Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS

Prehistoric to medieval landscape and settlement at Kemsley near Sittingbourne, Kent. Excavations 2003-5. By Anthony Mackinder with Lyn Blackmore. 77 pp., 39 figs, 14 tables. MOLA Archaeological Studies Series No. 28, 2014. Paperback. £12. ISBN 978-1-907586-21-7.

This slim line volume provides a useful addition to the archaeology of the Swale region, furthering our still developing understanding of the area. Despite wintry conditions Museum of London Archaeology excavators recorded the site that lay on various geological formations ranging from Head gravels to areas of London Clay. In post-excavation, the authors and contributing specialists have successfully synthesised the excavated data, producing an interesting picture of a developing prehistoric, late Iron Age/Romano-British and medieval landscape. As is typical of MOLA publications the book is nicely designed, well written and presents an engaging discussion toward the end. Consisting of an integrated narrative, finds and environmental data have been incorporated where relevant and provide interesting detail, but do not detract from the overall flow of the volume. Specialist analyses are presented in the final chapter and are generally brief, though the substantial prehistoric pottery assemblage as presented by Lyn Blackmore is of note.

One issue that detracts very slightly from the volume is the lack of an overall phased site plan. Given that publication is presented in full colour, this would have been relatively easy to produce and its absence is somewhat surprising. The individual figures are themselves clear and well presented, illustrating particular areas and phases of activity across the site. Without a site plan it is harder to place the somewhat scattered archaeological remains in their wider landscape context, despite the provision of small inset location plans on each figure, than need otherwise have been the case.

In their concluding discussion the writers provide a brief overview of settlement in the lower lying areas of the Swale/Sittingbourne district. The development of the site is placed in the context of the wider environment, with the proximity of the Swale being key due to the impact of marine regressions and transgressions. Notable here is the succinct discussion of the late Bronze to middle Iron Age pottery that adds further useful information to what remains a developing area of study. While the environmental assemblage from the project was small, its presentation in the discussion adds depth to the archaeology of the site.

Although it contained no ground-breaking new discoveries, it is surely positive that publications such as this continue to emerge from the commercial sector. Not only do they provide user friendly research material, but they form one of the building blocks from which wider regional syntheses emerge. The continued production of volumes like this can only be encouraged.

james holman

Prehistoric and Anglo-Saxon Discoveries on the East Kent Chalklands. Investigations along the Whitfield-Eastry by-pass 1991-1996. Paul Bennett, Keith Parfitt and Jon Rady et al. 92 pp. 101 figures, 27 plates. Canterbury Archaeological Trust Occasional Paper No. 9, 2014. Paperback, £١٥.٠٠ (FCAT less 20%). ISBN 978-1-870545-26-6.

The monograph principally describes excavations undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust at two locations on Downland north of Dover prior to the construction of the Whitfield to Eastry by-pass. The sites are an Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon settlement at Church Whitfield Crossroads and a barrow on Eastling Down both excavated in 1995. Specialist environmental, lithic, ceramic, osteological, and small-find commentaries are integrated within the reports.

The by-pass project was undertaken between 1991 and 1996 at the behest of Kent County Council’s Highways Department. Field-walking followed an in-itial landscape study, and then numerous evaluation trenches were excavated along the route. A watching-brief was maintained throughout the construction of the road. Unsurprisingly in an area known through aerial photography to be archaeologically rich, the field-walking and evaluation trenches were productive, with lithic concentrations, discrete scatters of prehistoric and Roman pottery as well as occasional Medieval and post-Medieval material. Cut features included gullies, boundary ditches and pits. The more significant results are tabulated. There is also a fuller account of a pit at Tilmanstone which produced sherds of a Beaker bowl, a form unusual in Britain, and which may have been associated with a burial, together with the partial excavation of an undated ring ditch, presumed to be the remains of a round barrow, located nearby. Fortunately the by-pass was routed so as to miss major sites other than the two which are the focus of the report.

