No. 632 November 2023 Edited by Sue Willetts
HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events
We are pleased that we are able to resume lectures face-to-face following Covid, though lectures in winter may be on Zoom. Lectures are held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm. Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk. (Cash please).
Buses 143, 125, 326 and 460 pass close by, and it is a five to ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line. Bus 382 also passes close to Finchley Central Station.
Tuesday 14th November 2023
Dr Kris Lockyear, (University College London). Mapping Verulamium.
The Verulamium survey started in 2013 as part of a one-year AHRC Community Heritage Development award to Kris for the project Sensing the late Iron Age and Roman Past: geophysics and the landscape of Hertfordshire. The Verulamium survey is uncovering significant information about private and public buildings, aqueducts and streets.
Avenue House Sunday morning working party meetings
The archaeology and heritage working sessions in the HADAS workroom at Avenue are held on Sunday mornings, from 10.30am. The sessions are open to all HADAS members and are both important and convivial. It is advisable to check with the committee committee-discuss@hadas.org.uk that the session will be held before you travel, as just occasionally a session is cancelled.
Committee responsibilities: recent changes
Jim Nelhams has taken over the role of Membership Secretary, vacant since the death of Steve Brunning. The Committee are very grateful to him for taking on this important task for HADAS. Don Cooper had been filling the role on a temporary basis and thanks are due to him for stepping into the breach.
Jim will no longer be the overall Newsletter Editor which will be taken on by Sue Willetts. However, this is an interim solution and if this role appeals to any member, please get in touch to express your interest and learn more about what’s involved. For those unfamiliar with the process, there is a list of 12 editors to compile each monthly newsletter. We have a few slots available so please get in touch with Sue Willetts for more information. sue.willetts@london.ac.uk
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Sunday Morning Sort Andy Simpson
The Avenue House Sunday morning team recently took the opportunity to have a deep sort and tidy of the HADAS excavation tools and equipment.
As many of you know, (and have used) we have a good supply of essential items including wheelbarrows, mattocks, shovels, spades, pick axes, vintage ex-military trenching tools, buckets, ranging poles, hand shovels, brushes various, trowels, hammers, mallets, chisels, measuring tapes, kneeling mats, sieves, pot washing bowls, finds trays, ground sheets, and all sorts of other useful tools and items.
All of these were checked, cleaned where necessary and sorted by type and put back into the swept-out corridor cupboard. A few tattier items went to that great excavation in the sky.
In addition to the basement archive/working room, we have access to a rear storage room for larger tools such as shovels and wheelbarrows, and some boxed finds, and a corridor cupboard for smaller items. Hopefully there will be future opportunities to get them dirty again out in the field…
Clan chief’s coin hoard unearthed at Glencoe Stewart Wild
A hoard of coins that may have belonged to a Highland clan chief who was murdered in the Glencoe Massacre in 1692 has been discovered under a fireplace during a recent archaeological dig. The 17th-century coins included international currency and were hidden beneath the remains of a grand stone fireplace at a site believed to have been a hunting lodge or feasting hall.
The site was associated with Alasdair Ruadh “MacIain” MacDonald of Glencoe, clan chief from 1646–1692, who was a victim of the Glencoe Massacre along with members of his family. The MacDonalds took part in the first Jacobite uprising of 1689 and were targeted in retribution with 82 clan members slaughtered on 13 February 1692, including MacIain and his wife.
Artefacts discovered during the University of Glasgow dig in August included European pottery and silver and bronze coins dating from the 1500s to 1680s. Currency from the reigns of Elizabeth I, James VI and I, Charles I, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and Charles II – as well as France and the Spanish Netherlands and Papal States – was found.
Other finds included musket and fowling shot, a gun flint and powder measure, as well as pottery from England, Germany and the Netherlands.
Archaeological student Lucy Ankers, who found the hoard, said: “As a first experience of a dig, Glencoe was amazing. I wasn’t expecting such an exciting find as one of my firsts. I don’t think I will ever beat the feeling of seeing the coins peeking out of the dirt.” The Glencoe Massacre happened during the Jacobite bid to restore a Catholic king to the throne, backed by the MacDonalds, who supported King James VII of Scotland and II of England after he fled to France
In late January 1692, 120 men from the Earl of Argyll’s Regiment of Foot arrived in Glencoe from Invergarry, led by Robert Campbell of Glenlyon. Historians speculated that the coins may have been buried on the morning of the Massacre two weeks later.
