KAS Newsletter, Issue 56, Spring 2003

Issue number 56 Spring 2003 www.kentarchaeology.org.uk t y. The regularity of the breaks, combined with the presence of the cakes, suggested a smith’s (founder’s) hoard of scrap metal. The finds were deposited in the British Museum the following day, and it was confirmed that this hoard represented the first find in the country to fall within the scope of the extended Treasure Act. A further sweep of the area some days later, using a more powerful detector, resulted in the finding of one further ingot and part of a sword handle, bringing the total number of artefacts recovered to 15. These were all found within the ploughsoil, which consists of heavy grey clay no more than about 30cm deep. The finds were distributed across a roughly c r e s c e n t-shaped area about 15m by 10m across, and clearly represented a hoard that had been dispersed by the action of the plough. Given the possibility that further n Sunday 12th January 2003, David Button, a metal detectorist from Sittingbourne, was detecting on farmland near Hollingbourne. As the light was fading he recovered a length of copper alloy blade, and then, about 12m away, a large socketed axehead, also of copper a l l o y. Both were clearly of Bronze Age date. The scope of the Treasure Act had been extended on January 1st to include two or more associated prehistoric base metal finds. Realising that the blade and axehead were possibly part of a dispersed hoard, and therefore could constitute treasure, David telephoned Andrew Richardson, the Finds Liaison Officer for Kent, who is based with Kent County Council. It was agreed to meet at the site the following Wednesday afternoon, along with the f a r m e r, Michael Summerfield. Upon arrival the positions of the two findspots were located and marked, and a sweep of the area around these was made by metal detector. Further signals were immediately noted, and these were plotted and then dug. This resulted in the finding of a further 11 Bronze Age artefacts, consisting of 4 socke ted axeheads, 4 lengths of double-edged blade, 2 ‘cakes’ and part of one sword or dagger handle. All the objects were of copper alloy, and all were incomplete, the axeheads having either the end of the blade or the end of the socket broken off in antiqui- Spring 2003 1 artefacts might remain to be recovered, and in the hope that part of the hoard might remain in situ, an excavation of the findspot was organised. This took place on the weekend of 1st to 2nd March, and was led by Andrew Richardson and Simon Mason of KCC Heritage Conservation. Stuart C a kebread, SMR officer with Heritage Conservation, also assisted, along with volunteers from KC C, Maidstone Area Archaeological Group, the Kent Archaeological Society, the Lenham Archaeological Society and Giles Guthrie, curator of Maidstone Museum. David Button also took part, along with fellow detectorist Te r r y B o d i l y. The excavation was filmed by the B BC as part of their forthcoming series “Hidden Treasure”, which is due to air in September. An area 4m by 4m was excavated by hand in the centre of the zone where most of the finds had been made, but no further artefacts were recovered from this trench, and no features were noted. Sweeps across the general area by the four metal detectorists present revealed only a few finds, notably a silver coin of Elizabeth I in very good condition, but no further Bronze Age artefacts were found until about 3pm on Saturday 1st, when Gill Davies located a s o c keted axehead downhill from the scatter found previously. Further finds were then located in a very concentrated area, and more signals were noted. It seemed probable that the source of the hoard, or indeed a second hoard, had been located, and the following day a trench was opened around the area of these finds. In addition, the first trench was extended in the hope that more material might be recovered from this area. In the event, no further Bronze Age artefacts where recovered from the latter trench, but Inside 2-3 New Books Library Notes 4-5 Lectures, Courses, Conferences & Events 6-7 Saxon Stirrup Roman Shipwrecks 8-9 Notice Board 10-11 ‘Ideas & Ideals’ Laud’s Aspiritions & Puritan Convictions 12-13 YAC New Screen for St Marys, Eastwell 14-15 Sandhurst Stained Glass Windows Letters to the Editor 16 Paul Ashbee news l e t e r K E N T A RC H A E O LO G I C A L S O C I E T Y H O L L I N G B O U R N E FOUNDER’S HOARD Top: The BBC crew film as the hoard (below) begins to emerge. continued on page 2 Your AGM information (and Annual Report) is inside - we hope to see you there! of special local interest. Contains the complete text of 70 poems all comprehensively annotated on content and context with a substantial historical and critical Introduction. ’This is a MS. collection of enormous interest to all scholars of the early modern period, historians as well as literary specialists. The poems are of an intrinsic quality that justifies publication even if one disregards their political and social significance. It is the latter, however, that provides the most compelling reason for publication. St Nicholas’s poems constitute a meditative journey covering one of the pivotal periods of English history, from Civil War to Restoration and beyond’. Prof. Tom Cain, University of Newcastle upon Tyne Av a i l a b l e from University of Birmingham Press, University of B i r m i n g h a m , E d g b a s t o n , Birmingham B15 2TT. Tel: 0121 4146836 Fax: 0121 4714691 email: ubpress@bham.ac.uk Spring 2003 2 N E WB O O K S C O M P E T I T I O N BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & LIBRARIES consisted of three socketed axeheads, all placed vertically, blade downwards, with a complex of cakes, spearheads and a blade wedged in between them. These were recorded and photographed before lifting, and the soil from the small pit that they were placed in was collected and bagged for later analysis. It was not until about 8pm on the Sunday night that the in situ hoard was eventually lifted, and the exc a v a t i o n could not have continued without the assistance of local resident Mr Gordon Reeves, who kindly provided lights and a g e n e r a t o r. A total of 35 late Bronze Age metal artefacts have now been recovered from the site, comprising 12 axeheads or parts of a xeheads, 6 lengths of blade, 2 spearheads, 2 sword/dagger handles and 13 cakes. The finds are comparable to the material recovered from the Monkton hoard in Thanet, and fall within the Carp’s Tongue Complex i n d u s t r y, which dates to the very end of the A Journey to Medieval Canterbury has been written primarily for young readers (11 to 14 year olds). It is also sure to appeal to the interested adult looking for a reliable, lively introduction to the subject. Teachers - A Journey to Medieval Canterbury will be a valuable resource for your teaching programmes; in particular for those at Key Stage 2 involved in Local History studies and Key Stage 3 teachers engaged in The Medieval Realms. 52 pp B&W, 2 colour laminated soft back, A4. Available from Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 92a Broad Street, Canterbury CT1 2LU Tel: 01227 462062 Fax: 01227 784724 email: admin@canterburytrust.co.uk Copies also available from Canterbury Museums and local bookshops. At Vacant Hours - Poems by Thomas St Nicholas and his family, edited by H. Neville Davies 1-902459-32-6 £40.00 Hard covers xlvii + 492pp University of Birmingham Press A compilation of work by a 17th century Kentish poet from Ashford, a well-educated puritan lawyer who lived from 1602-1668. Many of the poems are A Journey to Medieval Canterbury - Andy Harmsworth and Canterbury Archaeological Trust. £4.95 (plus 50p p&p per copy if ordering from Canterbury Archaeological Trust) This latest publication from the Tr ust’s Archaeology in Education Service takes you on a journey back in time, telling a story created from a wealth of surviving buildings, artefacts and documentary sources. It begins with a taste of Anglo-Saxon life preceding the arrival of Duke William of Normandy in 1066. You then witness the impact on the city made by the Norman Conquest and how Canterbury was transformed into a thriving commercial centre during the Middle Ages or Medieval period. Exactly where your journey through Medieval Canterbury ends is not too certain as you will see... The book has a clearly presented text and numerous quality illustrations and photographs which combine to make this a valuable resource and essential companion to Roman Canterbury, by the same authors. Something for everyone! Bronze Age, circa 800 BC. It is hoped that further fieldwork on the site will be carried out in the near future, and it is expected that the finds will eventually be acquired by Maidstone Museum under the Treasure Act. The credit for the discovery of this important find lies with David Button, whose decision to call for archaeological assistance after making the initial finds allowed the recovery of the in situ material, and the accurate plotting of all find spots. This was a text-book example of the benefits to be gained by all from co-operation between metal detectorists and archaeologists, and shows the value of the work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in fostering such co-operation. The excavation was also an exemplary piece of community a r c h a e o l o g y, with individuals from several different groups giving up their time and working together for the benefit of Ke n t ’ s heritage. Andrew Richardson the articulated burial of a small horse, associated with prehistoric pot sherds and an iron object, was located. At the site of Saturday’s finds, however, three cakes and an axehead which had been disturbed by ploughing, were found distributed around an in situ group of metal work. The latter continued from page 1 Stray socketed axe near the in situ hoard. We have 4 copies of ‘Sheerness Naval Dockyard & Garrison’ by David T.Hughes (Tempus Publishing £11.99) to give away to members. The first 4 correct answers drawn after the closing date of Friday 30th May will each receive a copy of the book, containing over 200 images recounting the history of the dockyard and garrison. Send your answer to the question (postcard please) to the E d i t o r, at 55 Stone Street, Tu n b r i d g e Wells, TN1 2QU. ‘Which ship, featured in the book, was a survivor from the time of the Napoleonic Wars?’ A clue – the book was featured on the New Books page of the last Newsletter! ing, on the 10th of May last, from the ground where he was employed with others, adjoining to St Au g u s t i n e ’ s Gaol, Canterbury, being a prisoner, charged with felony there. WILLIAM FRY, alias FIELD (whom since our advertisement we have learnt, is better known by the appellations of Civil Billy, and Sleepy Billy, and is noted for drinking an incredible number of successive glasses of spirits, and half pints of beer) and who answers the following description, viz. Five feet five and a half inches high, 38 years of age, stout made, an awkward gait, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, sallow complexion, has worked as a labourer, and recently received a severe cut on the fleshy part of one of his arms, a little below the elbow, which has either left a considerable scar, or is not yet healed up; says he was born at Littlebourne, near Canterbury, and is well known in and around that city, as a common depredator. It is sup - posed he is either employed by some farmer in houghing, or other work, in the vicinities of Canterbury, or on the Isle of Thanet, or lurking about in their grounds to pilfer any thing that may come his way; it is therefore hoped for the sake of public justice, that any person meeting with a fellow answer - ing to the above description, will cause him to be secured and lodged in any of his Majesty’s Gaols, or delivered to the Keeper of St Augustine’s Gaol, Canterbury where they will immedi - ately receive a reward of FIVE GUINEAS, together with all expenses. N.B. Whoever is known to har - bour or secrete the above-mentioned felon after this public notice will be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of the law. William Field was indeed baptised in Littlebourne, in 1766. He was one of several children born to Abraham and Ann Field who had been married in Littlebourne in 1760. We can perhaps forgive him for taking a small liberty with his age. His mother died when he was 8. lection of booklets, pamphlets, cuttings and other ephemera of towns and villages in Kent. This collection is housed in the Library in files under the name of each location, alphabetically arranged. Some of the more important items have already been put on the Library book and visual record i n d e xes, but the bulk of the material in the files remains to be listed. The Volunteers are sorting and listing the various types of material in each file, to form an index which will be added to the existing Library index, and made available through the KAS website w w w. ke n t a r c h a e o l o g y.ac. So far, the Volunteers have reached the letter “S”, and we hope to complete the whole process by the end of this year. When achieved, a valuable resource will have been made more readily available to local historians. We should be glad of more Volunteers to undertake this work, and to help with further work we have in mind in bringing the contents of the Library to a higher standard of availability. Anyone willing to spend a morning or afternoon on a regular basis, say once a week, fortnight or month, on this sort of work in the Library, should contact the Hon. Librarian on 01795472218, or on email: D R . F H . PA N T O N @ g r o v e - e n d - tunstall.fsnet.co.uk Five Guineas for Sleepy Billy . Here is an extract from the Gordon Ward collection which might amuse, and illustrate how life has changed since 1809! Littlebourne – LIT014 A press-cutting annotated ‘1809’ (presumably by Gordon Ward) reads as follows:- FIVE GUINEAS REWA R D Escaped about ten o’clock in the morn - Over 100 books, booklets and pamphlets, bought from the Library of the late Ke n n e t h Gravett, have now been indexed and placed on the Library shelves. These are all concerned with the history and archaeology of town, village and hamlet localities in ancient Kent. They were acquired to fill in some of the gaps in the existing Library stock. The items include church histories and descriptions, broader local histories of named locations, and histories of great houses and manors and of the families which lived in them. Among the locations covered by these additions to our stock (chosen at random) are - Rolvenden (parish and hundred), Eltham (palace), Knockholt, Molash, Ringwould, Kingsdown, Ifield, St. Margarets Bay, Milton Regis, Sellinge, Beckenham, Erith, Boughton Monchelsea, Bethersden, Chiddingstone, Deptford, Hildenborough, Meopham, Upchurch, and Wilmington. Volunteers from among the KAS membership are spending afternoons in the Library working to compile an index of the Gordon Ward Collection. Dr. Gordon Ward, a prominent member of the KAS and a Kentish Historian and Antiquarian working in the early to mid 19th century, built up a col- Spring 2003 3 L I B R A RY NOTES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GRANTS & LIBRARIES GORDON WARD COLLECTION ACQUISITIONS FROM KENNETH GRAVETT’S LIBRARY The Canterbury Archaeological Society has limited funds available with which to support individuals researching the archaeology and history of the Canterbury district. It is envisaged that grants would not normally exceed £500 each and would be awarded annually. Preference would be given to work asked to name a referee with whom the sub-Committee making the grants could consult. If successful, you would be expected to account for the money spent and give a copy of any article, pamphlet etc. to the Society’s Library. Mrs Jean Crane (Hon.Secretary CAS) Dane Court, Adisham CT3 3LA resulting in publication. Please apply in writing to the Honorary Secretary (address below) by Monday 30th June 2003. Your letter should mention your qualifications, the nature and length of your research, the amount you are applying for, any additional funding anticipated and proposals for publication. You may be R E S E A R C H&P U B L I C AT I O NG R A N T S Spring 2003 4 LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES LECTURES EVENTS CONFERENCES & COURSES Booking forms for KA S events appear on page 5 opposite. Church and Monastery in A n g l o - S a x on and Medieval Society ~ Saturday 26th April from 10am. Conference organised jointly by the KAS and Canterbury Christ Church University College. KAS ‘LECTURES IN THE LIBRARY’ Kent Sources I by Dr Jacqueline Bower ~ Saturday 3rd May Kent Sources II by Dr Jacqueline Bower ~ Saturday 28th June Both Lectures take place in the KAS Library in Maidstone Museum, starting at 11am. Tickets £2.00 for each lecture. KAS Churches Committee Outing ~ Saturday 3rd May . The Churches Committee invites you to visit Allhallows Church and St. Margaret’s Church, High Halstow. We meet at Allhallows Church at 1.45 for 2pm. The charge for the talks and tours is £2 per person plus 50p for tea at High Halstow. Money for both visit and tea should be paid in advance by April 20th. Please note that Allhallows church which we are visiting will be destroyed if the airport at Cliffe is built. The whole marshland scenery, which will also be destroyed, can be seen while in transit. KAS AGM ~ Saturday 17th May. Details of this appear on the pull-out section at the centre of this Newsletter. KAS Summer Social Evening ~ Saturday 31st May To Godinton House, Great Chart, Ashford, with buffet supper. Great Chart Church 4pm, Tour of House 5.30pm (after normal closing hours). £15.00. We will visit Great Chart Church to ‘meet’ the To ke family through their many memorials and then proceed to their home. Godinton House is one of the most important houses in Kent. Thursday 24th April ~ The Royal Scots in the Gulf 1990- 1991 by Laurie Milner from the Research & Information Department at the Imperial War Museum 7.45pm in the Ad u l t Education Centre, Av e b u r y Avenue, Tonbridge. £2 for nonmembers, visitors welcome. Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society Thursday 24th April ~ ‘Underground Kent’ by Rod LeGear of the Kent Underground Research Group. Thursday 3rd July ~ ‘Aviation in Thanet’ by David Collyer Thursday 18th September ~ ‘The Jutes in Kent – Myth or Reality?’ by Andrew Richardson All at 7.45pm (doors open 7.15pm) in St George’s School, Westwood Road, Broadstairs. £3.50 on the door or £3.00 in advance (please enclose a SAE) from the Events Secretary, TAS, Crampton Tower Yard, High Street, Broadstairs, CT10 2AB tel: 01843 860209 University of K e n t ~ T h e Annual Darwin Lecture Friday 9th May ‘Neanderthals: brutes or brothers?’ by Professor Christopher Stringer, the Natural History Museum, London. 