KAS Newsletter, Issue 102, Winter 2015

DIGGING ON THE CLIFFS THE OLDEST AND LARGEST SOCIETY DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT COUNTY OF KENT ISSUE 102 - WINTER 2015 www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Peters Village Burham The Speckled Pit Faversham Woolcomber Street Dover Scotgrove Nr Hartley ISSUE 102 - WINTER 2015 President: Ian Coulson Vice Presidents: Mrs S Broomfield Mr L.M. Clinch Mr E.P. Connell Mr R.F. Legear Hon. General Secretary: Robert Cockcroft secretary@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. Treasurer: Barrie Beeching treasurer@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. Membership Secretary: Mrs Shiela Broomfield membership@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. Editor: Terry G. Lawson honeditor@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. Librarian: Mrs Pernille Richards librarian@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. Curator: Dr Andrew Richardson andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk Research: Ted Connell ted.connell@btinternet.com Press: Paul Tritton paul.tritton@btinternet.com Newsletter: Lyn Palmer newsletter@kentarchaeology.org.uk Welcome to our members Many of you may not be aware that our President, Ian Coulson, is unwell and so the Vice Presidents are taking over some of his duties. As you know, Ian is very concerned about the future of the Society and about bringing its resources to a wider audience. Progress in this direction is currently limited without Ian’s input, however, work is ongoing to update the website and improve its accessibility. A group, led by Clive Drew, is working on plans to attract a wider membership. Shiela Broomfield, our Membership Secretary, has revised the membership records making it easier to keep track of members. You will also have received a new and more durable membership card from her. If Shiela does not have an email address for you and you have no objection to being contacted in that way please let her have your details (see page 22). You will know from previous correspondence that Pernille Richards, our Hon.Librarian, is standing down and we are actively looking for a replacement. Pernille has done a magnificent job in reorganising the library and arranging activities therein. This will also be the penultimate newsletter edited by Lyn Palmer. Lyn has been the editor for 15 years and has overseen changes in the format and delivery of a very interesting and informative journal. It is with much sadness that I have to tell you that Peter Stutchbury passed away on 27th of October. He will be greatly missed. He relinquished the post of Hon.General Secretary last year and Bob Cockcroft took over. Bob has had a very steep learning curve in his first year and without his forbearance and expertise the Society would be in a much more difficult position, so we owe him great thanks. You can read more about Bob on Page 23. Enjoy this bumper issue of the Newsletter and look out for the March issue which will carry all KAS and associated groups’ events for the next 12 months. Mike Clinch KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY KAS Library Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery St Faith’s Street Maidstone ME14 1LH The oldest and largest society devoted to the history and archaeology of the ancient county of Kent 2 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Peters Village 4 - 8 KAS Website 9 The Mystery of the Speckled Pit 10 - 14 New Publications 15 Up on the Cliffs 16 - 21 You and Your Society 22 - 23 News from the Library 24 KAS Allen Grove History Fund 25 Events 26 - 27 Rose Hill 28 - 33 Woolcomber Street 34 - 38 Saving Kent’s History 39 Churches Commitee & KCC Community Archaeology 40 - 41 Scotgrove 42 - 47 Lyminge Teacher’s Pack 48 ON THE FRONT COVER Graphite rods from carbon arc lamps at South Foreland lighthouse. Photo Andrew Savage In this issue Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 3 4 28 42 Peters Village A Slice Through Time By Chris Clarke (CgMs Consulting) Extensive archaeological investigations undertaken last year have shed new light on the archaeological landscape of the Medway valley, with evidence from multiple excavation sites revealing how communities from the prehistoric onwards have been exploiting the land adjacent to the river. The investigations were undertaken by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and commissioned by CgMs Consulting, on behalf of Trenport Investments Ltd, prior to the construction of the new large scale Peters Village development and bridge crossing located between Burham and Wouldham on the east bank of the River Medway. Associated works also took place on the west bank of the river near Holborough. The archaeological works were undertaken prior to the construction of extensive residential development at the former chalk quarry, Peters Pit, and supporting infrastructure relating to the new road and bridge across the Medway. The excavations in advance of the new road provided a 2.5km slice through the local landscape, while those excavations ahead of the residential development provided a more concentrated localised picture of the development of the landscape over the past 6000 years. Prehistoric Settlement The earliest evidence the MOLA team encountered, and potentially the most significant, related to Neolithic settlement in the valley. While excavating in proximity to Court Road the remains of a simple structure were encountered, which consisted in plan of a roughly rectilinear arrangement of stakeholes measuring approximately 8m by 4m, within which was the remains of a trampled surface. Several fragments of pottery recovered from the features were identified as Decorated Bowl/Mildenhall style vessels dated to 3800-3200 calBC. Previous geophysical surveys in the area by Birmingham University identified a roughly contemporary Causewayed Enclosure on higher ground, approximately 100m to the north of where the structure was recorded. There is a strong possibility that these two features are related. Other features recognised as dating to the Neolithic were limited, restricted to a partial Early to Middle Neolithic ring ditch and isolated pit found in separate locations in the northern area of the site. A review of the excavation areas indicated that there was a noticeable lack of features associated with the Early to Middle Bronze Age. Further excavations along Court Road, to the south of where the Neolithic structure was identified, revealed one half of a ring ditch, measuring roughly 20m in diameter. The location of the ring ditch positioned on ABOVE Recording of Neolithic structure in progress. Photo Maggie Cox © MOLA 4 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk BELOW View of ring ditch adjacent to Court Road. Photo Maggie Cox © MOLA a spur of high ground overlooking the Medway Valley is typical of Bronze Age burial monuments, indicating the ring ditch would once have delineated the limit of a barrow of this period. Unfortunately 100% excavation of a stretch of ring ditch only produced small scraps of pottery broadly dated to the prehistoric period, and no associated burial was found to fully substantiate this interpretation. A scatter of Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age finds and discrete features were found at regular intervals throughout the site, primarily consisting of isolated pits and occasional boundary ditches containing small assemblages of pottery and flint. The exception to this was a small group of pits recorded just outside the village of Burham, near Bell Lane, found in proximity to a crouched inhumation of an adult of indeterminate sex. Radiocarbon analysis dated the inhumation to 1010 – 830 cal BC. As much as no defined evidence for contemporary settlement was identified, the regularity of the features dating to this period imply reasonably extensive occupation of the landscape by local populations during this period. Evidence for this extensive use of the landscape soon dies away over the next few hundred years as the only feature recorded associated with the Middle to Late Iron Age period was a second crouched inhumation. This burial was located in the northern part of the site near Wouldham, and has been assessed as being a probable male adult, radiocarbon dated to 360-90 cal BC. Roman Transition Occupation within the immediate landscape during the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period was substantially more visible and extensive. In the northern area of the site near Wouldham, features associated with this time of transition includes evidence of a field system adjacent to the floodplain. The field system ditches were primary aligned east to west, with a later phase of ditches subsequently cutting these ditches at right angles. A short distance to the west of the field system were a pair of parallel ditches forming a 7m-wide north-south aligned trackway. Similar trackway features of the same width and age were found in two different excavation areas further to the south, suggesting the presence of a single trackway over a kilometre in length running Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 5 ABOVE Remains of possible Late Medieval or Early Post Medieval garden feature being recorded. Photo Maggie Cox © MOLA parallel to the Medway during this period. In the southern area of the site, next to Bell Lane, there was also a high concentration of features dated to this period, consistent with peripheral settlement features within a small dry valley. Defining the extent of these features was a wide boundary ditch and a multi-phase trackway located 40m apart and orientated on the same northeast-southwest alignment. In the area between these two features there were numerous discrete pits, postholes and a concentration of stakeholes. The original metalled trackway was approximately 5m wide with a small ditch cut each side for the purpose of drainage. The trackway must have temporarily fallen out of use as the drainage ditches became infilled and a large pit had been cut through the metalled surface. The pit was subsequently backfilled and the trackway metalling reinstated and widened to a maximum width of approximately 7.5m, with a possible fence line defining its western edge. More intriguingly, a series of roughly 40 large square postholes was recorded running perpendicular between the boundary ditch and trackway. When excavated, the postholes were found to have been packed out using locally produced 1st century AD Roman roof tile, strongly indicating the presence of a Roman building in close proximity to the site. The current interpretation for the posthole alignment is that it may have formed a palisade constructed from a series of substantial timber posts. This interpretation automatically leads to the suggestion that such a feature was defensive in nature, implying that the local population felt under threat. Further research will be undertaken to find parallels for such a feature and see if this early theory is correct. When this evidence is placed into context with the immediate landscape a possible reason for such a concentration of features becomes potentially obvious. There are vague antiquarian records of the discovery of a Roman building in the field adjacent to this recent discovery. The location of this building is marked on the early Ordnance Survey maps and is located about 50m from the excavation area. If present, this would certainly imply that the MOLA excavation team has found part of the building’s immediate land holdings and one of the main trackways leading up to the building. In the wider landscape, the widely known high status Eccles Roman Villa 6 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk ABOVE Spread of Iron Age pottery under excavation. Photo Maggie Cox © MOLA BELOW Horse pendant found near Wouldham Hall. Photo Maggie Cox © MOLA lies roughly 1km to the south of this location, suggesting that this isolated building and its immediate holdings may form part of the villa’s wider estate. Another intriguing feature, dated to the early post-conquest period by a single Claudian coin, was one part of what appeared to be an extensive regular double ditched enclosure located near St. Mary’s Church in the central area of the site, on higher ground formed by a gravel island adjacent to the river. The shape of such an enclosure is very characteristic of temporary Roman military defences. Are we looking at an early post-conquest Roman marching camp? If so, such a feature may add important information to the nature and passage of the Roman invasion of Britain. Once further planned analysis of the excavation evidence takes place we will be able to learn more. Later Roman activity on site was very sparse, much like the Anglo-Saxon period. The only noteworthy Anglo-Saxon feature discovered was a heavily disturbed burial, with the bones of the occupant all but removed by later truncation. Despite this disturbance, an assemblage of grave goods still survived, consisting of a knife, stone pendant and belt buckle. Wouldham Hall Evidence for medieval and post-medieval activity on site was primarily restricted to the area immediately surrounding the former Wouldham Hall at the southern end of Hall Road. A medieval enclosure ditch containing fragments of 12th to 13th century pottery appear to define the earliest phase of activity associated with the hall, adjacent to which were located a number of contemporary domestic rubbish pits. Among the usual domestic detritus, such as pottery and animal bone, was a find of significant interest, consisting of a horse harness pendant bearing the arms of the Beauchamp family, who were the powerful Earls of Warwick between the 13th and 15th century. Did this family hold influence over the lands surrounding the Wouldham Marshes? Or was the pendant accidentally lost during a visit by one of the household? By the Tudor period the grounds of the hall had developed further, now defined by a more extensive enclosure ditch. Unfortunately, features contemporary with this later activity were more rare. With the onset of the 18th century there appeared to a mix of activity occurring within the grounds of the hall. One area had been clearly landscaped, Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 7 ABOVE Possible circular summer house under excavation near Wouldham Hall. Photo Maggie Cox © MOLA dominated by a large artificial pond which had been shaped using a hidden retaining wall to make sure that when viewed from the hall, only a naturalistic view of the pond could be seen. Circular foundations recorded next to the pond may suggest it was overlooked by a contemporary summer house. A separate area had been set aside for more mundane utilitarian purposes, dominated by a sequence of square postholes related to the construction of a series of ancillary buildings. By the late 19th century the Medway Valley became one of the largest centres in the country for the production of cement. This was primarily due to the extensive availability of chalk for processing into lime, a key ingredient of cement, and accessibility to the booming construction industry of Victorian London via rail and water. By the 1890s the land surrounding Wouldham Hall had been sold off and the Peters Wouldham Hall Cement Works constructed. The cement works adjacent to the river were an extensive operation, changing the face of the local landscape permanently as the large chucks were dug out of the hillsides to extract the chalk, while ground level adjacent to the river was substantially raised to facilitate construction of the extensive production complex. Despite the sheer scale of the works, surprisingly little has survived the closure of the plant in the early 20th century and subsequent phases of demolition, clearance and encroachment of the local vegetation. What was left was recorded by MOLA building specialists prior to the commencement of the works. The archaeological investigations at Peters Village have not only provided a valuable slice through time, but have also provided a detailed slice through the local landscape. Initial assessment of the results have provided a clue as to how human activity has ebbed and flowed along the banks of the River Medway over the past 6000 years, with evidence that local populations were keen to exploit this environment at intervals during the late prehistoric and Roman period. Such activity appears to go in cycles, with no one population consistently utilising the area for an extended period. By the medieval period utilisation of the landscape appears to become much more focused, creating the pattern of land use and settlement we are familiar with today. Further research and analysis of the excavation results is due to happen in the near future, but once these results are compiled they are likely to provide a significant step forward in our understanding of how the Medway Valley has been exploited over time. 8 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk The recent addition of another 1,000 memorial inscriptions (‘MIs’) to the Research pages of http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk brings the total number available free online to more than 30,000, recorded in nearly 300 Kent parishes. The project began 14 years ago when several family history enthusiasts and KAS volunteers started to transcribe and index records they and their predecessors had made while inspecting graves in churches, churchyards and cemeteries across the county over a period of nearly 250 years. As well as naming those buried in the graves, many MIs identify their parents, spouses and offspring, so the total number of names that have now been recorded amounts to several hundred thousand. Visitors to the website can browse through an alphabetical list of parishes or search for a name in all the burial places at once. The earliest MIs were found in notes made by Rev. Bryan Faussett of Heppington (Fig.1), in the parish of Nackington, near Canterbury, while visiting about 150 churchyards between 1756 and 1760. Another early MI recorder was Leland Lewis Duncan of Lewisham, who worked tirelessly from the 1880s until he died in 1923. 