Newsletter
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MINIMART TIME COMING UP
Minimart time is nearly here again, and so this is a call for all good HADAS members to come to the aid of the Society.
The Minimart will take place on MARCH 3 next at the Henry Burden Hall, Egerton Gardens, NW4 (nearly opposite Central Library in the Burroughs) from 10am-12 noon. We look forward to a great response this year, so please go through cupboards end lofts and see what you can offer us.
The Society depends greatly on the funds it manages to raise – and this is increasingly so each year as costs continue to soar. Postage, duplicating and phone calls are now each a major item of expenditure; and this year we have an added incentive to raise money for equipping the room we are renting at Avenue House. It needs various bits of furniture and also a fair footage of shelves for books, finds and so on.
In addition to your help in stocking the Minimart stalls, we look forward too to your support “on the day” – so do note the date in your diary. You can also help by showing a poster in your car or on the. gate of your house, or by persuading your local shop to display one. Posters will be available at the lecture on Feb. 6.
The Minimart stalls will be as follows:
HOME PRODUCE. Home-made cakes, jams, marmalade and chutney will be specially welcome, but all foodstuffs will be gratefully received. Daphne Lorimer.
MISCELLANY. Unwanted gifts, stationery, jewellery, cosmetics, etc. Nell Penny.
NEARLY NEW. Men’s, women’s and children’s clothing in reasonable condition. Dorothy Newbury.
BRIC-A-BRAC. Brass, pewter, china (anything that’s saleable and small enough to transport). Christine Arnott. BOOKS. George Ingram.
GROT SHOP. A new venture, to be run by Marjorie Errington. Items will cost under lOp or will be strange pieces we have been unable to identify.
The names of those in charge of the stalls have been given so that you can get in touch with them to arrange collection, if required. Articles can also be brought to the February lecture (the only lecture between now and the Minimart); or to the processing weekend, at the Teahouse, Northway, NWll on Feb. 3/4.
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Offers of help on March 3 from 9 am onwards will be very welcome or for setting up the previous evening, March 2. Please give Christine Arnott a ring about this.
FOOTNOTE T0 THE MINIMART
The organisers have been offered some items which are too large to handle at the Henry Burden hall. These are:
2 Dimplex l 1/2 kilowatt electric radiators, 1 cream, 1 white, size 24 ins. by 22 ins. Further details, including cost, etc, obtainable from Dave King.
A Lloyd loom armchair, painted white, suitable for garden or house use. £1.50. Ring Christine Arnott. ===THE SPRING LECTURES=== The second part of the HADAS lecture season will be as follows: Tues. Jan. 2. “I’ve come about the drains” – Tony Rook on the development of Roman bath systems.
Tues. Feb.6. Stone Age Farmers in Brittany – Dr. Barbara Bender, BA, PhD
Tues. Mar. 6. The Archaeology of the Second Industrial Revolution – Kenneth Hudson, MA, MEd, FSA
Tues. Apr. 3. The Etruscans – Geoffrey Toms, MA.
Lectures are at Central Library, The Burroughs, NW4 – coffee a 8 pm, lecture at 8.30. Please bring your membership card with you because of the Borough Librarian’s request that only 116 people should be present.
A WALK ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH
By Daphne Lorimer.
On Sunday Dec. 3 forty-five stalwart field-walkers, under the leadership of Desmond Collins, braved a drizzle to examine reported Mesolithic sites on Hampstead Heath. We were particularly glad to welcome Christopher Wade from, the Camden History Society, and two members of Belmont School (Mill Hill), Archaeological Society.
The first site (TQ 262 862) lay near the Vale of Health. It was reported to HADAS last year by the Museum of London, who had unearthed a fascinating correspondence between Mr. Herbert Maryon of Hampstead and Mr. (now Sir) Thomas Kendrick of the British Museum. Mr. Maryon had watched in 1940, the digging of three sandpits some 300-400 yards south of Spaniards Road between Jack Straws Castle and the Vale of Health Hotel (now no more). He noted in the sides of the excavations the remains of two or three cooking pits. No pottery was found. The sites were examined apparently first by Professor Hawkes (then Mr Hawkes of the British Museum) and later by Professor Grimes, but no archaeological excavation of the site was undertaken. In 1948 the area was reported to have been bulldozed, thus obliterating “nearly every mark.”
