Mary Rose built in 1511 for Henry VIII, carrying heavier and more powerful guns. Extraordinary ornamentation carvings and gilding were added, evoked for us by paintings of ships in full sail, dipping, turning and wheeling.

To this day it is not entirely clear how the ship wheel evolved during the 18th century, but it was a huge technical breakthrough, controlling the rudder by a series of block and tackle, gear wheels, cogs and chains.

With the development of ironclad wooden boats and ships made of iron, wooden boats could not compete. In1843 Brunel’s Great Britain became the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic; in 1860 Warrior became the first entirely iron boat, thus initiating the decline of the age of magnificent great wooden ships.

Eliott steered us expertly back to harbour, somewhat breathless through our journey by wooden boat, many, many of which had sunk, and as he said ‘it was very convenient for us – all those boats sinking.’

Current Archaeology Conference Peter Pickering

I attended Current Archaeology’s annual conference on 1st and 2nd March. Like last year, it was in the University of London Senate House, and the Beveridge Hall, which holds 450, was well filled, very largely, I judged, with Current Archaeology readers from outside London. The programme included reports on important recent excavations.

From the prehistoric age we learnt of some very grand Neolithic structures at the Ness of Brodgar (with traces of colouring), which would have graced the prehistoric Mediterranean; of the nine bronze age river boats at Must Farm (quite near Flag Fen); and of the colossal hill fort (the largest in Britain and four times as big as Maiden Castle) at Ham Hill Somerset.
There were three talks on Roman Britain. Keith Parfitt brought us up to date on the Folkestone Roman Villa with its important but previously unknown Iron Age predecessor (memorably visited by HADAS in 2011); it was good to learn that further work there is planned this year, since the whole site will sooner or later fall into the sea. Andrew Birley talked about Vindolanda, a very popular site for volunteers; he showed us two pieces of beautiful painted glass from Cologne which were found in different parts of the site, but which fitted together. The division between military and civilian in Vindolanda became blurred in the fourth century, and activity seems to have continued in some form long after the end of Roman rule. Ian Haynes talked about the strange case of the Maryport altars, unearthed from pits by antiquarians in the nineteenth century and long believed to have been buried deliberately each one in advance of the dedication of the next, but which now appear to have been used as filling for pits holding structural timber uprights of a late building (perhaps related to some post- Roman tombstones inscribed in Latin).

There were three reports on community projects on Anglo-Saxon villages. The cemetery in Oakington, Cambridgeshire, has produced several intriguing burials, including two with horses, one with a cow and one with a spoon – thought to have been a weaning spoon. The exploration of the cemetery is being complemented by small digs around the village, to improve knowledge of the settlement. The Lyminge Archaeological Project is investigating a settlement that was of high status before the conversion to Christianity (with a large timber hall) and became a double monastery (monks and nuns), with a great quantity of fish bones. Neil Faulkner has a long-running project at Sedgeford in Norfolk, but is concerned by the lack of a conceptual framework for Anglo-Saxon settlements like that for the Roman period, with towns, villages, villas and forts; he believes that archaeology can produce that framework, and gave an account of Anglo-Saxon history as evolution from small egalitarian settlements to feudal villages dominated by thegns and the church.

For later times we had Richard Buckley on Richard III; Heather Knight on the Curtain Playhouse, revealed by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) and to be preserved in some way as that area of Shoreditch is redeveloped; Pieta Greaves on the conservation of the Staffordshire Hoard; and the osteologist Don Walker on the evidence of mass fatalities from the Spitalfields cemetery, which he believes point to a famine attributable to the effect of a volcanic eruption (perhaps in South America) in 1258.

There was also a whole session on Herculaneum and Pompeii, in preparation for the exhibition at the British Museum, and talks on Operation Nightingale (archaeology by wounded service personnel) and on the rescue archaeology of the National Roads Authority of Ireland.

AND WE’VE GOT JUST THREE DAYS TO DIG IT…HENDON TOWN HALL CAR PARK
EXCAVATION, 1978 Andy Simpson

Having looked recently at the Hendon Fuller Street and White Swan Golders Green excavations from the HADAS back catalogue of unpublished excavations, we return once again to Hendon.

Back during the Bank Holiday weekend, 26-28th August 1978, the late Ted Sammes directed another dig in central Hendon to add to those in Burroughs Gardens (1972), Church Terrace (1973/4) and Fuller Street (1974). This was on the perimeter of the far end of car park which lay between the Town Hall and the public gardens of the Grove. As the April 1978 HADAS newsletter recorded, the object was ‘to test the area so that we will have a better idea of whether or not a larger dig should take place before the proposed extension of the Town Hall gets under way in a year or two’s time’. The August 1978 HADAS newsletter further noted ‘This will be a short exploratory dig, directed by Ted Sammes, to assess the archaeological potential of the area prior to a proposed development by Barnet Borough Council’

Hendon Town Hall lies at the centre of the Burroughs, standing on the west side just south-east of the former Grove House site where the Victorians had found some evidence of Roman Hendon; it was originally part of the Grove grounds, as shown in Cook’s map of 1796, sitting just at the SE corner of the grounds. With the foundation stone laid on the 10th October 1900 and a formal opening on 13th November 1901, Hendon Town Hall itself, built in the grounds of Grove House, was completed from designs by T.H. Watson, serving as the offices of the then Hendon Urban District Council, being extended at the back in 1934 when ‘an extensive enlargement was completed’, according to the brochure for the Hendon Borough Show Civics Exhibition 1952. It became Hendon Town Hall in 1932 when Hendon became a Municipal Borough, and now has a modern extension to Middlesex University standing right behind it. The University now leases most of the Town Hall building itself also, except for the council chamber.

GROVE HOUSE AND GROUNDS

Grove House itself, a large stuccoed two-storey building built by 1753, sited to give commanding views westwards towards Harrow and north to Mill Hill, and substantially rebuilt in the 19th century and later, successively, a private nursing home and mental home, was demolished in 1934 following purchase by Hendon Council. The now-levelled site of the house and part of its grounds survive as a small public park called The Grove at the rear of the Fire Station and University, with the original entrance avenue which led directly to the house still extant between University buildings now leading to the park and site of the house. In the Grove grounds in late 1889 in the area of the former Technical College playing fields – the present Middlesex University – were found fragments of Roman pottery including cremation urns, a complete flagon, and building material (including two bricks and flanged roofing tile) and bone fragments.

The Grove House grounds were further reduced by the building of the still-extant adjacent Fire Station in 1914 and the neo-Georgian library in 1929, along with Hendon College of Technology in 1939 – now the main campus of Middlesex University – being extended in 1955 and 1969 (mainly on former Church End Farm land).

Photo – Grove Gardens February 2013,
Grove House stood on the central flat area until 1934.

Further work near the Grove House site took place when in May 1995, the South East London Archaeological Unit undertook a watching brief at the Hendon Campus of Middlesex University, which showed that extensive terracing had removed any possible archaeological evidence, and no dating evidence was recovered from the single feature exposed, a broad hollow. Further archaeological evaluation work at the Hatchcroft development on the Burroughs, Hendon in 2007 (TQ2276 8929, site code HCF07) in five trenches found only post-medieval features and an undated ditch, possibly landscaping associated with the construction of Grove House in 1753.

Also, in November 2002 prior to new construction work, AOC Archaeology opened up four trenches in the former car park site (TQ2275 8940) at Middlesex University down Greyhound Hill opposite the entrance to Sunny Hill Park. The trenches cut through modern tarmac and down through made ground to a depth of two metres, being opened on a Tuesday and backfilled the following morning after nothing was found except the site of a possible pond at the top end of the site and natural gravels cut by possible palaeochannels.

Photo – Extant Brickwork, rear of Grove Gardens, February 2013 – Grove House outbuilding footings?
(Now supporting park steps)

THE TOWN HALL EXCAVATION
Four trenches were dug, at the south and west sides of the car park, lettered A through to D. No original site records, plans or sections appear to have survived, but if anyone knows otherwise we will be delighted to hear from them! Although it was originally thought the dig might continue into September, the three days of the August Bank Holiday were in the end thought enough.

All we have are three annotated copies of a black and white group portrait of five of the diggers taken during backfilling of a trench adjacent to a tall brick boundary wall on 9th September 1978, and four different colour print snapshots taken by the late George Ingram on Sunday 27th August 1978 which concentrate on people rather than features, centered on the deep, narrow trench being backfilled in the later B/W photo. The one photo showing the trench sides indicates a considerable amount of brick rubble in the very dark humic make-up.

There are some references in the annual London Archaeologist excavation round-up and HADAS Committee minutes for June and September 1978, however, along with the original finds.

The site was located at Grid reference NGR TQ22608920 (London HER record no. 081978/00/00. The excavation team included Ted Sammes, Percy Reboul, Jeremy Clynes, Raymond and Christopher Lowe and George Ingram.
It was found that the site had been levelled by twentieth-century dumping; beneath this eighteenth and nineteenth century pottery, clay tobacco pipes and modern field drains were discovered, along with two small conjoining sherds of medieval pottery.

To quote the September 1978 HADAS Committee minutes; ‘Four trenches were opened. One produced nothing but wood blocks for road work (none of which seem to have been retained – AS); one (Trench B) produced Victoriana with one residual piece of medieval pottery (broken in two- later confirmed as London Ware – AS). The others (trenches C and D) produced field drains. A gravel path, shown on the 19th century estate map, was found. Three small yellow bricks, similar to those found on other nearby sites, came from the immediate Town Hall/Grove Gardens area.

There is no mention of whether the natural was reached or not. A later exhibition caption states that the dig ‘came, through lack of evidence, to no definite conclusion. The site was, in fact, virtually sterile.’

Ted Sammes (reclining) supervises operations whilst Jeremy Clynes points at the camera… and is that Percy Reboul with his back to the camera? (George Ingram photo)

Ford Cortina (Mk II?) – and Mum – with only known photo of actual section. (George Ingram photo) THE TRENCHES

Trench A appears to have been dug in four distinct spits in the absence of recognisable contexts in the dump make-up, up to a recorded depth of 60cm. Finds were a piece of building plaster, clay pipe fragments, most of the post-medieval – medieval pottery recovered from the site – mostly refined white wares – and glass (bottle- neck and ‘OXO’ jar), a bone toothbrush handle, a glass marble, a Yale key, a bottle top marked ‘3d Deposit on Bottle’, and a latch-plate from a lock.

An unusual find is a piece of shrapnel, probably 3.7-inch artillery shell, seemingly complete with driving band (which engaged with the rifling of the gun barrel to spin-stabilise the shell) – possibly originating from local Second World War heavy anti-aircraft (AA) sites.

Research kindly undertaken by my colleague Andy Renwick, Curator of Photographs at the RAF Museum, indicates that battery ZW13 was in Mill Hill (TQ 218 945) and ZW14 was in West Hendon (TQ 211 881). Both were equipped with the 3.7″ anti-aircraft gun – an example of which is displayed in the Battle of Britain Hall at the RAF Museum Hendon.
There was also an Anti-Aircraft Flight which was based at RAF Hendon until June 1942. This could have been equipped with 40mm Bofors and these were the guns deployed in the grounds of the Met Police Training School in Aerodrome Road and Sunny Hill Park overlooking RAF Hendon itself.

In March 2013, local resident Dennis Weston kindly provided the following recollection of his time as a teenage fire-watcher at the Town Hall:

‘In 1943, on leaving school, I started work in the wages department of the local council at Hendon Town Hall, working normal office hours of 9am to 5pm. To provide extra assistance to the ARP services, a volunteer group of Town Hall employees, working on a shift basis, provided a group of fire-watchers specifically for the protection of the Town Hall building. A group of six employees commenced duties after normal office hours until the following morning’s normal start time. At various points along the corridors were buckets of water and sand, checked on a daily basis. Once an air raid siren had been heard, routine checks were made to all floors of the building.’

‘On evenings when no air raid sirens had sounded, the Town Hall volunteers had access to a games room with a full sized snooker table and use of a substantial kitchen with equipment to make tea and toast. Should no air raid siren be sounded during the whole night, camp beds were provided in one of the corridors for the volunteers to snatch a few hours’ sleep as they were expected to resume normal duties in the office the next day. A small expense allowance was paid for each night’s duty and for an office junior this was a welcome addition!’

‘My outstanding memory relates to the night of September 1940 when a group of us on duty stood on the roof of the Town Hall and watched in horror the crimson glow of the fires raging in the city of London’

Trench B, dug to a depth of 50cm, yielded two conjoining base sherds of medieval pottery – London Type Ware (LOND) – dated 1080 – 1350 – the only medieval find from the site. In addition there was a considerable quantity of post-medieval pottery, again, mostly refined white wares.

Trench C, dug to 40cm, yielded post-medieval pottery including a complete stoneware inkpot, clay pipe fragments, a glazed tile, and four lengths of modern field drain.

Trench D yielded just two more lengths of modern field drain.

THE FINDS
The finds were fully sorted and recorded using standard MOLAS recording forms.

Selection of finds, including medieval London ware top left, artillery shell fragment (with driving bands) top right, 1942 cup fragment to left of shrapnel. 50 pence piece as scale.

Pottery
Apart from the two pieces of medieval pottery referred to above, the majority of the pottery found was Victorian or more recent – much of it refined white ware (REFW, 1800 – date), of which some has transfer decoration.
Some of it at least appears to be ‘Government issue’ – one sizable piece of plate from Trench A being marked on the base ‘G.VI.R Clokie & Co Ltd 1944’ A cup fragment appears to have (19) 42 on the base. Perhaps these are related to Home Guard or other use – the roof of the Town Hall was certainly a fire-watching post during World War Two.

English Porcelain (ENPO, 1740s onwards) and English Stonewares (ENGS) are also present, plus late tin-glazed ware (TGW) and Post-Medieval Redware (PMR, 1580 – 1900) and Transfer-Printed wares (TPW). Identifiable fragments include an R.White’s stoneware ginger beer bottle.

