No. 648 March 2025 Edited by Deirdre Barrie
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HADAS DIARY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events
Tuesday 11 March 2025 Robert Stephenson (Vice Chair, CoLAS) London’s Most Curious Stones and Bones. London possesses many unusual and out-of-place stones as well as several curious bones and burial places, all of which have fascinating tales to tell.
Tuesday 8 April 2025 Hugh Petrie (London Borough of Barnet Heritage Development Officer) Mapping the Kingdom. The colourful maps of the first County Series were one of the greatest feats of the Victorian period. This lecture is the story of the first large scale survey of England made in the 1860s at 1:2500 or 25,344 Inches to the mile. The lecture looks at how and why the survey was carried out, the people who made it happen, from the labourers through to the sappers and officers of the Royal Engineers, and how the maps tell us about local history, using maps from the local studies collection of the London Borough of Barnet.
Tuesday 13 May Les Capon (AOC Archaeology) A community/HLF excavation at Cranford, Hillingdon with trenching over four seasons that discovered Romano-British roundhouses, Saxon Houses, medieval and Tudor and post-medieval remains and intact cellars. Encompassing the Bronze Age to the 19th Century.
Weekend of 7-8 June 2025 It’s back! Barnet Medieval Festival at Lewis of London Ice Cream Farm, Galley Lane, Barnet, Herts EN5 4RA Note new venue – not Barnet Rugby Club as before due to redevelopment. Barnet Medieval Festival – Reenactment of the Battle of Barnet 1471.
Tuesday 10 June 2025 HADAS Annual General Meeting
Lectures held in the Drawing Room, Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE. 7.45 for 8pm.
Buses 82, 125, 143, 326, 382, and 460 pass close by, and it is a five-ten-minute walk from Finchley Central Station on the Barnet Branch of the Northern Line, where the Super Loop SL10 express bus from North Finchley to Harrow also stops.
Tea/Coffee/biscuits available for purchase after each talk.
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HADAS Study Day Susan Trackman
On Saturday 18 January 2025 HADAS held its first study day of the year. Jacqui Pearce led a one-day workshop on clay tobacco pipes.
The day began with Jacqui giving us a superb presentation on the history of smoking in Britain and the evolution of the shape of pipes over the centuries, from the tiny pipes of the 16th and early 17th century to the large ‘cadgers’ of the 19th century. Clay tobacco pipes were smoked by large swathes of the population from the late 16th century until the early 20th century and are one of the most common finds on archaeological sites and as such are an invaluable tool to archaeologists. We were instructed and then set to work, using a large handling collection from pipes found on the Thames foreshore, on recording, the condition, marks, designs, shape and maker of a pipe. All of which might allow the pipe to be dated. Finally, we looked at some pipes in HADAS’s own collection.
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Some of the students. The photo directly above shows students and HADAS Chair Sandra Claggett with Jacqui Pearce from Mola who kindly led the workshop.
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The largest human-made explosion before the atomic bomb Don Cooper
Liz and I visited Halifax in Nova Scotia at the end of October 2024 and had a half-day tour of the city with an approved guide. The story he told, which I have summarised below, came as a surprise as we had never heard it before. It seems it was suppressed during the First World War so as not to give “Comfort to the enemy”.
Our guide told us that on the 6th December 1917 in Halifax harbour, two ships collided. The result was nearly 2000 people died and 9000 were injured. The explosion also destroyed more than a square mile of the city of Halifax. The first ship involved was the SS Imo. The SS Imo was a Norwegian merchant vessel carrying humanitarian aid for the population of German-occupied Belgium, who were having a hard time. The SS Imo started its journey in the Netherlands on route to New York and called at Halifax for “inspection for neutrality” and spent two days in the harbour waiting for refuelling coal to continue its journey.
The SS Imo was built in Belfast by Harland & Wolf in 1889 as a livestock and passenger carrier for the White Star line. She then became a whaling ship, and by 1917 she was carrying humanitarian aid under a Norwegian flag having been chartered by the Commissioners for Belgian Relief.
The second ship involved was a French cargo ship, the SS Mont Blanc under orders from the French government to carry her cargo from New York via Halifax to Bordeaux. She was carrying nearly 3000 tons of explosives. She was travelling to Halifax to await there, before joining an escorted slow convey for the journey across the Atlantic.
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The SS Mont Blanc was built in Middlesbrough, UK in 1899. She was a tramp steamer and passed through a number of hands before she set off on her fateful journey.
