HADAS DIARY — Forthcoming events.
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011.
The 50th HADAS Annual General Meeting takes place at Avenue House at 8.00 pm. This is your opportunity to hear about what HADAS has been doing and intends to do in the coming year. The Committee welcome suggestions and invites members to contribute to the running of the society. After the formal business of the AGM there will be chance to hear a very interesting recording of a lecture by our founder, Themistocles Constantinides.
Sunday, 7th August 2011 * * * * * * HADAS are having a Party ! * * * * * *
In order to celebrate HADAS’s 50th anniversary in style, we are going to have a party. Avenue House has been booked for Sunday, 7th August 2011 from 12.30 to 17.00 for a buffet lunch with drinks. This is an opportunity for new and old members to get together to celebrate the past and look to the future. The lecture by Themistocles Constantinides will be played again. Do come along. Please let Jo Nelhams know if you are coming by email, telephone or letter by mid July.
Sunday, July 31st 2011
Our Sunday outings in the last two years have worked well. This year we hope to go to Chatham Docks, where we haven’t been since 1991; there have been considerable changes and updates since then. http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/The_Trust
There will be an outing on Wednesday, 17th August 2011 to East Wear Bay Roman Villa in Folkestone, Kent. This 30-roomed winged Roman Villa dates between the early AD 2nd and mid-4th century. It was excavated originally by Stuart Winbolt in 1924/5 and published in a book entitled “Roman Folkestone”. But now it is being excavated again by Canterbury Archaeological Trust and others for the last time due to cliff erosion. The excavation starts in early July and continues through August under Keith Parfitt, who is leading the excavation. We will also go and see some of the artifacts from Winbolt’s excavation in the local museum as well as visiting other interesting sites in the area. The trip will be by coach and will cost £25 per person. A form will be included in the July newsletter. Do come along.
Monday 19th — Friday, 23rd September 2011. Trip to the Isle of Wight organized by Jim and Jo Nelhams.
HADAS DIARY Forthcoming lectures
Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, and start promptly at 8 pm. Nearest tube station is Finchley Central. Buses 82, 143, 326 and 460 pass close by. All welcome. Cost for non-members is £1.00. Coffee, tea and biscuits can be purchased after the lecture. (80p)
Tuesday, 10th May 2011- Ken Brereton
The Markfield Beam Engine – the influence of effluence.
Ken has been involved with the Markfield Beam Engine and Museum some 15 years and is a Trustee and Treasurer. The Engine House is located in South Tottenham, adjacent to the River Lee in what was the Tottenham Sewage Works until 1964. The Museum is a registered charity and following the restoration of the Engine in 2009 a number of steam days and events have been held. The talk will encompass the state of Victorian public health and Tottenham in particular, and will cover the history of the site from its beginning as one of the earliest Sewage Works in the early 1850’s through to its closure in 1964, and beyond, to the landscaping of the site, the renovation of the Engine House and restoration of the Beam Engine in 2008/09. The talk will end with a five minute video of the Engine operating under steam power.
On Saturday 14th May the Markfield Beam Engine and Museum will be holding a local history day. The Engine will be steaming and they will be running the Engine into the evening as part of Museums at Night. Address: Markfield Road, Tottenham N 15 4B R.
Website: www.mbeam.org Email: info@mbeam.org.
Tuesday 11th October 2011 Dr John Creighton: Silchester: The revelation of an Iron Age and Roman city.
Tuesday 8th November 2011 Nathalie Cohen: The Thames Discovery Programme
Membership Matters Stephen Brunning
Many thanks to everyone who has already paid their subscriptions for this year. As this newsletter went to press, well over half of our members who pay by cheque have done so. I have yet to process the standing order payments. If you pay by cheque but have not sent it off yet, I would be grateful if you could do so as soon as possible. To request another renewal form, please contact me (details on back page). Thank you.
Do we have your correct email address? In January an email was sent to remind members of the on-going petitions for both Barnet and Church Farmhouse Museums. As a result, a number were returned marked “invalid mailbox”. To ensure we have your up-to-date details, I would be grateful if standing order payers could email me at membership@hadas.org.uk. If you are also willing to receive the newsletters electronically, please let me know at the same time. There is no need for cheque payers to contact me as there is a space provided on the membership renewal form for this purpose. Thanks for your assistance.