Clay Pipe
Only trenches A and C yielded any clay pipe remnants – a total of 15 stem fragments and five bowls, or parts thereof. Of the latter, only three were complete enough to be datable – one each of types AO28, 29 and 30 – their date ranges being 1820-1860, 1840-1880 and 1850-1910 respectively. Additionally, one undated stem and spur fragment had a shield design either side of the spur, and an incomplete bowl had a dot design either side of the front seam.

Building Material
This mostly consisted of lengths of modern field drain and some bricks.

Trench C had yielded four 30cm (one foot) field drain lengths, one incomplete. Their average external diameter was 6cm/2.5 inches. A further two similar lengths came from Trench D.

Unstratified from the adjacent Grove Gardens came five yellow bricks, original average length 180mm, depth 37mm, two of them incomplete. These are likely to be hand-made ‘Dutch’ bricks of late sixteenth/ seventeenth century date, of which a number have been found in the Hendon area.

There was also one glazed half-brick, 72mm long and 36mm deep, glazed on face and thickness only. There were also two unstratified pieces of conjoining oolitic limestone, painted on two faces; total length 87mm, thickness 30cm.It is retained along with five unstratified sherds of post-medieval pottery.

The finds are entirely consistent with mid-twentieth century dumping that may include material contemporary with and/or resultant from the demolition of, Grove House. The background residual medieval sherd is hardly surprising in a site so close to proven medieval activity at Burroughs Gardens, Church End Farm and Church Terrace.

References

‘Excavation Round-up 1978’ in London Archaeologist Vol. 3 (10) Spring 1979, p.262

Gillies, S. and Taylor, P. Hendon, Child’s Hill, Golders Green and Mill Hill: A Pictorial History. Phillimore, 1993
J . Clynes et al. Town Trail 1: Hendon. Barnet Libraries Local History Publications, June 1979

Pearce, J. (Ed.) The Last Hendon Farm: The archaeology and history of Church End Farm, HADAS, 2006 Petrie, H. Hendon & Golders Green Past. Historical Publications, 2005

What happened at the Roman Baths? Peter Pickering

We know a lot about what Roman baths were like, since they are ubiquitous among the ruins we visit. We do not see any Romans in them. But there have come down to us some tantalising glimpses of Romans in the baths. One is to be found in the amazingly named ‘Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana.’, which have recently been edited and translated into English by Eleanor Dickey of the University of Exeter. The Hermeneumata contain a phrasebook, like those one can buy for travelling abroad, designed to teach Latin speakers Greek or Greek speakers Latin. Here is a conversation between, it seems, a Roman going to the baths and his slave:

‘Take the towels down to the bath, the strigil, face-cloth, foot-cloth, flask of oil, soap. Go ahead of us, get a place.’
‘Where do you direct it to be? At the public baths, or the private one?’

‘Wherever you order.’

‘Just go ahead; I’m talking to you, the ones who are here.’

‘Let there be hot water for us.’

‘I’ll tell you when we’re coming.’

‘Get up, let’s go.’

‘Do you want to go from here through the portico, on account of the rain?’

‘Do you want to come to the privy?’

‘You reminded me well; my belly urges me to go. Let’s go now.’ ‘Take off your clothes.’

‘Take my shoes, put the clothes together, cover them, watch them well: don’t doze off, on account of the thieves.’ ‘Grab a ball for us: let’s play in the ball court.’

‘I want to practise on the wrestling-ground. Come here, let’s wrestle after a while for a moment.’

‘I don’t know if I can; I stopped wrestling a long time ago. Nevertheless, I shall try if I can.’ ‘I have been tired out easily.’

‘Let’s go into the first room, the tepidarium. Give the bath-keeper coins; get the change.’

‘Anoint me.’

‘I have anointed you.’

‘Rub me.’

‘Come to the sweat-room.’

‘Are you sweating?’

‘I am sweating; I am exhausted.’

‘Let’s go in to the hot pool.’

‘Go down.’

‘Let’s use the dry heat room and go down that way to the hot pool.’

‘Go down, pour hot water over me. Now get out. Throw yourself into the open-air pool.’ ‘Swim!’

‘I swam.’

‘Go over to the basin; pour water over yourself.’

‘Hand me the strigil. Rub me down. Wrap the towels around me. Dry my head and feet. Give me my shoes, put on my shoes. Hand me my underwear, mantle, Dalmatian tunic. Gather up the clothes and all our things. Follow me home, and buy for us from the bath-shop, chopped food and lupins and beans in vinegar.’ ‘You bathed well, may it be well for you.’

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Monday 8th April. 3pm Barnet and District Local History Society. Church House, Wood Street, Barnet
(opposite museum) ‘The Barnet Foundling Hospital at Monken Hadley” Talk by Yvonne Tomlinson. (See Stephen Brunning’s article in the February Newsletter)

Sunday 14th April. Battlefields Trust Chairman Frank Baldwin will lead a walk over the site of this decisive Wars of the Roses battle. Meet at 11.00am at the Old Monken Public House, High Street, Barnet, EN5 5SU. For further information contact Harvey Watson on 01494 257847 or email harvey.watson@tiscali.co.uk

Tuesday 16th April. 6.30pm Osidge Library, Brunswick Park Road N11 1EY ‘The Fields of Friern’. Talk by Dr Pauline Ashridge (See review of her book in the December Newsletter)

Thursday 25th April. 7.30pm Finchley Society. Christ Church North Finchley N12 (opposite Homebase). (note unusual venue) ‘A Walk round Finchley’ Mike Gee. Refreshments 7.30 pm. Non-members £2.

Monday 29th April. 10.15 am to 5pm UCL Institute of Archaeology ‘You can’t take it with you: Artefacts in Burials from Post-Roman to Modern’. Details from Jackie Keily, Museum of London. 020-7814 5734 jkeily@museumoflondon.org.uk

Wednesday 15th May. 7.30pm Willesden Local History Society, St Mungo’s Centre, 115 Pound Lane NW10 2HV(opposite bus garage) ‘Lost railway stations of Willesden and Environs’ Talk by Cliff Wadsworth.

Friday 17th May. 8pm Enfield Archaeological Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane\Junction Chase Side Enfield. ‘Skeletons in the Museum of London’ Talk by Jelena Bekvalak. Visitors £1. Refreshments etc 7.30 pm.

Friday 17th May. 6.30pm LAARC Mortimer Wheeler House 46 Eagle Wharf Road N1 7ED ‘Archaeological Archive by Twilight’ Discover some rarely seen finds after dark alongside Curator-led tours, object handling, performances and workshops. Book in advance online at www.museumoflondon.org.uk/events or call 020-7001 9844. £7 (concessions £6).

Friday 17th May 7pm COLAS St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane EC3. ‘The Crossrail Archaeology Project.’ Jay Carver – Project Archaeologist’ Visitors £2.

Wednesday 22nd May. 7.45pm Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. St John’s Church Hall (next to Whetstone Police Station) Friern Barnet Lane N20. John Donovan Memorial Lecture ‘the 1960s’ Non- members £2 refreshments 7.45 pm and after meeting.

Thursday 31st May. 8pm Finchley Society. Avenue House. Discussion meeting. Topics to be arranged. Non- members £2.

Saturdays (various) in May. ‘Trinity in May’. Trinity Church Centre, 15 Nether Street N12 7NN. Festival of Arts, Music, Literature and Lots More.

Number 503 February 2013 Edited by Andy Simpson

HADAS DIARY
Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8 pm,

with coffee/tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members: £1. Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a short walk away.

Tuesday 12 February From Longboat to Warrior; the evolution of the wooden ship Lecture by Eliot Wragg, Thames Discovery Programme (NB- held in the Salon)
Tuesday 12th March: The Railway Heritage Trust Lecture by Andy Savage.

Tuesday 9th April: Nautical Archaeology – past, present and future
Lecture by Mark Beattie-Edwards, Programme Director, Nautical Archaeology Society. Tuesday 14th May 2013: 10,000 years of History Beneath your Feet: the Bankside foreshore Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey
Tuesday 8th October: Brunel’s Tunnel under the Thames

Lecture by Robert Hulse – Director of the Brunel Museum
Tuesday 12th November: Lions on Kunulua – excavations of Early Bronze and Iron Age periods at Tell Tayinat, Hatay, Turkey Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey

Our “long weekend”, 2013 Jim Nelhams

HADAS long weekends have for a few years been rather longer, and our trip in 2013 is a total of 5 days, running from Sunday 15th September and returning home on Thursday 19th. We will be based at Lee Wood (Best Western) Hotel in Buxton in the Derbyshire Peak District, an area which HADAS does not seem to have visited before.

We expect to visit Stoke on Trent, the “plague village” of Eyam, and Matlock Spa, including the Heights of Abraham, and are examining a number of other options. If you have any other suggestions, please talk to Jim or Jo Nelhams or Don Cooper (contact details on back page of newsletter).
Pick up points will as usual be Barnet, Whetstone, Finchley, Hendon, Golders Green and Temple Fortune. Times are not yet known until we confirm our en route coffee stop.
We managed to hold prices last year, but unfortunately both hotel and coach prices have risen this year so the proposed cost will be £450 per person sharing a double/twin room and £495 for a single.
These prices are based on a group of 36 people. Because the prices have risen, we need to know that we have enough interest to make the trip viable.
With this newsletter, you will find a form about the trip. If you want to come, please complete it and return the form to Jim Nelhams with your deposit, not later than 15th March. Cheques payable to HADAS please. Cheques will not be banked until we know we have enough support.
We hope you can join us for what we expect to be another enjoyable trip.
Thanks, but no tanks Andy Simpson

Last month’s newsletter featured recent resistivity work by HADAS at Martin Primary School, East Finchley.
The main entrance corridor of the school features original Finchley Urban District Council architect’s plans for the school, and historic photographs. One of these seemingly dates to the late First World War period, showing the entire school grouped in front of the main entrance (this photo being reproduced on the first page of the January/February 2013 Finchley Society Newsletter), and what appears to be a classic Great War British tank in the background. Or not. When I showed this to RAF Museum colleague Alan Wicks, a member of the Friends of Bovington Tank Museum (http://www.tankmuseum.org/), he pointed out a few problems. Using the people standing on top as a scale, for one thing it isn’t long enough, and the forward raised housing is too square and too big – and should slope at the back. It could perhaps be a mock-up, perhaps in wood, and produced for recruiting or ‘Tank Bank Week’ fundraising events run by the National War Savings Committee. Anyone out there know more of tanks in Great War Finchley or Barnet?
Publication Backlog Andy Simpson

Further to last year’s articles on 1970s HADAS digs in Fuller St, Hendon, and the White Swan, Golders Green, I am now working on the Hendon Town Hall dig directed by Ted Sammes over the August Bank Holiday weekend, 1978, assisted by the Sunday morning Avenue House gang with the finds processing. There are no extant site notes or drawings, just a few informal snapshots, mostly by the late George Ingrams, and just a handful of references in HADAS committee minutes. Finds are varied – a single

residual sherd of medieval pottery, clay pipes, and much 18th- 19th century pottery, including part of a Government Issue plate dated 1944 and even a fragment of shrapnel from an artillery shell, presumably from anti-aircraft fire.

Margaret Maher 1938-2012 – a personal tribute by Myfanwy Stewart

It was with great sadness that Margaret’s friends heard that she had passed away on the 15th December 2012 after years of illness. She had fought ill health with an indomitable spirit that came as no surprise to all who knew her.

We first met when HADAS started the Mesolithic excavation of West Heath, Hampstead, under the direction of the late Daphne Lorimer, and we stayed to the close in 1981. In 1977 the excavation of the West Heath Spring site, a boggy area to the south-east, was made possible when Margaret’s husband William (always “Billy” to her) provided a HY-Mac excavator to dig out the first 1.6. metres of the bog. Samples from a deeper pit were taken by the late M.Girling and J. Grieg and evidence of five thousand years of environmental data were obtained from the beetle and pollen evidence. Sadly Billy was to die prematurely and Margaret was left a widow with 4 children.

After West Heath, we both went as full time students to the Institute of Archaeology, UCL and successfully graduated. We dug on the Mesolithic site on Hengistbury Head and then West Heath was re-opened by HADAS in 1984 under Margaret’s direction.

Margaret proved to be a very able director for the 3 year excavation. Extremely thorough, she ran a ‘tight ship’ which brought out the best in the diggers. Her knowledge of flint knapping and typology was prodigious and she was always eager to teach all who took part. She generated enthusiasm and the site had a very happy atmosphere.

My usually reticent mother, who progressed from tea making to writing up the finds ledger, said that working on the site “was one of the happiest times of my life” and that Margaret was “a real worker”. It was very gratifying when UCL acknowledged the excavation and allowed their undergraduates to work there as part of their required excavation experience.

Much humour came from the crowd of people who inevitably came to watch and comment from behind the fence. A memorable moment came when a mounted police officer called to Margaret “I am looking for a man”. “Aren’t we all” she jokingly shouted back.

The last time we excavated together was at Culverwell, the Mesolithic shell midden on the Isle of Portland, owned and directed by Susann Palmer. Overlooking the sea, the site was a complete contrast to West Heath and added to our experience of the Mesolithic.

The last time I saw Margaret she knew she did not have long to live. She faced the inevitable with immense courage and dignity. The large congregation at her funeral requiem mass showed how well she was regarded and included members of HADAS and former UCL graduates.

Another side of Margaret was shown in the order of service booklet which referred to her “eclectic taste in music”, some of which was played at her funeral. Included also was a selection from her collection of “sayings, oddments and poetry that she particularly liked or which touched a chord”. She really was “one of a kind” and will be greatly missed by her friends. Sincere and deepest sympathy is sent to her children and family.

Ironbridge Trip – Day 4

BRIDGNORTH Kevin McSharry

Day 4 of this year’s HADAS excursion to Shropshire was a real delight despite the inclement weather. It began with Bridgnorth, thence to the atmospheric pipe factory of Broseley and finally to Cosford to view the RAF Museum there.
Bridgnorth’s name comes from a bridge over the Severn, a little to the north of where the town stands. It is one town with two very distinct parts: The High Town which stands on a cliff and overlooks the River Severn; and the Low Town on the west bank of the Severn. The two parts are connected by the Bridgnorth Funicular or Castle Hill Railway, said to be the steepest inland funicular railway in Britain.