Halifax harbour is entered via a narrow channel appropriately named “The Narrows”. Because of the risk from Germany U-boats a system of nets was in place across the narrows. These were raised at specific times during the day to let ships in and out and so the stage was set.
The details of what led to the collision between the two ships are involved and were dealt with at the Board of Enquiry. They were so complicated that the argument ended with the final appeal to the Privy Council in London which decreed that each ship had acted in an imprudent manner and therefore shared responsibility for the collision.
The collision was relatively minor but it disturbed barrels of benzol on the deck of the SS Mont Blanc and some split and were set alight by sparks from the SS Imo disengaging from the SS Mont Blanc. A fire started and at 9.05 AM the SS Mont Blanc blew up. The blast killed just over 1963 people and left 9000 injured. More than 12000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged either by the blast or by subsequent fires. As an example of the force of the explosion, part of the anchor of the SS Mont Blanc weighing 1140 pounds was thrown through the air and landed nearly two miles away where it still is, as a reminder of that dreadful day. The sound of the explosion was heard and felt in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada 120 miles away. The explosion was followed by a tsunami which swamped the single storey dwellings on the opposite side of the harbour but apart from the damage there were no fatalities. The same tsunami caused the SS Imo to be beached on that side of the harbour. Amazingly, the SS Imo was refloated in 1918 and went on, under new owners and a new name as a whale tanker until abandoned to the sea in November 1921.
Our guide told many harrowing stories especially of people blinded by the blast, but also tales of heroism and bravery. Subsequently, I supplemented the guide’s information by purchasing a book written by Janet F Kitz called “Shattered City: the Halifax explosion & the road to recovery” published in 1989 by Nimbus Publishing Ltd in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
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Decline and fall
What have the Romans ever done for us? Not as much as they could have, it seems.
It turns out that the Romans were greatly affected by lead poisoning to such an extent that their IQ levels were impaired. Researchers at Oxford University found cognitive decline in the period towards the end of the republic and the first 100 years of the imperial era.
The pollution stemmed largely from silver mining which involved melting the mineral galena to extract precious metal and releasing lead into the atmosphere as a result. Lead was also used extensively in plumbing and cosmetics and 80,000 tons were produced each year, seeping into the water supply.
It might have helped precipitate the decline and fall of Rome. If only Gibbon had known.
Comment column, Daily Telegraph, January 2025, spotted by Stewart Wild
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Vikings originally came from Britain before returning to invade (Stewart Wild)
When the Vikings first attacked Lindisfarne in Northumberland in 793AD, it was to start a major upheaval that brought bloodshed, a new language and eventually the creation of England.
The Scandinavian migrants were feared warriors who had seemingly been toughened by generations of survival in the frozen north. Yet a new study shows that their ancestry may be nearer home.
Human remains from Scandinavia dating from before the eighth-century raids show genetic links to Britain and central Europe suggesting that there may have been a large migration northward in the centuries before the Vikings had apparently set out. It indicates that a number of raiders, some of whom were searching for better land to farm, could have been retracing the paths of their ancestors rather than conquering completely unfamiliar territories.
Biomolecular analysis of teeth of people buried on the island of Oland, Sweden – known for its impressive Viking remains – was found to contain ancestry from Central Europe and Britain. Likewise, researchers found a “clear shift” in genetic ancestry in eighth-century Denmark in which Viking communities had genetic links to Iron Age groups much further south. Experts estimate the shift happened around 500AD.
“We already have reliable statistical tools to compare the genetics between groups of people who are genetically very different, like hunter-gatherers or early farmers, but robust analyses of finer-scale population changes, like the migrations we reveal in this paper, have largely been obscured until now,” said Leo Speidel, the first author of the study.
The former post-doctoral researcher at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London, who is now the group leader at Riken in Japan, added: “It allows us to see what we couldn’t before, in this case migrations all across Europe originating in the north of Europe in the Iron Age, and then
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back into Scandinavia before the Viking age. Our new method can be applied to other populations across the world and hopefully reveal more missing pieces of the puzzle.”
The team was also able to tease out the migration routes using a new, more precise method of ancient DNA analysis, called Twigstats, which can pick out small differences between genetically similar groups.
They applied the new method to more than 1,500 European genomes – a person’s complete set of DNA – from people who lived primarily during the first millennium AD, encompassing the Iron Age, the fall of the Roman Empire, the early medieval period, and the Viking age.
