NEWSLETTER 248 NOVEMBER 1991 Edited by Dawn Orr
DIARY
Tuesday November 5th : LECTURE “The Rise and Fall of Roman London” – Dominic Perring.
Dominic Perring, the author of an exciting new book on Roman London, will be presenting some of his ideas in a fully illustrated talk. Mr Perring, who directed work on several City digs between 1978 and 1983, has recently returned to the capital as English Heritage Archaeology Officer for London, having spent the intervening years excavating in Italy, lecturing in Roman archaeology at Leicester University, and as Worcester City Archaeologist. His new post is a controversial one and Mr Perring will be delighted to answer questions about English Heritage plans for London. (8 p.m. for 8.30 p.m. at Hendon Library.)
Saturday November 16th : LAMAS 26th Local History Conference at Museum of London. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday December 3rd : CHRISTMAS DINNER at ‘The George and Vulture’.
Details and Application Form enclosed.
MEMBERS’ NEWS AND DOINGS – NO IDLE BONES HERE !!
How many mere members are hiding their illustrious kith and kin ? JANET FARADAY has been a member for nearly 20 years, and we never knew that MICHAEL FARADAY was her great-great-grandfather’s cousin ! Here is her account of the recent
MICHAEL FARADAY BI-CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
Next time you switch on the light, the T.V., the radio, toaster, washing machine, spin-dryer, electric drill, hair-dryer, lawn mower, etc., give a thought to the ‘Father of Electricity’ – Michael Faraday, without whom none of this would be possible.
I have been privileged these last three weeks to attend many celebrations of his birth in 1791. These have included two exceedingly good lectures at the Science Museum – aimed at all ages including children; also an Exhibition (open until December) where actors re-enact his Christmas lectures, as featured on our £20 note. One lecture was given for a party of disabled children. On the actual anniversary, 22nd September, there was an ‘all-day birthday party’ where large balloons were given to all and sundry – mine burst on the way home! At another lecture, participating children were treated to a birthday cake. There was a preview of another Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (also open until December). Here are many letters to and from his contemporaries, and notes of his famous journey through Europe with Sir Humphrey Davy during the Napoleonic Wars. Inexplicable that Napoleon should have allowed them !
The highlight was a Service of Remembrance and Thanks at Westminster Abbey. Here, everybody, including the Archbishop of York, had done their homework and gave thanks for all his discoveries. Wreaths were laid at a tablet (next to Isaac Newton’s) and eminent scientists carried up to the altar his ‘ring’ (electro magnetic induction), his Bible, and one of his many notebooks. The Lessons were read by the Presidents, past and present of the Royal Society. The Abbey was packed.
At the Royal Institution, distinguished scientists from all over the world gave talks on ‘The Scientific Legacy of Michael Faraday’ – a full day. Six lectures I could follow, two lost me half way through and two lost me from the first word! (However, I was pleased to find that one of the learned audience had found them rather difficult !) More light-hearted were re-enactments of his experiments by Lord Porter and Professor Meurig Thomas at an evening party – very entertaining
Two more days of lectures, which I did not attend : one at the Institute of Physics on ‘Faraday, a Man of Many Talents’ and the other at the Institute of Electrical Engineers on ‘From Faraday to the Stars’.
I believe there is also an Exhibition at the Bank of England on how the £20 note is designed. There is a Benzene molecule to the left of Britannia, iron filings representing the lines of force, North and South denoting the magnets. Faraday himself is shown in the Lecture Theatre at the Royal Institution, pointing to a wall where the words he introduced into the language are displayed : electrode, anode, ion, cathode, electrolyte, electrolysis, etc.,etc.
Memorable and enjoyable weeks …. The Exhibitions are well worth a visit
AND NOW – hats off to DEREK BATTEN a 60 year old member who has found time alongside his career as a surveyor to take an ‘Upper Second’ Honours degree at Manchester University in American History and Society. Congratulations, Derek ! Some members may recall his short talk and slides following an A.G.M. a few years ago, describing and illustrating two weeks as a ‘volunteer archaeologist’ at the Custer Battlefield,Montana, in 1985. Here he continues his tale of
ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE WILD WEST ….
