NEWSLETTER 126 AUGUST 1981.
NEW MEMBERS.
It is some months since we welcomed in the Newsletter any of HADAS’s new members – so this is to greet all those who have joined the Society in the last six months or so, and to hope that they will enjoy their membership and take part in as many of our activities as they can. They aro:-
Margaret Allen, Hampstead; K. Arnold, Garden Suburb; Mr. & Mrs. Aylmer-Pearce, Garden Suburb; L. Bentley, Mill Hill; Mr. Biggs, Hendon; T. Boner, Temple Fortune; Felicia and Lola Brand, Hendon; Attracta Brown, Kingsbury; Veronica Burrell, N.19; James Gorden, Golders Green; Mark Elias, Golders Green; Mr. & Mrs. Garnior, Hendon; Elizabeth Goring, Garden Suburb; John Hales, Hendon; Lynn Harvey, N. Finchley; Gay Hodgetts, W.5; Mr. & Mrs. Hull, Highgate; Miss Kahn, Finchley; Mr. & Mrs. Karton, Garden Suburb; Ian Kimber, Hill Hill; Edward James, Hampstead; Moira Lester, Finchley; Richard Lewis, Finchley; Theresa McDonald, Ghorley Wood; Mr. -mu@hmorc, Temple Fortune; Mr. & Mrs. Nutting, Barnet; Deborah Falco, W.10; Jill Rady, New Barnet; Mrs. Road, Mill Hill; John Stevens, N.9; Sally Tredgold, Finchley; Tim & Linda Webb, New Barnet; Leslie Willis, N.a.5.
We are also happy to record two now corporate memberships; the Inner London Archaeological Unit and Whitefield School, N.4.2.
ARCHAEOLOGY IN WINTER: Pt I.
Although August should (we hope) still be high summer, you may like a little advanced news of various adult education classes next winter. Further information in the September Newsletter.
First, local arrangements in the Borough of Barnet for the London University Extramural Diploma in Archaeology (4 years) and Certificate in Field Archaeology (3 years), both of which involve 28 meetings (which includ3 4 field visits). These courses cover the autumn and spring terms, with an examination at the end.
You can do Year I of the Diploma – the Archaeology of Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Man – at the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, Central Square, N.W.11, on Mondays, from 7.30 – 9.30 p.m, starting September 21st. These are the lectures at which Desmond Collins, for the last 16years has given generations of HADAS members their first taste of archaeology. His place this year will be taken by M. Hemingway, MA. PhD. Fee: £11.
Year 2 – the Archaeology of Western Asia – is also available at the HGS Institute, on Thursdays from September 24th, 7.30 – 9.30 p.m, Lecturer D. Price Williams, PhD. Fee: £ll.
For the third year course- on Prehistoric Europe – you must travel: the nearest lectures are at the Mary Ward Settlement or the Institute of Archaeology. The various options for the fourth year- either Egyptology, Prehistoric Britain, Roman Britain or Environmental Archaeology – are either at these two venues or at the Extramural Department in Russell Square or at Morley College.
Of the three courses (Years 1, 2 and 3) for the Certificate in Field Archaeology, you can do the second year at Barnet College on Wednesday evenings, starting September 30th, Lecturer D. Williams, B.A. This course (which can be taken by students who have not done the first year) covers the planning and organisation of digs and deals particularly with the Romano-British period in Southeast England.
Year I (Prehistory of SE England) and Year 3 (post-Roman period) are not available locally. The Marylebone Institute, Elgin Avenue, is the nearest venue for first year lectures, and for the third year you would have to go to Chelmsford or Croydon.
HADAS Diploma or Certificate holders will find that there are the usual small group of University post-diploma courses, which deal with the problems of analysing excavated material; one course on plant remains, two on animal bones (elementary and advanced studies) and one on human skeletal remains. These are either at the Extramural Department or the Institute of Archaeology.
