november 2018 digital 0219...lusby, david moore, liz rolfe, liz rose, david smith. 2. president’s...

November 2018 newsletter

Due to copyright issues and also the increasing costof obtaining permissions to include images indigital publications, this digital edition may notinclude all the images present in the printededition.

Newsletter EditorFebruary [email protected]

President’s ReportNotice - AGMPlanning for 175th AnniversaryGroup Reports

The House Where I LiveNew Museum Update

Lecture Update

ST ALBANS & HERTFORDSHIREARCHITECTURAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL

SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER 210NOVEMBER 2018

Tonman Ditch FoundAndrew McIlwraith, PhilanthropistPlanning for the 175th AnniversaryRoman Horses’ Hooves

James Flint, War-time LeaderMarketing the MuseumBlenheim Palace ExcursionSir John Evans’ House

Included in this issue:

St Albans Remembers: ‘Poppy Fields’ in the AbbeyPhoto copyright Sally Masson Photography. Artwork copyright Peter Walker & Luxmuralis

Vale!Farewell to Maggy and Roderick Douglas who are moving from St Albans to pasturesnew. When a society like our own loses such committed volunteers, we notice thelarge gaps they leave. They both served on the Society’s Council, for example: Maggyas Minutes Secretary, Roderick as Webmaster. They also gave talks on our Home Frontproject and Falklands War respectively. That’s just for starters. Those of you who attendlectures will be familiar with Roderick as he regularly did a stint managing the IT/AVfacilities; Maggy was a weekend Clock Tower coordinator. Our list of their valuablecontributions goes on and on but we will stop there simply with a ‘Thank you and goodluck in your new home’.

Sandy Walkington

Table of ContentsPresident’s Message 3Research Seminars 5Annual General Meeting 2018 6Clock Tower Report 8Clock Tower Curio No. 2 - Graffiti 10Visitors to Society Lectures 10A Chance to Take Stock 11Society’s 175th Anniversary Needs Your Help 12The Trip to Blenheim Palace 14Library Report 16Publications Committee Report 19

The Tonman Ditch Found 20Lee’s War Memorial Successfully Resited 22Nash Mills House, the Home of Sir John Evans 23Recent Planning Reports 24‘Anglo Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War’ exhibition 26My Country Needs Me … But? 27A Curious Object At Verulamium 28Andrew McIlwraith: Local Philanthropist, Shipowner etc 30Bank Holiday Problem in Late Victorian St Albans 32James Flint: A Practical Man 34

Lecture Programme 36New Year Party 40

The Society is a Registered Charity, No. 226912. Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this newsletter,the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein or any consequence arising from it.

www.stalbanshistory.org SAHAAS NEWSLETTER 210 Page 3

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Your President has been living,breathing and dreaming history, butnot just because of the importantwork of our Society. I have com-menced a part-time MA in history atthe University of Hertfordshire.

I never got beyond A-level and a smallamount of economic history at univer-sity – very unlike most other membersof your Council who glitter with aca-demic distinction! Wearing my otherhat as a county councillor, I representone of the most ethnically diversedivisions in the city. I am consciousthat our own Society is very pale andwe have not spent much time lookingat our diverse communities.

Our Hertfordshire University hasalways been brilliant at outreach andI have attended some really excellentseminars over the years. Cue a recentone on oral history led by AndrewGreen, the University’s seniorresearch fellow in that discipline, witha keynote speech by Peter Snow, aformer BBC colleague of his.

It was a fascinating day and stimulatedin me the thought that oral historymight unlock some of the stories fromour local immigrant communities and

help developa picture ofwhy theycame, whatthey foundand how theycoped. But Ialso realisedthat it wouldbe helpful tohave some mentoring and objectiverigour, which is why I opted for ataught MA with a dissertation focus-ing on the St Albans immigrationexperience.

It is 40 years since I was last at univer-sity and it has been an intense experi-ence getting back into the academicgroove. My fellow MA students arevastly younger than me and alarm-ingly intelligent. They also are totallyat ease online (I still prefer books andpaper). Our teachers (who all seemto be Professors) look almost as youngas policemen.

We don’t do essays but assignments.No lectures but really thought-provok-ing two-hour long seminars. It is socialhistory – and the history of things aswell (think of that extraordinarilygood lecture given to the Society thislast March by Professor James Walvinon ‘Slavery in Small Things’).


My initial two modules are ‘Local andGlobal: Consumer Societies betweenthe 18th and 21st Centuries’ and‘Research Methods: Approaches toHistory’. We choose our own assign-ment subjects within the parametersof the course. So I am currently tack-ling the concept of different ideas of‘The Ideal Home’ – not least becauseof our garden city neighbours – and‘The Pros and Cons of Oral History’ –in the light of my proposed project onSt Albans immigration.

The University is a tremendousresource on our doorstep. We had avery fruitful interchange in the FirstWorld War Home Front project. Weare planning to work with them on the175th anniversary. But I am surethere are further ways that we canincrease our interworking, not least interms of our lecture programme.

But enough of the minutiae of myacademic revival. There is the day jobof overseeing the Society’s affairs!Firstly I must thank those memberswho have stepped up to volunteertheir help with the annual New Year’sParty. This is a wonderful event andthe burden will now fall on moreshoulders. We had a brilliant andsociable visit to Blenheim Palace. Thelibrary collection has been hugely

enhanced by some astute purchasesincluding John Carter’s account of theAbbey published by the Society ofAntiquaries in 1813, superbly typesetand with the most beautiful detailedillustrations. Our book on the OldTown Hall continues to sell. The workon our next major publication on thelife and work of architect PercivalBlow goes apace.

We can lay claim to being Hertford-shire’s premier learned society andwe are making a pretty good fist ofbeing both learned and an agreeablesociety. Long may it continue.

Sandy Walkington

MEMBERSHIPWelcome to the following newmembers:

Margaret Dalziel St AlbansHoward Green St AlbansAlan Johns WinchesterPatricia Maziane St AlbansAnnika McQueen LondonShaun & Lynda Rigg Chiswell GreenJean Tant St AlbansStuart & Thu St Albans Twaddell


RESEARCH SEMINARS ON TOPICS OF LOCAL HISTORY INTEREST

Three seminars will be held in the Spring of 2019 in the Society’s Library atSandridge Gate.

Following a short presentation on a topic currently being researched, discussionand debate will be invited, which could lead to further individual or groupresearch.

Kate Morris is coordinating the series, which, if successful, will continue in theautumn of 2019.

It is proposed to hold them on a Thursday afternoon 2.30 – 3.30; these will befree of charge for members of the Society to attend but £5 per seminar will bepayable by non-members. The topics of these first sessions may include themesrelating to the history of town gardens, the rise and fall of the coaching tradeand naval connections of St Albans in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Please send expressions of interest to [email protected]. Thesecould include intention to attend, topics of interest to be covered, willingnessto lead a future seminar on a topic you are researching, or any questions youmay have about the form and nature of the sessions. Firm dates of each seminarand its theme and the opportunity to book will appear as e-news at the beginningof December.

Kate Morris

Transcribing the Society’s Early MinutesThe project to digitise and transcribe the Society’s early minute books is progressingwell. The aim is to produce a finding aid for locating material about the earlyactivities of the Society. The first phase of the project was to digitally captureimages of each page from our minute books covering the 1845-1915 period.Malcolm Merrick slaved over a hot scanner last winter to do just that. We are nowin the second phase which entails transcribing these pages into word-processeddocuments. Many thanks to the following transcribers for their contribution todate: Chris Argue, David Brine, Marion Delaney, Dee Drinkwater, Helen George,Alison Metcalfe, Kate Morris, Diana Penton and Susan Stokes.


ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2018

The Annual General Meeting was held on 11 September 2018 at MarlboroughRoad Methodist Church. Seventy members attended.

1. Apologies were received from Jenny Burley, Irene Cowan, Sheila Cox,Dave Girdziusz, Philippa Hurst, Geraint John, Peter Lawrence, JoyceLusby, David Moore, Liz Rolfe, Liz Rose, David Smith.

2. President’s comments: The President, Sandy Walkington, welcomedmembers to the AGM and reported that the Society was in good healthwith many diverse activities, new members joining and donations grate-fully received. He thanked the Minutes Secretary (Maggy Douglas) andWebmaster (Roderick Douglas) who were standing down from Counciland called for volunteers to help on the technical side at meetings. Hereminded members of the events to mark the Society’s 175th anniversaryin 2020.

3. Minutes of the meeting held on 12 September 2017. These had beencirculated with the November 2017 newsletter. In the absence of anyquestions, their adoption was proposed by Roderick Douglas, secondedby Michael Jameson and agreed unanimously.

