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society
NEWS
The Bulletin of the ENFIELD ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
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March 2001 No 160
CONTENTS
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
EAS MEETINGS
16 March 2001: The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain
20 April 2001: Annual General Meeting: followed by
Reports of Fieldwork and Research
18 May 2001: Retrieving London‟s Prehistory
OTHER SOCIETIES
REFLECTIONS FROM THE CHAIRMAN
MEETING REPORTS
Excavating the Crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields
Archaeology and the Jubilee Line Extension
Medieval London Bridge: Lost and Found
THE SOUTHGATE BEAUMONT
Arnos Grove – Part 3
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2000
SMALL FINDS
AGM AGENDA
Society News is published quarterly in March, June, September and December The Editor is Jon Tanner, 24 Padstow Road, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 8BU, telephone: 020 8350 0493
FORTHCOMING
EVENTS
Friday 18 May 2001
Meetings of the Enfield Archaeological Society Retrieving London’s Prehistory
are held at Jubilee Hall, 2 Parsonage Lane, Jon Cotton: Curator of Prehistory, Museum of Enfield (near Chase Side) at 8.00pm. Tea and London
coffee are served and the sales and information
table is open from 7.30pm. Visitors, for whom a I will aim to bring members up to speed with charge of ?1.00 will be made, are very welcome. recent discoveries in this part of the Lower
Thames Valley, emphasising all the while the Friday 16 March 2001 primary importance of the River Thames as The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain highway, boundary, and “sacred stream”, and Dr Neil Faulkner the prehistoric people behind the evidence. I will
touch on the reasons why London has been so Combining fresh analysis of the archaeological slow to recognise the potential of its earliest evidence with the traditional historical accounts, past, and look at how things have improved this is a new interpretation of the decline and fall recently. In particular I will contrast the of Roman Britain. The original conquest of approaches adopted on major programmes of Britain was one of the last successes of Roman work conducted on the gravel terraces to the military imperialism, whereas the Roman‟s west of the City and compare them with those repeated failures on the north British frontier adopted in areas such as Westminster and show the limits of this system – once dynamic North Southwark. I will close by identifying some and expansionist, later faltering and defensive. of the gaps in our knowledge, and ways in rdthBy the late 3 and early 4 centuries, a new which these might be plugged.
order was established in Britain: a centralised Jon Cotton
military-bureaucratic state, governed by a class
of super-rich landlords and apparatchicks, who ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; siphoned wealth out of the provinces to defend the frontiers. As a result, the towns declined and MEETINGS OF OTHER SOCIETIES the countryside was depressed. The fabric of late Roman imperial society simply rotted away. EDMONTON HUNDRED The process of decline reached a climax in the thHISTORICAL SOCIETY great military crisis of the late 4 century. The Roman imperial army, bled white by defeats on 8.00 p.m. in Jubilee Hall, Parsonage Lane, continental battlefields, withdrew its troops from Enfield unless otherwise stated. Visitors ?1.00 Britain to defend the imperial heartlands, and the Romano-British elite succumbed to a Wednesday 28 March 2001 combination of warlord power, barbarian attack A.G.M. and Churches in Kent and Sussex and popular revolt. The talk will conclude with a Graham Dalling discussion of the legacy of Rome and the significance of the so-called “dark age”. Tuesday 10 April 2001 At St Pauls Centre Dr Neil Faulkner Waltham Abbey Gunpowder Factory Norman Paul Friday 20 April 2001 Wenesday 23 May 2001 Annual General Meeting The Palace of Westminster Major Peter Horsfall Following the formal part of the meeting (see the attached Agenda) there will be reports of Enquiries to the Local History Section, Town fieldwork and research, and other activities of Hall, Green Lanes, Palmers Green London N13 the Society during the year 2000. Tel: 020 8379 2724
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HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION – SOCIETY MATTERS NORTH LONDON BRANCH
SUBSCRIPTIONS All meetings are held at 8.00 p.m. in Jubilee Hall,
Parsonage Lane, Enfield.