The substantive sequence within the area excavated at Church Whitfield Crossroads commences in the early Iron Age. The phase, which dates to c.550-350 bc, comprised a corner of a boundary ditch; pits, some of which appear to have been used for storage, others as shallow quarries; and a structure supported by four posts, a form often regarded as a storage facility. There is a hiatus of act-ivity for a couple of centuries before the establishment around 150 bc of a rect-angular ditched enclosure no more than 39m across and with a single entrance, which continued in use until no later than 50 bc. Little internal structural evidence survived but the ditch was rich in material culture including a discrete, apparently deliberately placed deposit of a human cranium, cattle bone, a ceramic sherd and a naturally phallic-shaped flint nodule. Other fragments of human skeletal material were found elsewhere in the ditch fill while the grave of an adult male, which the excavator on balance concludes was that of an inhabitant of the enclosure, was found just beyond and parallel to the ditch. Interestingly, these elements may indicate the demarcation of a sensory as well as a physical boundary to the settlement, a phenomenon argued at similar enclosure sites in southern England. Both earlier and later Iron Age activity is interpreted in terms of settlement associated with a mixed farming economy. The results consolidate understanding of Iron Age settlement in the area.

Across the area of the Iron Age settlements a group of Anglo-Saxon buildings were dispersed including four sunken-floored constructions and certainly one, possibly two hall-type structures eroded by ploughing. These are useful contributions to the limited corpus of Anglo-Saxon rural settlement in the region. A modest finds assemblage allowed dating of activity broadly from the late 6th to the end of the 7th century ad. The extent of the Anglo-Saxon settlement is uncertain and no preceding significant Romano-British activity was found. However, when considering matters of settlement definition and continuity or discontinuity, it should be borne in mind that although the 8,000m² excavated area was substantial, it provided in essence only a key-hole view into in an extensive landscape of complex archaeology within which there will likely have been shifting local foci overtime.

‘Complex archaeology’ also well describes the account provided of the in-vestigation of the Eastling Down barrow. The relative phasing of successive ditch rings is clear but not much else on account of the destruction of any corresponding mound structures, other than displaced material in the ditches; extensive animal burrowing within the enclosed area penetrating the original ground surface; disturbance in the Iron Age by a pit containing a possible horse-cult burial and then a Romano-British boundary ditch; and latterly further erosion through modern agricultural activity.

The primary relatively substantial roughly circular ditch appears to have been cut prior to the final quarter of the 3rd millennium bc. The possibility is canvassed that it defined an enclosure approaching 15m in diameter left open for an uncertain period of time prior to a mound being raised within the ring. No certain burials are associated with the primary monument although sub-adolescent bone was found within the disturbed central area. An oval ditch 25m across at its widest point was later dug around the initial monument. It cannot be known for certain if the area covered by the mound was extended at this point or a wider berm created between the primary monument and second phase ditch. A burial, with a C14 date in the final quarter of the 3rd millennium bc, cut into the inner edge of the infilled primary ditch abutting the degraded mound, is taken as an admittedly tentative indication of a terminus ante quem for the remodelling. Ambivalence is evident on this point elsewhere in the report. Certainly other possibilities exist.

A 2m wide ditch excavated in a horse-shoe beyond the southern arc of the monument, its terminals intersecting with the 2nd phase ditch represents a 3rd structural phase, interpreted as the creation of an ‘annexe’ within which further burial deposits were made. These have a C14 range widely spread from the early to later 2nd millennium bc with one outlier in the very early 1st millennium bc. There appears to be no archaeological basis for asserting the construction of the 3rd phase ditch preceded the burials grouped around the southern arc since if two ‘placed deposits’ of human bone along with ‘pyre debris’ in each of the terminals of the phase 3 ditch are susceptible to C14 dating, then possibly the sequence can be clarified.