4. Accounts for the year ended 31 May 2018. These had been circulatedwith the August 2018 newsletter. In the absence of any questions, theiradoption was proposed by John Cox, seconded by Ann Dean and agreedunanimously.

5. Reports from Groups: These had been circulated with the August 2018newsletter. In the absence of any questions, their adoption was pro-posed by Anne Wares, seconded by David Lasky and agreed unanimously.

Cont’d on next page

February 2019 newsletterCopy deadline for the next edition is 14 January 2019. If you have any commentsabout the newsletter or wish to submit content, please email me, Jon Mein,via [email protected].


6. Election of members of Council: The following members were electeden bloc, having been proposed by Helen Bishop, seconded by KateMorris and agreed unanimously:

Bryan Hanlon SecretaryDavid Moore TreasurerPeter Bourton Website Project*Pat Broad Publications OfficerJohn Cox Publicity OfficerDavid Girdziusz Chairman, Programme Development

CommitteeGill Girdziusz Lecture SecretaryPat Howe 17th Century Research GroupCaroline Howkins Clock TowerJon Mein Newsletter Editor and WebmasterFrank Iddiols TechnicalChristine McDermott Hertfordshire Archaeology and HistoryRoger Miles Archaeology GroupDonald Munro LibrarianSally Pearson Minutes SecretaryDavid Smith Membership Secretary

7. Election of an Independent Examiner of the Accounts. The election ofChris Hall as independent examiner was proposed by Christine McDer-mott, seconded by Kate Bretherton and agreed unanimously.

Kate Harwood then gave a lecture on ‘Repton and the Regency Park and Gardenin Hertfordshire’.- - -* The sharp eyed amongst you will note one addition to those who were votedinto office at our AGM in September. As Peter Bourton has kindly agreed to takeon the responsibility of updating our website (assisted by Pat Broad, RoderickDouglas, Sue Mann, Jon Mein and Donald Munro), we thought it only right thathe should have the opportunity to be part of our decision / policy discussions,and he was therefore co-opted on to Council at our meeting on 22 October.


CLOCK TOWER REPORT

The Clock Tower has undergonenumerous repairs over its 600-yearlife but we wonder how manyinvolved workmen abseiling their waydown the wall as this year’s repairsdid? Work began on 12 Septemberand included repointing the externalflint walls, repairing the corner quoinsand stone work around the windows,repainting the window grilles plus theinstallation of a French drain on thewest side in French Row. The towercertainly looks better for the faceliftand all the work was completed withinthe scheduled three weeks.

It was sad to see the Robinia tree, thatused to provide a little colour andshade in front of the Clock Tower,being reduced to a stump recently. Itwas becoming a hazard, as there wasa fear that the branches may fall inhigh winds, so the County Counciltook the decision to fell it at the endof August. The tree, which had beenplanted in the mid-1970s, has fea-tured in numerous post cards, photosand paintings over the decades andwill be a sadly missed feature of theClock Tower landscape. It would belovely to see the return of Mrs Wor-ley’s Fountain: this had been installedin 1872 in front of the tower but

removed in 1928. The fountain cur-rently resides in Fountain Court, Vic-toria Square near the City Station. Thisis purely a business park so the foun-tain is rarely seen by visitors.

Due to the repairs, the Clock Towerwas closed just after the HeritageOpen Days in September giving ashortened season with the resultingreduction in visitor numbers this year(10,677 compared to 13,410 in 2017).However, the Heritage Open Dayswere well attended with the payingpublic having access to the Dial Roomand a display on the first floor aboutthe Suffragette heroine, Constance

Abseiling workmen re-pointing the externalwalls of the Clock Tower (Roderick Douglas)


Lytton of Knebworth House. The ClockTower also formed part of the ThreeTower Challenge again this year. Par-ticipants had to climb the 187 steps ofthe Cathedral, followed by the 122steps to the roof of St Peter’s Church,concluding with 93 steps to the top ofthe Clock Tower. It proved to be greatfun and good exercise. The successfulclimbers were all presented with amedal by our president, Sandy Walk-ington.

The Clock Tower will open for a finalvisit on Sunday, 18 November, from2pm to 6pm, for the turning on of theSt Albans Christmas lights. In keepingwith one of the Museum’s exhibitionsover Christmas, entitled Board GamesRediscovered, the Clock Tower willhave a selection of children’s giantboard games laid out on the first floorto play with. Children will also havethe opportunity to win a chocolateSanta by taking part in ‘Hunt theParachuting Santas’ in the ClockTower.

As ever, we are always looking for newvolunteers to join the roster of Clock-ateers. Manning the Tower for one ofthe sessions over Saturday or Sundaywith another Clockateer is a fun andinteresting way to meet new peopleand talk to the diverse range of tour-ists who visit our city. If you would liketo volunteer, email us [email protected].

We would like to thank all the Clocka-teers for giving their time to keep theClock Tower open for the public toenjoy.

Caroline Howkins & Mike CareyView from the roof of the Clock Tower withonly the stump of the Robinia tree visible.

(Caroline Howkins)


CLOCK TOWER CURIO NO. 2 - GRAFFITI

The oldest dated example of graffiti visible in the Clock Tower is carved on theleft-hand side reveal of the High Street-facing window, in the Clock Room, and

reads ‘ZM 1709’. It was probably carved byZachariah Mountford, who was 21 years oldin 1709, and later went on to become thetenant from 1724-27, taking over the leasefrom other Mountfords, likely to be of thesame family.

Near the ‘ZM 1709’ graffiti the letters ‘VV’can also be seen. Strange symbols carvedinto stone or woodwork near entrances likedoorways, windows and fireplaces, knownas ‘apotropaic marks’ (see Newsletter 209for more about these) have been found inmedieval houses, churches and other build-ings, most commonly from around 1550 to1750. They’re thought to have been used asa protection symbol, keeping people insidethe house safe by warding off witches and

evil spirits. They often take the form of letters such as, ‘M’ for Mary or ‘VV’ forVirgin of Virgins, scratched into medieval walls to evoke the protective powerof the Virgin Mary.

Caroline Howkins

‘ZM 1709’ graffiti (Caroline Howkins)

VISITORS ATTENDING SOCIETY LECTURES

We all know the excellent value that our Society gives us – 24 lectures peryear for only £20, so your Council has decided that it is only fair to membersthat all visitors should pay a small fee rather than attending our talks ‘free ofcharge’. From 1 January 2019, therefore, we shall be instituting a charge of£5 for all non-members, including guests.


A CHANCE TO TAKE STOCK

We have invited members of themuseum team to provide regularupdates about developments. HereFarhana Begum explores the impor-tance of her marketing role.

I hope by now most SAHAAS membershave had a chance to visit the new StAlbans Museum + Gallery. It’s been anincredible summer for us – incrediblyexciting and incredibly busy! In ouropening three months we had over100,000 visitors (our best year in theold museum was around 17,000 so it’sa big change).

As many of you will know the newmuseum comes with a new style ofprogramming. We have our wonderfulbuilding and a permanent displaytelling the story of ‘The city that wentuphill’ but everything else is designedto change so that there is somethingnew to see every time you visit.

By the start of November we willalready have opened ten exhibitions,and that doesn’t include the individualobjects changing in ‘St Albans onDemand’. We will be slowing down abit but our ever changing displayshave allowed us to display fifteenthcentury books, photographs of squat-ters, contemporary art inspired by an

inquest in the Courtroom and one ofSamuel Ryder’s golf clubs.

Marketing this changing programmecan be a challenge, our regular visitorsare already coming back to see whatthe latest change is but it does meanvisitors need to keep an eye on ourwebsite and What’s On to see whenexhibitions open and close.

To let people know what’s happeningat the museum we use our website(www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk),printed what’s on guides, local mediaand social media to share information.We are very lucky to have newsletterslike this one, local radio stations suchas Radio Verulam and the Herts Adver-tiser supporting us and keeping every-one informed about what’shappening.

We also know that there is nothingquite like a personal recommendationso if you’ve liked a particular exhibi-tion, event or activity, please do tellyour friends, and us too, as we’realways planning what comes next -you can connect with us over socialmedia on @StAlbansMuseums.

Farhana BegumMarketing ManagerSt Albans Museums


ARC & ARC EXHIBITIONCELEBRATING 175 EFFECTIVEYEARS: CAN YOU HELP?

As many of you know the first meetingof our Society was held at the Rectoryin Sumpter Yard in June 1845. Thatmeans that in 2020 we will be 175years old.

