2025-09-30-accounts

170th ANNUAL REPORT OF COUNCIL FOR THE SUBSCRIPTION YEAR ENDING 30[TH] SEPTEMBER 2025

All five Council meetings held during this year were online via the Zoom platform. The Society’s Committees have continued to function either online via Zoom or have returned to in person meetings. The joint Working Party continues to look at the Future of LAMAS and ways to increase the Membership.

The Society continues to be represented at meetings of the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Excavation Committee and the Council for British Archaeology London.

Lecture meetings (report by Kathryn Stubbs)

The lecture programme ran from October 2024 - May 2025. The lectures are announced in the Newsletter, on the website, on social media and the Diary page of London Archaeologist. The lectures were hybrid, held in person at the London Office of Historic England and the Institute of Archaeology, UCL and on-line. Lectures are recorded, with the agreement of the lecturer and are available on YouTube after the event. Lectures were well attended and attracted a wide audience including attendees from outside London and the UK, helping to raise and widen the profile of London's archaeology and history.

The first lecture in the series, in October, was given by Les Capon, AOC Archaeology, on ’’Friends, Romans, Country House: lend me your labour! Preliminary results from a series of community excavations at Cranford Park, London Borough of Hillingdon’’. Community excavations were undertaken at Cranford Park over the course of four years by AOC Archaeology on behalf of the London Borough of Hillingdon’s Community Archaeologist, Paul McGarrity. The excavations took place in the grounds of a former country estate associated with a post-medieval stately home - the below ground remains of which were investigated during this project. The history and archaeology of Cranford extends well beyond this time period however, the earliest written reference to the settlement dates to the late Saxon period, whilst excavations revealed evidence of an even deeper past that includes earlier prehistoric, Iron Age and Roman activity.

In November, Tim Allen, Oxford Archaeology, gave a lecture on ’’New light on the medieval and post-medieval manor at Headstone, Middlesex’’. An archaeological watching brief at the Scheduled Monument of Headstone Manor by Oxford Archaeology provided unexpected evidence of the medieval kitchen and a range of other demolished buildings on the moated island. In the Outer Court, the watching brief uncovered buildings known from historic maps of the site, and also ponds and waterlogged timbers that were previously unknown. December’s lecture was given by Dr Chris Constable on ’’The Southwark Deep Shelter from tube line to nuclear Armageddon’’. This talk presented the history of the Southwark deep shelter, possibly the largest civilian deep shelter constructed during WW2 using disused tube tunnels under Borough High Street. The talk examined the development, planning and use of the shelter during the war, proposals for its postwar use as a nuclear shelter and its fate. The rediscovery of the shelter has been somewhat of a surprise that an enterprise of this scale had been forgotten, and its rediscovery as archaeology on two sites and the survival of fabric within a prominent listed building adds to its interest. In January, Nathalie Cohen, National Trust, gave a lecture on ’’ ’’The Fishful Thames’’: Fish and Fishing on the River Thames’’. Decades of investigation on the banks of the Thames have revealed evidence for fishing practice along the river over hundreds of years. The talk discussed the archaeological evidence for this activity through time and examined the iconography and presentation of fish and fishing, focussed on the medieval period. The March lecture was given by Andrew Mayfield, Community Archaeologist, The Royal Parks, on ”Community Archaeology in a Royal Park (Greenwich)”. Andrew focussed on his role as community archaeologist for the Greenwich Park Revealed project. This is a multi-million pound National Heritage Fund scheme to restore and conserve Greenwich Park. It involves working on sites across the park, from Saxon barrows to a Magnetic Observatory and from an air raid shelter to a Charles II landscape, including community