Our guided tour began in the windswept Sainsbury’s car park but with one or two stops we hastened to the historic centre of Bridgnorth High Town, which we entered by Northgate the only surviving gate of the original five. Northgate houses the Bridgnorth Museum, which had been opened for our Hadasian party. The Museum was accessed by a narrow, steep stone staircase. The Museum’s shape was dictated by its location on the Northgate cum wall of Bridgnorth. Thus it was one long narrow room crammed with a fascinating collection of historic artefacts telling the story of Bridgnorth over the centuries. Members of the Bridgnorth & District Historical Society were on hand to answer the many questions posed to them.

Much of historic High Town Bridgnorth we see today dates from the seventeenth century, as the town was a severe casualty of the English Civil War (1641-1649). The fateful day was the 29th March 1646 when Parliamentary forces attacked the town which had declared for the King. Bridgnorth’s motto is “Fidelitas Urbis Salus Regius” (In the Town’s loyalty lies the King’s Safety). In the ensuing melee much of the town was fired and a goodly portion of St. Leonard’s Church destroyed, by explosion.

A hop, skip and a jump from Northgate was St. Leonard’s Church approached by a narrow picturesque street. As with St. Mary’s in Shrewsbury, St. Leonard’s is now under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Its location which is circular is a delight and known as St. Leonard’s Close. St. Leonard’s is a Norman foundation and some of its interesting features include lovely windows and a pulpit carved, as an angel with a trumpet, in wood.

Our tour wended its way to Bridgnorth’s 17th century Town Hall (part of which was once a court of justice), a half-timbered building standing over the arched market area, that dominates the High Street. The Town Hall, accessed by a wooden staircase, is a gem. The Council chamber, wooden panelled with interesting stained glass windows is a palimpsest of the Town’s history since the 17th century. Our tour of the High Town concluded at the classically designed church of St. Mary Magdalene. Designed by whom? None other than Thomas Telford with whom I associated things

industrial and not this light-filled beautiful, spacious building with soaring windows. St. Mary’s, despite its classical design, stands on an 11th century foundation and, unlike St. Leonard’s, is the centre of an active and vibrant parish.

Leaving St. Mary’s we hastened to the Castle Hill Railway, approached by a narrow walkway with stunning views over the Severn and beyond. Views said by Charles I to be the finest in the Kingdom.

What fun it is to ride on unusual forms of transport. The funicular railway is one such form. The railway, initially operated by water, is now powered by electricity.

Below – going down! – Photo by Andy Simpson.

The railway operated two cars on parallel tracks. Connected by steel cables, the carriages serve to counter-balance each other, as one rises to the top station the other runs to the bottom station. The railway (opened in July 1892) is a testament to Victorian entrepreneurial and engineering skills.

Two of Bridgnorth’s most famous sons are Francis Moore of “Old Moore’s Almanac” fame and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Shakespearian actor and star of stage and screen. Their names evoked those mystic cards of memory of my childhood as the Almanac was always in our house, usually bought at the door from an itinerant pedlar; and Sir Cedric is remembered from the black & white (and some colour) films shown at the matinee performances at the Classic Cinema, alas now no more. I remember more vividly his son, the actor Edward Hardwicke, a grandson of Bridgnorth, who played Watson to Jeremy Brett’s Holmes.

Once our descent, from the High Town to the Low Town had been accomplished we embarked on the coach at Lavington Hole to journey to historic Broseley.

BROSELEY PIPE MUSEUM Don Cooper

And so to visit the Broseley pipe museum; the museum is on the site of one of the last clay pipe factories in Britain. It belonged to the Southorn family. Having opened in 1880 as Crown Pipeworks, it closed in 1957 and was left as it was until becoming a museum in 1992. (The last pipe-making factory to close in Britain was John Pollock & Co. of Manchester, which closed in 1992). The village of Broseley was renowned for clay pipe makers, the first one being recorded in 1590. Such was the popularity of clay pipe smoking that what was once a cottage industry became an industrial factory business.

At its peak in the 18th century Broseley was known world-wide for the quality of its clay pipes and there were a number of factories in the village. Smoking a “Broseley”

was the height of fashion. However, by the late 19th century clay pipe smoking was in decline as cigarettes became more popular. To meet this challenge the various

companies consolidated and eventually only William Southorn & Co., which had started in 1823, was left.

As a final fling they diversified into making china dolls, pipes for children to blow bubbles with etc., but gave up the struggle in 1957 when Harry Southorn died.

We were very fortunate to be able to arrange for Rex M Key (one of the very last clay pipe makers) to give us a demonstration of how clay pipes had been made in the factory. In summary, the clay (which often came up from Cornwall) was washed in tubs to remove imperfections. Then it was worked like dough to remove the air and was rolled into a rough pipe shape and a wire pushed through the stem to make the hole. Next it was put in a two part steel mould to form the bowl properly, the mould was clamped and the wire pushed through to complete the hole for the smoke to reach the smoker. Once dried, it was trimmed and excess clay removed, put in saggars (ceramic boxes for holding products put in kilns, which could be stacked neatly and reused) and fired in the kiln. The kiln at this factory held 75,000 pipes, and firing and cooling took four days in all. After the clay pipes were fired, they were sometimes polished and burnished, and had the tips dipped in a waxy substance so that the smoker’s lips did not stick to the clay. The pipes were packed carefully in straw or wood shavings (as they are very fragile!), boxed and dispatched all around the world.

Clay pipes came in all shapes and sizes. Essentially they were used as advertising for a whole host of organisations; pubs, clubs, societies, and often commemorated individual people and events. The smallest pipes were known as “cutties”, church warden pipes were 20” (50cms) long, and the longest pipes were up to 36” (91cms).

Below – Rex at work – photo by Andy Simpson

Rex is a knowledgeable clay pipe enthusiast (he has a personal collection of 14,000 pipes) and he gave us a wonderful demonstration on how to make clay pipes supported by an excellent commentary – thanks Rex. As one of the last clay pipe makers, he says he is inundated with orders from organisations wanting clay pipes to advertise their organisations.

After the demonstration (which was done in two groups so that everyone could see Rex at work) we toured the rest of the remains of the factory, left as if the workforce had just gone home for the day, and viewed workbenches, samples of moulds, types of pipes as well as videos of pipe-making in the past. As clay pipes were virtually a disposable item hence “a pipe and pint for a penny”, with frequent changes of designs, they are an important tool, when found in context, in helping to date archaeological finds. The pipe museum, a time capsule of what the working conditions were like in the declining years of this industry, was a grim place to work, full of dust, but a fascinating gem of a place to visit.

Warning – Contains Aeroplanes! Andy Simpson

After a most enjoyable visit to Broseley, we moved on to the Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford, which is the ‘Midlands Outstation’ of the Hendon museum. This is a long-established collection; the writer of this note remembers with affection 1970s Sunday afternoon drives out to what was then the Cosford Aerospace Museum, long before it was formally joined with the museum at Hendon.

In those days, when the aircraft there were viewed as one of the RAF’s former ‘Regional Collections’ of historic aircraft, for 50 pence you got museum admission, duplicated guidebook, AND a car sticker! Even today, admission remains free.

This is a large site to one side of what remains an operational airfield and tri-service training base – see http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcosford/

The museum site occupies five large buildings – a reception building, upper pair of hangars, lower hangar, the vast, lottery-funded National Cold War Exhibition building (‘NCWE’), and the building where we started our visit, the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre (‘MBCC’), named after a long-serving Chairman of the RAF Museum Trustees, a wartime bomber pilot. Our guide for the tour of the centre was MBCC Manager Tim Wallis, also ex-RAF. Tim talked us through the conservation and restoration role of the MBCC, with particular reference to the on-going long-term restoration projects on two wartime RAF bombers – the Vickers Wellington, after 40 years display at Hendon, and the Handley Page Hampden wreck recovered from its Russian forest crash site in the early 1990s and requiring total rebuild whilst retaining as much as possible of the original structure. Also being worked on was the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel, an early development version of the late lamented Harrier Jump Jet that recently fell victim to government cuts. Tim’s team of technicians and apprentices have also been heavily involved in the reassembly of the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft, a derivative of the Comet airliner, seen parked outside in the final stages of assembly following its move by road from Kemble airfield in Gloucestershire – Cosford’s relatively short runway means not all RAF Museum acquisitions can be flown in due to their size and weight.

After this most informative tour, we were free to explore the rest of the site. Many concentrated on the NCWE with its collection of Cold War artefacts including tanks and armoured vehicles as well as aircraft. It is the only place in the world displaying all three nuclear–capable ‘V Bombers’ – Victor, Valiant and Vulcan. See http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

Below – Cosford’s De Havilland Mosquito and Avro Lincoln (Photo by Andy Simpson)

Others of the group found their way to the hangars containing the extensive collection of research and development aircraft, including the ill-fated TSR2, and warplanes, including Mosquito and Lincoln bombers, the latter a development of the immortal Lancaster. The weather was perfect and after a good stroll round we headed back to the hotel.

Site visit to the Bucklersbury House Excavation Bill Bass

The visit was organised by the City of London Archaeological Society, on the 12th Dec 2012. As it was popular the group was split into a morning and afternoon time-slot, this report is of the afternoon session.

The site borders Queen Victoria St to the north (near Bank station) and takes in not only the area of the now demolished Bucklersbury House, but also other properties to the south. Our party entered via the north-west entrance, where we were met by Sadie Watson, the Project Officer for Museum of London Archaeology. After signing-in, the first thing to strike you was the massive scale of the site, 5-10m deep in places and covering a wide area, lots of big construction plant, piling machines and staff in high visibility vests. It was, we were told, currently the biggest privately- financed development in Europe. After walking down to the site cabin we were given a briefing on the site by Sadie.

This part of the City between Moorgate and Bank was bisected north to south by the River Walbrook which created the upper Walbrook Valley. This area has long been known for its archaeological importance.

In the early 1950s, Professor Grimes discovered and excavated the Temple of Mithras (whose peripatetic fate will be more fully reported in due course). In more recent times there have been several high-profile digs associated with the Walbrook Valley including No1 Poultry – which overlooks our site just to the north, Drapers Gardens and 8-10 Moorgate. In fact the excavations at 8-10 Moorgate and of Bucklersbury House were being dug concurrently for a time, those at Moorgate have just been completed (early December).

The earliest signs of Roman occupation in the immediate area came from No1 Poultry – a timber drain of 47AD. In this period the Walbrook would have been navigable by boat. As noted in the other sites above, the Walbrook and its valley became increasingly industrialised, post-holes, piles, revetments and the like saw the river channelled and moved for various purposes. At Bucklersbury, a system of plank-lined drains and wells have been recorded across the area, posts, and groupings of posts, may indicate a substantial mill and associated mill-race being built over the river at the north of the site.

Eventually as water levels dropped and the Walbrook became silted up, timber-framed buildings were erected over the line of the river around the late 1st to early 2nd century. Built mostly of oak they would have been founded on base-plates supported on piles with vertical beams slotted into mortice joints, then in-filled with wattle and daub walls. Access to the buildings could be seen with excavation of fence-lined alleyways. Preservation of these wooden frames and fence features was described as ‘excellent’.

After a series of dumping and levelling layers in the later Roman period, the area was re-modelled with buildings of ragstone lining the east of the Walbrook, together with a shrine, walls and floors possibly leading to, or associated with, a temple precinct – The Temple of Mithras. Indeed remains of the foundations of the Temple of Mithras not removed when it was dismantled in 1954 were rediscovered during early work on the site, but were reburied, as it is now a ‘Scheduled Ancient Monument’.

A tessellated floor was recorded and lifted, the floor was partially made with recycled materials – hypocaust tiles and similar, so not top-notch but a step-up from a beaten earth or chalk floor, for instance. (In 1869 a superb mosaic was discovered in the region of Bucklersbury).

It would appear that the Walbrook is the place to dig as at Drapers Gardens there was a wonderful array of finds, which were passed around the table. These included a small polished Neolithic hand- axe – found in a Roman context where somebody had tried to drill a hole through it to act as a pendant. Another star find was a small amber amulet shaped like a gladiator’s helmet. From the Walbrook Discovery Programme blog:

“At a little over 1 cm across this was a great spot on site and could easily have been missed. The helmet has a large crest and has a lattice work of engraved lines on the face which forms a stylised representation of a visor. It is perforated through the crest for suspension. This type of helmet was worn by a murmillo type of gladiator who was armed with a sword, shield, helmet, greaves and padding on his right arm. Normally paired off against a thraex these gladiators were amongst the most popular of the imperial Roman period and would undoubtedly have competed at the Londinium Amphitheatre at Guildhall Yard”.

Some recently excavated wax writing-tablets in excellent, water-logged condition, were also seen. The wax has disappeared but the impressed writing can often be seen with scientific and photographic techniques. One from No.1 Poultry describes the sale of a female slave – Fortunata. A host of other finds we saw included copper items – pendants, brooches, hinges, coins, buckles and a tabard for holding your chain-mail together. Iron keys and arrowheads were also seen.

We were soon issued with our own hi-vis ‘safety-kit’ and retracing our steps from the west to a viewing platform on the east of the site off the Walbrook street. Most of

the archaeology survives only down the east side of the site due to truncation by the 1950s office development. We were looking through and over massive modern day

steel piling and revetments, this was needed as the site was so deep and directly behind us was St Stephen’s Church, whose medieval 15th century foundations

needed to be kept in check! A new entrance to Bank station will be built in this area and there are plans to re-instate the line of the Roman Road of Watling Street

across the site here. Looking down we could see many of the 50-60 archaeologists working away at the deep black deposits of the 2nd century Walbrook. They are

surrounded by Roman timber posts – of the possible two-storey mill together with other walls, wells and drains, in between was their modern concrete equivalents. As an aside, many of the Roman timbers may be recycled as an ‘art instillation’ in the new building, which will also include a publicly accessible new display of the Temple of Mithras. It was a fascinating and impressive sight to see such a large chunk of well-preserved archaeology being excavated in the City of London.