One thing we will be doing is holdingan exhibition in the new museum fora six-week period. I have been askedto project lead this and the purposeof this article is to update you on ourprogress and to ask for your help.

The working group of Helen Bishop,Pat Broad, Peter Burley, Bryan Hanlon,David Moore and our President, SandyWalkington, and myself (ably assistedby Sarah Lloyd and Julie Moore fromUniversity of Hertfordshire) havedecided our approach should be cele-brating the past and present andlooking forward to the future. Whatwe did not want was a simple displayin date order. Instead we are aimingfor an exhibition centred around ‘Arcand Arc in 30ish objects’ all connectedwith Society members. We want arange of TVPs (Top Visual Priorities) -objects, documents, pictures etc thathave not been on display before. Also,

to engage visitors we want to haveelements involving interaction partic-ularly for our present and future ele-ments. After all, the aim should be forpeople to enjoy the exhibition and,given the footfall going through thenew museum, be encouraged to joinus as members.

So, what have we come up with sofar? We are grouping the exhibitsunder four themes that we believeresonate throughout our long life:Discover, Protect, Innovate andInform. Having trawled my waythrough the Society’s Transactions Ihave sent a list of our members whomay have donated an item to thecathedral and the museums and haveasked whether they have any objectsand can we borrow them. Of course,they still have to say yes but here isour current ‘Starter for 10’.

DiscoverItems from excavations at the Cathe-dral, Verulamium and Wheathamp-stead to commemorate our membersPage, Toulmin, Mortimer and TessaWheeler, e.g. Ivory book cover, Papallead bull (see the August 2018 news-letter), Roman artefacts. We will def-initely have a feature on TessaWheeler.


ProtectIt is easy to forget how much of whatsurvives in St Albans is due in wholeor part to the work of the Society.Examples under this section couldinclude:

� A collage of items where wehave donated funds to restoreor applied pressure to preserve(Pemberton brass, Bacon mon-ument, St Michael's and StStephen's churches, NathanielCotton tomb, Abbey gateway,‘Tudor Tavern’, The Crow, JackWills’s shop, St Germain’sBlock)

� The Cathedral. Represented byletters between Lords Alden-ham and Grimthorpe and DeanLawrance. Wonderfully contro-versial!

� The Clock Tower

Innovate� Sir John Evans and his record-

ing of pottery� Early aerial photographs of

Verulamium (Page and Craw-ford )

� Lifting Roman wall plaster (DrNorman Davey)

Inform� Fowler's plan of the abbey� Pictures of the memorial

plaques (we financed those to

the Marlboroughs, Duke ofSomerset, Eleanor of Castile)

� Boutell's book on brasses sup-plemented by a rubbing of thede la Mare brass

� The pageants (C H and EmilyAshdown for example)

� A collage of photos of famouspeople who have given lec-tures (e.g. the Wheelers, BasilSpence, W G Hoskins)

� Our publications (e.g. HomeFront and Thoroughfare Townbooks)

� A collage of our current mem-bers

In addition, our friends at the univer-sity are helping us set up an oralhistory recording facility - more onthis next time.

Where I need your help…Firstly, please let me know if you thinkwe have missed out anything. My viewis due to our not producing transac-tions every year we need to reflectmore our current and more recentachievements. Secondly, next year wewill need people to write descriptionsof the items both for the exhibitionand the accompanying catalogue. Dolet me know if you would like to help.Full training will be given. My contactdetails are [email protected].

John Morewood


THE TRIP TO BLENHEIM PALACE

On Thursday 4 October, our party of49 arrived on schedule, mid-morning,at the magnificent Blenheim Palacewith its honey-coloured stone wallsset against a bright blue sky.

It would seem that the current Dukeof Marlborough, that is the 12th Duke,Charles James Spencer-Churchill, hasa very active commercial departmentas visitor numbers were plentiful bothin groups and individuals with otheractivities also taking place bringing inrevenues; these included a shootingparty.

Upon our arrival we were taken to aroom where we were given a briefintroduction followed by a more indepth talk about St Albans woman,

Sarah Churchill (nee Jennings), overcoffee and biscuits. We learned thatSarah’s father Richard was a Tory MPfor St Albans and that the family livedat Holywell House (cue much amuse-ment over the competing pronuncia-tion of ‘Holywell’) where Sarah wasthe youngest of five children. Sarahmet John Churchill when she was 15at the household of the Duke andDuchess of York where she hadalready become a close friend of Prin-cess Anne, the future Queen, a friend-ship that would last some 35 years buta friendship that would ultimately fail.John and Sarah married in 1677 andSarah is described as being intelligent,with a vibrant personality but possess-ing a foul temper!

As a reward for his victory at theBattle of Blenheim (really Blindheim

in Bavaria), Queen Annebestowed the land and areported £240,000 for thebuilding. John Vanburghwas commissioned todesign the house and workcommenced in 1705. Johnand Sarah moved there in1719 however, the housewas not completed until1722 which was also theyear of John Churchill’sdeath.


Sarah herself held a number ofappointments including Ranger ofWindsor Great Park, Keeper of thePrivy Purse and Mistress of the Robesgenerating an annual income in excessof £7,000, an enormous amount forthe day.

As a sign of the influence that theMarlboroughs had, an Act of Parlia-ment was passed that enabled theDukedom to pass down the femaleside where there is no male heir.When this situation was realised,upon the death of the first Duke, hiseldest daughter, Henrietta, inheritedthe title. Subsequently, upon Henriet-ta’s death, the title went to CharlesSpencer, the second son of Henrietta’ssister, Anne. As a result, the familyname of Churchill was lost but not forgood as the 5th Dukesought, and was granted, aKing’s licence enabling thefamily name to become‘Spencer-Churchill’.

One final interesting fact isthat the Marlboroughs areonly tenants of Blenheimas each year they have topay rent to the Crown inthe form of a French RoyalStandard.

Our group went their various separateways after our talk and guided tour,some to view the fascinating Churchillexhibition others to explore the splen-did grounds which were not to bemissed on such a perfect day. Were-convened in the afternoon outsidethe house for a brief description of theexterior and were amused to discoverthat amongst the symbols that Frenchvisitors take particular exception toare those of a lion eating a cockerel –c’est la vie!

Many thanks to Pat Howe for organis-ing everything, including the weather,in exemplary fashion. And thanks toFrank Iddiols and John Humphreys forthe photographs.

David Harrold


LIBRARY REPORT

It has been a busy three months withprogress continuing on a number offronts and numerous visitors, most ofwhom we have been able to help intheir enquiries. These have includedJames Bettley, editor of the newedition of Pevsner’s Hertfordshire(due March 2019) and a delegationfrom St Stephen’s Church seekingmaterials for their planned First WorldWar exhibition.

Eileen Roberts materials. We aredelighted to have acquired in Octoberfrom Mrs Roberts’ estate a very goodcopy of John Carter: Some Account ofthe Abbey Church of St Alban. Illustra-tive of the plans, elevations, and sec-tions of that building (Soc. Antiquariesof London, 1813). This is the earliestfully detailed description of the abbeyfabric and, perhaps remarkably, along-time lacuna in the Society’s col-lection. See “Library Acquisitions”below for a fuller description. Wehave also acquired a number of othersignificant books from Mrs Roberts’collection.

Cataloguing of the Beardsmore booksis now well advanced and we willshortly be tackling the pamphlets.Supplies have been acquired for

better care, minor repairs and storageof these often fragile materials; andnew shelf label holders will assistfinding location of books.

Lists and Indexes. Terry Price contin-ues to improve the list of the papersof the late Gerard McSweeney. RosTrent has made a good start on listingthe very interesting late acquisition ofestate particulars from theBeardsmore Collection.

New Library Computers. The recentdedicated donation has enabled ourreplacing both of the main Librarycomputers with machines built byMalcolm Merrick. MS Office has beenacquired for both. Some moniesremain from this generous Gift Aideddonation to help a possible futurepurchase of image collection manage-ment software. We really are mostgrateful to our benefactors for helpingus in this way. The slow networkconnection problems have beenlargely resolved with the acquisitionof these new, faster machines.

Book Disposals. Many thanks are dueto Sally Pearson for all her work onthis. The disposals sale exercise is nowconcluded. Latterly a further £420+has been raised.


The Library Team including most ofour new volunteers met over lunch atthe King William on 27 September todiscuss tasks and plan progress onseveral fronts. Our enthusiastic newhands are settling in very well and arereally valuable additions to the team.Even so, if there are any othersamongst the wider membershipwilling to help in the Library – partic-ularly if you have cataloguing or digitalimage management experience, Iwould be very happy to hear from youat [email protected].