But it is noteworthy that all the deposits capable of being regarded as burials are around the southern arc of the primary monument and also that they are few relative to their potential chronological range. There are six crouched or flexed inhumations all of which interestingly are sub-adult apart from a male within a timber coffin. One of the child burials is overlain in its grave by a neonate and a fragmented food vessel. The neonate on the basis of C14 dating appears earlier in date than the underlying child indicating either disturbance or re-interment. A cremated adult was found within an inverted collared urn while elements of a further adult cremation were placed in a pit although it is debated whether this should be considered a burial or a pyre debris deposition. C14 dates for bone deposits considered burials are tabulated. However, a more detailed tabulated summary of all bone deposits, including those considered ‘pyre deposits’, cont-aining key information on character, associations and context, would have con-tributed to clarity. Residual pottery of various 3rd and early 2nd millennium bc traditions was recovered including Beaker ware which may be significant in terms of the ubiquitous crouched/flexed position of the inhumations. Lithic material and Peterborough Ware suggest Neolithic settlement in the vicinity predating the monument.

Nuanced differences of expression and view between initial summary, then the detailed description and consideration of data, and finally the concluding discussion indicate the report went through various iterations. An example of a more obvious inconsistency is the erroneous reference in the concluding discussion to a case having being made on page 16 for a primary phase open enclosure. Generally there is a feel that the data has been worked too hard when greater clarity could have been achieved by acknowledging its ambiguities and consequent interpretative uncertainties. Eastling Down’s importance as a multi-phase, multi-period structure comes through in a contextual consideration of similar sites in Kent and elsewhere with the recognition that, although what appear to modern eyes as burial deposits are present, the role of such monuments within the communities who built, used and modified them, extends beyond the sepulchral and is likely to have had a dynamic across the period of their use. One is left with a sense that Eastling Down has still more to contribute to current very active debates regarding 3rd and 2nd millennium bc monumental practices and their social context.

anthony ward

The Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Southern Britain AD 450-650: Beneath the Tribal Hidage. By Sue Harrington and Martin Welch. 234 pp. 10 colour plates, 62 b/w illustrations, 49 tables. Oxbow Books, 2014. Hardback £60. ISBN 978 178297 612 7.

This book is the result of an ambitious Leverhulme Trust-funded research project, Beyond the Tribal Hidage, undertaken from 2006 to 2009. It represents only the first two elements of what was intended to be a tripartite publication, but Martin Welch’s untimely death in early 2011 led to the decision to publish the work as it stands, with the third element of publication being to make accessible the database that underpins the project, the Early Anglo-Saxon Census of Southern Britain. The latter represents an incredible achievement. Building on the model of the Anglo-Saxon Kent Electronic Database (ASKED) developed by Sue Harrington and Stuart Brookes, under the supervision of Martin Welch, the Census attempts total coverage of sites and find spots across southern Britain south of the Thames (plus the parishes lining the north bank) for the period ad 450-750. This encompasses settlements, cemeteries and all recorded burials and artefacts contained therein, museum collections and all portable antiquities data, although not individual finds from settlement sites. Data collection continued up until August 2008, yielding a total of almost 3,500 sites, including find spots. This publication details the authors’ analysis of this mountain of hard-won data, but there is no doubt the Census represents a resource whose potential has only begun to be tapped.