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engagement and open days. The talk covered the history and archaeology of this much-loved park. The lecture in April by Jacqui Pearce, Senior Specialist - Medieval and Later Ceramics and Finds, MOLA, was on ”Bartmann Goes Global! How German stoneware travelled round the known world in the 16th/17th century’’. The phenomenon of the Rhenish stoneware Bartmann jug is the subject of a major collaborative Anglo-German research project. This talk highlighted the wealth of information that can be derived from their study, throwing light on their development, typology, trade networks, marketing, influence, usage and global reach. The final lecture of the programme was given in May by Shane Maher, Pre-Construct Archaeology, on ”Hunter Gatherers in Tottenham”. Pre-Construct Archaeology undertook excavations on land at the Welbourne Site (Plot C), Tottenham Hale Centre, LB Harringay, between November 2019 and March 2020, in challenging winter conditions. Three early Mesolithic lithic scatters of high density were found stratified in the upper horizon of the Enfield Silt brickearth. Each scatter sub-assemblage appeared to be of Deepcar type, a chrono-cultural tradition with a floruit in the 9th millennium BC. There is a notable association of typical Deepcar type microliths with rarer forms of isosceles triangle and this may point towards a distinct facies of the Deepcar chrono-cultural grouping. Each scatter comprised discrete areas of flint knapping, the working of nodules into cores and production of blade/bladelet/flake tool blanks and their waste, as well as production of core tools, axes/picks. Much of the activity seemed to have occurred around surface hearths evident from dense areas of burnt worked flint in each scatter. Tools were manufactured and/or maintained at the site with identifiable activity zones for hunting toolkit maintenance, probable butchery and other resource processing and wood working. Recent excavations at the Ferry Island site, 400m to the south east, have revealed similar scatters suggesting that this part of the Lea Valley may have been a possible focal area for Mesolithic activity.

The AGM and Presidential Address was held in February. Our President, Vanessa Harding, Emeritus Professor of London History, Birkbeck, University of London, gave a lecture on ”Mapping early Tudor London”. The lecture followed on from the 2022 Presidential Address where Vanessa explored mapping medieval London, with special reference to the Historic Towns Trust’s map of London c.1300, published in 2019. This year, Vanessa discussed early Tudor London using HTT’s map published in 2018. This shows London c.1520 when it was still a ‘medieval’ city: the monasteries and friaries had reached their final form, before the destruction and repurposing of the Dissolution; the Guilds or Livery Companies had flourished and put down roots, building impressive halls for entertainment and business; the growing legal profession had colonised the city’s western suburb. Visitors marvelled at London’s wealth, and especially its famous bridge. Mapping early Tudor London is a question of navigating the profusion of written and archaeological sources, and establishing what was there before the dramatic changes brought by the Reformation and enormous economic and population growth in the later 16th century.

LAMAS Lates (report by Jane Sidell)

Last year the Lates series was a little affected by illness, and only two events took place. In June, our president, Vanessa Harding led a tour based on the Tudor Map, in the Clerkenwell/Charterhouse area, really revealing how the current street scene is overprinted on the historic layout. In August, our regular guide to mortuary sites, Robert Stephenson guided us around a series of City churchyards including St Pauls and Christchurch Greyfriars, the final resting place of a number of medieval queens. We ended in the ever-popular Postman’s Park, a burial ground and home to the wonderful memorial to the heroic dead.

Newsletter, Website and Publicity (report by Jane Wheeler, John Shemilt and Karen Thomas)

Three editions of the LAMAS Newsletter were published in 2025. All editions were wellreceived and feedback on content is good. Comments included: enjoyable and informative editorials; well-balanced across archaeology, buildings, local history, and information regarding LAMAS and other society activities (including grants and awards, exhibitions, and book reviews etc.). The number of posted paper copies remains relatively unchanged. The majority of copies are

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distributed electronically in PDF format. The current Editor has been in this honorary post since May 2022 and is looking to stand down and handover the role. To date there has been no interest shown by a prospective replacement.

Our YouTube channel continues to attract both members and non-members to view our conference talks and lectures after the event. The new LAMAS website, finally went live at the end of June 2025. The new website gives members access to the last 3 years’ LAMAS Transactions and their membership record. A more vibrant and dynamic website will help increase LAMAS’s effectiveness and membership numbers in the longer term. The effectiveness of the new website will be dependent on sufficient support from LAMAS members.

Richard Hebblethwaite became our new Publicity Officer in September and has begun by developing our Social Media platforms starting with Facebook and Linked In. In the future he will be looking at other ways to publicise all the activities of the Society to as wide an audience as possible.

Membership (report by John Shemilt)

The increase in membership reported for the previous two years has stalled with 2024/25 showing a very slight decrease of 4 in the total paid-up membership. As Joint membership increased by 3 and Student by 2 but Individual membership was down by 7. The nett effect is the total numbers of individuals who are members increased by 1. The paid-up membership of Affiliated and Corporate/Institutional members decreased by 1. The number of personal members consenting to Gift Aid their subscription by the end of the year had increased to 230 from 214 last year.

