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16/09/2023: Heritage Open Day at the Kent History and Library Centre

Date:     Saturday 16th September 2023

Time:     From 10.00am

Venue:   Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone


Join us on Saturday 16 September

Celebrate Creativity as part of the Heritage Open Day

Tour the Archives; see our displays of Kent textiles, writing, drawing and music from the archives; take part in our children’s ‘Make a Charter’ activity; or join us for a children’s storytime and craft session

 

• Archive Tours at 10am and 1:30pm

• ‘Make a Charter' activity for children at 11:30am and 3pm

 

21/09/2023: The Walls Have Tongues: Medieval Graffiti in Churches

Date:     Thursday 21st September 2023

Time:     7.30pm

Venue:   The Charter Hall, Smarden


Smarden Local History society warmly invite you to join them from 6.45pm for wine, coffee and teas and 

A Smarden History Society talk by Susan Flipping

For centuries curious carved writings and artworks in churches lay largely unnoticed. Our next talk shines a spotlight on this forgotten world of ships, prayers for good fortune, satirical cartoons, charms, curses, windmills, word puzzles, architectural plans and heraldic designs.

An evening with Aphra Behn

As part of the Canterbury Festival, An Evening with Aphra Behn is an event at Canterbury Christ Church University that centres on performances of songs from Behn's plays with their original music.

 

Spy-turned-author Aphra Behn (1640–1689) is a Canterbury jewel. Born in Harbledown, little is known about her early life until (after the spying) she conquered the London stage with a succession of resoundingly successful plays, in collaboration with the greatest composers of the day – John Blow and Henry Purcell, among others.

The Masks of Aphra Behn; a one woman show

As part of the Canterbury Festival, The Masks of Aphra Behn is a one-woman show about Aphra's early years, performed in St Paul's Without the Walls, the church where Behn's parents were married.

 

It's 1677 and an audience getting ready to watch Aphra Behn’s The Rover are in for a surprise. For the show has been cancelled and, in its place, Aphra herself recounts the extraordinary tale of her time as a spy for King Charles II in the Dutch Wars, and how she became the first professional female writer.

05/10/2023: Public Reading of The Dutch Lover by Aphra Behn

Date:     Thursday 5th October 2023

Time:     7.30pm

Venue:   St Peter's Anglican Church, Canterbury


As part of the Aphra Behn year of celebration, this public reading of Behn's comedy, The Dutch Lover (1673), will take place at St Peter's Anglican Church, Canterbury at 7.30pm.

Scripts will be provided for those interested in taking a part.  Audience also welcome!

27/09/2023: Aphra Behn Year Launch Event

Date:     Wednesday 27th September 2023

Time:     5.00pm - 6.30pm

Venue:   Daphne Oram Building, Canterbury Christ Church University


Who was Aphra Behn?

In theory, Aphra should be Canterbury's most famous daughter.  By the time of her death in 1689, she was a celebrated playwright, poet and novelist.  Due to Victorian disapproval, Aphra fell out of favour, but this September sees the launch of a whole year of events to celebrate her achievements and restore her legacy.

16-17/08/2023: Faversham Society 'Wikithon' - learn a new skill and share local history

Connected Heritage & Faversham Society 'Wikithon' for Open Faversham

An interesting opportunity to learn a new skill and document local history facts!

Date:    Wed16th and Thurs 17th August 2023

Time:     13.45 - 17.00 Wednesday
              09.45 - 13.00 Thursday

Venue:   Faversham Umbrella - Faversham Umbrella, Court Street, Faversham. ME13 7AT

 

New publication: The Lower Lines, Brompton

Submitted by Jay Curtis on 24 July 2023

Excavations of the 19th and 20th-century defenses of Chatham Dockyard at The Lower Lines, Brompton feature in a new Canterbury Archaeological Trust report by James Holman and Peter Kendall.

 

An interesting site encompassing the fortifications (including an unusual underground countermining chamber), with lots of evidence recorded for siege practices undertaken against them by the military throughout the latter part of the nineteenth century.