Chapter 1 sets out the historical context to the study area and the three Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that eventually came to encompass most of it, Kent, Wessex and Sussex, before proposing a number of research questions and presenting the methodology of the project. A key aspect of that methodology, following on from Stuart Brookes’ work on Kent, involves weighing of artefacts in order to allow analysis of comparative wealth of different communities based on the weight of different raw materials (such as iron and copper alloy) that they possessed. Chapter 2 focusses on the early Anglo-Saxon Census, setting out its scope and the ways in which the data was approached. Three broad phases are presented: Phase A up until ad 575, Phase B covering 575-650 and Phase C covering 650-750. These phases are used throughout the subsequent chapters, so that the chronological scope is somewhat wider than the book’s title suggests. Chapter 3 sets out the environmental context of Southern Britain, including geology, landscape units, soil types, and rivers and floodplains. This is complemented in chapter 4 by consideration of maritime, river and overland travel, an analysis underpinned by a number of river and sea journeys undertaken by the authors in small craft. These two chapters contain much that would be useful to researchers of any period. Chapter 5 examines site location and in particular the relationship of sites with routeways, rivers and soil types, whilst chapter 6 presents a case study of site location in Surrey. Chapters 7 to 10 present detailed analyses of the distribution of different materials across the study area, namely iron, copper alloy and, in Chapter 10, amber, amethyst, gold and silver. Many interesting patterns emerge, but the wealth of Kent, particularly east Kent, compared to the rest of the region stands out clearly throughout, as does the extent to which Kentish material culture is distributed well beyond the borders of the county itself, although that distribution is far from even. Chapters 11-12 consider the external influence of Francia and Frankish material culture on the region, and the relationship between Frankish and Kentish material and power, whilst Chapter 13 attempts a synthesis of the results of the study and considers the implications for models of state formation.

There are some issues with this book; much of it is written in what seems an unnecessarily academic style that many readers are likely to find heavy going. Yet the widespread appeal of its content would have merited efforts to make the text more accessible. This reviewer also found, despite the usual caveats about not assuming evidence from burials represents a direct reflection of communities in life, that was often how the funerary data seemed to be presented. Thus when viewing ‘heat maps’ showing areas of greatest iron consumption (for instance) the reader needs to remind themselves that different approaches to the deposition of iron artefacts in the funerary process could be skewing the picture. In other words, how much iron is deposited in graves may be only partially related to actual economic access to, and consumption of, iron by the burying community. There also appears to be one definite and one possible error relating to the picture of iron consumption. Figure 37 is supposed to show a comparison of Phase C iron consumption compared to late Roman sites, but mistakenly repeats Figure 34, which shows the same comparison for Phase A. And the Phase A map of iron consumption shows a large ‘hot-spot’ of iron consumption (area 1 on Figure 32) running from the Swale across the Downs to the eastern Weald and northern edge of Romney Marsh. Although this might tally with areas of potential Kentish iron production, it does not seem to tally with actual finds of iron artefacts in this period; indeed, large parts of this area have produced little or no early Anglo-Saxon sites or finds. It may be this reviewer has misunderstood the meaning behind this map, so clarification on this point would be welcome. Finally, historians hoping for a detailed correlation of the archaeological evidence with the various groups identified in the Tribal Hidage document for this region will be disappointed. The latter though is not the fault of the authors, it is the result of the fundamentally differing natures of the historical and archaeological data, especially for this period and Harrington is to be commended for not pushing the archaeology too far beyond its limits in this case.

Despite the caveats above, this book represents the culmination of a monumental piece of research that would no doubt have yielded more if not for the loss of Martin Welch. As it stands, it contains a wealth of data on landscapes and seascapes that will be of use to historians and archaeologists of all periods, whilst for Anglo-Saxonists it should be essential reading for years to come. For those active in field archaeology, it provides plenty of benchmarks against which evidence from new discoveries can be set. And for students of Kent in this period, it affirms the importance of Kent, and a distinctively Kentish material culture and identity, not only within the modern county boundaries but across the whole of southern Britain and beyond. Ultimately it asks as many questions as it answers, but that is the way with archaeology, and this book should certainly provide inspiration for further research on this transformational period of our past.

andrew richardson

St Augustine’s First Footfall. An investigation into the probable location of the landing site of St Augustine’s mission in 597 AD. By Gerald Moody. 87 pp., 9 illustrative maps and 2 plates in b/w and colour. Notes for each chapter, one appendix, bibliography and index. Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 2013. Paperback £9.99 from The Antionette Centre, Quex Park, Birchington, Kent CT7 0BH. ISBN 978-0-9576512-1-0.