The site is being developed by McAlpine to be the European HQ of Bloomberg LP. Many thanks to Sophie Jackson, Director Design and Development and Sadie

Watson of MOLA, for giving up so much of her time, and to Rose Baillie for organising the visit. The dig can be followed on the blog here:

(http://walbrookdiscovery.wordpress.com/) where more info and further finds are to be found.

The Foundling Hospital in Hadley Report by Stephen Brunning.
I recently joined the Barnet U3A and attended my first meeting and lecture on 3rd January. The lecture was given by exhibition curator Yvonne Tomlinson.

The Foundling Hospital was set up by Thomas Coram (1668-1751) who was appalled by the plight of London’s abandoned children. The hospital received its charter on 17th October 1739 and became the first children’s charity. A building to house the children opened in Bloomsbury in 1745. There were 376 governors who included royalty and painter William Hogarth. Women were not allowed to be governors. Hogarth donated paintings to the hospital and composer George Frideric Handel gave concerts to raise much needed funds.

On admission the children were given a token with a number on it which they had to wear at all times. They were also baptised in a new name to protect the mother’s identity. The hospital became the legal guardian to the children who placed them in apprenticeships at age 12 and supervised the placements until they were 24 years old (male) and 21 (female). Boys were apprenticed into a variety of trades and the girls in domestic service. Not all children were accepted and those who were too sick were turned away. On the first day of the “General Reception” (GR – 2nd June 1756 to 31st March 1760) over 117 children arrived. The numbers became so great that branch hospitals were required. These were established at Ackworth, Aylesbury, Barnet, Chester and Shrewsbury.

A remarkable Barnet woman by the name of Mrs Prudence West suggested in May 1760 and again in September 1762 that a branch hospital be set up in Monken Hadley. She felt the country air would be good for the children. It finally opened on 19th December 1762 with Mrs West as Manager. The Matron and her assistant were Martha & Sarah Cullarne who received an annual salary of £15 and £10 respectively.

Mrs West recognised the need for the children to have a good diet and, like the children in London and the other branch hospitals, they were also given smallpox inoculations. Despite this, the death rate was shocking by modern standards. 42% of the children at Monken Hadley died although this was good when compared with the 63% before GR, 70% during GR and 45% after GR in London. Mrs West treated minor ailments herself and tried to help the sick children along with the nurses. This no doubt helped, as they had the third lowest death rate.

The Monken Hadley hospital finally closed its doors on 19th March 1768 and the children were collected by caravan. Some were deemed too sick to return to London and sent to a local nurse instead. Following her challenge to the hospital governors when the hospital closed, about the high price of goods, Mrs West was reimbursed 40/- to “keep her quiet” as Yvonne put it! Mrs West was the only woman managing an outreach hospital. In 1927 the hospital in Bloomsbury closed, and the children were moved to a building in Redhill. A site was found in Berkhamsted and a new hospital was built in 1935 which survives today as Ashlyns School. Parts of the original building still stands around a playground in Coram’s Fields, Bloomsbury, where adults are only admitted if accompanied by a child.

References

The Foundling Museum website, 2011: http://www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk/ (accessed 3rd January 2013).

This talk complements the exhibition at Barnet Museum and the Foundling Voices exhibition which runs from 1st December 2012 to 28th February 2013; although after 14th January the original objects will be replaced by facsimiles. The exhibition will travel to Hendon, East Barnet and Chipping Barnet libraries until mid-April 2013.

The Mythology of a Pharaoh: Akhenaten, deformed or divine? Lucia Gahlin
Report on January’s lecture by Sigrid Padel

The reign of Akhenaten, 1352 – 1336 BC, stands out as an extraordinary chapter in Egyptian history and archaeology. It has attracted many theories and interpretations. Lucia Gahlin, who lectures in Egyptology at Bristol and Exeter, gave a lively, well-argued and illustrated account of what we actually know about him and his time.

Akhenaten broke with the long established ideas and traditions of religion and kingship in Egypt. Amun-Ra had long been the principal god in the Egyptian pantheon. His temple at Luxor is still one of the most impressive buildings ever constructed. Akhenaten replaced Amun-Ra by the Aten, the solar disc, making this the sole god, thus introducing a form of monotheism.

Akhenaten was the son of Amunhotep III and Queen Tiye. We know nothing of his childhood. Since his elder brother Thutmose died young, he was destined to rule as Amunhotep IV. But by the fifth year of his reign a significant change had taken place. He chose to be called Akhenaten. (“Akh”- spirit of ”Aten” – the sun god). His wife, Nefertiti, became Nefernefarnuaten. Though, at the beginning of his reign, Akhenaten had built a temple to the Aten at Karnak next to the temple of Amun-Ra, he soon decided to move his capital from Memphis to Amarna, a city he founded on a new site further south. This was laid out orientated towards two hills between which the sun rises on certain days of the year. He and Nefertiti had themselves portrayed beneath the sun’s disc with rays emanating from it towards the royal pair, creating an image of a special link with this god. It seems that Akhenaten saw himself as a God-King. The art of this period differs from the norm established in Egypt during the preceding centuries, using more sinuous lines, emphasising sexuality and the closeness of Akhenaten’s relationship with his wife and their six daughters. Statues of the king show him as rather effeminate.

The changes introduced by Akhenaten were not to last. He was succeeded by Smenkhare, who died soon after. This brought the nine-year-old Tutankhamun, formerly known as Tutankhaten, to the throne. Early in his reign El-Amarna was abandoned as was the cult introduced by Akhenaten. It is unclear what happened to his body and all his cartouches were erased from buildings and statues. His name, like those of his successors Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun, possibly his sons, are omitted from the King List of all pharaohs from about 1250 BC.

It is not surprising that this pharaoh has been heavily mythologised. The portrayal of Akhenaten’s body in statues and frescoes is seen by some as typical of homosexuality, bisexuality or linked to various conditions such as Marfan’s syndrome. He has been seen as a pacifist, not “smiting his enemies” as other pharaohs were seen to have done. Frescoes of this period seem to emphasize birds and flowers rather than warfare. But there are depictions of Akhenaten killing birds and Nefertiti in an aggressive pose. Sir Flinders Petrie who was responsible for the excavations of El-

Amarna saw Akhenaten as the first monogamist ruler, an idea that would have been appealing to his contemporaries. There is no real evidence for any of these interpretations. In judging the past it is more important to look at what is really known and to acknowledge that what is read into the past
often merely reflects the attitudes of the authors of these theories.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS compiled by Eric Morgan

Friday 22 February, 7.30pm. Edmonton Hundred Historical Society, jointly with Enfield Society, Charity School, Church St, Edmonton N9. Enfield’s Railway History, Pt. 1 – The Lea Valley, Southbury & Enfield Town Lines – talk by David Cockle. Visitors £1. Please note correction to this venue.

Sunday 3 March, 10.30am. Heath & Hampstead Society. Heroes and Villains – The History of the Heath as we know it. Meet at the Flagstaff, Whitestone Pond. Walk led by Thomas Radice. Lasts approx. 2 hours. Donation £3.00.

Tuesday 5–Sunday 17 March. Hendon Library, The Burroughs, Hendon NW4 4BQ. The Barnet Foundling Hospital, Monken Hadley, 1762-68. Exhibition- a continuation of the exhibition at Barnet Museum, which runs until 20 February (see January and this Newsletter). Then on to East Barnet Library, Tues 19–Sat 30 March, and then Tues 2–Sun 14 April at Chipping Barnet Library.

Tuesday 5 March, 8pm. St Albans & Herts Architectural & Historical Society, St Albans School, Abbey Gateway, St Albans AL3 4HB. Tudor Hertfordshire. Talk by Daphne Knott.

Mon 11 March, 3pm. Barnet Museum & Local History Society, Church House, Wood St, Barnet (opposite Museum). Charles & Mary Lamb – talk by Helen Walton.

Wed 13 March, 2.30 – 4pm. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, The Broadway, NW7. The History of Harrods (preceded by AGM) -talk by Mrs M. Wright.

Wed 13 March, 7.45pm. Hornsey Historical Society, Union Church Hall, Corner Ferme Park Road/Weston Park, N8 9PX. The Building of St Paul’s Cathedral – talk by Neil Houghton. Visitors £1.50

Friday 15 March, 7.30pm. Wembley History Society, 977, Harrow Road, Sudbury, HA0 2SF (opposite Black Horse Pub) – talk by Len Snow, author & historian. Visitors £2. NB- different venue.

Friday, 15 March, 8pm (refreshments & sales from 7.30). Enfield Archaeological Society, Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, junction Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ. Old & New Finds of the Coin Collection of Verulamium Museum – talk by David Thorold. Visitors £1

Saturday 16 March 2013. LAMAS 50th Annual Conference of London Archaeologists Weston Theatre, Museum of London Morning session – recent work; Afternoon session – 50 Years of London Archaeology: Past, Present and Future. Tickets booked pre-1st March: £10.00, £15.00 after this date.
Cheque payable to LAMAS and SAE to Jon Cotton, c/o Department of Archaeological Collections & Archive, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN

With thanks to this month’s contributors; Bill Bass; Stephen Brunning; Don Cooper; Kevin McSharry; Eric Morgan; Jim Nelhams; Sigrid Padel; Myfanwy Stewart.

No. 502 JANUARY 2013 Edited by Mary Rawitzer

Can I take the opportunity to wish all our readers a very happy and healthy New Year. A shorter newsletter this month, but please keep contributions flowing.

HADAS DIARY 2013

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

Tuesday 8th January 2013: The Reign of Akhenaten Lecture by Lucia Gahlin

Tuesday 12th: From Longboat to Warrior: the evolution of the wooden ship.

Lecture by Eliott Wragg, Thames Discovery Programme.

Tuesday 12th March: The Railway Heritage Trust

Lecture by Andy Savage.

Tuesday 9th April: Nautical Archaeology – past, present and future

Lecture by Mark Beattie-Edwards, Programme Director, Nautical Archaeology Society.

Tuesday 14th May 2013: 10,000 years of History Beneath your Feet: the Bankside foreshore

Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey

Tuesday 8th October: Brunel’s Tunnel under the Thames

Lecture by Robert Hulse – Director of the Brunel Museum

Tuesday 12th November: Lions on Kunulua – excavations of Early Bronze and Iron Age periods at Tell Tayinat, Hatay, Turkey Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey.

THE TOMB OF A GOD by Tim Wilkins

At the end of November 2012 I joined a group of archaeologists and Egyptologists under Dr. Stephen Harvey, of the University of Chicago, to study at the ancient Egyptian site of Abydos, in what is now the central Egyptian region of Sohag. There are many elements to this huge and varied site including Dr. Harvey’s own excavations at the 50-metre square pyramid of Ahmose, and a series of 14 boat burials (see note 1). For me, however, the highlight was a visit to the site of Umm al Ga’ab in the low western desert, nearly at the mountain escarpment that marks the edge of the high desert. Here the German Archaeological Institute under Gunter Dreyer has been excavating a large number of royal tombs from the First Dynasty (3100 – 2900 BC), a number of tombs of the Pre-dynastic period around 3500 BC, and a cemetery from the Naqada period dating back to 4000 BC. The evidence from the Pre-dynastic tombs, covering a number of Kings including the Scorpion King, pushes back our knowledge of the earliest Egyptian kings by several hundred years.

One of the most interesting of the First Dynasty tombs is that of Djer, the third king of this dynasty, who reigned for 41 years from 3049 – 3008 BC. The tomb is a rectangular mud-brick structure sunk into the desert sand and now completely empty except for mud-brick internal buttresses and some statuary niches (see Figure 1 and photo 1). It was originally roofed with cedar beams. The inside of the tomb has been burned dark red from having been set alight in the First Intermediate period, a period from 2180 – 2055 BC when civil disruption, fighting, internal disorder and destruction wracked the country (plus ça change!).

Around the main chamber are 338 subsidiary shaft tombs containing the King’s servants and administrators who were killed and buried at the same time so they could continue to serve him in the after-life. In other tombs have been found mummified hunting dogs, and even lions, so the King can continue his favourite pastime of lion-hunting, and other pastimes are catered for by women of the royal harem.

The tomb was first excavated in the Middle Kingdom (11th – 13th dynasty, 2055 – 1650 B.C.) by pharaohs looking for the tomb of the god Osiris. With this tomb they decided they had found it, and placed in it a recumbent statue of the god impregnating Isis who has taken the form of a bird (see note 4), the remains of the plinths of which can still be seen. The statue is now in the Cairo museum. Once the tomb had been identified as that of Osiris it became a place of reverence and pilgrimage for a further two thousand years. When these pilgrims came to the tomb they left offerings in earthenware pots, a practice that has given the site its modern name of Umm al Ga’ab, “Mother of Pots” in Arabic. It is estimated that there are now the remains of between 8 million and 10 million pots, and somebody has the job of analysing and recording these by age, material, style etc.

We were very fortunate in being the last people from outside the dig team to see this tomb. The surrounding subsidiary tombs were already back-filled with sand to the tops of the mud-brick shafts (see photo 2), and in the first week of December the main chamber was back-filled, with just a sand mound marking its existence. This is to conserve it – the mud-brick is very friable and if left exposed would soon deteriorate under the sun and wind, turning to dust. So the tomb of King Djer and the god Osiris is once more under the Western Desert, and may stay that way for generations to come.

Note 1: After excavation and analysis, the wooden boats were left in their mud-brick surrounds and back-filled with sand, as lifting and preserving them was deemed too difficult and expensive. So they too are back under the sands of the desert.

Note 2: Early hints of the development of phonetic writing.

It is usually thought that writing developed in Mesopotamia, but Gunter Dreyer has found in the Naqada cemetery, and we were able to examine, small 1 cm square ivory tags with proto-phonetic writing on them. Not many of these can yet be read, but some can be interpreted through their similarity to later hieroglyphs, reading for example “From the Eastern lands” and “ From the Western lands” indicating that they were used to identify the source and perhaps content of goods containers – maybe recording who had paid their tributes and taxes.

