KAS Newsletter, Issue 113, Spring 2020

Penshurst Kent Historic Defences Margate Hildenborough A first world war bomb From the Great War to the Cold War A short history of Margate’s windmills The Princess Christian Farm Colony and Hospital THE OLDEST AND LARGEST SOCIETY DEVOTED TO THE HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ANCIENT COUNTY OF KENT № 113 Spring 2020 08 14 28 22 ALCOCK & BROWN CENTENARY 2019 02 | Kent Archaeological Society PresidentDr Gerald Cramp Vice PresidentsMr L.M. Clinch Mr R.F. LeGear Dr Steve Willis Hon. General SecretaryClive Drew secretary@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. TreasurerBarrie Beeching treasurer@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. Membership SecretaryMrs Shiela Broomfield membership@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. EditorTerry G. Lawson honeditor@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. CuratorDr Elizabeth Blanning elizabeth.blanning@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. LibrarianRuiha Smalley librarian@kentarchaeology.org.uk PressVacant NewsletterRichard Taylornewsletter@kentarchaeology.org.uk WELCOME FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the Spring 2020 Newsletter. What strange times we currently live in. One week we are busy working on archaeological sites, the next, everything is shut down because of COVID-19 and over the coming months, we are all faced with far-reaching changes. Unsurprisingly, this issue has less content than we are used to, but that does not reflect on the quality of material, which is as fascinating as ever. This issue contains critical statements from the Society leadership team, outlining decisions taken to keep the Society running and keeping the membership informed. The Newsletter remains an outlet not only for the fantastic heritage and the tremendous work going on out there, but also as a method of communicating important information. Moreover, it exists so that you, the membership, may convey a broad range of topics devoted to the history and archaeology of Kent. During these unprecedented times, I encourage many of you to pen that article you had always meant to but didn’t have spare time. In essence, additional time is now something we all have in abundance, so I implore all members to think about writing that article and help inform the broader historical and archaeological community of what is taking place in our heritage-rich and diverse County. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Gerald Cramp for his service as President these past four years. I’ve known Gerald for many years, and I appreciate his support and contributions to the Newsletter, as President, Trustee, Society member and friend. I’d also like to welcome our newly-appointed President-Elect, Professor Kerry Brown, who is no stranger to publishing articles in the Newsletter and I’m sure will successfully lead the Society into a very different future to what we all envisaged six months ago. Enjoy this issue, stay safe and let’s look forward to more settled times when we can, once again, get outside, engage with and enjoy the history and archaeology of our County. I appreciate some of the events mentioned in the Notices section may not now happen, but I’ve published them nonetheless to make you aware and hopefully, they may be rearranged at a later date. Richard Taylor The editor wishes to draw attention to the fact that neither he nor the KAS Council 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. Spring 2020 | 03 CONTENTS FEATURES A message from the Hon. General Secretary A message from the President-Elect A First World War Bomb at Penshurst From the Great War to the Cold War and Other Conflicts Alcock & Brown Centenary 2019 A Short History of the Windmills of Margate Shorne Woods, Cobham Landscapes and Community Archaeology “Just a Bit Barmy” – the Princess Christian Farm Colony and Hospital 1900–2000 COVID-19 update 05 06 08 14 19 22 25 28 30 № 113 SPRING 2020 6 mi. 10 km 25 08 28 14 14 19 President’s Column Notices An Interview With... Dan Worsley Letters to the Editor Membership Matters REGULAR 04 11 26 29 29 04 | Kent Archaeological Society Many will know of my decision to stand down as President at the next Annual General Meeting. I feel that I have taken the Society through a difficult four years after the untimely death of my predecessor Ian Coulson. His death left a big hole which was going to be challenging to fill. Four years ago, I knew that I was in for an exhilarating experience, but I also knew I was in for a very sharp learning curve. During my four years as President, the Society has completed the process of becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), a process started by Ian and Peter Stutchbury. Another project started before my election is the Society’s project to understand the archaeological and historical heritage of the Lees Court Estate, the estate of one of our patrons, Lady Sondes. Part of this project included the purchase of several items of up-to-date digital surveying equipment which is enabling the Society to assist affiliated societies in their researches. Recently, the Society has moved its website from the platform available in 2003 to a more modern platform which will support it better. I have also visited as President many archaeological sites in the County run by members and affiliated groups. The Society faces many challenges, including an ageing membership and reduced membership income, and has insufficient room to undertake its activities and to store its archives. During 2019, the County has seen the demise of the Kent History Federation. Kent also lacks a County Museum with tells the History of Kent. Most importantly for a County rich in archaeological and historical heritage, it lacks a dedicated and comprehensive storage facility for the vast archaeological archive resulting from the recent massive development projects in Kent. Overcoming these challenges will require significant financial resources. Here the Society can be influential in leading a campaign to raise finance from commercial and private sources. Part of my work has been to develop a vision for the Society. This vision is that the Society shall be the leading organisation to promote the study and publication of archaeology and history in all its branches within the ancient County of Kent. However, I feel that I am not the best person to carry on this work and to turn this vision into a reality. Fortunately for the Society, another member has indicated that he is willing and can carry on with this work. PRESIDENT’S COLUMNI fully support Kerry Brown for President of the Society. Also, the KAS Council, at its meeting in February, is recommending that Kerry be made President at the next AGM in May. In recognition of my service as President, Clive Drew proposed, and it was accepted at that Council meeting that I should be made a Vice President of the Society to join Dr Steve Willis, Rod LeGear and Mike Clinch. Professor Kerry Brown Kerry Brown was born in Kent in 1967 and joined the KAS in 1993. He has been a member of Council since 2016 and was educated at Dartford Grammar School before reading philosophy and English Literature at Cambridge. He is Professor of Chinese Studies at King’s College London. He has a particular interest in the literary history of the County which was demonstrated in a talk he gave at the last AGM in 2019. Since 2019 he has been part of the strategy group of the Society which aims to raise the profile of the Society. I wish him well in the tasks ahead. Professor Paul Bennett, MBE The 29th February marked the end of an era for the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. Paul Bennett gave his 34th and last Frank Jenkins lecture as Director of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. As usual, he stood for over two hours describing the work of his colleagues in the Trust. In the Cathedral, the Trust carried out building surveys in the crypt, which included discovering unexpected survivals from Lanfranc’s time and in the triforia where a section of William of Sens roof was found, the earliest surviving roof in the Cathedral dating to the 1170s. Excavations in the cloisters revealed an intact part of original paving for the great cloister, laid in 1414 and outside the cathedral deposits and features associated with the Archbishop’s Palace. In Canterbury, for example, archaeological excavations returned to the large Roman cemetery east of the City walls opposite the Dane John. He described how the Trust is acutely aware of the changing retail market in the city, especially concerning the area vacated by Debenhams and Nasons, and how it will affect the historic core of Canterbury. Further afield he described the Trust’s architectural analysis of Rochester Priory’s magnificent medieval barn at Frindsbury, ‘the Queen of Kentish Barns’ where the Trust’s archaeological survey has been used by quality craftsmen, using traditional skills, to reconstruct five bays lost to arson. Spring 2020 | 05 Paul has been a significant contributor to archaeology in other ways. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork in Libya for many years and more recently worked in Northern Iraq and Cyprus. Also, Paul is Chairman of the Dover Bronze Age Boat Trust and is the skipper of the half-scale replica of the Dover Boat. The Kent Archaeological Society wishes Paul a great retirement from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust in the autumn. We suspect he will be around to advise with his considerable knowledge of Archaeology in Canterbury and Kent. Paul indicated that Alison Hicks, CAT’s Deputy Director and Commercial Operations Director, will take over the reins at CAT and will give the next Frank Jenkins lecture in 2021. During these unprecedented times, the Society has had to make several extraordinary decisions to maintain a robust leadership structure and ensure the Society continues to function effectively for the membership. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and our inability to hold the 2020 Annual General Meeting Council have had to adapt and bring in some operational rules to get the Society through pandemic related problems. In the ordinary course of events, the election process was opened to Members wishing to seek election to various vacancies on Council, namely the position of President and five Trusteeships. Within the timeframe of the election process, I received one application for the position of President and five applications for the Trustee vacancies on Council. If matters had proceeded usually, I would have sought your endorsement of these applications at the AGM in May. Applications received as follows: President: Trustees: A MESSAGE FROM THE HON. GENERAL SECRETARY Dennis Rozier, not out at 90 years On Wednesday 4th March, over 50 colleagues and family members of Dennis Rozier celebrated his 90th birthday in the Visitors’ Centre at Shorne Woods Country Park. He has been a volunteer at the Park since 2009 when he joined the Randal Manor Excavation Team. From the start, he helped with the excavation, dug until 2012, took parties of visitors, including school children around the site and entertained them with very individual stories. After the dig finished in 2015, he continued with his voluntary work at the Park, including recreating the sensory garden to make it the beautiful place it is today. Also, he helps out in the Visitors’ Centre, both in the kitchen and in the public area. He is well-liked by all with his cheery personality keeping everyone entertained. All his colleagues at the Park wish him well and hope he will continue to be around the Park for many more years. Gerald Cramp, President At Council on Saturday 29th February 2020, our President Dr Gerald Cramp told the meeting that he was stepping down as President at the AGM in May. The application from Professor Kerry Brown to become President was considered, and Kerry received the unanimous nomination from Council to become the next President. Also, at Council Gerald received the unanimous nomination to become a Vice President of the Society. Prior to the country going into “lockdown”, the decision had already been taken to temporarily close the Society with the cancellation of all face-to-face meetings, including the AGM. The Society was left in a predicament whereby we have a President, a Presidential Candidate and a Vice Presidential Candidate both of whom were also standing as Trustees and no means for our Members to endorse these matters at an AGM. The result of this would have been Council being short of 5 Trustees and thus quorum issues as well as the Society without a President in post. Professor Kerry Brown Dr Gerald Cramp Professor Kerry Brown Ms Hazel Basford Mr Chris Blair-Myers Mr Peter Titley 06 | Kent Archaeological Society A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT-ELECT It’s a great honour to have been appointed the President-Elect of the Kent Archaeological Society. First of all, I want to express thanks to my predecessor, Gerald Cramp. He took up the position in 2016 during the AGM then after the Society had tragically and wholly unexpectedly lost two of its key officials, including the previous President. In the last four years, he has consolidated the Society a time of almost perpetual change. He did that with patience, great kindness, and with the benefit for his long experience of archaeology in Kent. It is wonderful that he will continue a very active role in the Society as Vice President. We will benefit immensely from his knowledge and experience. My professional work involves geographies and issues ostensibly about as far away from Kent as it would seem possible. Since 1994, I have worked in, on, and studied Asia, and in particular China. This was somewhat of an accident. Nothing from my background until the 1990s indicated this was the path I’d chose to take. I was born in Kent, in 1968, in West Kingsdown, and my family largely came from this area – the Sevenoaks Weald at least on my maternal grandfather’s side, via Ash and Ridley. I went to school here – to Dartford Grammar School. And wherever I have been based, I have always returned here. I studied English Literature and Philosophy at Caius College, Cambridge (a place, I was reminded recently in an alumni communication from them that was founded in 1348 – the time of a previous, very terrible plague, but which survived and prospered!) Chinese language, history and ideas were utterly peripheral to me until I took up a teaching post in Japan in 1990. A side visit to Beijing that year fascinated me so profoundly that, in Australia a year later, I started studying Mandarin – and completed a post-graduate degree in the language back in London. It was decided to create two temporary positions – President-Elect and Vice President-Elect. Both positions would come into effect on Saturday 16th May 2020 and would only remain in existence until the next Annual General Meeting of the Society at which our Members can correctly decide the issue of President and Vice President. It was agreed that the position of President-Elect would have the same authority as if the post holder was appointed as President by the members. Professor Kerry Brown will become President-Elect, and Dr Gerald Cramp will become Vice President-Elect. It was also agreed that the five candidates for Trusteeship would be co-opted onto Council with effect from the 16th May 2020. On 27th March 2020 Council took these decisions via a conference call. I trust these decisions meet with your approval and let us hope for more settled times. Clive Drew, Hon. General Secretary Spring 2020 | 07 In the mid-1990s I was based in the Inner Mongolian region of northern China (not, I often have to explain, the independent Mongolia across the border). In 1998, I entered the British Foreign Office diplomatic service and worked in London, then as First Secretary in Beijing, before heading the Indonesia and East Timor Section. Trying to make sense of UK visa policy as the policy head of the joint Home Office/FCO UK Visas in 2005 convinced me that there were more manageable things to do with life. Over 1998 to 2004, I had completed a doctorate in Chinese language and history during the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China in the 1960s. I moved to be first Senior Fellow, and then Head of Asia Programme at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) a wonderful place to which I am still, as an Associate, affiliated to this day. In 2012, I moved to Sydney, Australia, to be head of the China Studies Centre, and Professor of Chinese Politics. Three and a half years later, I came back to Britain to my current position, as Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. I have written twenty books on aspects of Chinese politics, history, culture and identity. The most recent, published in Beijing in Chinese and English (Five Cities in China) gives an indication of why, despite this massive difference between the place I study and try to understand professionally, and the one I have such deep interest to and affection for where I now live (I am based in Canterbury). Writing about my favourite Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Hohhot and Hong Kong – I refer to how in all of these the past, despite waves of dramatic modernisation in recent decades, is still inscribed in buildings, the landscape, and the memory traces that one can find physically, but also in the way people in these places think and speak. That fascination with place is something I learned, and am still learning, from Kent. This county is ancient and has almost endless remnants, some vast, some tiny, some visible, some hidden, of the human and non-human past. From the caves where the Harrisons in the 19th century found signs of very early human habitation at Oldbury near Ightham, to the deeply mysterious megaliths dotted around the Medway from Kit’s Coty, to the Countless Stones, to the remains in the fabric, above and below ground, of the earliest churches built in Britain during the reconversion to Christianity in the 6th century, this county contains pretty much not just the story of Britain, but also the story of Britain’s place in the world. It has served as a transit place, a place of arrival from the continent, and of departure. It has been a place of war, most recently during the heroic sky battles and the endurance against bombing in the Second World War, and of events of immense political importance – the murder of Becket, of which the 850th anniversary will be marked this year – and the various grassroots uprisings that dot history from the Medieval period almost to the current day (remember the participation in national protests defending mining in the 1980s by some of the remaining coal plants in Kent). Kent has a story that is so rich and multifaceted that it is very hard to tell it in a straightforward way. We know this because the KAS has been trying to do that since 1857. The history of this amazing county has been enough to fill annual issues of the Archaeologica Cantiana almost continuously down to today. It has also served as a place where increasing numbers of people are still discovering, through digs and document research, facts, issues and happenings that had been forgotten or are outside the scope of human history. In the coming months and years, despite the genuine challenges we all face today, I want to work in the KAS, and with as many people as possible, to continue to tell that story, and to pass on a passion for it to new groups, younger people and people from outside our area. My interest is in how the literature of this particular locality helps to understand this Kent Story. Figures from Chaucer (more based in Eltham than ever having been to Canterbury), Shakespeare (who may have played at Chilham, Faversham, and Fordwich), Dickens (who almost made the county his own through his extensive writings about, and in, Kent) and to the current day – Ian Fleming, Russel Hoban, Jocelyn Brooke, T S Eliot, to name a very few) have all had tangible links. Some lived here (H G Wells, in Folkestone), some were born here (Elizabethan poet Thomas Wyatt), some died here (Joseph Conrad), and some set large parts of their work here (Somerset Maugham, about Tercanbury – the place we call Canterbury). Along with the material remnants and legacy of the past, these serve as one which exists in the form of words, and often through imagination. I can’t think of many places that have figured this way in the lives and words of such a remarkable set of authors (there are many, many more) – even London. That alone makes Kent unique. But there are many other ways in which this is true. I look forward to meeting members, and to working with people in the Society, as we move forward. We have plans to raise our profile, and to contribute more to the ways in which people across the county engage with, understand and relate to the environment they live and often work in. It is an immense privilege to be able to do this, and I am excited about what may develop over the coming few years, and how we can prepare the Society for the coming century or more. Kerry Brown, President-Elect 08 | Kent Archaeological Society A FIRST WORLD WAR BOMB AT PENSHURST By Peter Titley Earlier this year a friend of mine, who lives by the River Medway in Penshurst, was repairing the riverbank when he came across what looked like a rusty piece of cast iron drainpipe. He cleared the undergrowth and, as it was heavy, pulled it out with a rope to expose three fins at one end. He immediately left the object alone and contacted the police. Upon arrival, the police confirmed the object was a bomb and called out the Army Bomb Disposal Unit. They came and identified the weapon as a German incendiary bomb from World War One, a 1915 type not used after the end of 1916, and, after inspecting it, took it away for disposal. The bomb measured 45cm long and 8cm in diameter and originally had four fins on one end although only three had survived. The weight was estimated at 12.5 kilos (Fig 1). How could this weapon type have ended up at a riverbank in Penhurst? Subsequent research indicates only two German