Work on the website through the year diverted attention from membership development. This effect is likely to continue for the coming year as membership and other processes associated with the new website are developed.

Working Party on the Future of LAMAS (report by John Schofield and Kathryn Stubbs, Chairs)

The Working Party met several times during the year. Issues discussed included membership categories and benefits, revisions to the LAMAS Research Fund, the appointment of a Publicity Officer (now Richard Hebblethwaite), the beginning of work on the society’s archives, the development and launch of the new LAMAS website (largely the work of Jane Sidell and John Shemilt), and monitoring major redevelopments (the proposed Chinese embassy at the Royal mint, Liverpool Street station).

Research Fund (report by Karen Thomas)

The Research Grant Committee has now been expanded and a new grant has been advertised for 2026.

Publications Committee (report by John Schofield, Chair, and committee members)

The Committee met twice during the year. Volume 74 of Transactions was published in November 2024. It has 448 pages and a superb reconstruction of the western end of Fleet Lane in 1612 by the late Peter Jackson on the front cover. It contains eleven articles, twenty two reviews and a tribute to Brian Hobley, first head of the Department of Urban Archaeology of the Museum of London from 1973 to 1989. The subjects of the articles range from prehistoric and Roman excavations in Kensington to the investigation of a 19th-century burial ground at Mare Street Baptist Church in Hackney. History articles consist of a biography of Lional Cranfield and a revised version of Professor Vanessa Harding’s 2021 John Stow Memorial lecture.

Archaeology Committee (report by Jon Cotton, Secretary)

The Committee met remotely via Zoom on three occasions during the year: in January, April and September. Reports on fieldwork and other matters were tabled from MOLA, PreConstruct Archaeology Ltd, the AOC Archaeology Group, and from GLAAS.

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Issues of concern placed before the Committee included the proposed new Chinese Embassy, St Mary Axe, and the Cranwood (Highgate) site. In addition, the Committee maintained a keen interest in the new GLAAS archaeological guidelines, and ways in which the LAMAS membership might be increased.

As usual, the Committee organised the 61[st] Annual Conference of London Archaeologists, which was staged as a hybrid event at the London Museum Docklands on March 15[th] . Particular thanks are extended to Jenny Hall, Karen Thomas and Jane Sidell for ensuring the smooth delivery of the programme on the day.

The 2024 Ralph Merrifield Award was presented to Jane Sidell for her outstanding contribution to London archaeology and the built heritage over many years, firstly as a member of MOLA and currently as Inspector of Ancient Monuments for London at Historic England. Following this the morning session included presentations on Jubilee House, Stratford; Elsyng Palace; Lambeth Palace; the GLHCR; 50 Fenchurch Street; and the Liberty site, Southwark.

The afternoon session was devoted to Mudlarking the Thames Foreshore and acted as a tie-in to the major exhibition in the Museum’s gallery. This was introduced by Jon Cotton and addressed by Pamela Greenwood; Tom Chivers; Claire Harris; and John Clark.

Local History Committee (report by John Price, Chair)

The Committee met on three occasions, October 2024, and January and April 2025 at 11 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3RE. The members of the Committee are John Price (Chair), Maggie Bolton, Pat Gough, Oliver Harris, Mike Marriott, and Lorraine Woodleigh.

The Annual Local History Conference took place at the London Museum in Docklands, in November 2024 on the theme of ‘Fashion, Clothing, and Textiles in London History’. Papers presented were as follows:

• Advertising Corsets: Dress Advertisements in the Late Nineteenth-Century Feminist Periodical the Women’s Penny Paper / Woman’s Herald (Artemis Alexiou)

• Vinted in London (Dr Liz Tregenza)

• Selling British Fashion: The Rise and Fall of The British Model House (Hannah Wroe)

• The Uncovering Dressmakers Project (Sage Foley and Steph Haire)

• A History of textiles in the London Borough of Newham (Laura Wilson)

• Selling Mid-Twentieth Century London Couture: ‘Mattli of Mayfair’ (Caroline Ness)

• The 2024 Local History Publication awards were presented during the annual conference

• and the winners were as follows:

• Best Newsletter (£50 prize): Barnes and Mortlake History Society

• Best Journal (£100 prize): Richmond History: Journal of the Richmond Local History Society edited by Robert Smith.

