What’s On
Garden Party
Allington Castle, Sunday 20th May
Celebrating 150 years of the Kent Archaeological Society
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate the Society's sesquicentenary in style! Marquees will be erected on the smooth lawns of the moated Castle grounds, Old-style jazz band, The New Orleans Echoes, will play and a sumptuous tea will be served by staff. Guests will be able to view Allington Castle, a privately-owned home, not normally open to the public.
If the weather is inclement we will be based in the Great Hall of the Castle.
Tea includes a range of sandwiches and salads, home-made cakes, scones with jam and cream, strawberries and cream, homemade fruit squashes, tea and coffee. All foods are from 'Produced in Kent' suppliers. Pimms will also be available. A birthday cake for the KAS and accompanying 'bubbly toast' will round off the meal (who will volunteer to blow out the 150 candles?). This is also a rare chance to meet many other KAS members in a social setting.
Tickets are £30 each. To reserve them please ring 01892 533661 or 07920 548906, or mail to evelynpalmer@virgin.net or write to Garden Party, 55 Stone Street, Tunbridge Wells TN1 2QU. Enclosed cheques should be made payable to KAS please. The organisers will be getting in the spirit and donning the costume of the Jazz Age, but this is of course optional for revellers!
KAS Exhibition
The Hidden Treasures of Kent
12 May - 9 September
Bentlif Gallery in Maidstone Museum
A rare opportunity for KAS members and the public to see artefacts of all periods from Kent, usually dispersed amongst collections around Britain but now brought together for the first time.
Kent's Past - 50 Years of Advances in Knowledge
15 September
The second One-Day Conference and a Celebration Dinner at the University of Kent Medway Campus. Booking forms for these events will appear in the July issue.
KAS Course
When the Jutes Ruled Kent
The 400 years when Kent was a powerful and wealthy independent Jutish kingdom will be studied during a six-week course entitled Justin Kent. Historian and tutor Dr Jacqueline Bower will lecture on settlements, the monarchy, Christianity and other aspects of life in the county during the Jutish occupation from the 5th to the 9th centuries. The lectures will be held in the KAS library at Maidstone Museum every Monday morning from April 23 until June 11 (excluding the May bank holidays). Course fee: £25. For further details apply to Joy Sage, KAS Library, Maidstone Museum, St Faith Street, Maidstone ME14 1LH or tel: Joy Sage on 01622 762942.
KAS Churches Committee
The Churches Committee invite you to visit All Saints Church, Maidstone and the Unitarian Church, Maidstone, on Monday 25 June. We meet at 6:45 for 7pm at All Saints Church. Tour £2 (Students £1). Tea and biscuits £1 extra. Cheques in advance please, payable to Kent Archaeological Society. A booking form for this event is enclosed with the Newsletter. It would be helpful if booking was made by 16 June.
Other Events Around Kent
Crofton Roman Villa, Orpington
The remains of ten rooms of a Roman villa-house, some with under-floor central heating system. Includes graphic displays, touch table of Roman finds and activities for children. The villa is in Crofton Road, Orpington, adjacent to the railway station. It is open from 1 April to 31 October, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Bank Holidays from 10am - 5pm and on Sundays from 2 - 5pm. Admission is 80p for adults, children and concessions 50p. Further information from KARU 020 8460 1442. Special events this year include:
Sunday 15 July
National Archaeology Day - Fun for all the Family
Guided walks by a site archaeologist at 11am & 2.30pm. Join the Roman Villa discovery hunt and win stickers, a Villa badge and a certificate. For 6-11 year olds.
Every Wednesday during August 11am - 1pm & 2pm - 4pm
Pop in Activity Days
Costumes & Horrible Habits through the Ages:
Find out about costume and horrible habits throughout history. Make a collage picture to take home of a fashionable historical character, choose from kings, queens, soldiers & ladies! Children must be accompanied. Normal admission charges apply. No booking needed.
Fridays during August at 11am & 2.30pm
Pop in Activity Days
Come and listen to stories of ancient heroes and legends. Then join in a quiz and make a picture to win stickers and a Villa badge. Normal admission charges apply. No booking needed.
