Annual Report and Accounts

ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR 19.50 AND ANNUAL REPORT, 1951 REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER, 1950 The Council presents its ninety-s􀄑ond Report, and Statement of Accounts for 1950. Sixty-three new members were elected during the year, and membership now totals 1,150. The thanks of the Council are again due to all those niembers, who, by interesting their friends in the aims and objects of the Society, have so largely contributed to this satisfactory result. It is with great regret that the Council reports the death of Mr. A. J. Golding, F.S.A., a member of the Society for twenty-six years, who" succeeded the late Mr. Walter Ruck as the Society's Hon. Librarian, and who carried on the work of the Society's Curator throughout the difficulties of the years of war. At the General Meeting in April, the President gave a survey of the Society's activities during the past year, mentioning the in.valuable help received from local secretaries, and the pleasant relations prevailing between local and affiliated associations and their parent Society. He also drew attention to the recent repair work undertaken at Cooling Castle; and, on behalf of the Society, thanked its new owners, the Wardens of Rochester Bridge, and the tenants, Col. and Mrs. Marsden, for their interest in its preservation. Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake, Mayor of Maidstone, and Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Kent, was elected an Honorary Member of the Society, the highest distinction the Society can bestow, as a mark of appreciation of the eminent services he has rendered to archreology in Kent and especially in Ma.id.stone. Sir Edward Harrison, on his retirement after fifteen years of devoted service as Honorary Secretary, was presented with a cheque subscribed by individual members as a small token of gratitude and recognition of his unremitting care for the Society's interests, and of the regard in which he is held by all members. The usual formal l?usiness, including the financial statement, elections to the Council, re-election of officers and admission of new members, then followed. In the afternoon Lieut.-Col. Meates, F.S.A., lectured to the Society on Roman excavations in the Darent Valley, with particular reference to the Lullingstone Villa. Members listened with keen interest to a particularly good lecture, illustrated by unusually clear lantern slides. Afterwards members inspected material from Lullingstone, and a general selection of Roman exbibits, admirably displayed by the Curator of the Maidstone Museum. A remarkably fine Grangerized copy of Hasted's Hiet<»'IJ of Kent in fourteen folio volwnes was also on view, by kind permission of its owner, the Kent County Library. The Council wishes to emphasize that the present financial position of the Society cannot be considered satisfactory, and in view of the disparity between income and expenditure, has no alternative but to recommend the raising of the subscription for all members save those who, having signed covenants, are already indirec􀄒ly contributing an increased annual paym􀄓nt. xxxix REPORT, 1950 The Records Branch has published nothing dw-ing the year, but hopes to issue part three of the Feet of Fines in 1951. The following additions, by gift or purchase, were made dw-ing the year to the Library and Collections : From the Trustees of the will of the late Richard Frederick Brain, of 14 New Road, Chatham, an unusually good series of Kentish items, viz. (1) 1781 Agreement concerning SUcketts Hill, Gillingham, with plan signed by Jacob Cazeneuve Troy of Chatham ; (2) Five Volumes of drawings by J. Tavernor Perry, architect to Queen Victoria: on Whatman drawing board, 10½ by 7½ ins., 17th-century Kentish ·churches (12 drawings)r St. Martin's Priory, Dover (5 drawings), the Chapel Royal, Dover (5 drawings), Medireval Bridges of the Medway (12 drawings), Villages of the Kentish Bourne (11 drawings); (3) Architectural Notes and Sketches, by J. Tavernor Perry, 1861-1900 (one hundred and eighty Kent churches are mentioned); (4) Diary of Sir Roger Twysden, 1597-1672, of Roydon Hall, bound in a 14th-century law manuscript; (5) The Roydon Hall papers of Sir Roger Twysden; (6) A l(ent topographical manuscript by Willia.m Dampier, London, 1875; (7) Chatham Court Roll (Quit Rents), 1726; (8) Manuscript C