At primary school, aged about nine, this reviewer was roundly chastised (three strokes of the ruler) for scratching ‘AD 59⁷’ into the lid of her wooden school desk. The date had personal significance for someone having grown up but fifteen minutes wander from the Celtic cross erected by the 2nd Earl Granville in the nineteenth century to commemorate that very footfall that Ges Moody’s latest book now examines. This book was written for all those who have stood by that monument and puzzled about its position so far from the shallow waters of Pegwell Bay.

The best secondary source for this event is Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England and it is that account which is relied upon here but we are also given a very useful and interesting overview of a number of other, previous, writers on this topic. This reviewer did wonder which of these sources produced the date of ad 596 cast in the original bronze plaques attached to Earl Granville’s monument but then concluded that the presumed date of departure of Augustine’s mission from Rome had been selected instead of its arrival. However, it is ultimately maps and their related geology that are central to Ges Moody’s argument and although in this rather small format the various explanatory figures took concentration and the need to consult a modern OS map as well, this all led to a far greater understanding of the impact of time and the elements on a unique landscape. The navigability or otherwise of the Wantsum Channel and the ‘nodes’ within the ancient river navigation system form the key to understanding the geographic context for Augustine’s landing. Much was learned from the analysis offered here but it was the insight, aided by the many recent archaeological investigations locally, into the probable social context of Augustine’s arrival that was found the most absorbing. This was no deserted landscape but the background to a society on the brink of major change. As Jon Cannon says early in his hefty work Cathedral (2007) – ‘…Augustine and Ethelbert’s refounding of Canterbury contains the DNA for a millennium of English cathedrals’. Did this book answer the question implied in its title? Ges Moody’s favoured location for the eventual open-air meeting between Aethelbert and Augustine is perhaps the most convincing. Whilst finding it hard to imagine that John Lewis (1736) could see the tower on Canterbury Cathedral from the ridge above Minster, this may well have been so in his time as that same high ridge, even levelled off as the main runway at Manston airfield, is clearly visible from the area around Ripple windmill, as many miles to the south. Where else could such a significant meeting have taken place under the circumstances that Bede describes?

In spite of the occasional editorial glitch (Ramsgate’s magnificent harbour was constructed in the eighteenth century – see p. 62), this book repaid work and it should be added that Ges Moody’s 2008 book on the Isle of Thanet is an almost compulsory companion read. It attempts to answer, successfully, many of the questions now being asked about a significant event in English history. These are great times for those of us who grew up in east Kent. The work of historians and archaeologists, not least the Trust for Thanet Archaeology, has revealed in our loved and familiar landscape even more wonders, quite unsuspected in those distant childhoods.

ann bidgood

The Monks of St Pancras. Lewes Priory, England’s Premier Cluniac Monastery and its Dependencies 1076-1530. By Graham Mayhew. 484 pp, 30 figures, 169 colour plates. Lewes History Press, 2014. Hardback, £45. ISBN 978-0-9926984-0-9.

Graham Mayhew’s passion for his subject is evident throughout this detailed and scholarly history of the great Cluniac monastery of Lewes Priory and its place within the Order’s history more broadly. For not only does he provide a carefully researched study on the monastic house and its dependencies that were scattered across England, but he shows how Lewes Priory fitted into the Cluniac monastic network. The very close relationship liturgically, devotionally and with respect to the Order’s administration and personnel has also allowed Mayhew to capitalise on the records from Cluny and other French houses, which adds considerably to this assessment. Moreover, in looking at the decorative schemes and the importance of iconography at the parish churches, particularly in Sussex, known to have been built and/or maintained by Lewes, as well as others that may have been under the Priory’s patronage and Cluniac examples from France, he has provided a valuable study on these fascinating wall paintings, including one of this reviewer’s favourites – at Hardham the after the ‘Fall’ painting of Eve milking a cow.