30,000 KENT ‘MIs’ FROM 300 PARISHES NOW ON OUR WEBSITE Many inscriptions have become illegible over the intervening years, and in many cases the gravestones themselves have disappeared without trace and the sites of the graves on which they stood can be located only if an original burial plan has survived. Thanks to our website, Rob Flyn of New South Wales, a descendent of the Morphetts of Tenterden, was able to find the MI that Leyland Duncan recorded at a Morphett grave in Wittersham. The gravestone, erected in about 1800, has not survived, but the site was identified by KAS webmaster Ted Connell while photographing churches and their graveyards in and around Romney Marsh. (Fig.2). Among others who have found broken links in their family history is Oliver A Gauld-Galliers, who was trying to trace Elizabeth Carter Sharpe, one of his grandmother’s ancestors. Our records led Oliver to her grave and that of her husband William Read at St Mary’s, Lamberhurst, and revealed that three of their children predeceased their mother (Fig.3). MIs from several parishes in north Kent recorded by D E Williams include a family burial plot at St James, Cooling, immortalized by Charles Dickens. This is where, in Great Expectations, orphan Pip recalled, “As I never saw my father or my mother; my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones”. In real life the tombs are those of the Comport family. Nearby are ‘five little stone lozenges’ marking the graves of what Dickens imagined to be those of Pip’s siblings (Fig.4). Transcriptions of the Wills of Michael Comport and some of his descendants are also published on the website, as are family histories, census returns, directory entries, and death and funeral reports. Also of special interest in Mr Williams’s research are: Cooling (St James) John William Murton of Cooling Castle, ‘who on his passage to Calcutta in the ship Monarch fell overboard and was drowned when off Rio De Janeiro’ (extract from captain’s log reads: “and so perished one of the finest and best hearted seamen who ever trod a ship’s deck”). Frindsbury (All Saints) John George Mount, ‘45 years in the RN … and with Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar 21st Oct 1805’. William Halls, ‘late captain of the barge Trader who was drowned by being run down by the S.S.Tay in November 1886 and found July 12th 1887’. Hoo (St Werburgh) Thomas Aveling, builder of steam traction engines, some of which were used to plough and drain the Thames marshes. David Webb and Alfred Groves, drowned in their sleep when their barge foundered in the Thames. The three children of William Lionel Wyllie RA (prolific marine painter and etcher), none of whom lived for more than six days. Rochester (St Nicholas Cemetery) Captain Herbert Claude Morton, ‘killed in the explosion of HMS Bulwark’. The ship exploded on November 26 1914 while anchored off Sheerness, with the loss of 736 men. Shorne (St Peter and St Paul’s Church Sarah Bevan, who left instructions to be buried in her ‘usual night clothes, wrapped in a long white dress. In an inner coffin, then in a lead coffin covered with black cloth, black plates and nails’ and ‘kept 10 days before burial and taken to the churchyard with two black coaches to attend’. George Bennett, bricklayer, ‘in his day a famous cricketer’ who played for Kent and, in 1862, for England in Australia. Chatham (St Mary) Three members of the Mills family and 12 others, including a boatman, drowned in 1816 while attempting to pass through Rochester Bridge when their boat struck a piece of timber which had been placed, without warning, across an arch under repair. This incident became known as the Rochester Bridge Disaster. Stonemason’s tribute to a carpenter (Fig.5). This picture, taken in about 1903 in St Mary Magdalene, Cobham, churchyard, shows how a stonemason used his skills to commemorate Richard Gransden, a carpenter, who died in May 1760. He was christened on October 29 1688 at St John the Baptist, Meopham and married Anne Drew in 1717 at St. Mary the Virgin, Chalk, Kent. For more details of his family visit http://www.gransdenfamily.com/gransdenf/ pafg145.htm Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 9 Fig 2 Ted Connell marks the spot where the Morphett grave was situated Fig 3 Oliver Gauld-Galliers at the grave of William and Elizabeth Read Fig 4 The Comport family plot at Cooling, 1903 KAS Catharine Weed Barnes Ward collection Fig 5 Stonemason’s tribute to a carpenter, Richard Gransden’s grave Fig 1 Rev.Bryan Faussett. Courtesy of National Museums, Liverpool. THE MYSTERY OF THE SPECKLED PIT Investigations at Preston Within, Faversham by Dr Pat Reid ABOVE The Saxon cross fragment from St Catherines ABOVE Digging and sieving Keyhole 99 In the summer of 2013, members of FSARG (Faversham Society Archaeological Research Group) were carrying out investigations along a northsouth transect in Faversham, i.e. along Preston Street and the Mall as far as Watling Street (the A2). We were looking particularly for medieval activity, especially midden scatter contexts indicating early agriculture, and had some very interesting finds - a medieval bronze seal matrix, a Saxon knife, a large crushing wheel used in a courtyard and so on. Reports on this project can be found under the heading PSN13 on the FSARG website www.community-archaeology. org.uk. The biggest surprise, however, came from the most modest of the excavations, Keyhole 99. This was dug on the eastern side of the Mall in the pretty garden of a small terraced house built around 1850. The tithe map of 1840 shows this area as orchard. On the assumption that K99 would be a simple pit (maybe 40cm of 19th-early 20th century debris in a well worked garden soil overlying a possibly midden scatter level, itself overlying brickearth with some worked flint) the supervision of the pit was delegated to two secondyear members, to give them full experience in identifying contexts, managing the small team and keeping detailed records. In fact, at about 30cm down, a 15cm thick fine sand and shell layer was exposed. Under that was a thin ‘speckled’ layer of slaked lime (‘icing-sugar’ like in appearance) on a red brick dust coated surface. Under that surface was a large quantity of clean break pottery sherds (i.e. not midden scatter), date range AD1100-1530. The ever familiar (for Faversham) Tyler Hill pottery was dominant but there were a number of other higher quality types such as Kingston White Ware and Tudor Green. We also realised that the garden wall separating 10 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk ABOVE In the side of K99, the light coloured sand and shell layer is visible with the speckled ‘icing sugar’ and brick dust layer on the floor. Bottom The pottery from just under the speckled layer. The largest fragment is part of a peg tile. the house from its neighbour to the north, and built presumably in 1850, contained chunks of medieval dressed stone, as well as peg tile and early brick. This raised many questions. The sand, shell and lime layers were seen as part of a mortar making area. The dressed stone and pottery came, it seemed likely, from a nearby medieval building demolished and then rebuilt with brick. The fact there that there was no trace whatsoever of anything later than medieval under the mortar floor and plenty of later post medieval and 19th century above put these construction events in the early post medieval frame - a time when such rebuilds of medieval domestic properties were going on all over north Kent. Times they were a-changing and no-one wanted collective life around the hearth in halls any more - big brick chimneys, staircases, ceilings and private rooms were ‘the thing’ all over the county. So where had this been happening near K99? Addressing the mystery (and encountering others) Preston next Faversham is a very ancient parish, with its donation to the Archbishop of Canterbury documented in AD822: it stayed in diocesan hands for the next 1100 years. Unlike Faversham, the ‘kings little town’ (Coenwulf, King of Kent in a document of AD811), Preston was never a clustered settlement but rather a collection of manors - Macknades, Perry Court, Westwood, Selgrove, Ham (a detached portion, known as North Preston Without), with Copton the most important. Now, none of these manors is close to the site of K99. What was nearby, however, was Preston House, referred to by Hasted as a ‘Gentleman’s Seat’. Preston House was only about 200 metres away on Preston Grove. Hasted tells us that Preston House was originally a Tudor mansion, inhabited in the mid 1500s by the grandparents of Robert Boyle, the famous Royal Society physicist. Around 1790, it was demolished and replaced (again, a typical practice in this area at least) with a Georgian mansion. This was demolished in 1930, with no above ground survivals. The question then became - was Preston House actually preceded, unknown to Hasted, by a medieval property? There were, however, still surprises ahead. Careful map regression showed a curious rectangular enclosure only about 50m to the east of K99. This enclosure appears to be a built structure in the earlier maps but this disappears around 1900. Nevertheless, the rectangular boundary survives until now, where it forms the garden boundaries of a small 1960s end-of-terrace house. The earliest maps showed the enclosure as being part of a farm complex, referred to on the 1901 census as the ‘Old Farm’. Was this our original medieval property? A little further away were St Catherines Church and its magnificent vicarage. The mortar floor of K99 did not seem to fit in date with any of the Church refurbishments but it is possible that the Vicarage or early outbuildings of St Catherines were involved. St Catherines Church, a very ancient foundation, is attributed to Copton as a manorial chapel. The main difficulty with this assumption is that St Catherines is nearly 2km north of Copton, though only about 200 metres from K99. This church is yet another of Preston’s mysteries, but beyond our archaeological reach at the moment. Finally, a set of questions revolved around that red brick dust. Our dating placed this dust very early in the modern history of bricks in Kent - maybe 1550 - 1600? Maps again helped, showing a brickfield in 1840 and brick and tile works in 1865 just to Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 11 LEFT Preston House in 1900, facing east. From the Croseur glass slide collection held by the Faversham Society TOP The 1850 wall between the K99 garden and its neighbour RIGHT The ‘excavation’ by a previous householder showing the lower part of the enclosure wall from the east. the south of K99 on what is nowadays the Jewsons site. Further documentary research suggests that this is not one of the Kentish Stock producing works for which Faversham is well known, but a red brick producer dating back at least to the late 18th century. Was this brickworks, in fact, functioning earlier than this? The investigations 2014-5 NB full reports on these can be found on the FSARG website under PSN14 and PSN15. Preston House We were granted access to all of the gardens covering the site of the former Preston House. Resistivity surveys were carried out on all of them and seven excavation points identified. Keyholes 110 and 112a, b and c found substantial cellar remains and Keyhole 114 revealed remains of what we think was a sunken pineapple house. Keyhole 110 was the most useful for dating, showing a rear wall of the Georgian house’s cellar (whitewashed and with a hook) and west of that wall, backfill debris from the former Tudor house (early red brick and a Nuremburg jeton). Keyhole 123 found a chalk surfaced courtyard around 70cm down, contemporary with the Tudor house. Importantly, no evidence whatsoever for a preceding medieval property was found - on the contrary, in most pits the medieval agricultural surface eventually turned up, with its characteristic midden scatter of small abraded bits of pot, bone and flint. The ‘Old Farm’ Again, we were given excellent access to the area overlain by the earlier farm. The enclosure, spotted in the map sequence, turned out to be still walled, with good survival on the south, east and north sides. The above ground brick dates were late 18th century, contemporary with the Preston House rebuild and the building of Grove House, next door. Excavation at the north and south ends of the enclosure (Keyholes 117 a, b, and c) did not show any medieval base, although some dressed stone and early brick fragments were found at the south end. The most startling piece of evidence came, however, not from our digging but from a photograph (see below), taken by the owner of a later house adjacent to the enclosure on its east side. The previous owner had dug a large hole in the south west corner of his garden up against the outside of the wall and early brick and medieval stonework was seen in the lower layers. To the right of the photograph is the concrete platform on which the modern terrace is built - here the wall has been mostly destroyed. 12 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk RIGHT Keyhole 110 showing the rear wall of the Georgian cellar of Preston House ABOVE LEFT Preston Within in 2009: enormous changes since 1795. The red squares show the locations of Keyhole pits 2013-15. ABOVE RIGHT The 1795 Ordnance Survey first draft map of Preston Within, with Preston House, the farm complex and the brickfield labelled. The A2 runs across the base of the map, The Mall down the left side Maps reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO. © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. This structure is far from understood as yet, but we do think that it is the one associated with the features and finds in K99. Is it a tithe barn, associated with St Catherines? Clearly what is needed here is archive research which will take place over the coming year. The brick and tile works Although famous for Kentish Stock brick production 1850- 1920s, central Faversham itself is mainly red brick, some of which is very early. FSARG is at present building up a reference collection of local brick types (by fabric, size and features) to assist interpretation of the built landscape, but so far, no early local brick producer has been positively identified. The archaeology of the Preston brick and tile works itself is inaccessible, buried under a thick layer of concrete on the Jewsons site, but inference from the surrounding built environment strongly suggests a red brick manufacturer. This assumption had to be tested further, and in early summer 2015 permission was obtained to excavate in two gardens in Nelson Street. These backed onto the former brickfield, close to the works shown on the 1865 OS map. What we found was very interesting. In both pits at a depth of around 40cm, the garden soil deposits, with their content of clay pipe fragments, Victorian pottery, cinder and nails, abruptly stopped. Below that we found a complex of chambers separated by clay walls. The content of the chambers was a different backfill, with the few finds consisting solely of medieval midden scatter. The depth of these chambers was around 60cm - matching the depth of extraction of the ‘strong earth’ used for red bricks. In short, this looks like evidence for very early brick earth extraction, maybe dating to the mid 1500s and quite possibly the brick making site for the building of the original Tudor version of Preston House and the possible tithe barn. Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 13 ABOVE Keyhole 117b, showing the base of the southern edge of the enclosure wall, with dressed stone and early brick debris BELOW The brickfield features at the base of Keyhole 124. Final points So, as is the way with archaeology, we have perhaps answered some questions but in the process generated a whole lot more. Some we have not even tackled - for example, as far as St Catherines is concerned, we have carried out resistivity surveys of the graveyard and Vicarage grounds and other non-invasive tasks, but questions arise inevitably about this oldest of churches in the Faversham area. The start of this article shows a fragment of a 7th century Saxon cross found during the restoration of the church in the late 19th century. The closeness of St Catherines to the Kingsfield Anglo Saxon burials (6th-7th century) is highly intriguing. These questions, however, must NEW PUBLICATIONS await another day, as must any exploration of those ancient manors, rebuilt many times and still flourishing in 2015. Great thanks to the people of Preston who gave us access to their lovely gardens, took so much interest in our activities and findings and provided us with invaluable support material. Also special thanks for the use of the charming Schoolroom as a base - we feel positively spoiled. A final reminder once again - detailed reports with lots of illustrations are available on the FSARG website, under PSN13 and PSN14, with the 2015 ones arriving by Christmas 2015. Also on the website is an email address if you want to contact me, Pat Reid, about any of the points made in this article: I would especially welcome further discussion of the archaeology of early (16th-17th century) brick fields. 