Note 3: Is this where pyramids started?

The tombs of the early kings were covered by a sand tumulus and, according to Dreyer, there was a problem with this tumulus being blown away by the desert winds, so by the time of Djer the tomb was supported with low mud-brick walls. However this did nothing to stop the predations of animals, so they then built a larger surrounding perimeter wall. However this hid the tumulus from view, so they added a second higher level to it in a step, and by the Third Dynasty this had developed into a step pyramid – and pyramid building was under way.

Note 4: the legend of Osiris and Isis

Osiris was the oldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. Isis was his sister and wife. Osiris’s brother Seth wanted his kingdom (the underworld) and killed Osiris, cut his body into pieces and scattered them around Egypt. Isis travelled all over Egypt looking for the pieces and collected them all back together, except for one – his penis. So she created a new one for him, reaffixed it, and with a magic incantation brought him back to life long enough for him to impregnate her with their son Horus.

Figure 1: Plan of Djer tomb with surrounding subsidiary shaft tombs

Photo 1: Main chamber of tomb of Djer

Photo 2: Subsidiary shaft tombs now backfilled with sand and covered.

HADAS CHRISTMAS PARTY by Jim Nelhams

A large number of HADAS members and their guests assembled at Avenue House for our Christmas Party. Some 48 attended. Four people were unable to come, so we could have had over 50, a large number for any HADAS event.

It was so nice to see several of the more senior members, particularly Phyllis Fletcher, who came in her wheelchair, Joan Wrigley and Rosalie Ivens. Plenty of time was allowed for them and others to catch up on news.

A short table quiz was provided with questions and pictures of personalities from the 1950s. Apologies to those who might have expected something Roman but we could not go back that far for photographs. The winners found themselves presented with a HADAS mug containing a chocolate Father Christmas.

Food and drink was provided by Avenue House, with manager Malcolm slaving away in the kitchen. Added to this were two magnificent Christmas cakes – the product of further slaving by the Chairman’s wife, Liz.

Music in the form of Christmas songs and carols was provided by Jo Nelhams on digital piano, enhanced by the singing of many of those present, and a good time was had by all.

Our thanks are due to those who kindly provided prizes for the raffle.

GEOFF EGAN 2ND MEMORIAL LECTURE by Don Cooper

Many of us remember Geoff Egan, a hirsute member of the Museum of London, a man with encyclopaedic knowledge of all things medieval and post-medieval, who died in February 2011. A memorial lecture series has been established in his name. This, the second lecture, was held at the Society of Antiquaries on the 14th December 2012 sponsored by the Society for Post-medieval Archaeology. In front of a large audience Bly Straube, the senior archaeological curator at Jamestown, Virginia, USA, the site of the first permanent European settlement in the US in 1607, spoke of the exciting finds from over 25 years of excavation at the site. Over 1.5 million artefacts have been recovered and are conserved and stored on the site.

It would be impossible to detail all the fascinating information which was discovered at this site about the lives of the settlers, their relations with the local native population, the dreadful time they went through when their food ran out, etc and etc., as told by Bly. A couple of things stood out for me:

Apparently each settler was entitled to bring a small bag of personal possessions with him. Some brought coins, for instance, even though there was no money as such in the new settlement, one man brought an antique lamp from the Roman period – I wonder why? Bly made the analogy with modern astronauts going up to the space station, who were also entitled to bring a small bag of mementos and one man took a Florida Fishing License with him – again why?

Trade with the local natives consisted inter alia of glass beads and trinkets and yet on excavations at the natives’ dwelling places almost no such artefacts are recovered – why?

Most of the artefacts, e.g. ceramics, well-preserved metals and so on, came with the settlers from England and as such are a great help in dating the currency of such artefacts. Bly clearly is a great enthusiast about the site and its artefacts and succeeded in communicating her enthusiasm. The web site for Jamestown is https://www.historicjamestowne.org/. It is well worth a visit, especially if you haven’t seen the real thing!

RESISTIVITY AT MARTIN SCHOOL EAST FINCHLEY by Don Cooper

Roger Chapman, a governor at Martin Primary School, East Finchley, is involved in planning the centenary celebrations of the building the school is housed in. As part of that celebration

Roger approached UCL and HADAS to plan a historical and archaeological review of the area. The first manifestation of that task was to carry out some resistivity in the school playing fields during the school’s Christmas fair. Vicki Baldwin, Tim Curtis, Bill Bass, Andy Simpson, Jim Nelhams, Gabe Moshenska (UCL) and I set out a 20 x 20m grid on a very wet playing field on a freezing cold day.

After we completed the grid we processed it on the HADAS computer and were able to show our results to the teachers, parents and pupils who were there. The results were very interesting as can be seen from this photograph of the results as displayed on-screen.

The photograph seems to show a number of field drains running across the playing field towards the school, where we are told there is a large water-collecting culvert. However there are other interesting anomalies also apparent that we look forward to exploring in the spring.

Thanks to all who took part in this first task in what looks to be an exciting and worthwhile project.

BARNET MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

Until January 13th Barnet Museum has an exhibition of loaned objects from The Foundling Museum’s Foundling Hospital and Coram collections. In connection with this there will be an exhibition of images from the Foundling Museum, running until 20th February. The loaned objects will later go on tour until mid-April and can be seen at the public libraries in Hendon, Barnet and Chipping Barnet.

Barnet Museum is now open Tuesday-Thursday, 1.30-4.30pm, Saturday 10am-4pm and Sunday 2-4pm, at 31 Wood St, Barnet EN5 4BE.

OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS compiled by Eric Morgan

Wednesday 16th January 7.30pm. Images from the Archives. Talk, Malcolm Barres-Baker (Brent Archivist). Willesden Local History Society. St Mungo’s Centre, 115 Pound Lane NW10 2HB.

Friday 18th January 7.30pm. London in 1837. Talk, Malcolm Barres-Baker. Wembley Local History Society. St Andrew’s Church Hall, Church Lane, Kingsbury NW9 5AZ. £2.

Monday 21st January 8.15pm. Aircraft Manufacturers in the London Area. Talk, Ron Smith. Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote Local Hist. Soc. St Martin’s Church Hall, High St/Eastcote Rd, Ruislip HA4 8DG. £2.

Wednesday 23rd January 7.45pm. Life in the Big Company. Talk, Dr Stan Gilks. Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. St John’s Church Hall, Friern Barnet Lane N20 0LP. £2, refreshments.

Wednesday 30th January 1-2pm. Meet the Expert., join the Curator of “Londinium 2012” responsible for reinventing the Museum of London (MoL) Roman Gallery Display & look at the parallels between Londinium & today’s capital city. MoL,150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Free.

Thursday 31st Janaury 2.30pm. Dig for Victory. Talk by Russell Bowes. Finchley Society. Drawing Room Avenue House. £2.

Wednesday 6th February 6pm. Forwards & Backwards: Architecture in inter-war England .Talk by Simon Thurley. MoL (see 30/1/13 above). About the huge expansion of the suburbs. Free.

Thursday 7th February 10.30am-12. History of Pharmacy & Medicine throughout the 20th Century. Talk, Ollie Natelson. Mill Hill Library, Hartley Ave, NW7 2HX. Coffee morning talk, free.

Thursday 7th February 8pm. Harefield & its Charities. Talk, John Ross. Pinner Local History Society. Village Hall, Chapel Lane Car Pak, Pinner. £2.

Friday 8th February 8pm. The Archaeology of the Royal Palaces of Enfield. Talk, Ian Jones. Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/junction of Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ.

Monday 11th February 3pm. The Peabody Trust.Talk Christine Wagg. Barnet Museum & Local History Society. Church House, Wood St, Barnet (opp. the museum).

Wednesday 13th February 2.30-4pm. The British Library News Collection. Talk, Stewart Gillies. Mill Hill Historical Society. Trinity Church, The Broadway, Mill Hill, NW7.

Friday 15th February 8pm. Greeks, Romans, Byzantines: The Archaeology of Constantinople. Talk, Ian Jones. Enfield Arch.Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane/jn. Chase Side, Enfield EN2 0AJ.

Wednesday 20th February 7.30pm. Saxby & Farmer: Kilburn’s largest employers. (Internationally famous railway signalling experts, c.1862-1903). Talk, Dick Wendling. Willesden Local History Society. St Mungo’s Centre – see 16th January above.

Thursday 21st February 7.30pm. Unearthing Redpath (one of the most famous fraudsters of the 19th century). Talk, Marian Kamlish & Devid Hayes. Camden History Society. Burgh House, New End Sq, NW3 1LT.

Thursday 21st February 8.15pm. Ancient Egyptian Medicine. Talk, Dr Carole Reeve (UCL). Hampstead Scientific Society. Crypt Room, St John’s Church, Church Row, NW3. Refreshments during interval.

Friday 22tnd February 8pm. The History of Enfield’s Railways. Part 1: The Lea Valley, Southbury & Enfield Town Lines. Talk, Dave Cockle. Joint Edmonton Hundred Historical Society/Enfield Society. Jubilee Hall (see 15th February). £1.

Saturday 23rd February 11am-3.30pm. Enfield Transport Bazaar. North London Transport Society. St Stephen’s Hall, Park Ave, Bush Hill Park EN1 2BA. Admission £2. Refreshments available.

Wednesday 27th February 7.45pm. Individuals in Communities. Talk, Hugh Petrie (see next entry). Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. St John’s Church Hall – see January 23rd. £2.

Thursday 28th February 2.30pm. From the Archives. Talk, Hugh Petrie, London Borough of Barnet Heritage Officer/former Borough Archivist. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House. Refreshments before & after. £2.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Grateful thanks to Don Cooper, Eric Morgan, Jim Nelhams and Tim Wilkins

No. 501 December 2012 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 you get older? It seems like only yesterday that I edited the last one!
May we take the opportunity to wish all our readers a happy holiday and a healthy and prosperous 2013.
HADAS DIARY 2012 – 2013

All Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8.00 pm, with coffee /tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members welcome (£1.00). Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central Station (Northern line) is a short walk away.
Sunday 2nd December: Christmas party at Avenue House, 12 noon – 4.30 (approx.)Buffet lunch, price £22 to include some drink. Last minute attendance: phone Jim Nelhams (see back page).
Tuesday 8 January: The Reign of Akhenaten: Revolution or Evolution? Lecture by Lucia Gahlin (who has kindly stepped in to replace Nathalie Andrews).
Tuesday 12 February: From Longboat to Warrior: the evolution of the wooden ship. Lecture by Eliott Wragg, Thames Discovery Programme.
Tuesday 12 March: The Railway Heritage Trust – Lecture by Andy Savage.
Tuesday 9 April: Nautical Archaeology – past, present and future. Lecture by Mark Beattie-Edwards, Programme Director, Nautical Archaeology Society.
Dates for your long term diary:
The next HADAS long-weekend will take place from 15th September to 19th September 2013.
The Festival of Archaeology will take place from 13th July to 28th July 2013
The events run by local societies in the New Year are included in Eric Morgan’s “diary” on the last page of this newsletter, however, two late items:
Friday, 7th December 2012 at 13.15: “Saturnalia and the origins of Christmas” by Sam Moorhead, at the British Museum, Free – booking advised.
Thursday, 6th December 2012 at 10.30: “The Welsh Harp” a talk by Hugh Petrie, Barnet Archivist at Mill Hill Library, Hartley Avenue, NW7 2HX.
Newsletter 500 and still going strong by Mary Rawitzer
“If you want something done, ask a busy person”

After last month’s bumper Newsletter (HADAS’s first 16-pager?) it seemed a good time to thank all those responsible for out monthly production. I believe we can be proud that this is the only publication by a similar voluntary organisation that is produced by 12 individual editors, each doing just one Newsletter a year (although I must admit to not having done any proper research so await correction).
In the old days, Dorothy Newbury’s highly effective proof-reading didn’t alter whatever each editor produced, but now Sue Willetts and myself comb through each month’s production and, since our backgrounds (librarian/publishing) make us both rather pernickety about print we spend quite a while ensuring the layout is good – no headings on one page/text on the next, no “widows and orphans”, Latin names decently italicised, north not North ….. Occasionally our best intentions are stymied by the horrors of computer systems, but we’re getting there. Someone who has more input than most of us is Eric Morgan, responsible for the full round-up of other societies’ events which he faithfully produces, hand-written, every month. During this last year he has even managed to get one month ahead so that planning visits to other events is now much easier. Then we have the production process at Hillary Press: Christopher Newbury takes the version sent over by computer and gets it ready for printing – when he’s there. Otherwise I trot over with hard copy. Jack Newbury, still in charge at 92, tells me how busy they are and that it will be quite a few days before they can get round to any printing. Wonderfully helpful Rocco, who actually does the printing for us, mutters something and then phones within a day or two to say it’s ready for collection. Finally (thanks to Dorothy Newbury who makes us welcome at home and offers us tea, biscuits and entertainment) we stuff the envelopes (labels stuck on by Doug Evans) and use Hillary Press’s franking machine – still an amazing 31p-and-a-bit against horrendous 50p 2nd class* . Enormous thanks to all those mentioned and to the other editors, Vicki Baldwin, Deirdre Barrie, Stephen Brunning, Don Cooper, Graham Javes, Jim Nelhams, Peter Pickering, Dot Ravenswood, Andy Simpson, Micky Watkins.

