Newsletter
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Programme for next winter
The Programme Committee has recently been hard at work arranging a
varied series of lectures for 1974-5. All meetings (except the
Christmas party) will be at Central Library, The Burroughs, NW4, on the
first Tuesday of the month, starting at 8.00p.m. Coffee first, followed
by the lecture.
The first meeting is on Tuesday 1 October, when HADAS will play
host to the Camden History Society. A number of Camden History members
hope to attend, so if you find an "unknown" sitting beside you, do
making him -- or her -- welcome.
Camden have asked us to demonstrate what a local archaeological
society like HADAS does, so we shall provide a cross-section of our
outdoor activities. If you are a new HADAS member, this meeting will
fill in the scene for you, too; while for members of longer standing,
trying to keep in touch with the many-sided activities of our Society
today, this is also your chance!
Ted Sammes will talk about the Church End excavation, Paddy
Musgrove will discuss intricacies of hedgerow dating and Percy Reboul
will describe the fascinations of churchyard surveys. All with slides.
And, for your diary, this is the rest of the 1974-5 programme:
Tuesday Nov. 5
| - Mycenae - Capital City of the ancient Greeks - Portia Wakllace Zeuner, F.R.A.I.
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Friday Dec. 6
| - Christmas Party, 166 Station Road, NW4. Starts 7.30 p.m.
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Tuesday Jan. 7
| - Mucking, Essex, Crop-mark Sites - M. U. and W. T. Jones
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Tuesday Feb. 4
| - The Lunt Roman Fort, Warwicks - Excavation and reconstruction - Brian Hobley
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Tuesday March 4
| - Medieval Jewellery and Pottery - John Cherry
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Tuesday April 1
| - Are We Fair to Neanderthal Man? - Desmond Collins
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Final Summer Outing
This will be on Saturday 14 September, with visits to Wormleighton
deserted medieval village, Compton Wyngates and the Rollright Stones.
Very few places are left, so apply quickly. Will members who
have booked verbally please complete the enclosed booking form and send
immediately, with remittance, to Dorothy Newbury.
Operation Tombola
At this year's Christmas party we hope to raise funds for the
Society by running a Tombola. Dorothy Newbury, the tombola past-master,
will be in charge.
Will members prepared to help please start now collecting small
eye-catching objects? Every tombola ticket draws something, so we need
a lot of prizes. Mrs. Newbury will welcome tombola gifts at the October
and November meetings.
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Study of "An Hedgesyde"
A note by Paddy Musgrove.
The Battle of Barnet was fought on Easter Day, 1471: "upon
Gladmore Heath , halfe a mile from Barnet". We are told this by John
Weever, in 1631. Other writers, including Sir John Paston, have
confirmed the exact distance. And Sir John was in a position to know.
He had taken part in the battle and was writing to his mother only four
days later. We may therefore assume that the Medieval Manor House of
Old Fold -- the moated site of which is now the eighteenth green of Old
Fold Manor Golf Club -- was in the middle of that bloody and fluid
battle.
Edward Walford (Greater London, 1882) tells us that some of
Warwick the Kingmaker's men are said to have sheltered in the building
on the previous night. Whether this is true or not, we know, from the
official Yorkist account (the Historie of the Arrivall of Edward IV),
written within six weeks of the Battle, that when Edward had reached
Barnet on the evening of April 13th he found "under an hedgesyde were
redy assembled a great people, in array, of th'Erle of Warwike".
Local tradition has it that this hedge still exists on the golf
course and that it follows the line of a public right-of-way running NW
to the present St. Albans Road from the footpath guide post at TQ 2412
9771.
In order to establish if this particular hedgerow could
possibly have been in existence 500 years ago, Mrs. Isabelle
Cruickshank and I recently carried out a survey, based on the methods
evolved by Dr Max Hooper and described in the March, 1974, Newsletter.
Going NW from the guide-post, we found that the first 110 yards
of the hedge was sparse and seems to have been recently planted or
re-planted, as it consisted almost entirely of young oaks. From point
2405 9778 on, three consecutive 30 yard stretches were examined.