air raids could have passed over Penshurst up to the end of 1916, and these involved airships. The first was on the night of 13/14 October 1915 and the other, on the night of 23/24 September 1916. Air raids on Britain at this time were carried out by the German navy or army airships except for a few coastal attacks by aircraft. The airships of the German Navy were manufactured by the Zeppelin Company and those of the army by the Schutte Lanz concern. The first raid, during the night of 13/14 October 1915, was flown by five naval Zeppelins, L11, L13, L14, L15 and L16 whose target was London. They took off from north Germany at around midday on the 13th October and crossed the North Sea to make landfall over the coast of East Anglia1. The only airship that came near to Penshurst was L14, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Alois Bocker (Fig 2), which had taken off from Nordholz at 12.22hrs. Bocker experienced navigational problems and instead of flying steadily south-west towards London, went due south, crossed the Thames and bombed Shornecliffe, Otterpool and Westenhanger army barracks, killing fifteen troops2. He then flew on to Hythe where presumably, realising his navigational error by reaching the sea, turned north-westwards towards London, dropping seven bombs at Frant and three at Tunbridge Wells and then turned towards Oxted and Croydon, dropping a further seventeen bombs. His route from Tunbridge Wells to Croydon may have been over Penshurst. He continued over Bickley, and east London departed British airspace at Aldeburgh in Suffolk at 01.45hrs and arrived back at Nordholz at 15.20hrs on 14 October after being airborne for twenty-six hours and forty minutes3. The bombs dropped on Tunbridge Wells fell in a park and therefore did not result in any damage4. However, the appearance of a “long, black cigar-shaped object coming very slowly” in the sky and the exploding bombs caused great fear and some panic amongst the people on the ground5. The second raid took place on the night of 23/24 September 1916 involving twelve airships, all Zeppelins, of the German Naval Air Service. These were L13, L14, L16, L17, L21, L22, L23, L24 and four of the new R class craft L30, L31, L32, and L33. All were to target the Midlands except the R class airships, which were to target London.6 TopFig 1: Bomb in river bank at Penshurst MiddleFig 2: Kapitanleutenant Alois Bocker BottomFig 3: Kapitanleutenant Heinrich Mathy Spring 2020 | 09 Top, leftFig 4: Oberleutenant-sur-Zee Werner Petersen Top, middleFig 5: Lieutenant Frederick Sowery Top, rightFig 6: Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c Two of the London-bound craft, L31 and L32, flew near to Penshurst on their way to the target, again via Tunbridge Wells. The other airships approached London from different directions. L31, commanded by one of the best airship commanders of the day, Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Mathy (Fig 3), took off from Ahlhorn, North Germany at 13.35hrs on 23 September and flew south over Belgium, crossed the Channel and made landfall at Dungeness. The airship was at Rye at 23.00hrs reached Tunbridge Wells at 23.30hrs7 and reached Kenley at 00.30hrs when four bombs were dropped. Bombs were also dropped over Mitcham, Streatham, Brixton, Kennington and the Lea Bridge Road area of East London8. Mathy then flew north-east and left British airspace over Great Yarmouth. He returned to Ahlhorn at 08.45hrs on 24 September having been in the air for eighteen hours and 50 minutes9. The route taken by L31 from Tunbridge Wells to Kenley could well have been over Penshurst, and therefore a bomb could have fallen there. In the log for L31, there is no record of any bombs being dropped between Dungeness, where a number10 were released along with water ballast to gain height. However, at times, flares or incendiary bombs were dropped to assess ground position and drift, or bombs were sometimes released unintentionally. The precise explanation as to why the bomb ends up in the Medway at Penshurst remains a mystery. Research indicates there are three possible explanations: Firstly, it could have been dropped accidentally by L14, L31 or L32. In 1915/16 the technology for bomb release was rudimentary, and it was not unknown for weapons to fall from airships by accident; secondly, navigational technology of 1915/6 was in its infancy, and locational checks were carried out by dropping flares to view the ground or incendiary bombs to assess the drift of the airship. Thirdly, and perhaps least likely, is that the bomb may have fallen from a vehicle that was transporting it to a disposal site shortly after its recovery. Whatever the explanation, its discovery opened up a fascinating enquiry into Kent’s rich wartime history. L32, commanded by Oberleutnant sur Zee Werner Petersen (Fig 4), took off from Ahlhorn at 14.10hrs on 23 September. He accompanied Mathy in L31 to Dungeness where he may have experienced engine problems and turned to return to Germany. However, he must have overcome the issues11 because he turned again and headed west. L32 reached Tunbridge Wells at 00.15hrs and then turned northwards towards Croydon dropping bombs indiscriminately. This route would have taken the Zeppelin over Penshurst before reaching the Thames at Dartford at 01.00hrs12 after dropping seven bombs on the searchlight battery at Crockenhill13. On its way over Essex L32 was attacked by Lieutenant Frederick Sowrey of 39 Squadron, RFC, flying a BE2c aircraft (No. 4112) (Figs 5 and 6), who had been patrolling between Sutton Farm, Hornchurch, and Joyce Green, Dartford, airfields. Sowrey caught the airship at 13,000 feet when it was travelling at its maximum speed of sixty m.p.h. He fired into the airship at very close range setting it on fire. It crashed at Great Burstead, near Billericay in Essex at 01.20hrs killing all twenty-two crew members on board14. Similar to L31, there is no record of bombs being dropped in the area of Penshurst15. 10 | Kent Archaeological Society Aircraft and Zeppelin specifications: ROYAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY B.E. 2C16 [FIG 6] Wingspan: 37ft 0in.Length: 27ft 3in.Crew: 2 Armament: 2 X 0.303 in. machine gun, Brock and Pomeroy ammunition, 20lb Hale or 16lb Woolwich bombs, Le Prieur rockets and Ranken darts Powerplant: 1 X 70h.p.Renault or 1 X 90h.p. R.A.F.1a Maximum speed: 76 m.p.h. at 6,500ft altitude Climb rate: 20 minutes to 6,500ftCeiling: 10,000ft ZEPPELIN R CLASS L3117 [FIG 7] Length: 649 feetDiameter: 78 feetHydrogen capacity: 1,949,600 cubic feet Crew: 22Cars: 4Powerplants: 6 X 220 h.p. Maybach HSLu Maximum speed: 60 m.p.h.Cruising speed: 40 m.p.h.Ceiling: 13,000ftBomb load: 9250lbs LeftFig 7: Zeppelin R Class L31 Footnotes 1 Cole, C. & Cheeseman, E.F., The Air Defence of Great Britain 1914 – 1918, pub. Putnam, London 1984, p.73 2 Jones, H.A. The War in the Air pub. The Naval & Military Press, Uckfield & The Imperial War Museum, Vol 3, 2002. p.130 3 Ibid, p.131 4 Steel, N. & Hart, P., Tumult in the Clouds pub. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1998, p.159 5 Ibid. p.158 6 Cole, C. & Cheeseman, E.F, op cit. p.168 7 Robinson, D.H., Zeppelin in Combat, pub., G. T. Foulis, London, 1966,p.187 & J. Morris, The German Air Raids 1914–1918, pub. The Naval & Military Press, Uckfield & The Imperial War Museum, p.137 8 Morris, J, German Air Raids on Great Britain 1914-1918, pub. The Naval & Military Press, Dallington, 1993, p138 9 Robinson, D.H. .op cit. p.180 10 The number dropped varies between six and ten weapons.. See Jones, H.A. op cit. p.229 and Robinson, D.H. op cit. p.187. 11 Cole, C. & Cheeseman, E.F, op cit. p. p.170 12 Ibid. p.p.170 13 Robinson D.H, .op cit..p.188 14 Ibid, p.188 15 Cole, C. & Cheeseman, E.F, op cit. p.170 16 Paul R. Hare, The Royal Aircraft Factory, pub. Putnam, London, 1990, p. 17 Cole, C. & Cheeseman, E.F, op cit. p.377 Spring 2020 | 11 NOTICES Becket 2020 This year sees the 850th anniversary of the murder of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29th December 1170, and also the 800th anniversary of the move of his remains (‘translation’) to a new shrine in the Trinity Chapel on 7th July 1220. It is also thought that Becket was born on 21st December 1120, in London, thus making this year the 900th anniversary of his birth. Throughout the year there will be various events to mark this anniversary in Canterbury, London and beyond. In Canterbury, there will be an exhibition at the Beaney from mid-May. During July, a vestment traditionally thought to have been worn by Becket will be on display in the cathedral, on loan from the Basilica of Sta Maria Maggiore in Rome. On Saturday 4th July, throughout the city will take place the annual Canterbury Medieval Pageant and Family Trail, which will provide an excellent day out for adults and children alike. October will see the opening of a significant exhibition on Becket at the British Museum. From 11th to 13th November will take place a conference entitled ‘Thomas Becket: life, death and legacy’ at Canterbury Cathedral and the University of Kent. For full details of all events, including special services, please see the Becket2020 website at www.becket2020.com Do also look at the website produced by the University of York, with support from various funders, at https://www.thebecketstory.org.uk/ This includes some 3D animations of the sites in Canterbury Cathedral which are associated with Becket, showing how they may have looked in the early 15th century. An event which may be of particular interest to KAS members is the day conference on ‘Church, Saints and Seals 1150-1300’ to be held on Monday 18th May at Canterbury Christ Church University. This will include papers by leading experts on the subject and will include a visit to the Archives and Conservation Studio at the cathedral. For the programme and booking information, see https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-humanities/events/arts-and-humanities/ckhh/saints-and-seals.aspx Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society – research and publication grants Website : www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk(or Google “CHAS Canterbury”) The Society has limited funds available to award a grant to individuals researching any aspect of the history or archaeology of Canterbury and its region. lt is envisaged that a grant would not normally exceed £500. Preference would be given to work resulting in publication in any media. Please apply in writing to the Honorary Secretary of the Grants Committee by the next deadline of midnight, 30 June 2020. Your letter should mention: • Your qualifications • The nature and length of your research • The title of your project • The stage you have reached in your research • The sum of money you are applying for, including a breakdown of the total by type of expense • Any additional funding anticipated from other sources • Your proposals for publication • Your anticipated timetable. You may be asked to name a referee whom the Committee making the grant could consult. lf successful, you would be expected to account for the