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Recent Activities and News 


New archive material added under documents, booklets, etc. and New Malden Photographs

Heritage Open Days Talks  by David Henry at St John the Baptist, Old Malden
Initiation
Sometime in August, Robin asked me if I would contribute to St John's Heritage Open Days by giving a talk or talks there on behalf of the Society. I assented, and, working with Pat Lovegrove representing the church, we agreed on two talks. On Saturday 10 September, I delivered one on coats of arms, and, on the following day, I led a tour of the churchyard examining styles of headstones and the symbols on them.
Being a conscientious sort of fellow, I let Robin and Pat know that I would prepare three talks ie including one I'd hold in reserve for Sunday should it rain.
Preparation
The bases of the talks were my papers posted on the Society's website viz "One Window"; "Churchyard Crosses"; and " Reredos". While preparation of the first and third was straightforward, it was a laborious chore editing down my papers and introducing audience participation.
What proved especially tedious and frustrating was the talk on churchyard crosses. This was partly because my paper did not concern itself with the position of the crosses within the churchyard but their type.  I had to carefully delete a lot of material and then reorder what remained into a sensible trail through the graves so as to minimise to-ing and fro-ing. This necessitated a complete afternoon in the churchyard and was not helped by the fact that one cross had been knocked over since I wrote the paper so I had difficulty finding it! And when I arrived, Graham was just finishing his grass-mowing so that had obscured the now-prone cross!
Saturday talk
On the Saturday, twelve people attended my talk. Of these, six were church members. The other six comprised our Secretary, three from outside the Borough (but only by a few hundred yards: they lived nearby) and the other two were my wife and her friend. Yes, in anticipation of a poor turnout, I had adopted the politician's ruse of "packing the meeting"!
In giving any talk, I have learned over many years the advisability at the outset of establishing what expertise on the subject there is in the audience. My question elicited that one lady was not only a Medievalist but, I later learned, had been a university lecturer on the subject! As I use the Socratic approach in my talks ie ask questions, I asked her to hold back in answering to give others a chance first.
The subject in hand can seem remote and rather dry so I enlivened it with liberal doses of humour, vivid mnemonics eg "Imagine the window on fire! A blaze on it!" (A blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms) and photographic close-ups I'd prepared of fine detail. The latter I'd had to produce at some expense at the Library as I don't own a printer. I also liberally dosed my talk with mini-reviews to consolidate points I'd made and terms I'd used.
At the close, I told my small band that they now knew more about coats of arms than almost anyone they were likely to meet in the remainder of their lives!
Sunday talk
The good news was that Robin, no doubt having examined the entrails of a sacrificed pigeon, had correctly predicted fine weather. The Society's representation had also doubled! But this talk was attended by fewer people, mostly church members, and was unpacked as Mrs Henry and friend felt they had done their duty on Saturday. Some were also committed to another event that followed my talk so I had to carefully watch the time (in which I was politely but robustly aided by Pat Lovegrove).
I followed the same broad approach as for my talk on the previous day - interactive, seeking to build on knowledge people already had - but laying off the humour as inappropriate for the subject and adding a precautionary few, but important, words on the hazards of the churchyard and that participation was entirely at their own risk.
Conclusion
Both talks seemed to be well received by participants judging both by their willingness to interact during them and their comments afterwards.
My secondary aims of lifting the profile of the Society and encouraging people to join, or at least look at the website, elicited at least some interest. In introducing both my talks, I took the opportunity of advertising the Society, its Meetings and their format (informative and entertaining regular piece by Julian on a local matter plus a diverse range of one-off talks by guest speakers), and saying that they need not take notes as my subject was covered in a paper on the website where many other interesting papers could be found.
Overall, it was a worthwhile participation in St John's Heritage Open Days.
Remarks
Any activity can usually be improved upon by a rigorous, honest, and comprehensive review of lessons learned. Having spent some years as an "efficiency expert" I am probably more conscious of this than most.
The takeaways from these events seem to me to be these:
1 The importance of timely, comprehensive, and accurate publicity ideally bolstered with encouragement to attend. This not only helps ensure maximum attendance and all that goes with it eg introducing strangers to the Society, but reassures the speaker that his efforts are as part of a team equally dedicated to delivery of a good outcome.
2 That the effect of such talks can be enhanced - as can the Society's coffers - by having available for sale printed material relating to the talks. I have relayed to the Secretary my more detailed views in an earlier e-mail.
3 The material produced in preparation for these talks now provides a resource for future iterations or, in the case of the Reredos talk, a first delivery. 
REPORT ON THE SOCIETY'S WALK THROUGH THE GROVES IN PURSUIT OF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE ON SATURDAY 11 JUNE 2022
(David Henry: leader of the walk)
Introduction
I led this walk at the invitation of Robin and with the encouragement of Julian after they had read my paper on the subject some time ago.