Dr Michael Given, co-director of the University of Glasgow’s archaeological project in Glencoe, said: “These exciting finds give us a rare glimpse of a single, dramatic event. Here’s what seems an ordinary rural house, but it has a grand fireplace, impressive floor slabs, and exotic pottery imported from the Netherlands and Germany.
“And they’ve gathered up an amazing collection of coins in a little pot and buried them under the fireplace.” SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph, 9 October 2023, item edited by Stewart Wild.
Historic England Releases Aerial Investigation and Mapping Data on Open Data Hub Information from CBA October online newsletter
In 2021 Historic England released the Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer, which provides free online access to over 30 years’ worth of Aerial Investigation and Mapping projects carried out or funded by Historic England. Since then, in order to make its data more accessible to more people, Historic England, with the support of the Historic England Archive, has now made all the project data available to download through the Open Data Hub. https://opendata-histoticengland,hub.arcgis.com/.
Other Societies’ Events Eric Morgan
Not all Societies or Organisations have yet returned to pre-covid conditions. Please check with them before planning to attend.
Saturday 4th November, 10.30 am. – 4.30 pm. Geologists’ Association Festival of Geology. University College London. North and South Cloisters, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT. Free. Stalls from Geological Societies from all over the country, including The Amateur Geological Society – selling Jewellery, Gems, Fossils, Rocks, Minerals, Books, Maps, etc.
Saturday 11th November, 1.00 pm. – 3.00 pm. Eclectic Tours. North-West London Series: Discovering Colindale and its Role in Early Aviation. Colindale – or Hendon, as it was known back then – was synonymous with flying. Learn about early aviation and other factories and important institutions of the area. This is for Remembrance Day. This tour costs £15.00. For more information and to book, please go to: https://eclectic-tours.com/.
Sunday 3rd December. Barnet Xmas Fayre. Stalls and performers in Barnet High Street, The Spires, The College (Wood Street), The Bull Centre and Wesley Hall (Xmas Café also) and Food stalls on the College Forecourt and music in the street. Details not yet listed on www.barnetarts.uk.
Thursday 7th December, 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, Holborn Library, 32-38, Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PA. Free for members of Camden History Society. Hopefully will also be on Zoom. History of Birkbeck College. Title of lecture. Nurseries of Disaffection: Birkbeck and educating working people: an illustrated talk by Joanna Bourke. www.camdenhistorysociety.org for details including membership rates.
Friday 8th December, 7.30 pm. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2, Parsonage Lane / Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 0AJ. The Petroglyph Survey by Anna Nicola. Visitors welcome £1.50. Visit www.enfarchsoc.org for further details.
Tuesday 12th December, 8pm. Amateur Geological Society.Talk on Zoom. Cornish Lithium Exploration. by Zoe Richardson. For details and link please visit www.amgeosoc.wordpress.com.
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Tuesday 12th December, 6.30 pm. LAMAS. Lecture Theatre, The Gallery, Alan Baxter Associates, Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EL. Hybrid Meeting, so also on Zoom. Buy tickets via Eventbrite. Non-members £2.50. The Failure of London – The Long Fourth Century. Talk by Professor Dominic Perring (Institute of Archaeology / UCL). Cycles of Urban Investment, followed by periods of disrepair and redundancy echoed London’s changing importance to the provincial administration. When, how and why did this important bastion of Roman power change, characterised as ‘Decline and Fall’. For further details please visit www.lamas.org,uk.
Wednesday 13th December, 2.30 pm. Mill Hill Historical Society, Trinity Church, 100, The Broadway, London. NW7 3TB. Fine Cell Work: Needlework in Prisons by Sarah Citroen.
Visit www.millhill-hs.org.uk for further details.
Wednesday 13th December, 8 pm. Hornsey Historical Society. Talk on Zoom, Free for HHS Members.
A Very British Art Form: The Story of Pantomime by Malcolm Jones. Visit www.hornseyhistorical.org.uk for further details / membership rates.
With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Eric Morgan, Andy Simpson, Stuart Wild,
Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chairman Don Cooper, 59, Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8440 4350)
e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer, 34, Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121) e-mail: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50, Summerlee Avenue, London N2 9QP
(07855 304488) e-mail: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Secretary Jim Nelhams, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley,
London N3 3QE (020 8449 7076) e-mail: membership@hadas.org.uk
We are pleased to have filled the vacancy of membership secretary but please address any correspondence such as change of member addresses or other miscellaneous correspondence to:
HADAS, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 3QE
Website at: www.hadas.org.uk– join the HADAS email discussion group via the website.
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