There will also be the usual series of 18 public lectures at the Institute of Archaeology, beginning on the last Thursday of October and this year dealing with the later prehistory of Britain. Lecture subjects are not yet finalised, but a skeleton programme shows them starting with the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition and going through to hill-forts and the tidal.: a Scottish tell, More about this, we hope, in a future Newsletter. (The fee for the series is £15, or £1 a lecture, payable at the door).
Other reasonably local University Extension evening courses include:‑
Celtic Britain and Europe. Mondays from September 21st, A.C.King, at Camden Institute, Crogsland Road, N.W.l.
Archaeology of Southern Britain. Tuesdays from September 22nd, B. Johnson, Edmonton College, Chase Road, Southgate.
Archaeological Field Techniques, Wednesdays from September 23rd, B. Johnson, Willesden Green Library, High Road, N.W.l0.
HGS Institute offers several morning courses which might interest retired members – on subjects like Furniture (Medieval – 1861); London’s Heritage; and (on Tuesday evenings) British Pottery and Porcelain, 1650 – 1900. Further details (including copies of the new Prospectus) are obtainable from the Institute, where you can enrol any weekday during normal office hours, except between August 10th - 21st.
Barnet College also has some other courses which might interest members:
Diploma in Classical Art and Architecture, Tuesdays from September 22nd at Barnet College.
Trace Your Family History, Wednesdays from September 30th at Finchley Manorhill School.
London Life and Buildings, Mondays from September 28th at the Owen Centre.
Historic Houses of Herts, 2 courses starting Tuesday September 29th and Wednesday September 30th at the Owen Centre.
The main enrolment days at Barnet College are Tuesday September 15th, 10 a.m. – 8.p.m; Wednesday September 16th. 6-8 p.m.
The College brochure will be published in August as a supplement to the Barnet Press.
HADAS “SPECIAL”. by Daphne Lorimer.
Finally, when you plan your activities for next winter, don’t forget the HADAS courses at Flower Lane College in Mill Hill. The pre-Christmas course will be a basic chronological one, while the second course in the New Year will cover various special aspects of life in ancient times. The two courses are independent of each other, so if you wish you can take one without the other – although the College hopes many students will opt for both courses.
Seven HADAS members (themselves holders of the Diploma in Archaeology) are taking part in the courses as lecturers. Lectures are on Mondays, from 7.30 9.30 p.m. The first course begins on September 21st and ends on November 30th. Sheila Woodward opens and closes the batting, with general lectures on “Field and Dirt Archaeology” and “Dating.” Margaret Maher starts the chronological sequence, on the Lower and the Upper Palaeolithic, with Daphne Lorimer completing the hunter-gatherer ages by a talk on the Mesolithic. She goes on to the coming of the Neolithic farmers, and then Dave King handles the metal ages – Copper/Bronze and Iron. Brigid Grafton Green completes the chronology with two lectures on Roman Britain.
In the Easter term lectures begin on January 11th andend on March 22nd, and lecturers concentrate on some of their “pet” subjects. Daphne Lorimer speaks on archaeological detection (with a lecture on clues to ancient farming) and goes on to early transport; Margaret Maher lectures on the very wide topic of “Tools.” Liz Sagues handles Cave Art; Brigid Grafton Green deals with the salt trade in Europe in prehistory and medieval times, and continues with trackways and roads. Hellenistic Greece Is one of Sheila Woodward’s topics, “Men the Builder” is the other. Nicole Douek lectures on Hellenistic Egypt end on Trade in the Ancient Near East.
Enrolment for these two courses takes place at Hendon College of Further Education, The Burroughs, N.W.4 on Tuesday September 8th, 5-8 p.m; and Wednesday September 9th, 2-8 p.m. Daphne Lorimer (445-2880) will gladly answer questions about any further details; or, if she is not available, try Brigid Grafton Green (455-9040).
WEST HEATH NEWS.