I was back on the Little Big Horn River for a week in 1989 and this year took part for one week of the four week archaeological investigation at the Big Hole Battlefield in Western Montana, close to the state borderline with Idaho.
The flight of the erstwhile peaceful Nez Perce Indians in 1877 has been described as an American ‘Odyssey’. Traditionally living in the tip of Eastern Oregon, these Indians were compelled to agree to a treaty which confined them to a Reservation in Idaho. The subsequent discovery of gold on this land forced a new treaty in 1863, which reduced the original Reservation to less than one fourth of its previous size. Those chiefs whose lands lay beyond the new boundaries, refused to sign and remained in their homelands for several years until demands from the homesteaders and settlers forced the Federal Government to tackle the problem anew. Threatened with force, the ‘non-treaty’ Nez Perce agreed to move, sacrificing precious animal stock, but three young warriors, seeking revenge, killed four white settlers. The U.S. Army attacked, were soundly beaten at White Bird Canyon in June 1877, and these ‘non-treaty’ Indians decided to leave their sanctuary, first heading for the Great Plains and then Canada.
Just 30 miles short of the border, at Bear Paw Mountain, they were finally forced to surrender to the Army after an epic journey of some 1,700 miles in less than four months. Pursued throughout, and occasionally brought to battle, some 800 men, women and children with more than 2,C00 horses and all their possessions, were reduced to 480. Their Chief Joseph, proclaimed, in one of the best-known speeches in the history of the North American Indians : ‘Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.’
Big Hole Battlefield is the site of the most significant of the battles between the Nez Perce and the U.S. Army – 9/10 August, 1877, in the valley of the Big Hole River. The archaeological work was similar to that at Custer Battlefield : a broad sweep of the area by metal detectors to locate possible artefacts, identification by pin spotters with coloured flags, exposure of finds with the help of detectors of different types of metal, and retrieval combined with accurate surveying of each object found.
By the end of the third week (the one week that I attended) some 800 battle-related pieces had been found, including the barrel of an old Civil War Mississippi muzzle-loading rifle and a trench bayonet. On my final day, we unearthed the skeleton of a young Indian that had laid undisturbed since the battle. The present day Nez Perce regard this land as sacred, and after a moment of silence, these remains were left in peace. Laboratory work will follow to confirm or amend the known details of thebattle and a report will follow.
The whole project was financed by the ‘Country and Western’ singer, Hank WilliamsJunior. (No – I hadn’t heard of him either!) Would that HADAS could find a similar benefactor ! It was tough going in temperatures in the high 80s, coping with ticks and hornets in the swampy river area and working up and down steep slopes of 300 feet – starting from an elevation of about 6,500 feet above sea level ! Needless to say, the spirit, good humour and kindness of my fellow volunteers was as wonderful as previously.Where next ? ?
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT – HELEN AND HUGH GORDON celebrated their GOLDEN WEDDING in September. Helen was a keen West Heah digger, but in her frantic preparations for a huge family party, she regrets that the West Heath party was overlooked I Congratulations to you both !
ANOTHER COUPLE who did make the West Heath party – PETER and JENNY GRIFFITHS, will be remembered for organising an outing to Rayston Caves a few years ago. We were all pleased to see them again, all the way from Litlington in Sussex. During the last two years Peter has been fully occupied in editing Volume II of PADWICK’S BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CRICKET, now published at £39.50 by Library Association Publishing. He now promises to return to his archaeological interests – with more time for HADAS
TRIBUTES TO BRIGID GRAFTON GREEN have appeared in other publications, notably the ‘Ham & High’ and the Hampstead Garden Suburb Newsletter. It is good to know how much her wide variety of skills and sterling qualities were appreciated by all who knew and worked with her. The Committee is considering ways of commemorating her work for HADAS and is grateful for the several suggestions that have been made. Meantime this Editor sadly takes Brigid’s place in compiling this Newsletter and takes the opportunity to record a long-standing debt of gratitude to her for many years of friendship and kindly tutoring in all things literary. The respects paid by John Enderby at her funeral, Daphne Lorimer in her obituary, Percy Reboul in his letter and so many others in reminiscences and acknowledgements, all indicate the esteem, admiration, even awe, which she inspired. May we keep her memory green !