Donald Munro

Library Notes

Recent acquisitionsAs noted in the Library Report, ourmost notable acquisition for sometime is:-Some Account of the Abbey Church ofSt. Alban. Illustrative of the plans,elevations, and sections of that build-ing, [by John Carter]. London: Printedby Nichols, Son, and Bentley,... for theSociety of Antiquaries of London,1813. [2], 20, 7, [1] p., xix pl. (incl. add.engr. t.pl. and 3 dble. pl.) ; 649 mm.Contents: [T.p.] - Advertisement -Observations On The Abbey Church OfSt. Alban - Plans, Elevations, Sections,And Specimens, Of The Architecture

And Ornaments, Of Abbey Church OfSt. Alban. By J. Carter, Architect. - [Pl.I. (add. engr. t.pl.)] - [Pl. II-XIX].Summary: The added engraved title-plate (plate I) reads, 'Plans, Elevations,Sections and Specimens of the Archi-tecture and Ornaments of the AbbeyChurch at St. Albans', dated 1810. Theplates show Romanesque and Gothicfeatures of the building.COPAC catalogue entry also has Note:“According to the Advertisement theplates were engraved after Carter'sdrawings at Richard Gough's expense,and are accompanied by accounts byboth men. The work was supervisedby Sir Henry Englefield, and Gough'snotes were completed by JamesBrown and John Nichols. All plates aresigned as drawn by John Carter andengraved by James Basire. Eachcarries the publisher's imprint of theSociety of Antiquaries of London”.

Walter Morrell’s “manufacture of thenewe draperie” (1616), edited byMichael Zell and Heather Falvey. Hat-field: Hertfordshire Record Society,2018. 181 p, illus, map.Walter Morrell of Hatfield set out totrain unemployed youths to make“newe draperies”, a range of woollentextiles, so they could support them-selves, helping to reduce the cost ofpoor relief. This volume contains the


complete text of his 100-page explana-tion of his project, with copies ofletters and petitions to the King’s advi-sors, seeking support.

Further tidbits from the BeardsmoredonationHertfordshire: some ancestral estatesand interesting careers. Illustrated byF.G. Kitton. St Albans: Published bysubscription at the Offices of the "Hert-fordshire Standard"..., 1894. [v]. 109p,illus, ports. This scarce folio volumecovers estates county-wide, andincludes biographical details of manycontemporary members of later 19thcentury Hertfordshire landed society,male and female.

The building of satellite towns: a con-tribution to the study of town develop-ment and regional planning, by C. B.Purdom. London: Dent, 1925. xv,368p, illus, plates, plans. The gardencity and new towns movement, by oneclosely involved. His work on Letch-worth was noted in the August issue.

English church history exhibition – atthe Town Hall, St Albans, 27 June – 15July, 1905. Westminster: J. B. Nichols& Sons, 1905. 212 p, illus, plates. Anational exhibition. Topics includechurch decoration and ornament.

The hunting of the hare: song, reminis-cences and sketch: “Days with thebeagles, by the Hare”. Tring: G. J.Woodbridge, 1929. 30p, plates. A light-hearted account of hare hunting withthe Berkhamsted Foot Beagles.

Radlett past and present, by J. E. Saul.London: Post Magazine, 1927. 64p,map, plan.

Recent journal articlesIn Herts Past and Present, no 32,Autumn 2018pp 2-7 “The mystery of the WelwynSpa”, by Tony Rook. The discovery of apreviously unknown 19th century man-uscript map and subsequent researchprovide evidence of the existence of amineral spring, and the possibility oflocating it.pp 9-14 “Managing the poor in Hert-fordshire, 1635-1795: Part 1, Bastardy– perpetrators and victims”, by CarlaHermann. This article examines theissue of women bearing children out ofwedlock, and the circumstances inwhich they became “bastard bearers”.Church reports are noted, and atti-tudes and practices described in theparishes of Standon and GreatMunden.pp 15-19 “Hidden in the home: theConcealed and Revealed Project”, byCeri Houlbrook. A detailed, referenced


and illustrated version of the articleon page 21 of the August issue ofSAHAAS Newsletter, citing examplesof articles found in Hertfordshire.

pp 22-28 “Thomas Slingsby Dun-combe: the man behind the politi-cian”, by Jean Purkis. Duncombe(1796-1861) was a significant figure inthe political history of Hertford. Aradical MP, he represented theBorough of Hertford in the yearsbefore the Great Reform Act of 1832.He lost the seat in the following elec-tion, but succeeded in a by-election inFinsbury. He instigated a Parliamen-tary enquiry into corrupt practices inHertford’s election, resulting in theunseating of the two “victors”. He wasdescribed as a fop and a dandy, andhis personal life was unconventional.His son was born about 1841, but hedid not marry the boy’s mother untilthe year he died.

Tony Cooper

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEEREPORT

We are currently busy working on afinal round of research for the forth-coming publication about the localarchitect, Percival Blow. He practisedin the St Albans area from around

1900 to the late 1930s and livedthrough an extraordinary period ofhistory. It was also a very distinctivemoment in architectural history. Pro-duction of the book is scheduled tostart in the New Year.

We are pleased to say that ChrisGreen’s The Old Town Hall, St Albans,continues to sell steadily; we havenow sold 500 copies. The new mus-eum’s bookshop is doing an excellentjob with their display of this publica-tion along with our other recent books.

Help wanted!Those of you who attend the Tuesdaylectures will know that we usuallyhave a small bookstall at the lectures.We are in need of an occasional vol-unteer to help man the bookstall. It’snot an onerous chore – we have astore cupboard at the church and sothere’s no requirement to transportheavy books to and from the church!It’s a role that might suit a newmember who wants to get know othermembers and learn more about theArc and Arc and its publications. If youthink you might be interested, doplease get in touch with me: [email protected] orcall St Albans 863340.

Patricia Broad


THE TONMAN DITCH FOUND

In February 2014 I undertook a ‘watch-ing brief’ on the site of two new buildhouses at the corner of Sandpit Lane andStonecross (TL 1523 0795). Apart fromstructures which are visible on the FirstEdition OS map, underlying the site wasa large ditch (Figure 1). This ran approx-imately north south through the founda-tion trenches of the northernmost of thenew builds (Figure 2). Due to the groundconditions it was not possible to under-take work on this ditch in situ for safetyreasons. However, it measured mini-mally 4m across, and had a depth of atleast 1m. The bottom was not reachedand the top had been truncated in the

historic past, so it could have beenwider. The size of the ditch suggests asignificant feature, and not a modestfield boundary. The ditch cut through alight orangey brown gravelly clay natu-ral. It was filled with a grey clay silt andwas well-defined visually as it cutthrough the natural.

Apart from a medium mammal bone,there was no dating material from theditch. This is significant. The grey silt wasnot suggestive of bank material but alonger gradual filling, at least at the top.There was no direct evidence for a bank.However, later attacking armies appearto have largely targeted the bars andgates rather than the long intervening

Figure 1. The approximate alignment of the ditch observed during the watching brief


ditched areas. It is therefore probablethat there was an additional defensiblerampart and paling. The medieval AbbeyPrecinct had a wall and a ditch andrampart in a later phase (Saunders andHavercroft, 16-18).

There was no specific dating of thisfeature but it must minimally pre-datethe OS mapped structures observedabove. Also, because of a lack of finds theditch probably predates significant large-scale industrial activity; and probablypost-dates the Roman period for thesame reason. An earlier prehistoric datecannot be ruled out, but there was noleaching out of the fill, which happensover time. This effectively leaves a dateprior to the mass production of ceramicand other material, so a medieval date ispostulated, probably prior to the massproduction of greyware, or later glazedpottery, sometime after c.1150. How-

ever, both the Hare (1634) and Andrewsand Wren maps (1766) suggest the areawas open so any date cannot be ruledout as there appears to have been a lackof nearby occupation as an artefactssource.

Defining the east side of the medievaltown is the Tonman Ditch. This, at leastin part, marks the later line of theBorough boundary from Sopwell Bars toBernards Heath. The Hare map showsthe line of the Borough boundary, origi-nally drawn up in 1327. The map includesthe term ‘Tonman Ditch’ directly relatingto two sections; on the east side mini-mally between Sopwell Lane and CockLane (Hatfield Road). However, there isno reason to presume these labels werenot representative of the whole circuit,or at least that to the north of the RiverVer. If this was the case, on the east side,the ditch runs from Cock Lane to Sandpit

Figure 2. The western side of the ditch, looking north, cutting through the light orangey brown clay.(A). The eastern side of the ditch, looking north, cutting from above the third rung of the ladder,diagonally down to the left, cutting through the natural clay (B). The two sections are not conjoining,but were offset with a similar east-west alignment


Lane through the area of the watchingbrief.