*Please consider getting your Newsletter by e-mail. Contact me on Mary Rawitzer
Hendon Tokens go North by Peter Pickering

During the HADAS stay in Ironbridge we visited Bridgnorth, and the admirable museum run by the Bridgnorth and District Historical Society (alas, alas for Church Farmhouse). Some of us had our eyes caught by a collection of coin-like tokens (donated to the museum many years ago), among which was this:

Fig. 1 Tokens from Hendon – with David Garrick and St Mary’s church, Hendon

(Reproduced by kind permission of the Bridgnorth museum (website bridgnorthmuseum.org.uk), who retain the copyright)

This intrigued us, and we have done a little research. Towards the end of the eighteenth century a shortage of small change led many traders to issue tokens. Hendon is unusual, though not unique, among places in Middlesex in having ones of its own. David Garrick, as well as being a nationally famous actor, had been until his death in 1779 the Lord of the Manor of Hendon and owner of Hendon Hall; he was therefore very suitable to be portrayed. Besides this token there is another one (apparently rarer) which has the same obverse, with the church, and on the reverse a greyhound and the name B Price. Between 1765 and 1796 a father and son, both named Benjamin Price, were licensees of the Greyhound, the inn close to Hendon Church at which HADAS members have often refreshed themselves.

It is clear why tokens appeared at the end of the eighteenth century, as they had a century earlier, because of the incompetence of the monetary authorities in providing what commerce needed where it needed it. It is less clear how tokens actually worked – what guarantee a person having one had that it would be honoured and by whom. There are several books about the tokens from a numismatist’s viewpoint, concentrating on design, scarcity and value (from the beginning tokens were collected, and there are many which were made specifically for collectors). We have found one book – Whiting’s ‘Trade Tokens – a Social and Economic History’ – which is written by a historian seeking to find out how and why tokens came into being and were finally suppressed by Act of Parliament. But it contains little about their actual use. Other HADAS members may have knowledge or ideas.

Barnet Archives and the Local Studies Centre new opening hours from October 2012

Please note that access arrangements for the above have changed from October 2012.
Monday – closed
Tuesday – 10am – 5pm (by appointment only)
Wednesday – 1pm – 7pm (drop-in service)
Thursday – 10am – 2pm (by appointment only) and 2pm – 5pm (drop-in service)
Friday – 10am – 2pm (by appointment only) and 2pm – 5pm (drop-in service)
Saturday (first and third Saturday of the month) – 9.30am – 2pm (by appointment only) and 2pm – 4.30pm (drop-in service)
By appointment only sessions must be booked in advance by telephoning 020 8359 3960. Booking is essential for use of the microfilm reader.
The Barnet Archives and Local Studies Centre are at:
Hendon Library (first floor),
The Burroughs,
London NW4 4BQ
Email: library.archives@barnet.gov.uk

How to get to The Barnet Archives and Local Studies Centre

Buses: 143, 183, 326
Underground: Hendon central, Northern Line – 15 minute walk
British Rail: Hendon, Thameslink – 15 minute walk.

A medieval pottery report – a summary from three years excavation. By Don Cooper
Hendon School Site Code HDS06
For the last seven years HADAS and University College London’s (UCL) Institute of Archaeology (IoA) have been giving practical archaeology courses at Hendon School in Golders Rise, Hendon, NW4 2PH. Pupils from year eight and nine are invited to take part in a week’s practical archaeology including inter alia excavation on the school’s playing field. The last three years excavations have taken place in more or less the same part of the schools playing field i.e. the northeast corner around about 10 metres north-west of grid reference 523675.129E, 189026.785N (see map). The reason why we were digging in more or less the same area was because in 2010 (see HADAS newsletter No. 473 August 2010) right at the end of the dig we found over a hundred sherds of early medieval pottery in a secure context in a small ½m x 2m x 25cm sondage (a slot with a trench designed to look at lower levels): there was also a modest sized post hole cut into the natural. The sondage came about because we had not succeeded in reaching the natural London clay surface over the whole trench. Finding over a hundred sherds was surprising as a cache of early medieval pottery sherds was unexpected in this area.
So we returned to the same area in 2011 and opened a larger trench (see HADAS newsletter no.485 August 2011). This time pressures of weather and a much larger cohort of pupils meant that we only reached the fairly secure context (there were a number of intrusions) above the natural London clay surface over about a quarter of the 6m x 6m trench, nevertheless another substantial number of early medieval sherds were found. In June 2012 we returned again to more or less the same area determined to reach the same context immediately above the natural clay. We excavated a 4m x 2m trench, but before we had fully excavated down to the natural, down came the rain! (I’m sure you remember June 2012).
I reported in the September newsletter (No 498 September 2012) that “Although we are no nearer to having a satisfactory theory as to why all these early medieval pottery sherds we found accumulated in this particular area, the fact that they are mostly abraded, and that we haven’t found evidence of structures” (other than the one post hole in the 2010 excavation) “is leaning towards the idea that they represent hill wash from the hamlet that existed where Brent Street and Bell Lane meet. However, one of the alternative theories, that these sherds are the detritus from along the side of a very old lane that crossed Mutton Bridge on its way to Hampstead/London cannot be fully discounted.”
All the pottery sherds found have been examined and identified by Jacqui Pearce, an expert on medieval pottery who works for Museum of London Archaeological Service (MoLA). I have not included the relatively small number of modern, Victorian, and post-1600 sherds that came from disturbed layers and contexts above the secure layer in this analysis, but only the surprising cache of early dated sherds. The results are as follows:
E/date = Earliest date for the fabric
L/date = Latest date for the fabric
Sherds = Number of sherds found
Weight = Weight in grams
Med = Medieval

Fabric Description Sherds E/date L/date Weight Forms
Roman Various Roman fabrics 13 50 400 51 Misc
EMFL Early Med flint-tempered ware 2 970 1100 17 Cooking pot
EMCS Early Med coarse sand-tempered ware 80 1000 1200 344 Cooking pots
ESHER Early South Herts grey ware 98 1050 1200 690 Cooking pots
LCOAR Coarse London-type ware 1 1080 1200 7 Jar
LOND London-type ware 45 1080 1350 192 Various
SHER South Herts grey ware 100 1170 1350 611 C/pots & Bowls
KING Kingston ware 21 1230 1400 102 Jugs & bowls
MG Mill Green ware 2 1270 1350 4 Misc
CBW Coarse Surrey-Hampshire border ware 30 1270 1500 217 Cooking pots
LMHG Late Med Herts Glazed ware 1 1350 1450 2 Misc
CHEA Cheam ware 1 1350 1500 10 Misc
PMRE Early Post-Med red ware 11 1480 1600 141 Various
In the same contexts, as well as the pottery sherds, there were a number of peg tile fragments and there were three lumps of slag which are still being examined to see if we can learn more from them. The only animal bone in all three excavations was very degraded as bone does not appear to survive in that particular area of the playing field. A re-examination of the medieval sherds from all three excavations indicate that they were not as abraded as first thought and although no indication of structures, other than the post hole, were found it is likely they have not travelled very far since their deposition.
The contexts above the medieval layer were very disturbed with detritus from the playing field including in 2012 a computer “flash drive” – the artefact of the future? The area had been used for allotments during the WWII, so there were lots of remains of flower pots, rusty implements, bits of brick, tile and glass. Earlier occupation was attested to by the numerous clay pipe stems and bowls. The spread of dates for the manufacture of the pottery sherds found in these upper layers indicate more or less continuous occupation in the area.
English Heritage have extended the Area of Special Archaeological Significance to cover this site as a consequence of the quantity of medieval pottery sherds found and it is to be hoped that when an opportunity arises to excavate further in the area this will lead to a greater understanding as to why this large quantity of early medieval pottery is present. All the people involved in these three excavations have been acknowledged in the previous HADAS newsletters: No. 473 August 2010, No. 485 August 2011 and No 498 September 2012.
Book Review by Stewart Wild
Henrietta Barnett – Social Worker and Community Planner
by Micky Watkins
Published by the author and Hampstead Garden Suburb Archive Trust
Softback 21cm x 27cm; 320pp; ISBN 978-0-9549798-7-4; £14.95
Micky Watkins has lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb for over fifty years and has been a member of HADAS for more than half that time. For the past twenty years she has worked at Hampstead Garden Suburb Archive, and this detailed book on the life and achievements of Dame Henrietta Barnett (1851–1936) is the result of exhaustive study covering this remarkable woman’s life and the legacy she left behind in north London.

Fig. 1. An Evocative Cover
It is a magnificent work. Part One (1851–1900) covers Henrietta Octavia Rowland’s childhood, the death of her German mother when Henrietta was only two weeks old, and her considerable inheritance on the death of her father when she was only 18. In 1870 Henrietta joined the newly formed Charity Organisation Society where she met Octavia Hill who was an influential committee member, and who later was a founder of the National Trust. Here, Henrietta wrote in her diary, she found her “life’s work”: social reform and improved housing conditions for the poor and needy. In December that year, at a party to celebrate Octavia Hill’s birthday, she met a local curate, Samuel Barnett, who, although seven years older, seems to have fallen in love with her on the spot. They married two years later, in January 1873, and bound by love, Christian religion and charitable work, formed a solid partnership that lasted over forty years. They spent their honeymoon visiting cathedrals in southern England. After their marriage the young couple moved east where Samuel was appointed vicar of St Jude’s in Whitechapel, “the worst parish in my diocese”, according to the Bishop of London, on account of poverty and crime. These days it is difficult to imagine how appalling living conditions were in the East End at this time. Both the young vicar and his wife worked tirelessly to improve children’s education, alleviate poverty, crime and prostitution, and provide short holiday breaks in the country for parishioners. One of their greatest achievements was the establishment of Toynbee Hall in 1884, set up like an Oxbridge college and taking its name from Arnold Toynbee, a young academic and associate of the Barnetts who had died aged only 30 in 1883 – probably of overwork – serving the poor. Another lasting achievement was the foundation of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, which opened in 1901. Despite steamer trips to destinations like Norway, Italy and Gibraltar, Henrietta’s deteriorating health was a constant worry and in October 1890 the Barnetts were so exhausted that they decided to embark on a trip around the world. Accompanied by a faithful secretary and a nurse, they visited India, Ceylon, Japan, Canada and the United States, arriving back at Liverpool in July 1891.The move to north London began in 1889 when the Barnetts bought Heath End House in Hampstead, close to the Spaniards Inn. They delighted in the Heath to the south and the unspoilt farmland stretching away to the north. But they were aware of huge changes to come, for in 1896 Henrietta had heard of a plan to build an underground railway from Charing Cross northwards. In 1902 Charles Tyson Yerkes formed the Underground Electric Company and an Act of Parliament sanctioned the extension of the Hampstead Tube to Golders Green. Henrietta knew that rows of houses were bound to follow and was desperate to preserve the fields and woods below their house as an extension of Hampstead Heath. The idea of a Garden Suburb was born.
Part two (1901–1936)
Surprisingly, Henrietta only embarked upon building the Suburb after she had reached the age of fifty. It was her experience of the poverty and degradation of the East End which inspired her to create an ideal community. But how did she have the influence and administrative ability to turn an ideal into bricks and mortar? How was she able to recruit well-known architects, churchmen, titled aristocrats and wealthy benefactors? Henrietta had her sights on eighty acres of fields which were owned by the Eton College Trustees. The College was persuaded to make an offer for sale at a reasonable £600 per acre, but where was she going to get £48,000, an enormous sum in those days? An address book which included famous names, politicians and royalty helped; she started with 13,000 individual letters, personally signed by her or her secretary. It’s a fascinating story. Despite being what we would now call manic-depressive, Henrietta was clearly charming, fun to have around, and possessed a fine sense of humour. She delighted that land once held by King Henry VIII should now change hands under a document signed by one Henrietta Octavia! She also had an astonishing capacity for hard work and a stubborn insistence on Christian principles to achieve her goals. As Lord Lytton observed, at the unveiling of her memorial in July 1937, “She could be very obstinate at times, bless her …… but she had the faith which moves mountains.” Conceived as an antidote to the slums of the East End, the Suburb today is somewhat removed from Henrietta’s ideals, being principally middle-class and with a growing Jewish community that finds it difficult to integrate. The working class is conspicuous by its absence and there is no longer any housing specifically for women and children. Yet it remains widely known and copied throughout the English-speaking world, and continues to attract talented and well-known people and celebrities. Famous names of past residents run into the hundreds. There have been many books and biographies both by and about Henrietta Barnett but none has been as comprehensive and well researched as this one, with extensive local knowledge added to little-known facts and quotations gleaned from trawling through hitherto unpublished sources. The author’s background as a social historian, town planner, teacher and archivist makes her uniquely qualified for the task. Micky’s book is lavishly illustrated with archive and modern photographs in both colour and b&w, and comes with copious references, an extensive bibliography and a useful index. Beautifully written, it will appeal to anyone with an interest in social history and the alleviation of poverty, and especially to those who are familiar with the remarkable square mile of town planning that lies on our southern doorstep. It’s also a lovely true story.
Editor’s note: The book can be purchased locally at Daunts, Joseph’s Bookstore, the Suburb Gallery or direct from the author: mickywatkins@gmail.com.
Other books on Local History recently produced, which would make great festive gifts.
Reviewed by Peter Pickering & Don Cooper
The first book is by Dr. Pauline Ashridge entitled ‘The Fields of Friern’. It is a deeply researched and meticulously referenced account of the demesne lands of Friern Barnet – that is, those fields which had been held by the Knights Hospitallers as Lords of the Manor of Friern Barnet, and which after the Reformation passed to St Paul’s Cathedral, who sold the lands, while keeping many of the rights, in 1800. The book ends with the building of houses in what are now Torrington Park and Friern Park. There are several pen pictures of amusing and tragic events in the history of these demesne lands, and a number of more significant episodes, especially the one on which much of the book’s argument turns – a nineteenth century legal dispute which concluded that the owners of any of the demesne lands did not have to pay tithe rents to the parish church because the lands had at one time belonged to Cistercian monks. Anyone seriously interested in the local history of our borough must get a copy of this book (obtainable from Kershaw Publishing, P.O. Box 55123 North Finchley, N12 9YH; £9.99). An archaeologist must wonder where the various buildings (including a ‘chapel and hermitage’) actually were, and whether any trace of them could be found amid the open lands and gardens of Friern Barnet.
The second book is David Berguer’s magisterial ‘The Friern Hospital Story’ which goes from the beginning of 1847, when the Middlesex Justices decided to build an Asylum for Pauper Lunatics in the eastern part of the county, to its closure in 1993 and redevelopment under the scarcely appropriate name of Princess Park Manor. There are 176 pages in all, with building and medical history, illustrative anecdotes, and lists of the causes of admission, the fines on attendants for dereliction of duty, and the meals provided; and yet on some occasions as I read it I thought ‘Could we not be told a bit more about this episode?’ It is an enthralling story, and though not cheerful, is not depressing; the hospital in its heyday was a well-run small town, and progressive in its treatment of mental illness, though no doubt many people were incarcerated then who would lead normal lives in the community to-day. My only criticism is that few of the large number of illustrations are given dates in their captions (though the text often helps) – oh, and Cardinal Hume’s name has an intrusive ‘l’. The book is obtainable from Chaville Press, 148 Friern Park, N12 9LU, priced at £14.99.
And finally a book called “The Dunlops of Church Farm” by Dr. Valerie Preston-Dunlop. This book is the story of the Dunlop side of her family who lived at Church Farm, Hendon from 1870 until 1944, when the house was bought by Hendon Council. (Afterwards it became the now lamented Church Farm House Museum). Valerie has written a very personal history of her family from their origins as farmers in Scotland to their life at Church Farm in Hendon and on to what they did after life in Hendon. Church Farm was obviously a happy place to live for this prosperous farming family with lots of children. The book costs £10.00 plus postage was published in 2012 by Verve Publishing, 56 Lock Chase, London SE3 9HA and can be obtained via Don Cooper (see my address below).

