Reviews
REVIEWS
By the Medway Marsh. By James Gerrard and Guy Seddon. Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd Monograph No. 24, 2022. 222pp. ISBN: 9781999615567.
This volume focusses on excavations that took place at Grange Farm, Gillingham, between 2005 and 2006. Work took place in advance of development in an area of probable high archaeological potential, where parts of the manorial centre of Grace (Grench) Manor still survive (see Draper, G. and Meddens, F.M., 2014, ‘Out on a Limb’: insights into Grange, a small member of the Cinque Ports confederation’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 135, 1-32). Open area excavations in areas adjacent to these remains revealed evidence of occupation from prehistory until recent times, with the majority relating to a long-lived Roman complex of enclosures and buildings. This was situated, as the title of the volume suggests, overlooking the north Kent marshes which, from the Late Iron Age into the mid-Roman period, were extensively exploited for salt and pottery production as well as seasonal grazing, dairying and the production of salted meat products. Extensive use of local ceramics, environmental and zooarchaeological evidence, a variety of transport-related items and the presence of a roadway through the site linking Gillingham Reach to dry land to the south (and possibly to Watling Street) all add to a picture of an economically active site producing and transporting agricultural products both locally and potentially to London and/or the frontier.
As is often the case in Kent, the principal phase of occupation began in the Late Iron Age. More unusually, the strongest evidence for occupation and use of the site dates from the fourth century, in contrast to the wider trend of settlement contraction in Kent (and, indeed, in neighbouring North Gaul) during the third century. This period of occupation has several interesting and important features.
Earlier enclosure ditches were replaced by walls. The reason for this is unclear, but it is suggested that these enclosures may now have been used as walled orchards. Unfortunately, there appears to be no environmental evidence to back this suggestion, but the site has produced an unusual number of tools usually interpreted as pruning hooks. New structures were erected, including a large aisled building (a type often thought to have a hybrid residential/work function, or alternatively to serve as a communal residence for an extended family).
Buildings for the living were accompanied by accommodation for the dead, with the construction of an imposing mausoleum. This was probably of tower form and would have been visible as a navigational marker from Gillingham Reach. Roman mausolea are not particularly common in Britain, although there are number in Kent. Within the mausoleum, a woman of at least 35 years of age had been buried in a lead-lined coffin which appears to have been disturbed in antiquity. Roman lead or lead-lined coffins are also uncommon, and this combination of lead-lined coffin and mausoleum is exceptionally rare with only six other examples known from Britain. It seems that there were other burials (also disturbed) associated with the mausoleum and intriguingly two gold and gemstone necklaces were discovered within the disturbed deposits. The mausoleum itself seems to have stood as a monument in the landscape for some centuries after it had been despoiled, with environmental evidence suggesting that it provided a roosting place for owls right through to the medieval period, while the deposition of an early (late 5th-century) Anglo-Saxon Nydam Style brooch as a possible votive offering suggests that it continued to have meaning in the post-Roman period, possibly being interpreted as a martyr’s tomb.
During the late Roman period, other activities supplemented the mixed agricultural/pastoral economy. There is evidence for extensive ferrous metal-working and, more unusually, for silver refining. This took the form of secondary cupellation, the process by which silver is recovered from debased silver alloys, producing a waste product known as litharge. Although evidence of such secondary cupellation is known from at least fourteen other sites in Roman Britain, the 25kg of litharge recovered from Grange farm is exceptionally large.
The site thus raises interesting questions about life in Kent during the Late Roman period. As pointed out in discussion within the volume, the evidence from Grange Farm, so near the coast, questions the oft-repeated narrative of settlement retraction in the face of political instability and threats of barbarian raiding. The economy may have changed; pottery and salt production on the marshes certainly seems to have ceased, but trade and exchange was still taking place over long distances with the import of ceramics from a wide range of places both within Britain and beyond.
The site narrative and discussion are supplemented by a full range of specialist reports covering material of all phases, including medieval and post-medieval finds; these are well-illustrated with both line drawings and photographs, while individual discussions explore the implications of the finds for the wider interpretation of the site. There is a useful set of appendices.
In all, this volume provides a comprehensive and interesting summary of a most intriguing site and forms a very useful contribution to the ongoing debate about the ending of Roman Britain.
elizabeth blanning
Canterbury: A History since 1500, the story of a city and its people. By Doreen Rosman, Palatine Books, 2022. 288 pp., 150+ b/w and colour photographs and illustrations throughout. Paperback, £19.99. ISBN 978-1-910837-43-6.
This book is a welcome addition to literature on the history of Canterbury, considering both the landscape of the city and the lives of its inhabitants. Concentrating on the period from 1500 to the present day, it represents an important contribution to our understanding of Canterbury’s more recent history, a period less studied and often undervalued due to the long shadow of the city’s rich medieval and pre-medieval past. This book redresses the balance by demonstrating Canterbury’s equally complex and vibrant post-medieval history.
