LAMAS Lecture Programme October 2018 - May 2019
All lectures are held on Tuesdays at the Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN, beginning at 6.30pm. Please note: the Annual General Meeting begins at 6.15pm.
Refreshments are available from 6.00pm (5.30pm before AGM). Visitors are always welcome, especially from affiliated societies (non-members are asked to donate £2).
9 October 2018
London Stone: from history to myth
John Clark, Curator Emeritus, Museum of London
In autumn 2018, famous London Stone returns from the Museum of London to its home in Cannon Street. This talk considers what is known of its history, and how a mythology has arisen identifying it as – variously – a Roman milestone, a relic of a Roman Governor’s palace, a druid altar, the ‘Stone of Brutus’, the City’s fetish stone, a mark-stone on a ley line, or an essential element in London’s sacred geometry, portending disaster if it is disturbed.
13 November 2018
The archaeology of the Greenwich World Heritage Site
Jane Sidell, Historic England
This talk will take us through the known and surviving archaeology within the Greenwich World Heritage site, from Roman remains, Saxon burials, the Queen Elizabeth oak, and the built heritage ending with the recent discoveries in Greenwich Palace, which are shortly to go on show in the Painted Hall undercroft.
11 December 2018
The Everyday Heroes of Postman’s Park
Dr John Price, Goldsmiths, University of London
The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Postman’s Park, London, documents sixty-two individuals, largely from the Victorian and Edwardian period, who lost their own life while attempting to save the life of another. In this talk, John will provide an overview of monument’s history as well as revealing some lesser known aspects of the everyday lives and heroic deaths of those commemorated.
8 January 2019
From the Romans to the Saxons: results from the archaeological fieldwork at the site of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square
Al Telfer, MOLA
Excavations produced evidence for a fascinating sequence of activity from the time of the Roman Conquest to the 19th century, which included sarcophagi, Saxons and 17th-century shops. The burial succession, in particular, is impressive in its apparent continuity, one rarely seen elsewhere, and makes a case for Saxon Lundenwic having Roman origins.
12 February 2019 (6.15pm, refreshments from 5.30pm)
Annual General Meeting and Presidential Address
Taryn Nixon
Taryn Nixon will deliver the second Address to the Society in her three year Presidential term.
12 March 2019
Knole Revealed: archaeology and discovery from 2011 – 2018
Nathalie Cohen, National Trust
This talk will present the discoveries made during building recording at Knole in Sevenoaks, Kent, during the major conservation project carried out by the National Trust at the property - over the course of seven years. This work included repair work to the roof and eastern façade, the conversion of the medieval barn into a conservation studio, and extensive work within the showrooms to upgrade services and open more spaces to the public. As part of the Heritage Lottery Funded project, a community and public archaeology programme was also developed to engage staff, volunteers and visitors with the archaeology of Knole.
9 April 2019
Headstone Manor, a moated house in Harrow, Middlesex
Pat Clarke
A disguised medieval house surrounded by a complete, water-filled moat still stands at the core of Headstone Manor, an ancient estate which opened as part of a heritage museum in December 2017. The surviving part of the early 14th century timber-framed house is thought to be the earliest domestic fabric so far known in Middlesex. The talk will cover the history of the house and estate, and consider the importance of the archaeological discoveries of recent years.
14 May 2019
Joint Prehistoric Society and LAMAS lecture: The Battersea Channel – a hidden landscape
Mark Stevenson, Historic England
This lecture will describe the archaeological process and results of recent investigations of the prehistoric landscape of Battersea and the River Thames.