money spent and give a copy of any article, pamphlet, etc., to the Society. A recipient may be invited to give a lecture to the Society at one of its monthly meetings. A summary of your research may be published on the society’s website: www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk For further details, please contact the Honorary Secretary of the Grants Committee: Mr. Barrie Beeching, Holly House, Church Road, Hoath, Canterbury, Kent CT3 4JT Or by email: beechingsl@gmail.com Above: Martyrdom of Becket shown on the seal of the City of Canterbury. Reference DCc/ChAnt/C/1154; image copyright the Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral 12 | Kent Archaeological Society London’s Sailortowns: People Communities and the Thames A conference organised by the Docklands History Group to be held on Saturday 16th May 2020 at the Museum of London. At this conference, a series of distinguished speakers with a long involvement in the history of the River Thames and the Dockland areas of London will present papers on a varied range of subjects relating to the communities in the area. The following is a list of the speakers and their papers: • Professor Sarah Palmer – London’s maritime communities and the Thames • Colin Greenstreet – The 17th Century Thames shoreline: migration and literacy 1580-1680 • Chris Ellmers – Deptford: London’s forgotten Sailortown • Pieter van der Merwe – ‘Éminence grise’: E.H. Locker and the re-invention of ‘maritime’ Greenwich • Professor Brad Beavan – Ratcliffe Highway: reality and myths of 19th Century Sailortown • Dr Margarette Lincoln – Women of London’s Edwardian Sailortowns • Derek Morris – St Katharine’s before St. Katharine’s Dock • Presentation: A Sailortown garland: London’s sailors in picture, words and songs. For further details and information on how to book a place, please visit the Group’s website at www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk Crofton Roman Villa 2020 Events Crofton Roman Villa, Orpington, Kent, BR6 8AF Tel: 01689 860939 Email: crofton.roman.villa@gmail.com www.karu.org.uk/crofton_roman_villa.html Wednesday 8th & 15th April Easter holidays – Heroic Adventures! Join us to listen to unbelievable stories of ancient heroes and their fantastic adventures. Take part in a quiz and make a fabulous heroic cartoon strip to take home. Sessions at 10.30am. For up to 11-year olds. No booking needed. Children to be accompanied. Entry £4.00 per child, adult carer free. Every Wednesday in AugustMarvellous Mosaic Making! Discover all there is to know about Roman mosaics and make your own mosaic to take home! Sessions at 10.30am. For up to 11-year olds. No booking needed. Children to be accompanied. Entry £4.00 per child, adult carer free. Open House London – Sunday 20th SeptemberSpecial open day – as part of Open House London, with site tours by the Director of Excavations, Dr. Brian Philp whose team preserved, excavated and opened the Villa. Tours at 11am & 3pm. Doors open – 10am with last admission at 4pm. Free entry and activities for children. Car parking available off York Rise. The villa is adjacent to Orpington Station. Spring 2020 | 13 Kent Archaeology Society Historic Buildings Conference 2020 3 October 2020, 10am – 4 pm The Friars, St. Simon Stock Conference Room, Aylesford, ME20 7BX The KAS Historic Buildings Special Interest Group is planning to hold an autumn conference in 2020. The general theme is ‘Aspects of Kent’s Monastic Heritage’. Details of the day’s programme are being finalised. In addition to the conference presentations, during the afternoon there will be an opportunity to visit relevant buildings in the vicinity. More details on the conference will be available in the summer issue of the KAS Newsletter and on the KAS website. KAS History Classes We are a small group and would love some new members. Please come and join us. We meet on Monday mornings from 10.30 to 12.30 at the United Reform Church in Week Street, Maidstone. For more information, please contact Sue Moore at su_mor@hotmail.com Kent People in HistorySix meetings beginning Monday 20 April A class looking at lives of selected men and women who were born, lived or worked in Kent, and who had an impact on the county, the country or the wider world. War and Peace: Britain 1914– 1939Two terms of ten meetings each: • Autumn Term begins Monday 21 September. • Spring Term begins Monday 11 January. The Great War affected nearly every aspect of life in Britain. In the 1920s and 1930s parts of Britain suffered depression and deprivation, while elsewhere there were improved standards of living for some. There was uncertainty about the future of the Empire, while in Europe dissatisfaction with the Peace of Versailles contributed to the rise of Fascism and led to the outbreak of war in September 1939. This class will look at life on the Home Front in the Great War and at how post-war governments tried to address the difficulties of the 1920s and 1930s. £250 Thirsk prize for MA students (history/archaeology) The £250 Thirsk Prize is the Kent Archaeological Society’s biennial prize named in honour of the late Dr Joan Thirsk, a distinguished historian and a long-standing member of the Society. It will be awarded for a dissertation or an extended essay, submitted as part of a successful Master’s degree. The prize will be awarded to a dissertation judged to be a significant contribution to the history or archaeology of Kent (including districts which were originally part of the county and are now within the Medway unitary authority and the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham). The KAS will consider, for the Thirsk Prize, dissertations and long essays completed for a Master’s degree within the calendar years 2019 and 2020. Dissertations and essays can be submitted from any academic institution. The prize aims to reward students working on the history and archaeology of Kent and to help promote the publication of articles and chapters that advance scholarly knowledge of the county’s past. The KAS will be willing to advise on publication. The editor of the Society’s annual journal, Archaeologia Cantiana, will also consider publishing articles based on the various submissions. Registration of submissionTo register interest, candidates for the Thirsk Prize should, in the first instance, send a brief abstract of their MA dissertation/extended essay to the KAS Hon. Editor: email terry.lawson@kentarchaeology.org.uk by 31 October 2020. Final submission guidelinesThe closing date for submissions is 31 December 2020. Dissertations and long essays must be submitted as a printed hard copy and also in electronic form on a disk and sent to Dr Elizabeth Edwards, School of History, Rutherford College, The University, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NX. The hard copy must be suitably bound or within rigid covers and the disk must be in Word format. The submission must include an abstract and be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the dissertation/long essay supervisor together, where appropriate, with the names and the institutions of the examiners of the dissertation. Copies of dissertations and long essays will not be returned but will be 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. 14 | Kent Archaeological Society FROM THE GREAT WAR TO THE COLD WAR AND OTHER CONFLICTS Hitler’s V weapons In February 2019, Colin and Sean Welch and their ‘Research Resource’ team’s excavation at the site of a V2 explosion at Horton Kirby was filmed for National Geographic’s Buried Secrets of WWII; Hitler’s Killer Rocket television programme. A team from Osnabruck University applied ground-penetrating radar techniques. The site of a V1 flying bomb explosion at Bromley Green was excavated in August 2019, 75 years to the day after the missile was shot down by Polish pilot Flight Sergeant Donocik of 315 Squadron. The ‘kill’ was shared with an unrecorded Hawker Tempest pilot, likely to have been Flight Sergeant Shaw of 56 Squadron. This project was reported by an American journalist for the USA’s Smithsonian Museum magazine Air and Space and followed an excavation in 2018 of another V1 shot down by Flt. Sgt Donocik near Ham Street. The Bromley Green excavation produced a full tailpipe that showed 0.5in and 20mm ammunition strikes from both aircraft, confirming the combat report made by Donocik at the time and giving clear evidence of the different angles of attack. In July 2019, Research Resource was filmed at a V2 site at Marden for the BBC’s Digging for Britain WWII Special 2019. The excavation was broadcast live by Skype to Marden Primary School, whose pupils (including their cub reporters) created their study and cleaned some of the finds. Colin Welch gave a talk to the classes involved, and both Colin and Sean gave a major lecture to the local community. Members of the Kent Historic Defences Group have researched many aspects of the county’s military histories. TopFig 1: Conserved and sectioned burner cup from thte Horton Kirby V2MiddleFig 2: Bromley Green V1 tailpipe showing the angles of ammunition strikes from a Hawker Tempest aircraft BottomFig 3: V2 crater at Marden, following the first scrape of the topsoil Spring 2020 | 15 A survey in September of the third and final V1 shot down by Flight Sergeant Donocik, at Hinxhill, produced a fragment of an incendiary bomb, one of 16 carried by some flying bombs and in this case adding new information to the historical record of the event. Reports on these excavations will be submitted to Kent County Council’s Historic Environment Record Officer. Top, leftFig 4: Wartime glamour girl. Graffiti revealed in the air-raid shelter at Maidstone Grammar School for GirlsTop, rightFig 5: ‘KURG’ excavating the air-raid shelter at MGGS Middle, left Fig 6: Interior passage, accessed during the excavations Middle, right Fig 7: Entrance to a room that contained unplumbed toilets with curtain dividers BottomFig 8: Roadblock on the A229 Forstal Road junction, Maidstone, being negotiated by one of the few cars on the road due to wartime petrol rationing Last year also featured lectures and presentations to local history societies and communities. A further V2 excavation and analysis are being planned for 2020. Permissions, agreements and school collaborations are being finalised. A team of digital surveyors will record the developing excavation and finds locations, for further remote analysis, post-excavation. ‘Research Resource’ contact details: twitter.com/craterlocators 16 | Kent Archaeological Society Digging deep at girls’ school Robert Hall, the Kent Underground Research Group’s representative on the KHDG, one of the KAS’s affiliated societies, reports that at the invitation of Maidstone Grammar School for Girls they obtained access to the air-raid shelter in front of the school buildings. In July 2019 KURG conducted a range of surveying techniques and excavations. This was probably the first time access had been gained since the entrance stairways were sealed in 1948. BelowFig 9: Roadblock on Maidstone Bridge, one of only two places where enemy invaders moving east to west could