As the walk was based on my paper which is available on the Society's website (go to Publications and Papers and select "Classical Architecture in New Malden"), it would be rebarbative to repeat its contents here. I will instead focus on the walk itself and elements I introduced that are not in my paper.
The walk
Nine people turned up for the walk including Robin and myself: six people completed it including myself but not Robin!
We assembled at the corner of Woodlands Road and Coombe Road. As we would be a little time there, I decided to inform the inhabitants of the house we were to look at what it was we were about but no-one answered the door. However, as we lined up to look at the house, a woman pulled into the parking area and got out of her car. I explained what we were doing and invited her to join us. She declined but said she was relieved: seeing us all staring at her house had made her think it was on fire!
Before moving on to the next stop, I touched on mnemonics and how to create them, giving an example relevant to our walk. Those on the walk will, I trust, remember what to say when the doorbell rings, you open the door and see...But I'll perhaps go into that on some other occasion.
Having stopped to gaze intently at bollards - what passers-by must have thought one can only wonder - we moved on to our next stop, in Elm Road, where yet another curious resident approached us. We were at a pair of houses, one of which had a (purely decorative) pediment and the other of which did not. He owned the one without the pediment. He explained that it had not always been so. The pediment had become unsafe but, as the cost of making it safe was exorbitant, he'd had it removed instead. Grasping the opportunity, I tried to recruit him to the Society but he didn't seem interested: what he wanted was information on the history of his house. I couldn't help him.
As we moved on, I decided to abbreviate the walk as it was a hot day so did a bit of (unannounced) mental rerouting and reordering of what I was going to say.
Our next stop was at...bollards! Bollards? I hear you cry: but didn't we look at bollards a short time ago? Different bollards: these are concrete bollards. Ah! said my intrepid group entirely mystified. And rightly so as what I now said was not in my paper. As such, I'll expand here:
This bollard, I pointed out, has a piece missing, its metal core has been exposed. This is known as "spalling". Water has seeped into the centre and rusted the metal. Rusted metal takes up more space than sound metal. Expansion pressure causes a piece of concrete to break away. I then noticed that a number of the bollards had spalling, all at the same height. The mystery was solved by Keith, drawing on his professional experience: it was because the metal rod would first have been in a concrete cylinder cast around it which then would have had the tapering outer layer of concrete applied. The point where the metal came closest to the surface of the bollard would have been the weakest point. Simple, particularly if you're a civil engineer!
As time's winged chariot seemed to have put on a spurt, I excised the following section as I felt it might use up too much time in discussion:
But what is the link with Ancient Greece? Blocks of stone in Greek temples were held together with bow-tie-shaped pieces of metal. Dipped in molten lead before fitting, the thin layer of lead protected the metal from water.
I then returned to my script:
Roman concrete
The Romans used concrete extensively: the roof of the Pantheon in Rome is made of it in a very complex way to balance strength against weight eg the beautiful coffering of the roof primarily served to reduce weight. I visited not only to see this architectural wonder, copied in Paris for the resting place of illustrious French people, but also to visit the grave there of Raphael who died, according to Vasari, in his " Lives of the Artists", from an excess of sexual activity! (Tip: a bit of scandal always helps liven up flagging attention!)
But back to Roman concrete. After pouring, concrete needs to "go off" ie set, by what is a combination of a chemical reaction and drying out. This is normally not a problem as long as the concrete is protected from water. But what if you are building a harbour as the Romans did at Ostia to serve Rome? Lots of water in harbours! But the Romans discovered a way to get concrete to "go off"... Underwater! This was because they used a special ingredient: volcanic ash from Solfatara just north of Naples just inland from Pozzuoli (birthplace of Sophia Loren). Solfatara is a large volcanic vent covered by a cap suspended above the lava below. I once walked across it and dropped a large stone on the cap to cause it to boom like a drum. Solfatara is part of the Phlegraean Fields, a volcanically active area from where the ash was gathered.
We then moved on. At this point, Robin decided to withdraw: he was clearly feeling unwell and I was grateful that he had turned up at all. I hope he was not, like Henry I with lampreys, suffering from a surfeit of egg-and-dart nor suffering from our trip through a sottoportego!
At our next stop, yet another owner emerged, intrigued, from the beautiful doorway I was describing. I gave him a shortened version. The next stop nearby was owned by...two of our group who very kindly invited us into their garden and re-hydrated some of us. They politely bowed out of the remainder of the walk.
The Steadfast Six ploughed on, gazing at heads above windows, Tudor arches, Venetian windows...
Finally, we arrived at the Royal Oak, the group taking respite on a low wall while their harsh taskmaster, using the architecture of the pub as a summary of the material covered in the walk, gave them...a test!
Our two mile, nearly two hours walk has given me cause to respect my companions, most of whom were strangers to me, for their fortitude and willingness to join in with the interactive approach I took. I hope they enjoyed the walk as much as I did.
Barton Green Theatre Then and Now
Lest we forget
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Last updated 13 09 22
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