By the middle of the twelfth centurythe town was well-defended (Niblettand Thompson, 268) with attackersconcentrating on the entrance points,presumably because forced access wasdifficult elsewhere. By 1327 the townapparently had no defined boundaryand a ‘new’ borough boundary wasdrawn up. However, where there wasno pressure on the previous boundaryto extend outwards, and where it maystill have existed, there is no reason topresume it was not re-used. Niblett andThompson say that no ditch has beenseen from Cock Lane to Stonecross but“…there has not been any specificsearch for it.” (ibid. 269). This then isthe first indication that it continuedalong the eastern side of the town fromSopwell Lane, to at least Stonecross.

BibliographyR. Niblett and I. Thompson, Alban'sBuried Towns: An Assessment of StAlbans' Archaeology up to AD 1600(Oxford, 2005).C. Saunders and A.B. Havercroft, ‘Exca-vations in the City and District of StAlbans 1974-76’ Hertfordshire Archae-ology, Volume 6, (1979), 1-77.

Simon WestDistrict Archaeologist

LEE’S WAR MEMORIALSUCCESSFULLY RE-SITED

We are pleased to report that followingthe redevelopment of the Zigguratbuilding in Grosvenor Road, St Albans,one of the city's First World Warmemorials has been restored and givena prominent new position facing theentrance to a new apartment block.The memorial is dedicated to the menwho worked at Edwin Lee & Sons bootand shoe factory which once stood onthe site. The site’s developers are theQuinata Property Group.

On a related matter, the Society’s WarMemorials Walk Leaflet has beenrevised. Copies are available at the newmuseum and on our website.

Sue Mann

The re-sited memorial (Sue Mann)


NASH MILLS HOUSE, THE HOMEOF SIR JOHN EVANS

The Society’s November 2017 news-letter contained an article about SirJohn Evans who was an outstandingmember of the Society in the 19thcentury contributing much to its earlylife while also successfully running themills of John Dickinson. He lived inNash Mills House next to the papermill in Kings Langley for 50 yearshaving moved there in 1856.

In recent years the grounds surround-ing the house have been developedfor housing and the house itself hasfallen into a bad state of repair with

the roof removed and most of theinterior fittings lost. It was thoughtthat the house might also be lost buta campaign to save it supported bymany prestigious societies includingSAHAAS has been successful.

Nash Mills House will now be restoredand sympathetically extended asapartments and will contain displaysrecognising the importance of Sir Johnand his many achievements.

Pat Nellist(Apsley Paper Trail)

Nash Mills House in 1999 (bottom, left) and2017 (right) (Courtesy of Mike Stanyon)

The Library in the CloudDue to limitations with our IT infrastructure at Sandridge Gate, the Libraryteam is considering whether to use the ‘cloud’ to resolve some problemswe have encountered. If you have general experience of the risks andrewards of cloud computing then we’d be delighted to hear from you. Pleasecontact [email protected].

Donald Munro


RECENT PLANNING REPORTS

This is the third in our series of abstractsfrom reports considering recent archae-ological work or architectural assess-ments. The reports were produced tosatisfy planning conditions. If you wouldlike further information about any ofthese, please contact Simon West, theDistrict Archaeologist via:[email protected].

Kingsbury House, Branch RoadArchaeological Solutions Ltd (AS Ltd)(Report no. 4993; 2012)

Numerous Romano-British remains arerecorded in the area. The site revealed asequence of Roman occupation layers, apossible hearth and a compacted gravelfloor or yard surface. Fairly large quanti-ties of Romano-British pottery wererecovered along with other small finds.The remains of a late 17th to early 18thcentury structure, possibly a cellar, werealso revealed. The excavation showedmulti-period occupation with theRomano-British and post-medievalperiods most prominent.

The majority of the remains were asso-ciated with the earliest (Phase 1) datedto between 120 and 150 AD. This com-prised numerous occupation layers, pos-sibly remains of a building, a ditch andtwo pits. Large quantities of potterysherds and numerous small finds were

recovered from deposits of this phase. Apit represented Phase 2 and it was attrib-uted to the 4th century AD. Phase 3consisted of a late 17th - early 18thcentury lime kiln with an associated pit.(see Figs 1 and 2 below).

Land near Bedmond LaneArchaeological Services, Durham Uni-versity (Report no. 2140; 2010)

Geophysical surveys were conducted onfields near Bedmond Lane. The Romanroad from Verulamium to Silchester isbelieved to cross the area and aerial

...\Drawing eye of lime kiln late C17 ear...

...\Lime Kiln late C17 early C18 in Bran...

Figs 1 and 2 showing late 17th / early 18thcentury kiln (Copyright AS Ltd)


photographs show a possible dyke orditch across one of the fields surveyed.The work comprised 20 geomagneticsurveys totalling approximately 18haacross eight land parcels. Possible soil-filled features such as pits and ditcheswere detected in the majority of allsurvey areas. A rectangular enclosureand 11 traces of a series of rectangularenclosures were identified. Some ofthese may be aligned along roads.Traces of former ridge and furrow culti-vation were also identified.

King Harry Lane Development (King’sPark)Foundations Archaeology(Report No. 1033; 2015)

The site was located within the extentof the Verlamion Late Iron Age – earlyRoman oppidum and contained part ofthe dyke earthwork known as theWheeler Ditch (see page 26). The workrevealed evidence for pre-oppidumactivity in the form of two clusters ofMiddle Bronze Age pits, which wereassociated with burnt flints; a possiblesmall pit, which was provisionally datedto the Bronze Age; and a moderatelysized assemblage of flints, which rangedin date from the Mesolithic to the LateNeolithic / Early Bronze Age periods.

The excavation has demonstrated thatthe previously suggested layout of theLate Iron Age – early Roman entrancethrough the Wheeler Ditch was probably

incorrect or incomplete and has pro-vided data to allow a new entrancelayout to be postulated. The project alsoidentified the presence of a small LateIron Age or early Roman cremationcemetery at the location of the postu-lated entrance, along with a hollow,which contained a cobbled surface,immediately to the east of the postu-lated entrance. Comparative analysishas indicated that the King’s Park crema-tions share ritual characteristics withboth the Iron Age Cemeteries of KingHarry Lane and Verulam Hills and alsowith the Roman St Stephen’s Cemetery.The evidence, which included a substan-tial pottery assemblage as well as a coinhoard, indicated that the Wheeler Ditch,near to the postulated entrance, waslikely to have been in-filled in the earlierRoman period and was subsequentlyre-cut in the later Roman or, possiblysub-Roman or early Saxon periods.

Part of a probable rectangular enclosurewas investigated and this most likelyrepresented the remains of a Late IronAge – early Roman enclosure. Analysisof wood charcoal from two MiddleBronze Age pits and the Saxon fill withinthe Wheeler Ditch indicated a preva-lence of oak, but also included ash, hazeland Pomoideae (apple family).

Edited by John Ridge and Jon Mein

Note: with thanks to AS Ltd and FoundationsArchaeology for permission to use their reports.


‘ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS: ART,WORD, WAR’ EXHIBITION

My wife, Jenny, and I took up an invitationto the Society to attend the ‘breakfastopening’ of this exhibition at the BritishLibrary.

The exhibition is laid out chronologicallywith interpretation as to what is going onin each period or reign or at each impor-tant event. It is well presented, approach-able and intelligible. It is an exquisitedisplay concentrating on illuminated man-uscripts. Some of the books are of aston-ishing antiquity, such as Bede’s originalHistory of the English Church, the firstversion of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle andvolumes that St Augustine brought withhim to Canterbury in 595. That said, thestar of the show is the ‘King Alfred Jewel’.

Justice is done to King Offa of Mercia andhis programme to impose his authority onthe other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and gaincontrol of the Church in the British Isles.This is where the founding of our Abbeyhere in St Albans fits into the larger picture.

Our only disappointment is that not asmuch is made of Anglo-Saxon architectureas might be. A few photos of survivingbuildings of the period would have addeda lot.

The exhibition is a celebration of therichness of Anglo-Saxon culture and thereis no hint of the revisionist view that theAnglo-Saxon ‘conquest’ never really hap-pened. Open until 19 February 2019, avisit is highly recommended.