Sunday 16 September
Open House
Free entry to the Villa with special guided tours and activities for children. Tours start at 11am, 12noon, 2.30pm & 3.30pm.
Making Medieval
National Archaeology Weekend
21 & 22 July
Shorne Wood Country Park 10.30am - 4.30pm
Family fun day with Living History, archery, archery crafts, canons, cookery & combat. Exhibition of local history & archaeology groups, finds identification, free children's activities, guided tours of the dig at the medieval manor site. Admission is free and all activities are free.
Sheppey Local History Society
In addition to its regular program the SLHS has three special evenings planned this summer.
Wednesday 25 July at 7pm
'Figureheads' by marine historian Richard Hunter
A talk concerning the ship's figureheads from Sheerness Dockyard, now being restored. Venue is the Baptist Church, Strode Crescent, Sheerness (in the town centre) and is just a few minutes from the station). Admission £1.
Wednesday 25 July from 2pm
Guided Walk of Blue Town
Guided walk of Blue Town, the old marine & admiral area of Sheerness. The walk leaves from the railway station forecourt and will take about 2 hours. Come and learn more of the area's colourful history and consider the conservation issues of such an area. Cost £1.50.
Wednesday 25 July at 7.30pm
An Evening of Blue Town Memories
Following on from the walk earlier, an evening of memories, including archive film, will take place in 'Riviera', a former music hall in the Blue Town High Street. Cost £1.
Wednesday 25 September at 7pm
Finds Identification by Finds Liaison Officer Andrew Richardson
Bring along your finds to Sheerness Library in Russell Street for identification and comment by KAS FLO. Cost £1.
KAS Members
KAS members are very welcome to any of the above events. Any queries please contact the SLHS Society's secretary, Miss B. Greenstreet on 01795 668119.
'Windows, Walls and Worship'
A series of free lectures at St Mary Magdalene, Cobham
Saturday 28 April, 9:30 - 14:15
St Mary Magdalene Cobham
Is justly famous for its brasses, but it also has some of the best and wide-ranging collections of stained glass in one building, which itself is grade 1 listed. Come and hear about the outstanding architecture, how stained glass is made and conserved, about the artists who created such wonderful work, the donors and stories behind the windows, and how we are trying to conserve the building and windows for future generations.
- 9:30 Registration and opening introductions
- 10:00 Lecture 1: John Bailey, architect with Thomas Ford and Partners, on the history of the building
- 10:30 Coffee and look around
- 11:00 Lecture 2: Leonie Seliger, director of Stained Glass Conservation Department, Canterbury Cathedral on manufacture and conservation of stained glass
- 11:30 Short break
- 11:45 Lecture 3: Keith Hill, stained glass conservation, on the artists and history of our windows
- 12:15 Questions and answers
- 12:45 Evensong and lunch break
Cost is £15 per person including lunch, coffee, and parking. To reserve a place, please send your name and address, plus a cheque for £15 (made payable to Friends of Cobham Church) to: The Treasurer, FOCC, Lucas End, Longcroft, Clapper’s Road, Cobham, DA12 3BH. Any queries please call Don McLean, churchwarden, on 01634 823883 (Monday - Thursday office hours).
Western Heights, Dover - Open Weekend
Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th June. For further details of this event and the sheep lease see page 16.
CBA South East Annual Conference & AGM
'Under the Plough: the Archaeology of the Topsoil'
Saturday 10th November
Medway Campus of the University of Kent
The theme of the conference will be the archaeology of the ploughzone: the untamed topsoil layer, where the stratified archaeology has now been, over eons of mould of the English landscape and includes so much in the way of finds, as wells, in some cases, entire sites. The material is stripped away from the surface and the historic landscape has been destroyed or in some cases may never have existed, but this material still has much to offer archaeologists, finds specialists and landscape researchers. The conference will examine the different approaches to the ploughsoil, and will seek to highlight the ways in which information from this valuable but oft neglected archaeological resource can be maximised.