Heritage news. Peter Pickering
On 4 April the National Heritage List for England, English Heritage’s new online database, went live. The List brings information on all nationally designated heritage assets into one place for the first time, marking a major milestone in EH’s work towards a more streamlined and transparent designation system as part of Heritage Protection Reform.
Users can access the List here and are also able to cross-search List data alongside other national and local historic environment datasets on the Heritage Gateway. Each entry on the List describes the asset and is accompanied by a map indicating its location. Users can still download spatial data from the heritage list from the existing download spatial data pages (this requires registration). Alongside listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks, gardens and battlefields and protected wreck sites, World Heritage Site records have been added to the Heritage List for England (but are separately designated by UNESCO). Certificates of Immunity (COI) and Building Preservation Notices (BPN) are also recorded.
Users can nominate an asset for designation or ask for an entry on the List to be amended or deleted by using English Heritage’s online application form. For any queries or to offer feedback on the list, email designation@english-heritage.org.uk
Lecture Report by Micky Watkins
The archaeology of Baldock by Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Archaeology Officer of Hertfordshire District Council.
This was an excellent lecture and now we know that Baldock is more, much more, than just a coffee stop on the way to Cambridge.
Baldock is one of a network of small towns in England, originating in the Neolithic age. These small towns became trading centres with markets, tax collection places, and sometimes industry, such as salt making at Northwich. Craftsmen made pottery and jewellery and the wealthy elite settled here and used expensive imported goods. Baldock was also a religious centre and Keith claims it may be the earliest of all the small towns. Neolithic farmers found the soil fertile, started cultivation and made pottery. They built a religious centre, for a cursus
with parallel ditches has been found in which was found an enormous horn core of an aurochs, perhaps 6 feet long.
In the 3rd and 2nd millennia many barrows were constructed. Early in the 1st millennium they established two hill forts, W ilbury and Arbury Banks About 200 BC, in the Middle Iron Age, there were burials with pottery, in the doline. (A bowl-shaped depression in the landscape) There is a closely dug row of pits about two metres wide and as deep with massive linear ditches leading to the town centre. This was a major religious and processional site. A burial made in 25 BC contained objects from the area of Europe round Austria; in another pit a chopped up coat of chain mail was found.
When the Romans invaded they found the elite were already romanised and using roman coins. Broughing and Verulamium became more important politically, but Baldock prospered and expanded and a Romano Celtic temple was built in the town centre which was unusual. There were several other temples and churches and 23 cemeteries! — unparalleled in the Empire. With one cremation burial, a curse was found, using pen and papyrus.
Local iron was used for manufacture and they also worked copper, made bone objects and dug lime. There were numerous villas round the town for the very wealthy. Keith said these were not just farms, but like our country houses. An assemblage of Iron Age coins larger than anywhere else in Britain has been found. The Radwell Head, the bust of Germanicus, brother of Caligula, was found in a villa. The population was healthy and well fed, to judge from the numerous skeletons. Nothing remains of the Roman town. Luckily it was built to the east of the Iron Age town, which is only a foot under agricultural land and shows up very clearly in aerial photographs. Keith gave a splendid power point presentation and spoke so clearly that even we oldies were delighted.
Exhibitions / Cinema Sue Willetts
British Museum, Crossroads of the Ancient World: Surviving treasures from the National Museum of Afghanistan. 3 Mar – 3 July 2011. Open late Fridays. See related event 24th May.
The Eagle. – . Director: Kevin Macdonald A Roman epic adventure,
based on the novel, The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff set in Roman Britain in the 2nd century AD after the building of Hadrian’s Wall.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams. 3D format. Documentary — Rated .Dir. by Werner
Herzog who obtained exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France.
Other Societies’ Lectures and Events in May Eric Morgan
Fri 6 May 13.30 British Museum, Curator’s introduction to Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World. Lecture Free
Fri 6th 10.30 -12.00 Friend’s of Barnet Borough Libraries. South Friern Library, Colney Hatch Lane, N10. Albert Ball, V. C. Hendon’s World War I flying ace. Talk with coffee.