6pm in the Lord Brabourne Lecture Theatre, Keynes College, University of Kent at Canterbury. Admission free. Professor Stringer is a leading international authority on Homo sapiens neanderthalis and has written extensively comparing Neanderthal lifestyles to those of early modern humans. Further information on 01227 764000 ext 7829/3004 From its medieval origins many generations of the Toke family and subsequent owners have embellished and added t o Godinton and the result is a charming house whose history is revealed through the variety of its style, taste and furnishings from the 14th century to the present day. KAS New Horizons Lecture Season ‘Problems in Archaeology’ by Alan Ward ~ Saturday 7th June at 2.30pm in the Ramsey Lecture Theatre, Christ Church University College, North Holmes Road, Canterbury. As both an amateur and a professional archaeologist, the speaker has come across many problems within the discipline. Notwithstanding the fact that many archaeologists are not actually ‘normal’(!), and finance always problematic, this lecture will try to concentrate on problems of interpretation and logistics connected with sites. The KAS Summer Excursion ~ 6th–23rd June to the Wye Valley & Kilvert Country. Visiting, amongst others, Goodrich and Chepstow Castles, Hereford Cathedral & the Mappa Mundi, Abbey Dore and Tintern Abbey, the 12th century Kilpeck church and Berrington Hall. Based in the Chase Hotel, Rosson- Wye, a Georgian building set in 11 acres of grounds. For more details of this wonderful trip see page 15 of the last Newsletter or contact Joy Saynor, Excursions S e c r e t a r y, Friars, Shoreham, Sevenoaks TN14 7TD tel: 01959 522713 OTHER EVENTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTY Sevenoaks Historical Society Thursday 24th April ~ Children of National T r u s t Houses by Heather Woodward at St Nicholas, Sevenoaks. £1.50 for non-members. Tonbridge Historical Society L e c t u res, Conferences, Courses and Events OTHER LECTURES KAS EVENTS Neanderthalis left and Sapiens right. Archaeology with the University of Kent Archaeology can be studied at various levels with the University of Kent on its wellestablished part-time programmes. The prospectus is now available. Applications are very welcome from anyone who wishes to study for a university qualification in the subject. The part-time evening programmes leading to the Certificate in Archaeological Studies (at Canterbury) and the Diploma and BA in Archaeological Studies (at Canterbury and Tonbridge) are recruiting for entry in September 2003. Programmes in Classical & Archaeological Studies, History & Archaeological Studies are also run in the daytime on the University’s Canterbury Campus. They can be followed on either a full or part- t i m e basis. Demonstrable aptitude and commitment are more important than formal qualifications for entry to the Certificate in Archaeological Studies. For further information, contact the Unit for Regional Learning, Keynes College, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NP. Tel 0800 9753777 (24 hours). Email: parttime@ ukc.ac.uk The Kent Archaeological Field School offers many practical archaeology courses including Field Wa l k i n g , A r c h a e o b o t a n y, Ae r i a l Photography, Bones & Burials, Prehistoric Woodwork and Surveying. They also offer local excavation work and field trips in Britain to Bath & the Roman Cotswolds and Hadrian’s Wall, and abroad to the Bay of Naples and Roman Provence. For further details see the flyer enclosed in this issue or tel: 01795 532548 email: info@ kafs.co.uk or log onto www.kafs.co.uk. Thanet Archaeological Society Saturday 15th November ~ Meet the Local Archaeologists Displays, slide shows, talk to the archaeologists, make a mosaic, bookstall and refreshments. 2.30-4.30 at St Peter’s Church Hall, St Pe t e r ’ s , Broadstairs. Admission £2.00 on the door. North Downs Young Archaeologists’ with the Museum of Kent Life Sunday 20th July ~ National Archaeology Days Event ~ ‘100 Years of Transition’ 11am – 4pm in the Museum of Kent Life, Cobtree, Lock Lane, Sandling, Maidstone. Life in the late Iron Age and beyond with the coming of Rome. Come and meet the tribe of the Cantiaci, make a pot, be woad-painted, taste ancient recipes, make Roman sandals, design a chariot, create Celtic and Roman jewellery and much more. Display of artefacts of the period from Maidstone Museum, some for handling, and information stands from archaeological groups. A great family day out, not be missed. Spring 2003 5 OTHER COURSES OTHER EVENTS ‘ C H U R CH AND MONASTERY IN ANGLO - SAXON AND MEDIEVAL SOCIETY’ Saturday 26th April from 10am. Name……………………………………………………………………....... Ad d r e s s … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … ………......................................................................................................... Please supply ……........................... tickets @ £8.00 KAS members ……........................... tickets @ £10.00 non-members Cheque for £………enclosed made payable to the Kent Archaeological Society Please enclosed a 8x4 inch SAE for the return of your tickets, time table and campus map. Send this form to: Prof. Sean Greenwood, History Dept., (Conf.tickets) Canterbury Christchurch University College, North Holmes Road, Canterbury CT1 1QU KAS CHURCHES COMMITTEE OUTING Saturday May 3rd. I would like to meet at Allhallows at 1.45 for 2pm Name................................................………………………………………. Address..................................................................………………………... .…............................................................................................................... Phone...............……………………………………………………………... I enclose £................for visit I enclose £................for tea Cheques to Kent Archaeological Society Replies to Philip Lawrence, Barnfield, Church Lane, East Peckham, Tonbridge TN12 5JJ (01622 871945) margaret.society@virgin.net KAS SUMMER SOCIAL EVENING Saturday May 31st. 4.00 Great Chart Church. 5.30 Godinton House. Please send .....tickets for the Social Evening. I enclose £.................... Name......................................................................………………............. Address...................................................................……………………….. .................................................................................................................... Phone................................................email……………………………… I would like help with transport............................................................... Cheques to Kent Archaeological Society SAE to Mrs.M.Lawrence. Barnfield, Church Lane, East Peckham, Tonbridge, Kent TN12 5JJ (01622 871945) margaret.society@virgin.net KAS NEW HORIZONS LECTURE SEASON ‘Problems in Archaeology’ by Alan Ward on Saturday 7th June in Canterbury Please supply .....................................….... tickets @ £2 KAS members .............................................. tickets @ £3 non members Name………………………………………………………………………... Address……………………………………………………………………… ………......................................................................................................... Advance tickets from the Box Office, Canterbury Bookings, 12/13 Sun Street, The Buttermarket, Canterbury CT1 2HX tel: 01227 378188 fax: 01227 378101 email: boxoffice@canterbury.gov.uk. Tickets are on sale at the Box Office until 11.30am on the day of the event, thereafter any remaining tickets available at the door KAS ‘LECTURES IN THELIBRARY’ Kent Sources I by Dr Jacqueline Bower on Saturday 3rd May Please supply …....................................................... tickets @ £2 each Kent Sources II by Dr Jacqueline Bower on Saturday 28th May Please supply ...........................................................tickets @ £2 each Name........................................................................................................ Address..................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................. Please enclose a SAE with your cheque and send to Denis Anstey, 86 Malling Road, Snodland ME6 5ND These forms may be photocopied if you do not want to cut up your newsletter. Reproduction in the Newsletter may lead to other KAS members, with their wide knowledge, being able to help. Images can be emailed to the Editor or posted with an accompanying SAE for their safe return. his old photograph which appeared in the last issue was recognised by many members as Charing church, barn and Archbishop’s Palace from the rear view. Thank you, amongst others, to John Moon, Tim Baine Smith, Bryan Goldsmith and John Physick for your information. There has been much debate over the age of the photograph, with estimates ranghis beautiful Late Saxo n stirrup mount has appeared on one of our field surveys in Lenham Parish. It is in good condition, made of copper alloy (bronze to most people) and has traces of gilding; so in its original condition was very fine indeed! It was positively identified by Ceiwin Paynton, the BBC Finds Officer who was on another site in the Maidstone area during the weekend we found it. Who was the Saxon who lost it? One can only surmise of course. But say the leather was worn on a long ride to Yorkshire then back here to Kent, finally breaking off on the way down to Sussex…to another SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES SAXON STIRRUPS & SHARP EYES Spring 2003 6 The Late Saxon Stirrup Mount. Charing ing from the 1890s to the 1930s based on the height of the trees, the position of the haystacks, when the flagpole was erected, even the existence of the washing lines which apparently were gone by the time of the 1st world war. The definitive answer as to date is still missing! Do you have an old photo which you believe to be of local origin but can’t identify? “ A H O R S E M A N R I D I N G B Y ” S H A R P EYES SUCCEED A G A I N famous Battle. Wrong direction you say? Not at all, the defending Saxons did not know exactly where the Normans would land (we do in hindsight) and they may well have come this way. Ceiwin said it would have been set with the two holes downwards… but I have drawn it this way up because the stylised face definitely looks like a bear. The ears are too short for a wolf. Maybe the Thane rode with his two bears looking up at him? All we can definitely say is that a Late Saxon lost one stirrup mount….a horse-man riding by….on the way through Lenham. Lesley Feakes DO YOU RECOGNISE THIS SPOT? This idyllic scene is one of many images held in the KASlibrary collection which have no provenance. Do you recognise the house or bridge? If you do know the location of either please contact the editor at 55 Stone Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2QU Spring 2003 7 ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY DRAMA ROMAN SHIPWRECKS & EARLY THE ROMAN S H I P W R E C K S P R O J E C T K E N T A D D E D T O ‘ E A R LY E N G L I S H D R A M A’ S E R I E S diverse forms. Speculation has the original cargo comprising between 4,000 and 10,000 vessels. Other finds in the area