Many thanks to all those members who have Tuesday 08 May 2001 paid their subscriptions for the year 2001. A Shopping in Tudor and Stuart London number of you have yet to renew your Dr Ian Archer (Keble College Oxford) membership, however and if you have received
a reminder form with this edition of Society Tuesday 12 June 2001 News, it would be very much appreciated if you The International Brigades and the would forward the appropriate remittance. This Spanish Civil War will ensure that you receive the June edition. Dr Matthew Hughes (University College Northampton) Subscription rates for 2001 are as follows: For further details, contact Robin Blades, 020 Ordinary Members: ?5.00 8368 5328 Joint Memberships: ?7.00 Junior Members: ?2.50 WEST ESSEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL GROUP th Lectures are given in the 6 Form Unit, VISIT TO ROYAL GUNPOWDER Woodford County High School, High Road,
MILLS Woodford Green, at 7.45 p.m.
Monday 12 March 2001 A Society visit to the Royal Gunpowder Mills at A.G.M. and Presidential Address Waltham Abbey is planned for 21 July 2001.
Provided that we can muster at least 10 people, Harvey Sheldon
the group rate admission is ?4.90 for adults, Monday 09 April 2001 ?2.50 for children aged 5 – 16, and ?4.25 for
London AD45 to AD120 students and senior citizens. This is a
fascinating old industrial archaeology site, and Hedley Swain
the weekend has been designated an
“Archaeology Weekend”. Members wishing to Monday 14 May 2001
book a place should ring Dennis Hill as soon as In the Sir James Hawkey Hall, Woodforfd Green
possible please, on 020 8440 1593. Rudge Memorial Lecture: Hadrians Wall
Mark Hassall
ANNUAL OUTING LONDON AND MIDDLESEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY This year the joint Annual Outing with the Workers Educational Association, will be to the Lectures are held in the Interpretation Unit of Fens and Cambridgeshire on 26 May 2001. The the Museum of London beginning at 6.30p.m. cost is ?13.50; details and a booking form are given on the flyer distributed with Society News. Wednesday 13 December 2000 London on Ice: The Thames Frost Fairs Jeremy Smith (Guidhall Library) VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED
Wednesday 17 January 2001
Hugh Chapman Memorial Lecture: We still require people to help with the running In Mint Condition of the Society. In particular, although the Jenny Hall (Museum of London) programme for 2001 is arranged, and that for
2002 is almost complete, a new Meetings Wednesday 21 February 2001 Secretary is desperately needed, to help with In the Lecture Theatre the administration. AGM followed by Presidential Address: If anyone is able and willing to help in this The Streets of Medieval London - or in any other - way, please contact the Dr Derek Keene (Centre for Metropolitan History) Chairman Dennis Hill, telephone 020 8440 1593.
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use of the water in Gussie Bowles‟ famous REFLECTIONS FROM garden. All will be revealed in the Research
section at the AGM. THE CHAIRMAN The project to re-excavate parts of Forty
Hall‟s Tudor Elsyng Palace grinds away. An Of recent weeks, the winter weather has been application will shortly be made to the dull, cold and wet on most days, not really Department of Culture, Media and Sport for optimal for field archaeology – at least as far as Consent to excavate this Scheduled Ancient amateurs are concerned. Monument. Once this is obtained, application
Having said that, on the morning of will be made to the Countryside Commission for Sunday 21 January our friends in the West a grant to cover the work.
Essex Archaeological Group invited me to We have continued with a good series of participate in a tour of Copped Hall. When Friday evening lectures in Jubilee Hall, which driving anti-clockwise on the M25 and leaving has attracted sizeable audiences. On the the tunnel shortly after the M11 junction, ahead afternoon of Saturday 21 July, there will be a of you on the right is the mysterious ruin of a visit to the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham burnt-out Georgian mansion. This is Copped Abbey. This is a new attraction featuring an
Archaeological Weekend (see Society Matters – Hall, a place I had always wanted to explore, so
ed.). on with boots and rainproofs and out into a
snowy landscape with a howling gale blowing. Dennis Hill
To my surprise there was a turnout of about 100 people.
The original Hall was held by the
Fitzaucher family from about 1150 to 1337. This
MEETING REPORTS early Hall was sited some 250 metres north
west of the present ruin. In 1303, the estate
comprised a park of 24 hectares, arable land of Excavating the Crypt of 40 hectares and 8 hectares of meadowland.