A section contained 5 different species. Common Hawthorn,
Midland Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Pedunculate Oak were present in all
three. In addition, the first section contained Field Maple, while the
second and third both contained Ash. There were also many Hawthorn
hybrids in all three sections. The presence of Midland Hawthorn
(Crataegus laevigata) in this area could in itself suggest antiquity.
At one point, where the hedge widened out into a spinney, 4
additional species were found, namely Sycamore, Crack Willow, Wild Plum
and Silver Birch. This area may have been separately planted as a copse
and therefore was ignored for statistical purposes. Only species
directly on the hedge-line were considered and consequently our dating
is likely to be conservative. Our conclusions were:
1. On the basis of Dr. Hooper's equation, the median date of hedge-planting is the late fourteenth century.
2. The hedge is likely to have been well-established at the time of the Battle of Barnet.
3. It is possible that local tradition just come to be correct.
Semi-Detached Suburbia
Report by Celia Gould.
On August 17th a small but dedicated HADAS band, led by Alec
Jeakins, met to trace the growth of Edgware over the last of century.
Despite the arrival of a single-track GNR line from Finsbury Park in
1867 (long since disused) and trams from Cricklewood in 1904, major
development in Edgware can really be dated to the opening of the
extension of the Northern Line tube from Golders Green, exactly 50
years ago -- in August, 1924. Between 1921-31 the population rose from
1576 to 17500.
If one man could truly lay claim to having been the "architect"
of the present-day Edgware, it is George Cross, an ambitious young
estate agent who sensed that the area was ripe for development as early
as 1910. Expansion quickened dramatically with the arrival of the tube.
In 1926 Cross, in conjunction with the architect A. J. Butcher,
developed 85 acres of the Canons Park Estate, where houses, expensive
for their day, ranged from £1500 to £3500. In the eighteenth century
this estate had belonged to the Duke of Chandos. The pillars of his
ducal gateway still survive, and on the site of his huge mansion, built
in 1712 at a cost of £250,000 and demolished some 40 years later, now
stands the North London Collegiate School.
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Next we visited the baroque church of St. Lawrence, where we saw
the Duke's pew, the Chandos Mausoleum, and the organ played by Handel
when he was the Duke's "chapel-master" at Canons.
We looked too at Cross's "Premier Parade" of shops, dating from
1924; and at the Edgware Manor Estate, also developed by Cross in the
1920s. Finally, on the corner of Hale Lane and Broadfield Avenue, we
saw a "modern" house, dated 1934 and originally refused planning
permission because it was "too violent a contrast with the adjacent
property"!
All thanks to Alec Jeakins for arranging this outing and opening our eyes to the finer points of suburbia.
RECOMMENDED READING: Suffolk Punch by George Cross: Semi-Detached London by Alec Jackson.
Book-list for the Medieval Period
Drawn up by Edward Sammes.
This list is a follow-up to that on Roman Pottery in Newsletter
42. The Medieval and post-Medieval periods were somewhat neglected
until after the last war – the first A.G.M. of the Society for Medieval
Archaeology, for instance, was only held in December 1957. Much
material is also reported in the publications of the County and local
Societies. The list below covers many aspects of the period;
regrettably there are few low-priced books o the subject.
General
MEDIEVAL POTTERY OF THE OXFORD REGION, David A. Hinton, Ashmolean
Museum, 1973, 21p. Small booklet illustrating 19 typical, fine pieces
from 11th-15th century. Short paragraph describes each illustration.
MEDIEVAL ENGLISH POTTERY, Bernard Rackham, 2nd edit, revised J.
G. Hurst, Faber, 1972, £6.50. Deals with the full pottery range of the
period, well backed up with 96 full-page photos and 8 colour plates.
Regrettably there are no drawings of pots nor is the humble cooking pot
in much evidence.
MEDIEVAL TILES, Elizabeth S. Eames, British Museum, 1968. Price
when published, 9s 6d. Comprehensive booklet on the decorated tile and
on the use of shaped tiles to produce a mosaic.
(1) ANGLO-SAXON PENNIES and (2) VIKING COINS OF THE DANELAW. Both by Michael Dolley, British Museum, 1964/5, 25p each.