NEWS OF DIGS follows appropriately a reference to Brigid…
She would have been glad to hear from BRIAN WRIGLEY of the possibility of a dig in part of the grounds of St Joseph’s convent near The Burroughs. Please phone him if you would like to know more details : 031-959-5982.
Likewise ANDY SIMPSON’S ‘quick progress report’ on results of the excavations at the Old Forge at Golders Green would have greatly pleased her. Well named is this report, for much has been achieved there in the twinkling of an eye before the onslaught of the earthmovers and the tin hat wearers. It is no doubt warmer in the Avenue House Garden Room, now the ‘site’ of sorting and identification of the cleaned material, which includes a bronze thimble, 16th century bronze coins, a bone knife handle, two unidentified flint flakes, and an excellent selection of 18th century pottery. A full list of material from each context will be made, but a policy of ‘samples only’ will be applied to building material and such material as Victorian pottery.
STOP PRESS !! St MARY’S SCHOOL at FINCHLEY — NEXT BIG DIG FOR HADAS ??
Further to the report in September Newsletter … THE HENDON TIMES records on 24th OCTOBER that the developers have won their Appeal. Conservation Area status has failed to protect the old landmark, which will be replaced by offices and car park. However, important trees will be spared, AND it states in the H.T. that ‘Building can cannot begin until an archaeological dig has been carried out.’ WATCH THIS SPACE….
THE WEST HEATH DIG – RE-UNION AND PUBLICATION OF REPORT – 24th SEPTEMBER LIZ SAGUES tells the tale:
It was an occasion for nostalgia – and for pride. As Daphne Lorimer said, when she welcomed members and guests to the Barnet Town Hall: ‘We had fun, and I think also we proved that a Society can be amateur in status but professional in its performance.
Desmond Collins, who, with Daphne’s constant help, directed those 27,000 hours of work, paid elegant tribute both to the Society and to the 250 members who dug at West Heath over the years and contributed to the follow-up research work. He congratulated HADAS on a ‘marvellous effort’ and an ‘epic excavation’. ‘HADAS has done a truly splendid job. I think no praise can be too high,’ he added. Councillor John Hedges, Barnet’s Deputy Mayor, and his Camden counterpart, Councillor Wyn Parsons, whose borough boundaries meet at the site, were welcome guests and joined in the commendations. But it was most of all an evening for those who took part in HADAS’s biggest, best-known and most important excavation, an excavation of the closest-known Mesolithic occupation site to central London and one which, in terms of the quantity of its finds, comes high in the list of the top 20 Mesolithic sites in Britain.
Some 80 members were there, coming from as far afield as Orkney, Berwick and Devon. Victor Jones, who masterminded it all, deserves the thanks of all of us.
The air was thick with memories – of the long hot summer of 1976, when the excavation began, of the trepidation of those in charge of aspects of work for which they had huge enthusiasm but (then) little experience, of the mudlarking at the spring site, of the amusing misunderstandings among the watching public, of the back aching bending and twisting required for accurate three-dimensional finds’ recording, of the satisfaction of spotting the tiniest tools…
Margaret Maher added to those memories by compiling a display explaining the dig, ensuring that it contained as many photographs as possible of diggers at work.
‘Don’t we all look young!’ we all said, looking round from the photos to the greyer heads and wider waists of 1991. ‘Don’t you remember….’