14 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk All issues of Archaeologia Cantiana published between 1858 and 2013 (Vols 1 – 133) can now be read online on our website and downloaded free of charge. Although members receive copies of ‘Arch. Cant.’ from the time they join the KAS, and can purchase some backnumbers, few are fortunate enough to own a complete set. Previously, in order to consult what is without doubt the most comprehensive collection of articles and research papers on the archaeology and history of Kent, they had to visit our library in Maidstone or buy the DVD of pdf files of the 1858 – 2005 issues, published in 2007 during our sesquicentennial. Now, with a few clicks of the mouse, access can be gained to 3,000 contributions written by authorities on the county’s prehistoric settlements; archaeological ‘digs’; castles, churches and palaces; genealogy; local history, and many other aspects of Kent’s past. The 133 volumes, each comprising several hundred pages, have been posted in indexed, searchable text on www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research. The project is part of our ongoing programme to make our resources and databases freely accessible on our website, which receives an average of 80,000 visits a week. Iron Age & Roman Pottery Specialists’ terminology Two long out of print publications have recently been added to the Society’s website. The first is ‘Grog-tempered ‘Belgic’ Pottery of South-eastern England’ by Isobel Thompson. This was originally published as BAR British Series 108 in 1982 and can be found on the website at http://www.kentarchaeology.org. uk/16/000.htm The second publication is ‘Upchurch and North Kent Pottery. A ceramic typology for northern Kent, first to third centuries A.D.’ by Jason Monaghan. This was Read and download ‘Arch. Cant.’ issues from 1858 originally published as BAR British Series 173 in 1987 and can be viewed at http://www. kentarchaeology.org.uk/15/000.htm Generally, lots of pottery is found during excavations of most Roman and Iron Age sites. Much of this pottery is grey ware, some shiny, some with criss-cross patterns, and would have formed the everyday cooking and tablewares of the period. In the 1980’s the above two books classified these grey wares into forms and fabrics, using a mixture of letters and numbers. Archaeological reports now contain frequent references to such forms of pottery as a Thompson A1 (a pedestal urn) or a Monaghan 5D (a decorated roll-rim ‘pie-dish’). From this, pottery specialists immediately understand what kind of pottery has been found. For the less experienced archaeologists, the classifications are completely incomprehensible without illustrations. Now, due to the generous granting of permission by the authors, members of the Society and the world wide web (www.) can look up, at the click of a mouse on the Society’s website, the meaning of such terminology. To access the Thompson and Monaghan publications, go to the home page of the website, click on Research on the right-hand side, and below the heading Archaeological Fieldwork are the links to the books. A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF THOSE ENGAGED IN THE BOOK TRADE IN KENT, 1750-1900 BY R. J. GOULDEN. This covers personnel engaged in the Kent book trade between 1750 and 1900: booksellers, stationers, printers, bookbinders, circulating library proprietors, apprentices, compositors, bookshop and library assistants, music sellers, music publishers, newspaper proprietors, editors, managers and reporters, and also travelling booksellers, commercial travellers dealing in stationery and books, colporteurs and hawkers of ballads and periodical parts. A most useful resource for historians, genealogists and family history researchers. In two paperback volumes (A-L and M-Z) with sources lists, index, 712 pages, published by R. J. Goulden, 156 Addiscombe Road, Croydon, Surrey CR0 7LA (email crgoulden@aol.com), £50 inc. p&p if within the UK. BRYAN FAUSSETT ANTIQUARY EXTRAORDINARY BY DAVID WRIGHT A biography of Bryan Faussett, F.S.A. (1720-1776), pioneering Kent genealogist, archaeologist and antiquary. At his death he had amassed the world’s greatest collection of Anglo-Saxon jewellery and antiquities, gathered from 777 Anglo-Saxon barrows scattered around east Kent. The material was famously rejected by the British Museum, saved for the nation by a Liverpudlian philanthropist, and now resides in the Liverpool World Museum. This episode led directly to the British Museum’s setting up departments devoted to British Antiquities. This volume is the first to focus on Faussett, presenting comprehensive genealogical sections on the Faussetts and Godfreys; a history of the family seat near Canterbury; and an introduction to antiquarianism and how the history of the world was imperfectly viewed in the 18th century. A detailed biography of Bryan Faussett’s life covers his education, career and scholarly circle, with detailed descriptions of the sites he excavated. Surviving archaeological notebooks offer insights into his working practice and, throughout his life, Faussett kept detailed account books of income and expenditure which throw great light on Georgian economic and social history, as well as daily life at the family seat of Heppington House at Nackington. Copies of the book can be sent by post from the UK; the price (from £26) includes p&p. See http://www.bryanfaussett.co.uk/about. html or email Dr Wright at davideastkent@ gmail.com KENT COMMUNICANTS LISTS 1565 GILLIAN RICKARD Part 2: Bicknor, Bobbing, Bredgar, Frinsted, Milstead, Milton next Sittingbourne, Newington near Sittingbourne, Queenborough, Stockbury, Tunstall, Wormshill. Numbers (no names) for Thurnham. Communicants lists are lists, by parish, of inhabitants who took Holy Communion. Generally, communicants were aged 14 years and over. There was no set method of recording and the returns for each parish were set out in a different way, with differing amounts of information. The Communicants Lists transcribed in this book were presumably drawn up for a Visitation in 1565. Of the 11 parishes covered, the parish registers of five start only after 1565 (Bicknor, 1572, Bobbing, 1738, Queenborough, 1719, Stockbury, 1653, and Wormshill, 1700). Bishops’/Archdeacons’ Transcripts commence in the 1560s but survival is patchy, so these Communicants Lists are important for establishing names of inhabitants in the mid-1560s. Introduction, full transcript and surname index by Gillian Rickard, 2015. vi, 47pp. Price: £4.50 or £5.80 including inland postage. Overseas rates including postage on request. Can also be sent electronically as a .pdf file at £4.50 – but please respect copyright. Email: GRKentGen@aol.com Parts 1 and 3 are already published and copies are still available. Part 4 (the last part) will be published in due course. Please see www.kentgen.com for further information, including a list of parishes covered. Publication was assisted by a grant from the Allen Grove Local History Fund of the KAS. NEW PUBLICATIONS Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 15 UP ON THE CLIFFS Recent excavations at East Wear Bay and South Foreland By Andrew Richardson In July and August 2015 Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) led excavations on two cliff top locations on the south Kent coast. This article presents the initial results of both projects. EAST WEAR BAY This summer saw the first season of the East Wear Bay Archaeological Field School, which took place at Folkestone on the cliff top overlooking the Bay. This newly launched venture is intended to become an annual fixture for some seasons to come and aims to do two things. Firstly, the school provides high quality archaeological field training delivered by CAT. Students this year included people from a range of backgrounds, from local sixth-formers considering studying archaeology at university, to undergraduates and recent graduates looking to increase their field experience (and employability), to those simply looking to begin or develop an interest in practical archaeology. In addition to student fees, funding was provided by a number of partners, including the KAS, which provided a much-needed initial grant that allowed the project to go on to secure further match-funding. Places for a number of local young people (aged 16-24) were funded by a grant from the Roger De Haan Charitable Trust, with a Landscape Heritage Grant from the Up on the Downs Landscape Partnership Scheme (itself funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund) providing further support. Volunteers from Folkestone Research and Archaeology Group (FRAG), Dover Archaeological Group (DAG) and the KAS also gave much needed help with both finds processing and on-site support and supervision. A number of anthropology students from Texas State University also provided very able assistance and next year it is hoped the project will play host to a number of fee-paying students from Austin. The field school this year also played host to students from the University of Kent and Lille 3. The second major aim of the field school, and of the wider East Wear Bay Archaeological Project (EWBAP) of which it forms a part, is to carry out the excavation and recording of the deposits along the cliff top that are at immediate threat of loss to erosion. The site has seen a number of episodes of investigation since the first digs carried out there in 1919 by staff from Folkestone Museum, most notably S.E. Winbolt’s eight week 16 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Registered Charity No. 223382 RIGHT A range of students took part, including sixth formers, undergraduates and postgraduates. Photo CAT excavation in the summer of 1924 which laid bare the floor plan of two successive major Roman villas. More recently, the site saw excavation in 1989 by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit and in 2010-11 by CAT as part of A Town Unearthed. This long history of digs sometimes leads to the question “why are you digging it up again?” The truth is, the prehistoric and Roman archaeology overlooking East Wear Bay is extensive, deep and well preserved, yet only a small percentage has been archaeologically investigated. The villa buildings themselves, important though they are, represent only a small part of a much bigger (and older) site, far more of which has already been lost to the sea than has been excavated and recorded. Yet every dig that has taken place has revealed more about a site with a long and complex history, and which can increasingly be seen to have played a seminal role in contacts between Britain and the near Continent, most especially during the Late Iron Age. We now know that, during the 1st centuries BC and AD, East Wear Bay was the home of a great industry, producing rotary querns and mortars (and perhaps other items) fashioned from the locally available Greensand. These querns have been found across Kent and on numerous sites north of the Thames as far afield as Hunsbury hill fort near Northampton. Curiously, they seem to be completely absent from sites in France, perhaps indicating that the vessels carrying them (most if not Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 17 LEFT Aerial view of East Wear. Photo John Stevens RIGHT Quern production workshop, perhaps the first of its kind to be excavated in Britain. Photo John Stevens ABOVE Unusual stone-lined chamber cut into the floor of the round house. Photo CAT all would have left the site by sea) were bound for the Wantsum Channel, the Thames, and the coastal inlets of Essex and Suffolk, rather than for Gaul. There is also evidence suggestive of salt production, whilst pottery appears to have been made at or near the site. At the same time, and increasingly from about 15BC onwards, imported goods including Spanish and Italian amphorae (for the transport of fish oil and wine respectively) and a wide range of Gallic fine-ware pottery, plus large numbers of imported Gallic coins, reached East Wear Bay, indicating strong and regular cross-channel trade links (despite the lack of querns going back across the Channel; what did the holds of those ships carry instead?). Production of querns and import of goods continued into the early Roman period, although the site appears to have undergone something of a downturn following the Claudian conquest in AD43 and the subsequent establishment of Dover as a major port of entry in Roman-controlled Britain. Around the last decade of the 1st century AD, a large (and in terms of Roman Britain, very early) villa was constructed at the heart of the site, marking a profound change of use from coastal industrial and trading settlement, to high status Romanstyle residence. The question of who instigated this change remains open, but the use of Tufa (quarried by the Romans in the Dour valley and used at about the same time in the construction of the Classis Britannica naval fort in Dover), along with flint nodules and some Ironstone in the construction, along with finds of tiles produced by the Classis Britannica, suggests action by the Roman state and/or military, or someone closely linked to it. The readily-available Greensand was not used in the walls of this villa (unlike its successor, constructed sometime after AD170, which was built almost exclusively from Greensand). This strange choice 18 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk BELOW Many querns remain in situ, awaiting excavation next season. Photo CAT ABOVE Drainage gully and postholes of a large round house to the immediate east of the quern workshop. Photo John Stevens of construction materials, on a site with a long established tradition of quarrying and working the Greensand, alongside the apparent downturn in activity at the site in the decades preceding the building of the villa, also lends weight to the view that the first villa was not simply the result of wealthy local inhabitants ‘upgrading’ to a high-class Roman way of life. So what did the 2015 season add to this already fascinating picture? This year’s trench, covering some 368 square metres, was placed to expand on a much smaller trench dug in 2010 to the north of the villa complex. This had revealed a sequence of intercutting Late Iron Age and Roman ditches, in which was interleaved a series of stony deposits indicative of possible quern production. The 2015 dig confirmed that here was an actual quern production area, comprising a large spread of Greensand debitage, one or more laid stone surfaces, and large quantities of querns in various stages of production, ranging from a large slab of unworked Greensand (the raw material quarried from the cliffs to the south) through to nearly finished half or complete querns, many with partially drilled holes. The discovery of this workshop area, dating to the 1st century AD, and perhaps the first of its kind to be excavated in Britain, represents a find of considerable significance. Moreover, despite being covered in places by only a shallow depth of topsoil, the production surfaces survive in remarkable condition, and give the impression of being much as they were when the stoneworkers downed tools for the last time (one wonders what the reason for that downing of tools was). At the end of the dig the writer removed 50 whole or partial querns from the site (necessitating several van journeys) and many more remain in the ground awaiting the completion of the excavation of this trench next season (July-August 2016). In addition, the excavation revealed the presence of a large round house, represented by a semi-circular drainage gully and some post-holes, located immediately to the east (downslope on the seaward side) of the quernmaking area. That this was a residence of people connected to the Greensand industry was underlined by the highly unusual stone-lined chamber cut into the floor of the house and an area of apparent floor comprised Greensand paving on a Chalk rubble base. The small chamber resembles a cist, a stone lined burial chamber, but although it contained some burnt clay in its lower fill along with fragments of burnt bone, it contained no burial. In addition, two of its sides (a third had been removed by a later ditch) appear to have collapsed inwards, suggesting it remained open for a considerable period before partially collapsing under the weight of the surrounding soil. At this stage its function remains uncertain, although completion of its excavation next year and analysis of the palaeo-environmental remains recovered from its internal fills (which were 100% sampled) will hopefully shed more light on this question. Clearly however, it remains a very unusual feature within a British roundhouse, and underlines the easy access this community had to abundant supplies of hard stone. The excavation of this round house (the second to be identified on the site) and quern making area will be completed during the 2016 season. Subsequent seasons will see new trenches opened along the cliff edge, with the eventual aim of achieving a buffer zone of cleared archaeology that will keep well ahead of the ongoing erosion for many years to come. There is no question that considerable unexplored archaeological structures, deposits and finds currently remain in the threatened zone, with much of the area along the cliff edge at immediate to medium-term risk of loss. The East Wear Bay Archaeological Field School, and the wider project of which it forms a part, offers our best hope of doing something about this. The alternative is to continue to impotently watch the gradual loss of this unique cliff-top location, one