In 1751 the demolition of the Tudor Hall Christ Church, Spitalfields commenced and the building of the new Friday 17 November 2000: Jez Reeves Georgian Hall started. By 1803 the estate consisted of 1206 hectares plus a further 215 hectares of forest land. Sadly the Hall burned To the excavators this was a sobering down in 1917. The estate was sold in 1952 and experience and gave rise to much discussion on anything of value from the mansion and gardens the ethics of disturbing such modern remains. was sold. In 1995 the property and gardens The view of the Church of England is that all were taken over by the Copped Hall Charitable human remains regardless of age or religion Trust whose members are busy with renovation should be treated alike with respect and suitably and exploration work. WEAG has been invited reinterred when research is completed. to open up trenches on the site of the Tudor Hall thThe population of early 18 century and is keen to co-operate with out Society. The London was growing fast with the Spitalfields “dig” is scheduled to start at the end of May. area east of the tower mainly occupied by This will be an excellent opportunity to view a French Huguenot silk weavers. Christ Church fascinating site and work along with a great set Spitalfields was one of the only 12 churches of friends. built out of an original estimated requirement of It was great to learn that no less than 72 needed to cope with London's suburban three Enfield members had each studied for four growth. The work of Nicholas Hawksmoor, it years to obtain the Birkbeck College Extra-was consecrated in 1729 and refurbished in Mural Diploma in Field Archaeology. 1816. In the early 1980's it was decided to The study of the 610mm (24”) pipeline restore the church to its original condition with from Whitewebbs Pumping Station which fed the crypt being cleared to be used for services. the ornamental loop of the New River in front of The many dated burials in the crypt presented a Myddelton House is progressing well. John unique research opportunity as their remains Cunningham, a retired Thames Water civil could be used to check the accuracy of the engineer has kindly lent a 1906 set of maps, forensic methods used to date skeletal material. which show the pipeline and its drainage points. A further new field of study explored was the Thus, we now have the complete story of the decoration of coffins. pumping station, its gravity-fed pipeline and the
4
The excavation presented a series of unique Archaeology and the problems. These included the handling of
possibly partly intact cadavers and the possible Jubilee Line Extension preservation of viruses like smallpox. Eventually Friday 15 December 2000:
health and safety concerns were met and James Drummond-Murray
permission was granted for the work.
This well illustrated lecture to the Society at Once the vaults which had been bricked
Jubilee Hall covered major investigations at up in the 19th century were entered the Westminster, London Bridge and Stratford. The excavators were faced with masses of wooden tube tunnels for the line were too deep to affect coffins stacked 10 high in some places. Much of the archaeology, but this was at serious risk the wood had decayed and the layers had from the associated escape and connecting collapsed into each other. 5 cwt lead coffins tunnels, ventilation and escalator shafts. added further problems both in shifting them out Starting in the west at Westminster, on rollers and the need to keep them intact James showed the original outline of Thorney because of the unpleasant liquids they might Island with Westminster Abbey at its centre. contain. The contents were very difficult to There turned out to have been very few record and much effort had to be devoted to prehistoric or Roman finds at Westminster. The
bulk of the archaeology was relevant to the keeping the individual sets of remains together.
medieval period on a site to the north of Most recording was done from planks
Westminster Hall. This included a stretch of suspended over the coffins while some 300 tons Tudor river wall. There were also the remains of of rubble had to be bucketed out. Much a Victoria river wall. These walls pushed out into fragmentary coffin wood was also removed and the river as an adjunct to land reclamation. after study taken in batches for cremation. Close to the old Westminster Palace was a Some well preserved and partly dried out timber-lined cesspit utilising former ship‟s remains were found including an almost intact timbers. The wetness of the pit helps preserve child, which upset several of the excavators. items made from wood and leather. An example The decoration and fitting out of the occurs with a pair of wooden plates used by coffins showed immense variety with, for Benedictine monks living nearby in Cannon example, 50 different patterns of nails being Row.
Moving to the houses used by these used to pin velvet on the outside of the wood.