Beginning before the establishment of Lewes Priory, Mayhew guides the reader through the events of the eleventh century that led up to William de Warenne and Gundrada his wife’s foundation of their monastery on lands close to his castle in Lewes. Following this detailed consideration of the reasons surrounding the establishment of a Cluniac house, Mayhew explores the subsequent relationship between the de Warenne family and successive priors, and how this reciprocity was important for both parties, not least because in the twelfth century a high proportion of the Priory’s benefactors were linked to the family. Although not unusual, such a network provides a valuable means to explore the extent of the Priory’s holdings across England and matters of influence both at Lewes and at its growing number of dependencies. The history of the Priory as a chronological narrative is provided in this chapter on its early history and chapter four that assesses its later history, including the financial crisis faced by the establishment in the 1290s, the continuing patronage and involvement of the de Warenne family until the death of John de Warenne in 1347, and its last two centuries until its suppression under Thomas Cromwell. Together these provide a sound context for the various thematic chapters. Among these interesting topics are the art and symbolism of the wall paintings and stained glass already mentioned, the management of the Priory estates and ideas about the monks’ daily lives, and, even more interestingly from this reviewer’s standpoint, the liturgical observances undertaken at Lewes, which primarily drew on the richness of its mother house. His use of the surviving Priory breviary, now housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, with its calendar of the feast days celebrated at Lewes is fascinating and allows him to explore similarities and differences of emphasis between these religious houses. Among the observances Mayhew considers in detail are those associated with the Christmas feasts and also those linked to rituals of dying and death. The centrality of the relationship between the living and the dead that was especially true for Cluniacs is carefully explored here, and, as Mayhew notes, such considerations are vital alongside assessments of monastic administration and questions of monastic diet.

Overall, this study has been carefully and painstakingly compiled and adds considerably to our knowledge and understanding of this exceedingly important Cluniac monastic establishment and its influences well beyond its own gate. Thus it is a valuable addition to modern scholarship on medieval monasticism in Western Europe. It will also be welcomed by those studying individual houses because it provides useful comparative details, and will be of particular interest to those looking at such establishments in Sussex and neighbouring counties. Readers from Kent, in particular, are likely to be interested in the place of Monks Horton, as set out in a fifteen-page section within the chapter on the Priory’s dependencies. Moreover, Mayhew’s style means that it is generally accessible to the non-specialist and more general reader, and in many cases Latin phrases from the liturgy, for example, are given thereafter in an English translation. The colour plates are numerous and extremely good. Similarly the maps, plans and other figures enhance the book because seeing, for example, the processional routes of some of the major feasts provides ideas about scale, audience and timeliness. At this reasonable price, considering the cost of many academic books, it will find a space on many bookshelves in Kent, as well as in Sussex.

sheila sweetinburgh

Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology at Canterbury. Ed. Alixe Bovey. 308 pp. 16 colour plates, b/w illustrations and figures throughout. The British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, XXXV, 2013. Paperback, £36. ISBN-13: 978-1909662216 ISBN-10:1909662216.

The British Association of Archaeology’s conference was held at Canterbury in July 2009, the third time it had been held there, the first having been the inaugural conference in 1844 when Robert Willis addressed the gathering on his ‘nascent research’ methods into architectural history. [A wider discussion of the conference can be found in the article by the late Paul Ashbee in Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxvi, 2006, 331-343.] The conference and this collection of seventeen essays arising from it provided the authors with the opportunity to re-examine and re-evaluate the evidence of recent archaeological and historical researches, and to refine interpretations of the original buildings and their later developments. Although readers could have been guided through the volume’s themes more clearly by an introductory chapter, the opening essay by Alexandra Buchanan on ‘Robert Willis and The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral’ is a good beginning linking the 1844 conference to the contemporary work. By using the example of the second Romanesque Choir reconstructed by Willis from documentary sources (principally his own translation of Gervase) and architectural observation, Buchanan attempts to explain both the lasting significance of Willis’s methodology and the errors he made which have been highlighted by more recent archaeological investigation and modern analysis of the building.

