Annual Report and Accounts for the Year 1942

.ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS .FOR THE YEAR 1942. REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER, 1942. Tim Council present their eighty-fourth Report and the Accounts for 1942. The paper shortage is responsible for t,he brevity of this report. The membership has decreased by 60 dt1ring the year, from 825 to 765. The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury has been elected a Vice-President of the Society. M:ajor Eric Clarke has joined the Council and a second vacancy is being left open till after the close of hostilities, pe-nding the return of possible candidates from military duties. The General Meeting was held at Maidstone on 14th May, when Major Teichman Darville presided over a good wartime attendance of members. After the usual business two much-appreciated lect,ures were givC'n by Dr. R. A. L. Smith on G-undulf, Bishop of Rochester and by i\ir. C. R. Councer on The Topographical MSS. of John Philipott. A copy of the Canterbury Psa1,ter has been bought for the Reference Library. Gifts include various volumes of Archmol-Ogia Cantimui a.nd Kent Records-donors, Air Marshal Sir C. Boughton, Mr. Matley Moore and Mr. Henry Smetham; The Place Names of JJ:Nddl,esex, donor Mr. B. W. Switbinbank ; a map of Black Fen farm in Bexley, 1725, donor Mr. T. Ma.rsham Townsend ; Manuscript notes on Kent History and Antiquities, together with some Kent books, donors, the Executors of Arthur Hussey ; and the following books from Air Marshal Sir C. Boughton, vi1,;., Monmnent.(ll Brasses in l(e11.t, by Griffin and Stephenson, Church Plate in Kent (Part I), Winlde's British Cathedral,s, English Ohm·ch Brasses, by E. R. Suffiing, Mwwrials of Canterbury Cathedral, by Woodruff and Danks, Indexes of Wills, Rochester (Volume IX) and Canterbury (Volume VIII), and copies of Wills relating to the Twysden family and to Miss Weekley. The accounts show an excess of receipts over e:1\.l)enditure of £142 Ss. 7d. A new volume of Arch,ceologia, Oanticma, much limited in content by circumstances, bas been issued. War conditions still prevent the issue by the Records Branch of the third part of Kent Feet of Fi?'le􀈭-1, but it is hoped that the interesting Register of Daniel Rough, a fourteenth century Common Clerk of Romney, of which mention was made in the Cotmcil's Report for 1941, will appea.r during t,he early part of 1943. Dul'ing 1042 o. fa.ir amount of work has been accomplished in th e ,; prooervation of records that might have been destroyed but for the intervention of the Records B1•anch. This work continues. The Records Committee are glad to report an increase in the number of subscribers. New subscribers will be very welcome. . The year's progi·amme of the Cante1·bury Archreological Society was interrupted by air raids on the Oity, but outings and lectures were resumed xxxii REPORT, 1942. as soon as possible and gave welcome relief and enjoyment to members. The photographic survey, fortunately completed and placed in safety, wiU now prove of great value. The clearance of bombed sites has disclosed a great variety of basements containing medireval and later masonry. It i􀅜 hoped that before rebuilding some attempt may be made to plan Roman Canterbury more adequately than before. A cache of mediawal pottery was revealed by bomb damage in Bl68JJ Wood. Reports of discoveries include the following : (I} A late neolithic or early bronze age flint chipping floor, situated in a field adjoining the south side of the road, about midway between Woodchurch and Warehorne, 250 yards North-west of Ellis Barn, on the foothills overlooking Romney Marsh. (0.S. one inch Sheet, 126, 403519.) The field, triangular in shape and six acres in extent, is bounded, W. by Southroad Wood, and S.E. by a grass slip with a small stream. Numerous surface finds consist principally of scrapers, blades, cores and tranchets, together with hundreds of worked flakes, potboilers, etc. There is no natural supply of flint anywhere near the site, and the raw material must presumably have been transported. It is suggested that the neolithic flint implements occasionally found on the Marsh itself may possibly have emanated from this centre. The field itself and its surroundings would repay further investigations, as from iron smeltings, pottery, glass, etc., also found, there would appear to be traces of an early settlement or dump, though the site is over two miles away from any known inhabited locality. It is hoped a full report may be issued later on, together with illustrations of the finds, some of which were exhibit-ad at the 1942 Annual Meeting of the Society in Maidstone Museum (Major M. Teichman Darville). (2) A Roman cinerary urn, diameter 7¼ inches (maximum), at mouth 4¾ inches, at base 4 inches, height St inches, of reddish brown or buff ware, smooth and smoke-stained, with averted rim, and fragments of several other urns are reported by Mr. L. Ingpin of Plaxtol to have been found S.E. of the Vigo inn, about 300 yards S. of the E.