Dr Peter Burley

The ditch was first investigated byMortimer Wheeler in 1933. It was aditch rather than a dyke as it was only1.5m deep and 4m wide. The ‘arms’on either side consisted of palisadetrenches. There was also anotherpalisade trench running roughly alongthe line of Bedmond Lane. The onlyidentified entrance was at the StStephen’s end, although there mayalso have been an entrance nearBedmond Lane. The purpose of theditch is unclear. For further informa-tion see R. Niblett and I. Thompson,Alban’s Buried Towns, p. 27.

John Ridge

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THEWHEELER DITCH

St Michael's Church

King Harry Lane


MY COUNTRY NEEDS ME … BUT?

In March 1916, faced with the attrition offighting troops and declining volunteerrates, the Government conscripted singlemen and widowers, without dependentchildren, aged between 18 and 41. Thoseseeking exemption could apply to localtribunals. Records were supposed to bedestroyed after the war, but those in StAlbans survived by accident. On 24October they were the basis of fascinatingre-enactments of some typical five-minute hearings performed in the refur-bished courtroom, now part of the newmuseum.

Tribunals of local ‘worthies’, including amilitary representative, heard applica-tions from over 1,000 men. The receivedtruth is that panels were unsympathetic,but ours tried hard to steer the rightcourse between the conflicting demandsof war, businesses and individuals.

Cyril Corley of Albert Street, the solesupport of his ageing mother and youngbrother, was exempted because two ofhis brothers had already been killed, andone wounded. (See photo)

The requirements of local businesseswere harder to resolve. Lee’s boot andshoe factory had already lost 52 workersand applied for exemption for 20 skilledhands. Their product was essential and17 were granted exemption, though the

chairman criticised their unwillingness torecruit women to fill the vacancies.

Only 23 applications were on grounds ofconscience, with just three rejected outof hand; others were exempted providedthey took ‘work of national importance’,such as joining the non-combatant corpsor working in the Friends Ambulance Unit.

Congratulations to the Society’s HomeFront Group* whose diligent researchbrought to life this hidden corner of FirstWorld War history.

Dee Drinkwater

* The ‘actors’ were Barry Bateman, AnnDean, Maggy Douglas, Jon Mein and JulieMoore with AV support from RoderickDouglas.

Mrs Corley (left) putting flowers on the Albert Streetmemorial in memory of her two sons, November

1926 (Herts Advertiser / Mike Neighbour)


A CURIOUS OBJECT FOUND ATVERULAMIUM

In support of my AMA award inMuseum Studies, I have recently beenresearching iron finds recovered duringthe excavation at Verulamium in1996/97. During my project I cameacross some curious devices called hip-posandals. Often found in museumcollections, these devices seem to bemade to protect horses’ hooves.

Hooves do not naturally require protec-tion but, with the growing domestic useof horses, methods had to be found tostop lameness. In the Victorian period,the aphorism ‘No foot, no horse’stressed the importance of hoof care.Much earlier the Greeks had realisedthis too: the philosopher,Xenophon, noted in his work,On Horsemanship, that thehoof may be damaged whenit takes weight; in Anabasis,he tells us of horses wearingprotection, referring to‘socks’, a sort of leather boot.Others suggest that the hip-posandal was supportedunderneath by a turminem (aconical object). This wasplaced on the oppositehealthy foot to the lame one.

The benefit was that it raised the hind-quarter for healing.

The Romans began to use horses at anearly period. Although their army wasmainly composed of infantry, in thelater empire they were reliant on thehorse; for example, one of EmperorVespasian’s generals, Antonius, usedhis cavalry to charge the enemy as aform of ‘shock and awe.’ We know theRomans practised hoof pairing (trim-ming) to protect the important frog (onthe underside of the hoof).

So who ‘invented’ the horseshoe?Various types of ancient horseshoehave been recovered in England andelsewhere. Two were found in 1723 atSilbury Hill in Wiltshire, close to where

Fig. 1: Type 3 hipposandal; late Roman, A.D.364/378. Photog-raphy by author (Courtesy of St Albans Museums)


the Roman road crosses through a largebarrow. At the time it was suggested theymight be from a Royal Celtic sepulchrebecause of their shape. These horseshoesare nailed and go back before the Romanconquest.

Hipposandals (otherwise solea ferrea)have also been found at Verulamium (SeeFig. 1) and other Roman sites in Britain andFrance as well as a Frankish grave. Theirforms vary, but chiefly consist of threetypes: the first has an oval plate of metalwith a pyriform or circular opening in themiddle; the second has a much narroweroval plate and a longer heel in front,occasionally flanked by clips; the third hasa posterior hook, two lateral appendages,which extend towards the front of theplate, until they meet and meld together,forming a strong hook. (See Fig. 2)

The use of hipposandals has been thesubject of much debate from the 19thcentury onwards. A veterinary surgeonidentified them as hippopodespathologiques, that is sandals intended toprotect and cure diseased or worn hooves,so that it would helped to keep correctpressure on the frog; others have come tothe conclusion that they are ox-sandals,only to be worn during livestock move-ments. A farming chariot in a bas relief atLangre (France) suggests a skid. A recon-struction for TV’s Time Team shows a veryunhappy horse wobbling about on a set ofhipposandals looking uncomfortable.

I think that in ancient times shoeing horsesvery much depended on the diversity ofthe country’s climate, on the hoof’sstrength, and on the construction of theroads. Anatomists and farriers in definingthe best way of protecting horses hoovescame across the hipposandal as a tempo-rary shoe to prevent wear on imperviousroads. To conclude, the hipposandal couldnot be a permanent solution, as a horseshod in this way could not walk for longand even less likely keep a fast gait.

A fully referenced version of this note isavailable in the Society’s Library. Mythanks to Simon West for his commentson an early draft of this article.

Dr Maria Musto

Fig.2 Reconstruction of fastening of the third type of hipposandal (Flavio Russo, www.archaeo.it)


ANDREW MCILWRAITH: LOCALPHILANTHROPIST, SHIPOWNERAND FROZEN MEAT PIONEER

In the May newsletter, John Humphreystold us that, in 1897, a Mr McIlwraithwho was letting the area of the VerulamEstate bounded by the Roman wall hadundertaken to put a fence to protectthe wall. Who was he?

Andrew McIlwraith came to St Albansfrom Kentish Town sometime between1881 and 1891 and took up residencewith his wife and five children at Camp-bellfield in King Harry Lane. This largehouse, described as a mansion in the1891 census, stood beside what is nowthe entrance into the park from KingHarry Lane. It was demolished in the1980s but the lodge survives (22 KingHarry Lane). The particulars of its salein 1928, describe a property (see photooverleaf) comprising five receptionrooms, seven principal bedrooms, tensecondary and servants’ bedrooms, sixbathrooms and a billiard room, ‘fittedthroughout in a most sumptuousmanner, regardless of cost’. It had anumber of ancillary buildings includingstables, garage and chauffeur’s quar-ters; ‘charming pleasure grounds’ andrich pasture land of 15 acres.

He was a prominent and generousmember of the community. A strongsupporter of the St Albans and Mid

Herts Hospital and Dispensary, he gifteda much-needed new steriliser; obtainedconsignments of food stuffs during theFirst World War from the Queenslandgovernment and was one of a numberof donors who in 1918 helped clear thethen private hospital’s overdraft. Hisname appears on one of the six founda-tion stones that adorn the SalvationArmy HQ in Victoria Street and in 1917,he helped to buy Pageant House inVictoria Street for St Albans DistrictScouts. He was clearly a man of sub-stance but what was his background?

Andrew McIlwraith was a shipownerand frozen meat trade pioneer. Hisfather was a plumber and later a ship-owner and the son joined his father'sbusiness in 1868. The family maintained

Andrew McIlwraith(Courtesy of the Salcombe History Society)


close commercial relationships with histwo brothers in Australia (one of whomwas premier of Queensland three timesbetween 1879 and 1893). In 1875, with(Sir) Malcolm McEacharn, he establishedthe London-based shipping and mercan-tile firm McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co. Itbecame very successful, earning profita-ble contracts to carry immigrants andcargo to Queensland (and later tradingelsewhere) and establishing a mercantileimport and export department in London.In 1879, capitalizing on his own businessacumen and his father-in-law's mechani-cal aptitude, he organised the charteringand fitting out with a freezing plant of thesteamer Strathleven, the first ship tosuccessfully land a cargo of frozen meatfrom Australia in London (in 1880). By1895, the firm was returning handsomeprofits but in 1896, following a bitterfamily struggle, Andrew had to purchase

his brother John’s interest in it.He also owned shares in theAustralasian United Steam Navi-gation Co. and associated Britishlines.