of Kent’s most important Iron Age and Roman sites, without any recording, leaving only scraps to be collected in later years from the beach. The Field School, although led by CAT, relies on the support of a wide range of partners, and seeks to draw in fee-paying students from far and wide, including international students such as those from Texas State. This year’s students had a great experience, were a pleasure to work with and train, and rapidly become effective at both excavation and recording; it is hoped they go on to develop Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 19 ABOVE Buckle and Roman coins found in the fill and vicinity of the Roman structure. Photo Andrew Savage BELOW View from the lighthouse tower showing the excavation of the Marconi base and the Roman structure. Photo CAT their interest in archaeology further. We hope to see some of them again next year. But it is unlikely student fees alone will be sufficient to resource the rescue and eventual publication of this rich and complex site, hence the continued need for additional sources of funding. The Kent Archaeological Society was and is one of the project’s key backers (and was the first to put grant funding into it). It is hoped that in future years that support will continue, both from the Society as a whole and in the form of muchwelcomed in-kind support from individual members. SOUTH FORELAND At the same time as the dig at East Wear Bay was being carried out, during late July and early August, CAT led an enthusiastic team of volunteers in excavating a series of fourteen small trenches within the grounds of the South Foreland Lighthouse. This iconic lighthouse was formerly run by Trinity House but since 1988 has been in the ownership of the National Trust and has become a popular visitor attraction and destination for walkers along the famous White Cliffs of Dover. The dig was timed to coincide with the Up on the Downs Big Summer Festival and was undertaken as part of the preparation of a Conservation Management Plan on the lighthouse and its immediate environs, a earlier or completely unknown features. In the event, most trenches yielded features of interest, and a large quantity and range of finds were recovered. Evidence of ancillary structures, including a culvert, relating to a previous lighthouse were uncovered, and a large number of finds relating directly to the current lighthouse were found, including a series of spent graphite rods from 19th and early 20th century carbon arc lamps (front cover image), plus a number of lighthouse-keeper’s buttons. A significant project that is jointly funded by the National Trust and Up on the Downs. Volunteers who took part were drawn primarily from the National Trust’s large and dedicated cohort of lighthouse volunteers, plus local archaeological and detecting volunteers. In addition, Zac Porter, an archaeology undergraduate from Exeter, worked very vigorously throughout the project. The overarching aim of the excavations (effectively a series of small evaluation trenches) was to assess the extent and nature of any archaeology surviving within the curtilage of the lighthouse grounds, whether that related directly to the lighthouse, previous lighthouses, known historical activities at the site, or 20 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk RIGHT Lighthousekeeper’s buttons. Photo Andrew Savage RIGHT Marconi radio base cutting through an earlier structure, possibly a Roman look-out point. Photo CAT RIGHT View of the trench at the base of the tower, showing the tower foundations cutting through an earlier brick-built structure find was part of the concrete base for Marconi’s direction-finding radio emitter, set up on the slope in front of the lighthouse in the early 1920’s as part of a ground-breaking experiment. This was one of a series of cutting edge experiments by globally famous scientific pioneers such as Marconi and Faraday that took place at South Foreland during the 19th and early 20th centuries. But the story of the site goes back much further. The Marconi radio base cut through an earlier structure. This somewhat ephemeral feature had a flat base cut as a shallow terrace into the natural Chalk, with a curved end (the other end had been cut away by the Marconi aerial) and internal post and stake holes. The fill yielded quantities of late Roman pottery, animal bone and mussel shells, along with a copper alloy buckle and a Roman coin of Maximianus. Three other Roman coins were found in the immediate vicinity; one of Allectus, another of Galerius (the fourth was illegible). According to David Holman, all could have been minted between AD293-7, and certainly not much later. Given the superb view from the site of not only the Straits of Dover and the French coast, but around to the Goodwin Sands and the approaches to the east Kent coast and Wantsum Channel, it is tempting to wonder whether this enigmatic little structure is related to the conflict between the usurper Allectus (and perhaps his predecessor Carausius) and the wider Roman Empire? Certainly, this might have been a period when it was felt wise to have eyes on the cliffs watching over the Straits. It is planned to complete the Conservation Management Plan for South Foreland by early spring 2016. Hopefully a future Newsletter article will summarise the findings from this in-depth study into one of Kent’s most stunning, and iconic, places. For more information on East Wear Bay, South Foreland, or many other projects, visit the CAT website at www. canterburytrust.co.uk or ‘Like’ us on facebook. You can find out more about the Up on the Downs Landscape Partnership Scheme at www.uponthedowns.org.uk Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 21 The current KAS newsletter editor is now moving on, having produced the publication for the last 15 years. During that time the newsletter has evolved into a full-colour, twice-yearly publication, appearing in March and November. Publications In March, the main purpose of the 16-page issue is to provide a full calendar of all KAS-run events for the coming year (April – March), plus events run by other organisations. It also includes a few short news articles. The 48-page November issue, such as this, has longer articles covering work that has been undertaken during the year and previously. Collaboration The editor works with a designer, providing them with all text and images, together with a page layout. Style guidelines exist. The editor should have A good working knowledge of archaeological terminology, time periods and features – for example, a missed or extra digit on a feature description can make it nonsensical Good connections with those working in both professional and community archaeology, to know where to ask for stories A good eye for visuals – what works well on the page A good working knowledge of IT Persistence and patience - to encourage contributions and to chase promised copy by agreed deadlines. Please send a CV and examples of previous work to the Hon.Gen.Secretary secretary@kentarchaeology.org.uk MEMBERSHIP MATTERS YOU & YOUR SOCIETY I am very pleased to welcome the following people who have joined the KAS since the previous newsletter. Many apologies if I have omitted anybody! Affiliated Society Malling U3A Landscape History Group Individual Members Mrs B Graham, Sittingbourne Mr M Burnsnell, Sittingbourne Mr Dean Appleton, Ashford Prof Chris Bounds, Canterbury Mrs Heather Bracey, Maidstone Mr David Britchfield, Rochester Mrs Susan Butler, Deal Mr Edmund Cole, Tonbridge Mr Robert Cronin, Tonbridge Mr Derek Ewart, Gillingham Mr & Mrs Ben Found, Maidstone Mr & Mrs Robin Goldsmith, Ashford Miss Rachel Hickson, Crowborough Dr Adrian Maiden, Orpington Dr Alex Mullen, Oxford Miss Heather Norris, London Drs Pauline & Judy Paciorek, Ashford Mr & Mrs Roger Parker, Tenterden Mrs Pat Smith, Deal Mrs Veronica Smith, Faversham Mr Graham Storey, West Malling Mrs Isobel Swan, Walmer Mr Anthony Tanner, Canterbury Mr Kenton Tanner, Folkestone Mrs Linda Taylor, Gillingham Mr Tony Trice, Sandwich Mr Dan Tuson, Lyminge Mr Jack Wales, Canterbury Mrs Jennifer Watt, Sittingbourne Miss Helen Webb, Chatham Mr & Mrs Bryan Moore, Tonbridge Mr Harry Triggs, Ashford Mrs Cressida Williams, Canterbury Mr & Mrs B More, Tonbridge Mr Martin Castle, Maidstone Mr & Mrs J Piddock, Lyminge Mrs & Mrs S Hawes, Wadhurst Thank you to all of you who have responded with changes to postal and email addresses and have given the KAS permission to use email as a way of contact. I must emphasise that this information is disclosed to no one inside or outside the Society other than those officers and members of Council who need it in order to run the organisation. If I am asked for any details I always send such requests to the relevant member and do not disclose them to the enquirer. I hope that you like the new plastic membership cards which should prove much more durable than the old version. Your membership number is printed on the card – please quote this in all contact with KAS as it makes managing the membership database much easier and quicker. I have issued a card to each of the Affiliated Societies so that their members can also use the resources of the KAS Library within Maidstone Museum. The card needs to be shown at the reception desk together with proof of membership of the Affiliated Society. It is advisable to contact the KAS Library before visiting as it is not always open. An email to the librarian is the easiest method librarian@ kentarchaeology.org.uk Remember to send me any amendments to your details and also any change of circumstance which might mean that membership will be ceased. The end of the year is approaching fast and I shall be sending out renewal notices soon to those of you who pay by cheque. If you wish to pay by bankers order instead please send me a stamped addressed envelope (or email me) so that I can send you a form. Bankers order is a very easy method and cuts down on the postage for all of us. Membership matters are an important part of the Communications Committee. We also discuss other matters such as the website, newsletter, press releases etc. Keep a lookout for the splendid press releases issued by Paul Tritton. These are a very important way of keeping the KAS in the public eye. We have recently made arrangements to send these to the Affiliated Societies so that their members are also kept informed. Items for discussion in committee are always welcome – just get in touch with me as I chair this committee. Shiela Broomfield; Membership Secretary membership@ kentarchaeology.co.uk 22 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk THE NEWSLETTER NEEDS A NEW EDITOR Bob, 62, was born in Bradford but moved to Kent in 1987. “I think it’s one of the most fascinating counties in Britain”, he says. “It has a truly extensive history and has been a backwater, a front line, a cultural bridge and an industrial pioneer. There’s nowhere else like it in Britain. I’ve always been interested in history and archaeology. I’m a keen railway enthusiast and am particularly interested in railway buildings - a neglected area of the subject. I have photographs of many thousands of them and architectural drawings of several hundred”. Bob and his French wife, Muriel, live in Ashford. His elder son, David, recently obtained his Doctorate in Archaeology at Newcastle University and is now working as a field archaeologist; their younger son Joseph is preparing for his GCSE examinations in Science, Maths, Art and Music. Bob has a PhD in analytical chemistry from Imperial College and runs a market research company, as does Muriel, and specializes in the analysis and interpretation of quantitative surveys and product tests as diagnostic tools. He has worked in market research since he was 24, initially with Unilever in Port Sunlight and subsequently with their subsidiary in Ashford, Proprietary Perfumes (now part of Quest International) and a company in the Netherlands. He then returned to the UK to set up his own consultancy. “I’ve researched how people live in a quite a number of countries around the world,” he said. “This has sometimes involved living in households to see what actually they do and experiencing their daily lives – ‘a fly on the wall approach’ being a better description”. Dr Robert Cockcroft has been appointed Hon. General Secretary of the Kent Archaeological Society. ABOVE L to R: Chris Broomfield, Shiela Broomfield and Bob Cockcroft promoting the KAS at the Lyminge Open Day. Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 23 Meet our new Hon General Secretary A lot has been happening since I last wrote although much activity has been of an administrative nature. One large but unglamorous task has been to move our off-site store to another room in the Maidstone Community Support Centre in Marsham Street. It was completed successfully, but please bear with me if I take a while to locate material from the store for you. There is still some post-move organisation to complete. Many activities are thriving in the Library although health issues have affected some of our key volunteers over the last six months and John Walters, who has kept the Library tidy and organised for many years, will be missed on the team as he retires. The IT manager and Visual Records group are making good progress on cleaning the Visual Records database and making it more searchable. Research continues into ways of improving the online access to the Visual Records Collection. Scanning of images is continuing and images of Witham Mathew Bywater (1826-1911) are now available on the KAS Website along with a summary of the accompanying research. We are grateful to Mr Garry Coyler for the donation of his father’s, Arthur James Coyler, collection of Archaeological Recordings of Churches in Kent and Sussex. Arthur James Coyler was a member of the Society for many years. In light of the closure of Whatman’s in Maidstone we are particularly delighted with the donation of Papermaking and the Art of Watercolor in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Paul Sandby, and The Whatman Paper Mill by Theresa Fairbanks, Wilcox, Scott and others, published in 2006. We have also added David Wright’s book, Bryan Faussett: Antiquary Extraordinary, Archaeopress, 2015 to our holdings (see Page 15, New Publications). Thank you to those of you who completed a questionnaire on the Library earlier in the year. It was very surprising to see how many of you were unaware that we have an online catalogue. It has been there for many years and you can now find it more easily by clicking on the right hand button on the KAS home page, ‘Library and Collections’. It is a very basic and by now old-fashioned catalogue, so a future aim is to improve it. Most of you liked a mix of traditional resources and online content. You said that what stopped you using the Library more often was travel distance and uncertainty regarding opening hours. If you have not been to the Library before you might like to visit us on a Wednesday or a Thursday morning between 10.30 am and 12.00 noon. The Library is open at other times, but is used for Adult Education classes and committee bookings so please always check the online diary before you travel to avoid disappointment. You can find this on the KAS home page, at the top under the logo. Most of you were comfortable, and even keen on, using the internet, but some of you do not like the idea of the online diary. It is, however, the most effective way to communicate rapidly changing information with everyone. Please remember to show your membership card and sign in at the Museum’s front desk. You can always contact me via email on Librarian@kentarchaeology. org.uk and I will do my best to help you. I will soon be handing the care of the Library over to a successor, who will be keen to develop the Library further. I will be very sad to step down from the role of Hon. Librarian as I have enjoyed looking after the collection and communicating with you all. I hope to see you in the Library soon, Pernille Richards, Hon.Librarian KAS THIRSK PRIZE £250 The Kent Archaeological Society (KAS) announces a new biennial prize named in honour of Dr Joan Thirsk, who was a distinguished historian and a long-standing member of the Society. The Thirsk Prize of £250 will be awarded for a dissertation or a long essay, submitted as part of a successful Master’s degree, which is adjudged to be a major contribution to the history or archaeology of the county of Kent (including the historic parts of the county now within Greater London). Dissertations and long essays can come from any academic institution. The prize aims to reward students working on the history and archaeology of the county, and also to help promote publication of articles and chapters that advance scholarly knowledge of Kent’s past. The KAS be willing to give advice on publication. The editor of Archaeologia Cantiana will also consider for publication articles based on the various submissions. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES The KAS will consider for the first Thirsk Prize dissertations and long essays completed for a Master’s degree within the calendar years 2015-2016. The final date of submission for the prize is 31 December 2016. Dissertations and long essays must be submitted in printed hard copy and also in electronic form on a disk. The hard copy must be suitably bound or within rigid covers and the disk in Word format. The submission must include an abstract and be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the thesis supervisor together, where appropriate, with the names and the institutions of the examiners of the thesis. Copies of dissertations and long essays will not be returned but placed in the KAS library. All candidates for the Prize will be notified of the judges’ decision within three calendar months, or such time as is agreed. Submissions for the Thirsk Prize 2016 must be submitted no later than 31 December 2016 to Professor David Killingray, 72 Bradbourne Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3QA, tel: 01732 453008, email: thirskprize@kentarchaeology.org.uk to whom enquiries may be directed. 