Over an excellent salad supper organised by Tessa Smith and her helpers, with wine and fruit juice poured liberally by Alan Lawson, the conversations flowed back and forth over 15 years, from West Heath to other HADAS digs, from archaeological involvements to updating of family and career news.
Summing up the celebration, Daphne described it as ‘the culmination of 15 years hard but pleasant labour’. It was an occasion for thanks, to the many people who had contributed to making the dig possible, to ensuring that it ran smoothly and to publishing its results, and it was also an evening to enjoy. Yes, it was the very best of parties!
HADAS members who have not yet bought their copies of ‘Excavations at the Mesolithic Site on West Heath Hampstead, 1976-1981 (BAR British Series 217) can do so fromVictor Jones, 78 Temple Fortune Lane, NW 11 7TT, for the special Society price of £7 each – add for postage please.
JEAN SNELLING also recommends LIZ SAGUES’S further article in the ‘Ham & High’ of 4th October,1991
ANDREW SELKIRK SENDS US word of two ‘diggers’ who envy HADAS the publication of the West Heath Dig Report. PAULINE AND STANLEY CAUVAIN describe their discovery of Bath Abbey remains in the cellars of the ‘Sally Lunn Refreshment House’ in the centre of Bath. Alas they have so far been disappointed (since 1985 in patient hopes of having their report published by the Bath Archaeological Trust, and have appealed to the Editor of ‘Current Archaeology’ for advice, having noticed his ‘Diary’ item on HADAS’S own publishing problems. Good luck to them – and to the owners of ‘Sally Lunn’ Mr and Mrs Overton, who (given some warning) will happily show visitors round ‘one of the newest tourist attractions in Bath’.
THE WEST HEATH DIG – RE-UNION AND PUBLICATION OF REPORT – 24th SEPTEMBER
PROFESSOR GRAHAME CLARK, C.B.E., F.B.A., EMERITUS DISNEY PROFESSOR OF ARCHAEOLOGY in the UNIVERSITY of CAMBRIDGE sent a kindly letter of apology to ANDREW SELKIRK, regretting his inability to attend the West Heath Party, and to VICTOR JONES a very detailed and appreciative acknowledgement what he described as a ‘most valuable Report’…having read it ‘with close attention’ and admiring the ‘skilful editing’. Praise indeed from the master in the Mesolithic field.
Here are his letters:
To Andrew Selkirk, on 19th September,1991:
Dear Andrew,
I’m sorry , I will not be coming to London after all.
I would dearly like to have seen the exhibition of finds from the Hampstead mesolithic site, both on account of the special interest I have in the Mesolithic and because I admire the devoted work done by volunteer archaeologists.
Since the Mesolithic period lasted longer than the rest of pre-history and historic time, and the economy was not yet one that involved permanent settlement, it follows that they must have left behind very numerous settlements. As the account in the recent edition of ‘The Past’ shows, their settlements must in many cases exist below plough level. The site in the New Forest was only revealed when the topsoil was removed in the course of laying out a new road. It would be interesting to know how the Hampstead site came to light and what excavation revealed. I hope the meeting and the exhibition go well.
Yours,
(Signed – Grahame Clark)
Then, on 28th September,1991, having received a copy of the Report, Professor Clarke writes to Victor Jones:
Dear Victor Jones,
This is to acknowledge the copy of the Report published by the BAR British Series on the investigations by members of the Hendon & District Archaeological Society. I have read it with close attention and can only offer my sincere congratulations to all those who took part in the onerous task of retrieving the data in the field and to the many specialist experts who have scrutinised the archaeological and ecological evidence. Not least, I admire the skilful editing of the Report. (This last sentence is a hand-written insertion. – Ed.)