Digging will start again, as announced in the June Newsletter, on August 29th and will continue through September and October. Digging will be on most days except Mondays and Fridays, and all volunteers will be most welcome.
GOING FOR A SONG ! by Percy Reboul.
I am sure that many HADAS members will share my enthusiasm for the old ‘Strand Magazine’. Together with similar journals of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, it was a cornucopia of fine stories, deathless humour and off-beat articles. I have never failed to find something of interest in those dusty bound copies which you can still get from second-hand bookshops for a couple of pounds.
Last month, however, I purchased an issue that, archaeologically speaking,
exceeded my wildest hopes. I am pleased to pass on part of one of the articles called ‘Queer Companies’ by A.T.Dolling. It concerns the remarkable activities of British capitalists at the turn of the century who…’took risks that others would not take, and engaged in overseas adventures that often seemed extravagant, quixotic and absurd.’ That, in my view, is putting it mildly!
But…judge for yourselves.
But treasure is of all kinds, as the forty-eight different radium discovery
companies bear witness. Archaeological Finds, Limited, denotes, too, another kind of buried treasure. Everyone knows the value of Etruscan vases, Greek, Roman, and Assyrian bronzes, Tanagra figurines, and the thousand and one fragments of ancient civilization which are being dug out of the earth in Asia Minor. Most of these operations are being conducted by Governments and learned societies, and the annual value of the product is very great, but there are a horde of private speculators on the spot who manage, or who drive, a very good business.
“We need hardly point out,” say the promotes of this company, “that archaeology has its financial as well as its scientific side, and that the profits from excavated stone and metal antiques are commensurate with the public interest in the subject. The archaeological societies of the various Governments, in spite of their variable finds, have as yet merely scratched the surface of the ground. Aegean and Mycenaean pottery fetches large prices in London, Paris, Berlin, and New York, and there are tons of this ware to be had at the expenditure of moderate labour. The great Ionian cities of Asia Minor are only awaiting exploitation which will repay at least two hundred per cent, on the capital employed.”
The agent of the Archaeological Finds syndicate scour the country in the vicinity now being excavated by British and Continental archaeologists, and besides buying specimens from the peasants of Olympia, Delphi, Ephesus and Crete, they sometimes recover objects of value themselves.
“We do,” explained one of this syndicate’s agents, “a big trade in figures, busts, metopes, and fragments generally, disposing of these to smaller museums and private collectors. Our employees are not archaeologists, but simply bright young men who are instructed to buy anything two thousand years old, even if it’s a mere brick or fragment of stone from a temple. On one occasion our chief agent- wired- us that he was offered the concession of twenty acres of land near Assos, supposed to be the site of a village, and from which a statue had been excavated. We wired him to go ahead- The price – a high one – was paid to the farmer and ten men engaged. The land was roped off and a British flag was stuck up to warn off trespassers. They ploughed for three weeks, and the only thing, except onions, they found was a small French cannon dated 1794. This would have been abandoned in disgust, but an American coming along with more money than archaeological knowledge was induced by one of the workmen rather too enterprising to believe it was 1794 B.C. He offered five hundred piastres for it, and it was shipped out to Chicago as a Greek relic.”
SUMMER SNIPPETS.
The Finchley Society has had its tenth birthday this year part of the celebrations, it held a two-day Fair at College Farm on June 27/28, and kindly invited HADAS to put up a display. So we moved the greater part of the “Milk for the Millions” exhibit, which had been shown at Church Farm House Museum, over to College Farm for the occasion.
“Milk for the Millions,” which tells the story of College Farm, was much in demand that particular weekend, as the Wembley History Society also wanted to borrow it for display at a fete on June 27th to raise funds for Wembley Hospital. They were interested because Titus Barham, son of Sir George Barham who founded the Express Dairy Company and built College Farm, had lived in Wembley. In 1924 Titus presented the land on which Wembley Hospital was built, and in 1927 he became the chairman of the board of management. Barham’s house, Sudbury Lodge, was left to the citizens of Wembley when he died in 1937, just before becoming charter Mayor. The mansion was demolished in 1956, but its grounds remain as Barham Park.
