No. 506 MAY 2013 Edited by Sue Willetts
H A D A S D I A RY – Forthcoming Lectures and Events.
Lectures are held at Avenue House, 17 East End Road, Finchley, N3 3QE, and start promptly at 8 pm, with coffee/tea and biscuits afterwards. Non-members: £1. Buses 82, 125, 143, 326 & 460 pass nearby and Finchley Central station (Northern Line), is a short walk away.
Tuesday 14th May 2013 – 10,000 years of History beneath your Feet: the Bankside Foreshore. Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey.
Fiona came into archaeology 20 years ago when she went back to University as a mature student gaining a First Class BA and then more recently a PhD at the Institute of Archaeology at UCL. Since then she has worked on sites on a number of Caribbean islands, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, extensively in the Near East (Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Oman and Turkey) and nearer to home on the Inner Hebrides (Islay and Colonsay) and St. Kilda as well as number of sites in London and Southern England. As well as excavation, Fiona is an archaeological illustrator and is presently studying shell found on a site in Turkey where she acts in the capacity of both object and sample registrar.
Fiona’s work on the Thames began in her first term at UCL when she went down on the foreshore to help record features at Bermondsey and has been intrigued by what the river could tell us ever since. Fiona worked with the Thames Archaeological Survey (1995-9) and afterwards set up her own project, Archaeology on the Thames, and has continued research on a number of stretches since then. Artefacts and features dating from the end of the last Ice Age to today can be seen on the foreshore, detailing the lives of those who lived on and by the river. The Thames itself with all its various practical uses was the reason why people were attracted to the area and was also an experiential and symbolic focus. The study of these two faces formed the core of Fiona’s PhD. The Thames is the ‘glue’ that holds the metropolis together and underlines London’s greatness. A walk along its foreshore reveals 10,000 years of history beneath your feet.
Saturday 1st June 2013 Foreshore Walk.
Following her talk, Dr Haughey has offered to give us a tour of the foreshore of the river by Bankside and the Tate Modern, numbers permitting. The walk will take about two hours and cost £5 per person. The date has been chosen because then the tide is most suitable. The idea is we meet at the Millennium Bridge, south side, in front of the Tate Modern ready to leave at 13.30. The walk will take place provided there are at least 15 participants (the maximum number is 20) and it will be first come first served. Contact Don Cooper telephone 020 8440 4350, e-mail: chairman@hadas.org.uk
Tuesday 11th June 2013 -Annual General Meeting. We hope as many of you as possible will come along.
Sunday 15th to Thursday 19th September 2013 – Buxton Trip
We now have sufficient members signed up for our trip in September based in Buxton, Derbyshire to make the trip viable. See February newsletter for details. It would still be nice to have a few more. Our selected hotel should provide comfort for all, with excellent company provided by other HADAS members. If you are interested but have not yet signed up, please contact Jim or Jo Nelhams (see last page for contact details).
Tues. 8th Oct. 2013 – Brunel’s Tunnel under the Thames. Lecture by Robert Hulse, Director of the Brunel Museum.
Tuesday 12th November 2013 – Lions on Kunulua – excavations of Early Bronze and Iron Age periods at Tell Tayinat, Hatay, Turkey. Lecture by Dr Fiona Haughey.
Sunday 1st December 2013 – Following our enjoyable Christmas event in the last two years, we have again booked Avenue House. The “party” will run from roughly 12:00 to 4:30. Cost will be £25.00 to include a buffet meal plus 1 free drink and the opportunity to purchase further alcoholic / soft drinks.
Small correction to item on page 7 in the April 2013 newsletter: Stephen Brunning
In the report about the Hendon Town Hall Car Park excavation by Andy Simpson there was a car in the background of a photograph of a trench – this has been confirmed as a Ford Escort, Mark II not a Ford Cortina!
Membership News Stewart Wild
Death of Mary O’Connell: News reaches us that Mary O’Connell, a HADAS member for many years in the 1980s and 1990s, has passed away, peacefully in her sleep, in her 86th year.