There is not sufficient space here to summarise each contribution, only to pick out some of the major themes. Most of the contributions concentrate on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Gervase crops up time and again as the original source for understanding the early building and restructuring of the Cathedral after the fire of 1174, but Professor Heslop, ‘St Anselm and the Visual Arts at Canterbury Cathedral’ gives warning that Gervase was responsible for giving credit to later priors at the expense of Archbishop Anselm for political reasons, in contradiction to Eadmer’s original recognition of Anselm’s role. In addition to Anselm, as expected, the works of priors Wibert, Eastry and Chillenden inter alia feature prominently alongside the cult and shrine of St Thomas.

In his short essay ‘Recent Interpretations of the Late-12th-Century Rebuilding of the East End of Canterbury Cathedral and its Historical Context’ Peter Draper carefully summarises the current debates showing how architectural historians have benefited from recent archaeological investigations and highlights Peter Kidson as the first historian in the 1990s to stress the critical importance of the historical context. This is one of the major themes underpinning this volume and is used by several of the contributors to explore comparative developments in other English houses and throughout Europe. In one of the essays which looks at later medieval developments, ‘The Mystery of the so-called “Old Bakery” Chamber above St Anselm’s Chapel…’, Toby Huitson not only discusses the upper space as part of the ‘choreography’ of pilgrimage, but also stresses the importance of reviewing and revising scholarly interpretations, where function inferred from architecture has to be viewed critically as changes in practice and governance required new solutions.

The responses to changing liturgical practice are considered by Helen Gittos and Alexandra Buchanan and, in the later part of the period, by Heather Gilderdale Scott who in ‘The Royal Window (c.1485) at Canterbury and the Magnificat Window (c.1500) at Great Malvern …’ makes the point that continental ‘influences were still strong in the performance of the liturgy’. And, in a rather over-enthusiastic argument for revision, Peter Fergusson’s fascinating analysis of the building and sculpture of the new entry complex uses comparative examples from France and Italy for the influences of the revival of European jurisprudence on the development and function of ceremonial entrances.

Although not specifically mentioned here, all the essays earn their place in this comprehensive and ambitious volume with Jane Geddes’ ‘The Ferramenta of the Oculi at Canterbury Cathedral’ standing out as a clear and intelligent piece of writing bringing specialist knowledge into the wider historical context. The general reader might do well to have Margaret Sparks’ 2007 work, Canterbury Cathedral Precincts: A Historical Survey to hand, not least for its index (it is a pity there is not one in the BAA volume) and the clarity of the geography of the Cathedral.

elizabeth edwards

Canterbury’s Archaeology 2012-2013: annual review of the Canterbury Archaeo-logical Trust. 48 pp. Coloured illustrations and figures throughout. Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2014. Softback, £7.95 from 92A Broad Street, Canterbury, CT1 2LU, 01227 462062. ISBN 9781870545280.

Having been in regular contact with Peter Clark about his Boat 1550 BC project it was good to receive Canterbury’s Archaeology 2012-13. It was a real treat to see such a beautifully-produced and informative document, full of fascinating details, including the note on the white-tailed sea eagle from New Romney – a bird nowadays more familiar from Orkney and the Hebrides. The review magnificently showcases Canterbury Archaeological Trust’s diverse activities and shows how committed it is to broadcasting the results of its fieldwork and research to the public, and in particular to schools. The impact of its work is clearly felt far and wide beyond Kent; not only has the Boat 1550 BC project fostered long-term and mutually beneficial links with our friends across the Channel and brought a huge amount of publicity, but also the Trust’s CAT KIT teaching kit has struck a chord as far away as Japan. Achieving so much at a time when resources have been so tight for so long is something of which CAT can truly be proud.

alison sheridan

Wood: A Family of Kent. By Charles Wood. 192 pp. Colour and b/w illustrations throughout. Map and early surveys. Kendal, 2015. Paperback, £20. ISBN 978-0-906460-14-6.

