Annual Report and Accounts for the Year 1941

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR 1941. ^hc %tvA ^rrhawkgirsl Jljmilg REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER, 1941. THE Council present to members their eighty-third Report and the Accounts for the year 1941. The restrictions on normal activities imposed by wartime conditions have continued to operate throughout the year. MEMBERSHIP. The effect of the war on the membership is shown below : No. at end of Year. 1938. 1939. 1940. 1941. Honorary Members Affiliated Societies Other Societies and Institutions Life Members Ordinary Members Totals Societies in Union 4 9 72 66 829 4 9 72 65 793 4 7 73 65 728 4 7 74 59 681 980 943 877 825 34 37 36 37 The true picture is a little greyer than the above table indicates as certain members have allowed their subscriptions to fall into arrear and may have to be removed from the list of members under Rule 5. The Council, whilst appreciating the action of the great majority of members in continuing their support of the Society, appeal specially to members in arrear to remit the amounts owing by them to the Collector (Mr. A. H. Taylor, 27 Nunnery Road, Canterbury), and to all members to send to the Hon. Gen. Secretary the addresses of any members listed at the end of this Report whose whereabouts may be known to them. CHANGES. The Council regret to record the loss by death of two Vice- Presidents of the Sooiety, the Most Hon. the Marquess of Willrngdon, G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., G.O.I.B., G.B.E. and Mr. Richard Cooke, and also of Mr. Ralph Griffin and Dr. F. W. Hardman, elected members of the Council. The Lord Bishop of Rochester,. xxx ii REPORT, 1941. •a life member of the Society, has been elected a Vice-President. Under the will of Mr. Cooke the Society have received a legacy of £100, less Succession Duty, a generous gift that is especially welcome at the present time. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. The General Meeting was held on May 29th at Maidstone Museum, by courtesy of the Museum Committee. The President of the Society was in the chair and the attendance of members was about thirty-five. After the Minutes had been confirmed, the adoption of the Report and Accounts was moved from the chair. The President drew attention to the salient features of the Report, mentioning with regret the loss of well-known members by death and the effect of the war on the membership and on the activities of the Society. He referred to the resignation owing to ill-health of Mr. F. W. Tyler, after so many years of valuable service as Hon. Secretary of the Records Branch and to the appointment of Mr. Frank W. Jessup, B.A., LL.B., as his successor. He appealed to members of the Society for their active co-operation in the proposals announced in the Report for the preservation of records of ancient buildings and of historic documents. After a brief explanation of the Accounts by the Hon. Treasurer, the Report and Accounts were unanimously adopted. The six retiring members of Council, Messrs. C. R. Councer, Ralph Griffin and F. W. Jessup, Sir Hugh N. Jackson, Captain H. W. Knocker, and Miss Anne Roper, were re-elected. There were no other nominations before the meeting. Messrs. A. G. B. Chittenden and E. P. Boys Richardson were elected Hon. Auditors for the current year and were thanked for their past services. Mr. Richardson had kindly assisted in the •audit of the 1940 accounts owing to the death of Mr. F. C. AUwork. Mr. A. J. Golding was elected to fill the vacancy in the office of Hon. Librarian occasioned by the death of Mr. Walter Ruck. The meeting approved proposals relating to the insurance of the Society's possessions against War Damage, and the gift of the Twisden documents to the Kent County Council for preservation among the County Archives. The question of the gold •armillae was discussed and it was agreed to leave the matter for future consideration. Votes of thanks were accorded to the officers of the Sooiety for their services and to the Corporation of Maidstone for granting facilities for the meeting. On reassembling after lunch members were accompanied by their friends and the attendance reached about eighty. REPORT, 1941. xxxiii Mr. F. W. Jessup lectured on Place-Names, and in the course of a stimulating address illustrated by distribution maps aroused much interest in the story of the spreading of early settlers across the county of Kent as disclosed by local names. Miss Roper followed with an address on Inn Signs, some of which she traced from the Roman occupation; and interested her hearers by describing the Fountain Inn at Canterbury as the oldest inn in Kent. The lighter touches in the second lecture were appreciated no less than the information as to the origin of place names in the County derived from the first, and both lecturers were thanked with acclamation, whilst lack of time alone precluded discussion of many interesting points. The company then inspected an exhibition of Inn Sign paintings and photographs arranged by Miss Roper in the gallery adjoining the lecture room. COUNCIL. The Council met once during the year, in April, when the business for the Annual General Meeting was considered and passed. Amongst other current matters the Council agreed to the placing of the collection of Deeds, Court Rolls and other documents received from the Executors of the late Sir J. R. Twisden among the archives of the