Mary was a very active member who gave us fascinating illustrated talks on many subjects, especially London’s hidden gems and historical oddities. As a qualified Blue Badge guide, she also led guided walks for HADAS outings in and around Clerkenwell, an area of which her knowledge was encyclopaedic.
Some years ago, after she was widowed, she moved from Colindale down to Taunton in Somerset in order to be nearer her daughter Susan. In recent years she was living in a retirement home in Bristol, latterly succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease.
Her funeral took place in Taunton on 30 April; HADAS sent a note of condolences to her family.
Church Farm House Museum Steven Brunning / Sue Willetts
Barnet Council Resources Committee agreed on 18th April to grant a four year lease to Middlesex University for the former Church Farmhouse Museum. The new partnership will see the University take over the property on a short lease for the use of academic and administrative staff.
Excavations at Bloomberg Place in the City of London Sue Willetts / Christopher Sparey-Green
This three acre site includes the site of the Temple of Mithras, originally excavated by Professor W. F. Grimes in 1954. Some readers may remember this as the site of Bucklersbury House, with the uppermost structure of the Temple reconstructed on a podium on the North side. This important excavation has been rather misleadingly referred to in recent newspaper articles as ‘The Pompeii of the North’ due to the rare survival of finds in the waterlogged deposits. However, the survival of leather and wooden objects including a door and hundreds of writing tablets (apparently including a love letter) is more akin to the finds retrieved from Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall. It will be thrilling to learn more about the 10,000 finds which cover the entire period of Roman occupation from the 40’s AD to the early 5th century. The team has excavated seven metres of archaeology and removed 3,500 tonnes of soil. On completion the Temple and finds will become part of a publicly accessible exhibition within Bloomberg’s European headquarters.
British Musem exhibition: Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaeum
This popular exhibition runs until 29th September 2013. Advance booking is essential, but a limited number of tickets are available on the day. There are over 250 objects on display and the exhibition focuses on the Roman home and the people who lived in these cities buried by the catastrophic volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in just 24 hours in AD 79. Admission charge £15 plus a range of concessions. Tickets can be booked online or +44 (0)20 7323 8181. Open 10.00–17.30 Saturday to Thursday and 10.00–20.30 on Fridays.
Book review: Ann Saunders
Remembered Lives – Personal Memorials in Churches. By David Meara and Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley. Cardozo Kindersley, 2013. 83pp. ISBN 13: 978-1-107-66448-7 £12.00 http://www.kindersleyworkshop.co.uk/
This remarkable little book should be owned, read and studied by all who are interested in English history, architecture, sculpture in the Anglican Church, though it would be of use and value to men and women of other denominations and, indeed, other faiths. It is the work of the Revd. David Meara, Archdeacon of London and Lida Cardozo Kindersley, designer, letter-cutter and leader of the Cardozo-Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge since the death of her husband David Kindersley in 1995. It describes the purpose and value of memorial tablets, the lengthy and individual process of creating one, and gives a detailed and most helpful account of how to apply for a Faculty (permission) to set up such a tablet. It is illustrated with excellent photographs, is modestly priced £12.00 + p&p and may easily be slipped into a coat pocket.
Memorials from the Workshop may be found throughout the country; St. Paul’s Cathedral and Churchyard have a proliferation of them, but many earlier such tablets are illustrated too, emphasizing the long, if sometimes tenuous, tradition of commemoration. The presentation of the book is distinctive, the entire text being set in an italic typeface 12 point Emilida designed by Lida herself. It is a beautiful and elegant design, but this reader found solidly set pages a little disturbing. This is the twelfth small book to be produced by the Workshop and the effect is less noticeable in those others where there are fewer unbroken pages of type. Get hold of a copy and see what you think. The book is too valuable to be missed.
Conference of the Council for Independent Archaeologists Andrew Selkirk
This will be held on the 21 September in Somerset at the Shipham village hall which is just inland from Weston-super-Mare, and next door to Winscombe which is where Mick Aston, the ex-guru of the ex-Time Team lives. He will be the principal speaker, telling us all about how he sets about investigating his local village of Winscombe, and it promises to be a fascinating day, with a number of other local societies telling us what they are doing.