It was thought by HADAS, that the absence of pottery might indicate Mesolithic settlement. However, we found no flints at this point on our walk, but it is possible that we did not locate the precise position of the old sand pits. Three possible struck flakes were found among tree roots on the path above the Vale of Health.
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The second site (TQ 268868) had been pointed out by HADAS member Phyl Dobbins. It lay by the fence of Kenwood and produced a number of struck flakes.
The third site (TQ 270866) had been drawn to our attention by non-member John Nicholl. It lay further over the Heath near the viaduct above the ponds. The site consisted of a relatively flat platform on high Ground. There proved to be a considerable surface scatter, indicating a site possibly as big as that of West Heath.
The finds which resulted from the walk will be on show at the HADAS January meeting.
Another walk is now planned. It is hoped to explore the Hampstead Heath Extension on Sun. Jan. 14 1979. Members wishing to take part are asked to inform Daphne Lorimer beforehand, and to meet at 10 am at the North End Road entrance to Golders Hill Park.
HADAS members are also urged to look out for struck flakes in every part of the Borough. Reports of such finds in the valleys of the River Brent and its tributaries would be particularly welcome. Just to whet members’ appetites, we have found blade and core trimming flakes near a tree in Golders Hill Park (TQ number purposely withheld: it might upset the gardening!); while a field walk last year at Bury Farm, Edgware, produced a beautiful core and a flake.
WHEN HADAS WENT A-WASSAILING
By Lilly Lewy.
Dinner at Grim’s Dyke, Harrow Weald! It beckoned irresistibly to everyone interested in archaeology. Doubtless we would have mead, and barley bannocks baked on the hearthstone under the rooftree of a Saxon hall within the bounds of a great earthwork thrown up. (in a single night, of course) by Odin (familiarly known as Grim) in the impenetrable forests (weald) that surround the little settlement of Herga on its hill.
The reality was entirely different, but no less enjoyable. In a house named for the nearby Grimsdkye but built in the height of Victorian Gothic style by Norman Shaw, complete with “a wealth of fine panelling,” masses of Tudor doorways, Great Hall with gilt ceiling arid minstrel gallery and whatsoever the successful Victorian gentleman could desire in his residence, HADAS members met in the roomy entrance hall (log fire simulated by clever lighting), sipped sherry in the spacious library (shelves partly filled with tempting antique-bound volumes of old magazines) and went in to dinner in what was formerly Sir William Gilbert’s music room, where he was wont to entertain and be entertained by his friends.
Their reincarnations duly materialisod as a group of three ladies, three gentlemen and a most competent accompanist. In the course of the evening they gave us the chance of enjoying (in solos, duets, trios, quartets and choruses) the wit and verbal skill of William Schwenck Gilbert and the brilliance with which he complemented the music of Arthur Sullivan in every mood and form. These musical performances were interspersed with the serving of a very pleasant meal, and – the highlight of the evening, introduced by Councillor Brian Jarman, was a talk by the doyen of the HADAS committee and our oldest member, Mr. Eric Wookey. He disarmed us all by claiming that he had “only looked it all up in the Colindale Library that afternoon,” and then went on to fill in the background of Gilbert’s career and life at Grimsdyke, including his tragic death in his own swimming pool in the grounds.
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Mr. Wookey’s initiative in consulting the contemporary resulted in an enjoyable and illuminating talk.
To those who were not too familiar with the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, this was a chance to hear excerpts from many of the best known Savoy Operas. To those who knew them already, it was an opportunity to enjoy them in congenial company and unique, surroundings. For all present this get together of ninety-eight old and new friends provided another chance to marvel at the way in which Dorothy Newbury and her co-workers had persuaded transport, entertainment, food, drink and even the weather to contribute to a delightful outing.