• Best book (£100 prize): Merton Historical Society for, Peter Hopkins, Medieval Morden: Neighbourhood and Community (London: Merton Historical Society, 2023)

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Historic Buildings and Conservation Committee (report by John Ricketts, Chair)

At the end of 2024 we welcomed four new members to the Committee – Richard Hebblethwaite, David Lakin, Andrew Smith and Suzanne Snowden – who have been valuable contributors to our work. Richard has also recently taken on the role of LAMAS’s Publicity Officer. We remain on the look-out for additional new members, so we would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in joining us.

HBCC responded in writing to 25 planning applications received by London boroughs over the 12 months, representing around 4% of the total applications considered by the Committee. This is approximately half of the numbers recorded over the past couple of years, though we are confident this does not reflect a lowering of standards. The majority of our responses continue to be objections, focussing on the harmful impact of proposed alterations to individual listed buildings or, in the case of larger schemes, to the setting of these listed buildings and/or surrounding conservation areas.

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As regards the larger applications, plans for the proposed redevelopment of Liverpool Street station continue to evolve in a somewhat confusing manner. In November 2024, the original Herzog & De Meuron scheme - to which we objected in 2023 - was superceded by a revised plan by architects ACME, whose planning application was submitted in April 2025. However, the H&DeM planning application remains live and they submitted changes to their scheme in July 2025, two months after the submission of the application for the new ACME scheme. HBCC and other members of campaigning group LISSCA submitted objections to the ACME application in June 2025, on the principal grounds that, whilst the revised scheme reduced the overall height from 108m (21 floors) to 97m (19 floors), the height and massing remained totally out of scale with the surrounding heritage assets. In August 2025, a carbon report commissioned by campaigning LISSCA from sustainability expert Simon Sturgis concluded that the ACME scheme breaches a significant number of national and local environmental policies. A final decision by the City of London planning committee on the planning applications is not expected until the first half of 2026. Another major planning application which appeared in last year’s accounts is the proposed redevelopment of Royal Mint Court as the new Chinese Embassy. This continues to generate substantial controversy and a decision by the Secretary of State, who called the application in in October 2024, was again put back. A public inquiry by the planning inspector into the application was held in February 2025, though LAMAS did not formally participate.

Other planning applications we commented on for high profile schemes included two in the City of London: firstly, in October 2024 we reiterated our objection to the application for a tower block of 43 storeys in Bury Street, EC3, on the grounds of the adverse impact on nearby heritage assets including the Grade I Bevis Marks Synagogue. The application was rejected in December 2024. Secondly, we objected to the proposed new rooftop extensions to the Grade II listed Winchester House on Throgmorton Street, EC2, and adjacent listed buildings in Great Winchester Street, as they would lead to a loss of significance of the listed buildings far from outweighed by the negligible public benefits of the scheme.

We also objected to the addition of five storeys to the New City Court office block in St Thomas Street, Southwark, which would greatly harm the setting of Southwark Cathedral. In March 2025 an examination was held into the draft City of London 2040 Local Plan, which HBCC had responded to in June 2024. We decided not to apply to attend the inquiry as our earlier comments would be taken into account.

Finally, we were deeply saddened by the death on 1 October 2025 of the author Gillian Tindall, a longstanding member of the Committee who brought to bear her deep knowledge of the London history she had written so much about to her analysis of the planning applications received by HBCC. She will be sorely missed.

BY DIRECTION OF COUNCIL Harvey Sheldon Karen Thomas Chairman of Council Honorary Secretary

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LONDON AND MIDDLESEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDING 30 SEPTEMBER 2025

2024 Incoming resources £ _10,399_Subscriptions _1,080_Gift Aid _140_Sale of Publications _256_Royalties and Licensing _15,895_Grants for LAMAS Transactions _2,690_Archaeology Conference _730_Local History Conference _458_Lecture Series Income _2,524_Interest _65_Donations _0_Legacies _0_Liabilities written off 34,237 Total Incoming Resources _3,326_Net Incoming Resources 30,911	2025 £ 10,214 1,049 20 299 20,595 2,780 962 215 1,891 185 35,188 3,385 76,783 41,353 35,430	2024 Resources Expended £ _18,828_LAMAS Transactions _1,102_Newsletter _1,848_Archaeology Conference _1,988_Local History Conference _300_Publication Awards _0_Research Grants _459_Lecture Series Expenses _214_Postage, Printing, Stationery _60_Bank Charges _605_Eventbrite Charges _109_PayPal Charges _100_Ralph Merrifield Award _4,606_Website, Computing _540_ZOOM annual charge _152_Miscellaneous Costs _30,911_Total Resources Expended	2025 20,980 1,616 2,705 2,606 250 0 276 174 60 511 85 100 5,043 540 484
			35,430