24 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk News from the Library KAS ALLEN GROVE HISTORY FUND Awards to date of over £35,000 Applicants have until 31 March 2016 to apply for the next tranche of grants to be awarded by the KAS from its Allen Grove Local History Fund. Amounts of up to £1,000 are offered annually to individuals, groups, organizations and students to help cover the cost of research, publications, exhibitions and other projects focused on the county’s history and heritage. Allen Grove (pictured above) was one of Kent’s most eminent historians of his generation. He was Curator of Maidstone Museum from 1948 to 1975, Hon. Curator of the KAS for 26 years (and its President in 1987/88) and Chairman of the Kent History Federation for eight years. When he died in 1990 he left £26,000 from the proceeds of the sale of his house to the KAS, with instructions that the society should invest the legacy and distribute the interest in ways that would promote the enjoyment of Kent’s local history. The first grants were made in 1994 and the total amount awarded since then now exceeds £35,000, mainly to support the publication of books and booklets but also for displays in heritage centres, for oral history projects, and for establishing archives and research centres. Application forms can be downloaded from www. kentarchaeology.org.uk or obtained by email from allengroveadmin@ kentarchaeology.org.uk or by post from the KAS c/o 8 Woodview Crescent, Hildenborough, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 9HD (please enclose a s.a.e.). The latest recipients, announced in May, shared £5,095 and were: Boughton Malherbe History Society £500 to cover the cost of printing a second book on the history of the parish, following the publication of ‘Boughton Malherbe, A Journey Through Time’ in 2010. A free copy of each book is given to every household in the parish and profits from sales are donated to local good causes. Brenchley and Matfield Local History Society £180 towards buying a scanner to make digital copies of the society’s archives, collected during the past 45 years, and to store original documents in acid-free sleeves and boxes. Folkestone and District Family History Society £340 for display folders for family histories of the men named on Shepway’s war memorials. A folder will be donated to the parish in which each memorial is located, and to Folkestone Library and the Town Hall. Harrietsham History Society £300 for a digital voice recorder. The society is following-up its recent book ‘Harrietsham in Old Photographs and Postcards’ with an oral history project. Said Peter Brown, the society’s chairman: ‘We are talking to some of the very elderly residents of our village to obtain details of their lives in Harrietsham whilst they are still able to recount this’. Horsmonden Historical Society £500 towards publishing a book containing interviews with 35 villagers. Kent Gardens’ Trust £500 towards printing and editing costs a book on five Kent gardens associated with Lancelot Brown (‘Capability Brown’), the renowned 18th century landscape artist. Lucas Reynolds of Sutton-at-Hone, Dartford £125 towards researching and writing a social history of Sutton Place, Sutton-at-Hone. Maidstone Museum £1,000 for further work on researching, cataloguing, conserving and displaying the ‘Boughton Malherbe hoard’, 346 Bronze Age artefacts, including swords, knives, scabbards and spears. Christopher Pickvance of Wickhambreaux £500 for dating an unrecognized group of incised Gothic chests and two other medieval chests. Plaxtol Local History Group £500 towards the purchase of photographs from the Royal Commission for Historical Monuments and English Heritage, and printing costs, for a revised edition of a book on medieval timber-framed houses in the Manor of Wrotham. Shoreham and District Historical Society £200 towards research for a book on Shoreham residents in WW1. Smarden Local History Society £450 towards publishing transcriptions of oral recordings of local residents’ memories in a 28-page colour illustrated book. Said Hon. Secretary, Yvonne Bonham Miller: “Recording memories going back to the 1920s and 1930s began in the 1970s. These tapes have now been transcribed, edited and digitized by volunteers in our heritage centre. BELOW Just a few items from the Boughton Malherbe hoard, currently under study at Maidstone Museum Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 25 DECEMBER 2015 CANTERBURY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY WEDNESDAY 9 DECEMBER 19.00 Newton Lecture Ng03, Canterbury Christ Church University Agincourt 1415: the legacy of a Lancastrian triumph David Grummitt, Canterbury Christ Church University Visitors welcome, cost £3.00. JANUARY 2016 CBA SOUTH EAST POTTERY WORKSHOP PROGRAMME This winter sees the first of the CBA-SE’s new annual training day series, focussing on ceramic identification and interpretation. Run by local experts of various periods, the sessions will include a general introduction to ceramic analysis, followed by four period-based workshops (Prehistoric, Roman, Medieval, Post-Medieval), which will vary in location across the south east. Cost £15 for CBA-SE members (£20 for non). Follow updates of the programme line-up on the website (http://www.cbasouth-east.org/ events/cbase-workshops-and-training-days/), or contact the Events Officer, Anne Sassin (events@cbasouth-east.org tel. 01252 492184), for queries and sign-up. Introductory session (1) by Phil Jones SATURDAY 16 JANUARY 10:00 - 16:00 St Peter and Paul Church, Tonbridge Introductory session (2) by Phil Jones SATURDAY 30 JANUARY 10:00 - 16:00 Northchapel Village Hall, Petworth CANTERBURY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY WEDNESDAY 13 JANUARY 19.00 Newton Lecture Ng03, Canterbury Christ Church University The William Urry Memorial Lecture From thesis to book: the genesis of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Toby Huitson, University of Kent & Canterbury Cathedral Archives Visitors welcome, cost £3.00. CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST ONE-DAY COURSE SATURDAY 16 JANUARY 10.00 – 16.00 First Steps in Archaeology (2). Tutor, Andrew Richardson Visit www.canterburytrust.co.uk or contact andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk for full details or to book a place. Fee for all courses is £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). FEBRUARY 2016 CBA SOUTH EAST POTTERY WORKSHOP PROGRAMME See details under January listings above. Prehistory session by Phil Jones SATURDAY 6 FEBRUARY 10:00-16:00 Northchapel Village Hall, Petworth CANTERBURY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Newton Lecture Ng03, Canterbury Christ Church University, WEDNESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 19.00 Vessels of the dead: funerary archaeology in Canterbury and District, 2012-15 Andrew Richardson, Canterbury Archaeological Trust Visitors welcome, cost £3.00. CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST ONE-DAY COURSES SATURDAY 6 FEBRUARY 10.00 – 16.00 The Archaeology of Death. Tutors, Sarah Geary and Jake Weekes SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY 10.00 – 16.00 Understanding and Recording Stratigraphy. Tutor, Peter Clark www.canterburytrust.co.uk or contact andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk for full details or to book a place. Fee for all courses is £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). CANTERBURY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY 18.00. The Frank Jenkins Memorial Lecture: the Annual Review of the work of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust Paul Bennett, Director Venue: Old Sessions House, Canterbury Christ Church University MARCH 2016 CBA SOUTH EAST POTTERY WORKSHOP PROGRAMME See details under January listings above. Roman session by Louise Rayner SATURDAY 12 MARCH 10:00-16:00 Leatherhead Institute, Leatherhead CANTERBURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST ONE-DAY COURSES SATURDAY 5 MARCH 10.00 – 16.00 Putting Colour in the Past: An Introduction to Environmental Archaeology. Tutors, Enid Allison and Alex Vokes SATURDAY 12 March 10.00 – 16.00 Archaeological Report Writing. Tutor, Jake Weekes SATURDAY 19 MARCH 10.00 – 16.00 First Steps in Archaeology (3). Tutor, Andrew Richardson Visit www.canterburytrust.co.uk or contact andrew.richardson@canterburytrust.co.uk for full details or to book a place. Fee for all courses is £40 (£35 for Friends of CAT). CANTERBURY HISTORICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Newton Lecture Ng03, Canterbury Christ Church University WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH 19.00 Crowning glories: examining the coronations of English Medieval kings in Westminster Abbey Jayne Wackett, Royal Cornish Museum Visitors welcome, cost £3.00. APRIL 2016 CBA SOUTH EAST POTTERY WORKSHOP PROGRAMME See details under January listings above. Medieval session by Jacqui Pearce SATURDAY 23 APRIL 10:00-16:00 Leatherhead Institute, Leatherhead MEDIEVAL HISTORY WEEKEND AT CANTERBURY: ‘EXPLORING THE MIDDLE AGES’ CANTERBURY CHRISTCHURCH UNIVERSITY FRIDAY 1 – SUNDAY 3 April Friday evening and all day Saturday at Old Sessions House, Canterbury Christ Church University; Sunday morning till late afternoon at EVENTS The March 2016 newsletter will list all KAS and affiliated groups events for the period April 2016 – March 2017. Details for inclusion should be sent to the editor by the end of January 2016. 26 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk It is proposed that a Kent Traditional Boat Association be set up, to bring together a group of like-minded people with an interest in the traditional boats of Kent. This would have a number of aims which would include research into the histories of Kentish boat-types, creating a register of surviving boats, arranging events for Kent’s traditional boats, setting up bases where historic boats can be kept safely and worked on, owning and using traditional Kent boats and replicating those that have no surviving examples or where the only survivors are now static exhibits in museums. One of the bases could potentially be in the Medway/ Gravesend area and the other somewhere near Deal or Dover. With its long and diverse coastline and extensive rivers, including a large part of the tidal Thames, a wide range of boattypes was developed to service the varying needs of the fishing, passenger-carrying and other maritime industries in the county of Kent. These vary from small work-boats to sailing barges and include such types as Gravesend watermen’s skiffs, Deal Galleys, Deal luggers, bawleys and Whitstable oyster smacks. Whereas examples of many of these types survive, others are now extinct. Some sole surviving examples in museums will never be used again. While some lost boattypes are reasonably well-documented, there is little surviving information on others. To learn more, please visit the proposed Association’s website at www.kenttraditionalboat.org.uk The spring still flows as it has done for the last 700 years, through two kilometres of maintained open ditches to Sandwich, where now it ends up in the Stour. In earlier times, we presume it was culverted through the Woodnesborough Gate into the town. In 1483, the Sandwich Jurats authorized expenditure on four thousand bricks to build a cistern to use the water to supplement the town supply from the Delf, so presumably the town retained some responsibility for maintaining the system until it went out of use in 1899. John Simpson, of Affinity Water, tested the water from the spring and deduced that it was a greensand water spring rather than from chalk. The water was harder, slightly more acidic and with higher levels of iron and lead, although within the standards applicable to water up to 2000. However, there was a high bacteria level which would be a reflection of the land use where the rain water enters the acquifer which becomes this spring. That could reflect a change in land use over time, but if historically so, “…the friars either had a good immune system or became sick quite frequently.” One further point about the structure itself: it incorporates bricks put in place post-1306 but probably not so much later. The first recorded brick making in Kent is 1467 so these were foreign imports, most likely from the Low Countries, and are therefore one of the earliest extant uses of brick so far recorded in Kent. Yours sincerely Peter Hobbs Dear editor Re The Convent Well at Woodnesborough – Newsletter, Winter 2014 Canterbury Cathedral Lodge. Sponsored by the KAS, the Friends of Canterbury Archaeological Trust and The William and Edith Oldham Charitable Trust. Organized by the Centre for Research in Kent History and Archaeology (based at Canterbury Christ Church University) and Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library. Twenty eminent scholars and historians will host a series of lectures on the most eventful era in Britain’s history, and lead guided walks to explore places associated with the city’s colourful medieval past. Said Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh of Canterbury Christ Church University, who will take visitors on an exploration of St John’s Hospital, founded c.1080 by Archbishop Lanfranc: “In the Middle Ages, Canterbury was internationally important as the site of St Thomas Becket’s’ shrine and was on the main highway between London and mainland Europe, traversed by kings, knights and merchants. Consequently it is an ideal setting in which to make recent research readily accessible to a wide audience, which will be given access to new interpretations, ideas and knowledge covering medieval topics from manuscripts studies to war and politics.” Speakers will include David Starkey (on Henry VII), Richard Gameson (on ‘The Gospels of St Augustine’), Louise Wilkinson (on England’s ‘five forgotten princesses’, the daughters of King Edward 1 and Eleanor of Castille), Nicholas Vincent (on ‘Relics: Blood, Bones and Becket’s Head’) and Michael Jones, who will discuss his recent research on the Black Prince, whose tomb is one of Canterbury Cathedral’s most iconic monuments. There will be tours of Canterbury Cathedral Library (led by Karen Brayshaw), St Mildred’s Church (Paul Bennett), St John’s Hospital (Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh), the Westgate (Richard Eales) and the Poor Priests’ Hospital (Paul Bennett). The weekend will conclude with a wide-ranging analysis on ‘Medieval Horizons’ by Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England. KAS and FCAT members are offered tickets at the special price of £8 per event. For full details go to http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/medieval- canterbury or call 01227 782994 (office hours) or visit the Canterbury Christ Church University, Arts & Culture Box Office, on the ground floor of Augustine House (next to Canterbury Police Station). MAY 2016 CBA SOUTH EAST POTTERY WORKSHOP PROGRAMME See details under January listings above. Post-Medieval session by Luke Barber SATURDAY 7 MAY 10:00-16:00 St Peter and Paul Parish Church, Tonbridge PROPOSAL TO SET UP A ‘KENT TRADITIONAL BOAT ASSOCIATION’ Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 27 by Edward Sargent ABOVE Rose Hill under investigation In 2014, the Historical Research Group of Sittingbourne (HRGS) was asked by the Mid Kent Downs Countryside Partnership (MKDCP) Lottery-funded ‘Hidden History’ project to research the history of the woodlands at Rose Hill, Bobbing near Sittingbourne, Kent. HRGS knew there was a demolished house at Rose Hill and it had been on the group’s radar since 2006 to undertake an archaeological excavation of the site, so this seemed a great opportunity to also involve the community in the research. John Clancy, local historian, had also been researching the building and its occupants. The partnership involvement quickly grew to eventually include the MKDCP ‘Hidden History’ project, the HRGS Field Unit, Kent County Council (KCC) Heritage Team, Swale Borough Council – Open Spaces, and John Clancy. Pupils from Grove Park Primary School were invited to join in the project and spent 5 days working with the community archaeologists from KCC, Andrew Mayfield and Richard Taylor. The 9-day dig, directed by Richard Emmett from the HRGS Field Unit, involved an incredible 830 visitors and workers (including those from the school). Local people visiting the site not only took part in the excavation but also provided the dig team with special ‘living memory’ insight into the house, its occupants, and the way that the local community viewed the property (see ‘Memories’ below). An immediate connection with the past was provided through a visitor bringing along a photograph of Doris Vanderpeer, who was in service in the house in the 1920’s. The Mayor of Swale, Anita Walker, together with County, Borough and Bobbing Parish Councillors and other guests, visited the dig, were briefed on the research and given a guided tour. They also visited Grove Park and were shown pupils’ finds and project work, put together as a result of their week’s involvement. The school had the unique opportunity to work