One would rather not contemplate how many hours of painstaking planning and correspondence went to making it all seem so easy and effortless. Our thanks to all who worked so hard on our behalf – and already we are musing on what next year’s Christmas treat is likely to be …
WEST HEATH
One trench of those to be included in the interim report remains to be finished in the New Year. Backfilling of other unfinished trenches (which will not figure in the interim report) has been completed. The 1976 spoil heap has now been levelled. Members may be interested to know that the pieces of leather, wood, bone and iron buried there experimentally 15 months ago were in surprisingly good shape. They have been re-interred elsewhere. There is a considerable amount of processing to be done on the West Heath Material. It is hoped to continue this at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, on Wednesdays: and (since we now have a room where material can be left out undistrubed) on other weekdays as well. Space is limited but Daphne Lorimer would be glad to have the names of volunteers and a rota could possibly be organised.
A further processing weekend has been arranged for Feb 2/4 at the Teahouse, Northway, NW11. Work will go on from 10 am-5 pm each day. Do note the date in your new diary now.
N.B. A neat hand to make fair copies of sections and distribution charts is urgently needed. Offers of help, please, to Daphne Lorimer.
AIDS TO RESEARCH
Borough Archivist, JOANNA CORDEN continues her series on archives for local historians.
The most important selection of records here which are relevant to the London Borough of Barnet are those relating to the Quarter Sessions which, like those of Middlesex, reflect the enormous variety of functions undertaken by the Justices of the Peace. Unlike Middlesex, however, the civil administration was divided between the County and the Liberty of St. Albans. The latter had jurisdiction over all parishes originally owned by the Abbot of St. Albans, which included Elstree, Chipping and East Barnet before 1874, and those three plus Totteridge after l874, when all four parishes were included within the Western or Liberty of St. Albans Division after the amalgamation of the Liberty with the County.
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It is as well to note that the Quarter Sessions records of the County before 1874 are mostly separate from those of the Liberty, except that between 1825-74 the Clerk for each jurisdiction was the same person and so unfortunately Liberty papers are sometimes found among County papers and vice-versa. An index to the Sessions Records was first compiled in 1825, and this was revised from time to time, as in 1831 when the index to the Liberty Sessions Records showed them to consist of Sessions Rolls, Minute Books and Order Books, beginning in 1758. Nothing is known of the records before that date.
The records are of course very similar in form to those of Middlesex. The Court of Quarter Sessions met four times a year (or more often if necessary) and gradually became the seat of authority for local government and administration of services, as well as a criminal tribunal and an agency for the maintenance of law and order. The Justices, booth in and out of Sessions, were responsible for many of the local government services which finally became transferred to County Councils in 1888. Within the limits set by various statutes they had wide powers. Hence in the Sessions Records there is not only a record of the lesser felonies, misdemeanours and punishment of crime, but a great deal about the administrative services of local government and its social background.
Judicial and allied records consist of Sessions Books and Minute Books, which form the official record of Court proceedings and decisions, and thus deal with much of the business of the Sessions Rolls record. There are also Process and Indictment books 1872-1895, with earlier presentments and indictments recorded in the Sessions books; Recognizance Books 1829-1894, including depositions of witnesses and persons accused of disturbing the peace at Barnet, 1833; Gaol Books, consisting of Gaol and House of Correction Calendars, records of convictions and recognizances delivered into court. After 1828 Gaol Calendars are included in the Sessions Books, and recognizances have a separate record book.
Fines and Estreats of Fines are included in these Records, consisting of returns made, on the Sheriffs Account, to the Exchequer, of Fines and Issues of the Court of Common Pleas and of Estreats of Fines forfeited at the Liberty Quarter Sessions 1802-1834. Various other Fines and draft accounts exist for the period 1822~1860, as well as Fee Books, with Fees of Sessions for 1819-1864.
There are separate records for the Gaol and House of Correction, all beginning in 1758, the first year for which any records survive, and .there are frequent references all through the Sessions Rolls and Books to them. These include estimates, accounts, orders, matters relating to supplies, treatment and maintenance of prisoners, fees paid to keepers, their appointment, payments to other staff, etc. From 1822 there are regular reports of the Visiting Justices, and Chaplains reports from 1836. Accounts for medical attention and medicines go back to 1775.
