Newsletter
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HADAS DIARY
Saturday 13th August 2005 Outing to Swanscombe & Faversham with Tessa Smith & Sheila Woodward Application forms were in the last newsletter,
Saturday 10th September 2005 Outing to Copped Hall Archaeological Project, The Rodings, Pleshy Castle & Thaxted with June Porges & Stewart Wild Application form enclosed.
Tues. 11 October, 8pm Lecture by Jill Cook: Palaeolithic Art: soft curves & fuller figures — images of women in the art of the Old Stone Age
Tues 14 November, 8pm:- to be announced
Church Farmhouse Museum dig from Bill Bass
In celebration of the museum’s 50th anniversary HADAS will be conducting an excavation in the grounds of Church Farmhouse Museum, Hendon, on the 6 & 7th August 2005 The dig will be open to the public for viewing from 10.00am to 4.00pm on both of these days. During the 1990s HADAS held several digs in the grounds of the museum, finding traces of the site’s Prehistoric, Roman, Saxon and Mediaeval past. A small selection of finds from those excavations is currently on display at the museum. The excavations have also been published in the HADAS Journal No I, 2002. Finds from the grounds of the museum and nearby sites include struck flint, indicating the presence of prehistoric people in the area. Roman pottery, building material and burials point to a building or community in the vicinity not yet found. Also a large amount of Saxon, Mediaeval and post- mediaeval finds shows extensive occupation of this period on high ground near St Mary’s Church. The dig is open to any members of HADAS, experienced or not, and all equipment will be supplied, but if you have your own trowel please bring it. If you want to dig please wear stout boots or shoes. Also be prepared for prevailing weather conditions. Depending on personnel available we may also try and offer some resistivity surveying and finds processing, etc. For any more details please contact Bill.
DAPHNE LORIMER
The HADAS Newsletter last March gave news of the passing of Daphne Lorimer, our long-standing member, and Sheila Woodward provided a lovely remembrance in the following issue. For anyone wanting to know more about archaeology in the Orkneys as well as Daphne’s contribution to it, we have been given the website address for a “Festschrift” dedicated to her last year. This can be read on http://www.orkneydigs.org.uk/dhl/papers/index.html.
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HADAS at St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury from Don Cooper
At the request of Andy Agate, project manager of this year’s Kingsbury School excavation, HADAS carried out a resistivity survey in the grounds of the “new” St Andrew’s Church, Kingsbury. The site is.a fascinating one. First there is the new St Andrew’s Church. This church was moved “brick by brick” from Wells Street near Oxford Circus in London at the instigation of the then Bishop of London in 1931/34. Designed originally by Dawkes it was consecrated in 1847 and according to its web site it was noted for fine music and choirs. Then, 100 metres away, hidden among the tall trees and the gravestones of a three-and-a-half acre graveyard, stands the old church of St. Andrew’s. This church, which dates from at least the 13th century (though it is believed that there are Saxon elements, which would make it much earlier), has been substantially altered over the years. The church fabric is sprinkled with Roman building material including bricks and tiles and even a piece of pottery. There are five complete hypocaust tiles set into the walls at the altar end of the church. It seems likely that there was a Roman building in the surrounding area so as to account for all this building material. University College London and the Kingsbury team are making a full survey of the church and it is hoped that we will be able to publish a summary of it in a future newsletter. The resistivity survey was carried out by Andrew Coulson, Jim Nelhams and Don Cooper. A grass covered area beside the new church and between it and the old church was surveyed. A 10m by 30m grid was established. The results were inconclusive, although there is a strong suspicion that there are grave slabs just below the surface.
TRANSPORT CORNER by Andy Simpson
ALL OVER BY CHRISTMAS – ROUTEMASTER REQUIEM ‘ …only some ghastly de-humanised moron would want to get rid of the Routemasters…. (Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, 2001) Well ‘someone’ has, and London will lose a little more of its soul. After 50 years it will soon be goodbye to that big red London icon, the Routemaster bus — well, sort of the five remaining Routemaster routes will be phased out by 9 December this year. By the time you read this, low-floor double deckers will have replaced routes 14 & 22 between Putney and the West End on 22 July. Next to go, on 21 October, is our very own route 13 from Golders Green via Childs Hill to Aldwych, so no more empty Routemasters running back to the garage through Hendon, Edgware & Mill Hill. Then it’s the turn of the number 38, Clapton to Victoria, replaced by 18 metre long ‘Bendy Buses’ on 28 October. Last to go, in December, will be the 159 between Marble Arch & Streatham. By then, some Routemasters will have commenced running on two Transport for London (TfL)- sponsored ‘heritage routes’ in central London, based on the central parts of routes 9 & 15. They will run every l5 minutes from 9.30am to 6.30pm seven days a week, beginning this autumn. The first route will run from Piccadilly Circus to Tower Hill via Trafalgar Square, Strand, Fleet St, Ludgate Hill, Cannon St and Eastcheap. The second will run between The Royal Albert Hall and Aldwych, via Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square and Strand. Standard bus fares will apply, allowing passengers to use Travelcards & Oyster cards. Refurbished Routemasters built between 1959 & 1965 (but with modern ‘low emission’ engines) will be used. As few as ten vehicles would be needed — four plus one spare on each route.