“The life and Legacy of George Peabody” by Sheila Woodward
(Lecture by Christine Wagg)
“Peabody Buildings” have been part of the London landscape for 150 years. The name was familiar to me, and the buildings became familiar to me in the 1940s when I had a “visiting” job in south and central London – though I don’t remember ever visiting anyone in a Peabody Building. But I knew nothing about Peabody himself until I listened to Christine Wagg’s most interesting lecture.George Peabody was a Victorian philanthropist, an American by birth, a Londoner by adoption. Born in Massachusetts in 1795, the third of eight children, he was apprenticed at the age of 11 to a small shopkeeper. His father’s sudden death in 1811 plunged the family into desperate poverty, but that fired George with a determination to make a good living for himself and his family. In 1812 he moved to Baltimore and set up his own business. He was shrewd and hard-working and his abilities soon earned him respect and prosperity. He entered into partnership and then founded a company, Peabody, Riggs & Co, which traded in wool and cotton. In 1827, George made his first visit to London, to negotiate the sale of American cotton to the Lancashire cotton mills. Impressed by London life and following regular yearly visits, he settled permanently in London in 1838. He had become a wealthy man and a skilful banker; he paid the American contribution to the 1851 Great Exhibition, and in 1852 formed a business association with J. S. Morgan. Its “descendant” still exists, as Morgan, Grenfell & Co Ltd.
A compassionate man who had experienced poverty himself, George Peabody was appalled by the poverty and deprivation he witnessed in the slums of London. He joined a group of people (they included Lord Shaftesbury and Angela Burdett Coutts) active in a search for a solution. In 1862, Peabody established a Trust with a sum of £150,000, his “gift to London”. He suggested that the money be spent on “construction of such improved for the poor as may combine in the utmost possible degree the essentials of healthfulness, comfort, social enjoyment and economy”.
The trustees set about fulfilling this request, and within a year of their appointment they had decided to build their first block of tenements. A site was purchased in Commercial Street in Spitalfields. The architect appointed was Henry Astley Darbishire and he designed two long blocks with shops on the ground floor and living quarters above, and commercial laundries on the top floor. The flats were approached from a central corridor, with shared communal washing facilities and lavatories at one end, placed above one another for efficient drainage. The walls were un-plastered, lime-washed brick.
Four larger estates soon followed: Peabody Square in Islington, Shadwell, Westminster and Chelsea. Large enough to erect blocks arranged around squares which could be railed off, giving a sense of community, the buildings set a standard of accommodation that was consistent and the non-self-contained flats discouraged subletting and overcrowding.These early groups of Peabody estates had in due course to be modified. The self-contained flat was eventually introduced in 1911, each flat having a private scullery and toilet. However, the original fixtures and fittings included built-in cupboards in kitchens and bedrooms, a cooking range, bedroom stoves and gas lighting. The trust also provided and paid for lighting on stairs and in corridors, a dust chute on each landing for commercial collection of rubbish, and laundries and drying rooms. Children could play in the central courtyard, and there was access to schools and workshops. Arrangements for refurbishment, future care and maintenance were, and are, mind-boggling.George Peabody was given the freedom of the City of London, was elected to The Atheneum, and was awarded the Congressional Medal (first awarded to George Washington). Queen Victoria wrote him a letter of thanks and presented him with a special portrait. Peabody died in 1869.He had what amounted to a State Funeral in Westminster Abbey (it was attended by William Gladstone) and was buried in the Abbey, but only temporarily. His body was later transported to America, to rest in his native Massachusetts.
Ironbridge Day 3 – Shrewsbury and Wroxeter
Excursion to Salopia by Kevin McSharry
The third day of our HADAS Ironbridge visit started in Shrewsbury (Salopia) a town that never ceases to delight even though I have had the good fortune to visit it many times before. “Floreat Salopia” – may Shrewsbury flourish – is the town motto and flourished it has, since Saxon times.Shrewsbury is almost an island surrounded as it is, on three sides by the meandering River Severn. One can readily understand why a settlement grew up here – it is an easily defensible site.The medieval layout of Shrewsbury has been largely preserved and staggeringly it has over 650 listed buildings. The main shopping and business area retains its ancient and intricate street pattern. A maze of narrow passages, called shuts, criss-cross the town between the main streets. Together with a large number of magnificent black and white houses of the sixteenth century, and earlier, these create a very distinctive fine-looking oldie worldly town.
Our day began at the Norman Church of St. Mary’s, which is now managed by the Churches Conservation Trust. What a fine job the C.C.T has done with St. Mary’s. The Trust is to be lauded for its conservation work. Our excellent guide, the regional director of C.C.T, was bubbly, enthusiastic and charismatic. The long history of St. Mary’s, with its many features, was brought alive by his unpacking, peeling back the layers of history of the churches’ features. It became a journey back in time. Mickey Watkins takes up the story.
St Mary’s Church Shrewsbury by Mickey Watkins
St Mary’s was founded by King Edward the Peacemaker c. AD960. The original Saxon building was replaced in the mid 12th century by a Norman cruciform church, but the Bell Tower remained and was probably used as an open air preaching tower. The church is a Royal Peculiar and so has been under the crown, not the Bishop of Lichfield. Now it is under the Churches Conservation Trust. The windows are so massive that the church is flooded with light, even though there is so much stained glass. A 19th century vicar, the Revd William Rowland, collected medieval glass from all over Europe for the windows and they are amazing. The Jesse window, representing the genealogy of the Holy Family, fills the East window behind the altar. The nave ceiling is carved with angels holding musical instruments, grotesque faces and animals. There is the tomb of a crusader and a sedilia for the weary HADAS explorer.High up above the south porch there is an anchorite’s cell in which a woman lived, visited twice a day with food and to empty her pot. People visited her to seek advice.Frances Radford found a glass window commemorating St Bernard who, when he went to consecrate a new abbey found it full of flies, He excommunicated them. On the following morning they were all dead and the glass depicts them being swept away.
Kevin continues
After the instructive tour of St. Mary’s we were let loose, until early afternoon, to explore the town.Shrewsbury has many famous sons and daughters. Two of them are Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Brother Cadfael, of whom more later. Darwin was born in Shrewsbury and is a huge source of pride for the town. His name is lent to the Darwin Shopping Centre, Darwin Street and the modern monument Darwin Gate. In 2009 a 40 foot sculpture named Quantum heap was unveiled in tribute to Charles Darwin’s bicentenary. There is even a night club named “Evolution”. Darwin is an alumnus of Shrewsbury public school as is Michael Heseltine an elder and luminary of the current Tory Party. One personal discovery during the morning was a small artisan bakery opposite the rail station. The bakery produces bread which is ‘proved’ for twenty four hours, thus ensuring it is digestible and tasty unlike the modern Chorley Wood method of producing bread of this supermarket age.Our visit to Shrewsbury but whetted the appetite. A week could be spent in its environs and even then only a little of its story would be revealed. We will return!
Our excursion concluded with a visit to Shrewsbury Abbey, a Benedictine foundation (1083). Much of the monastery was destroyed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1540) by the Taliban agents of that age. Brenda Pershouse takes up the story.
Shrewsbury Abbey by Brenda Pershouse
Our visit to Shrewsbury Abbey was brief but informative.The present Abbey church was founded by the Normans in 1083 on the site of a small Saxon church dedicated to St. Peter. The monks followed the rule of St. Benedict and during the twelfth century the Abbey flourished. In 1137, the monks acquired the bones of St. Gwenfrew (St. Winefride) in Wales. The relics were enshrined and Shrewsbury Abbey became a major centre for pilgrimage.The Abbey is impressive. Four Norman pillars remain from the original building, the remainder being in Gothic style. There are beautiful stained glass windows two of which are dedicated to St. Winefride and St. Benedict, who founded the monasteries as we know them today.In 1283, Edward I called a meeting at Shrewsbury Abbey. The particular significance of this assembly was to invite the “commons”, that is the knights from the counties, as well as the “Lords”! The Shrewsbury parliament set the pattern for the future development of our parliamentary system. In 1983, the then Speaker of the House of Commons came to the Abbey to commemorate the 700th anniversary of this significant event.Wilfred Owen, the World War One poet who was killed while serving his country, is commemorated on the First World War Memorial found below the tower.The Abbey attracts thousands of visitors a year one of the attractions being Edith Pargeter’s mystery novels (written under the pseudonym Ellis Peters), “The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael” which are set in Shrewsbury Abbey. This link is commemorated in stained glass.
Then we were on to our golden chariot for the short journey to Wroxeter.
Wroxeter Roman City By Sheila Woodward
Wroxeter is one of the most tantalising and enigmatic of our Roman towns. Originating (like so many) as a legionary fortress in about the mid 50s AD, it was excellently sited and was capable of holding an entire legion of 5000 men. The successive town, founded about AD 90 on the departure of the army, continued to thrive as an administrative and trading centre and by 120/130 AD it had become the 4th largest town in Roman Britain, boasting fine public buildings and some wealthy inhabitants. After the prosperous years came a general decline and by the middle of the seventh century, the town had dwindled away, replaced by a small village with only memories of past greatness. Less than 5% of the Roman town is now visible; the rest is underground.

Fig 1. The great wall at Wroxeter

The most prominent reminder of Wroxeter’s past greatness is known, rather endearingly, as the Old Work. It is part or the original south wall of the basilica of the baths. It is one of the largest free standing pieces of masonry left from Roman Britain and it certainly dominates the site: with its rather dark rugged fabric, it seems to brood over the area. Inevitably in the 18th century, the Old Work became a “Romantic” subject for local artists, and indeed Wroxeter has inspired much poetry – from A. E. Housman’s “On Wenlock Edge” to “Uriconium” by Wilfred Owen. Apart from the Old Work, the remains of the baths, especially the basilica, tend to be fragmentary but information panels and reconstructions are well placed and the bath complexes are impressive. Similarly, the remains of the Market Hall and of the Forum can be appreciated given time and imagination. As already mentioned, excavation at Wroxeter has been minimal. The site is in the care of English Heritage, and, as mainly plough land and pasture, is not in imminent danger. But considerable work has been done by investigation using other techniques. Aerial photography can reveal for example stone structures; geophysical techniques such as gradiometry, resistivity and ground-penetrating radar can detect various activities, human or otherwise, and structures. The grandly-named Wroxeter Hinterland Project has revealed a surprising density of population (at least 5000 people at its height) and has studied industrial activity.Even small-scale excavations in Wroxeter over the last 200 years have produced a good quantity of artefacts. The site museum has an excellent and varied display of a selection of the finds: jewellery, pottery, glassware, tools, weapons, building materials and so on. The first full-scale archaeological excavation did not take place until 1859 when the bath buildings now on display were uncovered. The bath buildings were again the main focus of the dig in 1936 (Kathleen Kenyon), 1955 (Graham Webster) and 1966 (Philip Baker of Birmingham University).A new piece of experimental archaeology was carried out in 2010. Six builders were set the task of constructing from scratch a “villa urbana” – a Roman Town-house – using only tools and materials known to the Romans. The design of the building was based loosely on a house excavated in Wroxeter in 1913/1914, having an oak frame covered with painted lime plaster, and forming an L-shaped building with rooms around a courtyard, and a separate bath complex. Although not a permanent structure, the house has demonstrated that a large building can stand without foundations, as it had to be built on a platform to protect the archaeology beneath. The creation of the house, which is now open to visitors, was filmed for a Channel 4 television series “Rome wasn’t Built in a Day”.
The archaeological potentials of Wroxeter and of the settlement patterns outside the town are huge. Quite literally watch this space!
St Andrew’s Church, Wroxeter by Vicki Baldwin
In common with churches whose buildings have been long established, the fabric of St. Andrew’s is a palimpsest. Its history may be read in its walls. There are Roman tiles and worked stone, some carved, parts of what was possibly a market cross, scars, niches, abrupt joints in the stonework indicating changes in size, blocked doorways and windows, weathered gargoyles, and repairs ancient and modern.

Fig.2. St Andrews Church Wroxeter
Set in a well-kept churchyard, at first sight it appears to be a living part of the local village and it is somewhat surprising to discover that it was “declared pastorally redundant” (to quote the guidebook) as long ago as 1980. Its excellent state of repair is due to The Churches Conservation Trust (then known as the Redundant Churches Fund) who took charge of it in 1987.There is mention in the Domesday Book of an establishment with four priests. The church was enlarged in the 12th century and a south aisle built with a chantry chapel later added to its east end. Part of the chantry chapel wall still exists in the present church. In 1347 the church was given to Haughmond Abbey. At some point a tower was added, but the date is not clear, although carvings said to come from Haughmond Abbey would tend to indicate that the upper storeys, at least, were post Dissolution of the Abbey.While the exterior of the church is fascinating, the interior is equally so.