-W. road, in the grounds of Trosley Towers, parish of Trottiscliffe. The urn is now in Maidstone Museum (Mr. A. J. Golding). (3) A bronze palstave (7 inches long, I􀅝 inches broad), west of Longford Bridge near Dunton Green (O.S. sheet 29, S.W.). It is in the possession of the Sevenoaks Rural District Council (l\fr. Frank God.win). (4) A tradesman's token of 1658 found at Reynolds Place, Horton Kirby, inscribed as follows: Obv. John Becket, 1658, of Rev. Ainesford in ·B· Kent. I·E· Arms of the Grocers' Company on Obv. and a five-pointed star at top centre on each side. ( 5) A plan dated 1655 of Dartford Mill Estate, showing property between Hythe Street (Waterside) and Overy Street and extending N. of High Street just beyond Farningha.m Lees Bridge. (6) A copy made in 1768 of plans of the Twisleton Estate in Dartford, . Stone and Wilmington prepared in 1707. These plans which give local place- and field-names furnish a valuable key to the "Twistleton" deeds recorded in S. K. Keyes' Dartford Historical Notes (Messrs. A. Cumberland and S. Priest). :REPORT, 1942. xxxiii (7) The ruins of St. Martin-le-Grand Church, Dover (Arch. Oant., IV, 1) have been exposed to view (Mr. John H. Mowll). (S) A drawing of a plaster freize of the early 16th century found in a now demolished building in Market Square, Dover, has been made by Mr. G. Robson, Assistant Architect to the Borough Engineer (Mr. John H. Mowll). (9) At Acol, south of Quex Park, Birchington, excavations disclosed a crouched burial with the lmees drawn up. The dimensions of the excavation for the body werti, length 3 feet 11 inches, width at foot 2 feet, at· head 18 inches, depth below surface 2 feet 4 inches. The carefully finished hollow was in clean chalk. There was no trace of anything with the body. The bones were removed by the police and were destroyed by them after the Coroner had decided that an inquest was unnecessary (Mr. W. P. D. Stebbing). (10) Excavation at Hothfield Common (O.S. l-inch sheet 126, 413042) revealed two greyish-black burnt wheel-turned burial urns and two beakers, one greyish-brown and the other greyish-black, of burnt, wheel-tttmed pottery, and also other pottery, spherical pellets of iron ore slag, partly smelted slag, flint flakes and calcined bones. They were found and deposited with the Society by Lieut. J. G. S. Brinson, R.E., to ,vhom grateful aclmowledgroent is made for his action. A fuller notice is reserved for a forthcoming volume of A.rclu:eowgia Cant-i,ana (Mr. R. J. Gearing). (11) The site of possibly extensive Roman buildings at Little Chart, a preliminary report of which appears in Arch􀇢ologia Cantiana for 1942. With the co-operation of the owner and the lessees arrangements have been made for the site and its immediate surroundings to remain undisturbed till after the war when systematic excavation of a very promising discovery is highly desirable. Aclmowledgments for help already given are made to Lieut. J. G. S. Brinson, R.E., Mr. A. G. B. Chittenden, Dr. Brade-Birks, and Flight-Lieut. R. F. Jessup (l\'Ir. R. J. Gearing). ( 12) A polished neolithic axe-head, 6 inches in length, found 3 feet deep in the clay of a pond at Cranbrook (O.S. one-inch sheet, 120, 237548), a flint scraper by the banks of the Crane in Swifts Park, Cranbrook, and a flint chisel on Coursehorne Farm, Cranbrook. These finds, taken in conjunction with the finds in Cra.nbrook School cricket field (Arch. Oant., XLIX, xlvi) point to occupation in the WeaJden area on a greater scale than has hitherto been believed likely (Mr. A. L. Congreve). Even in this short report space must be found for a pressing request to members to pay their subscriptions promptly and to be active in securing new members. By Order of the Council, EDWARD HARRISON, 3th April, 1943. Hon. General Sec,·etary. Important, The Hon. General Secretary asks for the present addresses >f L. H. Browning, Oapt. A. StokeB. · 3