Church Farmhouse Museum
EXCAVATION IN THE MUSEUM GARDEN
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From 13 to 19 July, Hendon & District
Archaeological Society (HADAS) and University College, London (UCL)
Institute of Archaeology, carried out an excavation in the Museum garden,
working with children from Barnet borough junior and secondary schools.
The children- some 200 of them- all had a chance to dig and to wash
and identify their finds, and although nothing of startling significance
was unearthed, the project gave them an excellent introduction to the
painstaking but absorbing world of field archaeology. The children were
also given tours of the Museum and Hendon St Mary’s churchyard.
Many members of the public came along to watch the work in progress,
and the site was visited by the MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore.
The project (which started in 2008) will
continue next Summer, when HADAS & UCL plan to open up a different
trench in the garden. They also hope to excavate two WWII communal air-raid
shelters in Sunny Hill Park, just a few hundred yards from the Museum.
The digs will make a perfect complement to the Museum’s exhibition
for the 350th anniversary of the building of Church Farmhouse in 2010.