As well as uncovering new migration routes, the technique was also able to back up accounts from the historical record. At the beginning of the first millennium, the Romans wrote about coming into conflict with Germanic groups at their empire’s frontiers, and the new analysis shows that northern groups and Scandinavians were indeed moving south during this period, towards the Roman borders.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
SOURCE: Daily Telegraph, 4 January 2025, item edited by Stewart Wild
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OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS
As always, please check with the Societies – for example via their websites – before planning to attend, since not all Societies and organisations have returned to pre-covid conditions.
Saturday 15th March. 11 am. – 5 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Archaeological Conference. London Museum Docklands, Wilberforce Room, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, London. E14 4AL. Morning Session = Recent work including presentation of the 2024 Ralph Merrifield Award by Harvey Sheldon (ex-HADAS President). 1.05 – 2 pm. – Lunch Break. Afternoon Session = Mud Larking on the Thames Foreshore. 3.25 – 4 pm. Tea Break. 5.10 pm. Close. Tickets (Priced £20) will be available via Eventbrite. Details on how to book can be found on the L.A.M.A.S. website www.lamas.org.uk.
Friday 21st March, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London. EC3R 7NB. Talk, also on Zoom – Excavations at Barn Elms for Tideway by Michael Curnow (MOLA) on a significant Thameside Iron Age Settlement revealed during work for London’s new super sewer. Please book via Eventbrite. Visit www.colas.org.uk. HADAS may send out a link to its members.
Friday 21st March, 7.30 pm. Wembley History Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall (Behind St. Andrew’s new church) Church Lane, Kingsbury, London. NW9 8RZ. ‘Ace times, then and now’. – A Café and a Culture. Talk by Mark Wilsmore M.D. of Ace Café) on the history of this local cultural Icon. Visitors pay £3. Refreshments will be available in the interval.
Tuesday 8th April, 6.30 pm. L.A.M.A.S. Also on Zoom. Book on Eventbrite via website www.lamas.org.uk/lectures/html. Non-members £2.50. Bartmann Goes Global? Talk by Jacqui Pearce (HADAS President and also MOLA). How German stoneware travelled round the known world in the 16th/17th centuries.
Monday 14th April, 3 pm. Barnet Museum and Local History Society. St. John the Baptist Church, Chipping Barnet, Corner High Street/Wood Street, Barnet. EN5 4BW. Not Bloody Likely – the Marketing of Covent Garden 1600 – 2000. Talk by Daniel Snowman. For further information please visit www.barnetmuseum.org.uk.
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Wednesday 16th April, 7.30 pm. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, Bottom of Neasden Lane (Round corner from Magistrates’ Court) London. NW10 2DZ. The History of the Willesden Jewish Community and Willesden Jewish Immigrants Trail. Talk by Irina Porter (Chair) based on archival research and memories of the members of the local community. This project incorporates an online trail, website, a film and an interactive map. For further details please visit www.willesden-local-history.co.uk.
Wednesday 23rd April, 7.45 pm. Friern Barnet and District Local History Society. North Middlesex Golf Club, the Manor House, Friern Barnet Lane, London, N20 0NL. History of London Mapping including Barnet. Talk by Simon Morris. Please visit www.friernbarnethistory.org.uk for further details. Non-members charge £2. A bar will be available.
Thursday 24th April, 7.30 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue (Stephens’) House, 17, East End Road, London. N3 3QE. Society’s Archive Collection. Talk by Alison Sharpe (Archivist) and hands-on activities. Visitors charge £2. Refreshments to be available in the interval. For further details please visit www.finchleysociety.org.uk.
Friday 25th April, 7 pm. C.O.L.A.S. Talk on Zoom only. The Archaeology of London’s Modern Mega Events = from the Great Exhibition to London 2012. Talk by Dr. Johnathan Gardner. A new way of looking at heritage, from the winner of London Archaeologist’s 2024 publication prize. Please book as for Friday 21st March.
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With many thanks to this month’s contributors: Sandra Claggett; Don Cooper; Susan Trackman; Eric Morgan; Stewart Wild.
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Hendon and District Archaeological Society
Chair Sandra Claggett, c/o Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley N3 3QE
email : chairman@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Secretary Janet Mortimer 34 Cloister Road, Childs Hill, London NW2 2NP
(07449 978121), email: secretary@hadas.org.uk
Hon. Treasurer Roger Chapman, 50 Summerlee Ave, London N2 9QP (07855 304488),
email: treasurer@hadas.org.uk
Membership Sec. Jim Nelhams, 61 Potters Road, Barnet EN5 5HS (020 8449 7076)
email: membership@hadas.org.uk
Website: www.hadas.org.uk
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