Edward Sammes

`Ted’ Sammes was born on 24 February 1920 in Hendon, north-west London, but until the age of eight lived in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire. Thereafter, the family moved back to Hendon where Sammes spent most of his working life. Inspired by boyhood visits to Mortimer Wheeler’s excavations at St Albans, archaeology became Sammes’ prime preoccupation outside his professional career as a cereals scientist. The war was spent in the Royal Corps of Signals as a radio mechanic and Sammes made the most of his posting to Italy, archaeologically speaking, whenever possible. He counted himself lucky to be in Naples when Vesuvious erupted. On returning to his old job, he found that his employer was now Allied Bakeries. When the company expanded into milling Sammes was given responsibility for inspecting flour mills throughout the country, many of them family-owned for generations before the take-over. As ever fascinated by the past, Sammes studied the history of flour-milling, joined the Wind and Watermills Section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and became a popular speaker on the subject. Archaeology was not neglected; he joined the Prehistoric Society, participated in local digs and, a very serious student, attended archaeology courses at various institutions in London. At one such course, held at the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute, he met a like-minded enthusiast and together, in 1961, they founded the Hendon and District Archaeological Society. It had no premises and the first meetings were held at Sammes’ house in Hendon, but membership soon increased. He served on its committee for more than thirty years and initiated some of its most successful projects. He directed digs in the town, notably at The Burroughs and Church Terrace, and his report, Pinning Down the Past, was published in association with an exhibition of the artefacts at the Church Farmhouse Museum. Sammes was a regular donor to the museum and towards the end of his life the Hendon and District Archaeological Society mounted a retrospective exhibition, One Man’s Archaeology, to mark his contribution to the subject. When ill-health began to slow him down, he deposited his extensive St Mary’s churchyard survey in the Borough Archives of Barnet, feeling unable to prepare the material for publication himself. Sammes kept a foothold in Hendon until his death but in retirement moved to Taplow and quickly established himself in Berkshire archaeological circles. Shocked to find that nearby Maidenhead had no museum, he joined forces with the local Civic Society to inaugurate the town’s first Heritage Centre. Since many of the town’s treasures were held in the Royal Borough Collection at Windsor, Sammes became an active `Friend’ and was elected Vice-Chairman. He died on 7 November 1998.