The result is that the Sodety has produced a Report which reaches the highest standards and may well serve as a model of what can be achieved by harnessing the enthusiasm of so many who have contributed their labours to recovering the data in such a disciplined and persistent manner.I must not comment in detail, but I was interested that the people who knapped the flint evidently obtained their raw material from elsewhere and that thanks to the excellent study of fitting flints and the occurrence of such a high proportion of micro-burins it would seem that the industry resulted from working on he site itself. I was also particularly interested in the investigation of organicmatter from successive levels of the spring site. I was particularly glad to note that so much attention was paid to insect material as well as to pollen grains. An excellent case has been made out for forest clearance and the maintenance of livestock in the area immediately following ..(its) use .. as a territory supporting a Mesolithic hunter/fisher life style.
Once again I would like to thank the Society for sending me a copy of their most valuable Report.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed – Grahame Clark)
EARLY CIVIL AVIATION IN HENDON
In a prompt response to TED SAMMES’S enquiry in the AUGUST NEWSLETTER for more information about a 1920 air crash in Golders Green, following his own researches
in the ‘Hendon and Finchley Times’, we have:
THE TERRIBLE AEROPLANE TRAGEDY AT GOLDERS GREEN
BILL FIRTH tell us:
After World War I civil aviation was not permitted in Britain until April 1919, and flying to destinations outside the country was not authorised until late July 1919. The first overseas commercial flight from Britain was operated by Air Transport & Travel Ltd. (AT & T) from Hounslow to Paris on the following day.
AT & T was a subsidiary company of the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco) which had been building aeroplanes at Hendon since 1912. The aircraft was a converted single-engined DH9A light bomber, designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, who was Airco’s chief engineer from 1914 to 1920. He then founded the de Havilland Aircraft Company at Stag Lane, Kingsbury.
Frederick Handley Page was also determined to become a force in civil aviation and entered the business, using converted HP 0/400 twin-engined bombers. (There was nothing new about using converted bombers. as civil airliners after World War II.) Although some accounts state that the HP 0/400 only carried six passengers, other sources say tnat the aeroplane could carry up to ten – six in the after-cabin, two in the forward cabin, and (for those who chose to travel exposed to the elements) two in an open cockpit in front of the pilot. The pilot often seems to have been the only crew, although a mechanic was also carried on occasion.
The Golders Green Estate now occupies the fields which were Cricklewood Aerodrome, an historic aviation site. Pilots disliked Cricklewood, where they had to struggle over a ridge in the field before becoming airborne and then had to aim for a gap between the hangars as they slowly gained height. If take-off into wind was in a north- easterly direction, there was the problem of the rising ground up to the Ridgeway in Golders Green, less than half a mile away.
On 14th December 1920, an HP 0/400 with six passengers, a pilot and a mechanic took off in this direction and had difficulty in gaining height. It hit a 50 foot tree and crashed into an outhouse in the garden of No. 6 Basing Hill (sic) in Golders Green. The pilot, the mechanic and two of the passengers were killed. How much worse a modern accident would have been. The main Continental destination in those days was Paris (no foreign destinations west of London) and the problems and hazards of circumnavigating London led to the decision to site the capital’s airport at Croydon, which was opened in April 1920 – but not at the famous Purley Way location. Handley Page continued to use Cricklewood for a time, because aircraft maintenance was cheaper. However, his aeroplanes used more fuel to cover the greater distance, and the fatal accident in Golders Green may have hastened his move to Croydon.
Subsequent events led to the amalgamation of the private airline companies into the state-owned Imperial Airways. Frederick Handley Page never achieved his ambition of running a great civil airline, but he will be remembered for the HP 42s, the remarkable four-engined bi-planes. They were the mainstay of the luxurious Imperial Airways London-Paris services right up to 1939, even when rival airlines were using faster monoplanes. Unfortunately, all the HP 42s were destroyed during World War II and we have only written accounts of what it was like to fly them and to fly in them.