An article in the Australian Dic-tionary of Biography in 1986describes him as ‘large, hand-some and red bearded, with anoutwardly affectionate nature.Friendly with Brunel and Paxton,he was made an associate of theInstitute of Naval Architects in

1887. Abstemious, but never refusinglarge draughts of medicinal brandy andscrumpy, he retired to Salcombe, Devon,where he died on 19 October 1932’.

Sadly, his first wife died in 1891 leavinghim a widower with five children aged 9to 17 years. His second marriage to anAmerican lady in 1895, was not a success.Perhaps because the groom was 51 andthe bride 24 at the time! Two of his sonsdied in the Boer War and the third,Charles, the builder of neighbouring Gle-nalmond, also predeceased him. He wassurvived by two daughters from his firstmarriage and another from his second.

Susan BellamySAHAAS Biographies Group

Note: A version of this article with refer-ences is available in the Society’s Library.

Campbellfield, King Harry Lane, c.1928(SAHAAS Deeds Collection)


BANK HOLIDAY PROBLEMS INLATE VICTORIAN ST ALBANS

The many publicans of St Albans hadcause to be upset when the town’sthree charter fairs were suppressed in1873. Although in decline for someyears, the fairs still brought custominto the town. Publicans did not haveto fret for too long though as reliefcame from the changing rhythm ofindustrial life. With the Saturday half-day already a weekly fixture, full-dayholidays to meet the needs of factoryworkers replaced the agriculturalfairs. The Bank Holidays Act in 1871closed the banks on an additional fourdays a year. Over the next few yearsemployers in other sectors opted tofollow suit. Looking to get out of town,their liberated workers could takeadvantage of specially scheduledtrains laid on by the competingrailway companies. More than 2,000people left St Albans on Whit Monday1886 for trips to Bedford and Birming-ham. Exotic seaside destinations suchas Brighton and Skegness were alsoon offer.

St Albans was a draw as well. A shortride from London by train, the city hadRoman remains in the fields below theAbbey, the Abbey itself and, fromAugust 1892, the newly-proclaimed

‘oldest inhabited house in the coun-try’, the Fighting Cocks pub. Visitorscame in their thousands mostly by therailways but some by road in wagon-ettes and on bicycles. An estimated7,000 people descended on the city ofaround 11,000 people over the AugustBank Holiday weekend in 1887.Various fund-raising attractions, puton to entice visitors, were heavilypromoted by the railway companies.In 1891 for example, a MidlandRailway handbill listed a bazaar, fete,gala and a balloon ascent. Missing

August 1891 Bank Holiday handbill (Courtesyof the Midland Railway Study Centre)


from the list was a spontaneous event,a mass brawl in Hatfield Road.

The city was not ready to cope with thislarge influx. There were just two publictoilets for example, both of them uri-nals, and none of today’s innumerablesandwich and coffee shops. Meetingvisitors’ needs were the 87 pubs pro-viding some food, a lot of beer – andtoilets. Busy days for the publicans!

It was not just the scarcity of publictoilets that showed that St Albans wasunsuited to these large crowds. Thesmall scale of the city’s constabularywas another problem. With pubsplaying a central role in many visitors’recreation, drunkenness was inevita-ble. Locals particularly associated thiswith working class visitors arriving ingroups they pejoratively labelled as‘beanfeasters’. This newspaper reportfrom July 1890 was typical:

“Some hundreds of beanfeastersvisited St Albans on Saturday and theirconduct was on the whole most dis-graceful. Many of them consumedmore beer than was evidently good foreither mind or body, and one partywent so far as to parade the Market-place drinking beer out of a bedroomutensil. Strictly speaking the offendersdid not bring themselves within the law

which deals with indecent behaviourwithin the streets and the police wereunable to arrest the offenders on thischarge”.

The response of the Head Constablewas to blame the city’s publicans. Hesent a letter to all of them warning thathe would set his officers to watchhouses where excursionists weremeeting. They were to expect full pun-ishment should the licensing laws bebroken. With limited manpower, thiswas something of an idle threat as hismen were mostly deployed to controlthe large raucous crowds who oftenarrived in St Albans already the worsefor wear.

By 1900, drunken bank holiday behav-iour had largely subsided. Changingattitudes to beer in both the demandand supply sides were the cause.

Jon Mein

A Good DeedIf you no longer need the deeds toyour house and don’t know what todo with them, perhaps considerdonating them to the Society’sLibrary. We are keen to add to ourgrowing collection. Please contact usvia [email protected].


JAMES FLINT (C.1853 - 1937):A PRACTICAL MAN

At the centenary of the Armistice letus take a moment to appreciateJames Flint, who served as Mayor forthe greater part of the war. Consid-ered by his fellow councillors as anactive, efficient, practical man andthe best man to lead the City as thewar was escalating, he was prevailedupon to accept the Mayoralty inNovember 1915, a position he was tofind himself holding until November1918. From the start his programmewas clearly pragmatic: '[It] must beremembered that I am not a wealthyman. For a man to impoverish himselffor a year’s popularity is a stupidpolicy’.

Born in Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, inthe mid-1850s, Flint was apprenticedat 12 to the building trade, becomingClerk of Works for brewers J W Greenof Luton in 1885. In 1889 he becamethe publican at the Pineapple publichouse in Catherine Street whilstengaging in known property develop-ments in Etna Road (and later RussellAvenue) on his own account. Presi-dent of the St Albans Licensed Victual-lers’ Protection Association, he waselected to the City Council in 1898 as

‘the working man’s candidate’ repre-senting their interests against thetemperance movement. Flint wasappointed Alderman in 1908.

His invalid wife Caroline having diedin 1915, her niece Mary Thompsonacted as Mayoress and proved a greathelpmeet to James. They undertooknumerous fund-raising activities forthe likes of the local hospitals and theRed Cross depot. All in addition to hisduties as Chief Magistrate and chair-ing countless official and charitablecommittees, which proliferated as thewar went on. An amusing example ofhis efficiency is a report in the Herts

Portrait of Flint from the 1907 PageantProgramme (SAHAAS Library)


Advertiser, ‘The Mayor turns hustler’that he chaired five relief fund meet-ings in an hour and a quarter!

Flint’s appointment as chairman of thereconstituted St Albans City MilitaryService Tribunal in 1916 added manyhours to his full calendar. A fellowTribunal member interviewed afterthe war described the heavy sense ofresponsibility they all felt, adding,however ‘One of the few pleasantrecollections in connection with mywork on the Tribunal was the manlyand urbane manner in which the Chair-man (Alderman J Flint) carried out hisduties’.

By November 1917, the councilminutes noted that the ‘Mayor’s firm-ness in keeping the town dark at nighthad saved St Albans from air raids...'Although St Albans never suffered adirect hit, during an air raid in April1917 he personally accompanied thePolice Sergeant in an attempt to dis-perse the 300-400 people gathered infront of the Town Hall to watch aZeppelin flying over the city.

He became Chairman of the St AlbansFood Control Committee which had itsfirst meeting 13 August 1917. No areawas too small for the Committee’sattention: from physically redistribut-ing margarine so that all shops had a

fair share to issuing an order that noschoolchildren were to be servedduring school hours.

Flint attended every City Councilmeeting in 1917 and missed only onesitting of the City Bench, due to hisescorting the mother of PrivateEdward Warner to Buckingham Palaceto accept his posthumous VC.

Among many accolades bestowedupon him when reappointed in 1916is the comment ‘he .... displayed onecharacteristic very strongly and thatwas his habit of calling a spade a spadeand not an agricultural implement’. Anarticle in the NTF (’Nine Thirty Five’),founded in 1916 by passengers on the9.35pm train from Luton to Harpendento raise funds for British POWs, com-mented on his ‘shrewdness and acautious impartial judgement.’Perhaps the best reason for his successhowever, it goes on ‘We who knowhim best know that behind the gravitylurks a hearty geniality which can enjoythe lighter side of life. We have seenhim in moments of levity, heard hisspontaneous mirth find vent in a waythat made the railway compartmentshake'.

Val ArgueSAHAAS Biographies Group


Tuesday 20 NovemberSir Thomas Gresham’s ExchangeProfessor Stephen Alford

“Go to the Exchange, crave gold as youintend.” (William Haughton, Englishmenfor My Money, 1598) Sir Thomas Gre-sham's first great contribution to the lifeof Elizabethan London was the RoyalExchange, the purpose-built merchants'bourse which opened in 1567. Why didGresham finance and build it? What didLondoners (and others) do there? Whatdoes the Exchange tell us about Gre-sham's ambitions both for himself andfor London? And what does it suggestabout how trade and culture were

changing and developing in the latersixteenth century?