closely with archaeologists for an extended period (see ‘Schools and Young People’). Memories of Rose Hill This site was unusual in that archaeological investigation was supplemented with oral history testimony, as visiting members of the public volunteered their memories. Here are just a few that the HRGS team collected, giving a feel for what the site was like prior to its demise. From John Vujakovic “There were three floors in total. At the rear of the property was a single-floor kitchen extension with a sloping roof. Outside was a flight of steps leading down into a cellar of about five rooms beneath the main house.” Such was its eeriness that it took the courage of ten of John’s friends to venture into this cellar space. From Heather Elliott “I used to deliver newspapers to the house when I was around 15 years old. It is hard for me to recollect where I used to drop the papers off, as everyone knew the house as ‘the witches house’, and it was a scary place to be. I would cycle up the hill to the house, and leave as quickly as I could.” From Olive Palmer “The house was called Rose Mount; that was what we called it when I was a little girl. It was quite imposing, especially to a small child. I was born in Brier Villas, Wises Lane, next to the Long Hop pub (or British Queen as it was then) in the 1930s. I am now 84. At that time there was an Admiral Doyne and his wife in the house. My father and mother were friends with their gardener, who lived in the chauffer’s/gardener’s ROSE HILL ‘Hidden History’ Community Dig MEMORIES 28 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 13 - 21 June 2015 ABOVE North Downs YACs exposing the walled garden Schools and Young People In the spring of 2015, Kent County Council (KCC) received funding from the Heritage Lottery funded Woodland Wildlife Hidden Histories (WWHH) project to undertake community archaeology work at the site known as Rose Hill House, Sittingbourne (TQ 88572 64419) in conjunction with Grove Park Primary School, Sittingbourne, the North Downs Young Archaeologists Club, the Historic Research Group Sittingbourne and the Shorne Woods Archaeology Group. Ahead of the excavation week in June, Andrew Mayfield, a community archaeologist from KCC, ran two sessions at Grove Park School for Years 3 and 5. The Year 3 session focussed on Prehistory using finds handling kits developed from previous HLF projects; whilst the Year 5 session gave an introduction to the interpretation of historical maps and researching a potential archaeological site, culminating in a brief walkover of the proposed Rose Hill House area. As part of the WWHH project, an initial two archaeological evaluation days were run with the fantastic North Downs Young Archaeologists Club (YACs). The first day examined garden features and identified the walled garden at the house site along with various outbuildings. The second day involved exploratory excavation work on the substantial outbuilding to the rear of the house, believed to be a stable. By the end of the second day, the YACs were able to ascertain that part of the brick floor remained intact. A small assemblage of finds, including pottery and various metal items, indicated a broad chronology for the site (c1800 to late 20th century). Grove Park School dig week From the 15th to the 18th of June 2015, children attending Grove Park Primary assisted KCC community archaeologists, YOUNG PEOPLE cottage with his wife and son, John. John and I were friends and played in the Grove together. Their surname was Culmer. They later left to live in Rainham when John was 7 or 8 years-old. I didn’t see him again. John Culmer is now buried in Borden churchyard. When the Doynes moved/died a Mr and Mrs Stocker lived in the house. The gardener’s cottage was empty so my Auntie Elsie lived in the cottage until she died. I think it had only one bedroom, a kitchen and a living room.” From Peter Harris Peter remembers Mr and Mrs Stocker as he rented a garage at Rose Hill around 1935/37, when he owned an Austin 7 and a BSA three-wheeler. He recalls an old lady who lived in the side cottage – she spent time in the walled garden and rode a bicycle. He saw extensive gardens and clambered up onto the high wall, walking along the top. Peter used to fly model aircraft in the meadow behind the house. He recalls that Mr Stocker was a big chap who bred chickens (Rhode Island Reds). Sometimes they would wander out into the Grove and Peter would bring them back, for which he received a penny. In WWII he saw soldiers billeted in tents on the front lawn. He remembers their field guns and watching them training before deployment. He spoke about the set of heavy iron gates and his sister Pamela being knocked flying whilst standing on the lower rung when it was hit by a military vehicle. Later an officer came round to their home with bars and bars of chocolate - as compensation. Once he went into the house with Mrs Stocker…and the hallway was “rather dark and dingy”. Peter also remembered that the place was set on fire twice. From Matt Brown “All of this was very much derelict in the seventies and the main building was regularly rocked side to side, by its timber frame, by kids from inside the building.” Rose Hill by Richard Emmett Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 29 TOP YACs initial excavation of the stable building BOTTOM Stable building excavated by Grove Park pupils Andrew Mayfield and Richard Taylor, in further excavating the putative stable building north of the house, first evaluated by the YACs. Each day, separate year classes of approximately thirty children (one group in the morning and one in the afternoon) made the short walk from their school grounds to the excavation site. Each class carefully cleared the surrounding vegetation and topsoil to gradually reveal a surviving brick floor and the exterior brick walls of the stable building. Year 5 were the first class on Monday, followed by Year 6 on Tuesday, Year 3 on Wednesday and Year 4 on Thursday. This project differed from previous community archaeological projects run by KCC as the archaeologists were embedded in the school for the whole week, from dawn to dusk each day. A total of 240 children had the opportunity to excavate on the site and process their finds, and another 60 from Year 2 visited on the Friday. By the end of the week, Richard and Andrew could almost remember everyone’s name! Excavation The project process soon took shape - in the morning, one class would excavate at the house site whilst the other remained at school to wash and process the previous days’ finds. After a well-earned lunch break, these roles were reversed. With each day, more of a well-preserved brick herringbone floor was revealed. By the end of the week, the children’s hard work had established a number of phases to the building; from carefully laid brick floor, to concrete skimmed yard area at the end of its life as a garage or storage area. Finds were numerous bricks, metalwork (including a sash window weight), pottery, bone, shell, tiles (including the mathematical ones that clad the main building) and even burnt wood (from the demolition of the buildings?) and worked flint. Exhibition On Friday 19th June, selected children from each year group were tasked to set out an exhibition of the excavation process, the finds and their interpretation. Following a busy morning of creating posters and setting out displays in the main school hall, the children succeeded in organising and presenting a spectacular exhibition of the Rose Hill excavation which was later attended by parents, council officials, representatives from the WWHH project and the Mayor of Swale. A Different Approach Having involved local schools in the Randall Manor (Shorne) project for 10 years, it was interesting to try a different approach to working with a school on a new project. Embedding ourselves in the school for a week forged stronger relationships with the staff, caretaker (!) and pupils. We were able to facilitate the finds processing on site with the school as we went along, so the pupils were engaged in every 30 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk TOP & MIDDLE Selection of finds from Stable area. LEFT & RIGHT Grove Park School archaeology exhibition. stage from research and walkover surveys, to excavation and post-ex. We also ran a post-dig session with Years 3-6 to explain the results of the dig and show them some of the key finds. The success of this model will influence future projects that we develop. With thanks to the Mid Kent Downs Countryside Partnership, Grove Park School, the North Downs YACs, the Historic Research Group Sittingbourne and the Shorne Woods Archaeology Group. Schools and Young People by Andrew Mayfield & Richard Taylor Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ archaeologyinkent @ArchaeologyKent on Twitter Continued on page 32 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 31 LEFT Frances Montresor by John Singleton Copley, England, 1778. US Department of State. Owners and Occupiers Rose Hill was a house which stood alone at the south end of Bobbing parish. Its hill looked down upon the Watling Street and the fields and orchards of Borden further south. The Gores The house was built on the lands of Bobbing manor about 1770 by the Irish aristocrat cousins Arthur and Booth Gore, as a shooting seat. It was known as Gore Hill in their time. One might wonder why they came out as far as Bobbing to shoot, for the land around the house had long ago been farmed. The attraction must have been the wild ducks and geese of the Medway estuary two miles away. In the 1770s the historian Edward Hasted wrote of the Gores’ shooting seat that “they both pretty constantly reside in it”. Arthur and Booth would have gone down to the mud-flats at dawn and dusk to shoot when the birds were aloft, but during the day the sportsmen would retire to the house to eat and sleep and avoid the mosquitoes. Arthur Gore had acquired further land around the house by 1798. Soon after, it was described as “a neat dwelling house consisting of two parlours, a hall and kitchen on the ground floor, six bed chambers on the first floor and two in the atticks - good cellars, a pleasance and kitchen garden, a fishpond, good stabling and every other office and convenience for a small genteel family.” Note the eight bedrooms. The Gores must often have had guests down to shoot. The Gore tenancy ended in 1800. The Montrésors A new tenant was found for Gore Hill in 1801. She was the recently widowed Mrs Frances Montrésor. Her husband John had been a OCCUPIERS British military engineer in America when the War of Independence broke out and he had an adventurous career until his retirement in 1778, when they bought Belmont Place at Throwley. Montrésor was to have years of dispute with the Audit Office over his expenses during his active service and he was eventually committed to Maidstone prison, where he died in 1799. The Montrésor family lived on at Belmont until John’s bankruptcy, when the estate was taken by the Exchequer and sold. By September 1801, Montrésor’s widow Frances was living at Gore Hill, 8 miles away, probably with her two sons and two daughters. Recent excavations have shown that the walls of Gore Hill were clad with pale yellow mathematical tiles, which gave the appearance of yellow brick, much like those at Belmont Place. We hope that excavation will show whether this was how the Gore cousins had built it, or whether Frances Montrésor had added the tile cladding when she moved there. Frances began using the alternative name of Rose Hill for the house in 1822 and after her time Rose Hill was the only name used. She died in 1826. William C Fairman had the tenancy from 1827 to 1832 and William Augustus Munn, from 1835. 32 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk TOP Mezzotint of Rose Hill by Greenwood, 1838 BOTTOM Coloured image of the house based on the mezzotint The Simpsons Back in 1796 the manor of Bobbing and its lands, including Rose Hill, had been bought by Valentine Simpson, an innkeeper of Sittingbourne. He and his descendants were to own Rose Hill for 130 years. Valentine was living at Bobbing Court at his death in 1832. His son George became vicar of Bobbing in 1818 and he duly inherited Bobbing Court and Rose Hill, but the Simpsons did not occupy Bobbing Court again. By 1839, the Revd George had resigned the living of Bobbing in favour of his son the 26 year old Revd. George Stringer Simpson though both remained in Sittingbourne. William Munn was then occupier of Rose Hill and was still there in 1841. The only detailed illustration of Rose Hill appears in a mezzotint by Greenwood of 1838, later copied and coloured in. It shows a remarkable resemblance, on a small scale, to the mansion at Belmont, both having the yellow mathematical tile walls, the shallow bay windows and the hilltop situation. Possibly this was how the house had looked in 1770 when Arthur Gore built it, but Frances Montrésor might have employed a local builder in 1801 to make the shooting seat resemble her old home. By 1847 Rose Hill was the property and residence of the Revd. George Simpson. He was one of two principal landowners in Bobbing and lord of the manor. Bobbing was a vicarage in his patronage and his son the Revd. George Stringer Simpson was vicar. The elder George Simpson died in April 1854. George S Simpson was still the vicar of Bobbing in the 1861 census and his address was now Rose Hill House. In the 1871 census George was termed vicar and land owner. The Revd. George S Simpson resigned the living of Bobbing in 1872 and he died in 1888. The house passed to a relative, the Revd William H Simpson, of Frant, Sussex, possibly a nephew. In 1898 Rose Hill House and lands of 4¼ acres were transferred from the Revd William Simpson to Sybilla Lucy Hilton of East Farleigh, a widow, who proved to be a younger sister of George Stringer Simpson. Tenants at Rose Hill The 1891 census found tenants at Rose Hill, Walter Stagg and his family. The Staggs were still there in 1908, but by the 1911 census they had moved to Tunbridge Wells and one Guy de Mattos and family were at Rose Hill. Admiral Doyne Admiral Herbert Doyne, a naval surgeon, had retired in 1919 and probably purchased the freehold from the Simpsons that year. He was certainly there in 1926 and in 1929 he sold some land for a sports ground. He died in 1936. The Stockers Mr and Mrs Stocker from Key Street purchased Rose Hill about 1938 though he died soon after the move, leaving his widow to live there alone for another 29 years. She moved to an old people’s home in 1969. After her death her niece inherited Rose Hill and sold it to a developer but his plans to build houses did not happen. In the 1970s local people recall a fierce lady caretaker living at Rose Hill, who died about 1975. The end of the house Now the house was coming to its last days. Much of the yellow tiling, which in its earlier life had made it strong and waterproof, had gone. Local children found they could rock the bare timber frame from side to side and only good fortune kept it from falling upon them. Then a child found a shotgun cartridge in the house and sadly injured himself. In 1976 local residents asked Swale Council to demolish it. After some discussion, Rose Hill House was finally demolished that year. Owners and Occupiers by Roger Cocket Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 33 ABOVE Heavy machine work begins on site Situated on the eastern side of Dover, below Castle Hill, the new development area will provide a major opportunity to archaeologically examine a substantial part of the old town. This region has always been a suburb, located beyond the main settlement, but it is significantly placed just inland of the seashore, between the historic town centre and the great medieval castle. During Roman times the whole area was under water, located in the estuary of the River Dour. As the estuary gradually silted-up, habitation became possible. This seems to have begun during the Norman period, when St James’s church was erected at the foot of Castle Hill. By the nineteenth century the entire region was densely packed with streets and houses, together with the grand Burlington Hotel, built in 1864. However, this eastern side of Dover was extensively damaged by shelling and bombing during the Second World War and, as part of the post-War redevelopment of the 1950s and 1960s, virtually all the remaining historic streets and buildings were swept away to be replaced by a new town layout little influenced by its predecessors. Severely damaged by enemy action, St James’s church was preserved as a ruin, but it is now very difficult to closely identify much else of the pre-War town layout on the ground, with at least half a dozen old roads and many houses and shops having disappeared without trace. The new development is to take place in several phases and Canterbury Archaeological Trust was commissioned to undertake investigations ahead of the first phase, off Woolcomber Street, in May 2015. A new hotel is to be built here and large-scale excavations began in July; they were concluded in October. The excavations fall in an area that the Trust already knows well, having undertaken previous work immediately adjacent during the construction of the Townwall Street dual carriageway (A20) and WOOLCOMBER After many years of STREET planning, work finally began on the St James’s redevelopment in Dover during the spring of 2015. 