monks, the gardens contained a chalk-lined Metal coffin plates featuring urns, angles and
drain running down to the Thames. A set of inscriptions decorated the lids of many coffins Tudor pottery garden watering pots was also with lead, copper and china being used for the found, together with a beautiful Delftware jug handles. Most coffins had internal fabric lining dated to 1627. and specimens of all these materials plus wood The modern London Bridge is a samples were taken for later research. The successor of the first Roman bridge crossing the study of the dated human remains showed that Thames in about AD50 and which represented forensic techniques could underestimate ages a key Roman communications point in Southern by up to 30 years. Britain. The southern side of the Thames in
Within the vaults children's coffins were those days consisted of sandy mudflats. often used to fill up odd spaces. The coffin of an Between 1992 and 1996 MOLAS conducted no
less than 25 excavations in the vicinity of important member of the church was found
London Bridge, their largest project to date. pitched down the stairs leading to one of the
The largest of these was that at Borough vaults; the occupant had presumably upset the High Street where a temporary road surface sextons at some stage! was laid out with all the live services suspended This lecture was a fascinating look at a beneath it in pipes and cables. The High Street very new type of archaeology and demonstrated follows the line of the original Roman Street again that archaeology has much to add to our coming up from the south. understanding of even well documented periods. Working beneath this temporary road The slides were splendid, if occasionally surface, MOLAS archaeologists noticed a gruesome and the lecturer is to be thanked for substantial amount of hammer scale, indicative giving us a splendid evening. of the presence of a blacksmith‟s forge in the
Ian K. Jones. vicinity. The presence of a timber building could
5
be deduced from the pattern of post-holes bridge by boat was like shooting rapids, and the remaining. This appears to be one of the first river would soak terrified passengers. There wooden Roman buildings in London, dating to were buildings all along the bridge until 1762, so about AD55. passengers also had to beware of privies being
There was a row of long, narrow timber emptied from above.
buildings fronting onto the main road. The shop Bruce Watson entertained the Society‟s or workshop opened onto the road with the January meeting with details like these while living accommodation at the rear. The remains describing his archaeological work on remains of these earliest Roman buildings were sealed of the bridge at the Southwark side. He cited thacross the whole length of the site, some 60 century descriptions by Samuel Pepys, the 17metres, by a layer of fire debris indicative of a diarist, of how passengers would leave their major conflagration, which is likely to be that boats just before the bridge, walk around it, and due to the attack of Boudica and her Iceni army. rejoin their boats on the other side. Pepys This debris represents the first evidence that himself would sometimes remain on board just Boudica operated south of the Thames. for the thrill of this “white knuckle” ride.
Another interesting excavation occurred Bruce explained that the Romans nearby at Redcross Way where there was a well established the first London Bridge, possibly ththknown cemetery in use in the 18 and 19 with a clever series of cofferdams, a technique centuries to hold the remains of relatively poor that they were known to have used elsewhere. It persons, often piled into communal graves would have allowed them to build directly onto without coffins. the dry riverbed. Vitruvius, the Roman architect,
At Stratford, an Iron Age farm was found, documented this construction technique, but it thbut the main interest occurred with the was not used again in London until the 15
excavation of Stratford and Langthorpe Abbey century. Instead, piles were driven into the founded in 1135 by William de Montfitchet as a riverbed from boats.
house of the French Sauvignacs order. In 1147 The Romans chose this location for the it transferred to the Cistercian order. The east bridge as the Thames was a good transport end of the later stone-built abbey church was route to and from the rest of the empire and, uncovered as was the infirmary, the cloister and because of Kent‟s flood-plains, London was the a long stretch of the abbey‟s great drain. first convenient crossing point. A large number
Inside the church were found several of Roman coins have been found in the river at graves, of which two were evidently of high the site of the bridge, which probably means status involving a stone coffin and a wooden that there was a temple on or near it. Almost all coffin placed in a stone cist. A total of 683 the coins date from before AD320, which skeletons were excavated, including many from suggests that this bridge probably fell down the monks‟ graveyard. around that time. It certainly no longer existed
MOLAS is on the point of publishing when London was abandoned in about AD400. several volumes detailing the results of post-Bruce‟s slides included an illustration of a bridge excavation research such as that dealing with from Trajan‟s column in Rome. This showed palaeoenvironmental factors. An excellent, well-how London‟s bridge could have looked.
illustrated general publication detailing the major Five hundred years later, Alfred the Great finds from the Jubilee Line Extension project is built London‟s first wooden bridge. This
the MOLAS publication “The Big Dig”. coincided with the refortification of the Roman
city in AD886 as a result of Viking attacks on the
Dennis Hill Saxon settlement of Lundenwic (between the
Strand and Westminster). A port and
commercial centre were also established at this
time. Digging with his team at the Southwark Medieval London Bridge: side of the river, Bruce had found evidence for
five wooden bridges before the first stone bridge, Lost and Found which was finished in 1209. His slides showed thFriday 19 January 2001: Bruce Watson 11 century base-plates and stakes which had been preserved in the waterlogged ground. Before the nineteenth century, the arches of A priest called Peter, of St Mary London Bridge were very narrow, and each pier Colechurch, organised a guild which paid for the stood on a boat-shaped structure called a first stone bridge. Maintenance was important to starling. As a result, the Thames passed replace defective piles which would otherwise through much faster than now. Going under the allow water to erode the cores of the starlings.