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LECTURES — LET US HAVE YOUR IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS by Stephen Brunning
What would you like to see and hear at our Tuesday lectures? Do you have any particular person in mind, and/or a specialist topic? It’s your society, now is the chance to have your say. As the new meetings organiser I would welcome all your ideas. Please contact me on 020 8959 6419,
ANN KAHN
Ann Kahn, editor of the June Newsletter, fell ill part way through its preparation. If anyone sent Ann a newsletter contribution which has not yet been used and might have got mislaid in the con-fusion, please send a further copy to the next editor (see back page). Dorothy Newbury reports that Ann is feeling much better and is now in St Mary’s Hospital, Hampstead (at the top of Heath St). She is being visited daily by her helpers who will take her any post or messages.
NEW BOOK ON THE DARK DAYS OF BARNET
Percy Reboul and John Heathfield, both HADAS members, have added another to their many and always fascinating publications about Barnet with ‘Days of Darkness — The London Borough of Barnet at War’ which was published by Sutton in June. The book looks at the physical effects of the bombing raids on North London, outlines the contribution of women on the home front and considers the impact of Jewish and political refugees. The book is priced at £12.99.
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BARNET’S BOUNDARIES
In last month’s Newsletter (No. 412) Graham Javes brought us up-to-date on research to locate the Anglo-Saxon boundary of Barnet, partly based on the 17th century copy of an 11th century charter, and mentioned the commemorative walk of the boundary held in May. Below is relevant material which has been provided by other HADAS members.
Acknowledging All Involved from Pat Alison
I found the article ‘A thousand years of the Barnet boundary’ in the July Newsletter very interesting, especially as I “walked the walk”, joining around two hundred others, many wearing mediaeval costume, around the perimeter of Barnet. The day ended with everyone enjoying a picnic while watching King Ethelred presenting the charter to the Abbot of St. Albans. However, I was rather disappointed that the article made no mention of Gillian Gear. Not only did she spend several months meeting with representatives of the many societies involved and masterminding the whole of the walk, but she also produced the booklet mentioned, ‘A thousand years of the Barnet boundary’, using Pamela Taylor’s research and adding further illustrations. The article mentioned (in Hendon Past and Present No. 5, Spring 2005) is a similar version, but with less illustration. It might also be worth mentioning that Philip Bailey hopes to publish an illustrated booklet giving his varying personal views on the subject (Editor’s note: see following item).
The Boundary of Barnet A Thousand Years Ago by Philip Bailey
As mentioned in last months Newsletter, Pamela Taylor has done a lot of work on the 1005 AD Barnet boundary description. I too have done extensive research into this document and have produced alternative explanations for some of the features in the boundary. The appeal of working on this document has been translating and interpreting the Old English names for features and settlements around the boundary. The place-names I have made most progress explaining are Sciburnan, Byttes Stigele and Wyrtruman. Scirbrunan translates as `shirebourn’ meaning ‘county stream’. Peter Kitson (an expert on Anglo- Saxon boundaries) supposed this stream to be the one which used to form the county boundary between Hertfordshire and Middlesex and which ran from High Barnet to Pymmes Brook. This inspired me to look into this place-name and in Barnet Manor Rolls I found it occurring as Shirebourne in 1277. In the Manor Rolls in 1699 a field called Sherborne Meadow is mentioned and this seems to reappear as Sherbourn Field in an index in the 1817 Enclosure Map abutting on the very stream that Peter Kitson had suspected was the Shirebourn. This stream now only flows above ground in Victoria Park in New Barnet, but the uppermost section of it can be found as a ditch in King George’s Field in Hadley which seems to have been known in 1556 as Sheredyche. Byttes Stigele translates most easily as ‘bottle’s stile’ and survives in the name Betstyle Circus (New Southage). My theory regarding the meaning of the name is that three local roads in the area make up the shape of a bottle and Betstyle is located where the cork would go, at the top of the neck, these roads being Russell Lane, which forms the base, and Brunswick Park Road and Oakleigh Road South which form the flanks. I suspect that the Bottle’s Stile was a stile leading into the interior of the bottle shape. Wyrtruman is an interesting word which is usually translated as meaning ‘root’. The wyrt part of this word means herb and is still in use in such herb names as St John’s Wort (wort still being pronounced ‘wert’). However, Peter Kitson has found that in a boundary description it probably means ‘root fringe’ and denotes a ‘wood bank’. This is a bank of earth which forms the edge of woodland. It occurred to me earlier this year that the position of this feature coincided with the position of an earthen bank following Barnet’s old boundary running along the north side of Ravenscroft Park in High Barnet. This bank is locally known as Grims Dyke as it was previously assumed to have been part of the feature of that name which can be found in Pinner. This link has always seemed unlikely and indeed the Museum of London Archaeology Service regarded it as part of a clay or gravel pit. A booklet containing a fuller account of my research can be read at Barnet Museum. but as yet I haven’t managed to find a publisher for it A booklet using Pamela Taylor’s research was produced to accompany the walk around the boundary of Barnet which was mentioned in the last Newsletter and was organised by Gillian Gear and Barnet History Society and took place on a lovely warm day in May. Peter Kitson is producing a book entitled ‘Guide to Anglo-Saxon Charter Boundaries’, to be published by the English Place- Name Society, which covers the several hundred such boundary descriptions which exist for various places around the country. The Barnet booklet can be purchased at Barnet Museum. If just one of the features in this ancient boundary description has survived a whole thousand years it would be a quite remarkable survival, given the urban nature of that part of Barnet.