Kent County Council, and the transfer has since been made. LIBRARY AND COLLECTION. Gifts during the year included photostats of drawings of Grovehurst, Milton Regis (J. W. Archer), Brenchley Parsonage • and Marl Place, Brenchley, and a Fireplace in Broadford House, Horsmonden (William Twopeny), donor Mr. Joseph Ceci; a set of Archazologia Gantiana, donor, Mr. C. L. Smith ; The Antiquities of Michborough, Reculver and Lymne (C. Roach Smith and F. W. Fairholt), donor, Mr. L. B. Burtt; a collection of photographs and prints, donor Miss Winstanley; and the following books and photographs from the Executors of the late Mr. Walter Ruck : A packet of Old Maidstone Photographs; Handbook to the Cathedrals of England 7 volumes, 1881-1903 (John Murray); Maidstone and its environs, by S. C. Lamprey, 1834 ; Antiquities of Maidstone, by Walter B. Gilbert, 1865; Topography of Maidstone and its environs (two copies), 1839 ; Kent's Capital, by W. S. Martin and B. P. Row; Jottings of Kent, by William Miller, 1871; Smith's Kentish Appendix, 1857 ; Ccesar in Kent, by Rev. Francis T. Vine, 1886 ; Excursions in the County of Kent (two copies), 1822 ; History of the College of All Saints, Maidstone, byBealePoste, 1848. 8 XXXIV REPORT 1941. ACCOUNTS. Notwithstanding the continued reduction in the membership and the consequent decrease in receipts, the Accounts show a satisfactory balance, due mainly to the restriction of expenditure on the annual volume within the limits prescribed by circumstances. Arrears of subscriptions are again regrettably high, owing, no doubt, in many cases to the absence of members from their usual homes and activities. AROBLEOLOGIA CANTIANA. Owing to prevailing conditions the difficulties in the way of book production continue to increase, and the volume recently issued to members is much smaller than usual. The Council continue to aim at the issue of an annual volume, and they hope DO be in a position to arrange for the production of one of greater content for next year. ARCH^IOLOGIA CANTIANA ILLUSTRATIONS FUND. The Illustrations Fund is used to supplement the amount available from other sources for providing illustrations in Archceologia Cantiana. Donations received in 1941 totalled £12 8s. Additional support for the fund, whether of large or small sums, will be welcomed. Contributions should be sent to the Hon. Treasurer (Mr. Charles Stokes, New Hall, Dymchurch, Kent). RECORDS BRANCH. Had it not been for war conditions, the third part of Kent Feet of Fines would have been published during the year. Publication proved impossible because the original records, with which the manuscript must be finally checked before it goes to the printer, have been sent out of London for safety, and are not now available for reference. It is hoped that this interruption in the plans of the Records Branch will not be of long duration. The deaths of Mr. Ralph Griffin and of Dr. F. W. Hardman, two of the co-editors of Kent Feet of Fines, are referred to with regret elsewhere in this Report. If financial resources permit, it is hoped to publish during 1942 the Register of Daniel Rough, Common Clerk of Romney in the middle of the fourteenth century. The Register is being edited by Miss K. M. E. Murray, M.A., B.Litt., author of The Constitutional History of the Cinque Ports. It includes an early version of the Romney Custumal, and contains a wealth of material that will attract everyone interested in the history of Romney and the Cinque Ports^ and in the development of borough custom. One side of the work of the Records Branch which is of espeoial REPORT, 1941. XXXV importance at the present time is the preservation of documents of historical significance. There is a serious risk that many such documents may fall innocent victims in the waste paper campaign. Mr. Herbert W. Knocker, of Rysted House, Westerham, an Hon. Receiver of Records for the British Records Association, will be glad to hear from anyone who can help in this work. Owing to ill-health, Mr. Frank W. Tyler found himself obliged to give up the Secretaryship of the Records Branch at the end of 1940, after he had most ably filled that office for fifteen years. He has been succeeded by Mr. Frank W. Jessup, of Autumn Cottage, Ditton, near Maidstone. During its comparatively brief life of twenty-eight years, the Records Branch has had the misfortune to see two major wars. It survived the first, but with a diminished number of subscribers, and there has been an inevitable fall in their number since the beginning of the present war. Unless this decline is arrested, the work that the Records Branch can undertake is bound ta suffer. Additional subscribers will be extremely welcome. PLACE-NAMES. There is little to report, although some progress has been" made with the survey of field and minor place-names. EXCURSIONS. Owing to restrictions on the use of petrol no excursions were held during the year. REPORTS OE LOCAL SECRETARIES AND OTHERS. Mrs. Gardiner reports from Canterbury a find of bronze age spearheads and celts in a gravel pit at Broadoak, when a tree was uprooted. Sherds of Roman pottery, one or two bearing the potter's name, were found during military excavations in Dane John. 0They await expert examination. Both finds have been deposited in the Beaney Museum. Mr. S. Priest states that the find of pottery and bronze brooches at Kent Works, Stone, mentioned in Archceologia Cantiana, LI, xlvii, has been adequately described and illustrated by