A very recent publication, this thoroughly researched family history is worthy of serious consideration. Although essentially a project to research one line of the Wood family of Kent back as far as possible, on completion it is so much more. The author has consulted widely with specialists and deals carefully with all the pitfalls and uncertainties of researching the family history, particularly where there are multiple strands with a fairly common name. He develops a full picture of the changing politics, economy, and religious and community life which were the background to the lives of the family. Each chapter usefully begins with a tabulated summary of the family members investigated and from these alone it is possible to get a glimpse of the relatively obscure evidence of the early sixteenth-century records and a more detailed picture in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. Farming pervades the occupations, but often alongside other disparate occupations such as butcher, master carpenter, gardener, brickmaker, papermaker, etc., all of which build up a picture of an artisan landholding family gradually establishing itself as a ‘family of Kent’.

Charles Wood is fortunate that his family were wealthy enough in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to make wills, an invaluable resource for early family history records, and a selection of these, and others up to the nineteenth century, are included as appendices 1-9. The book is beautifully produced and illustrated with excellent maps and further useful appendices.

Weald Villages: Charing, Westwell, Hothfield, Little Chart, Pluckley, Smarden through time. By Kaye Snowden. 96 pp. 180 colour and b/w illustrations. Amberley, 2014. Paperback, £14.99. ISBN 978-1-4456-0711-5.

Kaye Snowden has done a thorough job of taking photographs to match earlier ones, often at her own risk on busy main roads, to show how the appearance of most of the villages surveyed has changed little, but her introductory sections and her captions often tell a different story. Dramatic change to rural routes and the orientation of villages by the building of the A20 and the M20 has affected the later development – or not – of the communities. More recent loss of local amenities, particularly in the smaller villages are highlighted by the number of public houses, shops and businesses now converted to private residences. And the loss of their homes and jobs of many of those working on the Surrenden estate when it was broken up and sold off in 1928 tell of the often negative and hidden side of the history of archetypal Kentish villages. This collection in the Amberley ‘Through Time’ series is one of the best, not least because of the enthusiastic and informed texts accompanying the fascinating collection of pictures of villages so often bypassed, but well worth a detour.

The Hop Bin: An Anthology of Hop Picking in Kent and East Sussex. By Fran and Geoff Doel. 127 pp. Colour and b/w illustrations throughout. The History Press, 2014. Paperback, £14.99. ISBN 9 780752 493619.

Another collection of writings from Fran and Geoff Doel on local culture, this time associated with hop picking, an important part of the beer brewing industry which transformed parts of the Kent and East Sussex landscapes and rural economy after the introduction of the hop in the late medieval period. The authors have produced a garner of poems, journals, newspaper reports and anecdotes from a wide range of those touched by hops and hopping. These are augmented by writers such as Culpepper (of Herbal fame), Defoe, Cobbett, Dickens, Kipling and Orwell, as well as by the compilers’ own researches and contributions from other local historians, notably the in-depth work of Anne Hughes, particularly on the Hartlake Bridge Disaster of 1853. This is a book which can be dipped into or read as a fascinating chronology of hop picking in Kent and East Sussex and is one to keep on a handy shelf.

Thanet’s Dutch and Flemish Style Houses. By Gordon Taylor. 73 pp. 36 colour and b/w illustrations, 2014. Paperback, £9.99 (available from Gordon Taylor, c/o Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society, Crampton Tower Yard, Broadstairs, Kent CT10 2AB).

A retired estate agent, Gordon Taylor has used his professional skills to follow an amateur interest in the Dutch/Flemish influences on a number of buildings in east Kent. He is at his strongest in his commentary and guide to the architectural features of various properties, some still showing clear signs of the ‘Dutch Gable’, others with very little surviving and some unfortunately no longer extant. There is a useful tabulated appendix listing the properties and a good locational map. This compact book would make a welcome companion to walks around Thanet.