Fig. 3. The Font at St Andrews church Wroxeter
The font is carved from the top of a massive Roman pillar and is the first thing one sees upon entering. It is completely plain and dominates the space. Beyond it, against the north wall, is a 14th century chest that probably held the church records and valuables. There are box pews and a carved Jacobean pulpit. In the 18th century gallery at the west end are pipes from the organ originally built in 1849. Fragments of wall painting are visible and one of the nave windows contains some 15th century glass. However, most imposing are the three ‘table tombs’. These date from the mid-16th century and are extremely fine examples. Changes in fashions of the period can be observed in the highly detailed figures. The earliest tomb is that of Sir Thomas Bromley, who died in 1555, and his wife Mabel. Their children are depicted on the side of their tomb, those dying in infancy or stillborn are shown wrapped in swaddling clothes and look rather like Egyptian mummies. Their daughter Margaret married Sir Richard Newport and their tomb is on the opposite side chancel. Sir Richard died in 1570 and Margaret in 1578. Their children are also depicted on the side of the tomb. The third tomb belongs to John Berker who married Margaret, daughter of Sir Francis Newport son of Sir Richard and his wife. This tomb bears a very touching inscription:
The sayd John Berker, being in good and perfect health at the
decease of the sayd Margaret, fell sick the next day following and
deceased the XVII day after, he being then of the age of 40 years;
they died leaving no issue of their bodies behind them.

Wroxeter Vineyard by Andrew Coulson
Wine has been popular in Wroxeter from pre-history to the present day. The Shrewsbury Museum, on the Wroxeter floor, has a wine flagon and mug in Severn Valley ware and a wine cup in Samian ware. These are on display. What more they have is not known.
The vineyard is sited on the dry, sandy soil of Wroxeter plateau some half mile south of the Old Work. Vines require sunlight to produce grapes and the Fohn effect caused by the surrounding hills ensures that the site will receive an average of 1010 hours of sunlight per annum as opposed to 850 on land further south.The area, described as a smallholding, constitutes 24 acres of which 8 are in the hands of English Heritage, 7.5 are down to sheep, and the remaining 8.5 constitute the vineyard.Initial planting took place in 1991 but not until after a struggle with the planning authorities as to whether a vineyard was industrial or agricultural. Agriculture won. Four types of vine are grown, three German and one French. The parallels of latitude embracing vineyards are 52 North to 53 North; the same applies to Northern Germany, around the Berlin area, and northern France is slightly lower – between 50 and 51 North. The types of wine produced include red, white, rosé and sparkling. Vines are climbers and are planted between stakes which are about 1 metre apart. The vines are supported by metal wires at a convenient height for picking. The lines of vines run north/south and are about 2 metres apart. It is important to ensure that the productive part of the vine is not shaded. It is possible that the growth of grass around the foot of the vine is done to conserve moisture. The impression was that harvest time is late October, or as the weather dictates. Picking is presumably done by hand, the grapes being collected in buckets and trays which are taken to the buildings by tractor and trailer. In the buildings, four processes take place; crushing, pressing – for white but not red grapes, fermentation and bottling. Crushing is done by a machine with rollers, the human foot being redundant, after which the red is placed in fermentation vats while the white is placed in canvas bags and subjected to approx. 35 pounds per square inch pressure. Before fermentation starts a yeast nutriment is added to both red and white. Fermentation lasts 7 to 10 days at which point the wine may be drinkable. Extra time for maturation may be needed, and tasting is the method of finding out.

Fig. 4. But when do we get to drink some……..
Tasting cards list the wines to be tested using the values of 3 (colour), 5 (aroma) and 12 for general impression. Marked by our panel out of 20, the Noble Roman came out with totals between 15 and 16, Regner between 12 and 14, and Shropshire Blush 14 and 18. Obviously best to employ just one expert.Marketing is basic. Buyers drive in, local farm shops have a stock, and the vineyard is listed as a Waitrose Individual Producer. In a good year, the product will be 36,000 bottles, the average being between 15 and 20 thousand. At £6 per bottle, this adds up, but even, a smallholding of 16 acres cannot reliably maintain a family of four. It looks as though Wroxeter still has its part-time soldiers.
LAMAS History Conference report by Don Cooper
The 47th London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS) history Conference was held in the Weston Theatre at the Museum of London on the 18th November 2012. The title of this year’s conference was “A Capital Way to go: death in London through the ages”. We wondered whether we wanted to spend a whole day on the morbid subject of death. However, we decided to give it a go and we are so glad we did. It was a splendid conference. The theatre which holds 230 people was packed.
After the opening remarks, Jelena Bekvalac Curator of Human Osteology at the Museum of London gave a talk comparing the bones of the rich people buried in St Brides Church with the poor people who were buried in the lower graveyard between the dates of 1740 and 1852. It was remarkable that the differences were not as marked as one might have guessed, 85% of children died before the age of five and rickets was common in both rich and poor children but perhaps for different reasons: rich babies were wrapped in swaddling clothes and did not leave the house and therefore did not get vitamin D, poor babies had a diet that did not include vitamin D. Jelena researched the average costs of burials during this period: if poor burials cost £1 then rich burials cost £5.
Christian Steer of London University posed the question “Why gravestones and memorials in Christian burials?” Before the reformation in the 16th century, when people believed in Purgatory as an intermediate places between heaven and hell, grave memorials were therefore so that one would be remembered after death, they provided a mourning opportunity, but mainly they reminded those left behind to pray for them and therefore shorten their period in purgatory. “Pray for the soul of..” was a popular grave memorial. After the reformation memorials were more likely to describe the good deeds of the departed rather than asking for intercession for them. In the period 1200 to 1514 there were 110 parish churches and 45 religious houses in London but only 37 medieval memorial monuments have survived.
This was followed by the local history publication awards:
The Book Prize to Merton Historical Society for a book called “The Cammers, Canons and Park Place” by E N Montague.
Journal Prize to Brentford and Chiswick Historical Society.
Back to the conference, Peter Razzell a historical demographer spoke of mortality in London between 1550 and 1800. I have selected a few points: (1) Reliable evidence is extremely difficult to come by because recording by parish clergy was inconsistent. (2) Between 1838 and 1844 the rich had a worse record in mortality than the poor. (3) A survey of 21 year old brides showed that half of all their fathers were dead by the time their daughter married. (4) The introduction of smallpox inoculations gave greatly reduced mortality,
Robert Stephenson spoke on the gruesome history of body snatching from between the mid-18th century and 1832. In 1752 murderers were hung but not buried, ideal for body snatching. But the law changed in 1832 and that, thank goodness, was the end of body snatching.
John Clarke, head of library services at Great Ormond Street Hospital & Consultant Historian to Brookwood Cemetery spoke of the Victorian developments in the disposal of the dead, from the over- crowded parish cemeteries, to the great Victorian cemeteries known as the “Magnificent Seven” : Kensal Green (1833), West Norwood (1836), Highgate (1839), Abney Park (1840), Brompton (1840), Nunhead (1840) Tower Hamlets (1841). Then came the cholera panic of 1848/9 which created three enormous “out of town” cemeteries where the corpse went by train: The Great Eastern Metropolitan, The Great Western Metroplitan and the London Necroroplis and then finally to consider cremation.
The last talk of a successful day was by Brent Elliott, Historian of the Royal Horticultural Society on Epitaphs and Obituaries, full of amusing, bizarre illustrations of how people want to be remembered. The surprise was how many of the oft-quoted ones never appeared on any gravestones, but were “invented” by authors, poets etc.
LAMAS are to be recommended for putting on such a successful conference.
LAMAS survey of Grave Boards By Don Cooper
LAMAS are initiating a survey of Grave Boards to see if they can build up a history of them and their use as gravestones. The photo below is an example culled from the internet:

Fig. 1. Holy Trinity Markbeech Kent

Sometimes the ends were metal and, of course, over the years the wood rotted and these grave boards disappeared. However, these boards are important relics of the past and a study of them is long overdue. When did they start? Were they a substitute for grave stones? Why? When did they stop being used? If you know of any grave boards still in existence or have old photos of them in churchyards or any documentary evidence please let me know and I will pass them on to the researcher. The internet has already been trawled.
Other Societies Events By Eric Morgan
Wednesday, 12th December 2012 at 20.00: “ The Shadwell Shams: Bill and Charley and fake antiques” a talk by Philip Mernick for Islington Archaeological and History Society, at Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, N1.
Thursday, 3rd January 2013 at 20.00: “The Bishop of Rochester’s Palace” a talk by Patricia Clarke, for Pinner Local History Society, at Village Hall, Chapel Lane, Pinner. HA5 1AA, Visitors £2.
Wednesday, 9th January 2013 at 13.00: “The Art of the Underground: 150 years of redesigning London” a talk by Oliver Green of the London Transport Museum at Gresham College at the Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN, Free.
Wednesday, 9th January 2013 at 14.30 to 16.30: “The Last Castle” a talk by Steven Morris for Mill Hill Historical Society, at Trinity Church, The Broadway, NW7 3TB.
Wednesday, 9th January 2013 at 19.45: “The history of Wanstead House, East London” a talk by Stephen Denford for Hornsey Historical Society, at Union Church Hall, corner of Ferme Park Road and Weston Park, N8 0PX. Visitors £2 Refreshments at 19.40.
Monday, 14th January 2013 at 15.00: “The make do and mend Olympics of 1948” a talk by Joan Davis, for the Barnet Museum and Local History Society, at Church House, Wood Street, Barnet (opposite the museum), EN5 4BW.
Tuesday, 15th January 2013 at 20.00: “Number one Market Place St Albans: Life next door from the clock tower from 1550” a talk by Chris Green, for the St Albans and Hertfordshire architectural and Archaeological Society, at St. Albans school, Abbey Gateway, St Albans AL3 4HB.
Wednesday, 16th January 2013 at 19.30: A talk by the Brent Archivist Malcolm Barres-Baker, detail to follow, please see www.willesden-local-history.co.uk for Willesden Local History Society, at St Mungo’s Centre, 115 Pound Lane (opposite the bus garage) NW10 2HU.
Wednesday, 16th January 2013 at 20.00: “ A Murderography of Islington” a talk by Peter Stubley for Islington Archaeological and History Society, at Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, N1.
Thursday, 17th January 2013 at 1930: “Science in Burton Street: Sarah Bowditch 1791 – 1856” a talk by Professor Mary Orr for Camden History Society at Local Studies Library, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PY.
Friday, 18th January 2013 at 1900: “Excavations in the Roman town of Sandy” a talk by Catherine Edwards of AoC for the City of London Archaeological Society (CoLAS) at St, Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, near Fenchurch Street, EC3R. Visitors £2.

Acknowledgements Our thanks to Peter Pickering, Vicki Baldwin, Andrew Coulson, Sheila Woodward, Brenda Pershouse, Micky Watkins, Kevin McSharry, Eric Morgan, Stewart Wild and Mary Rawitzer

No. 500 November 2012 Edited by Jim Nelhams

Editorial

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

HADAS DIARY 2012 – 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Extracts from our Old Newsletters

From Newsletter 100 (June 1979)

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

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

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

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

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

From Newsletter 300 (March 1996)

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

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

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

Memories from Andrew Selkirk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News of Mary O’Connell Stewart Wild

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

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

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

New Courses at City Lit

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

– Archaeology: Key archaeological sites of Great Britain

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

– Archaeology in London

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

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

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

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

Iron Age Mysteries revealed by Don Cooper

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

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

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

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

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

The Wars of the Roses

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

Kingsbury Manor & Verulamium Museum Tessa Smith is impressed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aeroplane Heaven Andy Simpson approves

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brunel Lecture Jim Nelhams

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IRONBRIDGE DAY 2 Jim Nelhams

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

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

The Magnificent Severn Tessa Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Museum of the Gorge Jo Nelhams

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

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

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

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

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

The Jackfield Tile Museum Audrey Hooson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coalport China Museum Liz Gapp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Tar Tunnel Stewart Wild

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

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

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

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

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

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

The China Museum’s bottle kiln adjacent to the canal

Another view of the impressive 4-story high bottle kiln

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

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

Bill Bass & Don Cooper

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

Location

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

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

Background

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

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

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

The Works

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

Site Watching and Archaeology

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

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

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

Finds

HUMAN BONE

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

ANIMAL BONE

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

POTTERY

119 sherds were recovered consisting of:

Medieval
SHER 1170-1300 x 1

Post- med
BORDY 1550-1700 x 2

PMBL 1580-1700 x 1

PMR 1580-1900 x 14

RBOR 1550-1900 x 4

PMFR 1580-1900 x 4

CHPO 1580-1900 x 1

STSL 1660-1870 x 2

ENGS 1700-1900 x 10

TPW 1780-1900 x 73

TGW SPNG 1780-1900 x 2

MOCH 1780-1900 x 5

CLAY PIPE

1 x Mouth piece 60 x Stems

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 x Unknown

COINS

1854 Napoleon III, 10 Centimes, worn

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

1985 2p

1994 2p

2005 2p

CBM

5 x sherds of peg tile

1 x fragment of roof slate

1 x sherd of inscribed sherd of decorated chimney pot

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

GLASS

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

METAL

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

Acknowledgments

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

Megan Hallett & Caroline Bragg for Barnet Council

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

Kim Stabler, English Heritage.

English Heritage At Risk Register Jim Nelhams

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No. 498 SEPTEMBER 2012 Edited by Graham Javes

HADAS DIARY 2012-2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finds in Focus – now fully booked.

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

Membership Renewals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What of the Archaeology?

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

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

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

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

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

A NEW LOCAL PLAN FOR BARNET Peter Pickering

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

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

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

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

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

● the significance of the heritage asset

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trent Park Open House – Stephen Brunning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bibliography

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

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

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

LONDON AND MIDDLESEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (LAMAS)

LAMAS Local History Workshop

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

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

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

LAMAS LOCAL HISTORY CONFERENCE

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

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

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

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

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

Other Societies’ events, compiled by Eric Morgan

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

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

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

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