M. A. Cotton and K. M. Richardson-as " A Belgic Cremation Site at Stone, Kent," in Proc. Prehistoric Soc, 1941 (New Series, Vol. VII), pp. 134-141. The site is one mile west of Stone Church, between Dartford and Greenhithe. Mr. A. Cumberland reports that the fine, timber-built watermill, Hards' Mill, which has been a conspicuous building at the foot of East Hill, Dartford, for the last 150 years has been taken down. The work of demolition, which owing to the good state of the building, has occupied over twelve months, has been in XXXVL REPORT, 1941. the hands of a local contractor, who has afforded every facility for visits and has reserved any material of interest for the Dartford Public Museum. The mill was built c. 1780 by William Loader at a cost of £2,000. It was a rectangular building with the south-west angle splayed off to allow the passage of a footpath leading from the town to Brooklands and beyond, thus making the plan an irregular pentagon. It was built entirely of wood, on a brick foundation, was of five storeys and was covered by a roof framed on the Mansard principle, with five hips. The whole building was a fine example of carpentry construction. Before a flour mill stood here, the site was occupied by a fulling mill, of which a record exists in an Arbitration Award (in Dartford Museum) on the rights of the Lord of the Manor of Charles, in 1511. A valuation of the Manor of Charles, probably of the late fourteenth century (see Arch. Cant., IX, 302) mentions the fulling-mill and speaks of a field called " Tentis," a name still in use as Tenter's Field, the land lying to the south of the mill. While laying an electric cable on Temple Hill, Dartford, Mr. R. Clark reports, at the north-western entrance to St. Vincent's Boys' Homes (O.S. Kent, sheet IX, N.W.) traces of Roman foundations were found of which he has placed a drawing with the local Antiquarian Society (for previous finds, north of this site, see Arch. Cant., XXII, lii.). Mr. Clark has also obtained worked flints, including points shouldered on one edge and arrow or spear heads, from a pit in Thames ballast, at Marsh Street, about three-quarters of a mile south of the river bank (O.S. Kent, sheet IX, N.E.). The pit is below O.D. and the workings are filled with water, so that it is not possible to give the exact level from which the artefacts were dredged ; they all show similarities with a Mesolithic culture. In the course of widening work on the W. side of the road running N.E. from Aylesford to the Lower Bell inn, about 450 yards S. of Kit's Coty, 150 yards N. of the " Countless Stones," and immediately S. of the Pilgrims' Way, five or six large sarsens were removed from the roadside bank by a mechanical excavator. Sir Edward Harrison visited the site, but the stones were in process of being buried under road tip and close examination was impracticable. No shaping or squaring of the stones was observed. As they were found in the bank of the road, fairly close together, it is possible that they were originally dug up and placed by the roadside when the present road was made. On the other hand their positions may indicate that they were ranged along the side of a long barrow lying in a N.E.-S.W. direction. No opinion of value can be expressed on the meagre evidence but excavation or probing in the immediate neighbourhood might be fruitful. REPORT, 1941. XXXvii Several other sarsens were stated to have been found beside the Pilgrims' Way a mile or more W. of Kits Coty. These were not visited. APEILIATED SOCIETIES. No reports have been received. PROTECTION OE ANCIENT MONUMENTS. Mr. R. F. Jessup (Autumn Cottage, Ditton, Maidstone) has been appointed Chief Correspondent for Kent to the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments in succession to the late Mr. Richard Cooke. Mr. Jessup Would be pleased at any time to receive information from members regarding monuments which appear to be worthy of preservation ; it should be noted, however, that buildings in ecclesiastical use and buildings occupied by other than a caretaker cannot in general be scheduled for preservation under the Ancient Monuments Acts. GENERAL. The attention of members is again invited to the appeals for their co-operation in making and preserving records of churches and buildings of historic and architectural interest, as well as in the preservation of documentary records of historical interest. These appeals were made in the Council's Report for 1940, which will be found bound up with the recently issued volume of Archceologia Cantiana. The Council take this opportunity of thanking members who have already responded in one way or another to such appeals. Once again attention is directed to the notices printed on the back of the title-page of " Archeeologia Cantiana " indicating when and to whom subscriptions should be paid and containing other information designed to facilitate business. At the present time there is a special need for the introduction of new members and it is earnestly hoped that activity in this direction during the current year may be sufficient to keep the membership at least up to its present level. By Order of the Council, EDWARD HARRISON, Qth April 1942. Hon. Oen. Secretary. Important. The Hon. Gen. Secretary asks for the present addresses of: Miss C. M. Bellhouse, Mrs. Beatrice Browning, JR. W. Card, J. Cook, Miss N. M. Daniel, Mrs. 0. Druce Lander, Mrs. Roper-Lumley-Holland, Capt. A. Stokes, and Mrs. H. L. Tatham.