Very little can be traced about early Divisional and Petty Sessional meetings in the Liberty, but by 1795 there were magistrates meetincs at Watford, St. Albans and Barnet for licensing purposes; they also put into execution a Quarters Sessions order about the baking in that year of only standard wheaten bread. Records of meetings at Barnet survive for 1796-7, and they are the only surviving examples before the 19th c. The proceedings were held at the Boars’ Head Inn, Barnet, and concern many aspects of local jurisdiction, as well as highway administration, which were generally despatched by two Justices. Lists of summary convictions exist for 1833 and 1835 and a register of convictions under the Criminal Justice Act 1855-1870, which 1ists the name of the person convicted, offence and punishment.
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Records of Quarter Sessions also cover administrative services (boundaries, census, finance and rating, highways, poor relief, bastardy, lunacy, constabu1ary, reformatories and industrial schools, licensing, inspection and certification (public houses and victuallers, recognizances, music and dancing licences, licensed tradesmen, printing presses, weights and measures, food and drugs) religious and social institutions (religious bodies and meeting houses, Freemasons, friendly societies, building societies) enrolments, deposits and allied records (land tax, window and house tax, parliamentary elections, charities, enclosure awards, public undertakings and deposited plans). The list is almost endless.
For those who are unable to travel to Hertford and work through the original records, it is useful to know that many of the items mentioned above are calendared in Hertfordshire County Records Vol. IV, published by the Hertfordshire County Council 1905-1957, but only up to 1841; a typewritten calendar is available at Hertford County Record Office for the period 1841-1874 when the Liberty records came to an end on amalgamation with the County.
For those interested in judicial records, it is worth noting that although documents to the Assizes can be found among the Sheriff’s papers, the official Assize records have been deposited in the Public Record Office, now at Kew, and consist of the early records of the Justices Itinerant (1247-1455) and of other records of the Home and South Eastern Circuits i.e. Indictments 1559-1891; Miscellaneous Books 1673-1891; Agenda books 1753-1887; Estreats 1770-1810; Minute Books 1783~1891; Depositions 1813-1889 and Pleadings 1870-1890.
NEW MEMBERS UP-TO-DATE
Just to round off 1978, here’s a welcome to the latest contingent of new members of HADAS who joined during the last four months of that year. They are:
Helen Adam, Hendon; Mrs. J. Back, Golders Green; M D Bennett, East Finchley; Nancy Bettinson, Hampstead; T A Dawson, Totteridge; Rose Finkle, Golders Green; Betty Fox, East Finchley; Mary Gandy, Totteridge; Ruth Goldstraw, NW6; Mrs. Green, Hendon; Mr & Mrs Hamilton, Garden Suburb; Frank Hayward, Hendon; Betty Law, Cricklewood; Maurice Lazarus, Totteridge; Mrs. 0 Levin, East Finchley; Ann Lowe, Garden Suburb; Mrs & Misses Rarmilla and Pippa Nissen, Highgate; Susan O’Neill, Chelsea; Clive Oppenheimer, Mill Hill; Mrs. Osterweil, Wembley; Michael Purton, Finchley; Rev. L F Rice, Mill Hill; Deborah Roberts, Totteridge; Mr & Mrs Sleight; Barnet; Christopher Stevens, Cricklewood; Mr & Mrs Stokes, Highgate; Pamela Townsend, Hampstead; Diana Wheatley, Stanmore; Viv Williamson, Colindale.
LONDON’S INDUSTRIES AT THE MUSEUM OF LONDON
A special exhibition on Industrial Archaeology is on now at the Museum of London annd will continue until the end of January. It has been arranged jointly by the Museum ‘and the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society.
The exhibition emphasises the local nature, within London, of industry – Clerkenwell for luxury metal trades, Bethnal Green and Shoreditch for weaving, cabinet making and shoemaking, Camden Town for pianos and Southwark for hats. Tanners worked in Bermondsey and printers in the City, while the river and the docks attracted to the East End such industries as sugar refining, soap making, tobacco and ~ chemical working.