cross the River Medway. The other crossing was Allington Lock A few days later KURG carried out a more thorough measurement, graffiti and photographic survey of the structure. A report on the project sets out the main results of the survey and is accompanied by a photographic two-volume study. Currently, documentary research is being undertaken into the D2 heavy anti-aircraft gun battery at Swingate, the subject of ongoing conservation work. Contact details: Robert Hall rhmafia@gmail.comKURG: http://www.kurg.org.uk/ Middle, leftFig 10: Professionals on parade. Troops of the 53rd (Welsh) Division in Ashford Road (War & Peace Collection) Middle, right Fig 11: Dad’s Army. The 28th (Southern Railway) Bn Home Guard at Maidstone West Station in 1940 Right Fig 12: Type 28A pillbox for a 6-pounder anti-tank gun and light machine-gun, extant at Allington Lock Bottom, right Fig 13: ‘Loopholes’ alongside the School Lane Spring 2020 | 17 Towns that prepared for Nazi invasion On behalf of the KAS, the first in-depth studies into anti-invasion defences constructed in and around two of Kent’s most heavily fortified towns, when Hitler’s threatened Operation Sea Lion seemed both imminent and inevitable, were carried out by Clive Holden and Paul Tritton, for publication on the society’s website. Clive Holden’s Fortress Maidstone is mostly derived from 1940 and 1941 regimental War Diaries. Clive spent many hours at The National Archives studying the diaries, photographing thousands of pages, poring over archive photos and interpreting the complex military abbreviations and interminable changes in command structures. Other sources included Stopping Hitler, the memoirs of Captain G C Wynne of the Cabinet Office’s Historical Section, who in 1948 wrote the official account of Home Defence plans drawn up between 1939 and 1945. Among the few relics of Maidstone’s anti-invasion defences that survive within the town are two ‘loopholes’ for rifles or light machine-guns beside the School Lane entrance to Mote Park (Fig 13, opposite page), an important Army training ground and staging camp; and (Fig 14, left) a group of anti-tank blocks beneath a footbridge on the A229 Loose Road. TopFig 14: Anti-tank blocks on the A229 Loose Road.AboveFig 15: Tonbridge Fortress bookBelow, middle Fig 16: Tonbridge Castle. In WW2, pillboxes were erected along the curtain wall, and the river was designated as an anti-tank ditch to confront an enemy invasion from the south Below, right Fig 17: Spigot mortar pit in Riverside Gardens, Tonbridge, Castle, positioned to defend the town’s Big Bridge (background) and waterfront. (Copyright The Francis Frith Collection) Paul Tritton’s Tonbridge Fortress covers the town’s experiences in the early years of WW2, from accepting child evacuees in September 1939 (in some cases, reluctantly) and warmly welcoming soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, to being transformed into a fortress town on the General Headquarters Line (aka ‘Ironside Line’) of pillboxes, tank-traps and roadblocks, the concept of General William Edmund Ironside, Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces, a former pupil of Tonbridge School. The school’s playing fields became part of the fortress’s outer perimeter of gun emplacements, anti-tank ditches, barbed wire entanglements and defended buildings that town’s northern suburbs. Paul Tritton embarked on his research after a pillbox was uncovered during building work at Tonbridge School in 2017. Subsequently, the structure (see KAS Newsletters 108 and 111) was conserved following advice offered on behalf of the KAS by Kent Historic Defences Group founder and past-chairman Victor Smith, who contributed a survey and architectural drawings to the book. 18 | Kent Archaeological Society The book also features other recently-revealed pillboxes, ‘then and now’ photographs, aerial pictures of the town’s defences, asks: ‘Could Hitler have captured Tonbridge Fortress?’ – and recounts a war game at Sandhurst that sought to answer the question. Download Tonbridge Fortress at: www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/publications/member-publications/tonbridge-fortress Contact details: Paul Tritton paul.tritton@btinternet.com Top row, leftFig 18: Site of the weapon pit today, showing Tonbridge School’s reinstated Boer War Memorial, dismantled when the weapon was installed to avoid obstructing its field of fire.Top row, rightFig 19: Marking the line. Plaque erected on the ‘Ironside Line’ at Tonbridge School following the conservation of a pillbox revealed during building work Second row Fig 20: Architectural drawings ©Victor Smith Bottom row, middle Fig 21: Pillbox revealed at 44 Stocks Green Road, Hildenborough, in 2018 after undergrowth was cleared during landscaping work. ©Susan Featherstone Bottom row, right Fig 22: Front cover of Kent at War. Top image shows an Armistice parade at a US Army hospital in Dartford, whose commander ordered ‘everyone who can walk must get out and celebrate’. Great War to Cold War Kent has a long and illustrious military history dating back to the Roman occupation but the ‘Great War,’ the first great conflict of the 20th century, brought the horrors of warfare to a new generation. The county’s geographical position also made it a prime target for German air-raids and naval bombardments. Clive Holden’s latest book, Kent at War, published in July by Amberley, chronicles life in the county in WW1. His next book, due to be published in Autumn 2020, is entitled Cold War Kent and will cover the period from 1947 to 1991 when once again Kent was a ‘front line county’. Clive’s current projects include researching coastal and anti-aircraft battery sites near Dover with the National Trust & continuing to volunteer with the restoration of the Victorian Slough Fort, Allhallows. Contact details: cliverholden@msn.com Amberley Books www.amberley-books.com Spring 2020 | 19 By Janet Hearn-Gillham ALCOCK AND BROWN CENTENARY 2019 John Alcock (pilot) and Arthur Whitten Brown (navigator) were the first successfully to take up that challenge on 14/15 June 1919, having met only three months previously. They made the journey in a modified WW1 Vickers Vimy aircraft designed by Rex Pierson and initially built in the Vickers factory in Crayford. The flight lasted 161/2 hours, during which they endured horrendous weather conditions – thick cloud, fog, heavy rain, sleet – and all coped within their open cockpit. They landed at Clifden on the west coast of Ireland; unfortunately what Alcock thought was an open green space was a bog, the soft terrain causing the nose to tip forward. They walked away unhurt and found they were only twenty miles north of their original planned course after an almost blind flight of 1,900 miles with only four fleeting observations. It was the longest distance ever flown non-stop by man. There were many celebrations, including the presentation of the Daily Mail cheque on 20 June at lunch at The Savoy Hotel, London, by Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War. Alcock and Brown were astonished when Churchill announced they were to be knighted, which took place the following day at Windsor Castle. A month later, Alcock and Brown came to Crayford as surprise guests at the re-opening of The Princesses Theatre. The Theatre had been built by Vickers, opened in March TopFig 1: Alcock & Brown Atlantic route Feb 2019 Bottom, leftFig 2: John Alcock Bottom, rightFig 3: Arthur Brown In 1913 Lord Northcliffe, owner of the Daily Mail newspaper, offered £10,000 to the first pilot(s) who could fly non-stop across the Atlantic in either direction, between North America and the British Isles (including at the time all of Ireland). They were allowed seventy-two hours and had to finish in the same aircraft with which they started. 20 | Kent Archaeological Society The Alcock and Brown Centenary Project Group (Crayford) was formed, and it soon became apparent that there was scope and enthusiasm to make this at major celebration to involve as wide a range of participants as possible in an extensive programme of free events. These included an exhibition at Hall Place, Bexley, opened by Tony Alcock, nephew of Sir John Alcock (with items loaned by Brooklands Museum), talks, an exhibition at the Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre in Crayford, a celebration day at Hall Place and Gardens attended by c.3500 people, and so on. The retail park in the centre of Crayford stands on the site of the Vickers factory, some architectural aspects of the current buildings echoing the previous structures. Permissions were granted to fix artwork recalling Alcock and Brown within the eleven arches on the McDonald’s building. Eleven schools and community groups produced the designs which were turned into tiles by the Learning and Enterprise Centre. Top, leftFig 4: Alcock and Brown’s transatlantic Vimy being reconstructed in a field in St John’s, Newfoundland prior to their crossing attempt Top, rightFig 5: Cockpit of Vimy Bottom, leftFig 6: Up & away Bottom, rightFig 7: Alcock & Brown Harry Couch and team refuelling 1919 1916 by Princess Christian, but was destroyed by fire later that year. It was re-built, and on 23 July 1919, the Duke of York (later George VI) came to re-open it. During the evening’s entertainments, a short film was shown about the historic flight. Then Sir Trevor Dawson of Vickers came on stage and introduced Alcock and Brown, who were presented with gold watches. Once the celebrations were over the pair went their separate ways – Brown to get married, and Alcock to resume his work for Vickers. Tragically, Alcock died five months later when his aircraft crashed in bad weather en route to Paris. In January 2017, local Councillor Geraldene Lucia-Hennis chaired a meeting of interested parties, to see if some small celebration could be organised to highlight Crayford’s significant contribution to such a historical event and the visit to Crayford by Alcock and Brown. Spring 2020 | 21 The main event, of course, was on 23rd July 2019, a beautifully sunny day, when the Duke of Kent visited Crayford to view the artwork and to unveil the splendid new bench with life-size models of Alcock and Brown at each end. After meeting many people in Crayford, the Royal party moved to Hall Place for a reception. The Duke then planted a tree in the grounds and attended a private lunch in the Great Chamber. A successful application was made to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the London Borough of Bexley provided considerable support, and private donations were gratefully received, particularly a generous donation from Erith Group which funded the bench. Various museums lent their support in different ways, and members of the Alcock family were a great help. The Group were relieved and delighted that the Project turned out to be such a huge success, and have so many people to thank for being involved in so many ways, great and small, many more than I have been able to mention here. On a personal note, I was amazed to discover that Harry Couch, a rigger and one of the Vickers Weybridge team who travelled