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(1) HISTORIC LANDSCAPE & (2) LONDON’S HERITAGE from Peter Pickering
In the June Newsletter there was an article by Isobel Thompson on the Historic Land Characterisation Project, which has been completed for Hertfordshire but has not even been started for much of Greater London. In her last paragraph Isobel suggests that local societies within Greater London might be able to help. We believe there must be members who find the idea of this sort of research appealing. Could any interested members get in touch with me (Peter Pickering, 3 Westbury Road London N12 7NY,) and I will try to arrange an exploratory meeting, perhaps with our neighbouring Enfield Archaeological Society. On Thursday 6th October Lord Smith of Finsbury, who as Chris Smith MP was recently Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and is now Chairman of the London Cultural Consortium, will be speaking to the Standing Conference on London Archaeology and the London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies. The title of his talk will be “Heritage and London’s Cultural Strategy”. The meeting is at 6.30 pm in The Gallery, 70-77 Cowcross Street, near Farringdon Underground. Admission free. HADAS is a member of the Standing Conference and members will be welcome at the meeting; no need to book, but since there is a limit on numbers and we ought to know how much wine to buy it would be helpful if you let me know, as above.
TRAINING DIG AT COPPED HALL Notified by Eric Morgan
From Sundays 21st & 28th August and 4th September Copped Hall Trust, together with the West Essex Archaeological Group, will be holding one week training courses in practical archaeology at Copped Hall, nr Waltham Abbey, Essex (one of the locations for the HADAS outing on September 10 1). No previous experience is needed and certificates will be awarded on completion. The courses are led by professional archaeologists. Details can be obtained from their website, www.weag.org.uk, or from Mrs Pauline Dalton, Roseleigh, Epping Rd, Epping CM16 5HW.
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OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS Compiled by Eric Morgan
9 August Tues. 8 pm: The Geology & History of London’s Water Supply Mike Howgate Amateur Geology Soc. St Margaret’s Church, Victoria Avenue, N3
17 August Wed 7.30 pm: Guided Tour of Kensal Green led by Peter Finch Willesden Local History Society. Meet Kensal Green Station (walk about 1 mile)
19 August Fri 7 pm: The Hunting Baths of Leptis Magna Talk, David Lewis (COLAS) City of London Archaeological Society, St Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3
20 August Sat 10 am: Visit to Church Farmhouse Museum Joint Wembley & Willesden History Societies. Meet at Museum, Greyhound Hill, NW4 20 & 21 August 12-6 pm: Friern Barnet Summer Show, Friary Park, Friern Barnet Lane. Stalls will include local history – & art exhibitions, etc
28 August Sun 2.30 pm Statley homes and stately lives Walk through Georgian village of Monkenhadley led by Paul Barker (City of London (guide) Meet Spires Shopping Centre. Barnet High St. Cost £5 Lasts approximately 2 hours
1 September Thurs 10 30 am Introduction to Barnet Archives Mill Hill library Hartley Ave, NW7. Talk with coffee, 50p
1 September Thurs 7.30 pm Basingstoke Canal Talk by Peter Cansdale London Canal Museum, 12-13 Wharf Rd, Kings Cross, N1 Concessions £2
2 September Fri 8 pm: Victorian Women in Interior Design Talk by Jean Fletcher Barnet & District Local History Society, Church House, Wood St, Barnet (opposite Museum)
3 September Sat 10.30 am: London Walk: Southwark & Bankside LAMAS Meet London Bridge Station, Tooley St Entrance. Distance about 3 miles. Free, but advance booking Essential Contact Jon Finney, 65 Carpenders Ave, Carpenders Park, Watford WD19 5BP
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