34 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk BELOW Work gets underway in the central area a new BP petrol filling station during the 1990s. Hotel excavations At Woolcomber Street, three separate areas (North-West Area, Central Area and South-East Area) were selected for detailed examination, being largely undisturbed by the deep Victorian cellars and other modern disturbances that had affected several parts of the site. After a period of heavy machine work, the extent of the surviving archaeology became apparent, with clear evidence of pre-War streets and buildings being revealed. Overall, the remains exposed were complex and related to many different phases of activity. Two to three metres of stratified archaeological deposits occurred in all areas. A full-time team of more than twenty CAT excavators, supplemented by KAS and other volunteers, continue to be busily engaged on the site, revealing significant finds on a daily basis. No town wall Local antiquarian tradition asserts that the excavations should fall across the line of the otherwise lost medieval town wall of Dover but no evidence for this major structure has been discovered and, most probably, the wall lay further toward the sea in an area subsequently affected by coastal erosion. This was also our conclusion on the adjacent 1996 BP filling station site and it appears that plans published during the nineteenth century are not correct, with the wall’s course on the seaward side shown too far inland. Early Streets Amongst the initial discoveries made during the present excavations was the line of Arthur’s Place – one of Dover’s old lanes that formerly ran between the still surviving St James’s Street and now lost Clarence Street. Below its twentieth century tarmac, a succession of earlier metallings was investigated, suggesting that this lane had first been laid out several centuries before. It is clearly shown on a town map of 1737 and the archaeology suggests that this street first came into being during medieval times when it was constructed as a substantial raised causeway made from compacted chalk rubble and beach shingle. Work on the 1996 BP filling station site had previously established that Clarence Street Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 35 ABOVE Examining Post-medieval levels RIGHT Investigating a 19th century cellar in the north-west area was first laid out sometime around the thirteenth century and the evidence thus now combines to suggest that the recorded Victorian street plan of the region largely preserves the original layout of the medieval one. Quaker burial ground Documents record that a former garden plot situated at the junction of Clarence Street with Woolcomber Street had once been the site of a small Quaker burial ground, established during the seventeenth century. Part of this cemetery was located and excavated in 2015. Although much of the area had been previously destroyed by recent activity, more than twenty individual graves were carefully exposed and lifted. The latest are probably of nineteenth-century date. The graves had been cut into a sequence of earlier deposits, every bit as complicated as those on other parts of the site and included foundations relating to a substantial medieval building, which seems to have gone out of use sometime before the cemetery was established. Loads of old rubbish The excavations have produced vast quantities of domestic rubbish of medieval and early post-medieval date. Many thousands of sherds of pottery, most dated between 1150 and 1450, have been recovered, together with three silver coins and a range of kitchen waste including much animal bone, fish bone and marine shell (particularly limpet). In contrast to many urban sites, most of the medieval waste material was not being dumped into pits but generally spread around the site in levelling 36 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk ABOVE 17th century bread oven in the south-east area BELOW Metalling of a medieval courtyard in the central area deposits, often mixed with chalk, beach shingle and demolition rubble. Frequently contained within the deposits of demolition rubble are fragments of roofing slate, traded along the south coast from Devon and Cornwall as early as the thirteenth century. It would seem that raising the general level of the ground surface across the site was important to the early inhabitants of this region, probably because of the proximity of the sea and the potential threat of marine inundation. Later, during the post-medieval period, more formal arrangements for rubbish disposal came into being and a number of stone-lined cess tanks were constructed in the area. These have produced some large collections of interesting pottery, much of it imported, together with clay tobacco pipes and other household rubbish. Twelfth and thirteenth century fishermens’ houses In the South-East Area, adjacent to Townwall Street, a complex succession of chalk-floored buildings with slight traces of associated walls are being investigated in detail. These structures were mainly built of timber and are identical to others previously excavated on the adjacent filling station site in 1996, when they were interpreted as the remains of houses belonging to simple fisher-folk. Occupying the beach ridge beyond the boundaries of the main town during the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, these dwellings are producing many Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 37 RIGHT Imported German Werra Ware plate dated 1614 ABOVE 17th century cockerel dish from a cess tank finds, notably pottery and fish bones, scattered across their floors. Small finds have included fish hooks, spindle whorls and a range of bone pins, whilst a bone dice and a possible bone flute provide a few clues as to how leisure time might have been spent. As the main excavations draw to a close, demolition work in other parts of the development area are progressing well and new sites for archaeological investigation are becoming available. The prospects for further interesting discoveries within historic Dover presently look good. More later.… by Keith Parfitt 38 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk LEFT Martin Brooks, Chairman of Smarden Local History Society and Bob Cockcroft, Hon.Gen. Secretary of the KAS, signing the agreement ABOVE The iCam archival scanning equipment. The KAS Records Branch was established in 1912. By the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, with a change in the law, many solicitors were throwing away Manorial documents, Estate Papers, Wills, Inventories, conveyances and such like. A county-wide effort was made to save these by the KAS. They were stored for many years in Canterbury, before thousands of individual documents were deposited on loan in the Kent Archives Office after WWII, where many have been microfilmed over the years, enabling people to carry out research. But now we face a similar problem. Over the years many Kent museums and local societies have been collecting documents and adding them to their archives. Members of the Smarden Local History Society have identified many such depositories where documents lie uncatalogued and not transcribed, and therefore unavailable for historical research. So the situation is comparable to the 1930’s, in that thousands of documents are often stored in unsuitable conditions, but collectively represent a vast store of information about the history of the people of Kent. We have seen in our own KAS Library how a relatively small number of people, with modern methods of scanning and recording, can over time make the contents accessible to the membership and the wider world. The Kent Archaeological Society has now formed a partnership with the Smarden Local History Society to create a Kent Heritage Resource Centre. Museums, local societies, schools and members of the KAS can bring their documents for digitisation to the Centre and release to the world the treasure trove of information they contain. Under the partnership, the two organisations will work together to provide practical help and guidance on archive management, preservation and digitisation at the new Centre, at The Charter Hall in Smarden. The new facility will feature a state-ofthe- art archival camera, capable of producing high-output, high-definition images of, for example, documents, bound volumes, artefacts, photographs, slides, and maps up to A2 size, linked to specially developed indexing and cataloguing software. The purchase of equipment has been greatly assisted by a donation of £5,000 by the sons of our late Vice-President Joy Saynor, in her memory. The Centre will provide options for users to carry out digitisation projects, with assistance where necessary. The Centre will also offer a data storage service for organisations seeking to back-up archives off-site. All Centre facilities will be available at nominal cost to users at The Smarden Charter Hall two days a week and at other times by prior arrangement. More information about how you can arrange to take your precious documents along for scanning will appear on our website and in future newsletters. Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 39 SAVING KENT’S HISTORY ABOVE Staplehurst BELOW Ruined tower at Minster Abbey RIGHT Hothfield Westwell and Hothfield By Paul Lee Westwell is an attractive village, apparently deep in the countryside, although in fact not far from Ashford. The most striking features of this spacious 13th century parish church are the lofty vaulted chancel and unusual stone chancel screen. Also impressive (and beautiful) is the colourful Jesse Tree window occupying the central lancet in the sanctuary, the upper half of which dates back to the 13th century (the lower half was restored in 1960 in imitation of the upper half ). Hothfield is the former estate church of the earls of Thanet (the big house next door was pulled down in the 1950s), and it now serves a post-war housing estate nearby. This attractive church dates back to the 13th century but was largely rebuilt in 1603 following a lightning strike and resultant fire. The chancel is dominated by the high alabaster tomb chest of Sir John Tufton, dating from 1624. The church was restored in 1876. Marden and Staplehurst By Paul Lee St Michael’s Church in the Low Weald village of Marden was built in stages from the 13th to 15th century. The short stone west tower is topped by a distinctive weatherboarded bellchamber which houses a ring of eight bells. Inside, KAS CHURCHES COMMITTEE The KAS Churches Committee’s programme of visits to historic Kent places of worship has continued in 2015 with well attended outings to Westwell and Hothfield on 18 April, to Marden and Staplehurst on 20 June and to Minster Abbey and Church on 27 September. the stone font of 1662 replaced an earlier one apparently removed by a zealous minister during the Commonwealth period and is topped by a large wood cover with doors. Twentieth century embellishments include the lectern of 1963 and, most notably, the east window depicting Christ in Majesty, which was created by Patrick Reyntiens in 1962. Staplehurst Church is a long and lofty, mostly 13th and 14th century, building positioned high on the limestone ridge overlooking the Weald. The south door is famous for the elaborate ironwork dated to circa 1050 which shows Viking influence. The north wall of the nave and chancel show traces of early 12th century herringbone patterning and there is also a round opening which once provided a window for an anchorite’s cell. We are grateful to our speakers: Mike Jamieson (Westwell); Chris Rogers (Hothfield); Robin Judd (Marden); and Anita Thompson (Staplehurst). We are also grateful to the volunteers who provided delicious refreshments at Hothfield and Staplehurst. Minster Abbey and Church By Toby Huitson On a sunny day in the early Autumn the final visit of our year took place to two separate but related churches in Minster in Thanet. Formerly an island, this was an important early monastic centre. The nunnery here was founded in 670 and re-established in 1027 following Viking incursions as a dependency of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury. The group was shown around the substantial Romanesque remnants incorporated into later buildings including a ruined tower with an ashlared stairway and a recentlyrestored vaulted undercroft. The relics of St Mildred (officially venerated from 1388) had a particularly colourful history: originally held at the abbey, they were taken to Canterbury in the Middle Ages and appeared on the Continent in the reign of Elizabeth I, before partially returning in the nineteenth century. The nuns’ church was 40 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk It has been another archaeology-packed year for the Shorne Woods Archaeology Group (SWAG) and the North Downs Young Archaeologists Club (YAC). Woodland Wildlife Hidden Histories Project At Perry Wood we helped the Trust for Thanet Archaeology and students from the University of Kent investigate a multi-period archaeological site, alongside both Kent YAC branches. Beginning as a prehistoric enclosure, the site had been re-used as an Admiralty signalling station and as the location of a post medieval windmill. Keycol This spring we found the well preserved remains of a Roman bread oven and an associated pebbled surface, buried by a possible lynchet feature. LiDAR works Back at Shorne Woods Country Park, the home base of SWAG, we have continued to investigate the fantastic archaeology of the Park. This has included a series of boundary banks and lynchets as well as identifying a new lithic site that may date back to the late Palaeolithic period. Randall Manor 2015 It felt only right that we should celebrate the tenth year of excavations at Randall Manor. On the SW corner of the aisled hall we have excavated a possible second garderobe structure, with its own drain feeding into our main drainage ditch. We have also identified a sequence of occupation focused around the ornate chimney added to the back of the aisled hall. KCC Community Archaeology Round Up by Andrew Mayfield www.facebook.com/archaeologyinkent and @ArchaeologyKent on Twitter In the SE corner of the site we quickly established the line of the north wall of the building first uncovered in 2014. Working with 3 schools this year we demonstrated that the building was quite narrow and long, with a mixed flint, chalk and reused dressed stone foundation acting as a plinth for a timber structure. In the centre of the north wall we have recorded an exterior pebbled surface. At the SE corner of this building, we uncovered a far more substantial building foundation. This seemed to suggest a full height stone end to our timber building, complete with passage way and partition wall. At present we propose that the timber and stone building housed the tenants who looked after Randall Manor during its dotage. The building has a hearth built against the south wall, unlike any feature identified in the main building complex. After 10 years, ably assisted by local schools and YACS, the Manor continues to reveal its secrets....and provides us with more questions. Acknowledgements A huge thank you to SWAG and to my colleague Richard Taylor for all their help this year! Finally, 2015 has seen a huge change to the leadership of the North Downs YACs with Lyn Palmer and Malcolm & Kate Kersey stepping down from their roles as Leaders. We would like to thank them all for their hard work and dedication. Lyn founded and headed up the North Downs YACs for many years and will be dearly missed as our leader and guiding light. built following a fire in 1987, a pleasing and light boat-like interior with a yew-tree altar. The modernday nuns arrived from Eichstaett in Bavaria in 1937. Today their successors welcome visitors, and harvest preparations were under way. At the parish church we were treated to several activities including the chance to try some handbell ringing (probably a first for the group), as well as exploring the tower with its uneven spiral stair, and chiming some bells, with an ingenious video link from the belfry. The church has an unusual vaulted chancel and transepts, and contains the font from Holy Cross, Canterbury. Its treasures include a muniment chest and a complete series of misericords of c. 1400 which were a source of much interest to the group. Later we heard about the recent excavation of a nearby Roman villa which was probably the source of the recycled Roman tile in the building. Tea was taken in the Old Schools building which, as well as welcome refreshments, featured a charming display of marbles and small artefacts lost in the floorboards by children of years past. Like St Mildred’s relics, if they had not once been lost, they probably wouldn’t have been found. Our thanks to Sister Benedict for showing us round the abbey, to Tony Goodman, Peter Hals and Sue Woodhead for showing us round the church and making available the tower and handbells, and finally to Jose Gibbs for organising the visit. The Churches Committee is seeking new members, especially from West Kent. If you think you might be interested, please contact Mary Berg (01227 450426 maryberg@hotmail.co.uk) to have a chat. On 16 April 2016, we will visit two churches in Deal. See you then! Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 41 ABOVE Chapel Wood today RIGHT Plan of Chapel Wood in 1967 by John Caiger and extended by Roger Cockett in 1984 SCOTGROVE A Medieval Manor on the Border of Ash cum Ridley and Hartley Known for nearly 300 years as Chapel Wood Excavated between1972 and 1984 The site has never been ploughed and thus has been preserved under coppiced woodland for over three hundred years. The medieval banks and ditches can still be seen within their woodland setting. Prior to the 1974 local government boundary changes, the site of Scotgrove was in the Parish of Ash cum Ridley but is now in the Parish of Hartley. The remaining members of the archaeological group, Roger Cockett, Pam and Ted Connell and Gill and Gerald Cramp are working to make the results of the Group’s excavations since 1964 more readily available. Earlier Interest in the Site The importance of Scotgrove has been well known for many years. John Thorpe in his book, Custumale Roffense, published in 1788, tells us that his father visited the site of the chantry chapel at Scotgrove in 1728 with the rector of Ash. They saw the remains of the chapel standing to a height of four to five feet at the west end, with a gap in the south wall which could have been a door. They noted that the whole site was enclosed by a bank and ditch and that this wooded enclosure had been called Chapel Wood since before Thorpe’s visit. Few locals at that time, however, knew the name Scotgrove. In the middle of the 19th century, the remaining flint walls were demolished, some used to fill a well within the enclosure and others incorporated in an outhouse of the Black Lion Inn on the other side of Ash Road. Interest in the site was revived in 1926, when remains were discovered by A J Dennis in the back garden of his property which fronted Ash Road. At the time, these were identified as a Roman hypocaust by the rector of Hartley, the Rev Gerard Winstanley Bancks. In 1940, R F Jessup suggested that the remains could be part of a medieval tile kiln, a view which was confirmed by excavations carried out by B J Philp in 1963. Photographs from 1926 (see page 44) showed that the kiln comprised two series of arches constructed of roof tiles. In 1963 the ground plan of the kiln was exposed, but unfortunately the arches had disintegrated. The peg roof tiles from the kiln are similar to those found during the 1972 to 1984 excavations, including the more unusual nib roof tiles which are discussed below. 42 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Between 1972 and 1984, members of the Fawkham and Ash Archaeological Group carried out excavations on the site of the medieval manor of Scotgrove. At that time the site was scheduled for destruction by the construction of a major road near New Ash Green. This road was never built. Initially, the excavations were directed by Roger Walsh and then by Ted Connell and finally by Roger Cockett. Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 43 ABOVE Survey of 1984 - the bank and ditch on the north side of the enclosure RIGHT The stoke hole of the tile kiln as found in 1926 In 1967, a major survey of the earthworks was undertaken under the supervision of J E L Caiger which was published in Archaeologia Cantiana volume 87. The external boundary ditch and bank encloses a roughly rectangular area, approximately 100m wide. The enclosure was sub-divided by banks into three parts. The excavations took place along the northern edge of the central area. Unfortunately, Caiger was unable to survey the eastern part because it was occupied by houses and gardens. These gardens were surveyed in 1984 by Roger Cockett and showed that some of the eastern boundary bank of the earthworks could be traced in the front gardens along the Ash Road. Its length of 250m was now determined. The tile kiln discovered in 1926 lay about 20m outside the enclosure to the south. Documentary Sources (courtesy of Roger Cockett) The first major analysis of the documentary sources was carried out by W F Proudfoot and published in Archaeologia Cantiana volume 94. He noted that Thomas Robinson published a book in 1741 entitled ‘The Common Law of Kent, or the Custom of Gavelkind’. In the 1897 edition, details are given of a leading case in the reign of Edward II, Gatwyk v Gatwyk. The case lasted from about 1313 to at least 1316. The issue was whether all or part of the manor of Scotgrove was held under Gavelkind, the ancient form of the descent of land. The outcome of the case was that the manor remained a military tenure but the details preserved in the action provide much information on the families involved. After further research, Roger Cockett has written the following history. The manor of Scotgrove appears in a charter roll in 1233. It was held by William de Fawkham from Mabel de Torpel, the widow of Roger de Torpel. The charter created a military tenure out of Mabel’s gavelkind land which avoided the custom of dividing up lands between all the sons in a family. William started the settlement which became Scotgrove manor and built the first manor house about 1225. The nearby manor of Fawkham belonged to his older brother Waleran, so it made sense to start up a new manor for himself and his family nearby in Ash. In fact, Waleran de Fawkham died in 1246 and William became owner of Fawkham. After only 20 years use Scotgrove manor was surplus to the family’s needs, but then in 1250, William de Fawkham died. William’s son, another William, inherited both Fawkham and Scotgrove manors. 44 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk RIGHT Plan of excavated buildings inside the northern enclosure ditch RIGHT The southwest corner of the chapel (Building E) in the foreground and the undercroft (Building B). These were excavated in 1972. The undercroft was attached to Building B, not yet excavated and under the trees William de Fawkham the son had an amazing military career. From his first expedition with Henry III to Gascony in 1253 until the king’s death in 1272, William was always with the king. He was Constable of Rochester Castle in 1263 and later he became one of the marshals of the king’s household. William was married about 1270 to the Lady Lora de Ros of Horton and he sold Scotgrove manor about then to a Sussex man, Richard de Gatewyke. William died about 1290 and neither Fawkham nor Scotgrove had probably seen much of him over the years. The Gatewyke family were the major occupiers of Scotgrove manor and were there for over 60 years. Richard de Gatewyk rebuilt the manor house about 1270. Richard and his wife Katherine had three sons, John, Richard and William. By 1306 John de Gatewyke had inherited Scotgrove, but in 1313 John died, leaving his wife Joan and three young daughters. The girls’ uncles, Richard and William, seized the opportunity to claim one third share each of their father’s estate. The legal dispute recounted by Thomas Robinson followed and was heard before the justices in Kent, and later the King’s Bench in London. Edward II intervened on the side of the 3 daughters. The judges hesitated to decide and the case was adjourned several times and in the end was dropped. Thus Joan de Gatewyke and her daughters were left in possession of Scotgrove. It seems that John de Gatewyke had built a chantry chapel in the manor where prayers could be said for the soul of his father but that he died before appointing a chaplain and then the years of the court case delayed matters. In 1321 the Bishop of Rochester appointed a chaplain and further chaplains are mentioned in 1328, 1333 and 1342. Joan de Gatewyke paid tax for Scotgrove in 1334. She then married one William de Wavre of Canterbury and he paid the tax in 1347. No more chaplains were appointed to Scotgrove and if Joan followed her husband to Canterbury the site may have been abandoned, even before the Black Death arrived in 1348. Neither the archaeological evidence nor the documentary sources suggest that Scotgrove was inhabited after the Black Death had swept this part of Kent in 1348. By 1359, the Colepeper family had become tenants of this site and then by 1381 had acquired ownership. With some gaps, ownership can be traced trough the Fane (or Vane), Walter, Umfrey and Lance families. The 1792 the Fulljames Survey of Ash, which comprised an extensive schedule and large map, showed that the Lance family owned 75 acres, 12 of which were Chapel Wood. The Fulljames Survey formed the basis of the Tithe survey in 1839. The 1972 to 1984 Excavations The excavations were centred along the line of the projected bypass for New Ash Green. In all, the ground plan of 6 buildings were recovered – 3 were timber framed with very slight flint foundations and the other 3 were more substantial with flint mortared walls and tiled roofs. Sections were cut through the northern bank and ditch and the cross bank which lay to the west of the timber framed buildings. Over much of the site, stratification was either very limited or non existent. Some medieval pottery together with a little bone, oyster shell and some iron work was recovered. Apart from a large number of roof Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 45 ABOVE Rectangular base in undercroft BELOW The junction of the undercroft and Building B ABOVE The dwarf foundation of one of the timber framed buildings (Building B on plan) ABOVE The Hearth, of Building C tiles and some worked stone, finds were generally very sparse. In total some 700 fragments of late 13th or early 14th century pottery were recovered. Most sherds were the grey sandy coarse wares typical of this part of Kent. The finer wares included some London green glazed wares of the same date. No examples of the earlier 12th century coarser shell tempered wares were found. These are common in this part of Kent and have been found at the neighbouring medieval Fawkham Manor owned from about 1100 by the same De Fawkham family but are completely absent at Scotgrove. The Probable Chapel Building (Building E) Caiger’s survey of 1967 suggested that the site of the chapel lay on the line of the proposed road. The 1972 excavation showed that the bank in Caiger’s survey labelled ‘chapel’ was, in fact, the debris from the demolition of this building. A fragment of the west wall remained in situ and the outline of the building measuring 7m by 12m could be traced through robbed out trenches with the possibility of a south door. The walls were about 70cm thick and constructed of mortared flints with Reigate stone quoins. In the debris of the east wall, part of an Early English arch of Reigate stone was recovered. The east-west alignment and the absence of a tiled hearth suggest that this building was the chapel. A tile fall on its north side indicates the final roofing material and in addition a few small fragments of medieval glass were found. The probable chapel was about 2.5m east of the undercroft and at a slight angle to it. The Three Timber Framed Buildings (A, B and C) The evidence for the earliest timber framed building, perhaps the hall of a house, (Building A on the plan) was very slight and comprised lines of flints set in clay to mark the position of the walls. It measured 8m by 14m and was demolished to be replaced by another. The second (Building B) was similar to the first but overlaid it at its eastern end. It was approximately 8m by 13m with evidence of a possible central tiled hearth. The undercroft (Building D) described below was added to the eastern end of this second timber framed building. The third timber framed building (Building C) was situated along the north side of a courtyard 46 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk LEFT Building F looking towards the undercroft RIGHT Roof tile with one nib and one peg hole about 120m north of Building B which occupied the south side. Again the evidence for this building was slight, but enough of its foundations remained to suggest its size was 8m by 20m. This building did contain a fine central hearth some 2m square with vertically placed peg tiles and was probably another hall house. Immediately to the north of this building was the northern boundary bank and ditch of the enclosure which was planned by Caiger in 1967. The Undercroft (Building D) Added to the east end of Building B was a cross wing, presumably two storied, over an undercroft measuring 11.5m by 5.5m (Building D). The walls, constructed of mortared flint, were mostly about 60cm thick, with the exception of the common wall with Building B which was 30cm thick. The clay floor of the undercroft was about 1m below ground level and was entered from the courtyard through a door onto a flight of steps. The door jambs were constructed of squared Reigate stone. In the middle of the east wall there was additional masonry, rectangular in shape and measuring about 1m by 2m, possibly a foundation for a first floor fireplace. There is evidence that this building was also tiled. Building F attached to the Undercroft Added to the north east corner of the undercroft was another masonry building with a tiled roof. It was about 9.5m long by 3.5m wide with a strongly built compartment, 2m square at its northern end. The walls were of mortared flint about 40cm thick. There was some slight evidence for a 1m-wide door on its courtyard side. Many peg tiles, several almost complete, were discovered, indicating that this building was heavily tiled. These tiles measured about 16cm by about 24.5cm. In addition fragments of over 100 nib tiles were recovered in and around this building. This building is a puzzle. Was it a store house requiring ventilation to the roof which may have been provided by the nib tiles? Why was it so narrow; at only 3.5m wide? We would welcome any suggestions as to the purpose of this building. discovered as most of the site has not been studied in detail. Today, much of the enclosure remains wooded with the boundary banks and ditches still visible. During the 1920s, a narrow strip along the edge of Ash Road was developed with the construction of a few bungalows. The site of the chapel and the tile kiln are recorded on the Kent Historic Environment Record and the enclosure is shown by Sevenoaks District Council as an area of archaeological potential. Discussion on Nib Tiles These tiles are larger than ordinary peg tiles, with a width of 18cm and a length of 29cm. Each tile has one nib and one peg hole. The nib is handmade and pulled up from the top edge of the tile and protrudes about 1.5cm from the upper surface and is about 2.5cm wide. Also, Philp found several fragments in his excavations of the tile kiln as published in his book, Excavations in West Kent, (1973). One suggestion is that these tiles were for ventilation in the roof, the nib holding the upper tile proud and thus creating a gap. Is this correct? Nib tiles have been found on several other medieval sites, including a few at Battle Abbey, but not in such a quantity as at Scotgrove. Seven nib tiles are illustrated in Hare’s report (1985) of the excavations at Battle Abbey. He discusses how they were made, their size, where else they have been found and dates them firmly to the thirteenth century, but does not suggest their purpose. It formed the eastern side of the courtyard, with two timber framed buildings on the courtyard’s northern and southern sides. It is possible that the building had a door opening onto the court yard. The western extremity of the courtyard was marked by the cross bank sectioned in 1967. Summary The site of Chapel Wood as the medieval manor of Scotgrove has been known for many years. The documentary and pottery evidence supports a period of occupation from about 1225 to 1350. Only a small part of the enclosure was excavated by the Fawkham and Ash Archaeological group between 1972 and 1984. The masonry and timber framed buildings can be interpreted as the core of the manorial complex developed during its period of occupation. It is almost certain that other buildings remain to be Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 47 This new online pack from Canterbury Archaeological Trust Education Service will appeal to Kent teachers looking for history resources for the coming year and we hope will be of interest to others as an introduction to the growth of this important Anglo-Saxon settlement. The pack is a result of the highly productive Lyminge Archaeological Project led by Dr Gabor Thomas and his assistant Dr Alexandra Knox of the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading each summer from 2007 to 2014. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council with Kent Archaeological Society as project partner (see Newsletter, Winter 2014). Written by Andy Macintosh, member of the CAT team working with the project each year and who also delivers workshops in Kent schools, ‘What was it like to live in Anglo-Saxon Lyminge?’ tells a rich story, drawing together evidence from excavations, beginning in the 19th century, and documentary sources. There are linked classroom activities (including role play for an attempted murder!) to help children develop history, geography and literacy skills. You can find ‘What was it like to live in Anglo-Saxon Lyminge?’ here http:// www.canterburytrust.co.uk/learning/ resources/what-was-it-like-to-live-inanglo- saxon-lyminge-a-cat-curriculumpack/ If any KAS members are teachers, or friends and relatives of teachers, do give this a look and pass the word around. As always, any feedback from happy users would be welcome. Marion Green KAS Education Committee Hon Sec marion.green@canterburytrust.co.uk 48 Winter 2015 Kent Archaeological Society www.kentarchaeology.org.uk If undelivered, please return to S. Broomfield, 8 Woodview Crescent, Hildenborough, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 9HD Copy deadline for the next issue is 1st Feb 2016 The editor wishes to draw attention to the fact that neither she nor the Council of the KAS are answerable for opinions which contributors may express in their signed articles; each author is alone responsible for the contents and substance of their work. EDITOR: LYN PALMER 55 Stone Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2QU Telephone: 01892 533661 Email: newsletter@kentarchaeology.org.uk Registered Charity No. 223382