to Newfoundland to re-assemble the Vimy (see Fig 7), was my mother’s great uncle! Why had no-one in the family ever mentioned that? I have since been able to trace Harry’s grandson, and we have now met a couple of times. It seems that Harry didn’t talk about it much either, so I’ve been able to give his grandson more information. Further details and many images can be found in the two booklets produced, both of which are on www.crayfordhistory.org.uk. The Vimy itself can be seen at the Science Museum in London; a replica built in 1994 (flown by Steve Fossett, Clive Edwards et al.) can be seen at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge. Recommended reading:Lynch, B. (2009), Yesterday We Were In America: Alcock and Brown, First to Fly the Atlantic Non-Stop (J H Haynes & Co.Ltd) TopFig 8: Landing in Ireland MiddleFig 9: 1921 aerial view of Vickers factory Crayford BottomFig 10: Duke of Kent sat between life-size models of Alcock & Brown 22 | Kent Archaeological Society OF THE WINDMILLS OF MARGATE By the late Jo Davis of IOTAS A SHORT HISTORY Windmills have been a feature of the Thanet landscape since the Middle Ages, replacing watermills as a means of grinding corn into flour until their demise in the mid-twentieth century. Thomas Elmham’s map of 1414 shows a windmill near to a beacon mound in Birchington. Originally the wind was used as the power source for operating these, but later they were driven by gas or electricity. Over four centuries thirty-nine mills were known to have existed at different times in the whole of Thanet, never fewer than five at any time. Only one survives and is operational, known as Draper’s Mill, it is situated on the path running between Margate and St Peters and is open to visitors during the summer months. Draper’s Mill Draper’s Mill was built by John Holman of Canterbury, millwright of many experiences, in 1845 and is a four-storey smock mill on a single-storey brick base. It replaced an earlier mill which was said to have been moved there from Nayland Rock, but a map of 1792 shows a mill both at Westbrook and Drapers. An indenture of 1774 notes a windmill present in that area, but its fate is not known. A windmill is recorded at that site since 1695. The present mill is the sole survivor of a group of three, Draper’s Mill (known as the Old Mill), Little Draper’s Mill and the Pumper. The Old Mill was the first to be built and was worked by wind until 1916 when it was powered instead by a twenty-horsepower gas engine. The sails and fantail were removed in 1927. It stood on its own until about 1869 when Little Draper’s, a second smock mill was brought from Barham and rebuilt. Each section was numbered to ensure the accurate re-erection by T. R. Holman and survived until 1929 when it was dismantled. The Pumper was a large tower mill erected about 1874 for Margate Corporation for pumping water and built by Hill of Ashford, initially with five sweeps but, following a severe gale and subsequent repairs costing £280 resulted in a four-sweep mill. In 1894 it was again damaged by high winds, and the estimated cost of further repairs of £275 was deemed too much, and it was left standing, with only its tower for many years until it was eventually taken down. The surviving Draper’s Mill was threatened with demolition in 1965. Still, the Draper’s Windmill Trust was formed by the then Headmaster of Draper’s Mills School, Mr R.M Towes to preserve the mill and in 1968 it was acquired by Kent Education Authority and restored at the cost of £2,000. The fantail was replaced in 1970, and one pair of sails was erected in December 1971, another pair fitted in the autumn of 1974. This article is dedicated to Jo Davis, who was a popular and long-serving member and committee member of the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society who sadly died in December 2019. AboveFig 1: The late Jo Davis, of IOTAS Spring 2020 | 23 Hooper’s Windmills Captain Stephen Hooper, a retired mariner and much respected man of Margate, was responsible for the erection of two windmills in the town of Margate. The first of these was his most controversial Horizontal Mill built in 1780 in Zion Place, on land which is currently Aldi’s car park, ten years after the patent was registered and following his success with a similar construction at Battersea. Instead of having external sails, it consisted of a wooden tower with louvred sides which could be opened in sections to allow the wind to pass through the structure, turning the internal horizontally mounted wheel. The mill was designed to work five pairs of grinding wheels simultaneously, and the whole structure stood sixty feet high, giving an imposing appearance. In 1880 a severe north-westerly gale took off the whole of the top of the tower, containing a second driving wheel and all its component machinery, weighing about five tons, blowing it over the Prospect Hotel and coming to rest in Hanover Place, undamaged. That portion of the mill was never replaced, and for the rest of its life, it operated with a single driving wheel. In 1801 the mill was sold to John and John Webb Pilcher, who in turn sold it to Edward Pilcher, who then sold it in 1816 to Francis and William Cobb, bankers who probably purchased it intending to develop the land around it. It was rented and worked by Kingsford, the Canterbury millers until 1827 when its machinery was dismantled and removed leaving just the empty shell. This was destroyed by a bomb during the second world war, leaving only the circular floor of the old mill which was finally eradicated during a clearance scheme in that area. Hooper’s Horizontal Mill can be seen in one of J.M.W. Turner’s paintings of Margate entitled ‘Picturesque views on the south coast 1804’ The second of Hooper’s windmills was a post mill, built in 1793 which stood in a field off Northdown Road, where until recently Woolworth’s stood, sharing the same land as mills owned and worked by Daniel Gouger. The fate of this mill is not known, but it had a lease of 60 years and had disappeared by 1820. Gouger’s Mills Three smock mills stood in a field, until recently the site occupied by Woolworth’s, which became known as Gouger’s Mills. They were situated in an area surrounded by a low flint wall bounded on the north by Northdown Road and on the west by Wilderness Hill and were working in 1805, possibly built some time before 1800, although not by Gouger who was born in 1800. The most westerly one was just east of Wilderness Hill and lay behind the old windmill cottage where Gouger lived, notably Upper Clifton Road facing what is now the top of Edgar Road. The second mill stood at a point about opposite the old Cameo Cinema, while the third occupied the site which was to become the playground of Stanley House School in Clarendon Road. Daniel Gouger purchased the mills from George Staner in 1825, and they were said to have been built by John and John Webb Pilcher sometime between 1796 and 1820. One of them was built as a replacement for Hooper’s Post mill which had been removed. A deed of 1821 tells that Pilcher pulled down a mill and replaced it with a new one. The site was then sold to Edward Boys, John Swinford and Daniel Jarvis who then sold it to George Staner. The most westerly of the mills was destroyed by fire on February 13th, 1836 and it was generally felt that the fire was a deliberate act caused by local smugglers to draw attention away from the beach at Palm Bay where they were unloading a valuable hoard. The plan was successful, and a smuggler, Carver Lawrence, who was a carpenter by trade, when sentenced to transportation for another smuggling incident swore at his trial that if he ever returned, he would name the culprits responsible for the mill fire. He never returned. The two remaining mills, known as East and West mills, were sold to a Mr Andrews who let them fall into disuse and after twenty years they were auctioned off. One fetched £55 and the other £100. They were dismantled, the timber sold locally, and the machinery taken to Holman’s works at Canterbury and used in different mills. LeftFig 2: Draper’s Mill 24 | Kent Archaeological Society The Town Mills Margate had two town mills, one near to St John’s Church in Church Street which was known to working in 1889 and demolished in the late 19th century; the other situated in the street still known as Mill Lane. Arthur Rowe, past historian stated that it was a “going concern in 1681 for it is mentioned in C. E. Doughty deeds of property on the north side of Mill Lane” (C. Mills 1986, A. Rowe “Mills in the Rate Book) This latter mill was pulled down in 1772 by John Cowell “because the many new houses recently built has prevented the wind from reaching the sails”. It was moved by Cowell “to the lands of the future Thanet House*” (C. Mills 1986) and was finally pulled down in 1789. * Possibly the Thanet House at the southern end of Addiscombe Road, by the double roundabout. Editor. The decline of the Windmills in Thanet Many Mills were concentrated on the Isle of Thanet, reputed to be one of the most fertile places in Britain and famous for its barley and corn and at one time the leading distributor of corn to the London Markets. The decline occurred in the latter part of the 19th century as they were only capable of producing wholemeal flour which had become less popular with the consumer who wanted fine flour known as “Mark” flour. Some of the mills turned to grind animal foods. Still, most large farms had their grinding equipment and with the advent of the railway and later motorised transport, flour and grain were easily distributed in vast quantities all around the country, thus making the local mills redundant. They were closed, their timber and machinery sold or they were just left to rot. The few remaining are a reminder of a time when life moved at a more leisurely pace. TopFig 3: Thanet College circa 1880 showing three windmills at Drapers on St Peters Footpath References: Watermills and Windmills William Coles Finch 1976 edition www.millsarchive.com Windmills of Thanet C. Mills 1986 Crown Copyright www.exege.com/vertical-windmills Margate Handbook Margate Historical Society September 2009 www.margatehandbook.co.uk R/U774/T440, 3 windmills on road from Margate to West Northdown www.imagesofengland.org.uk R/U774/T487, Margate, 2 windmills, one called Drapers 1866 This article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 edition of Earthworm, Vol.9 No.6. Ed. G. Taylor. Spring 2020 | 25 Shorne Woods, Cobham landscapes and community archaeology further afield…including a rather special birthday! By Andrew Mayfield Welcome to your first KCC community archaeology roundup of 2020! Following on from the update in issue 112 we continue to work on the anti-aircraft battery near Cobham village. This involved clearing vegetation from the site so that the buildings could be planned in more detail by Victor Smith. The battery had its barracks nearby, and we are also working to uncover the building base of what appears to be the ablutions block. Two vibrantly coloured toilets suggest that the building was upgraded after the war when the