Writing to us afterwards to thank us for the loan of the material, the Wembley History Society say “It was most interesting hearing the comments of newcomers to the district, who had no idea that the Barhams were the Express Dairy…those of us who during pre-war school days remember the Wembley Hospital Carnival
processions, with Titus Barham on his white horse and the decorated Express floats
and cars, tend to think everyone has the same memories…”
HADAS members are cordially invited by the Friends of College Farm to a Barbecue to
be held at College Farm, Fitzalan Road, H.3., on Saturday, September 5th, 1981,
commencing at 7.30.p.m.
Tickets will be available (from the middle of August) at £2 per head from:‑
V. Foster,
8, Stanhope Avenue, Finchley. N.3. 3LX.
More details, including the menu, in due course.
Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute has been celebrating too, as it does every
midsummer, with an Open Week which went on from June 27th – July 4th. By kind
invitation of the Principal, John Enderby (who is, of course a. HADAS founder-member),
we had a bookstall outside the Teahouse on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays, where
our Hon. Treasurer did a brisk trade in HADAS and Shire publications.
On Wednesday another HADAS founder-member – Vice-President Mrs. Rosa Freedman,
now Mayor of Barnet – toured the Institute on an official visit and, among other
displays, saw a HADAS stand of photographs and pottery. This had been ably mounted
and stewarded by two members of the junior group. Philippa Lowe and Bryan Hackett.
On July 3rd we went further afield. Daphne Lorimer, Myfanwy Stewart and
Shirley Korn were responsible for putting on a display at the Natural History
Museum at South Kensington. This was, virtually speaking, the “Science and
Archaeology” exhibit which had been shown in “Pinning Down the Past” at Church Farm
House Museum. The occasion was an all-day symposium, with lectures and exhibits on
various aspects of London’s natural history.
HADAS is greatly indebted to those of its members who – often at some
inconvenience to themselves – plan, transport and mount these one-day displays and
help to steward them and to sell publications.
During this month we have been asked to put up a display in Grahame Park, where
an experiment in providing community entertainment during the holiday month of
August is being tried.
The HADAS Roman Group is handling this, and intends to show Roman finds from
field walks in Edgware, together with a relevant photographic display.
Another Roman-style event has been a talk – with slides and samples.- on Roman
cookery, given by Daphne Lorimer to the Womens Friendship Club of the Whetstone United
Reform Church.
We’re told the Roman nut turnover went down (literally) a treat!
One of our Garden Suburb members, Miss Sheldon, reports that the Garden Suburb
Fellowship (which provides various kinds of entertainment and refreshment for the over‑
60’s of the Suburb at Fellowship House on Willifield Green) was so delighted with
Percy Reboul’s “Those Were the Days” that one Tuesday in July they turned some of his
“tales from the Borough of Barnet” into an afternoon’s entertainment, giving readings
from the booklet interspersed with personal reminiscences from members.
Our final snippet doesn’t really concern HADAS: but a HADAS member, Nell Penny has had a hand in it, and we thought that you would be interested. It concerns the publication, in July, of an anthology of poetry, under the title Now This Won’t Hurt,, by children of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital School, at Edgware. (The RNOH, as every HADAS member knows, is on the boundary of the boroughs of Harrow and Barnet, and stands on part of our most important archaeological site, the Roman kilns of Brockley Hill).