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Erosion would lead to movement of the starlings, there was often severe overcrowding. From and collapse of the piers that they supported. 1722, traffic was ordered to keep left when However, maintenance was poor because crossing it. This was the start of a rule that now Henry III deprived the city of money as applies to all of this country‟s roads. From 1757 punishment for the support that Londoners gave to 1762, George Dance the elder and Robert to his rival, Simon de Montfort. As a result, five Taylor modernised the bridge. They improved of the central arches fell down in 1281. By this the flow of traffic by removing the buildings and time there were already houses on the bridge. It demolishing a central arch. A new bridge, which collapsed again in January 1437 and Richard was built a few metres upstream in 1831, solved Beck, the chief mason at Canterbury Cathedral, the problem, and the old bridge was finally was head-hunted at great expense to rebuild it. demolished. Parts of the 1762 bridge are to be As Bruce dryly observed, money is often no found in unlikely places, including Victoria Park object after a catastrophe. in Hackney, the grounds of Guys Hospital, and
Accounting records show that Beck‟s Beaumont Quay near Clacton. Bruce had a rebuilding went on by night and day, until a slide showing garden walls at Heathfield Road timber replacement section allowed the bridge in Wandsworth, which actually contain material to re-open in April. Bruce had impressive slides from the original stone bridge.
showing objects found from this period, A lively question and answer session including a section of the river wall with its followed the lecture, with Bruce again wedge-shaped blocks, and stone springers, demonstrating a phenomenal range of which would have supported the ribs of the knowledge. At the end, there was warm arches. applause for this entertaining and informative
In 1305, William “Braveheart” Wallace speaker.
was the first traitor to have his head displayed
Mick Breheny on the bridge. This practice finally ceased in
1670, when two anarchists were executed and
had their heads displayed.
Kingston had the next bridge upstream,
and London Bridge was less than 4.5m wide, so
THE SOUTHGATE BEAUMONT
aka SOUTHGATE HOUSE, NORTHMET HOUSE, ARNOS GROVE, ARNO‟S,
ARNOLD‟S: Part 3
Decoration and Furnishing
the census returns as being employed within the th18 century panelling survives in all the rooms house numbered six between 1841 and 1861. In and corridors on first and second floors and to 1841 there were two male and four female some extent on the ground floor. Photographs servants but their duties are not described. Ten taken by Lord Inverforth show how the rooms years later, the 1851 census described a butler, were furnished in the 1920s 34. When he sold cook, kitchen maid, housemaid, under the house in 1928 Lord Inverforth removed a housemaid and a needlewoman. The same Sicilian mantelpiece from the drawing room and situation prevailed in 1861 and 1871 except that the clock from the tower on the stable block. a footman appears in 1861 with a second post The bell of the clock weighed one of under footman in 1871. The latter reached hundredweight. All these items were taken to the full rank of footman by 1881 and there were his house, The Hill, on Hampstead Heath, now two men performing these duties. Also in formerly the home of Lord Leverhulme 35. 1871 the post of butler gave way to that of a
housekeeper, but was reinstated by 1891 when STAFF there was both a housekeeper and a butler. By
1861 there were several children in the house The census returns taken between 1841 and and the staff now included a ladies‟ maid and a 1891 give details of staff at Arnos House who young ladies‟ maid as well as a nurse (aged 14) were on the premises at the time. Staff listed in and a nursery maid (aged 16). Of the outside
staff only a groom is mentioned between 1851
7
and 1881 and a coachman in 1861. No doubt on the same site. It has been shown elsewhere there were other members of staff who because that Sir Robert Taylor was almost certainly the
architect responsible for Beaver Hall 48 and it they lived out would have been separately listed
in the census under their own addresses. . was Taylor who was employed by Sir George
Colebrook between 1752 and 1762 to carry out GROUNDS extensive work at Arnos Grove 49.