site housed families as part of the local post-war squatting movement. Over the road at Shorne Woods Country Park, a chance meeting with a historian writing a history of clay works in the area has drawn us back to survey some of the 20th-century sites. Using the LiDAR results (see Fig 1) we have been re-plotting the various industrial and military sites along the southern edge of the Park. The LiDAR image shows the remains of the claypit’s industrial complex, in use between the 1930s and 1960s and elements of the World War Two RAF camp. We hope to finally make the Medway Valley LiDAR data, which covers Shorne Woods, available through the soon-to-launch Darent Valley LiDAR portal this spring. All this work has been eclipsed; however, by a very special birthday. Dennis, key park volunteer, archaeologist, gardener and café worker extraordinaire has turned 90! In the image associated with this article, you can see Dennis opening the volunteer tent at Randall Manor in 2012. Dennis is the glue holding volunteering together at the Park, and many of you will have been on one of his legendary tours of Randall Manor. Happy birthday Dennis! The Fifth Continent project on Romney Marsh For the remainder of 2020, I will be working for the National Lottery Heritage funded Fifth Continent scheme. We have lots of exciting projects planned, from fieldwork looking for the port of Old Romney, to church surveys, a dig at St Martin’s field in New Romney and work with landowners across the Marsh. The Fifth Continent Project is a landscape partnership, which aims to allow communities to acknowledge their surroundings and become involved while protecting and celebrating all that makes Romney Marsh’s unique landscape so important and evocative. Greensand Commons Project I am also delivering the heritage activities for the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Greensand Commons project. We have run a series of LiDAR workshops, and these will be followed over the spring and early summer by field surveys and small-scale excavations. The Greensand Commons project is working on sites from Westerham to Seal, and there are three heritage components, the archaeology of the Commons, historic routeways and a project to identify the historic productive land use of the Commons. To get involved with any of our projects, from Cobham and Shorne, to Romney Marsh or Sevenoaks Commons do contact me directly at andrew.mayfield@kent.gov.uk, telephone 07920 548906, have a look at our website www.shornewoodsarchaeology.co.uk, our Facebook page ArchaeologyinKent or on Twitter at @ArchaeologyKent. Fig 1: LiDAR image of Shorne Woods Country Park, courtesy of Kent County Council, Forest Research and Valley of Visions Project.Fig 2: Dennis officially opening of the Randall Manor Excavation in 2012 26 | Kent Archaeological Society AN INTERVIEW WITH… Dan Worsley Fieldwork archaeologist Dan is an experienced fieldwork archaeologist who currently works for SWAT Archaeology as a Site Supervisor. I began by asking Dan to tell us about his background: RT: What got you interested in archaeology? DW: From being a young child, I have always had a keen interest in history. During my years at secondary school in Canterbury, my attention was kept fueled by enthusiastic history and classics teachers plus the opportunities for school trips to amazing international world heritage sites. One of my history teachers studied archaeology, and so many of our lessons were taught through an archaeological perspective. As cliché as it is, Time Team being on TV had a significant impact and opened my eyes to the possibility of doing this as a career. After I left school, I did a small amount of volunteer work at ‘A Town Unearthed’ at Folkestone, and it cemented the idea of pursuing this as a job. RT: How did you find your way into commercial archaeology? DW: After completing my MA in Environmental and Landscape Archaeology and returning to Canterbury, I contacted several Archaeological units in Kent, and one of the first responses was Paul Wilkinson of SWAT Archaeology, which was five years ago now. I started as a trainee, and after working with and being taught by some great archaeologists, as well as being given the opportunities to progress, I am now project managing two excavations in Kent. RT: Tell us about some of the more challenging excavations you’ve been involved with. DW: Some of the most challenging and exciting excavations have been sites that have produced high-status grave assemblages that have contained items we have lifted such as complete ceramic and glass vessels, as well as more complex items such as block lifting the remains of boxes and furniture. Though it’s often stressful due to every lift having its own set of challenges, what makes it rewarding is working alongside conservators and having to think about how to approach the lift and overcome the obstacles. In terms of running a site, the most challenging situation I have had to deal with to date was managing the Margate Caves community-led excavation, which involved guiding numerous volunteers from the local community, in which most did not have any previous archaeological experience just lots of enthusiasm and teaching them the basics of archaeological excavation. It was a great experience coming from a commercial archaeological background to get to work with enthusiastic locals and get them involved with their archaeology. The freshly baked cakes that were dropped down to site were a real bonus. RT: As a Site Supervisor on commercial excavations, describe your day-to-day role. DW: As I’m currently running two sites my day starts with visiting the first site in which I check: how the team are; I run through what needs to be achieved that day; if they have any issues that need sorting out. When everything is in order, I go to my second site where my day will involve a mixture of archival work, fieldwork and administration with the clients from both sites, KCC and the SWAT office. The morning will typically involve getting the team started and letting them know features we will be focusing on today, while I’m also doing my own fieldwork throughout the day, I will make sure each member of the team is on track and sort any problems they may have. There is a lot of pre-planning with the developer and KCC on-site logistics to ensure that schedules can be adhered to where possible. Working in winter and spring throws up a whole new set of challenges due to the wet weather; it’s not uncommon to have to come up with different approaches to how we work across the site. Work doesn’t finish when the site closes, with progress reports to write and any emails that I have received throughout the day that I didn’t get an opportunity to reply. RT: Are there specific skills or characteristics you would say are essential to a Site Supervisor? DW: I would have to say organisation and planning are essential to be able to keep track of where the teams are and the progress of sites, to keep to the deadlines that are agreed with the developers. Patience and diplomacy are also crucial as situations don’t always go to plan and we are dealing with clients who do not have archaeology as their priority; you have to be able to explain the reasons why we’re doing what we do and why it’s essential to be able to create a realistic schedule to record the archaeology to a high standard but not to interfere significantly with their timeframe. Spring 2020 | 27 RT: What would you say are the main differences between a commercial excavation and, let’s say, a volunteer-run project excavation? DW: Even though I have worked on community-led projects, the majority have all been within the sphere of commercial archaeology, with that comes the demand of keeping to strict deadlines and dealing with external pressures. In the instances where I have been involved with volunteer-run projects, it’s enjoyable to have the time to work alongside people who are enthusiastic and passionate, to share experience and to get engrossed and enjoy a project. RT: I’ve noticed you are meticulous when it comes to the integrity of the site archive – perhaps you can explain why a thorough and accurate site archive is, in your view, essential? DW: The importance of commercial archaeology is that we are brought onto sites to preserve the archaeology on the development via recording because, in most instances, this will be destroyed when the building phase commences. The archive is that record, containing all the information needed to be able to reconstruct and understand the landscape that would otherwise be lost forever. Therefore, comprehensive, accurate records are essential to be able to achieve this and need to be recorded precisely so anyone outside of the site can read through the archive and understand the archaeological landscape. The archive is also a great tool to keep track of the progress of the team and checking it regularly not only catches problems before they potentially get bigger but also allows you to understand where people might need help. RT: Would you recommend fieldwork archaeology as a career? DW: Yes, of course, if you have a real passion for it, then there is nothing better than being to do something you enjoy every day. Although, be prepared for working in awful weather conditions for half the year. RT: How do you view the relationship between the KAS and the commercial archaeological sector? DW: In my opinion, there should be more communication and contact between the commercial sector and KAS. There are so many local archaeological and history groups that are doing really important projects that are furthering our collective understanding of regional archaeological/ historical knowledge, which would be beneficial to the commercial sector. I have been working on sites, and it’s only through my interactions with local archaeological and history groups that they have provided me with a wealth of invaluable background information that puts our site into the perspective of a broader landscape. RT: Any message for the KAS Leadership Team? DW: Keep spreading the word of the important archaeology we have here in Kent and impassioning new people to get involved. TopFig 1: Dan forensically excavating grave goods BottomFig 2: Dan (right) team-excavating a cremation burial 28 | Kent Archaeological Society “JUST A BIT BARMY”THE PRINCESS CHRISTIAN FARM COLONY AND HOSPITAL 1900–2000 By Joyce Field Most KAS members will have heard about the appalling conditions of lunatic asylums in Victorian times. Sadly, they often continued to be grim into our lifetime. However, there was one Victorian doctor, John Langdon-Down (‘Down’s syndrome’ was named after him) who, together with his two doctor sons, established a successful scheme to change the lives of some of those who were born with less severe learning disabilities. Around 1900, they founded a ‘Farm Colony’ which looked after its one hundred and fifty ‘barmy’ men and woman – barmy after the local lunatic asylum in Barming – with humanity, and, for nearly a hundred years, provided them with a happy family atmosphere in which to work and enjoy themselves. The Princess