suggest more than one lost cargo. An amphora containing some 6000 olive pips is considered a separate entity as production of the type ceased by AD125/150; medieval and Tudor pottery also suggests a number of historic wrecks. We hope to bring you updates of this fascinating project in future Newsletters. Information taken from w w w. a r c h . s o t o n . a c . u k / Re s e a r c h /PuddingPan 25/2/03. collaboration between JD Hill of the British Museum and a team from Southampton University (Michael Wa lsh, Justin Dix and Jon Adams) was set up in 2000 to search for Roman wrecks in British waters. Surprisingly, no Roman vessel has ever been located at sea, the only discoveries we have being 3 abandoned hulks in London, a riverboat in Wales and one in Ireland, and a hull destroyed by fire in St Peter Port, Guernsey. However, massive quantities of pottery have appeared in fishermen’s nets off the North Kent coast at Herne Bay, in Pudding Pan and Pan Sand, some 4 kilometres apart. These place names probably derive from the Roman ‘pans’, shallow bowl-shaped samian ware vessels which have emerged over the last two hundred years; at least 400 complete samian vessels of various forms have been plotted to date, with a date of around the mid 2nd century. The distinctive wear pattern of recovered material suggests that the cargo is still stacked in an inverted position on the seabed and that it has not been seriously disturbed by modern fishing techniques. The preservation of this ‘coherent’ wreck site may be due to deep sand or silt covering. The area is the first of 3 to be targeted in the search for an original wreck. Pioneering methodologies using modern technology enabled maritime archaeologists to search for a wreck systematically. A sonar survey of a large area of seabed, combined with other data, such as fishermen’s approximate findspots, narrowed down the range of potential targets. In total 27.75km2 of seabed was surveyed and identification of 450 potential targets made. Eventually whittled down to 26 positive identifications, a number of the targets were proved geological, but a considerable proportion were archaeological, including a hitherto unknown 20th century fishing vessel wreck, a large group of barrels (perhaps 17th –19th century) and two 2000lb WWII German parachute mines, subsequently exploded by a Royal Navy disposal team. The information was digitised in a GIS package by Graeme Earl of the University of Southampton, drawing together topographical information from Admiralty charts, current and flow charts from the Coastguard Agency, net fastening locations and fishermen’s findspots. In 2001 a watching brief, in cooperation with Whitstable’s oyster fishermen, monitored catches dredged from the seabed. The exercise enabled Michael Walsh to record the type of seabed material brought up by dredging and thus provide a clearer idea of the ease of identification of Roman pottery. A study of the existing recovered pottery continues, aiming to produce a new catalogue of all samian vessels recovered from the ‘Pudding Pan wreck’. It is hoped to produce a detailed picture of a cargo of samian pottery en route to Britannia. This will enable comparison with quantities and qualities of samian found on sites around the country. The study will consider the numbers of vessels in the cargo and the range of forms, how the cargo was stacked inside the ship, where the vessels originated – from one source or many, and if one potter was producing a particular, or many Left: A Roman pot found in the wreck and above: the approximate location of the find. Kent: Diocese of Canterbury. ed. James M. Gibson. Records of Early English Drama. 3 vols. University of Toronto Press and The British Library, 2002. ISBN: 0-8020-8726-4. $500 (Canadian). Records of Early English Drama (REED), an international research project based at the University of Toronto, aims to establish the context for the great drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries by examining the external historical evidence for drama, secular music, and other communal entertainment and ceremony from the Middle Ages until Puritan legislation closed the London theatres in 1642. REED editors search for this evidence in the records of parishes and towns, civil and ecclesiastical courts, and in personal papers such as wills, diaries, and letters. Through its fresh examination of these historical manuscripts, REED has already clearly established the rich dramatic background of Shakespeare and other sixteenth-century dramatists and has demonstrated the need to rewrite completely the history of early English-speaking theatre. Volumes in the series so far include York, Chester, Coventry, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Cumberland/We s t m o r l a n d , Gloucestershire, Devon, Cambridge, Herefordshire/ Worcestershire, Lancashire, Shropshire, Somerset, Bristol, Dorset/Cornwall, Sussex, and the recently published Kent: Diocese of Canterbury. The REED volumes for Kent include extensive evidence of the New Romney passion play and the Canterbury marching watch with pageants and over 3000 payments to travelling minstrels, players, and bearwards sponsored by royalty or nobility, evidence found in monastic accounts and in the chamberlains’ accounts, borough minute books, quarter sessions records and other civic records from the city of Canterbury and the ten ancient towns in the diocese of Canterbury. Parish churchwardens’ accounts and extensive ecclesiastical court records also document the existence of parish players, morris dancers, May games, and other folk celebrations. All evidence of these dramatic and ceremonial activities has been transcribed from the original sources, edited, and presented with explanatory notes, translations, and general introduction in the usual Records of Early English Drama format. The resulting volumes of Kent: Diocese of Canterbury form the largest county collection to be published thus far in the REED series. Volumes can be ordered from The British Library, c/o Turpin Distribution Services Ltd., Blackhorse Road, Letchworth, Herts SC6 1HN. Telephone: 01462 687550. James M. Gibson lives in Maidstone and works as a freelance researcher and writer and archivist of the Rochester Bridge Trust. FOR SALE Spring 2003 8 NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD MEMBERSHIP MATTERS ROVING REPORTER You and Your Society Many thanks to all of you who have paid your subscriptions promptly. If you pay by standing order please check your bank statements to ensure that you are paying the correct amount and only making one payment. Please contact me if you have any queries. We only accept payments by standing order as this is far simpler than the Direct Debit method. If you have not done so already please consider signing a Gift Aid form as this enables the Society to claim back the tax you have paid on your income from which you paid the subscription. I have plenty of forms and you need only send a SAE to me to receive one swiftly. Shiela Broomfield Are you in touch with ‘heritage happenings’ in your area? I would l i ke to create a team of roving reporters for the Newsletter, each responsible for a specific area of Kent. Your mission would be to explore local venues such as libraries, museums and other clubs, to find out ‘what’s on’ in your area that might be of interest to KAS members. Local history or archaeology society events, lectures, exhibitions; all these would be relevant items. You would then send a list 4 times a year for inclusion in the Newsletter. I am grateful to several people who have volunteered already; the areas already covered are Sevenoaks and Otford, Tonbridge and Hildenborough, and Rochester. Can you help? Please contact me at the address or telephone numbers on the back page for further details. The Editor There is a box of A4 filing sheets for a manual photographic indexing and record system in the KAS library at Maidstone Museum. They were purchased some time ago but the system was never used. Each A4 punched sheet has space for two photographs and written details. Anybody interested in purchasing them should contact the Hon. Librarian, Frank Panton on :- CONTACT ADDRESSES KASMembership, Mrs Shiela Broomfield, 8 Woodview Crescent, Hildenborough, Tonbridge, TN11 9HD Email: membership@kentarchaeology.org.uk ABBEY FARM EXCAVATION and continue for two weeks. The e xcavation is open to people aged 16 years and above. Participants can attend for the two week period or either one of weeks. Registration fee for members of the KAS or the Thanet Archaeological Society is £25 one The KAS in conjunction with the Trust for Thanet Archaeology , are to continue with the e xcavation of the Roman site at Abbey Farm, Minster, near Ramsgate for a seventh season. Work will com - mence on Sunday 24th August 2003 week (non-members £35) and £40 two weeks (non-members £50). For enrolment or further details please contact: David Bacchus, Telford Lodge, Roebuck Road, Rochester ME1 1UD tel: 01634 843495 email:d_bacchus @talk21.com Hon. General Secretary, Andrew Moffat, Three Elms, Woodlands Lane, Shorne, Gravesend DA12 3HH Email: secretary@kentarchaeology.org.uk Hon. Treasurer, Robin Thomas, 1 Abchurch Yard, Abchurch Lane, London EC4N 7BA Email: treasurer@kentarchaeology.org.uk Telephone: 01795 472218 or Email: DR.FH.PANTON@groveend- tunstall.fsnet.co.uk or write to Grove End, Tunstall, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8DY Spring 2003 9 NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD NOTICE BOARD KAS COMMITTEE ROUND-UP You and Your Society We hope to bring you committee news in each future issue of the Newsletter. Place-Names Committee Kent Archaeological Society Place-Names Committee has ten members at present, all of whom have focussed their attention on the five year gestation of a six volume opus on Kent place-names. You will understand that this is an endurance race. The editor will be Dr Paul Cullen, their academic advisor, now in position at