This passage from the introduction to the book explains its genesis:
“The pupils who have contributed to this anthology were all undergoing treatment in the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. All children of school age in the Hospital are enrolled in our School which was established in 1923, and is maintained by Harrow Education Authority. Pupils receive tuition according to individual need: they may be short-stay or long-stay. ‘A’ level students or children with special learning difficulties. Some work
in bed in prone or supine positions; others work in wheelchairs; a few maybe fully mobile. All participate in school activities whenever fit. The young writers and artists were perhaps facing surgery, or convalescing; they may have been adjusting to traction or, wearing plaster casts; some were coping with admission to a strange ward or preparing for discharge…”
The book (107 pages) is illustrated, as well as written, by young patients (youngest.7½ years,. oldest 16) and is lively, unexpected and often moving. You can get a; copy from the hospital for £1.50 (add at least-50 pence for post/packing.) All proceeds will be used for the young patients.
FROM 1C to 18C IN ONE DAY. A Report on the July outing by Betty Key.
This was an exemplary tour to Bath and Lacock Abbey, fashioned for us by Dorothy Newbury. We were 50 very satisfied guinea-pigs using the World Wide Coach Co., for the first time. We left and arrived throughout the day bang on the scheduled times, and the day being partly overcast and cool was perfect coaching weather. The monotonous M 4 was enlivened for us by an excellent run down by Maurice Cantor on all aspects of the visit to come, – and Bath being the wonderful 2-dimensional city it is, that is no mean task! After the verbal information, literature about the excavations and Museum, and a plan of the city were passed round. This was a well thought out and execute addition tour pleasure.
On arrival, we had a little time in the Roman Baths to walk through the Pump Room with its Chippendale furniture, beautiful chandeliers and the Tompion Long Case clock, mentioned by Dickens in Pickwick Papers. We stopped in the adjacent room to wonder at the exquisite work of the Dynastic Embroidery done by Audrey Walker. It was commissioned in 1973 for the 1,000th anniversary of the Coronation of King Edgar in Bath Abbey – 1st King of All England.
No time to do real justice to the Museum before assembling for our Guide at 11:45. She had a clear voice and an amplifier to match. In her 23 minutes of commentary, she managed many odd and extra details over and above the necessary data on the Baths, even some information on the dig currently taking place under the Pump Room. For all Dorothy’s attempts to get us in to see it, the inexorable rule of “weekdays only” had to stand. The Guide reminded us that a quarter of a million gallons of water at 120°F. still gushes up from the springs about 6,000ft. below ground, as it has done ever since Roman days: It contains every mineral except gold.
Armed with our plans we then had time to explore the charm of Bath, enhanced by a greater than usual profusion of flowers for this Floral Festival Week, with everywhere the Prince of Wales Feathers emblem to the fore.
We left punctually at 2.15 for Lacock Abbey, which was founded in 1232 by Ela Countess of Salisbury as a nunnery for Augustinian Canonesses – a cut above the general hoi polloi of nuns explained our Guide. He was excellent, and like a Prima Donna, finished the tour several times, only to be prompted by an interesting question to carry on – to our benefit and pleasure.
William Sharington, bought it from Henry VIII at the Dissolution, and converted it into a private house. The Talbot family (later of photographic fame) came into possession in 18C., and a descendant, Matilda Talbot presented it to the National Trust in 1944. It is still lived in by a great nephew and niece of hers.
But anybody who wants to know who built what, and when and where, will just have to go and be told, or send for the very good Guide Book.
An unexpected pleasure was the ease with which many of us got the welcome cup of tea, with scones (actually warmed!) at the N.T. Tea Rooms close by. All this left scant time for the attractive village. 5.30 saw us back on the coach. Neither boredom nor sleep could take over, with Tessa Smith’s energetic running of the raffle. We didn’t quite catch who won the weekend for two in Bermuda mentioned by Maurice! As far as I could see, quite a number of books were sold, thanks to Bryan Hackett.
The lovely day was nicely rounded off by Andrew Pares’ vote of thanks especially to Dorothy for her efforts, and to Maurice for looking after us, and including Tessa, and of course – our driver.
Book Reviews.