Christian Farm Colony was in Hildenborough, a small village near Tonbridge in Kent. The Patrons not only included Queen Victoria’s third daughter, Princess Christian, but various other dignitaries including one Archbishop of Canterbury. The patrons bought two farms which they converted. They persuaded the twenty-year-old Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (later to build his village at Portmeirion) to design two other buildings – one for the ‘boys’, as they were always called whatever their ages, and a grander one for the ‘girls’. The whole idea of the Colony was to provide useful work for the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’, and this became their home. Initially, the work for the ‘boys’ consisted mainly of farm work. They particularly loved their animals, their sheep and pigs and cows – and a pony which did the milk round. Years later, one of the administrators said: “You could not Top, leftFig 1: The Princess Christian Farm Colony and Hospital Book Cover Top, rightFig 2: John Langdon Down Bottom Fig 3: Design for the initial home for twenty-five boys Spring 2020 | 29 impose discipline very easily on those with a learning disability. But if one of them was misbehaving, the punishment could be the threat of not being allowed to work with their animals for a time. That worked.” However, as the Farm Colony developed, the ‘boys’ were taught bricklaying and carpentry – when they were able to master the skills – and, under supervision, they built or renovated many buildings including a large hall where they put on plays, held jumble sales, had dances – which the locals attended – and had their Sunday morning services. In the early years, the ‘girls’ primarily worked in the large laundry doing the washing and ironing. They had the most primitive equipment, and it was only in the 1950s that they were given electric irons. But they also had sewing lessons and produced some remarkable work. Some even worked on the Farm, mainly looking after the chickens and making butter. Everyone went for communal walks in the woods or to the local village, although not the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ together and, when they were able to do so, they Top, leftFig 4: Present Oast House rebuilt in 2001 using the original plans Top, rightFig 5: Plans and elevations of the Girls’ Home dated 1916 Bottom, leftFig 6: In the Hygienic Piggery Bottom, rightFig 7: Occupational Therapyhad lessons of the type that children in local villages were having. After the Second World War, by now an NHS hospital, the atmosphere became less regimented, and the local community was encouraged to join in with the Colony. There were weekly film shows and even more trips – usually to the seaside – were arranged. One senior nurse remembers a particular trip. “One of my ‘boys’ always had to take off all his clothes to go to the toilet. So, on this trip, when he said he ‘had to go’, I found a men’s toilet and went in with him. There was no one there, and he duly took all his clothes off. At that point, a man walked in and started to complain. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘It’s one of the perks of the job.’ He fled.” All the staff looked after their patents with the most exceptional care. One story is typical, although it comes from double Olympic gold medal winner, Dame Kelly Holmes. She worked there for nine months before joining the army. “I started working at Princess Christian 30 | Kent Archaeological Society when I was seventeen – two of the patients particularly touched my heart. One was a smoker, and I spent a lot of time teaching him how to catch the bus and pay for the cigarettes. He came back as proud as punch. It was fantastic to have helped him achieve this new level of independence – the other man, a lovely Down’s guy, in his late sixties. I used to take him to Rehab and play games and puzzles with him, and when he’d [finished his treatment], he’d walk towards me with a huge beaming smile on his face. Three weeks after I left to join the army, one of the staff phoned me to say he had died. I was heartbroken. But I’ve never forgotten him. Helping those men towards little improvements in their lives was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.” The Colony developed over the century and was well ahead of its time. It had progressed into its type of ‘Care in the Community’ well before it became the very sensible Government policy in the 1980s. Was the Princess Christian Farm Colony better than the ‘Care in the Community’ we have today? In some ways, it was – it provided a long-term ‘family’ and friendship, which is difficult for people with learning disabilities to have when they live in their flat. However, it was unusual. It was small and not like the large mental hospitals which society was right to change for the ‘Care in the Community’ we have today. The debate on whether the Farm colony should have been closed rumbles on amongst those who knew the little hospital. What is clear, however, is that the individuals who lived there loved it and were looked after with care and dignity. NOTE: Rowley, C., Just a Bit Barmy – The Princess Christian farm Colony and Hospital 1895–1995: ISBN 978-0-9539340-4-1 220 pages in colour with 60 photos and maps. £20 from Sevenoaks Bookshop or Chris Rowley (plus £5 p&p), telephone 01732 833176. From top to bottomFig 8: MilkingFig 9: In the Poultry RunFig 10: Outdoor workFig 11: Girls’ Home with staff standing outside Spring 2020 31 Sir, FOR “ARCHAEOLOGY” READ “HERITAGE” … I was very interested to read your interview with Alan Ridgers, KCC’s recently-appointed ‘Archaeology Champion’, in the Winter 2019 KAS Newsletter. This, it is to be hoped, is a sign of increasing awareness on the part of the County Council of the importance of the care and preservation of Kent’s irreplaceable heritage, be it archaeological, historical, industrial, social, environmental or artistic – since all are to a greater or lesser extent interwoven. So is this ‘archaeology’ remit broad enough and is what we really need a Heritage Champion? In the archaeological and historical field alone a mass of evidential material exists, whether it be the artefacts and written records of excavations (with storage problems going back decades), photographs, documents, local history books and a range of other historical material. Most of this is dispersed amongst a range of different owners and organisations spread across the county, particularly in museums, record offices and libraries, as well as with groups such as the KAS and local history societies. Many counties enjoy the benefit of a county museum which acts as a guardian of local heritage such as this and can have an oversight of and advise on material in the ownership of other local bodies. A golden opportunity for this to have happened in Kent was LETTERS TO THE EDITORoffered at the time of local government reorganisation in 1974, but, sadly, loosely worded legislation coupled with local politics denied us such an asset. The result was that the de facto ‘County Museum’ in Maidstone remained with the district council and KCC set up its own museum service, which it later disbanded. It would be naïve to think that a publicly-funded and over-arching county museum service could be set up in Kent any time soon. Nationally, the move is for heritage organisations to be managed and operated by trusts, which removes them (to an extent) from local politics and enables them to pursue funding from a wider range of sources. So perhaps we should aim for a Kent Heritage Trust to, in the first instance, unite a nucleus of existing organisations under one umbrella, with, hopefully, more and more to come on board with the passage of time. At the very least it could encourage participants to catalogue and store their information in common formats which could be accessed on-line via a common portal – photographic collections might be a good place to start. So come on KCC, give us a Heritage Champion to drive this forward – the longer the delay the greater the risk that more of our common heritage will be lost! Yours faithfully, Henry Middleton I am pleased to welcome the Staplehurst Society, Sheperdswell & Coldred History Society, Rainham Historical Society and Bromley Borough Local History Society as affiliated society members. Although we are pleased with them joining us this is tinged with sadness as they have opted to join KAS after the sad demise of the Kent History Federation. I cannot publish the names of individual or joint members who have also joined since the last newsletter because of the Data Protection Act 2018 constraints. However, I am delighted to report that I have added seven individuals and one joint member to the membership list. The more, the merrier so encourage your friends and colleagues to join so that they can also benefit from belonging to KAS. I am pleased that many of you have made sure that your subscriptions for 2020 have been sent to me or else paid via the new bank account. I still have some members to remind about renewing especially as the Constitution states that all subscriptions must be fully paid by the end of March so that all can take part in voting for any items at the AGM. At the moment, the Treasurer is in the process of setting up the ability to pay subscriptions using the direct debit method, so watch this space! Remember that without you as members KAS could not exist! Shiela Broomfield, Membership Secretary membership@kentarchaeology.org.uk MEMBERSHIP MATTERS If undelivered, please return to S. Broomfield, 8 Woodview Crescent, Hildenborough, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 9HD COVID-19 UPDATE Dear members and friends, The Kent Archaeological Society is continuing to follow and monitor official guidance from the UK Government and Public Health England carefully. It is of vital importance for us to ensure that all procedures are in place to support the health and well-being of our volunteers and members. Following government guidance, to help combat the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), we will be making some changes to the way that Society business is conducted in the foreseeable future. With immediate effect, all meetings, events, conferences and forums are cancelled. This means that the forthcoming Annual General Meeting in May is cancelled as well as all meetings of Council and the Committees. The Library and our facilities in Marsham Street are now shut, and there will be no 2020 season on the Lees Court Estate. Archaeologia Cantiana and Newsletters will be produced as and when practicable. We would encourage all members and affiliated groups to be mindful of up-to-date official guidance to minimise the spread of the virus, particularly at meetings and events that they organise themselves. Please also check the KAS website for continuous updates on local and Society events as and when further information is received or guidance issued. Meanwhile, please continue to follow official guidance on keeping yourselves and others safe. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ Best wishes KAS Council