To achieve this, the author draws on extensive city and cathedral archive collections as well as national records, newspapers, etc., resulting in a well-researched and wide-ranging volume. With over 150 illustrations, the book also offers a valuable visual history of the city and its people. A wealth of carefully selected images complement the text, showcasing manuscripts, prints, paintings, maps, archaeological digs and finds, modern photographs of the city landscape, computer-generated graphic reconstructions, and more. The book is arranged chronologically over nineteen chapters concluding with a brief epilogue summarising the extent of change over more than five hundred years and yet the city’s continued connection with the past through monuments, road names, and buildings, including the cathedral.
The chapters chart Canterbury’s transition from ‘Becket’s City’ to a ‘University City’, an overarching framework which enables a long view of the city’s post-medieval history. Though inevitably focused on local people and events there is consistent and thorough contextualisation against the backdrop of a national and global environment. Deeper themes of social, religious, cultural, political and institutional change are skilfully woven through each chapter but also highlighted by giving emphasis to certain topics in individual chapters. For example, the subject of public health – sanitary conditions, poor relief, charities – is dealt with as part of the city’s nineteenth-century history, a period of widespread concern and action in such matters. Throughout, the author exhibits a sensitivity to tensions arising from progressive change and the way inhabitants resolved them, thus presenting a very human city history.
The first four chapters take the reader through the sixteenth century, beginning with a city whose society, culture, and fabric were dominated by pilgrims and religious establishments. The sometimes destructive but transformative impact of the abrupt closure of such establishments is detailed and the difficult path from Catholic country to a Protestant one, the reversals of prevalent views, and frictions created by the often-confusing situation are laid out. Known events of this time, such as Wyatt’s Rebellion and the performance of John Bale’s anti-Catholic play, are contextualised, but everyday actions of inhabitants, such as the St Alphege parishioners who hid Catholic images under floorboards or local men who served in ‘citizen armies’, are not forgotten. The topic of religious executions is poignantly reinforced by presenting an illustration of gallows on one of the city’s early maps.
The next series of chapters trace longer-term effects of religious change and the subsequent societal adjustments of the seventeenth century. The consequences of the city’s openness to taking in Protestant refugees from Europe are considered alongside the challenges of a series of natural environmental disasters. A vivid description of the cultural environment – alehouses, theatre, music, and ceremonies – of the city as Christopher Marlowe would have experienced it contrasts with the clearly outlined rise of Puritanism. The often fractious politics of the pre-war period are exemplified by details of contested parliamentary elections, billeting of soldiers in the city, responses to Charles I’s visit on the occasion of his marriage in 1625, and Archbishop Laud’s involvement in city matters, particularly in relation to the Protestant refugee, or Stranger’s, church.
The city’s experience of the Civil War years is portrayed through reference to physical changes and the actions of governors and citizens. Fortification, destructive iconoclasm, rioting and its consequences – including the burning of city gates – permanently altered Canterbury’s built environment. But accounts of passionate parliamentary petitions, Poll Tax demands, military action, and popular uprisings evidence the city’s role in county and national events, as well as exposing the contradictory atmosphere of the time. An exploration of the turmoil of the post-war period and rise of dissenting religion to the point of a significant presence within the city shows that Canterbury was already a city much changed from that of Becket.
Moving forward to the eighteenth century, the author demonstrates the extra-ordinary flourishing of a city undergoing an urban renaissance and the arrival of new activities in and around the city, from a mineral water spa to horse racing. Concentrating much of the detail of civic and political life – courts, poor relief, control of trade, civic ceremonial, etc. – into one chapter sits well with the rise of political parties and bureaucratic development. A further chapter reveals the integral part Canterbury-born James Simmons played in altering the city landscape, a process continued by other progressive inhabitants resulting in the removal of city gates, the arrival of military barracks, and a hospital.
A new century brought further change – and challenges – for Canterbury’s residents with institutional reform and industrialisation, a growing population and the introduction of railways. Again, the author assesses well-known events such as the Swing riots and the Battle for Bosenden Wood, whilst bringing to life the regular existence of inhabitants through an examination of local societies, city trades and stores, and leisure activities. Chapters detailing public health concerns, the proliferation of religious groups, and the beginning of ‘modernisation’ cover significant architectural changes to the city landscape, for example, waterworks, chapels, schools, and the arrival of gas and electricity; they also reveal the lives of those driving – and resisting – change, including Suffragettes, along with an evaluation of the impact on city residents.
The final four chapters focus on the twentieth century, on modern warfare and its aftermath, the disruption of normal life exemplified by the loss of spectators at the city’s St Lawrence cricket ground and the death of cricketer Colin Blythe on military service. These chapters bring home the role of people in Canterbury’s history by presenting a detailed account of the courageous and resilient activities of inhabitants during the ordeals of wartime, a welcome study of this period. The influential actions of the city’s first female mayor, Catherine Williamson, highlight the extent of societal change by the mid-twentieth century, whilst detailed scrutiny of the controversies surrounding reconstruction of the post-war city landscape reveals the enduring and deep connection between people and their city. The book concludes with coverage of recent events such as the signing of the Channel Tunnel agreement in Canterbury, renewed tourism, cultural icons with city connections including Sindy dolls and Bagpuss, and a picture of the shift in landscape and culture that the arrival of universities in Canterbury has stimulated.