The Council for Independent Archaeology of which I am chairman has had a number of speakers from HADAS in the past. We aim to bring together local societies – we like to talk of archaeology being done ‘bottom-up’ rather than from ‘top-down’, which is how HADAS very much operates. Wendy and I will be going down for the weekend and we do hope that some other members of HADAS can join us. It is in a delightful part of Somerset just inland from Weston-super-Mare and it is also possible to see the Cheddar Gorge and indeed Wookey Hole. If any other members of HADAS would like to join us, do e-mail me at Andrew@archaeology.co.uk, or book directly at our website, www.independents.org.uk.
Other Societies’ Events (includes 1 item omitted from last Newsletter and 1 correction) Eric Morgan
Mon 13th May. 3.00 pm. Barnet Museum & Local History Society, Church House, Wood St. Barnet (opposite Museum). Somers Town and the paradox of the Railways. Talk by John Lynch
Wed 15th May. Willesden Local History Society. St. Mary’s Church Hall, Neasden Lane, NW10. Lost Railway Stations of Willesden & environs. Talk by Cliff Wadsworth. NB Change of venue from April newsletter.
Mon 3rd June. 1.00 pm. Gresham College at the Museum of London, (GCML) 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN. Grub St. to Fleet St. The development of the newspaper. Talk by Robert Clarke. Free.
Thur. 6th June. St. Pancras Old Church, Pancras Rd. NW1. The Quick and the Dead: The archaeology of High Speed 1 & the Old St.Pancras Burial Ground. Talk by Jane Sidell More details: www.posp.co.uk
Fri 7th June Chipping Barnet Library. 3 Stapylton Rd. Barnet, EN5 4QT. Battle of Barnet. Talk by Paul Baker (HADAS member). £2.00 from the Library. Tel 020 8359 4040 for information.
Mon 10th June. Barnet Museum & Local History Society, Looking at the 1950’s. Talk by Terence Atkins.
Mon 10th June. GCML. – See 3rd June for venue. 1.00 pm. The Suffragettes. Talk by Antonia Byatt. Free
Wed 12th June. Hornsey Historical Society. Union Church Hall, Corner Ferme Park Road, Weston Park, N8 9PX. The Coronation & Alexander Palace Talk by John Thompson. 7.50 pm Visitors £1.50. Refreshments 50p
Thur 13th June 7.00pm. St. Pancras Old Church, Pancras Road, NW1. The Fields Beneath (History of Kentish Town) Talk by Gillian Tindall, Author.
Fri. 14th June. Enfield Archaeological Society. Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Junction Chase Side, Enfield, EN2 OAJ. Geoffrey Gillam Memorial Lecture. 7.30 pm. Elsyng 50th Anniversary – The 1st campaigns (1963-69) Talk by Ian Jones. Visitors £1.00. Refreshments available.
Mon 17th June. GCML. 1.00 pm. See 3rd June for venue. The Mosley Riots. Talk by Prof. Clive Bloch. Free
Wed 19th June. 8.00 pm Islington Archaeology & History Society. Islington Town hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. People and planning in Islington from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Talk by David Ellis, preceded by A.G.M. at 7.30 pm.
Mon 24th June. GCML. 1.00 pm. See 3rd June for venue. Free speech & state control. Prof. Rodney Barker (LSE)
Fri 21st June. Wembley Historical Society. St. Andrew’s Church Hall. Church Lane, Kingsbury, NW9 8RZ. Our changing Borough since the 1950’s. Talk by Jim Moher. Visitors £2.00
Sun 23rd June. 12.00 – 6.00pm. East Finchley Festival. Cherry Tree Wood (opposite Station) Lots of stalls inc Finchley Society & Barnet Borough Arts Council.
Thur 27th June. Finchley Society Drawing Room, Avenue House, East End Rd, N3 3QE A.G.M. followed by wine & cheese. Non members £2.00
Special events / Excavation
Mon 10 June – Sun. 7th July. Syon Park Community Dig & Training excavation. Brentford. In partnership with Museum of London. A continuation of the Roman settlement and Little Syon.
communityarchaeology@museumoflondon.org.uk