By 1823 the grounds of Arnos Grove
comprised 40.47 hectares 49a. Thirty years The house and 121.4 hectares of land, which
finally comprised the grounds of Arnos Grove later, John Walker purchased and demolished
Minchenden Hall 50, a large house built in 1747, estate, began as a small house known as
Arnolds, the first firm reference to which is in which stood at the junction of Waterfall Road 1584 where it was said to have stood in 9.71 and Cannon Hill. (Is there any significance in hectares of land, which were sold in that year to the fact that this was the same year in which Humphrey Weld 36. He purchased a further James Colebrook purchased the old house, 5.26 hectares in 1610 from Robert Cecil 37, and Arnolds?). The grounds of Minchenden were his son, Sir John Weld bought another 60.7 then incorporated into those of Arnos Grove. hectares in 1614 from William Cecil, Earl of Later on the same thing happened to the Salisbury 38. Although this made a total of grounds of Beaver Hall, a large villa built c1763 75.68 hectares it is not known if all this land was standing on or close to the site of the earlier contiguous (see note 49a). Arnolds, when it was purchased and
demolished by John Walker in 1870 51. It was Sir John Weld who in 1615 erected
a small chapel at ease as a place of worship for The boundary wall of Beaver Hall along his family, and local people 39. There was also Waterfall Road was retained. Elsewhere, trees a curate‟s house but this was demolished when and shrubs were planted around the site of the chapel was later extended 40. In 1645 his Minchenden to screen it from the road 52.
widow, Dame Frances Weld, sold Arnolds and Within the area of the park rows of trees, mainly the chapel to Sir William Acton 41. He died in oaks, revealed the lines of former hedges once 1651 and the estate passed to his daughter, surrounding fields where dairy cattle and sheep Elizabeth, who married Sir William Whitmore 42 were grazed in the fashion of the times. The and on his death it passed by various avenue of trees extending from the rear of inheritances to Sir Thomas Whitmore who in Minchenden survived the demolition of the 1747 sold it to James Colebrook 43. house and could still be seen on the 1914
James Colebrook, a London mercer, edition of the OS 25 inch plan. On the 1865 OS purchased property in Southgate from 1716 plan the position of a large vase is indicated on onwards 44 - which would have included the the edge of woodland in the centre of the park. land on which he was to build his new house The placing of such large vases, and statues of between 1719 -23. It appears to have been one sort or another in their parks by landowners ththtaken for granted by previous writers that the and early 19 was very fashionable in the 18
original Arnolds was demolished by James centuries.
Colebrook, who had been living there while his An avenue had been cut through new house was being constructed, but there is woodland in the south-west corner of the park to no known reference to its demolition and in any provide a view, or vista. At one end, where event he was only a lessee of Sir Thomas Arnos Grove station now stands was a summer Whitmore and did not purchase the property house where occupants seated within would from him until 1747 45. have a deliberately focused view through the
woodland to the New River beyond 53. One can His son George, later Sir George
Colebrook, inherited Arnolds (was the old house imagine one of the rarely mentioned daughters still standing at this time?) and on his death the of Russel Donnithorne Walker escaping for a trustees sold the Weld chapel to the incumbent moment from the restraints of Victorian life the Rev H Shepherd 46. The chapel continued sitting there reading her copy of a Walter Scott under separate patronage until 1815 when this novel, with perhaps the sounds of an aeolian passed to the vicar of Edmonton. Nearby Christ harp hung in the trees providing a suitable Church was erected in 1863, on land donated ambient romantic atmosphere. Another summer by Isaac Walker, and the Weld chapel was then house stood near Pymmes Brook, the site of demolished 47. which can still be seen today. If one enters
Could Arnolds have been rebuilt in the Arnos Park from Morton Crescent and walks thmid-18 century as Beaver Hall? Both through the trees to the point where a terrace properties were in the same area if not actually descends to a footpath occupying the former
8
course of the New River, a shallow hollow in the carefully planted trees on the south side of ground can be observed and is the site of the house beyond which were stables, greenhouses
and walled kitchen garden(s) 55. A brick-lined summer house in question - there is a
photograph of the summer house in the local ha ha had been built along the back of the history library where it is described as „the house from a point opposite the entrance to temple‟. The view from this point encompasses Aldermans Hill to include and enclose woodland Pymmes Brook where in this section alone there on the north side of the house. Beyond the ha were at one time seven weirs, only one of which ha the level ground was clear of trees and has survived. When there is sufficient water it provided a fine view across the Pymmes valley. provides a cascade pleasing to the ear and to The four ornaments now standing at the rear of the eye, which must have delighted people the house were at one time placed on the open
ground beyond 56. These ornaments, two of walking in the former parkland. thThe front of house is occupied by a which represent 18 century wine coolers, are thsemicircular drive enclosing a lawn containing a probably made of Coade stone and 18 century
pool and a fountain and screened from the road in date. Elsewhere, in 1850, there was a by a belt of trees and shrubs. The pool and shrubbery, with rockwork, a basin, fountain and fountain were there in 1926 54 and were other ornamental features. There were early probably installed by Lord Inverforth. On the and late vineries, a large conservatory and a north side of the house a belt of woodland hothouse. Cedars of Lebanon, Weymouth pines, extended beyond Southgate Green and covered Scotch pines and many other fine trees and the site of Minchenden Hall. There were a few shrubs had been planted in the grounds. All of
which could be seen to advantage from a
circular walk around the estate 57.