Stephen Alford was educated at theUniversity of St Andrews and taught forfifteen years at the University of Cam-bridge before moving in 2012 to Leedsas Professor of Early Modern BritishHistory. He is the author of six books,including a biography of William Cecil,Lord Burghley (2008), The Watchers: ASecret History of the Reign of ElizabethI (2012), a short study of King Edward VIfor the Penguin Monarchs series (2014)and most recently London's Triumph:Merchant Adventurers and the TudorCity (2017).

Tuesday 4 DecemberSt Albans School in World War TwoRobin Ollington

The outbreak of war in September 1939brought many dramatic changes to livesof the citizens of St Albans, amongstthem the masters and boys of the schoolbearing its name. Although over its longhistory the school had lived through

LECTURE PROGRAMME20 November 2018 - 19 February2019

All lectures commence at 7.45pm.

All lectures are held at MarlboroughRoad Methodist Church.

Late changes will be notified on ourwebsite and via e-news.

HELP NEEDED AT LECTURES

We are still looking for members who are prepared to offer occasional assist-ance setting up our audio/visual system prior to lectures.

Please contact Gill Girdziusz via [email protected] if you can help.


many wars from the Hundred Years War,the Wars of the Roses to the horrendousconflict of 1914-18 none would affect it asmuch as the Second World War when forthe first time, both City and Schoolbecame the Home Front with the threatnot only of air attack but invasion itself.This talk covers this extraordinary periodas seen through the eyes of a schoolboyof the period based on his recollectionsand those of his contemporaries.

Robin’s first career was in teaching at artcollege. He later moved into the commer-cial world with responsibility for promot-ing Guernsey, Gibraltar, Italy, and Egyptand in the case of Guernsey and Gibraltaralso involved the design of their postagestamps. He has been involved in exhibi-tions at Tate Britain on Beatrix Potter andseveral heritage-related exhibitions at theV&A. He is currently involved with theRoyal Hospital Chelsea, where since 2002he has been collecting and publishingPensioners’ memoirs. His published workincludes Inspiring Old Albanians (2017), arecord of 75 former pupils of the school,some as early as the 12th century includ-ing the only English Pope, Adrian IV.

Tuesday 15 January 2019London Mithraeum: a new home for theTemple of MithrasLouise Fowler

In 1954, the discovery of a well-preservedRoman temple dedicated to the god

Mithras on a London building site pro-voked a national debate about whether itwas right for archaeological remains to besacrificed for development. Following apublic outcry, the beleaguered siteowners agreed to dismantle the remainsof the temple and reconstruct them on asite nearby. Recently, redevelopment bynew owners Bloomberg provided anopportunity to return the temple to thesite of its discovery, as part of an innova-tive new public display embracing thesite’s rich history. Louise will talk aboutMOLA’s (Museum of London Archaeology)work with Bloomberg and the team ofexhibition designers, architects, engi-neers, stonemasons and artists who havebrought the site’s fascinating past to life.

A visit to Verulamium Museum when shewas eight years old inspired Louise with alifelong interest in archaeology, and afterpursuing the subject at university she nowworks for MOLA as a Post-ExcavationManager. She is part of the MOLA teamthat has been working with Bloomberg onthe London Mithraeum.

Tuesday 22 JanuaryHugh Myddelton and the New RiverHelen Gibson

The New River is a source of fresh waterfor London built in the early 17th centuryfrom Hertfordshire to Islington. Its organ-isation was accomplished by Hugh Myd-delton and it is still in use today. Its route


has left many historic traces from Wareto London including, the New River Pathdelineated recently by Thames Water.

Helen is a retired teacher and councilmember of the East Herts Archaeologi-cal Society, a position she took up on thesudden death of her husband AdrianGibson in 2006. He had spoken severaltimes to SAHAAS and had been active inediting Hertfordshire Archaeology.Helen was happy to undertake some ofhis engagements as she had assistedhim since 1956 when he was the excava-tor discovering Swanscombe Man (nowthought to be a woman).

Tuesday 5 FebruaryHitler’s British IslesDuncan Barrett

In the summer of 1940, Britain stoodperilously close to invasion, and theprospect of German occupation wasvery much on the horizon. Thanks to thesuccess of the Battle of Britain, it neverhappened – but ever since, the idea ofGerman jackboots on British soil hascontinued to fascinate us, played out incounterfactual fictions such as ‘SSGB’and ‘Dominion’. But there is no needfor fiction – in the Channel Islands, morethan 50,000 British subjects lived sideby side with the Germans for five years.In 2017, Duncan Barrett spent threemonths in the islands, interviewing

more than a hundred local people abouttheir memories of the Occupation. Inthis talk he shares some of their incred-ible stories.

Duncan Barrett is a writer and editor,specialising in biography and memoir.He grew up in London and studiedEnglish at Jesus College, Cambridge. In2010 he edited the First World Warmemoirs of pacifist saboteur RonaldSkirth, published as The ReluctantTommy. He is co-author, with NualaCalvi, of a trio of Sunday Times Top 10bestsellers: The Sugar Girls, which wasranked second in the history bestsellersof 2012, GI Brides, which was also a NewYork Times bestseller in America, andThe Girls Who Went to War. His first solotitle, Men of Letters: The Post OfficeHeroes Who Fought the Great War, wasnominated for the People's Book Prize.His second, Hitler’s British Isles, waspublished in 2018.

Tuesday 12 FebruaryThe Rise and Fall of the Pubs ofWheathampstead 1830-1914Patrick McNeill and Peter Jeffreys

The Beerhouse Act of 1830 enabledindividuals to obtain a licence to sellbeer by paying two guineas a year to theExcise rather than obtaining a licencefrom the magistrates. As a result, thenumber of licensed premises in Wheat-


hampstead rose from seven to twentyby 1841, with a total of 26 licensedpremises being open between thenand 1914. Growing concern about thisincrease and the management andconduct of beerhouses led to controlbeing returned to the magistrates in1872. The temperance movement,plus the development of other leisureactivities, led to the 1904 Licensing Actwhich introduced more regulation andreduced the number of outlets. Wewill outline this context and presentcase studies of some licensed housesof varying size, respectability andlifespan.

A history graduate, Peter Jeffreystaught in two grammar schools beforeserving as an education officer in threedifferent local authorities. He has alsoworked at the Open University, in bothfull-time and part-time capacities and,before retirement, was Secretary andRegistrar of the University of Hertford-shire for twenty-one years.

Patrick McNeill spent 20 years as alecturer in sociology at St Albans Col-lege. After writing and editing anumber of books, he became an edu-cational publisher at Collins Educa-tional and, from 1995, workedfreelance as an education, trainingand publishing consultant. On retiringin 2010, he and his wife moved to

Wheathampstead where he is activein the local history society and in pro-tecting the natural environment.

Tuesday 19 FebruarySomething Old, Something New:Conservation Architecture in Prac-ticeFrancesca Weal

This talk discusses the process ofdecision-making, design, the use ofmaterials and ‘informed conservation’when working with historic buildingsand environments. It is illustrated withcase studies including repair projects,conversions, extensions and even anew house in the St Albans conserva-tion area.

Francesca Weal is accredited as aspecialist conservation architect, hasher practice in Wheathampstead, is aformer chair of the Hertfordshire Asso-ciation of Architects, and representedthe East of England on RIBA Councilfor many years. She is a member of theHertfordshire Building PreservationTrust, the Society for the Protection ofAncient Buildings, and the Ecclesiasti-cal Architects’ & Surveyors’ Associa-tion.

Tickets are available in advance at all SAHAAS lectures and the SAHAAS Library.To purchase tickets by post cut out or copy and complete the following form.

Please send me the following tickets for the Society’s New Year Party

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Please make your cheque payable to SAHAAS and send with this formand a Stamped Addressed Envelope to:

Bryan Hanlon, 24 Monks Horton Way, St Albans, AL1 4HA

Our Main Social Event of the Year

NEWNEW YEAR PARTY

FRIDAY 11 JANUARYVERULAMIUM MUSEUM

7.30 PMMeet with fellow members and guests for Conversation, Quiz,

Liquid refreshment and Festive foodNew members especially welcome

A finger buffet organised by Val Argue and members

Val would welcome a contributionof a plate of sweet or savoury -

the Society is very happy to reimburse members financiallyTel: 01727 853083 or

Email: [email protected]

november 2018 digital 0219...lusby, david moore, liz rolfe, liz rose, david smith. 2. president’s...

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