the Institute of Name-Studies at the University of Nottingham. Part of the work has already been done by Paul, by the late Dr John McNeill Dodgson and his students at University College, London, and by hosts of people who have contributed material now stored in Nottingham. Dr Cullen stressed that all, dead or alive, will be acknowledged and thanked for their efforts, and that more help is always welcomed. He is interested in the elements of a name, the origin, any tie with a landscape feature, any link with the language of the first settlers etc, from the first mention till the end of the 19C, but will leave 20C names for local historians to grapple with. Anita Thompson (Secretary) Education Committee Brian Cousins has resigned as Chair of the Education Committee after three and a half years in the post; his successor is in the process of being appointed. The Committee is supporting the Kent Churches website project led by Canterbury Archaeological Trust and is awarding a £2,000 start-up grant. It is envisaged that Society members will be contributing to its content. The Committee has also agreed to contribute to National Archaeology weekend this summer by supporting activities organised by the North Downs Young Archaeologists Club. Marion Green (Secretary) Churches Committee In the past year the Churches Committee has given advice to enquirers from several parishes on a) the compilation of parish guides or larger publications and b) on architectural matters shedding light on the history of certain church buildings. Church visits in April, June and October attracted both members of the Society and nonmembers. St Lawrence and St Peter on Thanet, the Quake r Meeting House at Rochester, the Synagogue at Chatham and the parish churches of Wrotham and Mereworth were studied. The database of all present and past places of worship in the county has proceeded slowly. We await more information from several parts of the county. A far-ranging series on major developments in the shaping of worshipping communities is being published in the Newsletter. Philip Lawrence (Chair) Fieldwork Committee. Excavation. An ongoing aim of the committee is to give members of the society an opportunity to participate in live excavations. The committee has approached the issue with the following initiatives: (a) By holding an annual excavation, in association with the Trust for Thanet A r c h a e o l o g y, at the Ro m a n o - British site at Abbey Fa r m , M i n s t e r- i n -Thanet. For the Society this project began in 1996. Enrolment for 2003 is going well. (b) Supporting county excavations such as the 2003 dig of the Bronze Age barrow at Ringlemere Farm, Nr. Sandwich. The site to be dug with the participation of volunteers. For further details contact David Bacchus on 01634 843495 Email: d_bacchus@talk21.com. (c) Encouraging local groups by making small grants towards the cost of their excavations. (d) Loaning the Society’s equipment, such as the resistivity meter and theodolite, to local groups for use on their projects. For further details contact Chris Pout on 01227 860207. Writing up and archiving the records of past excavations. Another matter under consideration are the excavations that have been undertaken within the ancient boundary of Kent since 1945, and have not been written up. It is proposed that these sites be dealt with in the following way. For sites which have been recorded reasonably well and the excavator is keen to get the site written up, small grants will be made to assist with the costs. Where it is unlikely that the excavation will ever be written up, but records of the work still exist, the aim is to get these records (or copies of them) deposited in the K.A.S. archive before they are lost or destroyed. The Ringlemere Bronze Age gold cup is now on display at the British Museum (see Newsletter No 53) David Bacchus (Secretary) Membership & Publicity Committee The committee comprises members who have different roles in promoting the membership of the society, providing activities for members and attracting publicity. Most important is the Membership Secretary who has efficiently computerised her records. New membership rose by a record 150 last year. Publicity has been boosted by the new format of the Newsletter and by an extra edition. The Young Archaeologists Club is also represented and reports some 90 members in Kent with around 25 attending monthly meetings. Activities for KA S m e m b e r s include the lecture series with the addition of a new series held in the library, day excursions to places of interest plus a five day summer excursion, and Spring and Christmas social events. Margaret Lawrence (Chair) n 10th January 1645 William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, was executed for treason by order of the Long Parliament. The trial of the Archbishop, like that of the King some four years later in 1649, has been universally interpreted by historians as a mock trial. Thus Hugh Trevor-Roper, in his biography of Laud, felt it unnecessary to deal in detail with the legal process, ‘for his whole life was objected against him’.1 It has become a matter of debate whether the Archbishop or Charles I was the prime instigator of the religious changes which took place after Laud’s election to Canterbury in 1633, but in essence Laud was guilty of following the lead of his royal master. Together King and prelate had promoted high church or Arminian policies, which were strenuously opposed by the dissenting, puritan wing of the English Church, as well as by more moderate individuals afraid of rapprochement with Rome. On the scaffold Laud thus defended himself against the charge, amongst others, of ‘bringing in of popery’, which had been levelled against him by parliament. To understand the tremendous fears that this accusation aroused, we must remember that since the Henrician Reformation Englishmen and women had been subjected to a century of anti-papal and anti- Roman catholic polemic. This had been produced by the crown, the Church, scholars, and politicians. At the heart of this anti-catholic rhetoric lay historical events, which had helped to define England as an emergent Protestant state, and which had taken on a semi-mythical importance. They included the harrowing stories of the three hundred or so early Protestants burnt as heretics in the reign of Mary Tudor and enshrined in John Foxe ’ s famous Book of Martyrs. There was also the repulsion of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. We must remember that in Charles I’s reign these events loomed large in recent memory and that the diocese of Canterbury had witnessed one of the highest levels of persecution dur- Spring 2003 10 with the Church of Rome. Differing concepts of the nature of the Eucharist were involved. In 1551 Rome had formally endorsed transubstantiation and the mass as the Most Holy Sacrifice – hence the altar. The reformers regarded the communion as a commemoration of the Lord’s supper and thus around a table. This very real fear, of reconciliation with Rome, which should not be underestimated, and such complaints about railed altars were directed in 1640-1 to Pa rliament from some of the parishioners in Boughton under Blean, Capel, Chatham, Dartford, East Peckham, Horsmonden, Maidstone, Minster in Thanet, Molash, Monkton, Rolvenden, Stourmouth, Sturry, Tonbridge, Woodchurch, and Yalding. These fears were reinforced in Kent by Laud’s contentious attempt in the 1630s to disperse the independent congregations of the stranger communities, the French and Dutch Protestants, in C a n t e r b u r y, Maidstone, and Sandwich in order to bring them into conformity with the practices of the English Church.2 At the trial Laud was accused of suppressing these congregations in order to create discord between the English Church and the continental reformed Churches to give ‘Papists’ the advantage in the ‘overthrow, and extirpation of both’. In his scaffold speech Laud defended his actions as Archbishop from the smear of popery and claimed that he had aimed to maintain ‘uniformity in the external service of God according to the doctrine and discipline of the Church’. Uniformity was the basis of the Elizabethan Church Settlement and was perceived by the Crown as the basis for religious and political stability in the realm. Since 1559, and earlier, those who refused to conform to the officially defined faith of the land faced prosecution in the church or secular courts. Eighty years later Charles I presided over a state in which there was little room for political or religious toleration. The execution of Laud went ahead after the first large-scale Parliamentarian victory at the battle of Marston Moor in ing Mary’s reign, with nearly fifty of the martyrs coming from East Kent. In the early 17th century many people were still handing down oral histories about their relatives named in Foxe’s book, while prayers of thanksgiving for deliverance from the Armada and the Gunpowder Plot were offered annually in many churches. In the winter of 1640-1 rumours about catholic agitators were circulating freely in London and the provinces, and the accusation that the King was unwittingly in the grip of a catholic plot was repeated in all of the major public statements made by the House of Commons in these months. Charles I’s marriage to the French catholic Princess, Henrietta Maria in 1625; the recent welcome given to the papal ambassador at the English court and the promotion of Arminian church policies, all provided further evidence that the King was in the grips of a catholic intrigue. As Archbishop, Laud had overseen the implementation of many of the Church policies which had given rise to fears about a Catholic resurgence. Chief amongst them was the so-called ‘altar policy’ of the 1630s. Since the reign of Edward VI wooden communion tables had gradually replaced stone altars in the majority of parish churches. As Archbishop, Laud presided over the new policy of railing in the communion tables ‘altarwise’ at the east end of parish and cathedral churches. There were a range of reasons why parishioners might oppose this policy, which was a clear break with reformed practice. The new altars and rails of the 1630s were for example costly and the burden of payment fell on the parishioners. This was also an extra task for the churchwardens, who were responsible for supervising the railing and for raising the payments for materials and labour. The puritans, however, saw the altar policy as more than simply a matter of decency. They saw it as a return to the traditions of the pre-Reformation Church and it inspired fears amongst the puritans, and even those of a more moderate frame of mind, that the King was considering reconciliation LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS ‘IDEAS and IDEALS’ This is the sixth of a series of articles describing formative movements and ideas in the history of the church. These were the crises of thought and conviction which brought us to where we are. L A U D ’ S A S P I R AT I O N S & P U R I TA N C O N V I C T I O N S Spring 2003 11 self as ‘a most loyall subiect’ both to ‘the late King’ and to Charles II.3 The reformation of church buildings had been a central demand of the puritan agenda since the Elizabethan Settlement and was justified by reference to the second commandment. At the Reformation the removal of church images and stained glass had been promoted by the Crown, but the iconoclasm of the 1640s was entirely different in that it was aimed at a royal regime which had seemingly condoned the reintroduction of altars and a variety of church imagery in the 1630s. Imagebreaking in the civil war period was not therefore solely a religious phenomenon, it was also a powerful challenge to the political power of the King. Charles of course was not a tyrant, neither was he the helpless pawn of a Catholic Plot. Nor was William Laud a traitor and a papal agent. Both men died because they symbolised the old regime, a regime which could not accommodate opposition or toleration. Their deaths opened the way to the abolition of episcopacy in 1646 and the monarchy in 1649. Yet the puritan revolutionaries, who overthrew these institutions, were not themselves advocates of toleration. The republican regimes of the 1650s outlawed both Catholicism and Anglicanism and tried to curb the spread of new religious sects such as the Quakers. At the Restoration Charles II reimposed Uniformity on the nation and the puritans once again found themselves arraigned before the courts. It was not until the passage of the Toleration Act of 1689 that the dissenting churches were given a legal guarantee of freedom of worship. It was a far-sighted measure that could not have seemed possible to the participants in the religious disputes of the 1630s and 1640s. Dr Jacqueline Eales Reader in History Canterbury Christ Church University College. Dr Eales is author of Community and Disunity in Kent: Four Lectures on Kent and the English Civil Wars, 1640-1649 (Keith Dickson Books, 2001). Available at £5.99, including post and packaging, from Keith Dickson Books, Unit 9, The Shipyard, Upper Brents, Faversham, Kent ME13 7DZ. 1 H. Tr e v o r- Ro p e r, Archbishop Laud, 1573-1645 (London, 1940). 2 J. Bulteel, A Relation of the Troubles of the Three Forraign Churches in Ke n t (London 1645). 3 Canterbury Cathedral Archives, DCC Petitions 232. ting down on church decoration and abolishing the powers of the Church hierarchy. These issues were closely related to, and mirrored by, political arguments about the extent and nature of royal power. The nature of this division can be further appreciated by a consideration of the clerical careers of Wilson and Culmer, the best documented of the suspended Kent clergy. By 1640 both Wilson and Culmer had become convinced that the Church needed radical reform. In particular like other puritans, they wanted to see the abolition of episcopacy and its replacement with a presbyterian system without bishops. These changes were introduced by Parliament in 1646 after Charles I’s defeat in the First Civil War, but in Kent a presbyterian system was never fully operational, perhaps because of the strong survival of support for the established Church in Kent, but also because of the strength of the independent sects there, especially in the Weald and in towns in East Kent, including Dover, Sandwich and Deal. Even the parliamentarian Directory of Pu b l i c Worship introduced in 1645 to replace the Book of Common Prayer was not fully embraced in the parishes of Kent. Wilson and Culmer were fairly close in age and both had served as ministers since the 1620s, but they were very different in character. Wilson was to gain a formidable reputation as a sober, moderate puritan cleric, and as a unifying force in the town of Maidstone, while Richard Culmer had the reputation of an interfering hothead and a promoter of division, which has survived to the present day. Culmer is also famous as the man who attacked the images in Canterbury Cathedral in 1643, when amongst other things he personally smashed a stained glass window depicting Thomas Becket. To ensure that this act did not go unattributed, Culmer at once published a justly notorious book about his activities ‘Cathedrall Newes from Canterbury’ (London 1644). Culmer was acting officially in response to a parliamentary ordinance, but the tensions that his actions caused in the cathedral precincts were reflected by the fact that the parliamentarian mayor of Canterbury, John Lade, provided a guard of soldiers to protect the iconoclasts. William Cooke, a Canterbury cordwainer, was one of those who resisted the destruction in the cathedral and at the Restoration he petitioned the Dean and Chapter for compensation for the ‘most violent blowes’ dealt to him by Culmer and ‘his company’, which had subsequently prevented him from following his trade. Cooke described him- 1644, when the King’s military defeat began to look a real possibility. The evidence used to convict the Archbishop was certainly biased, but we should not simply gloss over it. Indeed, the various charges against him dramatically illustrate the intense hostility which had built up against the Crown and Church in Charles’s reign and which led, ultimately, to a political and religious revolution in England in the 1640s. Amongst those who testified against the archbishop at his trial were two puritan clerics from Kent, Thomas Wilson of Maidstone, and Richard Culmer of Minster in Thanet. Their involvement emphasises the ways in which religious tensions between puritans and the Church authorities had been gathering in the parishes throughout Charles I’s reign. Both Wilson and Culmer had a very specific charge to make. They complained that in the mid-1630s they had been suspended from the exercise of their ministry by the Archbishop for not reading the King’s Declaration concerning lawful Sports on the sabbath, more popularly known as The Book of Sports, to their congregations. This alone was not enough to substantiate a charge of treason, but it was part of a wider attempt to portray Laud as a religious persecutor and as a supporter of a ‘popish conspiracy’ against the Church and state. In 1633 all parish clergy had been required to read the Book of Sports from their pulpits or face disciplinary action. Puritan clerics objected to the Book, because it encouraged what they saw as frivolous pursuits after Sunday services. These included dancing, archery, leaping, and vaulting. The Declaration also endorsed May games, with their attendant maypoles and Whitsun Ales. In Kent three other clerics, besides Wilson and Culmer, were also suspended for not reading the Book, John Player of Kennington, Thomas Hieron of Herne Hill, and Lawrence Snelling of Paul’s Cray. Puritan clerics such as these preferred a quiet and sober sabbath observance, which included a second sermon in the afternoon and the catechising of the youth in the parish. It was not the case that puritans objected to all dancing and other pastimes, the central issue was whether such sports were appropriate to the sabbath or not. The suspension of the five Kent ministers for refusing to read the Book was not just a personal grievance, it emphasised the fact that a deep religious and cultural division was widening in Charles’s reign. The puritan agenda in the 1640s was not only concerned with long-term goals of promoting a plainer liturgy, cut- LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS LAUD’s ASPIRATIONS & PURITAN CONVICTIONS Over the last 3 years the branch has been involved with various activities and an ongoing survey in the parish of Thurnham; Mike Perrin’s talk about the history of the area added further to the knowledge of the members. A visit by an Ancient Technology specialist, Pat Carter, enabled the members to manufacture cords and braid them into intricate designs based on evidence from various sites. We were fascinated to see her reproduction Bronze Age Egtved ‘miniskirt’. It was a privilege to have the use of the KAS library in Maidstone Museum for our March meeting, where members discovered how artefacts were drawn for reproduction and produced their own versions, and then heard from Denis Anstey how computer applications can be used in archaeology. In April we are excavating at Stelling Minnis windmill, searching for its predecessors, and in May, a group of 60 members and families are visiting West Stow and Sutton Hoo (with privileged access onto the burial mounds) for our annual ‘day out’. Our ‘National Archaeology Days’ event in July will be held in the Museum of Kent Life – further details appear on page 5. ollowing the T h a n e t branch’s visit to Margate’s Shell Grotto last summer, members spent the summer holiday collecting shells. During their monthly meetings in the autumn, they designed and made shell panels. Making them highlighted many of the problems faced by the builders of the Grotto, whoever they were and whenever it was. Making