The author’s final contribution is an excellent twenty-page bibliographical essay arranged by chapter. This substantial gathering of relevant contextual and reference works, earlier publications relating to aspects of the city’s history, and recent academic research related to Canterbury provides another facet to the usefulness of the book for academics and local historians. It offers a significant resource for encouraging further in-depth studies that the book prompts by bringing so much of the city’s history to light.
This comprehensive and accessible book expands our existing knowledge of Canterbury’s city-focused history and anyone curious about the city’s post-medieval history will find it of interest. Written in a clear and engaging style, it provides an extraordinarily rich account of Canterbury’s history since 1500.
avril leach
A.J. Clements & Sons Farmers of Gosenhill, Crockenhill, Kent. By Susan Pittman, 285 pp., 2022. £15 + £4 p+p from Crockenhill Parish Council Office, Stones Cross Road, Crockenhill BR8 8LT (01322 614674) or Susan Pittman (01322 669923).
A couple of years ago this reviewer was privileged to examine the middle three volumes of Susan Pittman’s planned series of five about farming in Crockenhill. The first, introductory, volume to the series is still to be published, but it is good to see the publication of the fifth about the Clements family of farmers at Gosenhill who, unlike the other three, have continued to farm and extend their landholdings through the changing challenges since the last war. Pittman has been fortunate to have, as a very important resource, diaries of various members of the family (both female and male) over the past hundred years or so, and has made very good use of them. Therefore, not only is this, like the previous volumes, a study of gradual expansion, from humble beginnings, of tenancy and ownership, together with changing farming practices and mechanisation over several generations, it is also a view into the details of everyday family life on a farm and its place in the local community. From very small fragmented beginnings, in the mid-nineteenth century the family gradually established its farming credentials as mixed farmers, with close connections to the London market, taking produce three or four times a week to Borough Market. From orchard fruits, cereals, salad crops, potatoes to eggs, flowers and greenhouse tomatoes, and more, all were at times produced. After the purchase of the main farmhouse, Gosenhill, from the Lullingstone estate in the 1920s, the family continued to acquire additional land and in recent times began to replace hedgerows stripped out in the post-war efforts to increase productive land.
Sevenoaks 1790-1914. Risk and choice in West Kent. By Iain Taylor and David Killingray. ix + 272 pp. 9 plates, 40 figures, 19 maps. Hertford, 2022, £14.99 (free p+p) from University of Hertfordshire Press. ISBN 978-1-912260-61-4.
This fascinating study of changes in British society through the experience of Sevenoaks in the long nineteenth century brings a breath of fresh air to local history. As would be expected by readers of the authors’ previous work, their approach is driven by an acute understanding and interpretation of the structure of society: that those most affected by governance were the majority of the population without whom the infrastructure of the small town and its rural environs would not exist. In their introductory chapter Taylor and Killingray explain that the responses of the ‘mainly’ poor residents of Sevenoaks to the struggles they encountered while trying to live with just the ‘bare necessities – food, clothing, housing and fuel’ were crucially important accelerants of social change.
The nineteenth century provides a fertile source for examining the efforts to survive in a rapidly changing environment. From 1800 to 1900 the population of England (and Kent) grew exponentially as the towns spread out into the rural areas sucking in land and people to the new suburbs, both working and comfortable middle class. By the early twentieth century the motor car and the railway had changed the environment and pace of small town life and is epitomised by the book’s front cover use of the illustration (Plate 9, Sevenoaks, 1905, by Charles Essenligh Corke), which shows the incoming motor car on its way to the eventual overtaking of the practice of driving sheep through the main street.
No aspect of small town life is overlooked in this study, but the wealth of research into the people of Sevenoaks provides a clear picture of individuals and groups. However, it does not in any way dominate the essential arguments each facet of life throws up. The authors treat all ranks of society equally while highlighting the lack of equality in that society, and the gradual legislative and more informal changes that eroded the older system. As each ‘risk’ discussed and the ‘choices’ made responded to internal and external changes, new challenges arose and took Sevenoaks into the pre-war twentieth century.
These themes are raised in the first four chapters which, while being set within a defined locality, focus on power and authority and protests, ideas, beliefs and values whether local, national or international. Only when these have set the context of the arguments do the authors deal with the more traditional local history topics such as work and industrialisation, family and social networks, health and welfare, religion and education etc., each framed within the ‘risk and choice’ focus.
The numerous plates, figures and maps illustrate the content very effectively with topic text boxes highlighting individual examples, keeping the main text free from detailed lists. The text reads easily and flows appropriately from topic to topic encouraging the reader to anticipate the next nugget of information and challenge. There is much for those seeking a deeper knowledge of Sevenoaks history and its people, much also to enhance our general understanding of the interplay of ‘risk and choice’ within local and central government and other institutions, and to help us understand how we arrived into the twentieth century giving ample material for thought about the twenty-first.
This important study ends with a chapter discussing the ‘risk/danger’ of the motor car, echoing the front cover, but also highlighting its contribution to the major challenge of our time – climate change.
elizabeth edwards