MEDIEVAL CATALOGUE, H.M.S.O. 1967, £3.15, by post £3.42. Gives
details and illustrations of objects of everyday life in the Middle
Ages from combs to cooking pots. Re-issue of an original printed in
1940.
MAP OF BRITAIN IN THE DARK AGES, pub. by the Ordnance Survey,
1966, 87 1/2p. Has an introductory text, an index of Dark Age sites and
a map showing their location.
DESERTED MEDIEVAL VILLAGES, studies editted by M. Beresford and
J. G. Hurst, Lutterworth Press, 1971, £8.00. Comprehensive survey with
good diagrams, photos and an extensive bibliography.
Of Local Interest
MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, Vol 5, 1961, The Kitchen Area of Northolt
Manor, Middx. J. G. Hurst. Comprehensive report of 89 pages with good
drawings of everyday wares of the period. This is our nearest
well-documented site.
MEDIEVAL LONDON, Timothy Baker, Cassell, 1970, £2,75. General background to Medieval London and its surviving remains.
CHAUCER'S LONDON, Brian Spencer, London Museum, 1972. 30p.
Originally produced for the exhibition of Medieval London, this is a
good guide and introduction to the present Medieval Gallery.
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POTTERS AND KILNS IN MEDIEVAL HERTFORDSHIRE, Derek F. Benn, pub.
by Herts Local History Council, 1964, price then 4s. A list of Herts
kilns then known, with drawings; includes the 13th century Arkley kiln.
Mrs. M. Herbert
Members will be saddened to learn of the death of Mrs. M. Herbert,
one of the founder members of HADAS. She had been unable for to join in
the Society's more active pursuits but she maintained her interest in
Hendon history, enjoyed lectures and always came to exhibitions at
Church Farm House Museum.
Her son, sorting her papers, found a HADAS Newsletter in which
the Hon. Treasurer had appealed for trading stamps; alongside were some
six books and two boxes of stamps. Dr Herbert kindly sent them to us,
saying he felt sure his Mother had been collecting for HADAS. We hope
to use the stamps to provide tools or a measuring tape for excavations,
in which Mrs. Herbert took a lively interest.
Local Courses
Come September we usually give brief details of some of the many courses starting locally this autumn.
DIPLOMA IN ARCHAEOLOGY. First and second year courses at
Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute. No local third or fourth year
courses.
CERTIFICATE IN FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY. No local first or second year courses, but there is third year course at Barnet College.
DIPLOMA IN LOCAL HISTORY. No local courses.
TUTORIAL CLASSES in Greek and Roman Archaeology in Barnet,
Friern Barnet, Golders Green and Hendon. The Hendon course continues
the class HADAS helped to start four years ago. New members can be
accepted.
TUTORIAL CLASSES on the Victorians and the History of London in
East Barnet, Edgware, Friern Barnet; at H.G.S. Institute -- two HADAS
members will be lecturing – Stella Colwell on Genealogy and
Palaeograophy and Philippa Bernard on Elizabethan England.
Further details of all classes from the Hon. Secretary.
Perhaps it's appropriate to record here that we know of 7 HADAS
members who hold the Diploma In Archaeology -- there may be others. At
least 14 members have done part of the Diploma. The Certificate has not
been existence long enough for HADAS to notch up any holders: but at
least one member is about to start his final year. Two HADAS members
hold the Diploma in Local History.
Processing Finds
Finally, news of a short, non-local course: this is a "teaching
exercise" organised by Harvey Sheldon on Monday evenings for five or
six weeks starting in September, on the processing of finds from the
initial stages onwards. The material used, mainly Roman, will come from
digs in Southwark and at Old Ford.
The course will take place in the Southwark Archaeological
Excavation Committee's Warehouse beside the London Bridge. For precise
date and time of starting, please ring now. Mr Sheldon asks us to say
that HADAS members will be particularly welcome.
Another Cordial Invitation
This comes to HADAS members from the Railway and Canal Historical
Society -- to a lecture on Benjamin Outram, civil engineer. To be held
at the Science Museum, South Kensington, at 5.00 p.m. on Saturday 5
October. Admission free, but by ticket, obtainable from Mr A. Roose.