Recording Old Houses by R.W. McDowell. CBA £1.95 (includes postage)
This recent Council for British Archaeology publication is intended as an aid to historians and archaeologists who may be faced with the need to make a detailed record of a building – perhaps because it is about to be demolished or, equally important, because “restoration” (which often alters or possibly obliterates original features) is to take place. Measuring techniques, the use of photography and the whereabouts of documentary sources are all dealt with. There are copious illustrations in the form of plans.
The booklet seems thoroughly practical. Here, for example, is a checklist of
the points you should be able to answer after making even a superficial survey of a building:
name, location, national grid reference, owner, date of inspection; class of house;
shape and aspect; walling materials and method of use, as ‘stone, squared and coursed or
‘timber framed, close studding’; roof materials and shape; openings: position and character of doors and windows; chimneys: position and character; other features, such as string courses, barge boards, eaves, cornices or parapets; evidence of alteration, such as changed roof slopes, heightened walls,altered windows;deductions about plan form; datestone or inscription, if any;estimated date(s) of construction and alteration;outbuildings (to be recorded separately).
Copies of the booklet can be obtained from CBA, 112, Kennington Road,London,SE11
Saxon and Norman London. By John Clark. Museum of London £1.65 (£2 by post.)
This is a well-produced booklet, copiously illustrated in black and white and colour. Mr. Clark (who is an official of the Museum of London and also Secretary of LAMAS} has managed somehow – and it must have been very difficult to do- to compress eight centuries of the history of London into 32 pages. He starts with the rescript of Honorius in 410 AD which warned Roman Britain that it could no longer expect help from Rome against the barbarians, but must look after itself; and he ends in 1215 when, in the year of Magna Carta, King John gave “the barns of London “(i.e. the aldermen) the right to choose their own mayor.
During this time London’s history is not continuous; the 5c/6c are still described as “near blank” from the point of view of evidence. From the end of the 6c however, with the coming of Christianity and the rising power first of Kent and then of Marcia, there is more to tell; and Mr. Clark manages to fit most of it in, if only briefly: the importance of trade and the power of merchants; the place of the church (with a fine engraving of the nave of the Norman St. Pauls); London’s buildings, both domestic and public; the importance of the Thames, and so on. And for those who want more, there’s a brief bibliography at the end.
BRECON BEACONS WEEKEND 11th – 13th SEPTEMBER.
We are staying at the Danywenalit Study Centre in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Our very enthusiastic Ouide for the weekend, Peter Jones, has planned a great variety of visits to suit all tastes.- We shall be leaving on Friday morning returning on Sunday evening.
We now have a very small waiting list for this weekend, any member who would like to go but is not on the waiting list should contact Jeremy Clynes (455-4271) for further information.
SUMMER OUTINGS.
August 15th 1981 – An outing of variety again, first visiting Piddington Roman Villa an excavation in its third year, directed by Mr. Friendship-Taylor of the Upper Nene Archaeological Society, then the Eleanor Cross at Hardingstone, Hunsbury Hill Iron Age earthwork (with an opportunity of seeing the finds from there, at the Central Museum in Northampton later in the day), Abington Park Museum, and possibly the Museum of Leathercraft in Northampton.
If you would like to join this outing please complete the enclosed application Form and send, with cheque, to Dorothy Newbury at once.
A NOTE FOR MEMBERS JOINING OUTING FOR THE FIRST TIME
Upon receipt of your application form and cheque, a place is reserved on the coach. You will be contacted ONLY IF THE OUTING IS FULL. You will then be placed on the waiting list. If in doubt please ring me on 203 0950 to make sure your application has been received.
ANOTHER NOTE.
The July outing to the new Temple Excavation in Bath and Lacock Abbey was full, with a surplus of 28 members wishing to go. By popular request it is proposed a second trip should be organised on Saturday September 26th. Would those members too late for a place in July, who would like to go in September, please ring me (203 0950), and any other members who would like to join the second run. I need to know possible numbers to see if it will be an economic proposition to hire a coach for a re-run.
DOROTHY NEWBURY