the shells fit the design or vice versa was hard enough in good light on a flat horizontal surface. What was it like, the members wondered, if you were working in a damp chalk cave with only candles for light? Jack McGowan, Michael Bryant, Reece Dawson, John and Andrew Gillen and Elizabeth Mabb showed off their panels at a TAS lecture in November, when archaeologist Emma Boast also presented the YAC branch member of the year award to Andrew Gillen. Later some of the members and their leaders returned to the Shell Grotto and presented the panels to the owner, Sarah Vi c ke r y. The panels were displayed in the Grotto until early March and featured in the local paper. So what next? Members are now putting their literary skills to the test by writing Viking Sagas for the annual national YAC competition. This has involved reading from the Orkneyinga Saga and finding references to the Vikings in Thanet. Later in the spring we plan to visit the Viking ship at Spring 2003 12 YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS INKENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS INKENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS INKENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS INKENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOISTS IN KENT YOUNG ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN KENT Pegwell Bay and hopefully have a visit from a Viking. Early signs indicate that their Sagas look like being exciting and thought provoking. Jose Gibbs North Downs YAC has spent the chilly months in our base at Maidstone Museum. We have played ‘Archaeologist’s from Mars – the Dustbin Game’, asking members to visualise themselves as visiting aliens and work out the lives of humans from the contents of their bins. The ‘Toad in the Hole’ food packaging caused much merriment! Above: Members busy drawing artefacts and left: a great example of a handaxe by Jack Standen, aged 10. Above: Some of the many exciting panels made during the autumn. Publish your archaeology, history or records paper on the internet with the Kent Archaeological Society Your paper must relate to the archaeology and history of the ancient county of Kent* Editorial approval Refereed You retain the copyright but authorise that the paper be held for download for private or academic use Each author accepted is given a page on the site. The page will include a photograph of the author and a brief biography which the author may ask to be updated at any time Short abstract required Accepted notation system of your choice The website is funded by the Society, an educational charity. Your first submission should be on floppy disk or CD readable on the PC platform and accompanied by a completed submission form. All submissions should be addressed to Joy Sage, KAS Internet Publishing, Museum and Bentliff Art Gallery, Museum Street, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1LH, England. Once accepted as a contributor, further papers may be submitted by email. Once a paper has been accepted, it will be turned into an Adobe® Acrobat® file for download. The paper will remain available on the site until withdrawn by you. Special arrangements may be made to cater for records databases to be searched online. * This effectively means the following local authority areas: Kent, Medway and the London Boroughs of Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich. Spring 2003 13 NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL NEW SCREEN FOR EASTWELL N E W S C R E E N F O R S T M A RY’S, EASTWELL w w w. k e n t a rc h a e o l o g y.ac monument). In the south-west chapel (marked on Alan’s plan as ‘mortuary chapel originally south porch’ and where an explanatory interpretation board has been put up) used to be the Neoclassical monument to Emily, Countess of Winchelsea and Nottingham of 1850 by Lawrence MacDonald. Matthew was keen that visitors to the remains know that although the church, chapel and connecting walls belong to the Friends, the churchyard is maintained (extremely well) by the local parish council. atthew Saunders, Hon.Director of the Friends of Friendless Churches, has responded to Alan Ward’s article on this church in the last Newsletter with an update. Designed by Ro b e r t George and made by Charles Normandale of Hampshire, a new screen has replaced the previous utilitarian but unsightly brick infilling. Costing in total around £20,000 (including the clearance of bricks), all but a fraction of this was borne by the Cottam Wi l l Trust. This is a fund administered by the Friends for ‘the purchase of objects of beauty to be placed in ancient Gothic churches for the furtherance of religion’. Information about this (or the Friends in general) can be obtained from St Ann’s Ve s t r y Hall, 2 Church Entry, London EC4V 5HB. Splendid monuments used to be housed in the church which are now on display in the Victoria & Albert Museum to where they were moved in 1968. These are the elaborate tomb chest to Sir Thomas Moyle (died 1650), another tomb chest put up between 1623 and 1628 to Sir Moyle Finch (died 1614) and another known to be by Nicholas Stone to Sir Heneage Finch of 1632 (a wall This interior scene is one of many images held in the KASlibrary collection which have no provenance. Do you recognise the place or any of the objects? If you do know the location of either please contact the editor at 55 Stone Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2QU DO YOU RECOGNISE THIS SPOT? Out with the old (below) and in with the new (left). n the south aisle of St Nicholas Church, Sandhurst are two windows which hold glass dating from the fifteenth century. Both windows are reconstructions; a brass inscription on a window sill tells us the work was carried out in 1929 in memory of members of the Cleland family. The glass was moved from the north aisle, where some fragmentary glass remains in the tracery of the north window. This aisle is still known as the Betherinden Chapel and, according to a notice in the church, was built by one Sir Richard de Betherinden, who died in 1455. Hasted says that in the glass in the chapel there were formerly effigies and arms of this family, and also that there was once in Downe church a memorial for John Berenden, citizen, wooldraper and chamberlain of London, who died in 1445. Not enough glass survives to enable one to draw any clear conclusions on what the 15th century glazing scheme at Sandhurst might have been, but there is sufficient to make out one partial and four almost complete figures. On the east wall of the south aisle, in the middle light, is the golden winged figure of St Michael (fig. 1). His face is now largely obliterated but his streaming hair, with a three-stemmed flower rising from a band on his forehead, fills a decorated halo. He wears the habit of a priest, an amice ornamented with flowers, and a cope with a circle design on its border. His left hand is raised in benediction and his right hand holds a balance on which he is weighing souls. On the left, the hairy legs of the lost soul dangle outside the weighing dish and his wide-eyed, tongue-lolling aspect (fig.2) contrasts with the serenity of the saved soul on the right (fig.3) . The eastern window of the south wall has two lights with a quatrefoil above, in which is the head of a young man, in the Pre- Raphaelite style, which could date from the restoration by R.H. Carpenter in 1875 (see John Newman, in the Buildings of England Series, West Kent and the Weald), but is more likely to have been inserted when the window was reconstructed in 1929. In the left light, amid a jumble of fragments of canopy, is the figure of St George (fig.4) . He wears full plate armour of the mid fifteenth-centu- Spring 2003 14 ry with the visor of the bascinet raised to show his face. He holds a lance in one gauntleted and one bare hand and thrusts its point into the mouth of a dragon whose tail curls round his right leg. Below St George is part of another figure ( f i g . 5 ) in a gown, with what appears to be a scourge in his hands. The scourge is the attribute St Boniface but there is insufficient evidence here to make a positive identification. One can, however, be more positive about the remaining two figures in the right hand light, each framed within a twist of cable. Newman identifies them as a priest and an abbess, an attribution repeated by later writers, e.g. by June Osborne in Stained Glass in England (1981). However, although the dress of the figures is that of a priest and an abbess, both have haloes so they must be more than mere ecclesiastics. They must be saints. The priest figure (fig.6) carries a Tau (T) cross staff and at his feet trots a pig, wearing a belled collar (fig.7) , both attributes of St Anthony of Egypt. St Anthony was born in Upper Egypt in the third century; he distributed his wealth among the poor and led a hermit’s existence in the desert for many years. On the back of the choir stalls in Carlisle Cathedral is this painted inscription: Then liveth he in wilder - ness XX year or more, Without any company but the wilde boar. H i s ‘Temptations’ were the subject of numerous paintings by, amongst others, Bosch, Bruegel and Grünewald. Generally regarded as the founder of monasticism, he was invoked as a cure for disease, especially that which now bears his name, ‘St Anthony’s fire’. An Order of Hospitallers of St Anthony was formed c. 1300 and they would ring a small bell to attract alms. The bells were then hung round animals’ necks to protect them from disease. Two wills, of Robert K r y a r, 1487, and Richard Sone, 1529, leave money for a lamp to burn before the image of St Anthony in Sandhurst church. The figure of the abbess (fig.8) is dressed as a nun with veil and wimple and an overmantle. In her right hand is an abbesses’ staff and in her left, a book with a decorated cover. Her halo is filled with lines and is more prominent than that of St Anthony (St George either did not have one or it got lost in the reconstruction). This is