LONDON AND MIDDLESEX ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

BALANCE SHEET AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER 2025

_2024_ASSETS £ _5,965_Bank Balances _101,154_Deposit Accounts _0_Payments in advance _107,119_Total Assets Less: LIABILITIES _2,283_Subscriptions in advance _3,385_Creditors _3,964_Future Publications _12,980_Research Grants _22,612_Total Liabilities _84,507_Total Net Assets	2025 2,108 140,033 2,239
	144,380
	1,126 450 3,964 12,980
	18,520
	125,860

2024 FUNDS OF THE SOCIETY £ Restricted funds _7,105_Publications Fund Unrestricted Funds _74,076_Funds brought forward _3,326_Funds movement for the period _77,402_Total Unrestricted Funds _84,507_Total Funds	2025 £ 7,105
	77,402 41,353
	118,755
	125,860

Notes to the Accounts:

1. The Statement of Financial Activities and Balance Sheet have been prepared using the ‘natural classification’ as permitted by the Charities Act 2011.

2. Research Grants represent amounts set aside to promote non-corporate members' research interests, and at 30th September 2025 grants of £12,980 had been allocated but not yet paid pending completion of outstanding projects.

3. Use of the Publications Fund requires the sanction of the donor, Historic England.

Signed: H L Sheldon Chairman Signed D. C. Gordon Hon. Treasurer

FINANCIAL REVIEW .

The state of the Society’s finances at the end of the LAMAS year 1st October 2024 – 30th September 2025 was healthy. We ended the year with a surplus of £37,968 of incoming resources over expenditure, much increased over the previous year following receipt of two legacies. The Society’s current net assets of £125,860 are sufficient to cover expenditure presently envisaged, including production of the Society’s Transactions, current and prospective research grants, further expenditure on information technology and the (restricted) publications fund. There is also a largely predictable income from Members’ subscriptions. The Society does not currently hold designated reserves, but a proportion of Society funds (currently £40,000) is invested in longer-term deposit accounts. A sub-committee of Council is currently investigating ways in which the recent legacies may be employed to further the charitable aims of the Society.

David Gordon (Honorary Treasurer)

Additional Notes for Council and Examiner.

Incoming Resources includes legacies of £5,000 from S Letch and £30,188 from H Thomas.

Bank charges: I have separated out Eventbrite and PayPal charges for clarity. As a result of the new booking system on the
new website, the former should be much lower during the current year, and the latter correspondingly higher.
Miscellaneous Costs (£):
Grant to Young Archaeologists Club 252
Purchase of banner 64
Purchase of tablecloth 96
Purchase of SQUARE payment device 23
Charity payment in lieu of Examiner’s fee 50
Payments in advance: Represents payments to MoL for November 2025 Local History Conference
Creditors:Two longstanding liabilities have been written out of the accounts, as agreed at the January Council meeting.
The remaining sum represents advance bookings for the Local History Conference.

Independent Examinerfs report to the trustees of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society on the accounts for the year ended 30 September 2025 Registered Charity no 267552 I report to the trustees on my examination ofthe accounts of London & Middlesex Archaeological Society ( the Trust.) for the year ended 30 September 2025.sel out on pages 1 and 2 As the charily's trustees, you are responsible for Ihe preparation of the accounts in accordance wrth the requirements of the Charrties Act 2011 {"the Act") I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 ofthe Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable D1￿ctionS given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5)Ibl of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confinn that no material matters have come to my attention in connertion with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in. any material respect.. the accounting records were not kepl in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Acl. or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records,. or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports} Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair, view which is not a matter conSide￿d as part of an independent examination. I have no COn￿rnS and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order lo enable a proper underslanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed: Date: Edward Lee-smith MA 19 Lawrie Park Crescent, London SE26 6HH IER Oct 2018