Geoffrey Gillam
ARNOS GROVE - PLAN OF GROUND FLOOR
9
REFERENCES 28 ibid 130 (Part One) 29 ibid 1 T Lewis and D Pam: William and Robert Cecil as Landowners in Edmonton and Southgate 1561 - 30 ibid 127 & fig. 7 1600. Edmonton Hundred Historical Society Occasional 31 ibid 123 Paper (New Series) 22 10. 32 H Newby: Old Southgate 1949 75 2 Prob 11/141 (PCC 20 Swann) 33 Alan Dumayne: Southgate, A Glimpse of the Past 3 MRO; Acc 593/2-5 1987 72-3 4 MLR 1716/4/114-15 (Part Three) 5 R Garnier: Arno‟s Grove, Southgate. The Georgian 34 Photograph Local History Collection Group Journal Vol V111 1998 114 - 15 th June 1968 35 Palmers Green Gazette 76 Garnier 131 op cit 36 MRO Acc 593/2-5 7 W Watts: Views of the Seats of the Nobility and Gentry 1779, Arno‟s Grove in Middlesex Pl. 63 37 ibid /6; c142/322/173 8 Garnier 132 op cit 38 MRO Acc 593/7, /9 9 Date stone in floor of entrance hall 39 W Robinson: History of Edmonton Vol. 1 1819 122 - 142 10 Garnier 124 op cit 40 Victoria County History Middlesex V 184 11 Alan Dumayne: Southgate A Glimpse of the Past 1987 p.125 41 Robinson op cit p. 12 12 Watts op cit 42 ibid 13 ibid 43 MLR 1747/277 14 J N Brewer: Beauties of England and Wales 1816 44 MLR 1716/4/ 114 - 15 Vol. 10 Pt 4 709 45 MLR 1747/1/277 15 Garnier 131 op cit 46 Robinson op cit 130 16 John Rocque Map of Middlesex 1754 47 Victoria County History Middlesex V 184 17 Ordnance Survey 25 inch plan Middlesex 1865 48 R Garnier: Two „Crystalline‟ Villas of the 1760s - 18 Information from members of Southgate Civic Trust Beaver Hall, Southgate The Georgian Group Journal Vol VII 1997 11-15 (Part Two) 49 ibid 19 Following the fire, which destroyed the building, the damaged plaster carrying the mural was collected 49a Robinson op cit 34. However previous references and put in store in the hope that it will eventually be gave the total amount of land as 80.938 hectares - restored. see notes 36, 37 & 38 th20 Palmers Green Gazette 17 October 1969 50 Victoria County History Middlesex V 60 21 ibid. See also photographs taken in 1926 and 1945 51 Garnier op cit 15 in the Local History Collection 52 Ordnance Survey 25 inch plan Middlesex 1894 22 Bulletin of Enfield Archaeological Society 23 December 1966 53 ibid 1865 23 Photograph in Local History Collection 54 Photograph Local History Collection 24 Garnier 126 op cit; photograph in Local History 55 W Keane: The Beauties of Middlesex 1850 93-95; Collection. Ordnance Survey 25 Inch plan Middlesex 1865 th25 Palmers Green Gazette 7 June 1968 56 Photograph Local History Collection; R Garnier Gatton Town Hall. The Georgian group Journal Vol 26 Photographs in Local History Collection V111 1998 74 27 Garnier 126 op cit 57 Keane op cit
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