There are a number of books on the fascinating subject of early civil aviation, including a series by Harald Penrose covering British achievements :
‘The Pioneer Years’ (pre-World War I); ‘The Adventuring Years’ (immediately following World War I); and ‘The Ominous Skies’ (pre-World War II).
(Apologies : this piece could not be fitted into the October Newsletter – Ed.)
OCTOBER LECTURE by PETER CLAYTON Reported by SHEILA WOODWARD
VALLEY of the KINGS – BURIAL PLACE of the PHARAOHS
Egypt exerted its old magnetism – or was Peter Clayton’s superb photography the crowd-puller ? There was a record attendance of over 80 members at the first HADAS lecture of the winter. I am sure no-one was disappointed:
The Old Kingdom Egyptians around 2,500 B.C. buried their kings magnificently in great pyramids visible to all – including the tomb-robbers. Some thousand years later the New Kingdom Egyptians were more circumspect. Their kings were still lavishly equipped for the after-life and surrounded in death by stupendous treasures, but the tombs were now rock-cut underground rooms, hidden deep in a remote valley – safe, it was hoped, from prying eyes and thieving hands.
Even today, visited by thousands of tourists and infested by the inevitable hawkers, the valley retains something of its austere beauty and majestic peace. A pyramid-shaped peak rises above it, reminding us that Mertseger, the Lady of the Peak, she who loves silence’, was worshipped by the workmen here. The Egyptians are and were a practical people. The precious fertile land of the Nile flood-plain must not
be wasted on burials – the City of the Dead is in the western desert, where the sun sets. Peter Clayton then took us on a tour of the valley : the Westminster Abbey of ancientEgypt. There are 62 tombs, numbered in sequence of discovery, Tutankhamun’s being the last. The lowest numbered were opened in antiquity; tourism began in the heyday of classical Greece. Not every tomb is kingly; other royalty and officials are included. Not every tomb is spacious; some are only pit caches. Some are no longer accessible, which is tantalising when one sees, for example, a picture of the mighty rock cleft leading to the now-closed tomb of Tuthmosis I. But many can be visited. Queen Hatshepsut, daughter, sister/wife and aunt/stepmother of three Pharaohs and herself sole ruler of Egypt for over twenty years, has a burial chamber and a sarcophagus shaped like the royal cartouche and walls that ‘look like an unrolled papyrus’. Tuthmosis III, the Napoleon of ancient Egypt, only five foot four inches high, led his armies as far as Antioch on the Orontes and brought back in his train three young Syrian princesses. There was no stinting in their burial : thirty-two pounds of gold in a head-dress is generous indeed. Seti I has the largest and finest tomb, with richly-coloured wall reliefs of superb quality; his elaborate sarcophagus is now to be seen in the Sir John Soane Museum. Amenophis II’s sarcophagus is still in situ, as was his mummy when the tomb was opened in 1398. He was a mighty bowman, and his great long-bow was found in his tomb. It was subsequently stolen and has not been recovered.
Everyone knows the story of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, but Peter Clayton brought fresh life to it the excitement of the opening, the chaos within like a ‘real Steptoe’s yard’ – following a disturbed robbery in antiquity, the tell-tale footprints in the dust, a robber’s kerchief wrapped round seven gold rings, the staggering quantity and splendour of the grave goods, giving some hint of what had been looted from other tombs.
For of course the attempt to hide the tombs had never always one jump ahead of the officials. Some of the confessions, recorded by court reporters in hieratic ions have been done on the quantity of gold stolen earth could they have done with it . The last burial in the Valley of the Kings was in 1,035 B.C. In the tenth and ninth centuries B.C., when tomb-robbing was big business, the priests played hide-and-seek with the royal mummies and saved them from destruction. In 1881 and 1898 caches of royal bodies were found in a niche near Deir-el-Bahari and in the tomb of Amenophis II. They are now in Cairo Museum, no longer displayed to the public,but Peter Clayton had some impressive photographs of them. High cheek-boned, hook-nosed, haughty and remote,even in death and after the passage of over 3,000 years, each one looks every inch a Pharaoh.