Mon. 9th 3.00 pm. Barnet & District Local History Society, Church House, Wood Street, Barnet, (opposite Barnet Museum) Eating winter with a spoon: The history of Ice Cream. Talk by Ruth Hazeldine (Hornsey Historical Society) Tea 2.30 pm
Mon. 9th 8.00pm West Essex Archaeological Group (WEAG) School Hall, Woodford County High School, High Road, Woodford Green. Bull leaping and the Cretans. Ridge Memorial Hall. Lecture by Andrew Shapland from The British Museum. Refreshments. Free entry.
Thurs. 12th 5.30- 6.30 pm. Islington Museum & Local History Centre, 245 St. John Street, EC1 Exploring Smithfield on foot. Joint meeting with Clerkenwell & Islington Guiding Association. Historical stroll around Smithfield Market. £6.00 (£5.00 concessions) Also, 7.00 – 8.00 pm A history of Smithfield Market. Talk by Des Whyman at Islington Museum.
Fri 13th 8.00 pm Enfield Archaeological Society Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Chase Side, Enfield. Recent research on Shakespeare’s London Theatres. Talk by Julian Bowsher (MOLA) Visitors £1.00. Refreshments, sales and information from 7.30 pm .
Sat 14th (also 21st & 28th) Trinity in May. Trinity Church Centre, 15 Nether St, N12 (Near Arts Depot) Festival of Arts, Music, Literature etc.
Sun 15th – Sun 22nd. Barnet Borough Arts Council. The Spires, High Street, Barnet. Paintings & What’s on (includes HADAS) information.
Tues. 17th 6.30 pm LAMAS Clore Learning Centre, Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2. The glassworkers of Roman London. Talk by John Shepherd. Refreshments 6.00pm
Wed. 18th. 8.00 pm. Islington Archaeology & History Society. Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 Inaugural address from the President of the Society. Rt. Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury.
Thur 19th 7.30 pm. Camden History Society. Burgh House, New End, NW3. Abram Games, designer and The Festival of Britain by Naomi Games.
Fri. 20th 7.00 pm. COLAS. St. Olave’s Parish Hall, Mark Lane, EC3. Exploring a legionary fortress. New excavations at Caerleon and the late Roman military in Roman Britain. Talk by Andrew Gardner (Institute of Archaeology) Visitors £2.00. Refreshments afterwards.
Tue 24th 7.00 pm London Archaeologist. Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1. Annual lecture and meeting, Refreshments 6.30 pm. Olympic archaeology – 6000 years of evidence from London’s largest site.
Wed. 25th 7.45pm Friern Barnet & District Local History Society. St. John’s Church Hall (Next to Whetstone Police Station) Friern Barnet Lane, N20. The festival of Britain, John Donovan Memorial Lecture by Chairman David Berguer, preceded by AGM. Cost £2.00 Refreshments afterwards.
Thu 26th 8.00 pm. Finchley Society. Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Road, N3. The history of the Welsh Harp. Yasmine Webb. Visitors £2.00
Fri. 27th 7.45 pm St. Albans & Herts Architectural & Archaeological Society. College of Law, Univ. of Herts, Hatfield Rd Campus, St. Albans. Ten minutes to noon: a history of Copped Hall. Talk by Peter Dacton. (HADAS did a resistivity survey here.)
Mon 30th 10.30 – 4.00 pm Kingsbury Open Day. St. Andrew’s Church, Church Lane, NW9.
The old and new Churches and Halls will be open. Stalls, refreshments. Wembley History Society will have a stand and HADAS have helped dig here.
Tues 31st 5.30 pm Institute of Archaeology / British Museum Medieval Seminar. Room 612, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, 31-34 Gordon Square, WC1. The last statues of antiquity 280- 550. Talk by Bryan Ward-Perkins. (University of Oxford)
Thanks to the contributors:
Steve Brunning, Don Cooper, Peter Pickering, Micky Watkins, Eric Morgan.