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In addition there are the general industries that served everyone everywhere: the supply of water, gas, electricity, hydraulic power, transport and main drainage.
As we are on the subject of Industrial Archaeology, don’t forget that HADAS’s exhibition on that subject, as it affects our own Borough “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow”, also goes on till the end of January at Barnet Museum, Wood Street – open on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons, 2.30-4.30 pm and Saturday mornings 10-12.30.
An Industrial Archaeology query
.. comes from Bill Firth:
“I have been asked for information about the tram depot at Hendon (Colindale). The Metropolitan Electric Tramways Company seems to have been very reticent about what went on there but some famous trams were built there. When London Transport ended the trolleybus services out of the depot it was given up and has subsequently been demolished and another building put up on the site.
If any members have any information about it, would they please let me know?”
DARK AGE BRITAIN
The course on the Archaeology of the Dark Ages (lecturer Miss M. Skalla, MA) at Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute on Tuesdays, 8-9.30 pm, will start again on Jan. 9 1979 for its second term.
New students will be welcome just for this second part of the course at half fees – i.e. £4.00. The first term dealt with Dark Age Europe, this coming term will be devoted to Dark Age Britain. Apply to the Institute, Central Square, NWll.
ADDITIONS TO THE HADAS BOOKBOX
The following have recently been added to the HADAS Bookbox through the kindness of members – Philip Venning, Sandra Hooper and others – to whom many thanks (references are to the Hon. Librarian’s master list): (References on left are to categories and numbers on the Hon. Librarian’s master list)
Anthropology 8 Guide to Fossil Man Michael Day
Arch. Foreign F34 Early Hominids in Africa edit. Clifford Jolly
Misc. 157 Photocopies of articles on clay tobacco pipes from “Post Medieval Archaelogy”
158 Archaeologists Year Book 1977
Collection of guides not numbered Saxtead Green Mill
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RESTORATION AT CHEDWORTH
Last year HADAS made a small donation towards the cost of the preservation of the Painted House at Dover. This year the Committee decided to do something similar; and contributed to the restoration of the Roman villa at Chedworth, Gloucestershire, a National Trust property which many of us visited on an outing in August, 1976.
We have now had a letter from the National Trust which may be of interest to members:
“I write to express the very sincere gratitude of the National Trust for the generous cheque of £10 which you have just sent us. We understand that you would like this to be earmarked towards the work we are now conducting at Chedworth Roman Villa, and I should be grateful if you could assure your members that we will spend their money as you have indicated.
I was at Chedworth last week and spent some time watching the exacting work being done on re-laying the tesserae on the new damp-proof base which has been laid over the hypocaust. As you know well, this sort of work tends to run away with money. The support of friends like yourselves is welcome indeed and is a shot in the arm to all of us concerned with looking after important features of our past.”
NEW MEMBERSHIP LIST
Enclosed with this Newsletter you will find a new HADAS membership list, containing the names of all paid-up members at January 1, 1979. Indeed, if your Newsletter is just a few days later than usual in reaching you, this list is the reason. We leave it to the last possible moment to type, and then doing it is quite a mammoth job.
Our Hon. Secretary would be very grateful if you would check your own name, address and phone number when the list reaches you – and if there is anything wrong with them, please don’t hesitate to let her know. She has a recurring nightmare that one year a gremlin will get loose – specially among the 400 or so phone numbers!
Thanks – FIFTY TIMES
This Newsletter is going to end on a happy note. Last month we described how, after years of searching, HADAS had at last found a very small home at Avenue House, Finchley, where the London Borough of Barnet is renting us a room.
One of our members who appreciates just how much this could mean to the Society sat down at once and -with the strictest possible instructions about preserving his/her anonymity – wrote out a cheque for £50 towards our first year’s rent. It will pay almost half of it: and we can’t think of a kinder or more thoughtful gesture to start HADAS’s New Year.
Bless you, Anonymous Donor – 50 times over!