almost certainly St Clare, the foundress of the present Order of the Poor Clares, which is based on the teachings of St Francis. Born in Assisi c. 1194 she became abbess of a convent there in 1215, a convent she was never to leave although Clare nuns spread throughout Europe. She died in 1253. As Newman says, the 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th CENTURY STAINED GLASS AT SANDHURST 15th Century Stained Glass at Sandhurst fig 1 fig 2 fig 3 David Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints (3rd edition, 1992). James Hall, Hall’s Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (revised edition 1996), valuable commodity; ‘forgetting’ where they were does not make sense! Lastly, what about the description of three cart loads of ‘Celtic warriors’ found in Claylane Wood near Shorne in 1825 according to the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine ‘ of 1846. The workmen found ‘armour’ still in good enough condition to put on. There were metal celts (axes)”So bright was the metal that one of the celts was tested by fire to see if it was not gold”. To have lasted so well for so long I am sure that they were Iron Age Celtic people and not Bronze Age. So did the ceremonial bronze axes get kept and honoured for generations till they were used in battle? Strangely enough it makes sense! It would make sense also that these axes were being melted down in an Iron Age workshop. A horse burial was found in another trench at a similar depth as the axes. Was it a proper burial? Or did the dying horse just get covered where it fell? Most people will by now know what I am going to suggest…. that the IA smiths were disturbed by the Invasion force and probably never came back to finish their casting…they may have been killed in the battle of the Medway. To prove whether I am right (or hopelessly wrong) the solution is very simple…the charcoal in the pit and wood in the axe sockets should be carbon dated. The axes were probably re-hafted many times since they were originally made. So it would be analysis of the material of the furnace that would give the final clue. Maybe that horse was killed by a Roman arrow bolt? We will not know for certain until the dig is completed. Pity an IA potin mould did not make its appearance underneath a BA axe! Lesley Feakes, Chairman, Lenham Archaeological Society. Dear Editor I was present at the recent ‘bronze axe’ dig in Hollingbourne. Regrettably my new bionic knees do not allow me to kneel else I would have been down those trenches trowelling in the gault till the stars came out! But what is that to do with the invasion, I hear people ask? Perhaps a great deal. Please, just listen to my theory. Why did perfectly good Bronze Age axes get melted down? They were extremely difficult to smelt and cast in the first place. Many modern attempts at reproducing the amazing skill of the BA Celts have not been equalled. S e c o n d l y, why did over two dozen bronze axes and other articles manage to get ‘lost’ when as far as we know settlements ran continuously throughout the Celtic period. Bronze was an extremely Spring 2003 15 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SPRING 2003 Sandhurst glass is of poor quality, as C15 glass often is; it pales (quite literally) in comparison with the coeval glass in the Chapel of St Edward the Confessor in Canterbury Cathedral. Nevertheless it has considerable charm and interest. Leslie A Smith Sources: Edward Hasted, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (2nd edition, 1798, p. 160; Testamenta Cantiana (K.A.S. 1907); Francis Bond, Dedications of English Churches: Ecclesiastical Symbolism, Saints and Emblems (1914); fig 6 fig 4 fig 5 fig 7 fig 8 PA U L ASHBEE MA, D.Litt, FSA, FRSAI Spring 2003 16 Of note was Fussell’s Lodge, the Horslip long barrow and the Amesbury group. In the climate of subsidised excavations, he realised that barrows were the only type of monument that could be fully excavated. Throughout the ‘50s he averaged 2 barrows a year, taking around 7 months to write up each excavation. He talks of growing up with prehistory in an atmosphere of independent endeavour, taking responsibility for each step of a project. Only an outline of Paul’s numerous undertakings is possible here, but amongst the best known is Sutton Hoo in the ‘60’s with Rupert Bruce Mitford, when the re-excavation of the relict barrow and the dumped spoil from the 30’s allowed the recovery of the many pieces of the kingly funerary gear which had been broken by the collapse of the mortuary structure. He was involved in the innovative Experimental Earthworks Project, a long term experiment which set up banks and ditches, complete with buried artefacts, in 1960 and ’63 at Overton Down and Wareham respectively, to study the process of, primarily, weathering and denudation. Besides periodic visits to Ireland, he spent 17 years returning to Halangy Down on the Isles of Scilly, the individuality of the island environment having great attraction, the archaeology spanning nearly 3000 years, “the stone building remains being a palimpsest of fishing and agriculture through the BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE BACK PAGE PEOPLE lected as a Patron of the KAS last year, Paul Ashbee’s work over five decades has laid much of the foundations of archaeological knowledge today, particularly of prehistory. Born just as the first world war was drawing to a close and growing up in Bearsted, he shone at history and geography at school in Maidstone, and later at German, although a ‘cut glass’ accent, combined with reaching 6 foot by the age of 12, generated teasing. The nearby County Library meant access to archaeology texts, and lunchtimes were often spent in Maidstone Museum. Fascinated by the worked flint displayed, and under the tutelage of curator Norman Cook, Paul began his own search, finding axe roughouts at Thurnham and Detling, besides locating various surface industries. Some of Bearsted’s older residents still remember him revealing the wall lines and opus signinum floors of Thurnham’s Roman Villa in 1933. He joined the Royal West Ke n t Regiment in 1939 and gained a lance corporal’s stripe in 1940; the accent seemed to help. When at Haverfordwest he was interviewed for especial work and was asked, amongst other things, if he knew what ‘rundfunk’* meant. His ability with the German language was used from time to time in Germany and from 1946 in the Control Commission for Germany. Paul’s English-accented German was thought useful by many. In Germany until 1949, his mind still returned to matters archaeological and the problem of breaking into the profession, as he had seen Äachen, all the megalithic chambers near Osnabruck, Köln Lindenthal, the Eifel and various other places. He approached the University of London’s Institute of Archaeology and was sent by a kindly, encouraging, Gordon Childe to have a word with Dr Wheeler – as Sir Mortimer was then known. Whilst working in 1949 on the Wheeler excavations at St Albans he met Richmal, Secretary, and later President, of the University of London’s Archaeological Society, which had a programme of talks and visits. It was a fortuitous empty seat next to hers on top of a Baker Street doubledecker bus that led to recruitment for the 1951 excavations at Mawgan Porth in Cornwall and later to their marriage. They celebrated their Golden Wedding in style last year. Between 1949 and 1976, Paul excavated barrows, round and long, for the then Ministry of Works, using Cyril Fox’s ideas and Wheeler’s discipline. EDITOR : LYN PALMER 55 Stone Street, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2QU Telephone: 01892 533661 Mobile: 07810 340831 Email evelyn.palmer@virgin.net or newsletter@kentarchaeology.org.uk ages”. Paul recalls Harold Wi l s o n turning up on site as he walke d around St Mary’s every Easter Monday. A by-product of these excavations was the 1974 publication of Ancient Scilly, followed by full publication of Halangy Down in 1996. Other landmark publications have been The Bronze Age Round Barrow in Britain in 1960 and its counterpart The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain ten years later, The Ancient British, in print for 10 years from 1978, and the Wilsford Shaft report produced in 1989. Despite having lived in Norfolk since his appointment to the University of East Anglia in 1968, he suffers from bouts of nostalgia for Kent. His early experiences with hops and fruit have produced a frustrated agriculturalist which has some outlet in his recent Vice Presidency of the Norfolk Agricultural Association. The annual Norfolk Show is always enjoyable, particularly when translating for German buyers of Norfolk pedigree cattle! Admitting also to acute bibliophilia, his enthusiasm probably saved his life during the war. Unable to resist the sight of a bookcase crammed with texts in gothic script, he entered a ruined house near Kleve in the northern Rhineland to investigate. A shell landed directly outside the window, where he had stood but a moment before. Romantic English verse is another passion; his students often had Kipling quoted at them ~ “Puck’s song is full of archaeology…” His love of historical architecture was, from time to time, put to use during his time as an RCHME Commissioner between 1975 and ’85. Although Paul asserts that “I am an Ancient Monument”, he continues, despite ‘official’ retirement from the UEA in 1983, to be prolific in his output and has seen nearly 40 works published in the intervening years. Currently he is working on T h e Prehistory of Kent, to be published in summer 2004. KAS members, and all with an interest in our county, look forward to this work and many others to follow in the future. The Editor *broadcasting Copy deadline for the next issue in July is Monday June 2nd 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. Published by the Kent Archaeological Society, The Museum, St Faith’s Street, Maidstone, Kent. ME 14 1LH www.kentarchaeology.org.uk