THE ‘Spell’ OF THE WITCH’S COTTAGE CONTINUES ……….
MARGARET PHILLIPS writes from Ealing on 4th October :
‘It has been with great interest that I have read about the two articles from Jennie Cobban about the Witch’s Cottage… I lived there (Bricket Wood) myself during most of the 1960s. I used to walk in the area, which remained quite wooded… Round about 1960, a report appeared in the press (or..radio) that there was at
Bricket Wood a nudist club. This caused quite a stir… When out walking, I used to look for signs of this establishment. Never did I catch sight of a signpost or notice indicating that there was a club of any description whatever in the neighbor hood, and most certainly never saw the slightest trace of a swimming pool. I con-
cluded that the club… must be very carefully sheltered by woods. Could the’Witch’s Cottage be in the grounds of the nudist club ?
PAMELA TAYLOR, ARCHIVIST TO LONDON BOROUGH OF BARNET, writes on 9th October :
Jenny Cobban concluded her recent fascinating study of the Witch’s Cottage by doubting whether any museum would be interested in displaying it, but saying that to be assured of preservation this already well-travelled building might one day need to be “transported to another location”.
Transportation might indeed provide the appropriate answer. Barnet Archives… has recently been sent two attractive postcards of the ABBEY MUSEUM, CABOOLTURE, QUEENSLAND. These state that the museum was opened in 1986 and houses a range of collections “from prehistoric and medieval Europe, the Roman Empire, ancient Middle East and Asia. The ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles and minor arts were collected by Rev. John S.M. Ward between 1890 and 1940”.
Ward was, of course, the founder of the Abbey Folklore Museum at New Barnet (see J.
Cobban’s first piece in the August Newsletter – Ed.) …and this is presumably the reason for the successor museum’s name. It ought surely to be very interested in the future, and past, of the cottage.’
Well…. QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA may sound far-fetched (so-to-speak) as a destination for the cottage in Bricket Wood, but ‘transportation’ to Australia is not unknown for human cargo, so why not for a provenly portable magical cottage ? The childhood home of Captain James Cock is now to be found in Melbourne; a Maori Meeting House was brought to Clandon Park by the Earl of Onslow a century ago at the end of his terms Governor of New Zealand … perhaps it is high time to despatch another building from ‘Up Top’ ? Looks like Jennie Cobban’s study has not concluded…?(Ed.)
CITY WALK WITH MARY O’CONNELL – SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5th, 1991
Apologies to Mary, her guide colleagues, to those who went on the walk and those who would like to know about it. Space in this issue has run out, but there will be a report in the next issue, so that anyone who wishes to follow in our footsteps during the Christmas break will be well informed.
THE MIRACLE OF THE MINI-MART has happened all over again ! From the usual extraordinary collection of this and that, the delicious confections and concoctions of our culinary experts, our own publications, a ‘green’ table of plants and harvest festival items, Hillary Press notepads, mountains of clothing and piles of books, sparkling baubles and exotic perfumeries, some very good shoes and gloves (all in pairs,too ) a completely cupless Poole pottery teaset, Rudyard Kipling’s typewriter (or at least one identical to that on his desk at Burwash if you haven’t visited there, you should !) – from all this plus Dorothy’s ‘I never close’ sales and wants which continued down the stairs after clear-up and out into the carpark … from all this WE CLEARED £1,218 – AT LEAST WELL DONE ALL
Special thanks to the organisers, who read like a jazz band in the roll of honour :Sheila Woodward on food, Tessa Smith on lunches, Gill Baker on gifts, June Porges on Bric-a-Brac, Percy Reboul on Books, Alan Lawson and Phyllis Fletcher on household goods, Dorothy Newbury on whistle (sorry – on clothing) and of course to all the helpers who came for fun and stayed to sell. DAWN ORR, 12th OCTOBER
