Who we are

The Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln is a registered charity (number 1177405) that was set up in 2018 to conserve and re-instate the kiln back to Highgate Wood and build exciting learning around it. The trustees include:

Charlie Andrew, Trustee

Charlie is a graduate of University College London’s Department of Greek and Latin. She previously taught Latin and classics part-time at Greig City Academy in Haringey and in other primary schools around London. Before going into teaching, Charlie worked in the publishing and digital content industries, and uses this experience to develop and promote classics-related classroom materials such as Maximum Classics. She takes a special interest in helping primary school children to access classics and develop a life-long love of the subject. She is currently Training and Development Manager at the charity Classics for All.

Rosie Boughton, Trustee

Rosie had an early interest in archaeology, working for two seasons at York Minster, and this led to a first degree in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. While at Cambridge, she and three friends set up an experimental archaeology project to reconstruct part of an Anglo-Saxon village at West Stow in Suffolk, using similar tools and materials for which there was evidence at the site, a project since taken forward by other student groups. Rosie's professional life was in social housing - policy development, housing management, and finally (after a belated MSc from the LSE) teaching on a joint Housing Studies Foundation Degree/BSc/MSc course run by the College of North East London and Middlesex University. Rosie has lived close to Highgate Wood for 25 years and knows the area well; she is a member of the Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Association and Hornsey Historical Society. She recently stepped down from the Board of Hornsey Housing Trust after seven years, three of them as Chair.

Michael Hammerson FSA, Trustee

Michael is a Qualified Chartered Surveyor with a BSc in Estate Management. He is a former professional archaeologist at the Museum of London, specialising in Roman pottery, publishing several reports on Southwark excavations, and writing archaeological interpretations of Roman coin finds. He has directed several excavations and written reports on Roman coin finds for other areas, including City of London, Colchester, Staines, Burgh Castle. Michael is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and was Town Planning Officer for the Civic Trust. He was a supervisor on the original Highgate Wood excavations. He is a local amenity society activist for the Highgate Society (Vice-President); local historian (has published two local history books); wider historical researcher, with books published on the First World War and American Civil War. He wrote the Archaeology Module for the R.I.C.S. Building Conservation Diploma course and has published a booklet on the archaeology and history of Highgate Wood. He leads historical walks for the public in Highgate Wood on behalf of the City of London and has carried out a 35-year survey of the moths of Highgate Wood.

Nick Peacey MBE, Secretary

Nick Peacey read classics at Oxford University. He has been associated with experimental archaeology in Highgate Wood since building and firing reconstructions of Roman kilns there as a young teacher in 1971 - 1973. Most of Nick’s professional life has been spent on national and international work in the field of special educational needs and disability (SEND). He is a Fellow of the UCL institute of Education Centre for Educational Inclusion. Nick Peacey recently stepped down after 20 years as Chair of the Trustees of Lauderdale House, Highgate, when he was awarded an MBE for services to the arts and the community in North London. As Vice-Chair, he maintains his commitment to enhancing and promoting the House’s heritage education and accessibility. He is Secretary of Foundation Years Information and Research, a charity based in Parliament that engages policymakers with the implications of our knowledge of neuroscience and brain development, particularly in relation to the very young. Nick was a member of the Steering Committee of the NL Heritage Fund project, Stories of Enfield, from 2021-2022.

Harvey Sheldon, Trustee

Harvey Sheldon, with Tony Brown, led the excavations of the Highgate Wood Roman pottery manufacturing site from 1966 to 1978. He has been engaged in archaeological projects across London since the 1960s. He was Field Officer for the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Excavation Committee from 1972 to 1975 and the Museum of London’s Archaeology Officer for Greater London between 1975 and 1991. He began organizing and teaching archaeology courses in the 1960s, first for London University’s Department of Extra-Mural Studies and then for Birkbeck, University of London. He is currently a Research Fellow at Birkbeck. He has served as Chair of Rescue: the British Archaeological Trust and as President of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society and is currently Chair of the Society’s Archaeology Committee. He is President of a number of London’s local archaeology societies, including those in Enfield, Hendon and West Essex. He and Tony Brown recently published The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-1978 (Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 43).

Jeremy Simons

Jeremy read Physics at Nottingham University and has a Masters in Management Science from Imperial College London. His career was spent in a variety of commercial positions in international telecommunications, including negotiating agreements with overseas telecoms entities and representing the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on intergovernmental agencies responsible for satellite communications. He chaired the European Telecommunications Satellite Organisation in Paris. Between 2004 and 2022 Jeremy was a Common Councillor in the City of London; particular interests included the City's Open Spaces, the Arts and education. During this time he chaired the City's Streets and Walkways Committee, the Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen's Park Committee and the Port Health and Environmental Services Committee. In the 2021 New Year's Honours he was awarded an OBE for Services to Air Quality and Environmental Conservation in London. Jeremy is a trustee of the City of London Archaeological Trust, as well as a number of charities for the relief of need, and in support of the environment and education. His interests include current affairs, music, theatre, reading and travel.

Cllr Cathy Brennan

As a Councillor for Muswell Hill Ward, my priority, particularly through my work on the Adult Health and Social Care Scrutiny Panel, is to help the more deprived communities in Haringey. Before I was elected to the Council I was proud to work across the borough as a music teacher for an organisation which provides free instrumental tuition for those who might not be able to access it. I want to increase access to other interesting artistic and educational projects for those same communities and look forward to a time when school parties from all over Haringey can visit the Highgate Kiln in situ in Highgate Wood. Similarly, it will be wonderful to welcome other groups, such as those from the Muswell Hill hotel for newly arrived migrants, Hornsey and Wood Green Pensioners and Connected Communities, (the Haringey Council borough-wide organisation offering community support) to a local asset such as the Kiln. The Kiln project will be on the doorstep of newcomers living in council housing on the edge of Highgate Woods: it will enrich their lives as it will all of Haringey.

We are most grateful to our past Chair, Catherine West, MP, for all her support during the establishment of FOHRK and congratulate her on her appointment as Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office - though of course we are sad that her new role means she has had to resign from our Board of Trustees.